John Pennycook

Yes, they are Russian stacking dolls.

Stacking is a relatively new, downloadable, XBLA/PSN game.  Besides a few comments in magazines and on websites about how excited people were getting about it, I didn’t know much about the game before playing it.  If it weren’t for the fact that it’s available for free this month to PSN Plus subscribers, I probably wouldn’t have bothered getting it at all.

But I’m glad that I did.

Stacking is a game that is all about puzzles (with a little bit of humour thrown in), and as a result it isn’t weighed down by platforming sections, minigames or the untimely introduction of new features.

The story focuses on a very tiny Russian doll named Charlie Blackmore, who is tasked with saving the rest of his family (or “stack”) from an evil Baron known as “the Baron”.  The gameplay revolves (rather predictably) around stacking; Charlie can jump into any doll one size bigger than himself, gaining control of their movement and access to their individual special move.  This bigger doll is also able to stack into the next largest doll, and so on.

These special moves are the bread and butter of the game’s puzzles; some dolls can spot other unique dolls in the area; others can interact with certain elements of the surrounding environment; others can fart, belch or vomit on cue.  Each of these puzzles will have at least three different solutions, with the harder solutions typically requiring some lateral thinking and a combination of several doll abilities.

For example, early in the game the player is asked to empty a room in which a party is taking place.  There are a number of different solutions to the problem: use a seductive woman to distract the man guarding the door, before sneaking in and breaking up the party; use an engineer to sneak in through a nearby vent and break up the party; or use a fat man to fart into the vent and stink them out.  A puzzle doesn’t disappear until all of its solutions have been discovered, and this adds a significant amount of replayability to the game.

As with most games these days, there are also a number of collectibles that lead towards achievements/trophies.  The most interesting of these are hi-jinks, which are a sort of mini-quest that the player can stumble across whilst stacked with certain types of doll.  These quests are typically of the form “use doll x to do action y z times”, and the reward is simply aesthetic — completing a hi-jink turns part of doll x to gold. However pointless these seem, they are usually simple enough to serve as a small (and often entertaining) distraction from the area’s main goal.

So, what’s the verdict?

Well, the game’s visuals are simple, owing to the fact that all of the Russian dolls use an identical model with a different texture, but pretty nonetheless.  The music is neither great nor awful; it’s never jarring or distracting, but you won’t find yourself whistling it in the shower, either. It’s got five or so areas, and I’d estimate it to take somewhere between 10 and 15 hours for most gamers to reach 100%.

At £8.99 on PSN, 1200 MS Points on XBLA and free for PSN Plus subscribers, I’d say that Stacking is definitely worth a look.

What a badass.

Nier.  Despite being one of those games whose name you will never forget (but will still always follow with “…or however you say it”), is a little-known Action/Adventure/RPG published by Square Enix.  I picked it up about a year ago for about £15 and, regrettably, it found its way into my backlog; pushed to the back of the shelf by blockbuster titles like Assassin’s Creed II and Fable III.  Thankfully, once they were out of the way and I allowed myself and Nier some quality time together, it really began to shine.

You play the eponymous Nier, a man who lives in a small village with his daughter Yonah.  Set 1,300 years from now, society has seemingly all but collapsed; people have returned to living in small groups, hounded by dark creatures known simply as “Shades”.  Yonah is slowly dying from a mysterious illness known as the “Black Scrawl” and Nier must hunt and kill Shades in order to save her.

Your character’s relationship with Yonah is the story’s main focus, with letters from your daughter appearing on each loading screen and several of the game’s sidequests tasking you with collecting gifts for her. These moments are surprisingly powerful for something so simple; the irony of Nier’s quest to save his daughter’s death being the cause of him missing out on her life is never far from the player’s mind (or, at least, it was never far from mine).  As with many a good story, it’s hard to go into more detail without revealing the very twists, turns and surprises that make it interesting in the first place — but I promise it’s good!

I’m not going to pretend that Nier is a game that will be to everybody’s tastes.  At worst, it is a 15-hour hack-n-slash with a handful of spells and only four gameplay areas; at best, it is a 30+ hour epic with a fantastic soundtrack and a gripping storyline.  Many interesting stories lie tucked away in optional sidequests, rewarding you with character development only after hours of seemingly endless delivery quests; a number of the game’s most emotive scenes are told simply through text (reminiscent of Lost Odyssey); and there is a great deal of additional content that can only be experienced by reaching the game’s conclusion a whopping four times.

But, with all that being said, I’d still recommend it to most of my friends.  Short enough for sufferers of the gaming equivalent of ADHD, yet long enough for those seeking something a little bit deeper than the average game… Nier somehow manages to pull off something quite rare — what you get out of it really does reflect what you put in.

Alan Wake is probably best described as an action-adventure/psychological thriller; its a third-person shooter with elements of The Twilight Zone, The X Files and — perhaps most importantly – Twin Peaks. The game follows an author with writer’s block, the eponymous Mr. A. Wake, as he struggles to find his wife and wrap his head around a number of strange visions that plague him shortly after his arrival in the town of Bright Falls. Despite its strange premise, the storyline is brilliantly crafted and actually makes some weird kind of sense — it also leaves you wanting and asking questions, which is no doubt how Remedy intend to sell the upcoming DLC.

This is not a game you should ever consider playing if you are the least bit afraid of the dark.  Ever.  During the day, everything is fine — as Wake, you are able to explore Bright Falls and learn more about its inhabitants.  At night, however, everything changes and the very darkness itself comes alive, corrupting people and inanimate objects alike.

Oh Deer.

This is where Alan Wake‘s major game mechanic, using light as a weapon, comes into play; anybody “taken” by the darkness is protected from harm until you have worn down their defenses with your torch.  As simple as this sounds, it makes things very tense — even if your shotgun is full of ammo, it’s useless if your torch is out of batteries.  The only sensible alternative, running away, is of no use either; the darkness is everywhere.  Only in light can you be sure you won’t be ambushed.

The other thing that makes the game stand out is the manuscript pages that Wake is tasked with collecting.  The events that befall Wake eerily reflect his newest novel, which he doesn’t remember writing, and so these pages offer a glimpse of what’s going to happen next.  Removing the element of surprise sometimes makes a few of the game’s reveals less exciting, but mostly they increase suspense.  For example, one page ends with “… and then I heard the chainsaw”; with no way of telling when the chainsaw is coming, it’s difficult to relax.  It also encourages you to keep playing — though you know what is going to happen, you often don’t know why.

So where does it go wrong?  Well, Alan Wake‘s biggest fault is probably that it seemed to have been delayed forever.  For anybody who, like me, pre-ordered the game three years ago, there is absolutely no way that it will ever be able to live up to what it could/should have been. It is impossible to wait that long without developing unrealistic expectations.  There were a few things that got to me, but I’m probably being really picky…

The first complaint relates to one of the many diversions from the game’s main storyline, namely the ability to watch a series of Twilight Zone-esque programs called “Night Springs”.  These live action shorts are quite entertaining, but they don’t feel very polished.  For some unknown reason, Remedy employed two separate groups of people — voice actors and “likenesses” — which results in everything looking (and feeling) fake.  It is bad enough that the lip sync is out, but the fact that facial expressions do not match vocal delivery is impossible to ignore.

It’s also difficult to understand why the game both punishes and rewards you for exploration.  As mentioned previously, the darkness is everywhere, and straying too far off the beaten track usually results in an ambush.  When running low on ammo, or when growing bored of fighting, it’s often tempting to stick to the paths and run towards the next light. On the other hand, ammo caches, radios, TVs, coffee thermoses and manuscript pages are always well hidden; if you want to collect everything, you should be prepared to shine your light at every wall, explore every nook and cranny, and fend off more taken than you can shake a torch at.

Finally, I found myself growing increasingly annoyed with Alan’s inability to read his own manuscript pages with any believability.  As he is an author, I would have expected his story-telling skills to be a little better; it is unfortunate that each page is read in dull, monotone voice. Whether it be a prophetic revelation, suspenseful build-up or a shocking detail about his wife’s fate, Wake reacts in exactly the same way (ie not at all).

Despite these three points, Alan Wake remains enjoyable and, at times, shit-your-pants-on-the-edge-of-your-seat.  Furthermore, it seems as though it will have a great deal of replay value, as at least half of the manuscript pages can only be found on the Nightmare difficulty.  Having not read them yet, it is difficult for me to comment, but I imagine that they will offer more insight into the game’s events (and presumably its finale, to boot).

In short, this game is a definite must-have for anybody with a taste for the extra-ordinary.  The psychological thriller aspect may not be to everybody’s taste, however, so the uncertain should try before they buy.