I’m not a big Mega Man fan, but god damn if I didn’t enjoy Mega Man X on my SNES Classic. I like the concept of Mega Man games – fight through themed levels, tackle sub-bosses and overthrow robot masters to acquire their abilities, using them in future battles with other mechanical baddies. But for some reason – granted, it’s because my younger brother likes them and whatever he likes is poop – I never got into them. But I picked up an SNES Classic and decided to start with a game I’d never played. Using no walkthrough, no save states, and only asking my little bro a question or two about enemy weaknesses, I finished that game. My thoughts?
Old games are brutal as hell.
I’m going to keep my retro reviews short and to the point because, for the most part, digging deep on a game over twenty years old is pointless – countless others have beaten me to the punch. We’ll just tackle this rapid fire, like. To start, the game is difficult. Maybe that’s why I never liked Mega Man games? Too much trial and error? I know we live in a post-Dark Souls world, but “Get Gud” is not something I like as a game mechanic. Having said that, once you get the hang of the controls and the abilities, Mega Man X becomes a simple game of “platform to the right” until you reach those iconic double doors.
I’m a sucker for three things in my “classic” games: interesting boss battles, great music, and tight controls. This game nails all three. The boss fights are fun to figure out and a hoot if you unlock the power to topple them quickly and utilize it in advance. While the final boss trio (a dog, his master, and some kind of giant clawed machine) is a bit unfair, insofar as I lost so much health to that damned dog each time, the rest of the bosses are a treat. I much prefer this games approach to re-fighting the bosses. I know the classic series of games has a room where you teleport to each one in successions, but this game just makes the encounters part of the flow of the final levels of the game. I endorse this.
The music is great, too. The level select is a bit repetitive, but once you pick your level and you hear the standard enemy screen theme, it’s on. Each level features a more-or-less unique sound and if you say Storm Eagle’s stage music is shit I will burn your house down with you and your family inside. After this, it’s all about control. And X moves through the levels like he owns the place. Wall jumping, power dashing, charging your shots, and – if you’re crafty with your searches – finding the armor pieces, heart upgrades, and E Tanks scattered across the levels is a welcome surprise each time you stumble upon one.
I did not acquire all the upgrades, did NOT get the Dragon Punch, and absolutely had to fight the final boss(es) about thirty two thousand times. But when it was over and I avenged Zero and stopped the uprising, I know I’d played a solid – if not shockingly short (seriously, the levels end in about three minutes if you just keep moving) – game. I have also completed its first sequel, Mega Man X2, and will provide a review in due time. Until then, if you’ve never had a crack at this one, give it a go. Well worth the time, frustration, and cursing you’ll absolutely do. And if you hit a brick wall, just remember, keep bashing your head against it until you finally break through. The headache is key to winning.
The short version? Blade Runner 2049 is better than its predecessor by a wide margin, but will never be remembered due to the one thing it couldn’t do better than the Harrison Ford original: being first.
The long version? Well, that’s going to have massive SPOILERS.
I had a ton of reservations about this film, stemming mostly from the fact that there are rarely ever any good decades-later sequels. In fact, there are even more infrequent sequels that are better than the original film. I held off on this movie until reviews came out, even going so far as to telling my friends that I was actually angry that there were good reviews pouring in. Because it meant that I was wrong. And so, a few weeks later, I went and saw the film last night and it is just as much a wonder as the original.
The primary area that the movie succeeds where the first one failed is in the story. Blade Runner is rife with some narrative issues but prime amongst them is that, for a detective story, there is so very little detective work. In fact, its relegated to one long-winded and boring “Enhance” sequence. Past that, nothing. 2049 course corrects by having K (Gosling) do actual legwork. He hunts for clues, follows leads, reports in with his findings, and makes logic leaps that are backed by actual reasoning. It leads him to a brutal opening fight with Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista), the revelation that a skeleton belongs to a Replicant, to the revelation that he, himself, might not be what he seems, and – eventually – to discover the location of the long missing Deckard (Ford) in a dusty, gorgeous Vegas. There’s tons of stuff I’m leaving out narratively because its better if you see it, but the twists aren’t horribly convoluted and while there is one major Deus Ex Machina moment (or, should I say… Machina Ex Machina?), there isn’t anything horrible, here.
Everyone brings their A-Game on this one, too. Gosling is an incredibly convincing police detective with strife of his own, Ford brings a level of poise that I didn’t expect to an aging, bitter Deckard, and Robin Wright does a magnificent job with an otherwise empty role. But the standouts in this movie are the relatively unknown women. Sylvia Hoeks does such a great job as Luv that Jared Leto’s unapologetically uninteresting approach to her boss, Niander Wallace, is almost completely forgotten, and Ana de Armas as Joi, K’s girlfriend, both give standout performances that are intense, real, and curious to watch unfold. Past that there’s a short cameo from Edward James Olmos as Gaff, reprising his role from the original film, and it’s cute but mostly worthless.
The biggest shame in the acting? Leto’s turn as the primary antagonist is such a weak and bland role. Comparing it to Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty from the first film is meaningless, since the script never gives us a well-developed villain to be interested in. K’s journey is engaging but the stakes never feel real, both because we spend so little time with the “bad guys” but also because what time we do get is confusing, over-written, and over-acted. But, as I said, Roy Batty is one of the bigger issues with the first Blade Runner – the best character is the bad guy and the main character is bland as hell. This also means that when Ford DOES show back up, he basically gets/has to make the character up from scratch because there wasn’t much to go by, in the first place.
Past this? The visuals and the sound. And man, what a difference 30 years can make. While there are only shades of Vangelis’ original score here and there, the new stuff rom Zimmer and Wallfisch is astoundingly accuracte and – more to the point – more atmospheric that I’d expected. And the sights you get to behold while on this adventure are breathtaking. The city of LA is as dirty and dystopian as it was in the original, but the new locations are amazing. As I’d mentioned, the Vegas scenes are astounding and a wonderful contrast to the darkness of the city. The original film never had much in the way of daylight, but 2049 eschews this while maintaining it. It opens in daylight, but outside of the city’s limits. Any other sun is outside the confines of the grime and the dirt. You could make a claim that it is in these scenes that “Life” is the theme, but to get into that would spoil too much of the film.
The callbacks are few, the tongue-in-cheek references are sparse, and the pace (despite being approximately 45 minutes longer than the first film) never lets you disconnect from the film. There’s always something interesting happening on screen, even in its quieter moments.
While the original film will always be remembered for changing the game and the landscape for science fiction – and, honestly, all of cinema – with its effects, its style, its mood and atmosphere, this film earns a place beside it as not only a better story with more engaging characters, but by building off the very things that make the original such a classic and landmark piece of film history. It won’t be the favorite, in the end, and that’s a shame. Because while Blade Runner 2049 is very clearly not as important a film in the history of movie making, it is so much better as a whole. And, truth be told, its important currently because it’s a high concept, effects driven, smart science fiction film in a franchise that isn’t a retread or soft reboot. It builds off what came before in the proper way. More movies should follow this one’s lead.
But instead I saw a trailer for a new Pacific Rim film before this movie and so I know better.
If you don’t know who Poppy is, well. You might never, really. Or, maybe, we all will. At this point it is too early to tell. Well, YOU will know about her, since you’re reading this currently, but… ah, well, I’ve gone and wasted a paragraph.
My relationship with Poppy is fairly recent, a little over a month ago when I stumbled on a lore video and followed where the source came from. What I found was about 200 videos ranging from just weird to oddly comical, from strangely prophetic to downright off-putting. Eventually it is revealed that Poppy is a singer and she has been recording pop songs (get her name, yet?).
Through careful examination of the videos, her songs’ lyrics, and all of her public appearances and social media, it becomes clear very quickly that Poppy – and her manager Titanic Sinclair – are simply living art pieces, meant to showcase how vain and stupid pop music is, how crazy people get about celebrity status (both obtaining it and worshiping it). How far this message goes will vary on a person-to-person basis, but she is hugely popular on YouTube for a reason: she is unnerving, her videos are short and well made, and the music, in the end, is catchy as fuck.
Sorry for the long preamble, but now that her first full album is out, I felt it wise to really give a fast-and-dirty look at the two year history that brought us to last weekend when poppy.computer hit digital store shelves. And, now that its out and I’ve listened to it, what do I think?
It is fucking ear candy.
The opening track, “I’m Poppy” is a great introduction piece to the album and the artist as a whole. It has the upbeat synth sounds and the infectious beats required for a great pop song. It is also a great litmus test: if you can’t stand this song, you won’t make it far in the album.
The music continues to be catchy as hell and is about a wide-range of surface-level concepts such as loving computers, cell phones, and pop music as a whole (sometimes personified). Other songs are literally just about how great Poppy is and how great it is to be Poppy. But the lyrics themselves are mostly throw-away. Examples include these gems from the penultimate track, “Software Upgrade”:
“I turn you off, I turn you on,
and off and off and on and on
and off and off and on and on and on”
and the regretfully lamentable
“You never make me any food,
And you are never in the mood,
So come on baby tell me,
Are you gay?”
But despite this, I challenge you not to get the hooks in “Let’s Make A Video” stuck in your head. And your heart:
“I love you when you’re happy, I love you when you’re down” will be stuck rattling between my ears for quite some time. Equally catchy? All of “Interweb” – despite its minimalist take on a Gaga-style track. But there is something genius about “I forgot what my password is… maybe its Password123” due both to the insanity of that being a lyric and, well, Poppy’s infatuation with numbers throughout both this album and the lore up to this point.
There’s some weak stuff in the middle, namely “Fuzzy” and “Moshi Moshi” but these still have energy and spunk to spare. While they won’t be the album’s most played tracks, they for sure still fit the themes and message of the album as a whole.
By the acoustic closing tracks, “Pop Music”, though the gig is up, or should be to an attentive listener; Poppy (whose real name is Moriah Pereira and she’s 22, but not as young as some people creepily wish she was) can sing. And that’s the real joke on all of us (and all of those buying her music). Many people come to see Poppy’s videos and listen to her songs because she’s weird, creepy, and/or they find her cute. But if you come to this album and get past the (intentionally) shit lyrics, you’ll find there’s something there.
This album is fun, energetic, mysteriously devoid of anything that comes off as “fake” and is a hilarious jab at pop musicians today, from Lady Gaga to Taylor Swift. If you don’t think this chick is on to something, you’re wrong. I wager we’ll be hearing more and more from her, Titanic Sinclair, and Charlotte the mannequin (yeah, that’s right) in the next few years. I just can’t believe they’re getting away with this, because if they are successful then we, as consumers of this product, will have taken part in one of the craziest, most in depth art experiment I’ve ever seen or heard of, especially in my lifetime.
And Poppy will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Added December 19, 2017
Fixed a couple of spelling errors and also want to amend a previous statement by saying “Moshi Moshi” is a great song and anyone that says otherwise is a liar and I will fight them.
I have an odd relationship with “Torment: Tides of Numenera” (henceforth simply called “Torment”).
*Loose Spoilers to Follow*
I never played CRPGs, really. I tried to get into “Planescape: Torment” back when it came out, back when I thought any RPG would basically be FFVII (my first real RPG) but I learned very quickly this was not the case. I’ve tried “Baldur’s Gate” and – even more recently – “Pillars of Eternity” which I even backed on Kickstarter for some reason, despite not really enjoying that type of game. The thing is, I want to enjoy it. I like an RPG that really sets me in the world and explores how one person can change and effect so many things.
Modern RPGs (“Skyrim” or “Fallout” or even “Final Fantasy XV”) don’t have this feel. As these once-niche titles move into the world of Triple-A development, certain sacrifices need to be made, namely that of “consequence gameplay” – by this I mean, in “Skyrim” your decisions are extremely binary, extremely localized on one spot or character, and have no lasting, major impact. You pick a faction in the war and you change who inhabits some castles and forts. But nothing really changes in the game, no drastic alter universe stuff in one playthrough or the next. At the end, you’re still gonna yell at an ancient, time-stopping dragon in heaven until he disintegrates. This is so that players of the game don’t ever miss out on any content in their 100+ hour game. Most average consumers will only play something that big once and they want to be able to see and do it all. This cuts corners and makes the impossible, possible. How can the highest rated assassin in the land also be the chosen dragon slayer, the most daring thief, a friend to all the governing bodies across multiple cities, explore alternate realities, and be married and own three houses? The answer: so one player can see every last bit of content.
This creates a feeling in me, as a player, that I’m not really living in that space. If “Fallout 4” has me searching for my son in a world that is alien to my character, he should never once stop and go “thanks, Preston. I will go check on that settlement again”. But “Torment” reassures me that all the over-abundance of content and narrative dissonance doesn’t hamper every game, and with that long winded into, let’s get into why “Torment” was exactly the game I wanted while still being mostly mediocre.
For starters, I played this on a PS4 (yes, yes, with a controller. Pitchforks and torches you say…? Hm…). I had a blast. Right off the bat the game presents you with a completely different RPG gaming experience than I’ve been used to for some time. It is text heavy, there is very, very little voiced dialogue, and there is no choice wheel for decisions. Instead you have a list of options and some of them are radical. Case in point, depending on what you do in the opening minutes of the game, you simply and brazenly die before you even get control over the character, or even see what the character looks like. Hell, you even get a trophy/achievement for doing so. All because you can make a choice that is outside of a morality system or a simple “I’m a serious person/I’m an angry person/I’m a sarcastic person” options presented in most games.
This kind of decision making is on point throughout the experience and when I say you can’t save everyone, I mean it. A choice early in the game might mean someone is simply dead later and you’ll never see their quests. Sleeping too many times during a murder investigation means – surprise! – more murders happened in your absence. Buy a slave and free him, help him get a job. Will he show back up later and dramatically alter a sequence of events out of love and loyalty to his savior? I mean, probably, but I’m not going to spoil the details, here.
This bleeds into your interactions with the companion characters, who are all interesting and unique, but sometimes you have to work to find and utilize them. One bloke from early the game left in anger and though I could re-recruit him later, I left him alone. Fuck that guy, he didn’t trust my judgment. And there is supposedly a whole character I never even ran into. And the people you do quest with have backstories and choices to make as well, some of which are minor as hell but others have huge implications, like whether or not they basically become a god. Sometimes your choices will have your party members vanish from the game entirely, far earlier than you’d think. This is because the game world has consequences and is frank about it.
Past the choices, how do I feel about the game? Uh, mixed. Very, very mixed.
Visually the game is stunning. The world of “Torment” is bizarre, grotesque, beautiful, nasty, synthetic, alive, and rapturous. Given the nature of the story, this all makes sense, but when you’re in the bowels of a creature one second and the next you’re in a sleek, silver alien ship overlooking the purple surface of distant planet, and you understand that the only thing separating these two combating visual styles is a load screen? You know you’re in for a wild ride. This also allows for an insanely diverse number of different characters and models, though some of the finer details are left to imagination and text windows. The audio is also great. Most of the voice acting is par for the course and the music and sound effects are fantastic. I’ll never get the sound of causing a shift in Tides out of my head.
But that’s it for praise. Everything else is a negative. The story of the game is so esoteric and dense that – for once – I used a game’s built-in codex to remember names, places, and events that were crucial in the early hours and are coming back now, 40 hours later (total playtime was 46 hours, rounding up). I understood the story (of fallen gods, grieving parents, and outer-dimensional forces of nature) and I enjoy doing work to dig into a narrative, but this was too much with a ton of filler. And while I did say that the companion stories were interesting, it’s unfortunate that they all end up boiling down to “A or B” as far as their endings. Granted, almost all of these choices were neither “black or white” but still, they all end in similar ways: let them go or ask them to stay. It was disappointing.
Short version: There’s a dude named “The Changing God” and he’s been around forever. People love him, people hate him. He’s called this because he changes bodies. But when he leaves one body, it becomes a Castoff, a living, thinking, new entity with wants and needs of its own. The player is the Last Castoff and it’s his job to understand his place in the world at large, amongst the other remaining Castoff population, and why an extreme negative force named (seriously) The Sorrow is hunting them down. It’s fairly standard fantasy/sci-fi stuff, but there is an interesting series of layers underneath that make it a touch better, though none of this is extremely well handled.
Gameplay? What gameplay. I enjoy a game that lets me outthink my enemies, and this game has some wild examples that. But it all rests on virtual rolls of a die, as well as proper stat placement for the build you want. Let me break that down. You have three main stats: Strength, Speed, and Intellect. Depending on how you want to play through the game and its many, many encounters with skill checks, you’ll dedicate most of your energy on one of those three. I spent a near infinite amount of points on Intellect so I could weasel out of fights and it worked. Sometimes convincing someone I’m god, other times bending an entire living city to my will. It was neat. But when the game forces you into combat, you are screwed if you don’t have the right party members to supplement the stats you didn’t increase. Granted, this is a game with few Game Over instances (when you die you are removed from the world and can go back whenever you’d like) but that ends up making for a tedious experience. And don’t get me started on stealth options. Going through a massive bug next to sneak out eggs was a joke. I just slaughtered everyone.
And as much fun as being a boy genius was, by the end of the game I had so many levels and abilities that far-reaching conclusions with dire ramifications for the known universe were simply mine to make if I wanted, there was no chance I would fail when I could just 100% every decision I had to make. This removes some tension and risk that really highlighted some of the crazier bits from the early hours, where a mistake never meant you lost the game, but that maybe that poor outcast you wanted to help will get lynched now, instead.
I got nothing out of equipping Numenera, ancient devices with wild, crazy abilities. I usually just sold them. I didn’t use Oom, the free DLC character, at all. I really didn’t understand how the Tides worked or why my game came with a map of places that aren’t in the game. Maybe they are? I dunno. I hate that you can never go back to a previous location once you leave. I really, really wish more of it had been voiced. And the main plot, while incredibly interesting, is cliché ridden and trite on the surface and half-baked at its core. Some of these complaints are based on my play style and, sure, that’s a plus (“play it your way!”), but certain gameplay mechanics, like the devices mentioned, are poorly explained and feel cumbersome rather than curiosity-inducing.
I don’t think I will play this game again, though I will think about the world and the people in it for a long, long time. The plight of the Last Castoff is one I’ll likely to never forget, and that’s a good thing. I just wish the rest of the game rose to meet its world’s greatness.
I’ll keep this one short and sweet, unlike the game itself.
I’m a fairly large fan of the Mass Effect trilogy. Not so big a fan as to own the comics and novels or anything, but a big enough fan that I defend the third game (post-Extended Cut DLC and stuff, anyhow). I don’t say and would never posit that the game(s) are perfect, but that as an experience that moved from game to game, this was a solid series of titles and I was happy while I experienced them and, even still, happy when I think back on them.
I wasn’t happy playing Andromeda and I don’t think I’ll look back on this game with any feeling. Not because the game is terrible, but because it is unmemorable. That’s the real kicker. Say what you will about ME3 and the color choices at the end and blah blah blah, but that game likely sticks with you. Possibly because of its spot in a greater whole of the franchise, but probably because of the decisions you made with the Genophage, with the Geth, and the relationships you got to advance with your crew, present and past.
Mass Effect Andromeda has nothing of note to remember because anything that COULD be interesting has either been streamlined, poorly written, or executed in a way that its over before you even got a chance to really digest it.
Let’s get the positives out of the way first, though.
Off the top, the game looks great. Forget what you’ve read from anyone saying the game looks worse or – at best – the same as the first games in the series: they’re full of it. Andromda takes a faulty, aging looking art aesthetic and brings it to the modern age. Granted, I played this game after months of extensive patching so I never saw the stone faces, the awkward running glitches, or any of that. When I played the game over the last month it was just fine. The planets, space, the layout of interiors, everything was very good looking. Uninspired and limited at times, but good enough for me. The new species, the Kett and the… selkath? What was Jaal? Well, we’ll cover this in a bit. But they are very, very uninteresting. I like the original species and most of the character models on everyone are unique enough to differentiate them from afar.
The sound design and music are just fine. Boosting the speed on the ground vehicle, after you’ve gotten the upgrades on it to let it really take off, is a thrill each time. This is a better version of the Mako in better playgrounds for you to explore. Thumbs up.
The combat is actually really great. I like hopping into the air with a sniper rifle and just blowing people away, even if the act makes me a huge target. I don’t care. While the leveling system is a bit too simplistic for my taste (if I’m being honest, though, it is much better than ME2 and 3’s systems), it allows for pretty easy management of skills, equipment, and powers. You’ll never be bored of your options. And although some portions of the game feel like your bog-standard Gears of War-style cover shooter, its usually fine because you have about 20 dudes coming your way, sometimes multiple factions at once. This can create some tension, though I never really worried about health or the health of my teammates throughout the campaign.
And… that’s about it for quality things to discuss.
Negatives? Again, it was fairly boring. I like that the story seems less “end of the known universe”-y, but it still seems fairly pedestrian. I don’t like the Ryder family, I don’t like that my dialogue choices are all lame and lacking in any real development for my character, and I REALLY don’t like the party members you can collect along the way, with the exception of Drack because that guy is basically just an older Wrex and Wrex was awesome.
This game has been out for a good long while now, so I won’t get into specific story beats because you’ve either played it or read enough reviews that cover it, but the Archon (the game’s main antagonist) is lame, the hunt for a new home seems boring, and the narrative dissonance that runs rampant through the 60-hour (or less if you don’t care about side-missions) story is too thick. There is an emergency distress call from one of my outposts? Better hurry and finish this mission about getting snacks for a movie night. Oh, snap. I got those snacks and someone else wants different snacks. Hope that outpost can hold out for another few days while I zip around the galaxy for a bit.
I know it isn’t fair to dock points from an open world RPG when it has silly quests for character development and team building, but when I don’t care about my crew before these types of things and I REALLY don’t care after them, spending hours upon hours on side quests to raise viability on a planet before seeing to a distress call seems… extremely artificial.
And the loyalty missions? Mostly just the same thing over and over again. Go here, kill a room of goons, flip a switch, kill a room of goons, see the crew member’s nemesis, kill a room of goons, cutscene. These quests are not memorable and, like I said about the name of Jaal’s race, most of the game suffers from a lack of memorable bits and/or pieces. I know, now, that they are called the Angara, but I had to look that up. I knew all the races of the first game before I’d gotten half way because I listened to the codex entries and they were memorable species. Also, where is the narrated codex? Man, I miss that.
By the end of the game I was tired of playing it. But I was so close to being done that I couldn’t just quit. I knew, before I started, that there was no DLC and a long wait for further Mass Effect adventures, so I went in open minded and with every intent to experience it for the game it is, not the game I wanted it to be. But I failed because the game just didn’t have enough “meat” for me to enjoy. Too many side-quests, too much back-and-forth quest tracking, lame party members, and an uninspired story lacking in any real stakes.
Sorry, Bioware. I won’t be buying your next game at launch. Probably not for a few months, if it gets solid reviews. I need those patches in place, guys.
SCORE: Uh, 6/10? I don’t know. Maybe a 7 if you factor in the interesting story beats that set up more game story in the future. If they ever wrap those threads up, anyhow.
Also, bonus .2 points for the first Architect fight I encountered. I hate that they weren’t unique per planet, but the first time one was flying in the background and I drove forward having no idea what to expect? Worth some of the hassle of playing the game. So, final score is 6.2/10.
Blech.
Added September 12, 2017
Updated the review with another image and to speak a bit more about the crew members and loyalty missions.
“Life is Strange” is an odd game. If you’ve played a title from Telltale (“Walking Dead”, “Batman”, “Game of Thrones”, etc.) then you know what you’re getting, here; a walking simulator with choices and things to click on and learn about. These types of games usually appeal to me because I am, at my core, a story-loving gamer. I enjoy competitive games or online experiences, but at my base what I’m really interested in are stories and the methods they are told. My top ten games of all time are all predominately single player experiences (with some multiplayer aspects present, but optional). Now, I’m not trying to hype this game up a ton, it is not close to my top ten or probably even in my top fifty titles. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth talking about.
“Life is Strange” is broken up into five chapters, similar to a Telltale experience, each one a complete story but a broken-up piece of a larger narrative. For example, the first episode is mostly about discovering a new power and reconnecting with an old friend, another episode is about figuring out if said friend’s stepfather is as big a creep as he seems, and so on, while the main overall story is, well… much deeper than that. You control Max through this, a student at a prestigious school who has returned to her home city after years of being away. She doesn’t have a ton of friends, has a seemingly incredible – albeit extremely nerdy – talent, and listens to tons of indie rock. Basically a hipster all the way around. She runs into her old friend Chloe who is now a punk rock loving stoner and, well, the pair run afoul of drugs, violence, breaking and entering, impossible weather phenomenon, super powers, and serial killers. All while trying to solve the mystery of Chloe’s missing friend, Rachel.
“This game blows” – no it doesn’t, I just wanted to make a joke.
Again, gameplay isn’t very strong in this kind of game; you mostly watch a scene play out, have a few options for things to say in a conversation, then you get to walk around a setting and interact with people and objects in the world. The game’s “hidden collectibles” are photo opportunities – there are ten per episode, and they range from very obvious to kind of difficult to figure out on your own (I’ll admit, I looked up a few). Sometimes interacting with a person yields a situation where you get to make a decision, like intervening in an event, offering an opinion to a classmate, or making an observation. These “actions have consequences” and “shape the story” but only insofar as they might be referenced later or might have some minimal level of significance at a later time. Mostly, they’re just there for completionists to say they made a choice every time they got the option to.
The big draw of this game is actually plural. First and foremost, is the rewind ability. Max wakes up from a dream at the start of the game after a horrifying vision of a large whirlwind ripping through her town on a dark and stormy night. After this she excuses herself to the restroom and eventually witnesses a tragedy. This event sparks a change in Max which allows her to rewind time, now able to undo certain events and make difference choices. Think of it as save-scumming as a game mechanic. You can prevent the tragedy and now move on with the story, but you can also now make a critical decision, see how it might play out, and then decide to go back and make a different choice. Or you might make a choice, learn new info, and then you can rewind it to use that info to your advantage. You can prevent a classmate from getting hit with a football. You can put the moves on someone and see how they react and maybe change your mind. You can cheat in class by learning the right answer then going back and using it. You can avoid a dangerous situation by taking a different path. Options are always present, and though you are often limited by a set amount of time you are allowed to rewind, you are usually never stuck with a decision you didn’t want to make and can almost always undo it and take a different set of actions.
The other major selling point for “Life is Strange” is the story and the friendship between Max and Chloe. I don’t want to spoil anything and I don’t want to delve too deeply into the unsettling twists, the engaging plot devices, or the crazy choices and time travel mechanics that present themselves the closer you get to the game’s fantastic finale. No, even though this game is a few years old, it is worth checking out for yourself to discover these characters and their setting, their grief and their challenges. What I will say, though, is that the game never force-feeds you the rekindling of the two leads’ friendship. Strained as it might be at first, you get a real feel for where Max and Chloe are coming from, their similarities, their differences, and why the two have a connection that – despite their diverging path in life – can’t be broken by time or distance. Even though Chloe is a bit rougher around the edges and even though Max is a bit more shy and naïve about life, boys, and other aspects of late-teen life, the two complement each other wonderfully. It makes for great laughs, great tragedy, and great suspense, all while telling an out-of-this world, over-the-top story. And the resolution to their story in this 10-14 hour game needs to be seen to be believed, even if it all boils down to a few single choices rather than the grand sweeping promise of “all your choices matter” most games like this put forth.
What else can be said? Visually the game is nice, not awesome, not consistently gorgeous. But when the art team gets the chance to showcase their abilities with a limited engine, sometimes “Life is Strange” comes out of nowhere with a set piece that will wow you. Almost the entire back half of Chapter 5 is a sight to be seen, and even though it’s not the most realistic storm I’ve ever seen in a game, almost every time you see the giant whirlwind approach the town from the coast, it can be breathtaking. The character models are hit or miss, mostly due to textures and resolution. I understand, again, that this was a limited engine and what they accomplished with it is fantastic on its own, but the lip syncing, the way hair looks like plastic sheets, and the way some characters have dead eyes can be off-putting. Thankfully, despite the plastic sheet hair issue, the main pair of girls look and move realistically enough to not distract from the story being told, and everyone is distinct enough to tell apart.
There are a few late game twists that don’t really stick the landing for me and one sequence early in chapter five that seems like wasted time. And while I understand the need for both the lame twists and the dumb sequence, it seems like they could have done more to either set up said twists, or done more with the lame sequence. I’m being sparse with details and that’s because both the twist and the sequence are essential, it is just because of the writing that neither feel like they are. But if removed, it would destroy the magic of what comes later. And that’s the game’s biggest setback: it tries too hard to reach the ending that it fails to do the legwork in advance, properly. It is like they had an outline, wrote the start and ending, and then just kept the bullet points for most of the biggest moments. And that’s OK, in the end, because the opening chapters and the end of chapter five are so good, it doesn’t matter, overall, that these moments happen. I just hope they can expand on their abilities when they make whatever it is they are making next.
The voice acting throughout the game is great. Max is, sadly, the only character I ever felt was weak. Not awful, but absolutely the weakest amongst the main players. Chloe, Mr. Jefferson, Victoria, David, and even lesser characters like the girls in Max’s dorm or the school janitor all bring their A-Game to the table. It’s a treat and it helps tell a compelling story. And when I said Max was the weakest, I still don’t mean that as an insult. There are examples of downright charm in her delivery, be it the examination of a rival’s secret nerdy obsession for action figures, her disbelief at her dialogue options in a fourth-wall breaking moment, or the way she sounds completely different with Chloe’s stepfather depending on choices she makes to hide or reveal secret truths. And the closing moments of the game ring true between her and Chloe’s voice actresses, Hannah Telle and Ashly Burch, respectively. Overall, the voice cast does a great job with solid material.
The only other thing to talk about is the music which was fine. I’m not a huge indie fan by any means but I get that these characters would be (Max, for certain) and so it works with the story and the beats within. The opening song, when Max first puts her headphones in to walk the halls of Blackwell Academy, is a great example of allowing the song to play with the setting and integrates into the gameplay well by never breaking from the immersion of player control. It doesn’t stop until you get to a point where Max would stop listening to it, it isn’t just a cut scene playing out. This level of realism is maintained throughout all five chapters and usually only breaks from the pattern for montage sequences showing multiple characters in the game world at different locations.
Do I recommend this game? Yeah, I do. If for no other reason than the last half of chapter five, which would be awful without everything leading up to it. Let’s just say that abusing time, reality, and the cycle of life and death begins to take its toll on more than just Max and some wonderful questions come up that aren’t so much answered as they are left for the player to ponder. I finished this game on Wednesday, a few days ago, and I’ve been stuck thinking about it and debating with myself over whether or not my choices were sound or the actions I took with Max and Chloe were the right ones to take. In time, the game will likely be forgotten in the enormous pantheon of titles I’ve gone through, and when I eventually compile a new Top 100 Games list in the future, I highly doubt that this game will be present and accounted for. But, and I mean this seriously, if I was to create a Top 100 Moments in Games list, “Life is Strange” would have a few that would probably be able to break into the top 50.
All in all, “Life is Strange” is an odd little game. I played the first chapter right when it came out back at the start of 2015 and found it mostly boring. I thought I’d figured out the story and the twists early on, but boy am I glad I gave the game a second chance this year. Find the game on the cheap and take a weekend to “binge” the game like a Netflix series. It is seriously good enough to warrant it. Never going to need a second playthrough, but I will likely get the prequel series that starts later this year. And I’ll be interested in seeing whatever else these developers put out in the future because, while I love my Telltale games and my “Walking Dead” series in particular (CLEM 4 LIFE!), this game took different risks and hit me, emotionally, way more than any game Telltale has ever put out. That’s worthy of note. And worthy of your time.
FINAL SCORE: 8.2/10
Additional Notes: I figured out the bit about spirit animals way later than the game probably wanted me to. Like, I figured it out while writing this review. If you read this and THEN play the game, you might be like “duh, Skyler.” Hell, you probably could figure it out without being told there is something TO figure out. I’m an idiot, sometimes.
Also, there is so much “Twin Peaks” in this game, from the small town setting, the seedy underbelly vibe, and the mystery surrounding a down-home girl with a dark secret, just like Laura Palmer. Add to that a few direct references, like a “Fire Walk With Me” graffiti tag to a license plate that literally spells TWNPKS or something like that. I don’t mind homages to stuff, but a little more subtlety goes a long way.
Added August 30, 2017
Added this to new Category: A “Review” with a sub-category for “Video Games”
Got tickets for Kansas City yesterday. Good seats, too! I’m pumped.
Today, the Gorillaz app has been running the album nonstop, front to back, minus the bonus tracks from the Deluxe edition. Here are some immediate, song-by-song thoughts:
ASCENSION: A fantastic opener, I can see this one dividing fans and newcomers immediately. Vince Staples is abrasive and so is the “SKY’S FALLIN’ BABY DROP THAT ASS ‘FORE IT CRASH” over-and-over. But get past the initial shock and you’ve got the adrenaline boost that reminds you – oh, yeah – this is a Gorillaz album. Possibly an acquired taste, Ascension has some politics, a catchy beat, and a decent chorus.
STROBELITE: The first real Gorillaz song on the album, this is possibly my favorite on Humanz. Peven Everett’s vocals never fail during the song, though I bet you anything Damon wished Bobby Womack was still around to do the vocals on this one. The beat on this is infectious and if I use that word a few times during the course of this review, I’m sorry but the album itself is like a disease you catch and don’t want to get rid of.
SATURNZ BARZ: Man, I love this track. Had never heard for Popcaan before but I’m a fan, currently. Similar to how I got into the guest acts from Plastic Beach, I imagine I’ll be investigating a lot of new sounds.
The beat on this one is incredible and a toe-tapping-to-full-body-dance groove. The chorus is great, nothing to dislike on this one.
MOMENTZ: De La Soul, natch.
Like all their other Gorillaz tracks, Momentz is fun, poppy, and catchy as hell. Not quite the quality of either of their previous collaborations with the group, it falls short by having some odd female vocal choices. But the beat maintains throughout and gains it enough points to keep from being awful. And when De La Soul comes back as the vocals at the end and the groove starts getting all Sonic 3…? Gonna be a lot of clubs blasting this one.
SUBMISSION: The first track that doesn’t sound like a Gorillaz song at its core. Kelela does an admirable job on main vocals, so it isn’t that the song is bad, it just feels like a random pop song. Catchy, good hooks, but not inherently a Gorillaz track.
I enjoy Danny Brown’s rap. Reminds me of Booty Brown from Demon Days.
CHARGER: MAYDAY!
Grace Jones for some reason, because why not? I like this one for some reason, but I imagine my interest will fade as its pretty much repetitive noise. Does earn points for being the second song I like to feature a woman saying she’s gonna “take you for a ride” over and over again, though, after:
ANDROMEDA: Best track of the album? Quite possibly.
Between this and Strobelite it is quite difficult to determine which has the better beat, but this one is pure Damon and its the thing this album is sorely missing. While I like almost all the guests on this album and the job they do, I end up missing the days of a primarily Damon album, though I suppose that – as a “virtual band” – the goal of this group was always to be more a cycling lineup? I dunno.
Having said that? Andromeda is great.
BUSTED AND BLUE Back-to-back Damon vocals. Always a good thing. This one does sound like it would be better suited to a solo album rather than a Gorillaz release, but not so much that it feels “off” – its pretty, somber, and dark. And I love the Kelela backing vocals and the storm sounds.
The “all my life” repeat lyrics from Saturnz Barz is fantastic, too, and a subtle threat through the album as a whole.
Actually, I’m listening to this as I write this very sentence and, you know, this song is awesome. A stand-out.
CARNIVAL: Dark, eerie, and creepily inching along, this is one that will grow on the listener the more times they revisit the album. Having said that, I can easily see this being a “forgotten gem” on an album of slam dunks and home runs.
LET ME OUT: I’m glad Damon is leaving the BEEP BEEP BEEPs in instead of using Obama and Trump’s name on this because it makes it cute if you know what it means but it also allows this standout track remain timeless.
Having said that, its the weakest Albarn performance, which – thankfully – there isn’t much of him on the track.
One of the more political songs on here, aside from – obviously – Hallelujah Money, Let Me Out works as a great follow-up (directly) to Carnival because of the slow creep and as a companion piece to Ascension.
SEX MURDER PARTY: This isn’t what you think it is, based on the title alone.
It takes a bit of time to really get into the song, but once it is there, it. Is. There. The slow build is totally worth it in the end and I hope this is a single just for the video we all deserve.
SHE’S MY COLLAR: Man, I love this one. A dark, infectious beat. The techno groove is damn great and features the best of Damon’s lazy vocal style on the album. The music is constantly threatening to just overtake the vocals until the guest, Kali Uchis busts in. Her style is way more dreamy and syrupy, but the whole thing is just great. Gonna be a favorite of many people, I’d wager.
HALLELUJAH MONEY: Ben Clementine is a weird choice and this whole song is strange. I don’t hate it, but its the most skip-able thing on the album. He has a great voice, but I have to say that this is just a nearly full-stop, a roadblock of politics and snail crawls.
The back half makes up for the first half, somewhat, but not enough to save this. The worst track and that’s a double sin because there isn’t even a close second on that list. This keeps the album from being an immediate masterpiece like Demon Days was.
WE GOT THE POWER: Overly upbeat, this would be my second least favorite track on the album, but the gap between this and the previous track is almost impossibly huge. It is going to be way more amazing live, probably the biggest contrast between studio to stadium. It is trying to be Don’t Get Lost in Heaven and Demon Days from the latter’s title album and it doesn’t quite make it.
Having said that, its still catchy. And infectious. Not really on the second claim, but I wanted to use the word, again.
OF NOTE: For some reason Ben Mendelsohn provides the narration during a handful of interludes between tracks. So you have this guy on a Gorillaz album and that’s amazing:
No Dennis Hopper but, then again, who is?
Overall, I’m super happy with this one. I love Plastic Beach, its probably my favorite of their albums (not their best, that’s obviously Demon Days) but I like this one right off the bat faster than I liked Plastic Beach, which took some time (I HATED Empire Ants for way too long, as an example, and no one should hate Empire Ants. Actually, here’s a live version of Empire Ants:
Your welcome).
But seriously, this is a great album, I’m excited to blast it at my house, excited for the Rag’n’Bone Man track from the Deluxe edition, and super pumped for TV appearances.
Oh, also, for Kansas City in September, baby! WOOP!
Added August 30, 2017
Updated title to add to new ‘A “Review”‘ category, placed it under the “Albums” sub-category. Added tags.
It’s actually dishearteningly disappointing, by the end, but more on that in a second.
What started as a “universe-building/sharing” spinoff to FFXIII, 15 used to be called Final Fantasy Versus XIII and was slightly different as a story. But time caught up to the development team and, eventually, they needed a fifteenth game in the franchise and, well, they had a lot of assets going nowhere. And behold! FFXV was born.
Gameplay-wise, it is a sharp right turn from the norm; real-time based combat, single player control (though you can issue commands to your party members – who almost never switch out, aside from narratively important moments – such as special moves or using items), and a huge open world with side-quests, hunts, and the like. Imagine FFXII fused with the most average-to-slightly above average parts of The Witcher 3. Gone are random encounters, turn-based combat (though there is an option for something similar which is pointless), and the god-awful linearity of FFXIII (though this returns, somewhat, in the game’s final portions).
And this change is to the game’s credit: FFXV’s world is gorgeous to explore, interesting to traverse, and full of stuff to do. A lot of is same-y, yes: hunts get repetitive and some of the quests are the fetchiest of fetch quests (seriously, there are a pair of “types” – one is giving repair kits to broken down car owners, the other is providing healing items to injured hunters. These require no skill as you have a shop in your car that sells the items, so you find a guy on the map? Just buy the cheap item and hand it over). But some of the quest lines with voice acting and interesting characters offer unique challenges and a variety of objectives, such as dungeon crawls, photo assignments, and hunting for rare gems. These side stories help flesh out the world and offer you reasons to make repeat trips to old locales, or to head further into the depths of dangerous areas you wouldn’t normally go.
Then there’s the car. FFXV offers the Regalia, an automobile you will spend a ton of your 100ish hours (I ended up at 98 and change, doing a ton of side content but not touching post-game stuff aside from getting the flying version of the Regalia for a trophy). In it, you can blast classic FF tunes, take leisurely drives to objectives on the map, or spend time customizing it at Cindy’s garage in Hammerhead. When it can fly, after you beat the story? It’s an amazing feeling. Noctis does say “where we’re going we don’t need roads” and it was so on the nose and dumb that I chortled violently.
The story, though, is where this game falters. You play as Prince Noctis and his three pals, Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio. These guys are awesome and some of the best developed characters in games (aside from Prompto, who is fine up until a late-game rescue reveals a ton of information on him that is wholly irrelevant and unnecessary) and they are great companions for the journey. You really get a solid feel for them as the game progresses.
But the primary issue I have with the game’s story is that so much of the necessary info is tucked away in supplementary content. There was a short, multi-part anime series (pictured above) called “Brotherhood” that gave backstory to all the Chocobros and delved into the start of their journey a bit. This is essential because you don’t have any idea how these characters met up or why they are friends or how they get along in the game. You are simply told.
And then there’s Kingsglaive:
This is a full length CG movie that takes place in-between a couple of the first chapters in the game and it is essential. See, you are supposed to be getting Noctis to a wedding with his childhood love, Luna, but while on the road, the “Evil Empire” invades Insomnia, your kingdom, kills your father (the king, picture above) and steals the Crystal, a magic power source that is ill-defined and never well explained as to its meaning. You watch this movie and so much of it makes sense, but then you play the game and, well, very little of it matters. The Crystal, the Emperor, Nyx (a member of the royal guard) and his sacrifice, all of it. It’s pointless and is only a plot point: The empire invaded, your dad is dead, now what?
From here it starts narratively devolving into “get the god’s blessing” but each time you go to meet one (these God’s are classic FF summons like Shiva, Titan, Ramuh, etc.) the Empire shows up and kills them at the same time… but you still earned the blessing so you can summon them… even though they are dead? You come across Shiva’s giant corpse late in the game but after you look at her dead body in the frozen wastes you can still summon her, and she plays a part in the story, she does things. I don’t get it.
You invade the Empire’s capital city and defeat the Emperor but he’s already a demon, some of the bad guys you’ve done battle with are already dead or dying, and then there’s Ardyn.
This is the real bad guy. Or is it Ifrit? I don’t know. Who cares.
His story comes suddenly and in such a massive info dump in the final chapters. And let me stress: up until the meeting with Leviathan, this game is open world. You can go wherever and do whatever. As many hunts, side quests, level grinding, fishing, etc. I spent nearly 100 hours on this game and probably close to 70 of those were in the first half. Once you tangle with the giant sea serpent, the game goes full-on FFXIII Corridor. You can leave the corridor and return to the world you were exploring at inns and stuff, but it is a chore and sometimes the inns are spaced so far apart – narratively – that you go a few chapters with no option to return to the side quests. And the chapters are faaaaast. I think it was 10 and 11 that I finished in, like, 40-50 minutes. That shouldn’t be the case.
The final showdown with Ardyn, Ifrit, and a bunch of powerful monsters is also muddled by a ten year time jump, more linearity (you go back to the open world but you are forced to get a ride from an old friend and then escorted in a straight line, more or less, to the ending) in a World of Ruin (FFVI callback that is weak as hell because you don’t see ANY effects of this world state, you’re simply told). And then you finally use the Ring, the focal point of the Kingsglaive movie, you meet the spirits of the former kings – including Noctis’ father – and then… they just kill Ardyn and the game ends. And what was Ifrit doing there? Who knows.
Forums extrapolate on this story a ton and that’s great. I love reading fans delve deeper into the narrative of great games. But when some of these narrative choices are so esoteric and require so much game exploration, supplemental materials and texts, and some guess work, that’s not good enough for me. I have a general sense of what happened, now, because of the dedicated work of people who care about the game much more than I do, and the first 3/4 of the game made complete sense, so this game has a story that is better told than XIII’s, but – man – that ain’t saying much.
All in all, FFXV offers a ton of fun stuff to do (there is so much post-game content: secret dungeons, hidden weapons, massive monsters to hunt and kill, etc.) and when you’re adventuring, you’re going to have fun. The combat is simple and snappy with depth for those wanting more to do than simply pressing one button to win, it has some confusing puzzles to work out, and it has some genuinely interesting characters. I just wish the writing staff had had more time flesh out some of their plots. This could have been the best.
As it stands, though, it is a solid game, a great look ahead for the franchise, and – who knows? – Square-Enix has already added content, offered explanatory DLC, and promises that the game isn’t dead after release, so we might see more depth added in the months and – possibly – years to come. I’m excited to see what else this world has to offer and will gladly come back to the game in the future to do some post-game adventuring when I have the time.
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
Side Note:
The soundtrack to this one is awesome. Not talking about the CD’s for the car featuring classic franchise tracks, but the game’s score. It is relaxing at times, it is engaging at others, and mysterious when it needs to be. And the combat themes are all great. No single standout track, but that’s fine. Sum of its parts and all that.
Added August 30, 2017
Updated the post to reflect the standard format showing ‘A “Review”‘ and added appropriate tags. Fixed a couple of typo-type issues.
I love Max Barry. Always have. His first novel, “Syrup” is one of my all time favorite books. Its going to be a major motion picture, soon, but I don’t really care about that, much. Because I wanted to see a movie based on “Jennifer Government”, his second novel. While its not as entertaining or well loved as “Syrup” it does have an appeal to it, a certain level of character that I always felt lent itself better to a film adaptation. Same could be said about a comparison between it and his last book, “Company” – another funny novel that I enjoyed a ton, but didn’t need to see a movie of. Having said this, seeing Barry’s work turned to screen would be a fun experience and, while I’m always wary of big screen adaptations of books I like, I would still see any of these films.
NOT “Machine Man”
Barry’s new novel, about a man who begins discarding his organic limbs and replacing them with ones he designs and builds himself, is his greatest work to date. I want to stress the importance of this statement, here. If you were to make me write a list a week ago and rank my favorite books of all time, “Syrup” would be #1 and then I’d have to think about the rest of the numbers. Its funny, its quick, and its got such heart and character and love. I love the h-e-double hockey sticks out of that book. But “Machine Man” changes the game, moving Max away from the strict comedy genre he flourishes so well in, and finally showcasing him as an author who can really do it all.
I’ve read a ton of reviews that state the book is a “one-sitting” kind of narrative. That is to say, once you start, you won’t put it down until you’re done. This is (mostly) true. I spent a good chunk of a 12-hour day at work reading through this, off-and-on, but even when I wasn’t flipping through the pages and diving into Max’s exquisite word-play, my mind was racing, trying to think of what Charlie (the main character) was going to do (or have done to himself) next. I was in the break room, taking my lunch, and Lola, Charlie’s love interest, has something tragic happen to her. In retaliation, Charlie shouts at the man responsible – a guard named Carl – who had opened up to him previously about his fiance, and a book he loved. The line Charlie shouts, “That book sucked! That stupid time travel book!” caught me as so goddamned funny, I busted out laughing amongst my fellow staff members. I was enjoying Max’s signature wit so much, I didn’t even care.
Then Lola talked about her dad. And I was sunk.
I would never suggest that I “bawled” in the traditional sense, but I did put the book down and wipe a few loose tears from my eyes. And then I proceeded to call Max Barry a dick on Facebook. And a monster, I think. What a jerk move. Making me experience a number of emotions in one narrative, getting me attached to the characters. When Jennifer Government is struggling and shouting at Billy NRA to help, using all of her power to convey her anguish and sorrow, I didn’t get worked up once. When Scat was at rock-bottom and frustrated, I never really felt his pain. I usually laughed at it. Here, Lola Shanks and Charlie Nuemann, two fake as can be characters living in an over-the-top fictional fantasy world, have touched me. I was moved.
I could go on and on about how cool the story is, or how awesome the setting seems. I could talk about the severe and brutal simplicity of the section where Charlie meets The Manager. I could applaud the action-packed finale for paragraphs. But the moment Lola opens up about her father, I felt a connection to the text. It was uncanny, unexpected, and undoubtedly the best moment in the entire experience. Not to say, of course, that the rest of the book was weak in comparison. Far from it, in fact. But – no pun intended – it was the heart of the story, for me. The moment these two characters understood each other, and I understood them. It was magic.
It was $%ing magic.
Give the book a fair shake. For some stupid reason (that I haven’t found an answer for) it is only in paperback so its pretty cheap. And its at any of the normal book seller locations (aside from Borders because, well, they got owned to death by Amazon). And, of course, check Barry’s other works because they’re also wonderful. But “Machine Man” is now the place to start. Or, no, to stop. Its so good, you might not think his previous works are even interesting. Read it last. Or, now, its out now. Just read this book. Oh, fie! Now I don’t know what to recommend!
I just know that no movie would ever capture this books essence. I hope they never try
Rating: 10/10
Additional Thoughts: I hate the cover. I voted for #4 (back when there was a poll on Max’s site) because it looked classy as hell. Been saving that for when I read the book, thinking it’d be worth it to see if the cover matched the content. It didn’t. I will be printing my own cover (note: never going to print my own cover).
Added September 27, 2016
Never did print my own cover.
This was a great book and possibly his best.
I keep waiting for whatever is next, though.
For the casual film viewer, resolution is essential to the narrative. Its what is most desired in a film, the knowing that you are on a journey with the characters to a conclusion. The range of genres in this medium are all dangerously tethered to this idea, that you must start from A and get to B, and that B must be a clear enough road that it makes sense when you get there. I say “dangerously” because it is dangerous; the idea that there must be a mold for film making leaves nothing to the imagination after a point. We begin to see the same movie made, time and again. This is because of something I fear is true; the casual movie-goer does not want to part with money to be challenged, but simply entertained.
“The Limits of Control” is a film that aims to present that challenge, rather than the entertainment. In it we are presented with a man who is never named. He has a face that has been washed clean of emotional reaction, and eyes that stare at everything from the city streets of Spain, the ceilings in his hotels and trains, and the strangers he comes into contact with. He is not a mute, but a carefully spoken assassin, a man that is on a task that is never described, never detailed, and never made the focus.
This plays itself out like the bits between the action scenes in a classic film noir; we aren’t shown daring chases, love affairs, or the tension caused by gunfire. All of these moments are presented to the viewer, hinted at but never dissected: a blonde woman is whisked away, a former contact of our protagonist, but he never gives chase; a parody of the classic “femme fatale” – a bespectacled beauty in high heels and nothing else – is ever-present and never touched; a revolver is seen, pointed, and removed from play.
While it may not seem it, the film is a thriller, albeit one without these standard (if not derivative) tools often utilized by film-makers. They are not essential to the narrative, one that keeps it pace slow and steady, never rushed or racing to a finale that many viewers will crave or feel must be imminent before the film reaches its halfway point. They would mangle the cool, the mystique, the surreal. They would distract from the sights, the sounds, and the feelings of the main character’s journey, the things he is taking in, and keep us from taking them in as well.
However, while the main character’s destination is not ultimately the reason behind us taking the journey with him, the film betrays itself, somewhat, by presenting us with that ever-so-longed-for conclusion. Here we have the journeyman meeting with his mark. A long series of matchbox notes, twin espressos, ancient guitars, and longing stares at a beauty swimming in a pool of cool liquid seductiveness leads to a single second, perhaps the films only second, of real action. And then its over. The reason, the why is realized and a sigh of relief can come from those that required it.
While initially bothersome, it struck a chord as to the final reason for the film itself, the why of it all. The target of our protagonist – an important political figure referred to as only The American by way of credits, seen with an American flag pinned to his lapel – is so well protected that our protagonist lets slip a momentary show of concern; he can’t get to the target, the walls are too high and the men surrounding are too well armed. Yet a moment later, there he is, wire in hand, ready to deliver the killing stroke, without a sequence showcasing his bold execution of the perfect infiltration.
“How did you get in here?!” the American exclaims, panicked.
“I used my imagination.” Says the assassin, following the advice given to him by his employer, two hours prior (in viewer time).
And there it is, the reason. The why. Some viewers may not indulge long enough to get to it, lacking patience that is required. They will ask who these characters are, what they are doing, why they are important, why they should watch. What the point of it all is. And it is here that writer/director Jim Jarmusch presents his challenge, both to us as viewers, and to other film makers. To use imagination and penetrate the impenetrable, to examine things differently than we normally might, to take the brave step of not needing to know “why” or “how” but simply be thrilled at the uncanny nature of simple experience. If we can do that, then we our expectations are no longer “controlled” but instead our own again.
The movie begs us to think our way through to understand its narrative, if we so desire, or to simply let the sights and sounds wash over us. It demands our attention if we are to trudge our way through the veritable bevvy of un-named characters and conspiracies, or to let it wander to the simple art of a flamenco dance performance, much like our protagonist. It asks that we risk the comfort of knowing the form and structure of film and instead allow ourselves to indulge in something outside our normal interests.
In the end, it shows us that when our expectations of film is constructed to continually take in regurgitated plot devices, stock character archetypes, and unimaginative cinematography, we are left destitute and without the ability to comprehend a challenge presented to is. If one didn’t use their imagination, this film would be an affront to their senses. The must think. Or, the opposite is true, and they must let go completely and simply enjoy aesthetics, viewing the film as a slide-show put to elegantly scored music, never searching for a deeper meaning to it all.
This is the challenge. It is done so in an abrasive and overly pedantic fashion, but Jarmusch’s point gets across.
Added January 27, 2017
I should watch this again. But, then again, it is so dense that I don’t know if I could willingly dive back in.
Having said this, this review is solid and I stand by it to this day.
Added August 30, 2017
Fixed the title formatting to match the standard for all my ‘A “Review”‘ style posts. Added appropriate tags.
skylerbartels 