Limbo

Since it's still been ridiculously hot and humid out, I finally made my way through a third game that I got through the Humble Indie Bundle.  This time, I played through a puzzle platformer game called Limbo, by the company Playdead. 

Seems peaceful enough.  I'm sure nothing bad will happen...

In Limbo, you control a boy who is trying to find his sister in a world where everything and everyone is trying to kill him.  You start out in a forest, which seems peaceful enough until you start coming across bear traps, spikes, and.... this:

I sure do hope those are just oddly shaped tree branches!

Just in case what that is isn't entirely clear, here's a shot from just a little further on:

Gaaaaaah!

But it's not like it could get any worse, like, say, the spider wraps you up in silk and then you have to try and bounce away from it on a rolling boulder that could crush you if you make a wrong move.

Nonononononononononono!!!

Eventually, you travel out of the forest and into more industrial-type zones that have machines, saws, and guns that all, of course, are out to kill you.

Every single one of those letters wants me dead.

As you could probably have guessed from the screenshots up there, the game is entirely in black and white, which is surprisingly effective.  It leaves things to the imagination which really enhances the creepiness of the game.  There's also a distinct lack of music; there are a few musical cues (which you really only notice if you're really listening for them), but most of the sound comes from whatever is taking place on screen. 

Limbo is definitely an interesting game, and one I definitely recommend to people who like puzzle games, with a couple of caveats.  If you only like games that have clear stories, you might not appreciate this one very much.  That first sentence in the second paragraph above is really the only plot you ever get.  Also, if you don't like puzzles that require precise timing, you'll become really frustrated with this game around halfway through.  I haaaaaaate timing puzzles since I'm so bad at them, and they become more common as you progress.  One of the really nice things about Limbo, though, is it saves your progress as soon as you get through a puzzle, so you never have to go back too far if you die.  And you will die.  Lots and lots and lots of times.  The boy has no special powers to survive this world.  Fall too far?  Dead.  Get into water that's too deep?  Dead (guess he never learned how to swim).  Step in a bear trap, crushed by a box, cut into bits by a buzzsaw, electrocuted, impaled by a spider leg, forced by a mind-controlling slug to walk off a cliff... it goes on and on (and is another reason to appreciate the monochrome nature of the game).

If you're interested in checking the game out, you can buy it for $9.99 for the PC or Mac directly from the game's website, from Steam, the XBox 360, or the Playstation 3.  And if you're someone who likes special editions of things, you can pick that up from Amazon for $24.99.

Spaceman

I ended up watching Spaceman on the recommendation of a friend of mine.  Since I quite enjoyed the last movie he suggested (Six-String Samurai, which I may or may not end up writing about sometime in the future), I figured I'd add this one to the Netflix queue as well.

Written, directed, and produced by Scott Dikkers (former editor-in-chief of The Onion), Spaceman is about a man who was abducted by aliens when he was a young boy and returns to Earth twenty-five years later trained to kill and follow orders.  Spaceman has trouble adjusting to life back on Earth and tries to get a job with the FBI and then the army with no success.  He eventually winds up working for a supermarket until he attacks a shoplifter.  Eventually, Spaceman ends up trying to get a job for the Mob.  There's also a romance subplot between Spaceman and his neighbor, Sue.

Ok, so this movie is terrible.  I think it had a budget of about $20, it seemed like every bit of dialog was recorded after the filming and dubbed in rather haphazardly, the picture quality was pretty atrocious (especially on an HDTV), and the acting was... not that great for the most part.  HOWEVER: It was incredibly entertaining!  Spaceman gets into all sorts of poorly choreographed fights that are kind of hilarious.  I think the best was when he blinded a guy using two forks and it looked like the "blood" was actually barbecue sauce.  We are also treated to a cleaning/home improvement montage that includes Spaceman going to the library to research some home improvement ideas.  Any book that promotes library usage is OK in my book!

Bottom line: if you like campy movies, give Spaceman a shot.  Just make sure your expectations are set less "Citizen Kane" on the movie-greatness scale, and more "Plan 9 From Outer Space".  Have any suggestions for other movies I should try?

Bastion

I mentioned last time that I got the latest Humble Indie Bundle and Psychonauts certainly wasn't the only game in the bundle.  Another one of the many games that I got is Bastion, the first game from developer Supergiant Games.

Bastion is an action role-playing game in which your character, known only as "The Kid", awakens after "The Calamity", an event which has destroyed the world, Caelondia.  He makes his way to the Bastion, the place where people were supposed to gather if there was trouble.  As the Kid wanders around, the ground forms paths to follow and a voice narrates all of his actions.  Eventually he makes it to the Bastion, which is also in ruins, and meets another survivor, Rucks, who also happens to be the narrator.  Rucks tell the Kid that he needs to travel to different parts of Caelondia and collect the cores that power it to repair the Bastion which can somehow repair what the Calamity has done to Caelondia.  During his journey, the Kid finds two more survivors and learns about how the Calamity came to have happened.

Taking on some Squirts

Bastion is a pretty neat game and a lot of fun to play.  The story is engaging and the way it unfolds, mostly via the narration that goes on during the regular gameplay, keeps the action moving forward.  The gameplay is pretty simple and linear, but you've got enough options with weapons and buffs to keep things interesting.  Bastion is also fairly short, which keeps the story from getting bogged down and boring, though there are enough optional things to explore as well as a new game+ mode to make playing through more than once appealing.  The two things that really make this game standout, though, are its music and its narration.  The soundtrack was composed by Darren Korb and fits the game absolutely perfectly (you can check it out here; and really you should since it's pretty great) and Logan Cunningham does a phenomenal job with the over three thousand lines of narration, not all of which you'd even hear on your first play-through.  You can check that out in Bastion's game trailers, which you can find here.

So, if this sounds like something you'd like to play, you can purchase Bastion for the PC (Steam has it for $14.99 regularly though at the moment I'm writing this it's on sale for $3.74), Mac for $18.99, or Xbox 360 for 1,200 Microsoft points.  I definitely recommend it and I look forward to seeing what Supergiant comes up with next.

Psychonauts

Several weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to take advantage of the latest Humble Indie Bundle which featured a whole lot of fantastic independent games.  One of those games was Psychonauts, made by Double Fine, which I think might actually be one of the best games I've ever played. 

Psychonauts is an action-adventure platformer game in which you control Raz, a young psychic who's run away from home (which happens to be the circus) to sneak into a summer camp that trains other young psychics.  Throughout the game Raz gains different psychic abilities, such as pyrokinesis, levitation, and invisibility, and goes inside the minds of several other characters.  Each of these mental worlds is very unique.  I think my favorite one of these was Lungfishopolis, an homage to giant-monster movies like Godzilla.

The main thing that really stands out to me about this game is the amount of detail and care that went into it.  All of the dialog is completely voice acted, and voice acted well (which is definitely not always the case in games) and even minor characters have interesting personalities and backgrounds.  In addition, some of the powers you gain are usable on other characters and pretty much all of them have different reactions.  Plus, it looks fantastic.

Raar!  I am the mighty Goggalor!

Oh, hi there, Linda!

It's challenging, too.  Especially if you're looking to get all the collectible things in the game.  For the most part, though, it's not too hard.  At least until you get to the Meat Circus.

Yup, it's exactly what it sounds like.

Though from what I understand, the version I have is actually easier than the original release was, for which I am grateful.  Cuz yeah, that Meat Circus is a giant pain.  It would also probably have been easier if I'd used a game controller rather than the keyboard and mouse to play. 

Really, the only thing I don't like about this game is that there isn't a sequel.  There's been fairly recent talk about one, but who knows if or when it'll actually happen.  In the meantime, though, Double Fine had a ridiculously successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a new adventure game, so at least I have that to be incredibly excited about.

If you're at all interested in getting Psychonauts, you can buy it from Steam (for the PC or Mac) or GOG (PC) for $9.99 and for the XBox 360 for 800 Microsoft points.

Immobility

It's summer.  Since I live in southeastern Virginia, that means it's about 5,000 degrees with 100% humidity all day, every day for the next few months.  As a result of this and my apartment not having any central air conditioning, I'm a little bit reluctant to spend any more time in my un-air-conditioned kitchen than is absolutely necessary.  So, less baking, more reviewing things that happen to catch my attention!

One such attention-catching thing is Brian Evenson's book, Immobility.  It's a post-apocalyptic novel set in an unspecified time in the future.  Josef Horkai is woken up from cryogenic storage to find that he's paralyzed from the waist down and has no memory of his past.  The one who revives him tells him that he's needed to go on a mission to retrieve something that was stolen and he's sent out into the wasteland with two "mules" (two identical men in hazard suits) to carry him to where the object is and back again.  During this mission, Horkai struggles to make sense of his situation and understand just who he is and who he can trust.

I really liked this book.  Post-apocalyptic stories usually strike me as interesting and I was not disappointed with this novel.  It's a quick read (253 pages) and is tightly focused.  The novel lacks a lot of world-building details, such as just how the world ended up an irradiated wasteland, among other things, but those details aren't really important to the story, which is focused on Horkai's inner struggles.  And like many books with this kind of setting, it wasn't exactly a cheerful read (though I was no where near as depressed as I was when I finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy).  So, if you like these kinds of stories I definitely recommend giving this book a read!

30 Days of Night

I finally managed to drag myself away from The Sims Medieval long enough to read something.  In case it wasn't obvious enough from the title of this post, or the rather creepy picture over there to the left, that something is Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's comic, 30 Days of Night. 

30 Days of Night takes place in the extremely-northern town of Barrow, Alaska (a town which actually exists) during the month-long period of complete darkness in the winter.  A group of vampires see the great potential in weeks without the sun and go about terrorizing and murdering the town.  It's up to Sheriff Eben Olemaun to try and save himself, his wife, Stella, and the remaining survivors.

I really liked this book, more than I thought I would.  I'm not generally one for bloody, messy horror, but this story worked for me, with its straightforward storytelling and compelling artwork.  There's nothing really new about this story; the monsters are your typical (non-sparkly) vampires with fewer weaknesses than in most portrayals (it seems pretty much only sunlight or decapitation will kill them), but it's told very well.  My only real complaint about the story is that the characters aren't fleshed out very well.  About the only things we really get to know about Eben and Stella are that he's the sheriff and they're happily married.  And we learn even less about most of the other residents of Barrow.  I think this is a story that should have been longer (it's only 83 pages long).  There are also a few plot threads that are left dangling at the end of the story.  However, this is the first volume of what has ended up being a much longer series, so presumably these unresolved issues get addressed later on.

What I like best about 30 Days of Night is Ben Templesmith's artwork.  He uses color very sparingly, portraying the darkened Barrow in pretty much nothing but shades of grey, the only colors generally being red (blood), orange (fire), and some green (Eben and Stella's coats).  Templesmith's art isn't going to appeal to everyone (check out his website if you want to see more of what he's done).  His art tends more toward the abstract rather than realism, which given how violent this story is, and how I have trouble with watching realistic portrayals of violence, is something I very much appreciate.  And if you do like his art, I highly recommend checking out Singularity 7 and Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, both of which Templesmith also wrote.

So, if you like your vampires monstrous, your gore plentiful, though not too detailed, and your stories rather short, give 30 Days of Night a look.  And I think I'll probably go about trying to check out the rest of the series.

We3

I recently finished reading Grant Morrison's book Supergods, which was part history of super hero comics and part autobiography.  I'm not reviewing it (though it was quite good and very interesting), but reading that book got me interested in taking a look at more of Morrison's work as well as some other books he mentioned.  I'm generally not one for reading super hero comics, mostly because there is just waaaay too much backstory for most of them.  I like stories to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  That said, I decided to check out one of Morrison's non-super hero stories: We3.


We3 is the story of three animals, a dog, a cat, and a rabbit, that have been cybernetically enhanced to become killing machines for the government.  After carrying out an assassination for the military, they are slated to be "decommissioned" (euthanized).  The doctor in charge of their care cannot bring herself to do this and sets them free instead.  Letting three trained killers loose goes about as well as one would expect and several people are killed.  Soldiers are sent out to hunt them down, and when that rather gruesomely fails, another cyber-creature is sent after them.

The writing for this story is really, really good.  Morrison's characterizations of the three animals (who have limited speech) are quite different from a lot of talking-animal fiction.  The three aren't furry people; they don't think as humans do.  The dog, which is the most intelligent and speaks most like a human, wants very much just to be a "gud dog", go home, wherever that might be, and is very remorseful when he instinctively kills a man who took a shot at one of his companions.  The cat's speech is less sophisticated and she shows the same general disinterest in killing a bird as killing a human, and the rabbit is the least intelligent with the simplest speech patterns.

The artwork, done by Frank Quitely, also fantastic.  You can see a preview from DC here.  The pages in the preview show pretty straightforward paneling, but throughout the book Quitely gets very innovative including layers of images highlighting minutiae during fight scenes and six pages of eighteen panels each of security camera footage detailing the animals' escape.  A word of warning for the squeamish, though: the violence depicted is definitely not for the faint of heart.  Two of the things that disturbed me the most were images of a soldier getting shot through the eye (I have a thing about eyes) and the images of the cybernetically enhanced rats, some of which had their entire heads replaced with tools such as a drill or a wrench (so very creepy!), and there are many images of bodies just ripped right apart.

We3 was recently re-released as a deluxe hardcover edition, though the one I borrowed from my library is the trade paperback that came out in 2005.  I hear that the new edition has 10 more pages than the original one, though, so I may have to snoop around my local comics shop and take a look.  If you can handle the level of violence, and don't mind getting pretty misty-eyed while you're reading, I very highly recommend checking this book out.

Another Earth

I'm fortunate enough to live near a small, independent movie theater that shows a lot of limited-release, generally arty, movies.  A lot of the time I'm not that interested in what's playing, but every so often a movie comes there that catches my interest.  This time that movie was Another Earth.

Another Earth is a "science fiction" (I'll get to why that's in quotes) movie that involves a second Earth, completely identical to our own, even down to having copies of the same people, appearing as a tiny blue dot in the sky one night.  The night that it first appears, Rhoda Williams (played by Brit Marling) is celebrating getting accepted to MIT.  She has too much to drink, is distracted by trying to see Earth 2, and runs her car into the one occupied by John Burroughs (William Mapother), his pregnant wife, and their young son.  Burroughs goes into a coma and his wife and son are killed.  Four years later, Rhoda is released from prison and, not really knowing what to do with her life, she enters an essay contest to win a seat on the first civilian shuttle to Earth 2, which is now much closer and is visible even in the daytime.  She also finds out where Burroughs lives and goes to his home intending to apologize for the grief she's caused him.  Rhoda panics when he answers the door, says instead that she works for a cleaning service offering a free trial cleaning, and winds up cleaning his house on a regular basis.

Now to why "science fiction" is in quotes up there.  The whole second Earth premise doesn't hold up at all if you think about it even for a moment (such as the havoc another planet being that close to ours would have on things like tides, the fact that people generally seem to feel pretty ho-hum about another Earth suddenly appearing, why didn't anyone know about this planet before it suddenly appeared, etc.).  However, this movie isn't actually about Earth 2.  It's about how Rhoda is dealing with her guilt and the relationship that builds between her and Burroughs.  The appearance of Earth 2 is the catalyst for the events of the movie, and is important to the film's resolution, but it's mostly just in the background.

I don't have much to say about the acting or cinematography or any of that, but I thought Brit Marling did a wonderful acting job in this film.  She was very convincing as a young woman consumed by guilt and unable to forgive herself.  I definitely recommend checking this movie out, provided you aren't a real stickler for plausibility in your movies' premises.