Quitter's Club: Don't be ashamed to quit the game.

[mikemariano]

Broken Age (Part 2)

 

Uh oh; I just made it to the end of Act I.  So far, so good!

[Cordeos]

Uh oh; I just made it to the end of Act I.  So far, so good!

 

Act II has some very fiddly puzzles.

[tberton]

I don't understand why people don't like the rewiring puzzles. Those were by far my favourite part of Act II, once I got past a hump on the first one. They were the only puzzles that felt like they had consistent rules. I could think of half a dozen other puzzles that frustrated me more.

[Ozzie]

I always feel a tinge of sadness when I hear that people don't enjoy the puzzles in Act 2 as much as I did. Maybe it helped that I played the game with a friend? Possibly. Besides, I loved the variety and I can't think of another (part of an) adventure game that gave me so many epiphanies that made me feel clever in so short a time.

And yes, I also very much enjoyed the rewiring puzzles.

[Trip Hazard]

Have quit Bastion for the second time. So boring! zzzzzzzz

[Twig]

U R

 

(BORING, THAT IS)

[jennegatron]

I found Act 2 to be much a less satisfying experience than Act 1. I did not have the problems with the story in 2 that a lot of people had but I hated most of the puzzle design.

 

Here are a few puzzles I hated:
I hated the snake squeezing 'puzzle,' if the solution to your puzzle is to do nothing, I think that's pretty weak.
The rewiring puzzles didn't bother me that much, but I did not know why I would want to put a hexipal on the 'charger' to let me see the icons, so I did not know to pick up the clue in the background of that photo that indicated the wiring order.
When you distract Marek and clearly understand that you're supposed to grab the star chart, but apparently Tim Schafer decided you needed to lock the door for no reason?
I hated the hexipal on the vacuum cleaner, and I hated literally every usage of the feather shoes.
I did not like the knot puzzle.

Act 1's puzzles were so clean and avoided so much adventure game logic that it really disappointed me to play act 2.
I never felt like a genius for solving a puzzle only annoyed with the convoluted solutions.

[SecretAsianMan]

This conversation is reminding me that I really need to finish Act 2.  Or at least, you know, start it.

[tberton]

I found Act 2 to be much a less satisfying experience than Act 1. I did not have the problems with the story in 2 that a lot of people had but I hated most of the puzzle design.

 

Here are a few puzzles I hated:

I hated the snake squeezing 'puzzle,' if the solution to your puzzle is to do nothing, I think that's pretty weak.

The rewiring puzzles didn't bother me that much, but I did not know why I would want to put a hexipal on the 'charger' to let me see the icons, so I did not know to pick up the clue in the background of that photo that indicated the wiring order.

When you distract Marek and clearly understand that you're supposed to grab the star chart, but apparently Tim Schafer decided you needed to lock the door for no reason?

I hated the hexipal on the vacuum cleaner, and I hated literally every usage of the feather shoes.

I did not like the knot puzzle.

Act 1's puzzles were so clean and avoided so much adventure game logic that it really disappointed me to play act 2.

I never felt like a genius for solving a puzzle only annoyed with the convoluted solutions.

 

I had a lot of the same problems with Act 2. I look back on it really fondly, but I got super frustrated a lot while playing it.

[Ozzie]

I look back on it really fondly, but I got super frustrated a lot while playing it.

I certainly know that feeling in general.

 

I never felt like a genius for solving a puzzle only annoyed with the convoluted solutions.

That one, too.

So weird, right? Sometimes I feel like classic adventure games really are an evolutionary dead end or at least incredibly hard to design, considering that one puzzle can make one person (like me) feel really smart and another really annoyed or dumb. The quality of implementation, clues dispension, rules transparency, etc. certainly plays its part. But with classic adventure games I feel like it can never be good enough for everybody.

[Dewar]

I think I just didn't understand what the Hexipals were supposed to do. Like, I know if I wire it this way, it makes this certain motion, but what am I supposed to do with that information?

 

I would have been much more annoyed if I hadn't looked at a guide and knew I needed to take screenshots of certain configurations so I could duplicate them later.

[tberton]

You had to take screenshots of the configurations? I thought they were super easy to remember.

[Dewar]

They weren't for me. Maybe that was part of the problem.

[Henroid]

Getting awfully close to giving up on Mass Effect. Yeah I haven't played the series yet, but it went on sale one day last week and I got 1 and 2 for real cheap. There's nothing wrong with the game as far as it being a video game goes. It's fun, I'm intrigued by the characters. At worst the storyline is too hyperbolic and eager to be all "SAVE THE GALAXY." Poor Captain Andersen sounds like he has a bad case of PTSD, and some of Shepard's lines sound like she's right there with him.

 

No, my problem with the game is that the PC port has a lot of issues running on a modern system. There's lots of old computer games I play that run just fine on my current machine, but Mass Effect - which isn't that old at all - just has incredible issues. First I had to overcome the problems with getting the game to run as it was crashing on startup. It took installing legacy drivers to get it to work this much, but now I'm running into a problem where the game's performance tanks. It can be after a few minutes, it can be after and hour, but eventually it starts to load slowly, have really bad framerate issues, and even my command inputs need to be repeated before they apply. My patience for fixing computers, for as much as I've known my whole life, has just been dying off rapidly lately and I have a very strong "don't have time for this bullshit" reaction going on. This is easily the worst PC port of a video game since Final Fantasy 7. And yes I know how scathing an insult that is but I stand by it.

[Bjorn]

Getting awfully close to giving up on Mass Effect. Yeah I haven't played the series yet, but it went on sale one day last week and I got 1 and 2 for real cheap. There's nothing wrong with the game as far as it being a video game goes. It's fun, I'm intrigued by the characters. At worst the storyline is too hyperbolic and eager to be all "SAVE THE GALAXY." Poor Captain Andersen sounds like he has a bad case of PTSD, and some of Shepard's lines sound like she's right there with him.

 

I can't comment on the tech stuff, I own 1 on PC, but only ever played it on console.

 

The PTSD comment is interesting, as particularly playing Renegade, or a mix of Paragon/Renegade, does end up leaving one with the impression that you're playing a character who is a deeply, deeply hurt individual, badly in need of both medical and psychological help.  By the time 3 rolls around, Shepard on the Renegade path is completely unpredictable, in a very unhinged way.  I initially really disliked the renegade paths, but as the years have passed and I've reflected on the games, it's the far more interesting story. 

[Trip Hazard]

Hah, I loved my renegade Femshep in Mass Effect. She would brook no argument, leave no compliment unchallenged, and always always found a way to chastise. It's a shame that it isn't running well for you, Henroid, and I agree that it is a poor port. I have more issues with it than most people (not on the technical side), but it's a great game that deserves to be played through to completion.

[Henroid]

Okay, it seems - for the time being at least - that I fixed the error. Dunno if it'll last or if it's actually fixed at all.

 

I just did my first non-Citadel content piece. This game is hard as hell, my goodness. My team members' AI is kinda klutzy. Also the Mako is like the worst thing about the game easily. Still, having my fun. Seeing the value of sniper rifles.

[Griddlelol]

I look back on Mass Effect 1 as one of my all time favourite games. I don't think I should ever play it again though, I'm sure I'd just shrug and find it dull.

The ME series suffers from the problem of 1 being the best, but 2 having the cleanest user experience and mechanics, which tricks people into thinking it's better, when in reality, the RPG/narrative aspect of it aren't interesting at all.

Then 3, my god the backlash at the ending. How did people think it was going to end? How do you end a series about exploration and discovering new aliens and secrets? It's always going to go out with a whimper.  

[tberton]

I still haven't played 3, but I loooooved 2. I really enjoyed that the narrative focused on recruiting a team and learning about them rather than saving the galaxy. The characters were super interesting and a lot of the mission design was quite unique - not just the ending, but also things like Thane's mission and Garrus' mission.

[Griddlelol]

I don't disagree that it's a fantastic game. My main problems come from sequelitis. What I loved about 1 was discovering everything. Learning about this whole galaxy and political system from a fish out of water perspective. Humanity is pretty new to this stuff, therefore it makes sense the player is new also. 

It just gave me a feeling I only get from the best narrative driven games or movies. ME2 I played the shit out of, but never got that feeling.

 

The character arcs were great, I completely agree. I just...didn't feel like I was being thrown into the deep end of something new. It was incremental understanding of minor aspects, rather than feeling like I was introduced to a new world, and in that new world there were both huge systems to understand, and tiny little facts hidden away.

 

Then there were the enemies. ME2 enemies didn't seem interesting to me. Big bad world ending robots. Mass Effect introduces the robots as some cool mythical space thing, but in ME2 they are real and tangible. They're less creepy, they're more gamey. I got chills when I heard about the reapers in ME, but in ME2 they were just another bad guy I had to kill. 

 

Tl;dr version: ME2 didn't feel new like ME did. 

[tberton]

That's totally fair. I guess that sense of newness just isn't as essential to me in storytelling. I don't remember that awe-inspiring feeling of discovery from ME1, or if I did, it was much less pronounced and important.

[SecretAsianMan]

I have such mixed feelings about ME2.  I enjoyed the gameplay in ME2 way more (although I was annoyed by the switch to an actual ammo system instead of the weapon overheating) but the story was ruined for me.  It's not the narrative's fault, it's a technical issue.  Sometime after ME1 but before ME2 my save got corrupted or lost and I really didn't have it in me to spend another 40 hours recreating it so I started ME2 from scratch.  Every personal thing I previously did was lost and I was no longer invested in the story I was being told which resulted in the experience falling flat.  The scenario I was given used almost the exact opposite of everything I had done.  While I liked the loyalty missions (especially the ones that put two of your crew members at odds with each other) the main story felt lacking to me.

[Griddlelol]

Well the newness thing might not be important to me any more, but as a 16/17 year old, who's only exposure to scifi was Star Wars, Mass Effect's galaxy and lore kicked me down a rabbit hole I didn't know I ever wanted to go down. 

 

I also agree...the main story of ME2 (and 3) wasn't as good as 1. I should play ME1 again, I just don't have the heart in case I ruin it for myself.

[SargeMcD]

Dark Souls 2 is the game I have currently stopped playing and have no immediate plans to return to.

Nothing about it being too tough, I beat Demon's, Dark 1, etc. It just isn't as good..? I just didn't grab me. It feels flimsy and disjointed. It has that strange 'game feel' that just feels wrong to me. Yes, I know 'game feel' is a idiotic idea and term but you just know, ya know?

I guess I've put Bloodborne on hold and haven't finished the last boss, I'm waiting for the DLC. This is mostly due to experiencing new DLC in new game plus first with Dark Souls. It made shit so much tougher, so I'm waiting for this one.

[Trip Hazard]

The characterisation in ME2 was, I thought, worlds ahead of that from ME, with the exception of Wrex who will forever be my favourite. I loved Mordin, thought Jack's character (while seeming a bit one dimensional initially) developed very well, liked getting to visit the Quarian flotilla and the...unpleasantness that ensues. The twist with Archangel...that was SO COOL. Aria T'Loak is badass.

 

In ME, you've got Garrus and Wrex, who are very good. Liara, who is flat. Kaidan, who is literally not anything at all. The space racist woman. Tali is mysterious, but all you learn about her comes though static conversation, which isn't as much fun as ME2's personal missions.

 

Totally get what Griddle is saying about the reapers being this enormously menacing entity from beyond the stars. It's great how you have to fight to get people to accept that they exist and pose a real threat. They played their hand too soon in ME2 with the collectors, I thought, and they're just not that interesting.