Metaphor serves not only as one of the most used concepts in just about every medium imaginable, but also as the basis for entire works of art. Whole paintings are often metaphors for the artist's feelings or background, and movies can link chains of symbolism together to represent some more abstract concepts. Games can go further by inviting the player into the metaphor itself through interactivity, conveying difficult real-world problems like illness and societal inequalities. The trick to creating an effective metaphor as a game is to be subtle enough with your themes so they don't overwhelm the playing experience itself while simultaneously ensuring that the game still communicates the themes clearly. Sym, a platformer inspired by social anxiety, fails on both counts, leaving us with a clumsy, confusing experience whose bright spots are muted by rough design and heavy-handed themes.
Boiling down what Sym is about is simple: You play as a person trying to escape the prying eyes of other people by escaping into a world where they can't follow you, one where you can be alone. This is reflected in your experiences by your ability to sink into the floor and emerge upside-down on the other side. Suddenly, what were once solid platforms become empty space to move through, and vice-versa. Occasionally, you run into switches that cause blocks to appear and disappear in patterns marked with arrows, and, of course, you have to avoid enemies and hazards. However, most of the game's identity lies in its dual nature, forcing you to think about how far you need to progress before you have to switch orientation. Mapping out the correct path to the end is the most engrossing part of the game.
The words and phrases that litter levels can be a bit much.
Sym's mechanics falter when they're put to the test, however. The floaty jumping mechanics don't match up well with the frequent pinpoint platforming you're required to do. It's pretty difficult to land on a patch of safe ground only as wide as you are with the amount of control the jump physics allow, and not in a good way. Compounding matters is your character's hitbox, which extends past your actual body ever so slightly. You'll die by drawing too near a saw blade without ever actually touching it. And then there are narrow shafts you have to fall into at just the right angle or else get stuck awkwardly along the edge. The levels themselves are interesting thanks to good use of the orientation switching mechanic, but that's the only bit that works as advertised. These issues are small, but they add up, sucking away the promising potential Sym initially displays.
But its biggest failing is in how it fails to convey anything meaningful about its inspiration from social anxiety. You can see the obvious starting point for the extended metaphor in the central mechanic. Sinking into the floor is synonymous with hiding from the world's prying eyes as they try to drag you out into the light and consume you. What developer Atrax Games is going for here is pretty clear because of the game's very literal interpretation of these platitudes. The first set of levels features giant eyeballs that stare at you without trying to hurt you. In these levels, only environmental hazards, like sawblades and pitfalls, can harm you. Later stages have actual enemies that will kill you, like carnivorous plants that spontaneously grow out of seeds you see on the ground or hungry beasts that pace back and forth looking for a meal. Even the people you meet later on prove to be foes, pulling you out of your hiding place in the ground as you dissolve in a fit of social paralysis. It's all very on-the-nose, but you can see a vague character progression as fears intensify and you careen towards either finding friends amidst your anxiety or hiding away forever.
Arrows sometimes serve as a loose guide, but also indicates where moving platforms appear.
Though the game practically screams its inspiration at you, it has nothing coherent to say about social anxiety. The levels feature the aforementioned allusions to a hazardous world you must hide from, but everything else is muddled. The levels themselves rarely tell any sort of story on their own. Instead, anguished phrases are used to fill in the gaps where the game's thematic design drops the ball. But these also confuse any thematic ties the game manages to establish by reading like a moody high school student's musings scrawled in the margins of a notebook. That in itself is a cool idea, and it goes with the pencil-inspired graphics. But they don't reveal anything or lead the themes anywhere except to depict anguish for anguish's sake. Until the game splits off briefly into two different sets of final levels, the messages convey the same depth of pain and panic throughout. In fact, they sometimes border on incoherent ramblings not dissimilar to the stereotypically exaggerated dialogue you'd hear from a schizophrenic person on an episode of Law and Order, which matches poorly with the meager thematic progression the levels suggest. It's confusing, distracting, and occasionally insulting to those who suffer from social anxiety.
The few themes that do come through loud and clear--hiding from social situations, the fear and consequences of being caught in one, and the eventual message that finding and sharing the connections and burdens between people is the beginning of the answer--all would make a fine foundation for a game like Sym if they were handled with more subtlety. Likewise, the erratic writing plastered everywhere contributes very little, actively obscuring any sense of progression the themes try to develop. Even when divorced from its themes, Sym manages to be mildly entertaining but just shy of a competent game thanks to the many small yet significant design flaws you have to work through. Most disappointing, though, is that Sym manages to successfully convey nothing enlightening, moving, informative, or even coherent about social anxiety. Hiding may be a central mechanic in Sym, but obscuring your meaning to this baffling degree is never the answer.
The game also offers an online mode, in which you can test your ped-crunching skills against actual humans, who are smarter and deadlier than any CPU opponent. Here you are privy to all game modes, save Classic Carma, with the only major change being that resetting your vehicle takes three seconds instead of happening instantly. I didn’t get as many hours into the online portion as I wanted, mainly because I rarely found a game with people to play against.
So, with poor performance, stiff controls, and relatively dull game modes, I suppose the only thing Carmageddon: Reincarnation has left to offer is its dazzling sense of humor. Perhaps I have simply grown up, but I no longer chuckle at splattering dumb pedestrians against the hood of a digital car, with heads and viscera flying in all directions. I remember playing the original Carmageddon in my youth, giggling at a flying severed arm or three as I tore down a street. It’s all the same in Reincarnation, and I can’t get over how tame it feels. It’s not just that other games do violence better; this is the game’s humor, and it just doesn’t cause a reaction. During your travels, you will also spot a phallic-shaped building in the distance or hear frightened people screaming on a runaway elevated train as it tears around a city. There are rare chuckles, and I am not completely humorless, so hearing my car squeezing out a mine to the tune of a gurgling fart as it pummels disco-dancing bovines did provide a short laugh. But there isn’t much beyond that. After playing for a few hours, the humor was all but spent, as was much of the game.
Carmageddon: Reincarnation has the same flavor as the Carmageddon of yore, but not much attempt has been made at a revolution. It’s the same as it always was, and that isn’t exactly a point in its favor. Mowing down hundreds of the same meandering pedestrians demonstrating the same lousy animations is no longer as fun. Some games today, such as anything from Saints Row, do a much better job at car combat, racing, and killing heaps of pedestrians. Instead, the only thing Reincarnation actually achieves is standing as a reminder of how far gaming has come. The vehicular manslaughter of thousands of listless fodder swiftly falls into tedium after only a handful of hours, long before reaching the end of the game’s surprisingly lengthy 16-chapter campaign. The rose-tinted glasses are off; I was glad to have experienced Carmageddon all those years ago, but that’s where it should have remained.
Lincoln Chafee, the man gamers may know from his involvement in the 38 Studios controversy, has announced that he's running for president. He announced his bid for the Democratic nomination this week during a speaking event at George Mason University.
that brought 38 Studios from Massachusetts to Rhode Island in 2010.
Blizzard's free-to-play card game is adding its first new hero since launch. Rather than functioning as a new class, this $10 hero serves as a cosmetic replacement for an existing one.
Magni's card back
Dwarven king Magni Bronzebeard is coming to Hearthstone to take the place of the existing Warrior class character, Garrosh Hellscream. Like other new heroes on the way to Hearthstone, Magni costs $10 and provides you with several ways to distinguish yourself in-game without impacting gameplay. Blizzard makes it clear that new heroes don't offer new cards or hero powers, and thus "are not considered new classes."
Instead, playing as a new hero replaces your hero portrait, as well as your hero power animation. They also add new emotes, voices, themes for the play area, and a unique card back, the latter of which can be used with any deck.
Magni's hero power animation
A release date for Magni was not announced; Blizzard simply stated he'll be "coming soon." There's also no word on how soon we can expect the next hero, or whom that might be. Based on the switch from a Horde character to an Alliance one, we might also be seeing similar switches for other heroes in the future.
"Ultimately, it's a game for the same folks who still cackle with glee whenever there is a new Sharknado, or that still watch Snakes on a Plane," reviewer Justin Clark wrote. "The joke is in the premise, in the title, and it won't stop winking and snickering with you for hours on end. But all it takes is one moment of clarity, one second-guess 'why was I laughing' for the whole thing to fall apart. And in this game's case, all it has to do is remind you of how irksome it can be and often is to go from being a goofy joke to a serious headache in a flash."
Based on the trailer, we do know that a dog will apparently play a significant role, and that familiar Fallout trappings like Vault-Tech, bobbleheads, and the iconic "war never changes" line are all here. It also looks as if Boston will be the game's setting, and as you can see in one of the screenshots above, the Mysterious Stranger appears to be making a return.
For more, check out our trailer breakdown in the video below.
Valve today announced the launch dates for the first official Steam Machines, as well as the Steam Controller and Steam Link. You can now preorder all of these devices, and by doing so, you can potentially get your hands on them early.
All of this will arrive on November 10 in the United States, though you can begin placing preorders today. For a limited time, if you ($50), meanwhile, aims to make it possible to play PC games with a controller that were only designed for a keyboard and mouse.
The first trailer for the upcoming movie Macbeth has arrived, giving us a first look at Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in their lead roles. It's a powerful trailer. I've watched it twice so far.
Marvel: Contest of Champions developer Kabam has announced Star Wars: Uprising, a mobile game set in between Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Star Wars: Uprising is pitched as an RPG that allows players to create a unique character and embark on missions to develop skill while collecting gear.
Although the studio has released a teaser for the game, there is no actual gameplay in the video. It is currently unclear what the gameplay entails, though expansion on December 1, while everyone else will get to play it on December 7. This content is themed around upcoming movie Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.
Competitive gaming company Electronic Sports League, in partnership with ReedPOP and Twitch, has announced this year's ESL One, a tournament featuring eight of the world best, wraps up in August. At the time of writing, the prize pool for The International has surpassed $10 million.
Watch extended gameplay footage from Hatred featuring the Giant Bomb crew.
This week on Reality Check, Lucy investigates how developers use middleware like SpeedTree and Umbra to create video games.
Watch extended gameplay footage from Magicka 2 featuring the Giant Bomb crew.
