so, as i posted about ad nauseum on facebook and twitter last week, i made an impulse-buy at theindiebundle.com and came away really impressed. the deal was six of the most well-reviewed indie games of the last few years for 20 bucks (the deal's now over, as of yesterday), and while i've really enjoyed the few indie games i've played (mostly world of goo and braid), i bought the bundle more out of a self-imposed professional sense of obligation (i.e. i write about video games for my job, so i should probably check out what's going on in the indie genre) than a desire to really play the games. but i'm glad i did.
first point: "indie games" is a sort of troubling moniker for me. mostly because of the connotations that "indie" has taken on in the last few years. "indie" music and "indie" films, of course, started out at a categorization for music and films made under the radar, for a miniature budget, and outside the constraints of the expectations of big labels or big studios. now, "indie" seems interchangeable with a form of "cool" that implies the kind of anti-establishment chic you can buy at hot topic. "indie" media, by and large, is about as counter-establishment as wearing resin-frame glasses is original at this point (i say this last, of course, with the appropriate amount of tongue in my cheek). but i'm not writing a cultural critique here (and you should be glad for that because i'd probably ramble for the rest of the night and my finally hitting "publish" would break the internet's stupid-ranting filter). all i want to say is that in a lot of ways, "indie" games are still indie. i can say i played an "indie" game without feeling like i'm being disingenuous. and (though this is an unoriginal complaint) most big-budget games nowadays are so starting to look like the regurgitated actionflash garbage that hollywood keeps vomiting out that i'm glad indie games, at least, are still indie. the games i'm going to look at all have their shortcomings, but i'd rather pay 60 bucks for this bundle, warts and all, than pay 60 bucks for another gears of war clone. so yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!!! SUCK IT, GAME PUBLISHERS!!!
no, seriously. as long as companies can get away with shit like this (and don't tell me that people aren't going to buy assassin's creed 2 anyway; they will), i will continue to seek retribution through pointless, ALL-CAPS tirades. now: on to the games.
osmos
i'm loving osmos. i'm finding it occasionally incredibly infuriating - contrary to the game's claims of zen-like calm inducing-ness - but otherwise i'm really liking it. it has the two quintessential indie game charms: 1) a distinct ambiance/production and 2) a really simple but engaging game mechanic. you're a amoeba-mote sort of thing, and you just click the mouse to fly around. you can slow down and speed up time, but this doesn't necessarily effect the gameplay any further than letting you take longer to make decisions when things are moving too fast, or letting you speed to a conclusion when things are moving too slow. the beauty of the game (non-visually speaking) is the simple physics model. the game, fittingly, starts with the "equal-and-opposite" quote from newton, and that's about all you have to understand to play. when you propel yourself, you shoot off a little bit of your body in order to gain momentum. that little bit bounces around, and maybe gloms on to another mote, or eventually finds its way back to you. the point of the game, though there are a few variations in later levels, is basically to just become the biggest mote by absorbing smaller motes and avoiding larger motes. everything else follows from physics: don't propel yourself too much because you'll eject all your mass and won't be big enough to absorb anything. if you're trying to slow down, don't eject a bunch of your mass into the mote in front of you that you want to absorb, because you'll make it bigger. here's a pretty comprehensive gameplay video:
one thing i don't like about this game is that some of the later levels amp up the challenge in sort of unintuitive ways. when there are so many games (indie and otherwise) out there that really cleverly and gradually introduce new challenges (world of goo specifically comes to mind), it seems like a lot of challenges in the later levels of this game are just "challenges" in the sense that you are put in a potentially impossible situation and maybe 1 out of 10 times you're able to worm your way out of it. for example, a few levels require very detailed awareness of how your mass-ejecting effects the rest of the motes in the level; unfortunately, there are so many motes crammed into some of these levels that you can spend 15 minutes meticulously bouncing around in slo-mo, trying to keep from pushing other motes around to the point where they have the opportunity to get larger than you, only to zoom out and realize that you've accidentally created a huge mote on the other side of the screen that you'll never get bigger than. some of these levels, i think, are supposed to be puzzles, but they quickly degenerate into exercises in frequent restarts, and your final success ends up feeling more like luck than skill or planning. overall, though, this game is unique and worth playing; at least until you get about 2/3rds of the way through...after that, only continue if you're prepared to be seriously challenged.
next ip: machinarium
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