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In 2005, Capcom released Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. Capcom made their entry into the world of High Definition gaming a memorable one, as Dead Rising was like no other game before it. There were a few years around and following the release of Dead Rising where zombies would rule the roost, as games from both large developers like Capcom themselves, Valve, and Activision, had games or popular game modes that had a heavy emphasis on zombies. This popularity also coincided with the rise of indie games on the PC market, and zombie games thrived there for a few years until fatigue inevitably set in. Most of the biggest zombie games and modes were first person shooters, whether it was Nazi Zombies from Treyarch's Call of Duty games, Left 4 Dead, or Killing Floor, running around and shooting zombies made quite a bit of sense.
Capcom is not known for first person shooters, and instead designed Dead Rising in a completely different manner based around what it did know and had recently experimented with. Dead Rising has a third person perspective where combat is more focused around melee weapons. Guns do exist, but they are clumsy to aim and not particularly powerful until the player has completed one of the most difficult challenges in the game, which unlocks the most powerful gun, and overall weapon, in Dead Rising.
Continue reading Spooky Plays: Dead Rising
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Hotline Miami is the game that got me to pay attention to the current indie scene. I had played some recent indies beforehand such as Minecraft, Geometry Wars, and its ilk, but this game really made me watch avenues such as Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter for indie or crowdfunded games. Hell, there's even a Suikoden fangame that I'm watching at the moment (are you even surprised by this?)
I've seen Hotline Miami described as a top down 'fuck'em up' by Eurogamer and that description is quite accurate. You play as a nameless character that the community has named Jacket as he wears a letter jacket. The gameplay revolves around slaughtering everybody on the floor you're running around on to a kickass soundtrack. Jacket wears a mask to disguise his identity, but each mask has a certain feature that changes gameplay slightly.
In terms of style Hotline Miami is a modernized version of the Playstation game Loaded, but with pixel based graphics and an even better soundtrack. You could point out elements to even old top down arcade shooters from the mid-late 80s like Ikari Warriors, Commando, Iron Tank, and many others as inspiration for some elements of design. Hotline Miami is more of a free roaming game though, with full movement and with the ability to scroll any direction you desire.
In terms of story this game can only be described as a stream of consciousness descent into sanity. The music is right at home in a dance club but some just feel deeper, and with all the face stomping and brain bashing it creates a unique dynamic.
The game even goes into a spin based on alternate timelines and how the story evolves from there. At a certain point in the game there's a confrontation between Jacket and a man wearing a motorcycle helmet. After completing Jacket's story the game switches perspective to the slain motorcycle man and lets the player control him, following the events until the confrontation with Jacket and showing what would happen if the motorcycle man won that fight and killed Jacket.
This version of 1980's Miami will leave you craving more. With a sequel on the way I am anxiously awaiting this follow up to a wonderful indie game that took some old ideas and made them stylish and new. It normally retails for $9.99 on a variety of platforms, from Windows, OSX, Linux, and with Crossplay support on PS3 and Vita. On the PC front it often goes on sale for $2.50, which is the price I paid for it. It was worth every penny.
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