Transcript
Speaker: All right. So what what should we how should we open this podcast? It's been a it's been a bit. It has been a bit.
Speaker: We've lost it. We've lost. numbers We don't know how to start. We we've lost a little bit. Well, yeah, I mean. I don't play adventure games anymore is maybe like the biggest change.
Speaker: um What? Oh yeah, I don't, I just, yeah, no, I like, i what I realized ah while we were, ah while we were taking our little break, which I guess we'll explain when when we're actually in the show. This isn't the show. This is just me and you chatting before. Yeah, just me and you.
Speaker: ah Yeah, I don't play adventure games. i What I realized was they're for big frickin' nerds. I see. And so now I only do shoot shoot gun games.
Speaker: Shoot gun? You mean? ah fiat like first person shooters? i Yeah, I call them I call them SGGs, shoot gun games. Shoot gun games.
Speaker: Okay. Is this your way of resigning from the podcast? or ah no i think we should keep doing the podcast, but i just like from now on it's going to be about Fort Might.
Speaker: Okay, but I'm looking at our notes and says... It's going to be about Overblotch and it's going to be about Boom. Boom.
Speaker: Oh, Boom's my favorite. What did you think about Boom 3? I like Boom, but I like Crake more. Oh, Crake? Yeah, with soundtrack by ah Mim.
Speaker: ah yeah No one's going to get that, and that's okay. Well, someone's going to get that.
Speaker: ah No, actually, my favorite SGG is ah Blakestone.
Speaker: Justice for Blakestone. Bring back Blakestone. Justice for Blakestone. Okay, yeah, but I'm looking at our notes, and it says we are to talk about adventure games. So if you can't do that, um i don't know what the stuff is. I want to talk about Blakestone Aliens of Gold.
Speaker: um It's the year 2140. Okay,
Speaker: Hey, everybody, and welcome back to Save Your Game. ah It's me, Matt. I'm Matt Allcamp. This here, you want to know who this is? You want to know who my friend yeah standing next to me is in her a lovely evening gown brought to you by Dior?
Speaker: Oh, my God. ah
Speaker: Holy shit, I'm sponsored by Dior? it's Well, it's Dior Lite. It's the knockoff Dior. Dior's discount brand. It's it's the Dior they sell at Kmart. Hey, it's Pushing Up Roses, my friend.
Speaker: Hey, everyone. How is it going? Hi, Matt. I've missed you, Matt. I missed you, too. were dying for a second. I know, my God. Like both of us. Yeah, so everybody, both, okay, here's the thing.
Speaker: Both of us had a medical emergency. Both of us had a drama emergency. Like, we just both were just like, fuck! we can Like, just, both of us, like, our lives collapsed just real, real short, right? Like, yeah everything's fine for both of us. um There were just, like, little, little chaotic moments.
Speaker: um yeah Oh, in fact,
Speaker: ah roses do you this this might be surprising do you want to play um you know what song i need right oh yes i don't have it on the thing but i am going be playing the teeth update
Speaker: Teeth update! Okay, it's a teeth update. ah This, yeah, uh, Roses, do you have anything to say in this teeth update? It seems weird that we just suddenly have a teeth update.
Speaker: Well, my teeth still feel bad, but I have no answers. But what about you, Matt? do you I have a teeth update! I have a teeth update! I got all my four... Look, i've had I've had four dark passengers for the pass for the past 15 years.
Speaker: Four little buddies who've been doing nothing but causing me pain in my little mouth, and I've been afraid to get them out. And they're called my wisdom teeth, and they are gone. They've been pulverized, ripped from my gums, and thrown in the trash can. Damn, I wish you had kept them. I think teeth are so cool.
Speaker: i was I was a little... I was anxious. didn't want to... I forgot to ask. but um But now I have four holes in my mouth. Yeah, I tried to get you to show them to me, but it was a bad picture. And then you called me a freak.
Speaker: I'm like, can I see your stitches? And you're like, haha, you freak.
Speaker: I was on so many. ah No, I wasn't even on painkillers. I was just. Oh, God. I was just fucked up with laying in bed too long. they They only gave me like naproxen. I didn't. I wasn't. I wasn't fucked up. Yeah.
Speaker: Naproxen is not the strongest painkiller for anything surgical. like ah It's kind of like a Tylenol. Yeah. It's stronger, but like it's definitely not as strong as like hydrocodone or morphine.
Speaker: Holy shit. so when I ran out of naproxen, right they were like, you can take ibuprofen. yeah And um they were like, you can take 600 milligrams and then you just have to, then you you take it every six hours. You can take 800 milligrams if it still hurts.
Speaker: And that's every eight hours. And I looked at the bottle and the bottle of ibuprofen says take one and maybe two if on your first dose. Oh, i yeah, I know.
Speaker: It was taking fucking four times. Yeah. four times Yeah, you can. That's what my like one of my dentists like, hey, if you need take four every eight hours, as long as it's spaced out, it's you can do that.
Speaker: It's unbelievable. Yeah, I know. It's wild. ah Yeah, that's the worst thing. I think my jaw just really hurt. Like, who knows what that guy did while I was passed out? He was probably just like yanking it back and forth. Like, I got to get in here.
Speaker: Yank. Just like. hours later. I didn't. Like, right away, it was my sockets hurt. And I got dry sockets, unfortunately. Oh, my God. That's awful.
Speaker: And ah so right away, like, that's what. That hurt so bad that when that started healing, then it was like, oh, my fucking God, my jaw hurt so bad. and so, like, by the time you were ready to start recording,
Speaker: at that I was like, I can't talk this week. Yeah. And I kind of figured, because I've had my wisdom teeth out. And in adulthood, when they're impacted like that, it's tough. it's ah It's a tough, painful surgery, especially if you end up getting dry socket, which not everyone gets, by the way, everyone. ah That's what happens when like a blood clot is dislodged.
Speaker: So obviously, even when you get a tooth out, you're to, well, when you get your wisdom teeth out, you're going to bleed and you need that blood clot. See, I tried so hard to follow like all the instructions. Well, i did follow all the instructions. The problem is, this is what I figured out.
Speaker: I had had my wisdom teeth for so long. that I've just gotten used to Basically every time I close my mouth, I do a little, like i i i I, make a little suction in my mouth. I'm like, most of the times I suck, I close my mouth because i had space between my molars and my wisdom teeth.
Speaker: And sometimes food would get stuck in there. So just like pro, pro, pro, pro preventatively. There's the word. Yeah. I was going to say prophylactically. Not the same thing. Not the same thing. So ah preventatively, i would just go like all the time. um i don't know if that's picking up on the mic, but it's basically me sucking the back of my teeth.
Speaker: Yeah. and ah so like what I realized is probably while I wasn't paying attention or while I was asleep, I was just sucking on the back of my teeth because it just becomes such a habit.
Speaker: Right. So the fact that it took me so long to get my wisdom teeth out made me develop habits that root like that like made my wisdom teeth harder to heal. Anyway, so that's my teeth update.
Speaker: um I have but the my tops. My topses are fully healed over. Yeah. There's just like little divots, but I still have two holes in the bottom.
Speaker: The bottoms are tough because they're literally a part of your jaw. Your wisdom teeth are a part of your jaw. So it's ah it's a tough heel. It really is. And so I figured. And then while you were dying of dry socket, I had surprise strep throat.
Speaker: I could not believe it. Let's talk about this because you say it's surprise strep throat. Yeah. Roses, how long did you have strep throat? like three weeks.
Speaker: It's so bad. and Like how many episodes did we record that apparently you had strep throat while we were recording? Like i mean two to three. Yep. At least two. Cause I thought, okay, listen, I didn't realize that since COVID strep throat doesn't present like it used to, especially in adults. It does not present like strep throat. I have, strip I've had strep throat. I used to get it like every year as a kid.
Speaker: And you can look in your mouth and kind of tell. um And then the other giveaway is like you have problems eating. It's hard to swallow. It's very painful. And it was. But I looked at my throat. I'm like, well, it's a little red. It's a little raw. It is really painful.
Speaker: But maybe i I don't know. Maybe I talked too much or i what i don't know what I thought happened there. So I finally went to the doctor. And even he was like, he looked at my throat. He's like, you know, I don't know.
Speaker: i don't know if you have it. But I already treated three cases today. So we're going to, yeah. So we're going to give you a test and I had it. I had strep and it was wild.
Speaker: I was very surprised that it was strep. Didn't look anything like it. Hey, this is, you know what? This is strep town. This is strep town. So let me just scrape that throat. So gross.
Speaker: um Yeah. But yeah, I got on antibiotics and felt better immediately. yeah They work really fast. Modern medicine. Modern medicine, folks.
Speaker: And we won't talk about our our drama, but we are both, we're recovered. We're back to health. We're recovered. In that time, did you happen to play any games? i play, well, here's the thing.
Speaker: Here's the thing. ah My mental health too took a dip over the last couple of weeks. And don't know if this is going to make you sound like a great friend or a bad friend, but we were texting and and I'm like, damn it. I just wish I could play ah game in bed because i I have a tablet. I can't run games on it.
Speaker: And the way I play games usually is on my giant desktop, my my editing ring. And that's in my studio. And I was like, well, wallowing. And you're like, you should get a steam deck. And then you can wallow in bed while playing Stardew.
Speaker: hmm. ah Matt, you were supposed to get me out of bed. i don't know if that was apparent to to you at the time.
Speaker: However, did buy the Steam Deck. It came immediately. didn't realize that... And this is going to be my segment for for what I played. It's just talking about my yeah horse Steam Deck. That's what expected.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. um So I was actually kind of surprised that you can just buy Steam Deck. like the Steam Deck on Steam as it's like it's like it's a game or something. Yeah, that's been wild since the very beginning. each like a You can just add like Civilization 3 and ah ah ah Cyberpunk and a Steam Deck to your cart.
Speaker: Yeah, you can just add a Steam Deck. Also, ah two different Blakestones are on Steam. I just looked it up. Two? Yeah. Yeah. Planet Strike and... Oh, Planet Strike. I think I knew that.
Speaker: Oh, what? Really? I didn't know... did. did not know there um their ah ah subtitles. Planet Strike and Aliens of Gold. That does not sound... The latter doesn't sound familiar. But yeah, I... Yeah, you can buy it on Steam.
Speaker: I bought it. It came within like two days. I was stoked. Yeah. And I got, it's so easy to set up. Dude, it's the best. I can't believe I have access to all my Steam games wherever i go ah So I got my Steam Deck. I brought it back into bed. It is this feeling that the first time you do it, like, it like at that way it wears off. Right. But then yeah the the first like month maybe that you have your Steam Deck, you just can't believe the stuff you can just play in your hands.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. think it's going to be really helpful and useful for me because like, while I will say this wallowing in bed is not great. Right. It's not the best idea.
Speaker: You should try to get out of bed. However, I do think that playing a game is better than just staring at a wall in bed. Agreed. And disassociating or being depressed. So it's something, you know?
Speaker: I honestly think it's better than mindlessly staring at TV either, right? I do too. Yeah, i do too
Speaker: I do too. One of the reasons I was like, oh, you should get a Steam Deck is just because we had... um i thought I thought something might perk you up.
Speaker: And I don't think you played either of them yet. But we got two really cool codes. Yeah, we did. During our ah dead time. um And hopefully these are things that... Well, one of them I'm going to talk about in ah in a minute. But the other one hopefully we'll talk about pretty soon.
Speaker: Yeah. um and In an upcoming episode. But... Yeah, we got some really, we got some cool code. So what else, do you have anything else to say about the Steam Deck before I?
Speaker: um i will say that I played the game in its entirety that we're talking about today, which is Locomotive. And I feel like it was very easy to play an adventure game on.
Speaker: And I don't know if that's because this was the first thing I booted up when I got the Steam Deck. I'm like, you know what? It's time to play Locomotive. ah So I put that on there right away. So I don't know if it's because of how Locomotive was designed or if it's just pretty easy to play adventure games on the Steam Deck.
Speaker: So yeah, it depends. I've played a bunch. I've had my Steam Deck for a while. I actually have one of the OLEDs, which, fuck, those OLED screens are beautiful. yeah they're cool. um But i had I've played...
Speaker: There's two ways that adventure games go. um One is if you have the ability to control your character, like use your D pad or your stick to walk around.
Speaker: Generally, what the game will do is like when you approach a hotspot.
Speaker: It'll highlight and you press X or A or something. And you can interact with it. And those ones, really great. Yeah, work really well. Really good on e Steam Deck. And Locomotive is like that. um But if you do not have the ability to walk around and it expects you to still use either the um joystick or the thumb pad, the track pad to control a mouse.
Speaker: It's miserable. It sucks so bad. And I've played, I've played some entire point click games, um, using a mouse in that way. and just like, and, and it's like fine, but it's just not, it doesn't feel good.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. It is tough to, especially if it's like, can you imagine doing like a hidden object game? Oh my God. duck That might be fucking miserable. And I've complained on this show before about like, you'd think um that touchscreens would make that easier, but then your fucking fingers just in the way. Right. Yeah. I did notice that. I'm like, eh, this is a little like cumbersome.
Speaker: ah But I will say first for games like similar to Locomotive with the hotspot situation, i think Last Door would work very well on Steam Deck because that is a hotspot situation.
Speaker: I really love it. I'm glad I bought it. It was kind of expensive, but... It'll be worth it I think it'll be worth I think you'll get your value out of it. I've had to buy two Steam decks because one of mine died almost like couple months after the after the warranty ran out.
Speaker: Oh, no. The battery just... I think it was when I i was in Louisiana, um and it didn't shut off all the way. I had a problem with that Steam deck where it wouldn't... It was having... Sometimes it would shut off and then just turn right back on and I couldn't figure out why.
Speaker: um And so it ended up being on in my bag while I was walking around Louisiana, known for its heat. ah And then when I got to the airport later that day, it just wouldn't turn on and it would never turn on again.
Speaker: Oh, no, it would never turn on again? No. Oh, it's Yeah, I think something melted. ah Oh, God. But I yeah just like overheated and wouldn't work anymore.
Speaker: So yeah i I've bought two. And I had to think a lot about value when my first one died. Like, should I buy another one? Or did I just like... And I was like thinking like, well, I've played. I've had it for over a year.
Speaker: And the amount of games I've played... That I wouldn't have played if I would ah was only able to sit at my computer and play them is huge. And so, yeah. So over time, I think like it is worth it.
Speaker: Yeah. um I agree. Just don't bring it to a melty place. Yeah, or at least make sure it's off. Yeah, for real.
Speaker: That's really unfortunate. So I played a game... ah during during our time off that I fucking loved. And everyone knows what it's going to be because I've been talking about it. what it's going to be. Citizen Sleeper 2 rules.
Speaker: Yep, yep, yep. It's so good. um So I've talked about it before. Like the... the the The basic premise of Citizen Sleeper, you are an android that is programmed to, like, with the ah body and thought patterns of a specific human um who owes a debt to a corporation, and they sleep while this android works their debt off.
Speaker: And you play a sleeper that, they're called sleepers, and you play one that has escaped. And so the basic premise is that you're trying to survive out in this space world.
Speaker: um while and like with a space world that's kind of hostile to you because you're fugitive and and and it's a it's sort of like a hyper capitalist society so trying to survive and trying to make the money to survive and find the resources to survive is really hard um citizen sleeper does away with something Citizen Sleeper 2 does away with some things that Citizen Sleeper 1 has.
Speaker: For example, in Citizen Sleeper 1, see if you can catch the metaphor here. um You are, ah your body is always, because you are the property of a corporation, you are programmed with planned obsolescence so your body is constantly decaying um and it becomes harder to even perform actions in the world as your body decays and so you need to keep buying very expensive medicine to make your body work um they do away with that in citizen sleeper too okay did you like did you like this change
Speaker: Yeah, I felt less desperate the entire time. Okay, that's true. And when you feel desperate in Citizen Sleeper 1, it is purposeful, right? It is part of the ah the point that they're trying to make. Yeah.
Speaker: But like Citizen Sleeper 1, the game is all... And in this game, you're building a crew. You're going on missions. Rather than being stuck on one space station, um you get to explore several space stations. And so the things that you have to... you have to save money for fuel and supplies.
Speaker: um The missions can be really stressful because ah you can only keep five days of supplies in your ship. And you go out on missions... ah And you kind of have to complete them in five days because if you run into supplies, you start starving.
Speaker: um The other thing, and your dice start breaking. And then, so instead of having five dice to apply to actions per day, now you have four. Now you have three. Now you have two.
Speaker: um So it becomes, when things get more desperate to you, it also becomes harder to achieve anything. Which is, again, see if you can catch the metaphor there. um Right, right.
Speaker: And they add a really, they add a concept called stress. Oh, God. Which is is very stressful. Which is, if you fail while on a mission, you gain stress.
Speaker: ah Either the mission gains stress, which is like um sometimes that means that somebody else is competing with you and they've just gotten ahead of you. Or somebody's hunting you while you're doing your mission and and they've gotten closer. Or you are doing a mission on a break ah ah wreck of a spaceship.
Speaker: And when you fail, you cause the spaceship to fall apart a little more. So there's both like the stress on the mission and then there's personal character stress.
Speaker: And when your gay character gains stress, you have ah a larger percentage of chance that one of your dice breaks every day. Okay. And that could get really unlucky.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm sure. feel like I don't realize it had a dice ah mechanic. Yeah, that's you get you roll five dice every morning, every day when you start a new day, and you get to apply them to actions.
Speaker: So it'll be a thing where like, oh, if you have a full... And you your skill adds to your dice roll. So if i have a i if I have a four in my dice inventory, and I have a plus two on that skill, then I have a six, and I'm going to ah complete that action perfectly.
Speaker: Yeah. But if I have a three and i have a minus one in that scale, now it's two and I have a 50% chance of having a negative outcome and a 50% chance of having a neutral outcome.
Speaker: And if you have something in the middle, it's going to be something, you know, like 50% chance neutral, 25% positive, 25% negative. And then it's just, again, it's like, it's just random.
Speaker: I feel like that would stress me out so hard because that that was one of the things in Disco that I found kind of stressful, but also fun at the same time. it was very fun, but also just that that chance factor was like, ah. Yeah.
Speaker: And it's, I mean, like, that's what makes the game addictive too, is you just want to see what your dice rolls are every day. And then when you get bad ones... you want to see what tomorrow brings. And if you get good ones, you want to go do your actions.
Speaker: Right? So it's it's it's a really addictive loop. and um And again, just like Citizen Sleeper 1, the point of the game is really uplifting. And really, it it is, if you think about it this way, like the solution to the problems of capitalism is community, um which is something I truly, truly believe in. And that's what both games are about.
Speaker: As you... make sacrifices to help people and to make friends and to build communities and to help communities, they end up coming back to help you tenfold.
Speaker: And so your body's breaking down. you You have to make money for food. You have to get money to make your body stable. You have to make money to not get killed by an assassin that's hunting you. You have to do all, like, you are in a desperate situation.
Speaker: but that right But even when you're in that situation, you gave 100 credits to somebody who needed to rebuild their ship and was in a tight spot. And then suddenly that person is now your, like, appears and saves you from a fate.
Speaker: And right they are now your best friend. And now you two are in it together. Right? It's like King's Quest. It's like you help the mouse. And then the mouse helps you.
Speaker: Yeah, I get it. Yeah, it's exactly like King's Quest. Citizen Sleeper 2 is like King's Quest 5. It's a really like Disco Elysium, just very well written, lot of dialogue ah and very well written and ah about socioeconomic problems broken into game mechanics and story beats that make them digestible.
Speaker: yeah And even if you do not want to sit there and interpret the politics of it, like if you don't, if you're not, if you're not good at literary interpretation or you just don't like it, um, You're still going to absorb the messages passively.
Speaker: Sure. Right. Like you get who the bad guys and the good guys were in Disco Elysium. And you get the broader messages, even if you don't understand the intricacies of the difference between neoliberalism and...
Speaker: Socialism, right? Right. um And same with Citizen Sleeper, right? Even if you don't catch the capitalism metaphor, you do get this sense of like, I made friends and these friends are helping me through a tough time. and ryan Right, right.
Speaker: um Kindness is a ah superpower. It's just, again, it's really uplifting, especially in a time where in order to survive in America, we will need to build community.
Speaker: but Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. that's Citizen Sleeper 2. It's really good. um i don't know if you want to leave this in or cut this out, but you have a code for it sitting in our inbox. I always have a code for i would highly suggest checking it out. it's Yeah, that's probably the next the next game I'll play on my Steam Deck.
Speaker: Okay, before we talk about what we're talking about in this episode, I want to mention two things to our listeners. And it's two release dates that popped up. Um, first of all, so these are two games that we've talked about a lot.
Speaker: Um, me make sure I have them right. Okay. These are two games that we've talked about a lot and they both had release dates, uh, announced during our absence.
Speaker: Oh, great. So first one, Francisco's game, Rosewater. Nice. Nice. Go Francisco front of the show. Hell yeah. Grindislav Games out March 27th.
Speaker: Great. Oh, that's coming up. Yeah. Can't wait. Yeah. And then the other one, which we talked about. Please say Strange Antiquities, because if you're not going to say it, I'm going to be sad. wish. You're going to be sad. It's Cabernet.
Speaker: Oh, right. I knew that. I was hoping in my heart that it would be Strange Antiquity. We knew its release date. but We were embargoed on its release date. So we we knew it a little ahead of time. But now it's public. So ah February 20th.
Speaker: Wow. yeah Cabernet is coming out. And I think we will be talking about it on the show. Yeah, I think we will be. Yeah. So around that time.
Speaker: All want to play some, some ah you want get out our dicey rollerino? Dicey rollerino. That's my new favorite thing. Absolutely love it.
Speaker: All right, so you want to pull up put on some monkey prancerino.
Speaker: Why, yes, I do. And then we'll talk about Arthur A. Ackerman, Herman Merman, Herman Merman, Diane Osterhagen in Locomotive.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. I am Pushing Up Roses. This is my co-host, Matt Aukamp. Hey! Hey, what's up? Hey! How's your break? Good. I peed and got water, so I've ah undone my progress.
Speaker: We gotta get it back. You know? mean, what is life besides undoing your progress? but yeah buts time undoing your progress You sleep just to get tired again. You pee just to drink again.
Speaker: Terrible. Fucking awful. ah But you know what the good thing is is? We have things to distract ourselves. Like amazing games. Like the one we're going be talking about today.
Speaker: Citizen Sleeper 2. No, Matt! Locomotive! We're talking about locomotive. Yeah, it was ah was the first game, like I said, that I put on my Steam. or I already had it on there, but it's first game I played on my Steam deck.
Speaker: And I really loved it. i i had already put it on my best of list because I had played through some of it. And I just recently had a chance to finish it. And it remains high up there.
Speaker: It's a very good game. Do you feel like you, having played now the whole thing, we we both were really hype on it even before we played the whole thing because we really you know we felt really strongly about its beginning.
Speaker: um Do you still feel that it is your number three game of 2024 now that you've played through the whole thing? Yes. Okay. Yep. I don't think I would change it. i don't think I would put it higher. i don't i don't think I would put it lower either. I remain...
Speaker: That's where it remains. Yeah. What about you? Would you change it? No, I don't think it would crack my top five. I think it would still be in my, i think it would still be in my like, um feel like it'd be like in my top 15. I think, I think it stays where it was. I think my, it I'll talk about it. I do have some complicated feelings about it.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, but Where do we want to start here? Because it's this is not going to be a super huge deep dive because this doesn't quite rely on narrative the way that some adventure games do. I think this game is more in line with those old LucasArts games. You know, Monkey Island didn't have the most insane plot lines. It wasn't a Hobbs Barrow you know type of situation. It was more fun, comedic, intriguing. Yeah.
Speaker: it took a little It took me a while actually, I think in my life, um, because I was so into adventure games and so into, comic books, the comic books of the nineties specifically, um, that, uh, cause that's when I grew up that it took me a while to be able to really absorb a story wholesale because I think in both cases, uh,
Speaker: they're stories that rely more on a string of moments sure than on a full on narrative. Um, and there are narratives, like there's a narrative to monkey Island, but what, what's, what sticks out to you is not like, um, the three act structure of monkey Island. it is, it it is um the insult sword, the insult sword fighting, and then finding who Herman Toothrod on the island, and then, um chasing around LeChuck with a root beer bottle, and then you're like, you know, on you sit I'm actually thinking more Monkey Island 2, which has a slightly more complex plot, and again, even that, it's just like, I think about moments rather than the full, the full story, and I think, I feel the same way about this.
Speaker: Yeah, I do too, um, I think that kind of falls in line with whodunits because when you were presented a whodunit structure, you kind of already know what that structure is a lot of the time and in murder mystery, um which is fine. I don't need to be surprised by a new structure in murder mystery. But that being said, these kinds of things rely more on moments and character situations and dialogue.
Speaker: So like I could tell you the the plot of locomotive in like a sentence right i mean it's in the trailer somebody gets murdered and your character or characters uh get involved in it somehow and you need to figure out who did it right um and it's not and then when i say you need to figure out who did it what i really mean is you need to just play the game this is not lora bow situation where you are just expected to know it's not it's not like that it's way more merciful than that No one's going to ask yet. There's no point in the game where somebody asks you to solve the murder.
Speaker: Correct. Yeah. Which I was happy about. just like, oh, what is it going to do? I didn't solve it until fairly late in the game. ah Sure. i like like i Like when the game gate basically gives it to you is when I got it.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. It's not really a game that you're, I mean, you can be thinking about who the murderer is, but again, it's more reliant on the the journey, the moments that you have, um the beautiful settings.
Speaker: I thought the puzzles were great. I have a lot i have a lot of good things to say about locomotive. What were some moments that stood out to you then? So loved the first, i I guess the first act was basically a prologue. I loved the prologue and the first act with the character Arthur Ackerman.
Speaker: Yes. It was ah so, I don't know, it was just so fun to revisit kind of this train, closed circle, whodunit situation. The characters, even though obviously this is a modern game, it really had the fun factor for me that Monkey Island had. It had that fun factor. Like these these characters are well ah voice acted.
Speaker: It's beautiful. Oh my God. When I saw some these animations. Incredible voice acting. Yeah. And You're right that it's beautiful. And it's got this, like the fact that it all takes place on a train and the top of the train is, is rolling along ah and you could, you could see the wheels rolling below you and you can see the, the um ah skyline passing above you at all times is so it, it gives it such ah an atmosphere, like a consistent, interesting atmosphere
Speaker: That you don't always get in like a point and click game. Yeah, that's true. And you never, even though you are majority majority of the time you are on the train, you are in other places in flashbacks, which is nice. It gives it some nice change of scenery.
Speaker: um But even though you are on this train a lot, it doesn't feel like you're backtracking too much. You are, trust me, you are going to go back and forth ah yeah in these train cards.
Speaker: ah But they did include like a run, you know, a little run animation. I never felt too frustrated by going around these carts. You know, these. No, because it's you. You're either going left or you're going right. You don't. yeah you're You're not having to memorize like a complex ah point and click map, you know. Right.
Speaker: Right. um I really I got to say, i really liked these puzzles up into a point. I'll say that. Okay. This game takes a turn in mechanics near the end.
Speaker: It becomes more in line with ah like Day of the Tentacle, ah which we'll talk about a little bit more. But I really liked the puzzles that you did with each specific character. I think they made sense.
Speaker: without being overly easy. ah It was rare that I got stuck. I think I texted you. I'm like, I got stuck in the stupidest way. I just didn't scroll my inventory. forgot I had a cup that I needed.
Speaker: Yeah, there's only like two times in the game where you have enough inventory to need to scroll. Yeah, yeah. i And usually that's not a problem with me, but for whatever reason, i just ah just didn't.
Speaker: So i did I did like the puzzles. I thought they were fair ah with with exception of a couple. There's some big exceptions in my opinion. Yeah, same. It almost kind of falls almost directly in line with some of the LucasArts games if you kind of reflect on the structure of the story and the way the puzzles work in the end.
Speaker: But I really like playing as Arthur Ackerman, who is the attorney. So in in every whodunit, you have a list of characters, right? They all have different roles that they played.
Speaker: Kind of this this older lady, this kind of... She's the... ah The owner, I guess, of the train that you're on called the Royce Express. And it's one of those situations where she's going to do like a will reading. She's constantly making amendments to her will.
Speaker: um And now everybody in her life wants or her business. They want to be in on the will. um Everyone kind of has a motive for her to die.
Speaker: um and that includes her family and like her estate people as well. ah So like the attorney, which is us in the first, in the first part, her accountant, I think is one of them, a competitor, like ah who wants to buy her out. Everybody has a motive.
Speaker: It's very Colonel's bequest. You know, you're in this situation with all these weird characters who are all kind of terrible, right? In their own way. yeah But my favorite character. Is Donnie Donato. Okay.
Speaker: Who is. He is running this scheme. With the accountant. With the accountant character. This like gambling scheme. Using. ah Using wooden poker chips. That he just keeps making.
Speaker: And a magnet. at At this roulette wheel. On the train. And it it it reminded me very heavily of being in Grim Fandango and messing with the roulette, with the roulette table and and having this like little casino area. Donnie Donato, yeah, he's just like this, he's like this Brooklyn crime person. Mobster guy. Yeah. he At some point he tells you, he's like, people call me Don.
Speaker: Get it? Don. love that character. I love his voice acting. I think it's so funny. i Yeah, that character made me laugh and I was so glad he came back at the end because we actually, kind of get him arrested. I mean, he is doing illegal things and we needed to get there, you know, in order to find out motives and see if he was possibly in on the murder.
Speaker: yeah um But he comes back later in the game and I think he's hilarious. What did you think about the The way the story was told. Because we start.
Speaker: Kind of in. Present day. With Arthur Ackerman. Our first character. Yeah there's a framing device. That runs yeah throughout the whole game. Which is that. um You are being questioned. After the murder at a police station.
Speaker: Each character. That you end up playing. Is being questioned. One at a time. And that's your introduction. Into each section. ah And. Okay.
Speaker: I think I have to talk about. I think I have to talk about this now. I. um I played. So this game is. ah a ah This is an extended version.
Speaker: Of a game that was made for. 2021 Adventure X Game Jam. It was made in two weeks. um I didn't even realize I owned this, um but I had it from like an old itch.io sale. um Oh, okay.
Speaker: And then i I just, I was like, wait, I have a game in my library called Locomotive. And it's the same. It's Locomotive, right? Wow. it's like How did that not come up? I'm shocked.
Speaker: It's like an hour long game. And it it is, you know, it doesn't have voice acting. Right. It's got the same sort of, it's got the same sort of really colorful pixel art, but it's not quite as, um,
Speaker: detail and the story is much more truncated. And what I found is that I think I preferred the truncated story. Wow.
Speaker: Because it once you play the original version, yeah it starts to feel like um the expanded version, the full game, and is is not like...
Speaker: it's not like fulfilling the original vision and it might be, I don't know. I don't know the creator's brains. Right. But, um, it doesn't feel like it's fulfilling the original vision so much as it feels like it is expand. It's trying to expand on it so that it's longer.
Speaker: Um, so that made me a little more frustrated with the, uh, or at least, ah yeah, a little less happy about the scenes in the police station. Um,
Speaker: I also didn't really like the Herman Merman section at all. Okay, that's fair. I was going to ask you what you thought about the different character sections. I thought Herman Merman as a character was a little obnoxious.
Speaker: And i I didn't love the puzzles in his section. um I found myself more stuck in the Herman Merman section than I was in any other section. okay um And it just didn't flow to me the way the Arthur Ackerman section. And then later...
Speaker: um the The triple character sections did. um So, but one thing I did like is that you go over similar sections of time as the, as each character.
Speaker: Right. so So, so there's a, there's interesting things that'll happen. Like um you'll see something like there'll be a chef that's traumatized by a recent health inspector visit.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. And you just think it's like a little throwaway gag. But then later you see exactly why. You'll see something weird. you with the puzzles. It's like, oh, I have to be the health inspector because that's what they said. i have to traumatize these guys. Yep. I have to traumatize these these people. How am I going to do that?
Speaker: You'll see a ah Yeah, you'll see like a a guy who's incredibly drunk. And then you'll flash back as a different character And the guy's sober, and you're like, oh, I gotta get this guy drunk. Yeah, I thought that was clever.
Speaker: you'll see this cello case that's stapled shut. Yes, And don't even think about it until you play as another character, and you're like, wait, why the hell? Yeah, i should have questioned why this cello case was stapled shut.
Speaker: But, ah yeah, yeah. So those those things I thought were interesting that this game has some replay value. If you play it a second time, you'll be like, oh, okay, I know what this is.
Speaker: um But I do think the game was a little stretched out in places. Sure. How about you? I don't know.
Speaker: don't know if I found it stretched out, but I do agree that Herman Merman was a little obnoxious. And I think I liked the section. I, I got stuck maybe once or twice. I did. I did like it. I did like that. I kind of knew what I had to do and,
Speaker: And traumatized some chefs. That was very fun. So don't know if I find it stretched out, but I do feel that Herman Merman would have been better as another non-playable.
Speaker: I think he would have been better as just another character kind of in the cast, let's Agreed. I would have liked to play just as Arthur Ackerman and maybe the third character, Diana.
Speaker: and And I got to say, Diana deserved way more screen time. Oh, my God. yeah Yeah. I thought she was a very cool character. i wanted to learn more about her story and how she was involved.
Speaker: And her solo section her solo checks and is so short and so easy. Yeah, it is. It's maybe the easiest the easiest section, I would say.
Speaker: um Which is fine. They don't all have to be equal amounts of of difficulty level. But i I do think Diana as a character should have gotten more ah more playtime.
Speaker: Or I wish it kind of would have stayed Arthur Ackerman because I got to really like that character. samee Yeah, I really like that character. I wanted to keep playing him. um i loved all of his interactions with the other characters. So that was too bad. The the part I disliked the most, and and and obviously we are critiquing this game, but I always feel like I have to say, i still loved this game. Yeah, of course.
Speaker: I will play this again. We dedicate an episode to it if we didn't love Correct. But I, and this is a personal preference too, I do not like playing more than one character at a time. so I knew that I had to play different characters, but that's all separately. You know, you play Arthur Ackerman and then you play Herman Merman and then you play Diana.
Speaker: However, in the last couple parts, you are controlling all three characters to solve puzzles, much like in the vein of Maniac Mansion or a Day of the Tentacle. And I get so overwhelmed yeah by that.
Speaker: In fact, in one of these settings, it's almost exactly like Day of the Tentacle because you're using toilets to transport items. You said that so casually.
Speaker: You're using toilets. I'm trying to be objective here. Yeah, imagine imagine somebody doesn't who's never played either game. And you're just I'm just talking.
Speaker: Yeah, it's the same. as you're It's the same because you're using toilets. You're using toilets. What the fuck? You transport items to each other.
Speaker: I just get very overwhelmed by that. Yeah. I think sometimes when you have multiple characters, it's not always apparent to the average person what you need to do because it's information overload. You suddenly don't remember who has what inventory and what needs to go where. And some people might like that.
Speaker: That is great for you. And you will probably like the end of the game. I just got over overwhelmed. I didn't, it it was a little bit of a letdown for me, yeah,
Speaker: i mean i mean, endings are hard anyway, so I am giving it a little grace because it's very rare that I just love an ending to anything. Yeah. um So endings are are tough. Just ask Stephen King. The man can't end anything.
Speaker: So I get it and I empathize, but I do wish I think it could have been better without the controlling of three characters. i I liked those segments. I did feel the same level of, hope I did feel at least initially the same level of overwhelmed as you did, especially because there's talking.
Speaker: And I was like, am I supposed to have dialogue between every character and every other character? um That seems like way too much. And again, like that sort of thing of who's supposed to have what i inventory item at what time felt very overwhelming, but the puzzles felt very doable.
Speaker: Yeah. In both sections. So I didn't feel that ah so overwhelmed that I wasn't able to appreciate the novelty yeah of them. And yeah, obviously the toilet inventory um is a nod to Day of the Tentacle.
Speaker: did you Also, did you catch the reference to Full Throttle in Diana Osterhagen's section? Yeah, yeah, i absolutely. Yeah, she pulls out, said just for the listener, she pulls out, ah they they they burn out on a motorcycle of the scene, and it plays the full throttle theme.
Speaker: Yes. yeah This is definitely very inspired by LucasArts specifically. ah Like I said, it's the toilets, the motorcycle, the casino. i think that i think I equate that.
Speaker: Oh, even the yeah there's a handshake puzzle that of course reminds me of Monkey Island puzzles of, you know, rhyming insults and little games like that. So yeah, very heavily inspired.
Speaker: Even some of the theme music, like the background music, reminded me a lot of Monkey Island 2. Same. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah which is Which is, again, fine. You know, we we have our love-hate relationship with the adventure game nostalgia, the point-and-click nostalgia stuff.
Speaker: um Yeah. But in this in this
Speaker: in this specific instance, I think it was fine. I do too. Yeah, I do too. And maybe that's because it wasn't fully meta. You know, it wasn't specifically calling out anything. and yeah And you shouldn't, you know, you shouldn't have to just call out what you're like you're referencing, right?
Speaker: If you are inspired by something, it should show. Or if you're trying to express something, shouldn't have to say it, you know, all the time. so I liked it too. It didn't break fourth walls like that.
Speaker: ah So I was happy with it. And I think because it's displaying a lot of the same levels of skill as some of yeah those early LucasArts games. And so, you know, there's a lot of times maybe it feels maybe one of the things that feels frustrating. And this is just kind of ah catalyzing in my mind at this moment.
Speaker: one Maybe one of the things that feels frustrating about so many point and click games referencing LucasArts games is like, man, you're nowhere near that level. I know. I hear it. um Stop pretending like you are being a Monkey Island because you are not there.
Speaker: And Locomotive really does have a high, and like is the quality is really high. Yeah. I was going to say like they're therere there for me. Like they're better quality than LucasArts. um But that of course that's because LucasArts doesn't make games anymore. We're comparing modern to you know retro technology. So it's a little little, it's not the most fair, but I would say they did a good job um taking those inspirations and implementing them.
Speaker: So I want to talk about a couple things. First, I want to ask, when did you know the killer was? know who the killer was I had an inkling prior to figuring it out. Okay. ah Just when i saw the i saw the killer working with their, we'll call them accomplices a lot.
Speaker: And it just felt weird. I'm just like, why? why Why? And just by by deduction too. I think you get you can talk to all these characters and get a good sense of who they are.
Speaker: I think I solved it the moment they appear in this scene where you know it's them, um but before it's revealed. I think okay them being there, it was like, oh they...
Speaker: They are probably the killer. And then yeah I didn't recognize that it was one person working without accomplices. Right. Right. Until a little bit later.
Speaker: and they were yeah They were using people. They got to their knowledge. That didn't know. Yeah. yeah um So also, we both alluded to one puzzle that was particularly interesting.
Speaker: ah and unfair. Like there were some frustrating puzzles. I think probably both of us felt frustrated by some puzzles. But there's one puzzle I felt that was truly unfair. I'm not, I don't know if me and you have the same one.
Speaker: But do you want to do a 3, 2, 1 same time? I don't know if I, did I say I had one? Because now okay, you don't? Well, mine mine is really the toilet stuff. I hated it. oh i actually hated those i actually hated doles puzzles.
Speaker: You don't feel like there was one puzzle that was just ah Frustratingly unfair. Frustratingly unfair. frust There was a couple of puzzles I find that were unfair, right? like there's some Could you name one name one that's like just kind of unfair to you so I know where you're going? Okay, so like...
Speaker: This is not reminiscent of the one that I found unfair. um But the there's one where you have to make a knife slippery and you have hand cream and butter. Right. Yeah. And you can put butter on the knife.
Speaker: You can't put hand cream on the knife. And once you put the butter on the knife, specifically, if you try to put ham cream on the knife, he's like, no. um Right. Also, yeah if you use the knife on the butter rather than butter on the knife, he says no to. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, i did I did think that was kind of so weird. So you have to mix – this is a spoiler, but you need this spoiler. ah You have to mix the hand cream and the butter and then put it on the knife.
Speaker: Right. He won't do it once it's already on the knife. And it's just like, why does why does it let you put butter on the knife? Right. And then not let you put hand criss. It just didn't make any sense. It was just like.
Speaker: I felt like that was just not thought through. Because like that seems like such an easily fixable. There's yeah. Well there's so much in that. where it's There's so much in the game where it's like.
Speaker: Okay if you use item A on item B. He has no idea what you're talking about. But if you use item B on item He does it. And it's like it's the same thing.
Speaker: um Which is very frustrating. um I'm trying to think. What section is yours going to be It's in the Herman Merman section. And what it is, is it's a, ah it is a sort of, i guess you could call it a pixel hunt.
Speaker: I see. Okay. All right. Why don't you go ahead and tell me? i'm is it Is it the mouse? Is it the mice stuff? No, we're not going to be able to do a three-two. I thought you had one and I was wondering if we had the same one. but No, mine were the toilets.
Speaker: Okay. So I was about to blurt toilets. yeah ah No, it's the smudge puzzle. The smudge puzzle. there's a there's a There's a scene where you need to discover, you need to figure out a hand gesture. Oh, in the cult?
Speaker: Oh, I figured that one out. But I didn't even know, you can't see a smudge on the painting. but But it's there. It says there's a smudge.
Speaker: If you click, you can't click on the painting. You can't. The the painting is not a hotspot. Just the smudge, which is a like three pixel by three pixel hotspot.
Speaker: True. Oh, my God. Roses. It's because you played on the Steam Deck. Yeah. And so you had a hotspot. You had a hotspot. Yeah. I.
Speaker: I didn't. Oh, no. Oh, no. Because you need to find it with the mouse. h And so there's no smudge on the painting, right? Like you can't visibly see it.
Speaker: Right, right. And you can't click on the painting. You can't have him like look at painting and he's like, oh, what a nice painting. There's a little smudge over by the hand though. Right. right Like that doesn't happen.
Speaker: You just have to click this tiny little dot on the painting. Yeah. That you don't have, and there's no reason you should know it's there. It's just a horrible, horrible puzzle.
Speaker: Wow. it's It's worse than your general, it's worse than your general pixel hunt because you, again, you can't see it. Right. In a pixel hunt, you're generally supposed to be able to see, oh, this one thing is slightly different color than the rest. You can't see it. Yeah. It is just, if you happen to drag your mouse over that section, it's And the hotspot appears.
Speaker: You'll know it's there. But if not, but again, on the Steam Deck, it'll it'll highlight it for you. Interestingly, that that reminds me of a clue you have to find in Dagger. i don't know if you you played this relatively recently. So you might remember that there is a painting forgery scheme going on in that plot.
Speaker: And you actually have to touch one of the paintings in the old Masters Gallery. It doesn't look off. It does not look off. You just have to yeah touch it. And it's wet. And that's how you know that there's... Which is like, what?
Speaker: Who does that? Anyway, that's beyond the point. A really dumb criminal, I guess. Well, that game also has a hotspot in the middle of a painting, too. Yes, it does. You can see it. But it's sparkling. Yeah. Yeah, you can see it.
Speaker: I guess, like, in Locomotive... the point wasn't for it to look like a smudge. The point was it to look like it was painted over. So I guess that's why they didn't make it look egregiously smudged.
Speaker: It didn't look like it was painted over. I know. So I called Dirk Chisleton. There's a hotline. There's a hint line in the game. And he says, he he like,
Speaker: pointed me there and so I went back and I was like you can't click the painting what are you talking about I can't click the painting so I just like out of frustration I was just like dragging my mouse all over yeah and then it was just like and then hot spot popped up that said smudge and was like what the fuck and the thing is it's immediately it's like a centimeter away from the head another of a character and Right.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, that's hard to notice too. yeah Had I not walked over to that character, I would have not even seen the hotspot because you can actually talk to that character from different points on the screen. And you can walk in place front right and you can walk in front of the table at any point. You don't have to walk behind the table.
Speaker: And again, the painting itself is in a hotspot. Right. Which is how that puzzle should have been, right? There should have been, the painting whole painting should have been there should have been a look at mo like feature for the painting and then he would say um oh this looks like a great painting although the the hands look a little weird or whatever right yeah um agreed just and that's tough because i'm sure like when you're designing it it makes total sense to you but all you need is like one play tester to be like i couldn't find yeah and then you'd be like oh okay well let's just let's expand this yeah um
Speaker: I couldn't figure out how to wake up the hyper drunk guy because I couldn't scroll my inventory. i I was so frustrated. I didn't know what was going on. And I called i called the Dirk Chisleton hotline, too. and And I'm like, I need more help. I don't know.
Speaker: And he's like, yeah, just give him the the spicy soup. I'm like, I want to. i would love to give him this. but And yeah, I just had to scroll and find a cup. I was so frustrated by the whole Herman Merman section that by that point I was, I was doing Dirk Chiseltin a couple of times. I didn't do Dirk Chiseltin in any other sections, but in one, I did it like four times.
Speaker: So ah here's another thing. The other, the last thing I want to talk about is um i do want to talk a little bit about the original, the game jam um version, because there's some big differences. Yeah.
Speaker: First of all, um
Speaker: there's a different killer. oh Oh, I did not know. i I might have to play the game jam version. You only play Arthur Ackerman. The killer is a different person.
Speaker: ah Some of the characters. Okay. Like the the sister with the hearing horn is not a character. in the game but the puzzle where you have to steal a healing hearing horn from a lady to make a cocktail in it and she's a re-corker like ah ah that is in there but she's just deaf woman in the game okay and has no connection to any other characters uh
Speaker: the Obviously, I think this is probably obvious. Diana Osterhagen is not in the game at all. There's another character who is... i Well, she might be... There's a character who is the daughter of somebody else.
Speaker: Like a daughter-in-law, I think. um Who gives you... She actually is the one who tells you the handbag story that clues you to why you should give the briefcase to the twins. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. She might be named Diana Osterhagen, but she's just like a passenger on on the train. ok Also, in ah in that in the Game Jam game, and it gives you a setting.
Speaker: Apparently, this all takes place in 1939 in Switzerland. It does.
Speaker: does. Yeah. I'm confused. Maybe you can help me. Someone help me with this. I, okay. When I found, um, what's her name?
Speaker: Uh, Oh God. The, the main, the woman who gets killed. What's her name?
Speaker: Um, I, Unterwald. Lady Lady Unterwald. Lady Unterwald. I found her birth certificate for a puzzle, and I swear the year said 38. think 1838.
Speaker: really I don't know. wouldn't we did well We'd have to look at it. But I yeah i remember thinking that her birth certificate said an date. Okay.
Speaker: That's fair. what one of I mean, either one of us could be wrong here. like It wasn't something that I paid such close attention to. But um even yeah even in the wiki, like locomotive takes place in the 1930s.
Speaker: Okay. Well, then I must have read it wrong. But in the... were in the, um, game jam version, it specifically says Switzerland, 1939 in the, in the, um, in the full version, Arthur Ackerman says, there's a joke, an optional joke.
Speaker: Um, and that's a line of dialogue where some Arthur Ackerman's like, the story takes place. We're all good. Mysteries take place in a, uh, ambiguous European locale.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah Um, But yeah, ah I'm trying to think. There's... there That... The scene... the last scene on the train,
Speaker: the classic LucasArts boss fight scene is fully, almost fully in the original too. Oh, okay. Which was surprising to me.
Speaker: That was pretty, that was kind of fun. It wasn't too difficult. So I appreciated that. It's a little more graphic in the original, by the way. okay. Yeah. ah What you think would have happened to the guy absolutely happens to the guy on the okay um but yeah uh what ah do you have oh and then the scene where arthur whips off his belt and then knocks yeah the gun out of ah bad a bad guy's hand yeah is just as random in the original as it is in the
Speaker: in the full game. you Yeah. Still, there's nothing that indicates that Arthur is a belt... A belt whipper. Belt whipper. there's sos that You don't have any control over it. not it just It's the weirdest moment where just like, why the fuck did that just happen? Yeah, no I found that that train section, kind of that action section, a little strange.
Speaker: um But like, again, overall... This was so fun. It seems like they were trying to shoehorn that moment from the original into the full one, and they just kind of lost its context.
Speaker: ah So it's it's much it's much less weird. In the original, but also that belt scene is still like, what the fuck? Like, you have no agency there.
Speaker: just does it. I don't know. It seems like they should have made the belt an inventory item earlier in the game and given the use so that you as the player will use the belt on the gun.
Speaker: Right. When the time comes. Right.
Speaker: Yeah, and then um ah closing thought is ah our good friend, friend the show, Alistair Beckett King, actually is in this game. He voiced as one of characters. Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, it's so cool. um And the character looks like Alistair. Yeah. it's It's so great. i love, there's like a little a little secret society in this game. And it it's so cute. It slightly reminds me, it's a little Discworld-esque, right? It's got kind of this a goofy, kind of goofy meaning to it and motivation. Yeah.
Speaker: It's a group that started with a very specific purpose, but then got so lost in in how much, like fell so in love with the theme of their group that they're yeah that everything about their group just became about the theme.
Speaker: that that's such a funny idea. it is funny. ah Speaking of like funny, would you call this game a humorous, funny? Did you laugh at this game? Because it is goofy.
Speaker: let's but you know Let's put that out there. It's meant to be lighthearted and and kind of goofy. I think I can't remember a scene where laughed, but I, I'm pretty sure like, I have a vague memory of having a couple small out loud chuckles, but then there was a lot of that. That's sort of like a, you think back on it and you're like, oh that was funny.
Speaker: yeah For example, that secret society it's that's such a funny idea is like, if me and you formed a little society to, you know, I don't know, whatever,
Speaker: a little ah a secret cult to control the stock market but we made it about but we called ourselves the the the falcon falconeers right and then we got so obsessed with making everything falcon related that we forgot to manipulate the stock market yeah like that's basically the case here that's so it's so funny ah in concept, but it didn't really, wasn't really laugh out loud. How about you?
Speaker: i I feel the same way, but it's more of like a mental, like, this is cute, this is very lighthearted. There was a part where um you're in a literary agency and instead of agents now reading your script, they put it through an electronic board to see if it meets the requirements and you have to short circus short circuit this board.
Speaker: ah You have to sabotage it. And when you do, all it says after is blah. Like, let's consult the board. A
Speaker: ah funny thing. ah Here's another thing that I think is funny is like how, how often you ruin everybody's lives and make, and do a bunch of illegal shit and destroy everything in an adventure game just to solve the puzzles.
Speaker: Yep. It's very die brush. So the idea in this game that you are in a police station having to explain it to some police is also wasn't laugh out loud funny at the time, but is funny in retrospect. It's yeah like imagine Guybrush having to Ultimately, he saved the day, but having to be like, oh, ah yeah i yeah, I stole this and I stole that and i ah drugged this guy I almost killed this person. Like, it's like that in concept is so funny.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. It's yeah, it's very even if it's not a laugh out loud, funny game all the time. It's definitely it's got that humorous feel to it. It is lighthearted.
Speaker: like this is not a serial killer, like, a dark adventure game. So that's Locomotive, everybody. I think it is worth it is worth checking out. um Yeah. You know, for my and my preference, honestly, i think i might enjoy the original a little better. um Because it's just it's just more succinct. And, you know, not everything that's shorter is more succinct.
Speaker: I could say, ah Harry Potter is a story about a little wizard boy who beats a bad wizard guy. That's not more succinct, right? That's just abbreviated to the point of worthlessness.
Speaker: But I do, I think that the itch.io game jam version is that is legitimately more succinct. Okay. but I think a lot, but it doesn't have that that amazing voice acting.
Speaker: it doesn't look as as good. It's not, obviously it's not as long or involved. So I think a lot of people might disagree with me. so Yeah. And I love the voice acting and that the animations are so special.
Speaker: They're just really good. They're really, really animated and expressive. And yeah, it's one of my favorite parts about about the game. um So yeah, everybody check it out.
Speaker: Roses. Yes. This is, this is up to you. Okay. Do you want to play. Trunky smellerino. well
Speaker: its Don't look in that trunk. Trunky smellerino and then do, do a quick ranking every adventure game ever. Yeah. Let's do a quick rank. You want to do, you want to do maybe three.
Speaker: Okay, yeah, let's do it. Let's do that. let's What am I playing? Smelly Trunkarino? Smelly Trunkarino. And wait, before you do, why don't... Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoops. Nope, I saved What were you going say? ah Why don't we just say, why don't we like you said before, why don't we say our goodbyes? like like like Like we're doing a regular old episode.
Speaker: Final goodbyes. No, ah we are part of the Adventure Game Hotspot Network. Check them out. They have a bunch of cool stuff going on over there. They have some other cool YouTube series and podcasts and reviews on the site.
Speaker: ah You can check us out at on Instagram at Save Your Game Podcast. Yep, that's right. And you can email us, maddenroses at gmail.com.
Speaker: Yeah, please do. We love our Instagram, so got to get some art up there of Hanson Swanson. i promised him I promised him that I would draw a portrait.
Speaker: Yeah, he's been pissed. He's been he has been banging on the stairs nonstop. um I haven't actually let him out. ah He stopped banging a couple of days ago. maybe ah Did you check to see if he was alive or? No.
Speaker: No? Okay. Well, i was let's not find out. I was sick. I was sick. I was sick. I didn't feed or check to see if he was alive. All right. Smelly Trunkarino?
Speaker: Smelly Trunkarino.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. I'm Pushing Up Rose. This is my co-host, Matt Aukamp, and we are going to rank some adventure games. So this is the segment where we are attempting, we have a ah list of every adventure game ever released.
Speaker: i It's like 4,000 almost, and we are trying to rank all of them, even if we haven't played them. um So we're picking they are picked at random.
Speaker: um Correct, correct. Rose, give me a number between 1 and 10, but don't say 8. Seven. Okay. All right. So ah number 428 from 1996 from Sanctuary Woods Games.
Speaker: ah It is the video game Orion Burger. Orion Burger. Okay. So this game, I have played some of Orion Burger. Whoa, really?
Speaker: guys Yes, it's hard to get running. But I have played some of it, and it was a game that I constantly saw on Home of the Underdogs when I was younger. love the screen caps. It looks a little bit Broken Sword-esque.
Speaker: It's very 2D cartoony. And it looked awesome. It looked like a really cool space quest. You know what I mean? Yes. um That being said, ah when did play it, there was some letdowns.
Speaker: yeah it's hard to run ah it's one of those and it's difficult it kind of suffers from a lot of those things that adventure games from the mid 90s suffered from is very very difficult a little underwhelming but man I just i I don't know there's something I really like about it what do you think looking at it Okay, so this was a game I saw in a video game magazine. i have I only ever had like three video game magazines my whole life. um and I saw this advertised in a video game magazine when I was a kid. It might have been the same one that advertised Curse of Monkey Island.
Speaker: Oh, wow. or wait, not Curse. Either Curse Monkey Island or that the vague promise of Monkey Island 4. Okay. okay because i remember seeing some that in a magazine. Anyway, so I saw the like an advertisement for Orion Burger, an interviewer about it or something. And I was so, so excited. Yeah, it's one those.
Speaker: It's one of those games where it's like if you are an adventure gamer or a fan, you will like the aesthetic of this. Yeah, the aesthetic is really cool. It's like ah like ah like a cartoony like kid gets abducted by aliens and something about a burger.
Speaker: um And then something about a burger. And I was so excited to play it and I just never saw it come out. It just never appeared in my local like video game stores. okay And I, you know, and it wasn't as easy to follow developments back then. So I just never saw it and never got to play it.
Speaker: Right. Um, but it has a special place in my heart because it appealed to me so strongly back then. Um, it has, it has a place in my heart too, even though I don't think it's very good. i yeah, I've, I've, I've heard that it's not very good. Here's another interesting thing about it. A fun thing.
Speaker: Um, As of December 22nd, 2024, it is now supported by ScumVM. Oh, yay. I can play it without it, like, breaking. Yeah, I remember seeing this a couple days ago and being like, oh interesting.
Speaker: um So I would put it... i i don't think I'd put it as low as it probably deserves. I think I would put it in the top, like... You know, and this is because we've only ranked 80 games.
Speaker: Right. I would think I'd put it in the top, like, 30. Right. I would. Yeah. it's It's still an interestingly good quality game. um And obviously it has that nostalgic factor where we're both yeah remembering the excitement of of seeing it advertised. So I would put it in top 30.
Speaker: i might put it like man okay I guess it can't go here can it I was saying and not put it above portal Matt thinking about it I was thinking of putting it around clam man because it seems to it like feels ah like a similar sort of ah like I like idea but yeah then the one below clam man is an amnesia rebirth and I guess it would be really insulting to put it above amnesia which is a legitimately good game
Speaker: Well, let's put it below Amnesia then. Okay. So above Wavetail. That's fair. It's about two above Midnight Girl, which I think is actually a good place for it. I think that's a good place. Yeah. um Okay.
Speaker: Here is our... Ryan Burger. Oh, Ryan Burger. Here's our next one. 3,237. It's 2024 game. Oh, three thousand two hundred and thirty seven who ah it's a twenty twenty four game oh boy I know.
Speaker: i have not played it. I also have not played it. oh It is ah from Hyperluminal Games Limited. It's Pine Hearts. Pine Hearts.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. I don't know. but But this feels like... Okay, so I've been... ah Maybe this will be... This will not...
Speaker: This article will not be out by the time. This review will not be out by time by the time this episode comes out. but So I don't want to spoil it. But I've been working on a review for a game that came out last year that is similar to like Little Gator Game or A Short Hike.
Speaker: Okay. Which are these games where you're just kind of like a cute little guy who has like a very simple task and you run around a cute little funny world. love I love The Short Hike. Where, um and there's something, there's these these types of games that have come out since a short hike that have this sort of similar feel where it's like fun first and um not not too complicated of a story.
Speaker: And this almost looks like it fits that. And like so what I call those, yeah what I'm calling these now is ah playground games. It's like a little playground you can play in. right like like yeah Short hike. is like you There is an objective, but mostly you're playing in a little playground.
Speaker: yeah um and Same with a little gator game. it's just like yeah There's just a lot of fun little stuff to do. It's got a lot of good reviews.
Speaker: um Yeah, and people are saying it's a wholesome adventure, similar to a short hike, Little Gamer Gade. And it's got, yeah, it is said to be similar to a Little Gator Game um and the game that I am reviewing that I won't say.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, that being said... i It's always tempting to put these a little bit further down because they are more exploration.
Speaker: Yeah, they're not as much of an adventure adventure. But, I mean, that said, I just put it on my wish list. Okay, well, there you go. 20 bucks seems a little... don't want our podcast to be about this, but 20 bucks seems a little high this game. Yeah, maybe.
Speaker: um but anyway, so we'll we'll wait until it's on sale. ah sorry Sorry, Hyperluminal Games. um But yeah, I think...
Speaker: I think it's going to go in the half for me. half for me I'll put it in the top half, but... um Because and and immediately I'm like, I want to play this now. Okay, well, that's definitely speaking to to its trailer and and everything. yeah Okay, well, put it above something that you didn't feel that way about, where you looked at something and you were kind of impressed, but you didn't wishlist it.
Speaker: Okay, yeah, so it's that so then that goes ah probably ah above the...
Speaker: Oh, man. Okay, so that that's like around the... Okay, so let's... We're looking around the 40s. Okay, like We Were Here Forever is probably the first place, first game on this list where I'm like, no, I don't think I... Because below that's Will of Arthur Flabbington, which I wasn't like... I was like, yeah, it looks fine, but I don't i feel a need to play it.
Speaker: um but Below that was Anachronist, which I did play and was like, yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. um
Speaker: what Where do you think? So that that that would be like 37, below the Ben Jordans, above We Were Here Forever and Will Flabbington. I would put above Flabbington for sure.
Speaker: um
Speaker: I trust your judgment on this because you were you were more of a a cozy gamer than I am. um I wouldn't have even played A Short Hike if not, okay if you hadn't told me so about it.
Speaker: So you have more experience. So I trust your judgment on where put it. these sort cozy platformers. Again, what I'm calling playground game. Let's see if we can get that off the ground. Yeah.
Speaker: We'll see when my when my when my mysterious my mystery review comes out, if anybody picks up on it. Stop making fetch happen. Stop trying to make fetch happen. um All right. well don't we We'll leave it there then. i Sometimes I feel like I get more...
Speaker: um I get more say on where these end up on the list because I'm looking at the Because you're looking at the list. But however, I always say whereabouts it's going to be. so Yeah. Okay. Yeah. i just i don't want if I don't want you to feel left out. No.
Speaker: I knew where Orion Burger should have went immediately. So I'm glad I was able to ah communicate that. Okay. This next game I don't think came out. So I'm just going to delete it.
Speaker: Okay. I'm looking at the developer's website and it just isn't there. well Okay, so this game is by... this is weird. Okay. We've never seen this very a popular company ah appear on... This company just hasn't appeared on a show even once.
Speaker: Okay. It was released in 2014, and Ubisoft. Okay. and it's by youbisof Okay. Just Dance 2020. All right. It's called Valiant Hearts The Great War.
Speaker: well it is a 2D comic book adventure. and The story of four crossed destinies and broken love in a world torn apart. What? Okay. I don't like Ubisoft. It's great.
Speaker: It makes me sound like a capital G gamer, but I do have a real distaste for Ubisoft. And they're like, but but you know i think i think most people do. The way that they try to like pump money out of their yeah customers and they underserve. I really wanted to play p Prince of per Persia and the Lost Crown. Uh-huh.
Speaker: But I couldn't bring myself to like make a Ubisoft account. and So i like I bought it on Steam and then asked for a refund. Because I was like, I'm i'm just not going to. Don't even get me started on the Just Dance series and their servers. Because I will blow a gasket. But this game... This looks really good.
Speaker: This looks really good. This is a game that I think we would play. i mean, look at the overwhelmingly positive... it's got Over 22,000 reviews. thousand reviews And this illustration. It's got this illustration style. That's like pen and ink. ah But colored. That's really, really nice.
Speaker: um like I can't tell. and it's got like it It tries to make itself like a playable comic. Which yeah sometimes those kinds of games are really successful. And sometimes they're really not.
Speaker: yeah um But this looks it looks really good. And it looks legitimately kind of epic. And legitimately kind of heartbreaking. Yeah. I mean, I'm pro back to like, if I saw it on home of the underdogs, what would I think? And this is one where it's similar to Orion burger. I'd be like, yes, there's just no question that you would pick this up. Right. You would just yeah immediately.
Speaker: um But that said, we haven't played it and it is Ubisoft.
Speaker: So it's at the bottom. No, it's at the bottom. Here's so here's my thought. I want to put it by Orion burger, but continue with your thoughts. Okay, alright, that's fair.
Speaker: Here's my thought, is you know what we had this exact same reaction to? What? The game Legend of Hand. Oh yeah, Legend of... yeah, yeah. We looked at it and we thought, we've never played this game, I don't know that I'm gonna run out and play it.
Speaker: Right. But it looks beautiful, it looks like something that if we did take the time to play it, we'd be like, oh, this rules. Okay. So... My thought was if we put it below... My thought was... My first thought was, what if we put it just below Legend of Hand only because it's Ubisoft? So all it belongs below Cloak and Dagger games game. It knows its place. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Until you said that, I was going to say put it above it because I think graphically it is more impressive. But yeah because it's Ubisoft. And you I don't think you'd want to put it above Murder, She Wrote.
Speaker: No, I don't want to put anything above Murder, She Wrote. But that's just where we are. It's what we have to do. i think this is going to be one of those ones where we look back and one day we're going to have played both these games.
Speaker: Both Orion Berger and Valiant Hearts the Great War. And we're going to look back and be like, Why is Orion Berger 10 points above Valiant Hearts the Great War? How did Murder, She Wrote get up to number one? When did you it's um ah dude I think we should have an adventure game party.
Speaker: Okay. and Hear me out. Okay. It's only me and you.
Speaker: But that's okay because we'll save time that way because we don't want backseat gamers ruining our stays or whatever. So we're going to have a venturing party where we play the games that we say we want to on this list that we have. We'll order pizza. We'll get pizzas.
Speaker: Audience we haven't played but are above number 40.
Speaker: but um inexplicably put really high up our list.
Speaker: Dude, it's going to be the best. We could stream it. Your guinea pigs can be invited, you know, to this party because they're not Backstreet Gamers. What is Backstreet Gamers?
Speaker: Hold on. There has to have been a Backstreet Boys game. No. Let me. All right. It's Backstreet Boys. Video game.
Speaker: Puzzles in motion. Backstreet Boys. PC, Mac. Oh, um Is this just an electronic puzzle? Backstreet Boys Save Christmas.
Speaker: Video game. Oh, no. That's fake. that's okay i got say no Backstreet Boys Save Christmas is... um No!
Speaker: Hold on. I refuse to think that that's real. Save Christmas.
Speaker: Solve a Backstreet Boys mystery. Hold on. i now Now we have to. I i can't dear possibly move on with my life until I see if Backstreet Boys. It's on video game Fanon.
Speaker: So that's Fanon means fan canon.
Speaker: It was released in limited qualities and is now very rare. ah The game received yeah ah mixed reviews but has gained a cult following over the years because of its absurd plot.
Speaker: don't what to believe. It originally going to be an action platformer centered on ancient Japanese mythology but it failed to gain any interest.
Speaker: Corson Games...
Speaker: I don't know what to believe either. i mean i need to talk. You know what? We got to bring in the big guns. I got to talk to LGR. He has every game ever made. doesn't really, but he has a lot.
Speaker: I want to see if he has any intel. I have a feeling that this is a fake wiki. Yeah. um But wouldn't that be so cool?
Speaker: But listen, what is real is Puzzles in Motion from 1999. That is just the Backstreet Boys with puzzles, like is in a board game. It's just you do puzzles. You just put puzzles together. But it it is real.
Speaker: Games plus video plus music, it says. I want to put puzzles together while singing Quit Playing Games With My Heart. There's literally one page on the entire internet that contains Backstreet Boys Save Christmas and the word and and that it's got to be fake. All right. All right. Sorry to burst everyone's bubble. Somebody knows video game fanon.fandom.com and is laughing at us.
Speaker: Yeah. And is um but losing their minds that we are believing that we for a second believed that was real. We just wished and hoped that it would be. just wanted to play a Backstreet Boys video game.
Speaker: We just want to play. Yeah. Everybody wants to. Everybody. Podcasting is art. And artists suffer.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. Am I sexual?
Speaker: ah You're not supposed to answer. my All my boys are supposed to answer. Oh, sorry. Hanson Swanson, what do you have to say? All my heterosexual male friends are supposed to answer. but i what i ask When I asked the the boys, the group, when I asked the group chat, hey guys, am I sexual?
