Let's Sperg Revolution 60: Game of the Year Contender

[Smutley]

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.

Game: Revolution 60
Purchased: Not yet (waiting for in-app prompt)
Software: X-Mirage airplay server for Windows
Hardware: iPad 32gig 3rd Gen

Time to get underway!

 

[Andrew Noel Schaefer]

I also have 18 beers in the fridge

I have a feeling you will be needing more then that!

GOD they look creepier when animated! And why are they dancing around in the intro like sex symbols?

 

[That Chris Guy]

I have a feeling you will be needing more then that!

GOD they look creepier when animated! And why are they dancing around in the intro like sex symbols?

Because when they do it, it's an empowering symbol of feminism and morality. When someone else is making money off it, that's misogyny.
______________________________

I sincerely hope nobody outside of Wu's personal hugbox listed this for GOTY. I thought the gameplay looked shithouse, excluding the ugly Martians wearing female skins.

 

[_blank_]

Godspeed, Smutley. May the Bratz-doll knockoffs not steal your soul into the cold, black night.

 

[ShavedSheep]

Cant wait.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Godspeed...

 

[Ultimate Grisby]

For some reason the game's graphics reminds me of a budgeted version of Space Channel 5.

Space Channel 5 is kickass and I wanna play it again.

 

[Iamthatis]

I wonder if the game will reprogram smutleys mind turn him into an SJW? He will come back as a non bianary transotherkin with Vade as a headmate.

 

[Linako 2.0]

I wish you could livestream it mang.
God speed you magnificent bastard.

 

[Smutley]

Part 1 - The Demo

[Note: So I'm dumb when it comes to recording stuff, and I apologize in advance for weird screw ups. X-Mirage has a bug where it doesn't sync video and audio, so parts 1 and 2 are de-synced.]

I'm going to start this with praise, because a twenty minute demo of a story driven mobile game is pretty great. I wish more companies would do that.

The worst thing about the game, so far, is that it's mediocre. There hasn't been anything really offensive at all, but it's just boring and stilted. The voice acting is pretty decent, and they do what they can with the lines they're given. But we'll get in to story in a little bit. You'll see as I'm playing that I start intentionally screwing up to try and cause a fail state. At first I thought it was because of the tutorial that you couldn't fail, but nothing ever happens. Sometimes you'll have to start the minigame over again and the animation will loop.

The only time it does matter is in combat, when trying to perform a special move. Combat is absolutely abysmal. In the twenty minute demo of this game, there are 3 battles, and the only differences between them are slightly different animations and colors. I really don't imagine that the game is going to throw anything different towards me throughout, so I'm looking forward to shooting the little pistol at the same enemy models for another 2 hours.

The story, so far, is unbelievably generic. Holiday is an assassin that works for a perfect AI master-control system named Chessboard. She is going to steal a space ship for a currently unknown reason with unknown people who are also eccentric freedom fighters. One of the eccentric ones gets hurt and we discover she has sci fi bugs living inside her and they have to use robots to heal her brain. Future.

Combat Tally: 3
Playtime: 23:09

Part 2 - Save the Ship!

You get to see me constantly fucking up a couple more times to see if anything would happen, at all. It doesn't, and I think in the future I'm only going to fail because I'm bad at swiping and/or tapping.

This video is full of character development. We're introduced to all the main players:
Holiday: Assassin, Blond, The Player (90% asshole run)
Amelia: Enginer/Pilot, The Sassy One, Brunette.
Minuete: The Mission Commander, The Bitchy One, Rrobo-Bug, Redhead
Valentina: Nanoborg(?), possible sephiroth-style bad guy, the current plot object
Chessboard: Female AI system, second possible badguy, (prediction - probable GLaDOS/SHODAN, with a side of Skynet)

Because Brianna was so enamored with Mass Effect, you are able to explore your space ship and interact with your crew. You're going to see me looking around more than is reasonable because I 'm expecting to find something else to do. A choice, a branching path. But there aren't any, it's just following a rail to the next person to talk to. One of the loading screens says something like, "Green circles are mission objectives, and yellow circles let you explore!" But what it really means is "Yellow means you already went that way". I hope to never tap a yellow circle again.

One of the big mechanics in this game is having to raise your reputation with your crew members by picking their side in conversations.
On the pause screen is the Crew-O-Meter, showing how your Holiday is shaping up. I'm assuming when you hit those bars with certain characters or evil/good meter you get some kind of bonus.

Spoiler: Reputations

The last battle in this video is where I think I learned the trick to potentially beating everyone in the game. The mechanics currently only have one other enemy on the field, and you can only fire from a still position. If you just stand one column to the side of a bad guy, you get a free hit as soon as he enters your column that usually briefly stuns him. Since it's real time, If you move before their attack animation is finished you don't get hit, and I'm going to try and get my attack rate up high enough I can just spam attack without them getting a shot in return.

Story: The Gang bandies about a bunch of future talk, and discus their backstories. Then there's some nonsense about Zero-G Training and Snow Leopards (government hit squads of generic bad men) trying to plant bombs on the ship.

Combat Tally: 6
Playtime: 46:21

 

[Linako 2.0]

>video is private.
what happened?

 

[Andrew Noel Schaefer]

Combat Tally: 3

THIS VIDEO IS PRIVATE

Christ the characters look like fetish dolls. By characters, I mostly mean Minute with her go-go dress that makes *absolutly no* sense as a millitary mission commander, but Val also gets the treatment. She has an excuse though, as I imagine that in THE FUTURE body armor has become skintight and lightweight because why the fuck not.

But either way, considering who takes top credit for this game? I dont think making them look sexy was intentional.

You are a trooper, Smutley.

 

[Burned Man]

Alright so the problem I'm seeing with combat is in the cutscenes and QTEs things are fast and lethal but combat really isn't, it's a weird game of hopscotch. Remember in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie when they are sword fighting in the rafters and hop rafter to rafter that's what it reminds me of. I mean it might make more sense if there were elements of cover on the battlefield like walls or pillars or something that actually separates the characters in the center row. I mean if you don't want cover because your character is a fast, mobile, assassin type you have to speed things up to show that. I also think it would also work better if there were multiple weaker enemies rather than one stronger one.

I appreciate you trying to show fail states because that can always cause a laugh.

 

[Andrew Noel Schaefer]

Alright so the problem I'm seeing with combat is in the cutscenes and QTEs things are fast and lethal but combat really isn't, it's a weird game of hopscotch. Remember in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie when they are sword fighting in the rafters and hop rafter to rafter that's what it reminds me of. I mean it might make more sense if there were elements of cover on the battlefield like walls or pillars or something that actually separates the characters in the center row. I mean if you don't want cover because your character is a fast, mobile, assassin type you have to speed things up to show that. I also think it would also work better if there were multiple weaker enemies rather than one stronger one.

I appreciate you trying to show fail states because that can always cause a laugh.

It looks like - No, it IS! A RIPOFF OF MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK!

Except you know, slower and shittier. Also dialog is a ripoff of mass effect. Go figure.

 

[c-no]

Smutley, you are doing God's work in this, playing this video and giving us your thoughts on the GOTY work of Literally Wu.

Christ the characters look like fetish dolls. By characters, I mostly mean Minute with her go-go dress that makes *absolutly no* sense as a millitary mission commander, but Val also gets the treatment. She has an excuse though, as I imagine that in THE FUTURE body armor has become skintight and lightweight because why the fuck not.

Not only that, they look the same apart from their hair-styles, outfits, and such.

 

[Red_Rager]

anyway to see the video? This game does not look like my cup of tea, I've never been a fan of QTE and the combat looks way too tedious. Credit where credit is due, it does look like one of the better mobile games.

 

[CWCissey]

Fuck this game. It's a travesty. Really fucking slow, generic story, and an awful set of characters, plus no real challenge to it.

 

[Smutley]

>video is private.
what happened?

Part 2 should be corrected now, sorry about that! You guys get to watch me flounder about like a retard because I legit don't know anything about recording / splicing / uploading videos.

But get your gamefaces on, because Part 3 is uploading now.

 

[Smutley]

Part 3 - Attack the Block

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.

You'll also notice that there are only two enemy models and 3 different weapons. Snow, Plague, and Dark Leopards are just reskinned models, and their attacks are based on either having pistols, sniper rifles, or gatling guns. Maybe they have different health and damage but who even cares it's not like it's possible to lose unless it's intentional. There's a big bruiser who I think is a mini boss, and I bet he'll be reskinned as nanobots overtake him (speculation).

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.

Spoiler: Stretched

Pay attention to this insignia if you watch the videos, because it's the easiest way to see this in action.

Story: So it looks like they're trying to get on the special space ship N313 to "arm the core", which will allow the AI Chessboard to get in to the system and "self propagate." (I guess Skynet it is!) I still stand by the voice acting being pretty decent, but the writing itself is so bland and generic. The girls are all catty with one another, and even though there's a bunch of backstory and snark nothing really gets accomplished. Having Minuete say "We need to get going and capture that ship!" would cut this video from 13 minutes down to the time it maybe four minutes.

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.

Combat Tally: 8
Playtime: 59:16

 

[Kosher Dill]

Christ the characters look like fetish dolls.

Yeah, seriously. I felt like a sleaze just watching that first gameplay video. The main character has a plain white outfit with two belts making an "X" to draw your attention to her butt... and then a butt-shaped hairstyle just in case you didn't get the message.
Every time a combat started, I was like "For the love of God, not another one" - and I wasn't even playing XD Smutley, I'm surprised you forked over the cash for the full version of this.