Reply With QuoteHeh, I guess your "Der Schulde" special title wasn't enough to prompt you to double check game titles for spelling mistakes before posting a thread.
;)
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rezaf
Ok, I lie. Vessel is another indie platform/puzzle game. I have the feeling (independent of if it's true or not) there are already dozens and dozens of indie games with that combination.
Still, after playing for two hours, I have good vibes about this one, better than in comparison with other indie games of its kind (with the exception of Braid, World of Goo, and little else), so I made this thread.
The game distinguishing point are the puzzles using fluros (some kind of water being you can create or influence), water physics (and other type of liquids, i think), and misc. machinery.
It feels polished, interesting, somewhat original, I am seeing a every increasing variety of puzzles and situations, for now it's barely repeating puzzle types, having and it seems it will be long (for an indie game of this type). Even the backdrop of the setting is well done, an alternative world (around 19th century? beginning of 20th?) where a semi sentient water being is invented, and used as very cheap labor in factories... until accidents happens, thanks to a uncontrollable automations. Also, the "weird" art style (you have to play it, or at least look an hd video) is kind of cool and even the clunky ragdoll type animation/interaction is charming.
Game ($13.50) and demo here
http://store.steampowered.com/app/10..._7_7_151_150_1
Last edited by TurinTur; 03-04-2012 at 03:02 PM.
Heh, I guess your "Der Schulde" special title wasn't enough to prompt you to double check game titles for spelling mistakes before posting a thread.
;)
_____
rezaf
Tsk. Shit.
I know it's Vessel, it's just a misspelling. :/
RPS also likes it
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...-think-vessel/
Wessel looks good, but I have no time, sadly it will fall into steam sale pickup territory.
Can you tell me where the nuclear wessels are?
THATS THE JOKE.
Damn you people, not one of you have played it. It's a great game being overlooked.
I just found out that if you buy it from here
http://www.strangeloopgames.com/
(official site)
you have a drm-free version and a Steam key, and also it's cheaper for Europeans (13$ instead of 13€).
Last edited by TurinTur; 03-09-2012 at 04:54 AM.
This thread would be like me trying to persuade people to buy 1000 Amps. (which is also very good)
Vessel is on my wishlist, which means I will buy it at some point but just not now because I have far too many games on my backlog to be buying more now.
I really like these types of games(anybody play Rochard?) and the Giantbomb quicklook got me sold. I will wait for it on the PSN.
I am in the last area already (I think) and the game is still great.
I think the most important thing, its secret is, it's not a traditional puzzle game. Traditional puzzle games have one type of puzzle (more or less), and the difficulty of the puzzles increases over time. In fact, I don't like traditional puzzle games.
Here the game is more about having a big variation of puzzles, so the game always feel new, with a new mechanic always appearing. In the other hand, the real difficulty level of the puzzles is low, like for example in Portal 1.
So Vessel is really about the joy of discovery how a new puzzle works, about exploring and experimenting with them, and using a little bit of lateral thinking, but one you have done that, the puzzles themselves are very easy. At this point of the game I noticed that if the designer wanted to make really complex game he could do it, combining several types of Fluros, machines, and liquid in convoluted ways, but he doesn't seem interested in that.
Talking about Valve games, this game seems done Valve alumni, they really got the very smooth difficulty curve where the player learn every game mechanic bit a bit, in a transparent way without being grating nor using tutorial or spoon feeding the player with info. Lots of times you just walk in a new area and there are lots of clues of what the new mechanic is and how it works, and little micro puzzles let you experiment to see how you can interact with it, until finally the first type of big puzzle with that new features appears.
Turin's bang on the money. I reviewed it last week and in the comments section a regular asked a few questions and I responded with a similar statement to Turin's regarding the puzzle difficulty and 'composition':
"The challenge doesn’t come from old mechanics being stacked on top of each other puzzle after puzzle until you’ve got some sort of stewed spaghetti to untangle (which I kind of get the impression SpaceChem does despite its tight design and mechanics), it comes from new mechanics requiring new ways of thinking. Kind of like Braid and World of Goo ... To put it another way: unlike SpaceChem, Vessel is probably more about mental agility rather than mental strength and endurance."
It's a terrific game though and deserves as much attention as it can get. It's also got an incredible soundtrack by Jon Hopkins (responsible for the Monsters soundtrack).
Turin did you finish it?
Yep, I finished, good game. Maybe the final puzzle was a little vague in a pair of things, but overall a very good experience.
I hope I don't turn this into a SpaceChem thread, but this explains and confirms why I don't want to play this game. It's not what I need right now.Originally Posted by geggis
I was skeptical of Vessel as well. But if it's easy enough to take a quick tour, I might pick it up on sale sometime.
In general, I don't like puzzle games. I play them until I got stuck on a puzzle. I can't see the solution of the problem after a while, I lose interest... and because I know the following puzzles will be the same type but harder, it doesn't make sense to cheat in that puzzle and continue after that on my own, I would got stuck on the next one or in the one following.
Games like Portal 1/2, Braid, World of Goo, Vessel and a few other ones (mmm which ones?) are a different kind of puzzle games. More about... lateral thinking? More about new type of problems instead of harder and harder problems? Soft puzzles (somewhat open ended in how to solve them) instead of hard puzzles (one solution for each puzzle school of design) ?
I would like more of this type.
I really enjoyed the last puzzle. It took me some time to work out what I was supposed to be doing through a combination of experimenting and staring at those chalkboards. When I finally cracked it I was like "AHA! Gotcha!", and there it all ended very gracefully. Even the 'boss battle' just before was very nicely done.
More than anything I like how the game doesn't tell you what to do or how to do it, it just stands back and trusts you, revealing things in passing, expecting you to notice them, remember them, and use them to your advantage later on. A far cry from Bulletstorm which I completed over the weekend!
I'm a big fan of SpaceChem but yeah, it's a tough game and not something you can just drop into for a quick puzzle either. My girlfriend thought it seemed too much like hard work ("SpaceChore") but if you're willing to put in the effort there's a lot of satisfaction to be gleaned from your solutions/creations. It's certainly not for everyone!
I tried the demo, loved it, and bought the whole thing. Been playing for a few hours now and it's fantastic. One thing I didn't know going in is that the game uses the music from Jon Hopkin's Insides. But it doesn't just stuff the album in there, no, it strips out individual instruments and pieces of tracks and builds them up as you complete the puzzles, so your lever-pulling, nozzle-spraying antics are rewarded with increasingly dense crescendos of music. It adds a ton to the atmosphere and a sly little reward to beating the puzzles.
Anyway, awesome game so far. Definitely check out the demo, people!
Purchased directly from developer site. Appreciate the heads up.
I hope you enjoy it, Cold Blooded!
I also wanted to say one other impressive thing about the game, which is that the world is very consistent and physical. Like, there's this one part near the beginning where you have to avoid a blob of magma as it moves through a series of pipes. A classic platforming obstacle. But unlike a Mario brothers game, where pits just toss up their own magma ball every few seconds, in Vessel we see the magma enter the world and pass through each pipe. If you block a pipe, pipes ahead of you will be empty.
And the water creatures you use to help you are great. Watching water coagulate around a seed and then rise to wobbly life is awesome.
I haven't forgotten about this game, I await it anxiously on the PSN.
Hey look, RPS points out to another platform/puzzle game, and it seems of this type.
Being honest, this seems like 4 or 5 different indie games mixed in one. From the article, I recognized at least the mechanics of Braid, Winterbottom, and 'And Yet it moves'.But that’s not what the game’s about. It’s part of what the game’s about, but just one of very many different devices that come into play in its remarkable array of puzzles. Along with looping time travel, there’s alsosize-changing, multiple incarnations (playing with yourself, clearly), rope-swinging, teleporting, room-rotating, and many others. Which makes for a constantly changing set of challenges, each of which wants you to collect all the green jewels from a particular room.
You play as an extremely cute vampire bat, the eponymous Shuggy, exploring a spooky old mansion for… I’ve forgotten why, it’s not important. The game’s made up of five main areas, each of which contains around 24 levels of various types, with a number open at any time to attempt. Succeed and you can see your time on a shared leaderboard via Steam, while opening up a bunch more rooms to try.
What’s most impressive here is the constant variety. Even levels that use the same mechanic always up the ante, or remix how it works.
I am almost 5 hours in , and towards the end of the Factory level, the game is really fun and the puzzles do make you think. :)
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