Darkest Dungeon Early Game Review

I have a long and frustrating history with "Rogue-like" games. I love them and I suck at them in equal measure as I mentioned in my iNethack2 review. That being the case, of course I was interested in Red Hook Studio's Steam early access game, Darkest Dungeon. The game started life as a Kickstarter campaign, getting fully funded and delivering.

Darkest Dungeon is a role-playing dungeon-crawler in which you try to reclaim your ancestral home and lands around it from the corruption and evil that has taken root. You do this by recruiting heroes and going off on weekly missions getting ever closer to the next hurdle in your path to your ultimate goal. Simple, right?

Where Darkest Dungeon shines is how it takes the simple dungeon-delving premise and twists it up and makes it brutally hard. Think Lovecraft madness/mental trauma mixed in with X-Com's permanent death along with the base management. Or maybe it is a bit like 10000000 where every run gets you some resources you can use to upgrade your home base (the Hamlet) before going out again. But I get ahead of myself.

Darkest Dungeon takes the usual risk-reward system found in most RPGs and ramps it up to 10. Every time your adventurers go out on a mission, they become stressed. That stress can be caused by their encounters, other party members or just the build up of being used multiple times and leads to them collecting phobias, maladies, diseases and any mess of issues that will make them less effective until they have a chance to rest. Resting and treatment can't take away all of the effects. One of my characters is paranoid, which affects some of her stats, while another became so despondent on a trip to the ruins that he started to make defeatist comments during every battle that stressed out the rest of the party. Based on this and the limited resources available to you, a balance has to be made between taking "fresh" party members out or bringing along a higher level one who is a little bit whacky.

That risk vs reward is built upon by choosing what materials you want to take with you on your mission, more food and torches might be good. What if your characters are hit by monsters and start bleeding? Better stock up on some bandages, etc. All of those items will take pack slots from potential treasures you find on the mission that you want to bring back with you. Then you have to make the choice between upgrading buildings that help relieve stress or those that upgrade your characters' weapons, skills or armor. It's all a set of trade-offs that you will get to work through as you play Darkest Dungeon.

The game-play itself can be managed with mouse or keyboard only and the combat is turn-based with your characters taking turns against the monsters you encounter based on an initiative-like system. You can't rely that you will always get to go first. To make matters more difficult, each being in a battle lines up X X X X vs Y Y Y Y with each position being important. Some of your attack skills will only work from certain positions and can only hit certain other ones on the other team. Have a ranged attack? You probably want to place that character far to the left of your line and they will be able to hit the middle to far right of the enemy's line. This gives you strategic options in how you compose your team so that you can best wipe out the enemies you face. I have found that having a healer, someone who can stun the front ranks of the enemy, someone who can stun the back ranks of the enemy and a tank out front is the best at early levels. What options you will have will depend on the characters that arrive via coach to the Hamlet for you to recruit.

All of this fun is presented in a moody hand-drawn-esque style that is great. The music adds to the macabre feel of the game - like you are playing a horror role-playing game. The only drawback I have seen so far is that the combat and missions do get a little repetitive. Though that is offset by the tactical management of your resources and the depth of options you have at your disposal as you take your characters off to their death, which as I mentioned is permanent.

If you like Rogue-like perma-death games with town upgrades, resource and character management where you have to min-max your way to success, which can fall from your grasp at any moment, then you should be playing Darkest Dungeon right now! I give Darkest Dungeon 4.5 horror-filled screaming adventurer Mick Happies. I wonder if there is any room at the bar for my tippler of a jester?

Armada Review

For those who have read this blog for a long time, you might remember that I loved Ready Player One by Ernest Cline when I wrote my review for it back in 2011. Effortlessly mixing pop culture with a futuristic scavenger hunt plot, that book was great. I have definitely been waiting for the movie to come out and I was glad to hear that there was a second book by Mr. Cline for me to try, Armada.

Armada is not a sequel to Ready Player One, it is a standalone novel set on Earth in the near future. In Armada, the story is told by Zack Lightman, a high school student and world-class player of the game Armada. In the Armada game and its companion game, Terra Firma, Zack (and millions of people around the world) fly drone fighter planes or drone robots and use them to try and stop a fictional alien invasion of Earth. Things get interesting from there.

Armada is dripping with references to science fiction video games, movies, TV shows and books just like Ready Player One. In the first chapter alone, you will lose count of how many nods there are to (if you are a certain age) the games you loved growing up. (Where is Missile Command on my iPad? Did I miss it in the app store?).  To go along with that, you have the typical hero's journey going on here. Zack is a kid with only one parent, having lost his dad when he was very little, who has skills but little direction as to what he wants to do with himself and over the course of the book is plucked out of his comfort zone and forced to step up and achieve his potential.

Armada is a fun book. Mr. Cline knows how to weave the nostalgia and geekery into the broader story and while some of the plot twists are telegraphed a little too much, they aren't disappointing when they happen as you think they might. Not as unique a story as Ready Player One, Armada still satisfies and is a fine addition to Mr. Cline's growing body of work. If you like video games, science fiction tropes and a fun story, go get a copy of Armada right now. We may even get a movie of it like we may for Ready Player One. Armada gets 4 Mick Happies. Now I am off to play a video game.

The Magicians Review

There I am, reading on my iPad. That is how I read most books these days. Having a light at night to read a paper book happens to bother my wife (in my mind) so there you go. A device to read is brilliant. Recently, I loaded up that iPad mini with The Magicians, Lev Grossman's first novel in his Magicians trilogy from Viking Press. (By the way, it is still discounted in e-Book form if you want to check it out).

I was interested in picking up the book because I had heard reviews that liked it very much and also that a TV series was going to be made by SyFy. I don't know if it is better to read the source material before watching a TV show, but it has worked for Game of Thrones, so there you go. Very primitively, you could say this was an urban fantasy about a collegiate Hogwarts and the students who go there. That would only be scratching the surface. Below is my non-spoilery review.

The main character of the books is Quentin Coldwater, a Brooklyn teen who is brilliant but self-centered and doubting. Quentin is going out for interviews with college recruiters when he is whisked away to a very special exam for entrance to Brakebills, a college of magic on the Hudson river. What follows is Quentin's immersion into the hidden world right outside our normal sight, of magicians.

Obviously there are other students we meet and characters from Quentin's pre-Brakebills life that are interspersed within the story. In the background of the narrative is Quentin's love for the fictional series of children's books about a magical land called Fillory (similar to Narnia). The Fillory books are an obsession for Quentin and thus he is well primed to jump deep into his new Brakebills life.

The best parts of The Magicians involve the reader's discovery of this magical world along with Quentin. All of the best parts of Harry Potter series with a more modern take and geeky references to games and books that any fan of fantasy will notice. There are several make you smile moments there. What I found disappointing is that Brakebills and the years that Quentin spends there is only a portion of the book. The last third of the novel deals with Quentin's life after completing his studies at Brakebills and is a little poorer for feeling rushed and like it could have justified its own book by itself.

Be warned, you will get a lot of teenage/early twenties angst and petty behavior here as well. I can't say that the behavior didn't fit the story, though, it just makes you want to smack the backs of some character's heads. The other two books in the series are already available and I have read The Magician King the sequel to The Magicians, which is also good. Lev Grossman has a deeply thought-out world for the series and takes what readers who grew up on Harry Potter loved and made it fresh, more grounded in the world the reader is familiar with and added more modern sensibilities in the character interactions. If you are looking for a fantasy set in the modern world, give The Magicians a try, it gets 4 Mick Happies.

Silicon Valley Season 2 Review

It was only a couple months ago that I posted my review of Silicon Valley season 1. Silicon Valley is Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky's comedy from HBO about tech entrepreneurs trying to achieve success in the tech Mecca of America, Silicon Valley. In the first season we saw Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) and his team at Pied Piper working to get funding and that their app had what it took to be successful. Season 2 shows many of the challenges that come with (modest) success - more funding issues as they seek Series A financing, lawsuits, competition and growing pains.

One of the highlights of Season 2 is the new character of Carla who joins the team. She is a friend of Gilfoyle and Dinesh (who are both still the funnier parts of the show with Jared) and has the chops to stand toe-to-toe with both of them when it comes to the game of pranks they like to play. She also provides plenty of awkward moments as Jared (Zach Woods) tries, unsuccessfully, to integrate a woman into the team. Another is the continuing journey of Big Head (Josh Brenner) as he continues to demonstrate no discernible skills other than his honesty as he rises at Pied Piper competition, Hooli.

Unfortunately, after those positives, there is not nearly as many funny or interesting highlights as you would expect from Season 1's success. The jokes are couched in incompetence and stupid actions by the Pied Piper team members rather than on awkwardness and naiveté that was prevalent in Season 1. I can only watch the team shooting themselves in the foot so many times before it just becomes painful. Plus there is not enough of Monica's character this season and probably too much of Erlich and Jian-Yang.

If you have HBO and some free time, you will find some laughs in Silicon Valley Season 2, but not nearly as many as Season 1. For our house, my wife is out and stopped around episode 6 unable to take any more. Given how the season ends, there is only about one way that the writers can get me back on board with the show and I doubt they will go there. Silicon Valley Season 2 gets 2 Mick Happies. Really bums me out as Season 1 was one of my favorite shows.

Game of Thrones Season Five Review

Jon and Ghost

It is probably fitting that on the fourth anniversary of starting this blog and the 150th post overall, we revisit the same topic as the very first post. I started the blog back in 2011 with a post about the first season of Game of Thrones on HBO. Having just finished watching season 5 on HBO Now, the timing was perfect.

For those who have lived away from media of any kind, Game of Thrones is the TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. The story of the political intrigues and conflict for the throne of Westeros, a fictional fantasy kingdom, where magic and violence are all too real. For four seasons, Game of Thrones has followed the story from the books and in season five we finally see the TV show catch up with the source material.

Both Mr. Martin and the show runners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, have stated that the show and the book series will tell the same story but will do so in different ways. In season five of Game of Thrones, we see this happening more than ever before. Without giving away spoilers, the TV show tightens up many of the various storylines from the novels by excluding characters from the story and having major events in book 5 happen to other characters. In the changing, the story doesn't lose any of its impact. In fact, some beats in the story are even more horrifying due to the characters involved in them than in the books.

What continues to shine in the story are the landscapes and cinematography, which is beautiful. We get all of the sweeping vistas, castles, ruins and, of course, dragons! Season 5 even brings more new characters to the story, interesting ones who bring new conflicts for fan favorites to overcome. Some of my favorites were the feisty Sand Snakes (daughters of Oberyn Martell). We also get to see epic moments for many of our favorites (both bad and good).

If you are looking for happy, happy, fun time, you should know to look elsewhere than Game of Thrones. If you want a complex story that is gritty and, at times epic and awesome, and in others crushing and horrible, then Game of Thrones will deliver it. Can't wait to see what happens in Season 6 or Book 6, whichever comes first. Both are great and will tell different stories, so I will end up reading/watching both. Game of Thrones Season 5 gets 5 Mick Happies.

Does Not Commute Review

Mediocre AB's Does Not Commute won one of Apple's design awards at the 2015 WWDC. Quite an honor and the game is in some distinguished company with other award winners. I am not surprised to find it winning awards. Let me tell you why.

Does Not Commute is the strategy game based on trying to help citizens of a town get where they need to go on their daily commute. On each level of the game, you are given the top-down view of that section of the town. You are given a commuter, a little bit of their story about who they are and where they need to go and are shown the direction they need to go to exit the screen. From there you help them get to their destination by turning left or right by touching the screen on the left or right. The cars auto-drive forward. If you run into anything, the car will be damaged and slow down. Get all of the commuters to their destinations before you run out of time, you reach the next checkpoint and start the next screen (with any remaining time available from the last screen being your starting time for the next one).

A simple premise, right? Wrong. As you help each commuter, they still drive over the same path you took them down last time as you are trying to drive another car! You will end up with a snarl of traffic and have to plan ahead to make sure each car can get where it needs to be. As you complete levels, you will unlock power-ups that can be used to help each commuter. Faster speed, better traction control, armor are all earned in the first few levels and really come in handy. You can only have one activated at the start of each commuter's run. There are additional time power-ups you can collect during the commute of one of the cars if you drive to the right place.

Beyond the simple gameplay and deep strategy that it brings with the layering of each car moving across the level, Does Not Commute has really nice graphics and a quirky storyline going one. You get a voyeuristic view into the sleepy little town these people are commuting across. Most are funny and weird but all are interesting. All of this comes together into a really fun game.

Does Not Commute is free on iOS (also available on Android) and you can play the whole game free if you make it all in one go. To unlock the use of checkpoints that you earn by completing levels, you will need to make a one-time in app purchase to get the premium version of the game. If you like it after the first few runs, I am sure you will find the couple dollars to be well spent.

For me, driving controls on touchscreen and even console games just don't work as well. There isn't the force-feedback you get driving a real car, so I tend to be awful at them and over-correct or over-aggressively turn. I wish that Does Not Commute had a Draw Race 2 mode where you could draw the route you wanted each car to go rather than real-time trying to drive them. If that mode was available, this would be a 5 Mick Happy game for me. As it is, Does Not Commute if 4.5 Mick Happies. Well worth checking out. See you on the commute.

The Boxtrolls Movie Review

Archibald Snatcher

On Netflix the other night I finally sat down and watched The Boxtrolls. For those who don't know, it is the latest stop-motion animated film from Laika, the production company behind Coraline and ParaNorman. The Boxtrolls is the story of the town of Cheesebridge where the Victorian-esque town is thought to be besieged by trolls who wear boxes and come out at night to steal.

The story really begins with a child being taken away by the Boxtrolls and a man named Archibald Snatcher using that as an opportunity to get what he has always wanted, a white hat, by exterminating the Boxtrolls. You see, people in Cheesebridge wear hats according to their station and a white hat puts you at the top of society and earns you access to the tasting room where you can sample all of the best cheeses. It is a really weird place where cheese and hats are the priority. Beneath Cheesebridge you have a world built by the Boxtrolls that is like a scavenged, recycled Steampunky wonderland. It is in this world that a boy called Eggs grows up and lives with the Boxtrolls all under the specter of the Exterminators, led by Snatcher, who are capturing Boxtrolls to rid the town of their menace.

Like their other two movies, The Boxtrolls has an amazing visual style and to know someone made everything by hand is unbelievable. I mean take a look at this behind the scenes featurette about the making of the film.

That is crazy detailed and I can't imagine how painstaking that work actually is. Oh to be that artistic.

The things that work well in The Boxtrolls, besides the visuals are the interactions with some of the characters. Though they don't talk much, the Boxtrolls themselves are very expressive and interactive and caring with each other. One of the best bits of interaction between characters actually comes between Richard Ayoade's Mr. Pickles and Nick Frost's Mr. Trout who work for Snatcher. They are constantly questioning whether what they are doing would get them seen as heroes or villains. Very self-aware stuff that doesn't quite break the fourth wall.

There are themes of creativity, caring, and empowerment in the story. Especially how Winnie, Elle Fanning, the daughter of the town's lord steps out and takes matters into her own hands when her parents and other adults can't be bothered to think beyond their own needs/wants. Of course there is also selfishness, greed, and malevolent behavior on the part of the bad guy, Snatcher, and his crew. Since this is a kid's movie, the bad guy even looks like a bad guy to make it easier to spot.

Does the story have some ups and down, sure. However, the visually stunning and creative way the movie is shown more than covers those up. You would have a hard time finding something else to spend ~90 minutes watching. Take a break and go get immersed in the world of Cheesebridge, it will be worth your time. The Boxtrolls gets 4 Mick Happies.