Hot Wheels Unleashed, Sable, Tokyo Game Show 2021 | Episode 18
Join Dave and Dylan in Episode 18 of the Offshore Gamescast as they talk about Sable, Hot Wheels Unleashed, and more games!
They also talk about Tokyo Game Show 2021, Konami, Choo Choo Charles, and the rest of the breaking news from the week.
Thanks for listening!
Game Log - #10072021
Every week Dave and Dylan take some of their thoughts on the games they’ve been playing and write them out in a blog post. If you prefer reading instead of listening then this is perfect for you, enjoy!
Dylan
With nothing new coming out this week that I wanted to jump into right away, I was able to focus on finishing a couple of games. I continue to jump between a few games such as Lost in Random, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and Deathloop but don’t have any meaningful updates for them, not without getting into spoiler territory.
Neo: The World End with You
Neo starts out strong and ends even stronger but suffers from a mid-game that really drags. The game is separated into three weeks, each with seven days to play through. Week 1 does a great job of introducing you to the new cast of characters and all of the changes within the Reapers Game. They do a great job of making it all feel fresh but also familiar for those that have played the original game. Then week 2 comes around. While there’s some good story and character moments that happen here, it’s mostly filled with repetitive concepts from the first week along with way too much combat for my taste that ended up burning me out on it. By the time the third week comes around, I find the game to be at its strongest. It doesn’t throw as much combat at you, at least with filler battles, and the way everything was concluded left me really satisfied.
Neo was being touted as a good spot in the series for newcomers and fans of the original to jump in. I played the original The World Ends with You before Neo and I’m really glad I did. While Neo has a new set of main characters, there’s a lot of returning characters from the original game, more than I thought there would be. They end up having quite a large impact on the outcome of the game and, while I won’t get into spoilers, the moments revolving around the returning characters have a much bigger impact if you know who they are and what their stories are.
Compared to its predecessor, I found the ending of Neo to be much more understandable and satisfying. It was much more understandable and every character has a satisfying conclusion to their story, both the new cast and returning cast. I would love to see more games in this series and really hope they keep it going, but I’d be okay with a whole new cast and even more of a fresh start moving forward
Sable
Sable isn’t the type of game that gives you a crazy overarching story with intense cutscenes and huge reveals. You set out on your journey of self discovery, figuring out what you want to do with your life and where you belong, and the game concludes with you doing exactly that. But the game isn’t about your final choice or what mask you end up wearing. It’s much more about the incredible journey full of discoveries for Sable to make about the world and herself.
I’m not going to go into the details of what you discover or how it’s handled because, for me, that’s the biggest draw of this game. What really holds it back is all of the technical problems the game faces. Climbing can be janky, the hoverbike never works like you want it to, menus don’t work half the time, NPCs won’t spawn, frames drop badly whenever the game auto-saves which is every time you make a new discovery or pick up an item, you clip through the walls or floors in multiple locations. These issues have led to me having to quit out of the game multiple times just to be able to continue on. Sable is very much so a game worth playing and will more likely than not end up in my top 10 games of the year but these technical issues are distracting to the point of it taking away from the overall experience.
Lost Judgment
I just have a quick update on Lost Judgment seeing as I haven’t really continued the main story whatsoever. I’ve been too involved in the whole side quest of the high school and am loving every aspect of it. Normally a Yakuza game would have one bigger mini game attached to it with a story-line to play through. With all of the different clubs in the high school, there’s basically eight of those here. So far I’ve started the Mystery Research Club, Dance Club, Robotics Club, and joined a boxing gym. I have the starting quest to join a skateboarding crew and motorcycle racing gang and there’s still two other clubs I haven’t unlocked yet. I can only imagine the amount of hours I’m going to pour just into this part of the game alone before continuing on with the main story and I couldn’t be happier.
Dave
The Ascent
The Ascent is a weird one for me, I had high hopes initially but as I continue to play the interest is fading. I’ve completed the first 5 chapters so far putting me about a third of the way through the game and there have been some ups and some more downs. There were doubts surrounding this game when it was announced, but to me the prospect of a new IP being developed by some of the top devs around having worked on Bulletstorm, Far Cry 3, Gears of War, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and DOOM sounded incredible and I keep trying to use that detail to oppose some of the feelings I have about the game however it doesn’t seem to be working.
The idea of The Ascent and it’s gameplay for the most part makes my mouth water. A cyberpunk-y looter shooter with the caveat that it’s a twin-stick shooter is enough to get my attention. Where those aspects begin to deviate is why it’s not hooking me like I want it to. Starting with the gameplay, there’s the looting. Now when it comes to each looter shooter that comes out I wait to see how the core loop works. In this case you work your way through the map while on a mission or just traveling, moving in and out of safe zones where combat is and isn’t allowed. Mowing down countless spawning mobs to pick up the gear and armor that they can’t use anymore. The weird thing is that there are weapons that everyone uses, take the Dread assault rifle for example. I could have 5 of the same Dread rifle in my inventory by the end of a mission, all with the same stats only differing when I go to a guy to upgrade my “Dread” rifles, the only reason to pick up these duplicates is to sell for resources instead of being able to find a better version of it or just a different rifle altogether. I have a strong bias towards the Borderlands series and their take on looting which I use as the baseline for how I feel about other games’ looting systems and I believe Borderlands does it best. The feeling of finding or hunting for a certain weapon or a variant of it is addicting enough to spend hours doing so. The Ascent has a good amount of weapons at its disposal but I feel nothing when I get one, it doesn’t feel like a looter shooter to me but a shooter with the idea of loot. The gear works similarly with varying stats, more attention is needed when it comes to the varying enemies since if you have low fire stats and come across a fire enemy you will see that you’re not going to be the winner. The twin-stick shooting feels fine, it’s not bad, it’s not great. My biggest gripe is the dodge roll, you can only use it twice before it cools down and I don’t see where it tells me how long it takes or anything so I have to estimate in battle. Fighting through the mobs can be satisfying but when it gets overwhelming it turns into a top down gears of war or the classic trains from Call of Duty Zombies just circling around until they are all picked off. On the other hand the boss fights bring a spike in difficulty. Firstly you should take out the area’s mobs before beginning as they will only get in the way and make the situation worse. Each boss so far takes the casual gameplay and makes it tactical, a large mech for example tests your dodge roll timing, and unless overpowered you’re almost forced to use the cover strewn about, slowing down the gameplay a lot for me.
The world is super pretty and hits the same cues that Necromunda Hired Gun used. The scale of the world itself in the futuristic, cyberpunk setting has large machinery and towering heights all around that remind you how small you are. Unless you’re moving through tighter areas your surroundings are usually always in view but some places demonstrate the size and scope incredibly well. Walking down a long catwalk as massive pistons move and slam with the weight of a dozen elephants is how the game keeps me immersed through the uninteresting combat. Don’t ask me a single thing about the story or characters because so far I have skipped every single dialogue encounter, cutscene, and story moment. Games require certain headspaces when playing through them and I didn’t have the best one when taking my time with it, in turn making me not give a single shit about the story. Based on some of the other things people have said about this game I already began to lose interest in it before it came out, only starting it the other day as “something” to do. It also doesn’t help that Far Cry 6 is basically here and it’s the only thing that I can think about. When a game is close to releasing and I know for a fact that it’s going to either take over my life or be a day one game for me, I zone in on it and lose interest in just about everything until I can finally play it. So for the past 2 weeks I’ve slowly lost interest in playing anything that isn’t Far Cry 6, but that doesn’t work when you have a weekly podcast to focus on.
I want to find the time to continue playing through The Ascent but it might be up in the air as to whether I finish it or not since Oct is spread pretty well with high profile releases for me. Only time will tell but the time I have put in already hasn’t made a big enough dent to stand out.
Hot Wheels Unleashed
I don’t think anyone was ready for this game to come out and be as good as it is. It’s an arcade style racing game that has you riding across classic hot wheels tracks twisting and turning around a bunch of different room settings. I’ve done about 5 or 6 of the races so far and they’re pretty tame so far. A jump here and there and a loop once in a while but I’m waiting and hoping there’s some tracks fitting closer to the speed racer or wipeout tracks that transcend typical tracks and goes for the insane and I believe hot wheels can accomplish that. There are less than 80 cars in the game which sounds surprising until you realize that each car has its own stats and behaves differently letting them stand out on their own, some with nitrous bars and others with a preset amount of uses that refill over time. After completing races you can be rewarded with blind boxes containing random cars feeling similar to Gacha machines. I was lucky and got a pretty good car early on that has been my main, I’m hoping that something happens that gives me a reason to use the other cars since they’re all well designed and run separately but so far I know which one works for me. I do have a few issues with the game. When it comes to the time trial races, in order to complete them you need to beat the fastest time of the two displayed only distancing themselves by a few seconds. The issue arises from not receiving anything when beating the second fastest time. The only way to beat it at all is to finish it under the fastest time or the event will not be checked off, not even with a silver medal or anything, making it absolutely pointless to have the second set of time. The game seems to tout that only the best are here, asking you to be the fastest or not being able to continue unless you’re number one every race which isn’t what I expected since it’s more arcade-y. I’m still very early and I know there’s more to see and racers to beat so I hope this game still has me by the end of it.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
Out of the VR games I own and the ones waiting patiently in my wishlist, this one is very interesting. It wasn’t until after starting that I found out this game is apparently about 15 hours long, because of that I’ve put it down for now until I can find some extra time between all these game releases to give it the attention it deserves. I believe I’ve only finished the main tutorial so far which led me to an old bus that is being used as my roaming base. From there I can see my mission objectives, locations, challenges, I have access to resource management, inventory management, a gun wall and a place to rest. Moving out in the world feels simple and has a good physics system attached. On your person there’s a lot to carry, a holster sits on either hip for a knife and gun, an icon for ammo floats in the middle between them, a backpack for inventory over the shoulder and a two handed weapon or possibly a primary gun slot on the other shoulder. As you explore you’ll pick up junk to craft and find weapons and ammo scattered all over. The smaller details stand out more to me, you can grab the head of a zombie and push your knife into its head with the other hand which is super satisfying, even having a little part in the main tutorial dedicated to it that fits the lore as well having zombies with no extremities sit in a barrel with burlap sacks on their head just waiting to be trained on. I also enjoy being able to use gravity or standard physics when it comes to items, like throwing your gun in the air and catching it. On the other hand, it’s the small stuff that brings a smile to my generally covered face. VR games are a hard game to write about and describe in my opinion due to it being a simulated experience unlike traditional video games where the experience itself takes center stage and can be hard to explain and better felt. Again I’m very early in the game but I anticipate my return to the apocalypse.
Vader Immortal: Episode I
I haven’t played the Force Unleashed games but this set seems to follow a similar path. You are minding your own business when the empire shows up and escorts you straight to Vader. He needs help and in turn an apprentice, after showing him your skills with an artifact he begins the plans of how you will be useful to him. Once he leaves you start your escape plan, coming across a hacking device that requires nothing more than placing the item in a hole and waiting. I’ll gloss over some parts otherwise I’d be describing every single moment as this episode is less than an hour long. There’s some climbing sections, nothing more than a ladder here or some broken metal to grab onto there. About the halfway point is where you find the lightsaber, working exactly how you think it does. Two sections stick out to me, the first being a part using the saber to bounce blaster shots off of and the ending fight that to me lasts way too long. It focuses on droids jumping down around you, no more than two at a time I believe and they have slow repetitive animations of blocking their saber with yours and once a combo is done you can swing around to damage them. Leading into 2 at a time to add to the experience but again it persists long beyond enjoyment. It seems to be a growth story spanning across the 3 episodes, adding new abilities and extra as you continue. From what I’ve heard the first episode is the least exciting of the bunch so my hope remains that the rest will make up for it.
The Climb
This is the most fun I’ve had in a VR game yet and it has the most simplistic loop out of them and it’s just climbing. The game is centered around 3 locations: Bay/Canyon/Alps, each with an Easy, Medium, and Hard course. On top of that there are 2 Boulder levels per location that seem to be a short, speedrun type challenge on a part of the course. At the moment I have completed each easy and medium run for the 3 spots. Compared to the other VR games I own, this is the one I can’t stop thinking about and want to play right in the mornings before work and right before bed. It’s a subtle but entertaining workout that if I didn’t physically fatigue from, I would be playing constantly.
Starting off there’s a few tutorials to run through with varying obstacles to tackle that you will eventually come across during the courses but the way the game goes about them adds a comfortable level of challenge to make you stop and think about your next move as there isn’t only one way to the top. Each level has a few sections to it labeling each with a letter of the alphabet, along with checkpoints spread across the paths you have to make it from platform to platform until you reach the peak and end the level. To start you use the triggers to grab onto the handholds and like basic instinct raise each respective hand and straight up climb. A small blue bar sits directly below your wrist displaying the amount of stamina you have per hand. As with real climbing chalk is used to give you a better grip and extend your stamina. Holding the grip buttons on each hand and shaking the controllers will add a layer of chalk extending the stamina bar all the way around the wrist in a connecting white bar. Moving fast or only hanging on with one hand or doing anything strenuous will waste stamina but it will recharge when both hands are resting on a hold. There really isn’t anything complicated since it’s just climbing but there are some obstacles that begin to show up in the harder levels. Some are simple enough, some plants can sit atop a hold and poison you so try your best to avoid those. One that stands out to me is that some holds can be dirty and covered in small rocks that you have to hold the trigger and wipe off before being able to grab onto. The trickiest obstacle comes in the form of finger holds. A disc floats underneath each hand that extends as you press the trigger, in order to use the finger holds correctly so that your stamina doesn’t drain you have to press the triggers lightly until the discs are blue and hold them there until you make it to a normal hold again. You also have your occasional set piece like hanging off a beam of wood that isn’t fully secure and shifts down a bit or using a railcar to get to another spot, nothing too crazy so far though.
There really isn’t much more to talk about when it comes to a game like this, it’s one to be experienced instead of talked about. I don’t want to rush through this game even though there’s only so many courses but there is a sequel that looks to expand on a lot from the first game. If you have a VR headset that can play this game then please go get it, it’s hard to describe but feels great.