Gameplay: Nothing is offensive, but the gameplay is really beginning to grate at me. Nothing changes. We still have battles against single enemies, and both the player and the enemy can only do one of three things: move, attack, special. As someone else mentioned, there's nothing on the battle field to offer any kind of tactical advantage - no barriers or walls, no oddly shaped battlefields.
As noted, this sounds suspiciously similar to Megman Battle Network, moreover the Star Force spin offs which seem to be an even closer match to how R60 plays. Going off of basic coding from my Freshman java course, where we programmed simple games ala Galaga-eque pixel shooters, R60 needing to restrict the action to specified "lanes" is the easiest form of hit detection, purely by comparing boolean values of what objects are occupying which spaces at what times. Enemy fires down a lane, if the player character is in the lane then they take damage, otherwise the shot doesn't hit anything. Same thing applies to the player character.
In those kinds of games, like Megaman Battle Network or, hell, Plants vs. Zombies, the game shows how good it gets by breaking the "grid lane" structure of combat. The former constantly required the player to utilize chip stratiges that allowed Megaman to move beyond his limited 3x3 grid (I.E. summon a top that bounced all over the field and could damage both Megaman AND the enemy) while simultaneously dodging the enemy from doing the same (I.E. Metalman from MBN 3 White had an exclusive battleground made of metal except for the middle row which had a pair of sawblades that obviously did damage if touched and were indestructible, presenting an ever-present hazard only against that boss). Plants vs. Zombies is tower defense, but every level introduces more and more contraints, such as the reduction of sun point generation during nighttime or ultimately the final roof level where plants can't even be placed without first putting down a pot (which in turn takes up one of the available plant seed slots). The Zombies themselves also very quickly start throwing counters to the player I.E. bypassing a high-health Tallnut with a storebought metal ladder (which then can be used by all zombies until it is destroyed) that soaks up damage like a sponge, or even randomly deploying bungie Zombies from the sky that can not be stopped from stealing any plant (which if it's one of those high-investment types such as the peashooter with the WWII German helmet that gets four shots per second, can be crippling).
Variety is the spice of life, something I'm guessing R60 seems to avoid having at all costs.
Speaking of skinning - I don't know how 3d Modeling works, but I noticed playing this that everything is painted on to the character models and as they move it shifts and warps. The game gets around it in some cases - since most characters are barely animated, things like Minuete's dress hide the shifting and stretching unless it's in a cutscene. But Holiday, wearing a full body painted on suit and nearly in every scene makes it apparent and it looks awful.
View attachment 10745
Pay attention to this insignia if you watch the videos, because it's the easiest way to see this in action.
I suspect that has to do with the decades-old graphics rendering they're using, combined with sheer cost cutting on animation investment. The insignia is part of the 3D model skin itself, there's no layering going on at all here so that thing might as well be an old tattoo done years ago. It would have been pathetically easy to whip up the model with a minor mod to layer the insignia on top - it's a two dimensional image with no thickness, so it wouldn't be raised up like an iron-on patch or anything - and anchor it in its relative position to the main model's animation framework so it moves with the arm but doesn't stretch.
All this makes me think is that the base model used must not differ significantly (if at all) from some default model that came with the graphics program they used, just some proportion alterations and one lazy reskin later and they called it done.
Personally I have found that dense, complicated stories that throw you in the middle and explain things as the story progresses can be pretty good. But it doesn't seem to be that way. See, there's a Revolution 60 paid companion app that apparently has all the explanations the game didn't give you. Unless something changes in the next hour or so before the game ends, I don't see why the player would care about these characters enough to continue.
Yknow, this isnt *as bad* as I thought it would be.
If you cut the utter shit combat, it actually would resemble a Telltale game. THIS IS A GOOD THING.
I cant really comment on the plot because honestly? I think its okay. But I can comment on the combat: Its shit, thats how I feel, and I'll smash yo fuckin face, thats how I'm real.
I also like the ship designs and admitably the costume designs (except for that damn go-go outfit, seriously even in sci-fi armor is skintight tropes that makes NO GODDAMN SENSE) and how the game is /u/-shipping material fantastic.
I do wonder *how much* Wu was involved in development here. I can see her peering over the story writers shoulder and saying "DIALOG MUST BE LIKE MASS EFFECT DO IT NOW NOWNONWONWONW"
SJWs: "The white cishet patriarchy sets unrealistic beauty standards for women, and there's very poor representation of women of color!" (Not an untrue statement, to be fair).
*proceeds to make game full of tall, long-legged, buxom, wasp-waisted white women*
SJWs: "The white cishet patriarchy sets unrealistic beauty standards for women, and there's very poor representation of women of color!" (Not an untrue statement, to be fair).
*proceeds to make game full of tall, long-legged, buxom, wasp-waisted white women*
I was just about to post something similar. If anything proves that people like Briana Wu are just in this drama for the attention and not any genuine adherence to a political philosophy, this is it. If this game was made by anyone but her she'd be part of a movement to get it banned.
Edit: I'm surprised the people who pester her on twitter don't point this out 24/7.
I was just about to post something similar. If anything proves that people like Briana Wu are just in this drama for the attention and not any genuine adherence to a political philosophy, this is it. If this game was made by anyone but her she'd be part of a movement to get it banned.
Edit: I'm surprised the people who pester her on twitter don't point this out 24/7.
Gameplay: It's worth mentioning that since you can't actually see your stats numerically, having numeric indicators of skills and damage are meaningless. Combat ranges in the hundreds for damage, and dialog options can give you anywhere from 5 to 50 "points" towards attitude, relationships, and morality. I guess there should be a fluctuation where my being an asshole to Minuete all the time would lower her mood, but I've decided to woo the snarky engineer 100% of the time and I'm assuming the game only tells you how a mood is effected when it has a any number above 0.
There's a slight cut in the middle because I intentionally lost this battle. I pulled it out and have made it it's own video. This game is impossible to lose. You get med-kits I guess, which heal you half way. There is no timer on using them, Holiday will just stand there until you swipe down and continues the battle. Enemies even apparently drop health kits after battles once you've used one or just starting now that we're in the games big dungeon.
[lol actually Youtube ate the edits 3 times in a row. nevermind bitches]
This entire game could be nothing more than picking dialog prompts - it would be thirty minutes, and have much better pacing and flow.
Story: Holy crap, it's starting to go off the rails. This must be what Brianna was talking about when she mentioned it was written on spurts over a number of years. We are introduced to "Weaponized GeishaBots" that also happen to have the same base character model as all the other characters. A test tube crawling with nano-spiders the size of fucking apples is implying that I'll get to fight them later and I am pumped for it.
There's a bunch of gibberish about Minuete having an sNRI issue which I don't really know what it means.
I think this may be the last we see of the magically motorcycle but keep your fingers crossed, maybe it will be the Jesus character of this story. We also get a Resident Evil dodge-the-dangerous-lazers sequence where they only activate convinenently despite being able to instantly kill them instantly
Quotes: If you don't watch the videos, I'm going to start posting my favorite quotes.
Amelia: Military-grade security droids are expensive, and we were out of money. So, we bought these Geishabots and repurposed them. Surprisingly effective. Saved millions. (this is the future with motherfucking spaceships, saving millions is like a government contractor today saying "Boy howdy we sure cut 10 thousand off that bomber you bought)
That frantic request should be a pretty good start to this thread.
Revolution 60 is an odd game developed by an odd person. It has been touted as "a combination of Mass Effect and Heavy Rain, a character driven sci/fi adventure designed by women for women to be able to play". It currently sits at a 73% on metacritic, based on 8 reviews - the only one from a site of any note being IGN-Italia. All of the reviews touch on the "sweeping story", the "strong characters", and the "sprawling sci/fi story with dozens of endings". Nearly all of these review were done before the big Gamergate kerfuffle, and if you're not already involved in that I'm going to spare you the commentary and details.
Users, of course, have been a little harsher on this game. I have found there is very little information on the game itself outside of buzzwords and press release statements that are passed off as reviews. There are nearly no walk-throughs on Youtube, no lets plays. No one has discussed the story in any depth or the actual game play other than releasing the same tired Brianna Wu quotes for "slowing it down" and "making it accessible", and how she would "not be releasing another twitch shooter."
It's my aim to try and correct that.
I'm not a professional reviewer, nor a journalist. I'm just a random nobody that posts snarky shit on a website mocking people - so lets see if those skills can translate over to discussing a game!
My plan was to record a single blind play through, either in one sitting, or more likely in chunks. I'll be discussing plot points and characters as I can, and trying to find ways to break the game as I go. I also have 18 beers in the fridge and my dealer gave me a very nice Christmas present, so I might be channeling Jace the longer this goes on.
As noted, this sounds suspiciously similar to Megman Battle Network, moreover the Star Force spin offs which seem to be an even closer match to how R60 plays. Going off of basic coding from my Freshman java course, where we programmed simple games ala Galaga-eque pixel shooters, R60 needing to restrict the action to specified "lanes" is the easiest form of hit detection, purely by comparing boolean values of what objects are occupying which spaces at what times. Enemy fires down a lane, if the player character is in the lane then they take damage, otherwise the shot doesn't hit anything. Same thing applies to the player character.
In those kinds of games, like Megaman Battle Network or, hell, Plants vs. Zombies, the game shows how good it gets by breaking the "grid lane" structure of combat. The former constantly required the player to utilize chip stratiges that allowed Megaman to move beyond his limited 3x3 grid (I.E. summon a top that bounced all over the field and could damage both Megaman AND the enemy) while simultaneously dodging the enemy from doing the same (I.E. Metalman from MBN 3 White had an exclusive battleground made of \M/ETAL except for the middle row which had a pair of sawblades that obviously did damage if touched and were indestructible, presenting an ever-present hazard only against that boss). Plants vs. Zombies is tower defense, but every level introduces more and more contraints, such as the reduction of sun point generation during nighttime or ultimately the final roof level where plants can't even be placed without first putting down a pot (which in turn takes up one of the available plant seed slots). The Zombies themselves also very quickly start throwing counters to the player I.E. bypassing a high-health Tallnut with a storebought \M/ETAL ladder (which then can be used by all zombies until it is destroyed) that soaks up damage like a sponge, or even randomly deploying bungie Zombies from the sky that can not be stopped from stealing any plant (which if it's one of those high-investment types such as the peashooter with the WWII German helmet that gets four shots per second, can be crippling).
Variety is the spice of life, something I'm guessing R60 seems to avoid having at all costs.
The Peacekeeper is another good example of grid-based gaming. You have three slots to move between, but your own weapons and equipment and tactics are what enable you to take on the hostile forces out to steal your Peace.
Oh my god this game looks bad. For a story driven game there should be, you know, a story.
Oh, and of course the characters all have to be fucking anime waifus, because Brianna Wu is a hypocrite. And of course the Waifu Brigade has to wear stripper gear, because why the fuck not. I mean, it's not even justified or explained or dismissed in anyway, it's "Skimpy catsuits because GamerGate". Theoretically they could have said that the Stripper Commando gear was made out of carbon nano-tubes or had a backing of non-Newtonian fluid (things that the military is currently trying to make body armor out of), which would have at least provided something of an answer as to why a ballet uniform can withstand bullets. But no, it's gymnast catsuits.
/End Autistic rant./
Oh my god this game looks bad. For a story driven game there should be, you know, a story.
Oh, and of course the characters all have to be fucking anime waifus, because Brianna Wu is a hypocrite. And of course the Waifu Brigade has to wear stripper gear, because why the fuck not. I mean, it's not even justified or explained or dismissed in anyway, it's "Skimpy catsuits because GamerGate". Theoretically they could have said that the Stripper Commando gear was made out of carbon nano-tubes or had a backing of non-Newtonian fluid (things that the military is currently trying to make body armor out of), which would have at least provided something of an answer as to why a ballet uniform can withstand bullets. But no, it's gymnast catsuits.
/End Autistic rant./
A game already did that: the Augmented Reaction Suit in Vanquish is made from carbon nanotubes, with armor plating over it for good measure. It also has thrusters all over it so the end result was you screaming around at ludicrous speed engaging bullet time to shred enemies.
...it's also worth noting that Vanquish's plot entirely revolved around you making a mad dash for the center of an orbital colony supplying microwave power which kiiiiiinda sorta can be turned into a weapon if you turned it up high enough, after it already cooked San Francisco. Hmmm...
You know, I wonder if Brianna is one of those people that thinks that just that she's doing something, it's okay, rather than trying to do any of the hard work of looking deeper at her characters or her setting, or turning sexualization on its head to make her (theoretically) physically-appealing characters look like they're being confident about it or owning their appearances in a sort of Bayonetta or old-school Lara Croft kinda way rather than wearing an attractive appearance as noncommittally as a cheap smock, or as devoid of self-ownership as a work uniform? This game is better than I thought it'd be, but it still feels like, given everything put into it, especially the voice talent, it's...kinda mailed in. Given how much Wu flies the flags she does, it's got the impact of if Martin Luther King, Jr. yawned boredly through "I Have A Dream" rather than passionately, loudly projecting it.
Gameplay: You'll notice that environments are already being recycled. Hallways, rooms, pipe-shaped walkway rooms. Because of the simple architecture and flat repeating textures, this is incredibly noticeable. I've only been playing this game for an hour and a half at this point, for a game that spent years in development, and the team is already forced to recycle things to pad the length.
You'll see this with the navigation as well - once you exit one of those side rooms, you have to slowly walk back to the original starting position, even if the direction of the next story objective makes your character stop and spin 180 degrees to face it! I stand corrected on the yellow circles, I think they can take you back, but they also take you to empty rooms with bonus points and med kits. They also have rooms that rip off of Portal 2 with the crazy graffiti ramblings. Portal 2 sure was a good game.
Also, if you needed any other evidence to think this game was padded beyond belief, this video should settle things. I timed things between the airlock scene and the next time the game actually REQUIRES player input, not gives the illusion of it. There is six and a half minutes of the game that could have been cut and repurposed to at-base dialog
Story: Blah blah blah backstory nonsense. Holiday is a cold assassin, everyone needs to gossip about everyone else. There's goofy chatter about how all the mooks you fight might be retarded vat grown men. Now I don't want to make a big deal out of this because it seems to be a conscious design choice to flip conventional tropes around, but the only men in this game have either been copy/paste mute goons, or cute boys that are gossiped about during endless corridor walking scenes.
There is a fight scene with the Geishabots, but it's all QTE! I also fucked up a lot, and was mildly impressed that it seemed to be altering the story - up into Amelia solved everything at the list minute and nothing lasting or major happened in any way.
Since I'm trying to play Holiday as a sociopath asshole, I shot a bunch of dudes into the coldness of space. This DID lower my mojo with Amelia, which shows that yeah, you don't get prompts about your actions if the game already has you at 0 points.
Quotes:
Amelia: [filtered]: Do you think it's true what they say about Snow Leopards? Holiday: What exactly do 'they' say? Amelia: [filtered] They say they grow them in a lab. They say they're not even human! Holiday: Maybe being so different would make them even MORE human. Amelia: [filtered] I - I - I didn't mean - Holiday: Just forget it.
Amelia: [filtered] So... are there guys in Chessboard, or... is it like an all girl thing? Holiday: Of course! We're soldiers, not a girl band. Actually, Chase was supposed to come on this mission, but got pulled last second. Too bad, you'd like him. Amelia: [filtered] What is that supposed to mean? Holiday: He's good with tech, snarky attitude, he's personable - he works out... Amelia: [filtered, laughing] Oh god. I think I've had enough problems for today.
You know, I wonder if Brianna is one of those people that thinks that just that she's doing something, it's okay, rather than trying to do any of the hard work of looking deeper at her characters or her setting, or turning sexualization on its head to make her (theoretically) physically-appealing characters look like they're being confident about it or owning their appearances in a sort of Bayonetta or old-school Lara Croft kinda way rather than wearing an attractive appearance as noncommittally as a cheap smock, or as devoid of self-ownership as a work uniform? This game is better than I thought it'd be, but it still feels like, given everything put into it, especially the voice talent, it's...kinda mailed in. Given how much Wu flies the flags she does, it's got the impact of if Martin Luther King, Jr. yawned boredly through "I Have A Dream" rather than passionately, loudly projecting it.
UNLESS YOU ARE IN A SETTING WHERE EVERYTHING IS DONE TOUNGE IN CHEEK (Austin powers comes to mind with the fembots having machine gun ta-tas) THAT IS HORRIBLY MYSOGONISTIC/SEXIST/ETC
Yeah, I know, it's totally hypocritical, but you know what I mean, like the thought is that if anybody ELSE is doing it it's bad, but only a true feminist or something can call do it ~ironically~ or something. You know, the old no true Scotsman fallacy at work.
I think I might as well ask the armor-piercing question: hey Smutley, is there a mood or feel popping up in R60 right about now? Sounds like Revolution 60 is all over the damn place and can't decide on somewhere to land.
Yeah, I know, it's totally hypocritical, but you know what I mean, like the thought is that if anybody ELSE is doing it it's bad, but only a true feminist or something can call do it ~ironically~ or something. You know, the old no true Scotsman fallacy at work.
I know exactly what you mean and this isn't a case of being "Ironic".
Okay. Like if GTAV had in some minigame Trevor tripping on something and going into a dream sequence where hes a Republican Space Ranger (I am a pretty right-wing guy... and honestly I love them, I get thee joke) and they are fighting - oh no - GEISHABOTS? I'd get the joke (albeit in this setup its very cheap and rockstar would probobly go for something more clever) in saying that sci-fi fembots are tacky.
But when you do it here for serious? No. Its just tacky.
Yeah, totally. Geishabots in Republican Space Rangers would absolutely fit and they'd probably be hilarious if you played them as much. That's why I'm hoping for a reply from Smutley soon, since I can't gauge if there's any tongue-in-cheekness to be had to let these things slide. It looks like Revolution 60 is totally trying to play this straight, and it's sucking hard at it.
