Quadrilateral Cowboy
Blendo Games – Windows, Mac, Linux
You can blame it on anything from the US intelligence services to an over-emphasis on the pursuit of celeb nudes, but the air of enigmatic glamour surrounding hackers has certainly taken some hits over the last few years. The odd group occasionally stumbles into some goodwill when attacking a generally disliked corporation, but when your movement’s figurehead is a man who literally has not been outside for four years, there’s definitely an image problem.
It’s not all gloom for hackers’ PR, though. Snowden still has some of the cachet of a fugitive, and Mr. Robot‘s most thrilling scenes are basically just screenshots of command-line interfaces. And now Quadrilateral Cowboy keeps hacking cool by hearkening back to its glory days. Set in an alternate-history 1980s, the game is populated by cube-headed characters who look at least as much like real humans as Rami Malek does. This lo-fi graphical style is a nice complement to the straightforward and grounded hacking mechanics.
Each level sees you planning a heist by entering a virtual simulation of the building to be infiltrated, and using various gadgets to circumvent any security measures. But the James Bond-ish nature of such tools as remote-control cameras and gun turret-concealing suitcases is tempered by the fact that you have to control them by opening up a portable computer terminal and manually inputting the appropriate commands. It’s not exactly thrilling when a carefully orchestrated plan comes undone thanks to an errant semicolon, but the air of authenticity more than makes up for it. Things never become overly complex, though, with the number of commands to be learned staying relatively limited. This constricted programming lexicon makes each job feel like an elaborate puzzle box, albeit with a certain degree of openness to different solutions.
But the experience never reduces to just a sequence of abstract puzzles, thanks to some cleverly staged and wonkily charming interstitial segments, wherein the player character hangs out with her two hacker buddies between assignments. While short, these scenes effectively evoke a sense of camaraderie, as the trio visit each other’s grotty and cramped apartments, painting a picture of a tight-knit band of outsiders. Not exactly glamorous as such, but it beats ogling Jennifer Lawrence.
Grow Up
Ubisoft Reflections – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows
For a game that’s ostensibly about gardening, Grow Up is at its strongest when things get really dynamic. Taking on the role of BUD, an unfortunate mechanical botanist who has crash-landed on an uncharted planet while wandering through space, players must glide to, climb up and dive off enormous stalks and flowers in order to collect and reassemble the stray parts of their destroyed ship.
Think Matt Damon in The Martian crossed with Matt Damon in Elysium crossed with Matt Damon in Titan AE. Really, think about it.
Anyway, as a follow-up to 2015’s surprise delight Grow Home, Grow Up is rare among Ubisoft-published sequels in that it expands carefully and intelligently upon its predecessor’s ideas. Everything that worked previously is retained or further emphasised, and everything that didn’t is trimmed or tweaked. BUD remains a pleasure to control, its awkward gait providing an unwieldy and yet adequately precise method of getting about while on land. Climbing, too, uses a simple but robust system reminiscent of Bennett Foddy’s GIRP, with the left and right triggers used to imitate gripping with BUD’s left and right hands.
This time, though, there is a greater focus on aerial movement. The gliding mechanic is much improved, with the larger game world making ample use of its long-distance travelling capabilities. Meanwhile, BUD can now gather and plant seeds to grow various flora, many of which allow them to bounce or swing into improbably exaggerated trajectories. The conflation of all these systems creates some exciting moments – transitioning from a Zen-like glide to a nail-biting freefall and grabbing onto a rocky outcrop at high velocity is an experience that doesn’t really get old, despite its regularity. Who knew gardening could be such a rush?
Like a Boss:
Lawrence Barrett
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Boss battles as a concept are enjoyed by many, but denounced by some as pointless and arbitrary difficulty spikes. Human Revolution’s bosses are the rare examples that are reviled by all. As the first one encountered, Lawrence Barrett enjoys a disproportionate level of ire. With most of the game being a wide-open, stealthy exploration affair, Barrett’s up-close, explosion-heavy style feels airlifted in not just from another game, but from another genre. Despite his nickname, “The Bull”, players are more likely to see red than he is.
Words: Leo Devlin
