I dreamed about our dearly departed cat Meg last night and into this morning, which caused me to wake up feeling rather maudlin. My general mental wellbeing didn’t really improve for most of the day, but I did manage to distract myself with some gaming, so that’s something.
I’ve just come off a Dawntrail session, and I’m making good progress with that, but I’ve also been flitting around between a couple of other things today.
First of these is Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story?, which is a lightweight management sim sort of game in which you run a spy agency, train up spies and send them out on missions. It’s quite fun and silly, though I haven’t felt any real “challenge” from it as yet. I don’t know how long it is but I suspect I’m quite early on in it so far; I wonder how it will up the challenge factor, and if it will do so by something more interesting than “require bigger numbers”.
I started playing this because I’ve been having a bit of a hankering for that kind of game of late, and it’s one of those genres that it doesn’t feel like we have that many good modern examples of. Management sims were all the rage in the late ’90s and early ’00s, but it feels like they were one of those genres that got a bit left behind in the move to 3D. Modern 3D examples do exist — the Two Point games, which are successors to Bullfrog’s Theme titles, are a good example — but it’s kind of telling that stuff like Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story? is still presented in isometric quasi-3D artwork rather than polygons.
I don’t know if I’ll stick with it so far, as there are a number of other “sim”-type games I’m interested in having a fiddle with — after watching Game Grumps play Gas Station Simulator I actually quite fancy a go at that, for one — but what I’ve played so far does seem fun, and despite the relative lack of challenge in what I’ve played, manages to remain free of being patronising in a mobile game style.
The other thing I gave a shot for a bit earlier is Spiderweb Software’s Avadon: The Black Fortress. I’ve been meaning to try a Spiderweb game for some time, but never got around to it and never quite new which one was best to start with. So I just picked one and gave it a go for a bit.
For the unfamiliar, Spiderweb Software make traditional CRPGs in the western style; that means they unfold rather like old Infinity Engine D&D games, or perhaps later Ultima titles. Avadon actually sounds like it might be a bit of a departure in that it’s less “freeform” in its structure — thus far it’s been quite heavily “mission-based”, and you have relatively limited options to build your characters — but it sounds as if it’s well-regarded, and many folks seem to think that the streamlined (not necessarily simplified) mechanics allow its story to shine a bit more. And it’s certainly got some nicely written text in it.
Again, don’t know if I’ll stick with it, but I’m glad I’ve broken the seal and started giving it a go. I like what I see so far — although it seems the game is light on music, which is a shame, as I do like a stirring orchestral accompaniment for my western-style CRPGs.
And Dawntrail. I won’t say too much about this for the sake of spoilers in case anyone reading this is planning to play it, but the thing that struck me while playing this evening is that this is a story the world really needs right now. There’s lots of tolerance and understanding and learning about different cultures, and it just feels like such a marked, likely deliberate contrast to the intolerance and general shittiness around in the world at the moment. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes next, as I’ve reached a particularly significant moment in the narrative.
Anyway, it’s nearly 2am and my cat Patti is bugging me to go to bed, so I should probably do that. Here’s hoping for a restful night’s sleep.
I miss you, Meg.
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