Rabu, 11 Desember 2019

Mobygames (265)

Quantum Break
Quantum Break Windows Front Cover

 Quantum Break is a third-person action game with cover shooter mechanics. The game's protagonist is Jack Joyce and it starts in medias res at the fictional Riverport University, set in the Northeastern United States. He is there with his gifted brother William Joyce who works at the university as a physics scientist. They are experimenting with time travel and at the start of the game it is revealed right away that the experiments have gone wrong. They also cause stutters that affect the flow of time in the everyday environment. Jack needs to escape from the facility with his brother while soldiers arrive, attempting to cover up the disaster. His brother is soon taken away and Jack looks for a way to find him back, with the help of a woman called Beth Wilder he meets early. Jack, together with Paul Serene introduced later on, both receive different time-manipulation abilities through the experiments. They are initially best friends, but their powers take them in different directions. Unlike Jack, Paul has precognition and can foresee the future. He wants to get rid of Jack and Beth to be the only one who can exploit the powers.

The game consists of five large acts where the player controls protagonist Joyce. Between those five acts there are four episodes where the game follows antagonist Serene. These are presented as four episodes of about 20 minutes each of a live action TV series. They are watched, not played, but there are interactive parts to it. At the beginning of an episode there are "junction points" where major decisions can be made that influence the further events, leading to a branching story. Likewise, certain discoveries and choices in the acts, through 'quantum ripples', also influence the story in a minor way, so the TV series are not a fixed, identical sequence for every player.

In the acts Joyce needs to shoot his way through levels. The opposition mostly consists of soldiers who work for Monarch Solutions, a corporation founded by Serene, and hunt down Joyce for him. He can carry up to three different firerarms such as pistols, shotguns and machine guns, each with their own ammo type. However, ammunition is limited, encouraging players to use the many time-manipulation abilities or to shoot explosive elements in the environment to take out enemies quickly. Weapons can also be picked up from killed enemies. Seeking cover is done seamlessly when near a cover option, just through movement, and moving out of cover is done in the same way, without using an additional key or button. From cover it is possible to shoot around or over it, and pop out quickly.

Different time-centric abilities become available gradually. These mainly focus on defense and improved mobility and do not turn the main character into a superhero who is no longer vulnerable. In the later parts of the game enemies appear who have time powers as well or are much harder to take out, such as snipers. Joyce starts with Time Dodge to quickly move for a few metres. Others are Time Vision as a radar pulse to spot enemies through walls and highlight items in different colours, keep track of objectives, find glowing chronon sources and find places where time can be rewound. Time Stop sends out a wave that stops enemies and bullets caught in it for a short time, Time Shield creates a temporary shield surrounding Joyce stopping bullets and damaging nearby enemies. Time Blast and Time Rush are offensive moves. Blast sends out an energy ball that damages and throws enemies, while Rush propels Joyce forward quickly, as an improved version of Time Dodge, providing the opportunity for a melee attack. Except for Shield all of these can be used while moving and they each have their own recharge timers, so many of them can be used in succession as a combo of movement and attacks. The abilities can be upgraded over the course of the game by collecting chronon particles at chronon sources.

Not all gameplay parts are about shooting. There are also stutters in time that act as puzzle sequences. These sequences resemble mazes where everything is frozen in time. During these an ability can be used to restore parts of the environments to a former state, to create a passage to progress and incorporating some environment-based puzzle-solving used often. There are also many collectibles to locate in the acts, such as documents, computers and media, proving more pieces for the story.

There is cross-save functionality between the two platforms.

Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science
Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science DOS Front Cover  Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science DOS Back Cover

 The indian-originated space elf Quarky O'Ghandi and his sister Quaysoo organized a team Los Turbos to beat well-known Das Liquidators, Cool City Maulers, and Valiant Cube. Answering correctly on questions, you as member of Los Turbos must earn money to move between checkpoints, and to win a race. Movement between check points can be done using five different means of transportation. Each of them has its own price and time needed to reach the checkpoint - those cheaper are in most cases slower. A several won races raise your rank and add chances to win a Turbo Science championship.

The game has a very educational aspect. In each checkpoint the player has to deal with different physics terms and questions. There are two difficulty levels of question depending on the player's knowledge and experience. The game has also a strategy aspect - earning more money on earlier, easier levels may be crucial to the whole race. The player does not have to take questions at every checkpoint as long as he has money to continue the race.

Quest for Glory II : Trial by Fire
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire DOS Front Cover  Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire DOS Back Cover

 Trial by Fire is the sequel to Hero's Quest: So You Want To Be A Hero. It takes place in the town Shapeir and the desert surrounding it, in a Middle East-like environment. It seems that the powerful elemental spirits have been troubling the Shapeir folk recently. Something, or someone, is behind those troubles. It is the hero's task to find out what is going on, get acquainted with the many inhabitants of Shapeir, and prove once more that he is worthy of his heroic title.

Like its predecessor, Trial by Fire is a hybrid game that incorporates elements from adventure and role-playing genres. It has a text-based interface, puzzles to solve, inventory items, characters to talk to, as well as pure RPG elements such as character growth system and battles. Player character can be either a fighter, a thief, or a wizard, and can also become a paladin during the course of the game if he follows a strict moral code.

Real-time combat is presented on separate screens and offers more options than the previous title. There are several types of high, mid-level, and low attacks, as well as parrying and dodging. The hero raises his combat proficiency and other skills by fighting enemies, training, and performing various actions that influence the corresponding parameters.

Quest for Glory III : Wages of War  
Quest for Glory III: Wages of War DOS Front Cover 
 Quest for Glory III: Wages of War DOS Back Cover 

 Wages of War is the third game in the Quest for Glory series. It is set in the Africa-like world of Tarna, where the hero travels with paladin Rakeesh, his new Liontaur friend he has met in the previous game. Shortly after his arrival, the hero learns about the conflict between the human Simbani tribe and the seemingly malevolent neighboring Leopardmen. It is now time for our hero to become a skillful diplomat and prevent an upcoming war between the two nations.

The basic gameplay system is similar to that of the two preceding games. The game has an adventure-like structure and gameplay elements, including puzzles to solve, inventory items to use, and characters to talk to, as well as a role-playing system with combat and character development. As in the predecessors, the player character can be either a fighter, a thief, or a mage; in this installment, the paladin class is selectable from the beginning of the game (unlike the previous game, where the hero could only earn the title of a paladin during the course of the story). Saved characters from the previous game can be imported.

Like in the earlier Quest for Glory games, the main character's parameters increase directly after battles or by repeatedly performing various actions. New to the series is an overworld map on which the hero travels between locations. Hostile encounters may occur randomly while traversing the map. Combat system is similar to the predecessors, with real-time battles where the player selects various offensive and defensive options.

Graphics engine and interface in this installment are the same as in the remake of the first game: it has 256-color graphics and an icon-based interface which was used by Sierra for their contemporary adventure games.

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