War Games
Twilight Struggle [Playdek] &
1979 Revolution [Ink Stories]
From chess to Call of Duty to, say, Super Smash Bros., or whatever, conflict is one of the most straightforward things for a game to simulate. But there are more ways to represent it than with just virtual armies, or bullets, or fists. Twilight Struggle, which has been adapted by Playdek for PC and Mac from the well-regarded board game of the same name, is a perfect evocation of the indirect and backhanded skirmishes mounted by the USA and USSR during the Cold War.
It takes into account coups, proxy wars and even the Space Race (literalised as a milestone-dotted track for both sides to follow) in an effort to capture the ebb and flow of tensions across the decades. So where something like Risk has you contesting regions with little plastic troops, Twilight Struggle ups the abstraction somewhat by letting you place “influence markers” on different parts of the globe. Instead of military presence, these represent your ideological grip on a given nation. It’s a clever concept that is further embellished by a deck of cards that can be played to indicate the occurrence of certain historical events – JFK’s assassination, or the election of Pope John Paul II, for example – that further tip the balance of power.
But the game, while exquisitely constructed in its strategy and its portrayal of shifting geopolitical currents, does let its broad scope obscure the human cost paid in this ostensibly bloodless battle. Approaching the era’s politics from entirely the other end, then, is iNK Stories’ 1979 Revolution, the personal tale of Reza Shirazi, a photojournalist swept up in the popular revolt against Iran’s ruling monarch. In Twilight Struggle, this is represented by an event card that knocks US influence in the Middle East back a few points. In 1979, it’s shown tearing families apart, with competing loyalties and bullets alike. As Reza, you’re consistently put at the centre of a multifarious movement, caught between theocrats, communists and ideological student revolutionaries, none of whom seem to fully comprehend the impact of their own actions. And just as Twilight Struggle, ahem, struggles to communicate the granular outcomes of subtle token placement, 1979‘s intensely personal conflicts put their regional and global ramifications into the realm of pure abstraction. It’s a heady trip along the emotional spectrum between the two, but both ends are thoroughly edifying. –LD
Hyper Light Drifter
[Heart Machine]
PC, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, Playstation Vita
Hyper Light Drifter is a top-down action adventure game about precisely dashing, slicing and shooting your way through a beautifully rendered world of geologically bizarre forests, balmy sunken citadels, and Aztec-inspired pyramids. Following a cryptic opening sequence, Hyper Light Drifter reveals its unconscious hero slowly awakening in the dim glow of a small campfire. Under a sky of glitchy pixel hailstones the journey begins.
The game’s trajectory can begin to feel disappointingly linear at times, but the urge to explore and discover new paths is nurtured by the alluring possibility that one of the game’s many secrets could be hidden just off-screen. Boss fights vary in difficulty and quality, but the cleverly designed enemy encounters throughout the environment are consistently exhilarating and challenging. The potential for creative and strategic play is what makes the game so compelling; it’s in moments where the player has to face multiple enemies that the game best allows for this.
There’s a great sense of character to the game’s colourful world. The hub-world village of the game bustles with well-designed and unique characters – be they a crestfallen warrior who foreshadows the player’s future challenges in a garbled language, or the guitar player whose warbly lo-fi tones reverberate out, blending into the superb ambient soundtrack by luminary Diasasterpeace.
Near the game’s start, a jagged precipice overhangs a spectacular vista which spans out across rivers and mountains towards skyscrapers and a distant floating city. The game never quite lives up to the vast scope of this opening promise, but it’s ambitious and concise in what it does offer the player: the opportunity to creatively overcome the satisfying challenges of its gorgeous world. –AD
Like a Boss
COdA-403
Pandemic Legacy – board game
The original Pandemic didn’t exactly make things too easy on players. There was only one way to win – co-operate to cure the four deadly diseases that were spreading rapidly across the globe – and about a bajillion ways for the super-flus to vanquish humanity. In Legacy, though, things get a mite worse. Not only can your failures persist from game to game, but the diseases themselves can mutate, and none more potently than the dreaded super-*duper*-flu called COdA-403. Truly sickening. –LD
Words: Leo Devlin, Aidan Wall
