http://www.richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/
Here is this week's game for discussion: Cart Life. The full game is totally free, but they seem to have some DLC and physical content for pay. I wanted to feature a game with focus on narrative content so I looked through all of the IGF Finalists for Excellence in Narrative. Honestly I question a number of their choices. 7 Grand Steps has a demo, dys4ia can be played in its entirety in about 15 minutes, and I really didn't like the execution of Analogue: A Hate Story which has a demo available on steam. Of all of these Cart Life alone was a game that I enjoyed. It is a refreshing narrative take on a genre (simulation/economy) that is typically lacking in story. Tell me what you all think and I'll post my thoughts on it later.
So I had a chance to play this game. To be honest I didn't play much into it to get the true depth and experience of it (played around 30 minutes).
ReplyDeleteHere are some of my thoughts about the game.
Asethetically, the pixel art is done well, the characters are visually distinguishable, making the world seem vibrant and alive despite the black and white pallet.
Controls and movement are standard, everything feels fluid and easy to learn.
The narrative is probably one of the main elements that makes this game standout from the others. I liked how as a player controlling each character, you have the ability to decide how each character reacts and talks in each situation, which allows for some interesting dialogue and scenes.
I was also overwhelmed by the depth of the buying and selling system within the game. There was so many options available within the game when I arrived at a local supermarket. To be honest I had no clue what I was buying. It could be a bit clearer on the objective of the game.
On a related note, the ability to travel and do whatever you want pulled me into this game along with the story.
Another point that I liked about the game was the status/condition of your character that is present throughout the game. Choices and decisions you make, for example: walking to the next city rather than taking a bus or taxi, had a distinct effect on your character.
This was a very shallow and brief impression of Carat Life, but I can see why it was nominated for IGF Finals for narrative.
Okay it's been a long time since I claimed that I would write this review and now I'm finally getting around to it. There was a lot to this game that I liked. I felt this was a marvel of narration taking what was a fairly common simulation game premise and injecting a narrative in it that in retrospect seems pretty obvious. In any case this is a classic example of how story can turn a typical game into a unique or at least interesting one.
ReplyDeleteThe major flaw comes in with the disparity between the real world "logic" and in-game logic. The game seems to expect you to know how things work "realistically" like needing a coffee maker to serve coffee. However playing the game there were a lot of things merely unstated that seemed to have no effect or whose effect itself was a mystery. So Johnnie's comment above about the overwhelming depth rang true for my experience as well. I think the narrative of the game was great, but there were a lot of oversights in regards to the gameplay. I think this game was very educational to play. I learned how narrative can help a game, but gameplay is still the most important aspect of a game. So Sam you are right.