Paradise Killer (Switch) Review

 

Paradise Killer (Switch Review)

Release Date: 31 March 2022

Date Played: 3 August 2022

Paradise Killer is a really good murder investigation game that feels a bit like a hybrid between the Danganronpa Series and the PC classic Myst.  While it’s a bit difficult to describe, I would call it a whimsical, vaporwave, cosmic horror, investigation adventure game.  It leans heavily into its over-the-top crazy world building, characters, lore, and story.  But, it still has the gameplay and fun to back it all up.  

It was developed by UK developer Kaizen Game Works and met with pretty decent reviews from the critics and public alike.

  

Story/Gameplay

I’m almost at a loss for words on how to describe the world of Paradise Killer.  Uh…, the Earth has been visited by god aliens from across the cosmos, and a group of people called the Syndicate have created a pocket universe in which to create a perfect society on an island in order to entice and awaken these alien gods.  The syndicate kidnaps humans from Earth and teleports them to the island as “citizens” to act as slaves and worshipers for the gods. The big problem is that the island keeps getting corrupted by demonic presences.  This forces the syndicate to scrap and destroy the island and start over. When this happens, the syndicate murderers all of the citizens and uses their psychic energy to make the next iteration of the island. They are about to unveil the 25th, and perfect, island… but the night before the destruction of the 24th, the governing body of the syndicate called the Council were all mysteriously murdered.  

All evidence points to a demonically possessed citizen of the island.  However, the Syndicate Judge believes there is more than what appears on the surface.  He calls for the Syndicate investigator named Lady Love Dies, to be released from exile to solve the case.

You play as this Lady Love Dies, and you’re let loose on the island to find clues, question suspects, solve puzzles, and build your case for the impending trial.  Unlike the Danganronpa games, that are split into several mini-murder mysteries, Paradise Killer is just one giant 12 hour long investigation of the same crime.  Don’t worry, it never gets boring as you explore the intriguing and unique open world that the game provides for you.  As you meet the extremely weird and memorable cast of characters, gain their trust, and take their testimonies, you’ll uncover more and more about what happened on the night of the murder.  Each of these characters have great personalities and feel very different from each other.  They all have strange names like Carmalenia Silence, Grand Marshal Akiko 14, Witness to the End, Dr. Doom Jazz, etc..  It’s intentionally quirky, but the game’s tendency for oddball terminology can make things a little tricky to remember sometimes. There are a lot of bizarre concepts and rules in Paradise Killer because it’s a weird mishmash pocket universe created by a bunch of insane people, and you’ll have to adapt to their way of thinking and immerse yourself in the world to be able to make sense of what’s actually happening.  In line with the other confusing elements, navigating around the island can be very unintuitive at first as it’s so tightly packed and full of strange landmarks.  There is no compass as far as I could tell, so while you can look at the map to see where everything is in relation to everything else, there’s no good way to figure out which way your character is actually facing.  Personally, I didn’t feel like I really knew my way around the island until about ¾ of the way through the game.  Since navigation takes place in 1st person mode, it can be a little tough to get your bearings, and there seem to be a lot of doors, gates, fences, water reservoirs, hills, and such in your way a lot of the time.  Luckily, once you learn where the landmarks are, you can zip around the island pretty quickly. To help with this, are payphones placed all around the island that serve not only as save spots, but also fast travel nodes.  Sadly, you need to pay 1 blood crystal, the island’s currency, to fast travel.  They are scattered all around the island, but they do seem to have a finite number, so use them sparingly. This is obviously a mechanic built into the game to force you to explore every nook and cranny in search of more blood crystals, clues, and other things to help you piece together the evidence to convict the murderer.

As you meet the game’s characters and ask them questions, this will open up new dialog options for other characters.  You can hold the left trigger button, and it will show you a waypoint for all of the characters in the game and also notify you if they have a new dialog option.  This is immensely handy and takes away a lot of the guesswork of the game, but you’ll still be spending most of your time walking back and forth between the different characters while trying to build their trust and unlock more information.  Luckily, they have pretty good dialog, so it’s not that tedious.

Additionally, you’re given a fantastic notebook that records all of your clues and organizes them in a clear and concise manner.  It even gives you objectives and hints as to what you should be investigating next.  It can be a bit overwhelming a lot of the time, but eventually everything starts to come together and make sense (well as much sense as the island’s crazy rules allow).  

Once you’ve gathered enough information, you can initiate the trial.  Once again, unlike the Danganronpa games, the trial mainly just presents the evidence you’ve collected and strings the reasoning all together for you.  There’s not much thinking involved once you get to this point, and once you finger the suspect, the game just gives you the evidence you’ve collected for them, and you just click through it to present it to the judge.  You don’t have to overcome any objections, or poke holes in the suspect’s testimony, it’s pretty much all done for you.  This really puts the focus on gathering the evidence rather than presenting it and acting as an attorney at the trial.  It’s a bit of a disappointment, but it goes far enough to basically lay out the murders and exactly how they happened.  Due to the complicated nature of the investigation, there were several times during the trial that I was actually thankful they were laying it all out for me… because it’s a lot to piece together.

Presentation:

The biggest draw for Paradise Killer is its vapor wave aesthetic. There are tons of bright colors like pink, blue, purple, and red.  Mixed with these is an almost Egyptian black onyx and gold theme.  It seems very disjointed, but manages to work together in a way I wouldn’t think would be successful.  The island itself is also very interesting and laid out in very distinct and thoughtful areas that remind me of the classic adventure game Myst. Just like in that game, you can feel that the island and its locations were designed and manmade.  It has a familiar, but unworldly feel, that is unique enough to make you want to keep exploring. 

In addition to this is a very subdued and relaxed acid Jazz soundtrack.  It’s primarily designed to be background filler music, a la elevator music, but keeps everything from being too quiet.  Don’t expect to fall in love with some catchy hooks or memorable parts though.  It really is for the background.

The game ran well and I didn’t encounter any bugs or serious framerate drops or anything.  The only complaint I have about the gameplay is that your character has a strange sense of momentum when running around that can be a bit annoying at times.  For example, if you jun and then jump, you’ll almost shoot yourself several meters like a projectile.  However, if you’re standing right up against a waist high fence, and attempt to jump straight up and forward to clear it, you won’t have enough forward inertia to bound over it.  You have to back up and get a running start to clear a lot of objects.  It can make the controls feel a little clunky at times, but since it’s a slowly paced adventure game, the controls aren’t that important. I never really felt like I got the hang of it completely and oftentimes, my traversing the island was brought down to a crawl as I had to walk down some long sidewalk and through a gate because I couldn’t get up enough speed to leap over a waist-high barrier.

Conclusion:

Paradise Killer was a surprisingly fun game.  I really liked the game’s lore, mythos, story, characters, setting, and aesthetic.  Collecting all of the clues for the game was also a blast.  There were a couple of times where I encountered a bit of an esoteric puzzle that required me to get a hint online (and often caused me to roll my eyes because they were so unintuitive), but it wasn’t very often.  I’ve come to expect these in most adventure games, so I wasn’t too miffed.  The trial at the end of the game was a bit of a disappointment.  I was expecting more interaction like in the Danganronpa games, where you had to actually recall the evidence and poke holes in the suspect’s testimony.  Instead, the judge just asks you to present your evidence (which is done by just clicking through it in order) and it’s all automatic. If the game had put more into the trial, which it spent the entire game building up, it really would have elevated the game into that rarified air of the best games out there.

The game did feel like it was starting to drag on a bit too much due to the fast travel mechanic relying on a limited supply of blood crystals. Luckily, it was never too off putting, and I finished the game between 10-12 hours or so.  

If you like games like Phoenix Wright or Danganronpa, you should give this one a try.  It’ll be right up your alley.

Final Status: Completed

Final Score: 8/10 (Great)

Life Is Strange: Before The Storm (PS4) Review

 

Life Is Strange: Before The Storm (PS4) Review

Release Date: 29 August 2017

Date Played: 15 June 2022

Life Is Strange: Before The Storm is the prequal to the bizarrely amazing Life Is Strange that was released a couple of years before.  It's an adventure game developed by Deck Nine and Don't Not and (oddly) published by Square Enix.  It received generally favorable reviews upon its release and while it's considered a great addition to the story of the first game, fails to match its ambition and exciting storytelling.  

Story/Gameplay:

Before The Storm tells the story of how Chloe Price, the misfit and loose canon from the first game, came to develop her relationship with Rachel Amber, another important character from the first game. 

Chloe, who has recently lost her father, has become a sort of pariah in the town's local private school.  She's transformed from honor student status with a bright and sunny disposition into a edgy, snarky, substance using burn-out who is walking a fine line with every authority figure in her life.  She's no stranger to vandalizing property, owing money to drug dealers, and antagonizing her mother's new boyfriend.  She's a teenage miscreant, and the developers really want you to be very aware of that.

One night, she sneaks out of her house to go see one of her favorite bands perform an underground show at a local abandoned lumber mill.  After bullying the security to let her inside, meeting with her drug dealer, possibly stealing some money and/or alcohol, and climbing up to a rotten and dangerous loft, she picks a fight with a local hood.  Right before he's about to attack, Rachel Amber, who is basically the school's prom queen, intervenes and saves the day.  They escape back down to the crowd and proceed to have an awesome time watching the show. The next morning, Chloe awakens to find out that Rachel Amber has posted pictures of them hanging out all over social media and the school rumor mill becomes ablaze.  "What is the school loser doing hanging out with the most popular girl in school?!?"

After this point, the game's three chapters tell a magical story of a whirlwind romance that develops between Chloe and Rachel.  It feels real to watch it happen and the developers really captured that chemistry and electricity you experience when you meet someone special. It's difficult to pull this off in a movie, let alone a video game, and watching how well the two of them grow together over several days is nothing short of wonderful.  

Of course, this being a Life Is Strange game, you can't just leave it as a basic love story. The game has a title it has to live up to, after all. There are crazy twists and turns, conspiracies, rebellion, danger, and all sorts of other shocking and enthralling events that take place as Chloe and Rachel decide to carve out their place in the world.  It isn't long until Chloe and Rachel's actions come back to bite them in a big way.  You'll have to make decisions for Chloe by selecting lines of dialog when encountering the game's vibrant cast of characters.  Like most adventure games, this will alter the game's story in some pretty significant ways and you'll have to live with your choices (at least until you do another playthrough). Things get more and more crazy and intense during each of the game's 3 episodes before finally coming to a strong and satisfying climax.  Just like any great TV show, Before the Storm will have you glued to your seat waiting to see how every cliffhanger resolves.

But, that can be the downfall of the game for some people.  The Life Is Strange games often feel like more of a TV show than a game.  You mainly just walk around and interact with various objects while the characters bust out clever quips about them.  There is some very, very light puzzle elements where you might have to look around a room for some clues, or locate a missing part to something, or look a journal to get some dialog to trigger.  It's all very simple and is clearly influenced by the Tell Tale games that were so prevalent for so long.  

You may also have to do some verbal jousting with some of the characters to get them to do what you want.  This mainly involves selecting various insults from a word tree to get them to bend to your will. It's pretty basic and all of the choices seem extremely obvious.  I don't think I selecting a single wrong choice in both of my playthroughs of the game.  In addition to this, you'll also have opportunities to vandalize various objects and walls with graffiti to earn the vast majority of the game's trophies.  

It's your basic modern adventure game.  You're here for the story... not the gameplay.

Presentation:

The game is starting to show its age a little bit from when it was released 5 years ago.  However, it still looks very good. It has a sort of washed out and soft appearance that really helps to hide a lot of the lower quality textures and helps it stand up a little bit better than games that go for a hyper-realistic look.  There a tons of little details tucked around the environments for you to see that really serve to fill out the game's world and make it feel real... which it does.  All of the character models are unique and nice to look at.  They mostly feel like real people, but not the sort of people you'd meet in real life.  They feel like the people you see on a TV drama, which is what the developers were going for.  

The voice acting is pretty decent all the way around with two exceptions. Rhianna DeVries (Chloe) and Kylie Brown (Rachel) do an absolutely fantastic job of bringing their characters to life. The whole game hinges on the relationship between these two characters, and it wouldn't work at all without the incredible performances of these two. The further you get into the game, the more you can feel the chemistry develop between the Chloe and Rachel.  It goes from stilted and awkward flirting (we've all been there) to touching, reassuring, and loving comments that bolster the relationship between these two teenagers. I can't give these two actors any more praise and I think they did a perfect job of representing two challenging characters.

On top of this, the game is accompanied by a fantastic indie soundtrack. It ranges from calm and atmospheric, to hard-rocking and energetic; and every scene in the game has a great track to go with. This was the case with the first game as well and whoever curated the music for the series really knows what they're doing.  

Conclusion:

If you like good stories in video games, then the Life Is Strange series is one of the best ones out there.  It really does a good job of creating likeable and realistic characters and then shoves them into these peculiar and often extreme situations.  While I agree with the general consensus that Before the Storm isn't quite as good as the original game, it really does serve as a fantastic prequal for it.  If you've already played the first game, you should play this for sure as it will make the events that unfold much more intense and impactful.  While Chloe's over-the-top rebelliousness was a bit much for me (I have two daughters) and caused me to wince a few times, seeing her soften as she developed feelings for Rachel really warmed my heart.  I loved not only seeing them become close but also was spellbound by all of the crazy stuff that unfolded around them.  

While it's short on gameplay, it's overflowing with charm and narrative.  I would recommend playing this game first, and then the original Life Is Strange right afterwards.  That's going to give you the biggest impact... and I hope your heart can take it.

Pros:

• Great characters
• Intriguing and charming story
• Nice presentation with fantastic soundtrack

Cons:

• Gameplay is light and mostly involves walking
• Puzzle elements are too easy
• Need to play it along with the first game to get full impact

Final Status: Completed

Final Score: 8/10 (Great) 

Phantasmagoria (PC) Review

Phantasmagoria (PC) Review

Date Released: 24 August 1995

Date Played: 7 July 2019

Introduction:

Phantasmagoria is one of those games that I've played through several times over the last 25 years.  When I was a kid and this game originally came out I didn't have PC that could run it, so I was totally out of luck when it came to playing it myself.  Luckily, I had a friend who's parents seemed to buy him everything he ever wanted (didn't we all have one of those?) and along with pretty much every video game ever made, he also happened to have this one. I spent a good part of the summer of '96 sitting next to him in front of his computer while trying to avoid the scorching heat outside as we worked our way through the game. The internet was in its infancy, but like everything else, my friend had access to it. Sadly, neither of us had the brilliant idea of trying to look online and find out what we were supposed to do when we got stuck in the game.  It's something we all take for granted now, but at the time it was a completely foreign concept. This led us to the classic adventure game loop of getting lost and not knowing what to do.  So, we spent hour after hour trying to brute force our way through the game without any outside help. After getting hopelessly stuck one night towards the end of the game, I went home to sleep.  The next day, when I came back, my friend had finished the game without me!  Needless to say, I was pretty angry with him for making me miss out on the conclusion to the game.  I choked down my frustration and we moved on to something else.  

A few months later, I had finally saved up enough money to buy a decent PC (which was incredibly expensive at the time) and was looking forward to finally get to play some awesome games at my own house for once.  I traded some Magic the Gathering cards to my friend for a big stack of big box PC games that he wasn't playing anymore and was thrilled to start off my collection with some killer titles that he seemed not have any sort of emotional attachment to whatsoever.  In the pile was Phantasmagoria, and it was the very first game that I installed on my new PC; and when I saw the opening cinematic play out in all of its campy glory, I knew I was in for a treat. The next day, I beat the game.  Even now, when I go back to play it again, it feels the same as it did all of those years ago and is still a fantastic and thoroughly entertaining adventure game that is one of the best in the genre.  

Phantasmagoria was written and designed by the legendary Roberta Williams.  She and her husband founded Sierra online and were basically responsible for inventing the graphic adventure game.  Before that, everything was text based and required typed input commands.  When they added graphics to that formula, the point and click adventure game was born and was the genre of game that reigned supreme on the PC for several years. For eight years Mrs. Williams waited for technology to advance far enough to enable her to make the horror game that she had envisioned in her mind and after writing a 550 page script, hiring a team of more than 200 people, and pumping $4.5 million dollars into the project ($3.7 million over the original $800k budged) Phantasmagoria was born. This game feels like it's the culmination of everything Roberta Williams wanted in a game and is, by many, considered to be her best work. 

The game was met with mixed reviews at the time but was a commercial success despite a cut-scene involving a rape that spurred a fairly large amount of controversy.  Although Sierra repeatedly stated that the game was only intended for adult audiences, several large retailers refused to carry the game. While this scene is pretty tame by today's standards, it was shocking that it was part of a video game at the time. The video game industry was still viewed as something exclusively for children by most of the public and there was a strong backlash from more conservative parties in reference to topics and features they deemed immoral being featured in media for the youth. This caused Phantasmagoria to gain a somewhat dark and seedy allure that continues to this day.

Graphics and Presentation:

Normally, I wouldn't begin my review of a game with the graphics, but in the case of Phantasmagoria, they seem to be the component of the game that most people remember. They were a huge selling feature when the game came out and were the biggest draw for the public. When you first open up the physical box the contains the actual game, you're greeted by an entire folio of CD-ROMs. There are 7 in total, more than I can recall seeing in any game I've ever encountered in my entire life.  The reason for this is because the game was filmed like a movie in a $1.5 million dollar bespoke studio with a cast of twenty-five actors who all performed in front of a blue screen.  This was all digitized and and added to the game both in terms of cut scenes as well as actual gameplay in classic FMV (full motion video) style. The real actors are visualized on the screen and are inserted into pre-rendered 3D backgrounds.  As you click to move your character, from location to location, actual video of the actors plays as you see them walk, interact, and talk about the intended target. You'll explore the disturbing mansion, surrounding outdoor areas, and the the local town as you point and click your way through the beautiful environments.  It's a striking visual style that was mind-blowing at the time of it's release and still holds up extremely well today while many other FMV games absolutely do not.  With over 1000 different screens, several different locations, dozens of items to interact with, and hours of dialog it's no wonder that the number of CD-ROMs is so bloated to accommodate the sheer amount of content in the game. 

In addition to this, the game contains a spooky Gothic soundtrack that contains Gregorian-style chants that were performed by a 135-voice choir.  The music is not only intense and haunting, it's quite memorable and really helps fill out the over-the-top presentation of the entire game. This is quite apparent from the opening cinematic of the game that really turns everything up to 11. During the more tense moments of the game, you can always count on the choir's ooohs and ahhhs to add to the atmosphere in a very chilling way.

For a point-and-click adventure game, Phantasmagoria has it all in the presentation department. It is still the most atmospheric, best looking, and coolest setting I've ever seen in a game from the genre and hangs up there with Myst for a memorable experience. Yes, it's an FMV game that was all the rage at the time and I know that that can be a bit of a black mark on a game.  But, this is one of the best examples of doing-it-right that is out there and you shouldn't let all of those other terrible games turn you away from this one.

Story:

You play as mystery novelist Adrienne Delaney (Victoria Morsell) and her photographer husband Don Gordon (David Homb) who have purchased a mansion in a sleepy little down in New England.  The mansion itself has been on the market for some time and the couple were able to procure it for next to nothing due to its history of a 19th century magician named Carno (Robert Miano) committing a series of murders there. It's a classic horror story device that we've all seen again and again, and you can tell Roberta Williams is trying to pay homage to the concept. Once the couple arrive, Adrienne begins having nightmares involving the unfortunate past in the mansion.  Her loving husband, Don, supports and consoles her and she begins to feel better. As she explores the mansion and surrounding areas, she begins to uncover mysteries, clues, and strange messages about the the horrific events that took place. After discovering a secret altar hidden in the mansion, Adrienne accidentally unleashes an imprisoned spirit that possesses her husband.  As she continues to explore the estate over the next several days, her husband begins to behave more and more strangely and aggressively towards her, finally causing her to fear for her safety. As you continue to delve further into the mansion's history, you begin to learn that Carno practiced black magic and as the mystery unravels, you'll get to relive the gruesome and elaborate ways the Carno committed his murders and see them first hand in some of the most outrageous set pieces committed to any FMV game.  If you have your wits about you, you'll get to uncover the horrific past and the mansion's secrets to save not only your husband, but also yourself.

Despite the game being more well known for it's graphic presentation and controversy, the story, setting, and acting are the real stars of the game.  All of the locations in the game are expertly crafted and feel real despite them being nothing more than pre-rendered graphics with performers in front of a blue-screen.  The art design has a whimsical but creepy nature that evokes not only memories of Tim Burton, but also Dr. Seuss and is a welcome addition to the atmosphere. The performances by the actors are all very good despite them not being "big names' in the industry and they carry the game. David Homb's performance as Don is the real standout and watching his descent into madness is fantastic.  His acting is so over the top that it borders on cringeworthy, but it's perfect in this scenario. I wouldn't have it any other way.  On the other hand, Victoria Morsell performs Adrienne in a very demure and subtle manner.  She's made out to be the typical weak female lead (at first) and you really begin to sympathize with her and her situation of being under all the weight of not only her progressively more insane husband, but also that of the mansion itself. It really makes you feel like your in an old horror movie, and it's very enjoyable if that's your cup of tea.

Gameplay:

Despite the game being a huge departure and step up in terms of story and presentation, the gameplay is still point-and-click adventure through and through with almost no innovation. You wander around from screen to screen looking for objects to collect and items to interact with in order to solve puzzles or gain access to blocked off areas. Luckily, the puzzles aren't as esoteric as your average adventure game of the time (excluding chapter 7).  You'll still spend a lot of time picking up items and trying them on every other object you come across hoping that you'll somehow figure out how to advance.  Unfortunately, there are still a few puzzles where if you do them incorrectly, you can soft lock yourself and won't be able to finish the game without restarting or loading a previous save (I'm looking at you sliding the newspaper under the pantry door puzzle).  Fortunately, there is a "hint master" represented by a red skull on the bottom left of the screen.  You can click him for clues whenever you need help.  At first he is rather vague and will only give you a slight hint on how to solve a puzzle, but if you're still not able to figure out what to do, his clues get more and more blatant.  Sometimes this is to the point where he flat out tells you the solution. Other times, his clues are still so vague that you'll continue to be stuck even after exhausting all of his dialog options on the subject. This hint master is a really nice addition to the game and I wish more adventure games employed something like him.  However, the temptation to use him too often is pretty bad and I wish he had more of a limit, or a timer, or something else to keep you from just clicking him instantly the second you get stuck.  Even though the game has it's difficulty toned down, less non-sensical puzzles, and a literal helper to aid you, there are still several times you will get lost and won't know what to do. Don't feel bad if you have to resort to looking up a walkthrough online, there are a lot of small objects you need to interact with that are quite easy to miss.  

Conclusion:

Although I'm not a huge fan of the point-and-click adventure game genre and it's esoteric gameplay loop drives me crazy, Phantasmagoria is still a fantastic game and is by far my favorite in the genre. While I feel the gameplay is dated and the FMV was a relic of the past, the game is very immersive and interesting and is still entertaining today.  The campiness surrounding the game and the performances of the actors as they develop and go through their story arc really helps drive the game forward through its 7 chapters and the controversial scene that almost prevented the success of the game is pivotal for setting the tone of the game and it wouldn't be the same without out it. It's an important part of gaming history and plenty of people out there have nostalgia and an odd fondness for this game that I feel is warranted.

If you like FMV games, campy horror movies, point-and-click adventures, or are just a video game aficionado, you should definitely give this one a try.

Final Status: Completed 

Final Score: 8/10 (Everything is great except for the slightly dated gameplay)