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baepsaesbae · 4 years

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Personal Galaxy

Pairing— Jungkook x female reader

Genre— SMUT, Fluff, Established relationship au

Warnings— Explicit unprotected sex, slight exhibitionism (they’re outside), oral (m receiving), mild swearing, fluffy boyfriend vibes that will make you love Jungkook even more

Word count— ~4.1k

About— You and your boyfriend, Jungkook, decide to go stargazing as a special treat for your anniversary.

A/N— Happy Birthday Jungkook! This was a collab with @goldenclosetnetwork for their Golden Closet Net Jungkook Birthday Project. I hope you guys like it, please let me know what ya think! (also this beautiful banner was whipped up in record time by the marvelous @kimtaehyunq)

After college starts, summer is no longer a relaxing season dedicated to lounging around and goofing off with friends. Unfortunately, now summers were filled with internships or temporary summer jobs. You got the short end of the stick though, as your summer was going to be filled with summer classes. Along with taking summer classes, you had to deal with the grueling heat. Walking back and forth from your classes to your dorm was quite an ordeal, as the sun drained you of all your energy.

Your only solace of not going home was that you were close to your boyfriend, Jungkook. You guys started dating towards the end of the spring semester, so the relationship was somewhat new. He was nothing but incredibly sweet to you, and you honestly could not believe you were dating him. From what you observed, he was basically perfect.

At first you thought he was a little shy, but when you got to know him, you soon realized he’s just a huge lovable dork. He loved gaming, and bragged about what his rank in League of Legends used to be (platinum, he was in the top 8% of all people who played). You tried to take him seriously, but you couldn’t help but laugh. You didn’t laugh because you were making fun of him, you laughed because he was just too cute. You adored the way his eyes twinkled when he talked about what he was passionate about. He would get lost in his own world and ramble on before he realized you were still there. At that point he would reach out and pull you into a hug and ask about your day.

After a long day of listening to a boring chemistry lecture, you finally got back to your dorm. You freshened up with a quick shower and collapsed into your bed. You were about to drift off when your phone starts to buzz. It was a video call from Jungkook.

“Hey baby what’s up?” Jungkook beamed on the other end. It looked like he just got out of the shower too.

“Hey Kookie. I’m done with class for the day. Have I told you how much I hate chemistry?” you groaned in response.

“Plenty of times. In fact, multiple times a day. Can’t blame you though. You can relax when I come see you this weekend,” Jungkook tried to cheer you up.

Jungkook lived about an hour away from campus, so he stayed in a dorm during the school year. However, he went home during the summer break. With that being said, he insisted on coming down to see you every weekend. At first you protested, arguing that gas was too expensive and the commute would take too much time. But he simply said, “I just want to see my girl. What’s so wrong with that? It’s no one’s decision but mine.” You couldn’t argue with him after that.

“Why don’t we do something different this weekend?” you asked. This weekend would mark your 3 month anniversary.

“Yeah? Like in the bedroom?” he was intrigued.

“No! I mean...sure? Wait no that’s not what I’m talking about right now, you dingus. Why don’t we get away or something? There’s a park about an hour away that is known for stargazing! They have their own observatory and all that. Would you wanna--”

“Yes. Let’s do it.” Jungkook didn’t even let you finish. You knew he’d be excited. Along with videogames, anything pertaining to outer space had his heart. He loved reading about various stars, and was always hypothesizing how space travel would work.

The weekend couldn’t come fast enough. You spaced out in lecture often, but now you definitely couldn’t focus. The thought of being hand in hand with Jungkook while traversing the trails together was enough to make your heart flutter. That, coupled with the fact that you two would be under the stars without any air pollution, really had you on Cloud 9.

You gleefully hopped into Jungkook’s car in the late afternoon. Jungkook was wearing his favorite bucket hat with his usual casual clothes.

“Hello beautiful,” Jungkook leaned over to kiss you, “Let’s go get our dinner. How do ready made sandwiches sound?”

“Sounds perfect! Why don’t we get some fruit too?” you sat back in your seat.

“Ohhh healthy. Yes ma’am we can do that.” he drove to the closest supermarket.

“Hey babe, let’s get this bread,” Jungkook joked as he picked up a sandwich. You couldn’t help but laugh at his little one-liner. You both love that meme. You guys strolled over to the fruits section. Of course, there had to be a debate over which fruits to get.

“It’s hot outside so why don’t we get watermelon?” you suggested.

“Mm that’s a good point. But watermelons are basically just water. Why don’t we get pineapples instead? We can see if that myth really is true?” Jungkook wiggled his eyebrows at you.

“You dog!” you playfully slap his arm, “Let’s get both then. The more the merrier.”

“Okiedokie. Don’t act like you don’t wanna try the pineapple trick though,” he teased.

“Maybe I do. What of it?” you retorted.

“Nothing. That’s perfect for me,” he winked as you guys went to checkout.

The drive to the park was relaxing. Jungkook played his music and sang along to all the songs. You occasionally chimed in whenever you knew the lyrics, but you preferred to listen to him instead. Even when he was messing around, his angelic voice was still euphoric. You were pleasantly surprised when he first sang in front of you. You didn’t think it was possible to hear an angel up close.

Getting away from the city was something you needed. As the tall buildings faded in the background, a more sparse landscape came into view. You loved the open road. Sure, the neverending grass and scattered trees weren’t the most breathtaking view, but it was pleasant nonetheless. You saw the occasional cow or horse, and never failed to point them out to Jungkook. He would always respond with a “wow!” or a “so cute!” and chuckle at you. Everything you did was so adorable to him, though he wasn’t the most vocal about all that mushy stuff. He was sure he had already fallen in love with you, but he wasn’t sure if you felt the same yet. He’d keep that to himself for a little bit longer.

The park itself was nothing grand. It being closer to the coast meant that it was a little on the swampy side. After several attempts to make sense of the provided park map, Jungkook finally found a parking lot.

“Okay according to the map, this is the closest parking lot to the observatory. I think there’s a trail nearby too,” you say as you hand him the map.

“Let’s go!” Jungkook leapt out of the car before he could even see you trying to give him the map.

Jungkook grabbed the food from the backseat as you got out of the car. Sadly, neither of you had a stereotypical picnic wicker basket, so everything was just in the plastic shopping bag from the store. That didn’t make it any less charming when Jungkook started swinging the bag back and forth in one hand while doing the same thing to your hand on his other side.

The sun was beginning to set, but you could still feel its warmth in the breaks between the shady parts of the trail Jungkook led you on. The trail itself was basically a small gravel path that led from the parking lot to a picnic site overlooking a swampy lake. The trees that grew in the open grove by the picnic tables were extremely old, as they loomed high overhead.

Neither of you had spoken since you left the car. You were both enjoying the fresh air and new sights. The candid sounds of nature filled the air. From the buzzing of the cicadas, to the occasional whooping of unseen birds, the authenticity of it all had you in a trance. Jungkook squeezed your hand and you snapped back to reality. Your eyes wandered back to him to see a soft smile on his face.

“Is this table okay, baby?” he looked at you with his doe eyes.

“Yeah it’s good. Do you like this place so far?” you asked as you started to get the food out.

“I do. It’s beautiful. Everything is just so...natural. Obviously,” he chuckled, “The scenery is the second most beautiful thing here.”

“Mm okay I’ll bite. What’s the first most beautiful thing here?” you cocked your head in amusement.

“Me, of course! Why would you even ask that when you already know the answer?” he laughed.

“Oh you’re so right. How silly of me. I have your food here, you dork. Do you wanna start with the pineapples or watermelons first?”

“Let’s open the watermelons since it’s still kinda hot out,” he plopped down beside you.

You foolishly skipped lunch, so your stomach was killing you. Jungkook joked that it sounded like a dying cat during the car ride. Sometimes it got so loud that he could hear it over his music. He wanted you to eat while he drove, but you refused because you wanted to eat together. Thinking back, you realized you could have fed him while he was driving. It’s not an issue anymore though, not when you’re both wolfing down your sandwiches. The watermelon was definitely a good choice, as it was a perfect weapon to combat the heat.

There was a gazebo next to the water that allowed visitors to get a better view of the swampy environment. You led Jungkook over to it after packing up the leftovers (only a few pineapples were left). The water was murky, most of the vegetation that surfaced looked dead, and everything put together made the place seem perfect for filming a swamp horror film. Despite all of that, you couldn’t help but think it was still beautiful. Upon a closer look, you spotted some small turtles on the closest log by the gazebo. Of course you excitedly pointed them out to Jungkook, who cooed at how cute they were. Jungkook brought you closer to him so he could hug you from behind and rested his chin atop your head. He loved the height difference between you two, it always made him feel like that much more of YOUR man. He also mercilessly teased you for being short, but that was just an added bonus.

“Do you feel relaxed?” he whispered in your ear before nibbling it.

“I feel so relaxed, darling,” you say, leaning into him, “The sunset is gorgeous out here. Even if it feels like we’re about to get attacked by a swamp creature at any second.”

“Yeah, instead we’re being attacked by a billion fucking mosquitoes. Babe, I don’t think your bug spray is working,” Jungkook swatted away the hovering pests.

“But my mom got it for me! It’s supposed to be a more organic and natural spray,” you pout.

“Well, I’m sorry but your mom’s organic bug spray isn’t doing shit. In fact, I feel like it’s attracting them,” his swatting became more forceful.

“Oh, you’re not even getting bit. They’re all over ME,” you say as you started to feel insanely itchy all over your arms and legs, “Let’s go to the observatory, the sun has already begun to set. Also there are probably more mosquitoes here by the water, so let’s get the hell away from that.”

“There’s still about half an hour of sunlight left,” Jungkook observed after checking his phone, “We have some time to kill. Wanna check out more of this trail?”

“Sure. As long as it leads away from the water,” you shrugged as you followed Jungkook into the forested area.

Golden hour shone down through the trees. The rays made Jungkook glow and look even more ethereal. He rubbed his thumb over your hand as he led you down the trail. You absentmindedly brought his hand up to your mouth to plant a soft kiss on the back of it.

“I haven’t seen anyone on this trail the entire time we’ve been here,” Jungkook observed.

“It’s nice. It’s like our own little sanctuary,” you agreed.

“And you look so cute in that outfit of yours,” Jungkook’s voice lowered.

“What are you suggesting, Jungkook?” you played along, caressing his bicep.

Jungkook abruptly led you off the beaten path, into a more heavily wooded area. He spun you around into a deep kiss, backing you up against a tree. You palmed him through his pants, finding him already half hard.

“What if we get caught?” you huffed into his mouth.

“Doesn’t that make it more exciting?” he said as he nipped at your neck while fondling your breasts.

“I’m gonna have bug bites on my ass,” you laughed.

“I’ll bite your ass when we get back to even it out,” he chuckled into another kiss.

You forcefully switched positions with Jungkook as you tugged off his pants. You kissed along his jawline and down his neck before sinking to your knees in front of him. His erection bulged in his underwear, begging to be set free.

You teasingly licked him over his underwear, making him groan. As much as you wanted to continue teasing him, you didn’t want to get caught before he actually had the chance to fuck you.

You pulled off his underwear, leaving him fully exposed. You delicately kissed the tip of his penis like it was some sort of polite greeting. Then, you lewdly flattened your tongue on the base of his cock and licked a long stripe upwards and finished at the top with a swirl. You hollowed out your cheeks as you sucked him off at a repetitive pace.

“Do you want me to fuck you here, baby?” Jungkook huffed above you.

You looked up at him with innocent eyes as you deepthroated him. Saliva dripped off his cock and down your chin, a sight that would make any man sweat. You nodded and released him with a satisfying *pop*.

“You’re so fucking sexy. Switch places with me and face the tree,” he commanded.

You did as he said, bending over at the waist. He tugged off your bottoms, revealing your dripping core. He tantalizingly ran his tip along your folds.

“Hurry up! I don’t wanna get caught,” you complained as you wiggled your butt at him.

“So impatient,” Jungkook admonished as he slapped your ass.

You didn’t have time to complain because he jammed his dick into you immediately after his slap. You instinctively covered your mouth to suppress your moans. Your free hand toyed with your clit, rubbing it intensely. The thought of being caught at any second had you even more wet than usual. Jungkook noticed.

“You’re so wet. I’m gonna cum in no time,” Jungkook groaned as he thrust deeper into you.

Jungkook released his load into you. You moaned as you felt his hot juices fill you up, mixing with your own mess as it dribbled down your legs. Jungkook gave your ass one last slap before rummaging for a spare napkin in the picnic bag. He cleaned you up as best as he could, but you desperately needed a shower. That’ll have to wait.

Retracing your steps, you both wound up back at the parking lot, which was perfect because the trail to the observatory was just on the other side. The once empty parking lot was now nearly full as the new arrivals made their way towards the observatory. The sun was almost fully set at this point, so it was getting a little hard to see.

“Babe look!” Jungkook shouted as he pointed to a little creature that scurried in front of you. You jump back from his sudden yell, and then lock eyes with the possum that stood in your path.

“I don’t know whether to be scared or to call it cute,” you say, clinging tightly onto Jungkook’s arm as the possum lost interest in your staring contest and continued on its journey.

“I would say it’s cute. As long as it doesn’t attack you. Oh holy SHIT babe don’t look up!” Jungkook found himself frozen in place.

“Huh why-- OH MY FUCKIN GOD!” you neglected to heed his warning. Looming about two feet above Jungkook’s head was a gigantic spider. The web it was dangling from was enormous. You hate all kinds of insects (yes a spider isn’t an insect, but it falls under the creepy crawly category so you hate it too) but spiders are by far the scariest to you. After you screamed you clutched Jungkook’s arm tighter, probably cutting off his circulation.

“Okay okay just close your eyes and keep close to me. It seems like those guys are strung along the entire path,” Jungkook kept you by his side as you guys progressed past the trees. You helplessly kept your eyes closed and completely relied on Jungkook to guide you. Thankfully, it only took about three minutes to get past all the trees; the observatory was in an open clearing. Jungkook gave you the ok to open your eyes again.

“Thank you Kookie, you’re so sweet to me,” you kissed Jungkook softly on the cheek.

“Usually I’d make fun of you, but those things kinda freaked me out. So I could only imagine how scared you’d be of them. Don’t worry baby, I’ll protect you,” Jungkook returned your affection with a kiss on the forehead.

The line for the main telescope was already long, so you guys ventured off to one of the smaller ones instead. There were three big telescopes in the overall observatory. Amateur stargazers were scattered around the deck with their personal telescopes. You saw them letting other people see through them, so you made a mental note to check them out after the main telescopes. The sun had finally set, and now the dark sky was illuminated with shining stars.

As you waited in line, you looked back at Jungkook, who hadn’t let go of your hand this entire time. His eyes were glued to the wonders above him. His doe eyes were wide and twinkled more than you’ve ever seen before. His mouth was agape and you were amused by how captivated he was; everything about this boy was so pure. It was in that moment that you realized you had fallen head over heels for him. You wanted to tell him you loved him right then and there, but you held your tongue. You were worried that he didn’t feel the same way. Hopefully one day he could return the sentiment, but for now you will keep those three words to yourself.

“You lot are pretty lucky! It had been cloudy for the past week. Tonight’s the first night that the sky’s been clear. It’s also the perfect night to view Saturn!” the telescope’s attendant informed the people in line.

You and Jungkook were the next people to go. You were amazed at how big the telescope was, and this wasn’t even the big main one yet. You went first. You climbed up a small step stool to get to the eye piece. You peered into it and was amazed by what you saw. The image was not the clearest, but it was pretty evident that you were looking at Saturn because of the iconic rings. Of course you could look up better pictures of Saturn online, but seeing it for yourself made it more special. Experiencing it all with Jungkook was something you would not trade for the world. You waited for Jungkook outside after you finished.

“Wasn’t that incredible ___?! We actually saw all the rings! And it’s a pretty color! I mean it’s like a reddish brown. We can call it a rusty color because that sounds cooler...ah I can’t wait to go to the main telescope,” Jungkook grabbed your hand and bounded to the next line. Watching him get so excited was enough to make getting eaten alive by mosquitoes worth it (yeah, they never ceased their attack on you).

“Is this the best date you’ve ever been on then?” you squeezed his hand as he continued to bounce up and down. His abundant energy always amazed you, and certainly came in handy in certain situations *wink wink*.

“Oh is this a date? What? Do you like me or something, ___?” he teased, looking down at you, “Yes, this is hands down the best date I have ever been on. Thank you for suggesting this babe,” he grabbed your other hand and pulled you in for a kiss. You weren’t fond of PDA, but you’re willing to make an exception for Jungkook.

The wait in line lasted for about half an hour, and you wondered which celestial being this telescope was being focused on. Everything around the observing deck was kept dark to make it easier to see through the telescopes. It was also advised to not look at any phone screens because your eyes would have to readjust to the darkness afterward. You and Jungkook complied with the tip for the optimal viewing experience. Jungkook was rambling about UFO conspiracy theories when you interrupted him by pointing out the fireflies behind him. They danced in the darkness of the open air, and it was your turn to be captivated. Yes, you hated insects, but fireflies had a special place in your heart. You thought they were fairies when you were younger, and you would spend hours playing with them. Your parents would even help you catch them. The nostalgia that hit automatically put a smile on your face.

“You’re adorable, you know that ___?” Jungkook smiled as he wrapped his arms around you, “I wish you’d look at me that way,” he pouted.

“Oh shut up Kookie. I do look at you that way, but you never notice,” you stuck your tongue at him. Jungkook laughed in response. His laughter stopped and his eyes widened when he realized you guys were next in line.

“What is this one looking at?” Jungkook asked the telescope attendant.

“Oh, all three of these are pointed at Saturn,” he replied.

“Oh no, we waited in line for so long just to look at the same thing,” you said, shoulders sagging.

“Awesome! Since this one is the biggest, does that mean that we’ll get a better view than the other two telescopes?” Jungkook asked, his eyes twinkling once again.

“Uh, technically yes. But only slightly better, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” the attendant replied as he let Jungkook enter.

From the way he asked, it probably didn’t bother Jungkook that he’d be seeing the same thing again. Once it was your turn, you realized the attendant was right. There wasn’t much of a difference in the quality of the image you were seeing, but it didn’t make personally seeing Saturn any less magical.

“Seeing it a second time was super cool. Can you believe it? People a hundred years ago would have never thought they’d see Saturn with their own eyes!” Jungkook greeted you when you came out.

“Yeah that’s all pretty dope, but I kinda wanted to see something else. Maybe some of the people who brought their own telescopes are looking at other things,” you took Jungkook’s hand and made a beeline to the amateur stargazers.

There was an interesting assortment of telescopes there. Some were big and bulky, some were sleek and aesthetically pleasing, and some just straight up looked like weapons. Multiple people were willing to let you both look through their telescopes. You both saw an additional two stars whose names you will never remember, along with seeing Saturn one last time.

You and Jungkook stood in the middle of the deck, gazing upwards to soak in the clarity of the stars before your departure. As if the night couldn’t get any more magical, a shooting star streaked across the sky. Oohs and aahs were heard from people in the general vicinity when they saw it too. Jungkook pulled you close to him, his face inches from yours.

“You know, maybe we were lovers in a past life, because I feel like I’ve known you forever. I think you’re the most special thing in this universe. Thank you for today,” Jungkook said tenderly.

“You’re welcome, darling. I would give you the whole world if I could,” you smiled, slowly leaning closer to him.

“For you, my dear, I’ll give you your own personal galaxy,” Jungkook practically whispered as he cupped your face and brought you in for a kiss. The kiss was the epitome of sweet, as his soft lips brushed against yours without much force. You swear you’ve never been happier in your life. Thank the stars for Jeon Jungkook.

#bts smut #jungkook smut #gcn23 #bangtanarmynet #btswritingcafe #ksmutclub #bayanihanboost #bts fluff #jungkook fluff #jungkook x reader #bts fanfic #kpop fanfic

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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It Chapter Two: Aged-Up Protagonists and the Umbridge Effect

Writing reviews, metas, and the like is a lot about timing. If you don’t craft your writing in the immediate aftermath of your source’s release, someone else will beat you to it and, chances are, your audience will be less enthused about reading the same arguments weeks later. (Admittedly, that’s up for debate. I for one am happy to read about the same shit for years on end.) Thus, when I didn’t have the time or the mental energy to write about It: Chapter Two immediately after seeing it in theaters, I knew within a few days that I’d lost a lot of ground. Fans and critics alike have already spoken about the film’s major draws, namely the update on Richie’s sexuality and the canonizing of a beloved, thirty-year-old ship. We’ve also covered the issues that arose out of those positives. In 2019, is it necessary to show a hate crime in such violent detail? By giving us queer characters, have Muschietti and King unintentionally fallen into the trap of treating them badly? One is dead and the other mourns while the straight couple passionately kiss beneath the lake. Faithful adaptation vs. modern activism is a tricky balance to strike. I could rehash all those arguments here, but why bother? They’ve been articulated better by others already. Besides, falling behind means that I now have the space to discuss something just as important to me.

The Losers’ ages.

Now, I’m not sure if you all have noticed, but fantasy adventures aren’t really geared towards adults. That is to say, stories often contain adult content, but that’s not the same thing as putting adults at the center of the narrative. I’ve experienced a niggling sense of displeasure that’s grown stronger with each passing year and it took until my mid-twenties to figure out what it was: I am no longer the hero of many of my favorite stories. Because I’ve grown up. Harry Potter is concerned primarily with the trials and tribulations of characters between the ages of eleven and eighteen. If we return to that world---such as through a certain cursed play---the focus must shift to the new, shiny generation. Anyone who falls through a wardrobe is bound to be a child and if they dare grow up? They’re no longer allowed access to such a fantastic place. Kids are the ones who find the Hundred Acre Woods, or fall down rabbit holes, get daemons, battle Other Mothers when the world gets flipped, or head off onto all sorts of elementary and high school adventures. Sometimes, even those who are adults mistakenly get caught up in this trend. Frodo might be in his fifties, but as a small, kindly hobbit he comes across as younger than the rest of the Fellowship. Since the release of Jackson’s trilogy I’ve corrected more than one new fan who assumed (somewhat logically) that he is in his early twenties, max. It’s an easy mistake to make when we’ve grown accustomed to children and young adults taking center stage in so many fantastic, high-profile adventures.

Of course, there are plenty of counters to this feeling. Just look at Game of Thrones. Though we see much of the story through younger perspectives---such as the Stark siblings---the vast majority of the cast is made up of adults, playing just as pivotal a role as the up-and-comers. Fantasy, Science Fiction, and other speculative story-lines are by no means solely in the hands of minors, yet I think it’s also worth acknowledging that a good majority of those stories do shape our media landscape. Or, if they’re not strictly minors, they’re characters who embody a sort of static young adulthood, the Winchesters and the Shadowhunters and all the television superheroes who might gesture towards markers of adulthood---we have long term relationships, hold down jobs, can impersonate FBI agents without anyone batting an eye---yet are still able to maintain a nebulous form of youth. They all (try to) look and act as if they’re right out of college. The standards of film and television demand that actors appear twenty-years-old even when they’re pushing forty, and the standards of much literature insists that twenty is simply too old for an adventure, period. I can still clearly recall two moments of shock (later agreed upon by my friends) when I encountered unexpectedly older protagonists in genre fiction: the realization that Sophie actually spends the majority of Howl’s Moving Castle as a very old woman and that The Magicians takes place in graduate school. “Wow,” I remember thinking. “When’s the last time that happened?”

What does all this have to do with It: Chapter Two? I don’t have any big twist for you here. It was just really refreshing to see such a fantastical story where our cast is all forty or older. Seriously, can we take a moment to appreciate exactly how much King undermined expectations there? The first half of the novel is structured precisely how we assume it ‘should’ be. There’s a mysterious threat, there are children caught up in the middle of it, and ultimately only they are capable of saving the day. We know this story. We even have the characterization of the town itself to reinforce this structure, a place so warped by evil that only the very young with their open-mindedness and imagination are capable of seeing Derry for what it truly is, illustrated beautifully in the film by Mr. Marsh straight up not noticing a whole room full of blood.

Though they’re It’s prey, children are also the only ones who have any potential power over him. You have to be able to acknowledge a problem in order to fix it and King could have easily ended his story at the first chapter alone, with the group somehow managing to defeat Pennywise for good the first time they set foot in the sewers. A part of me is still shocked he didn’t, if only because the young savior as an archetype was embedded within Western culture far earlier than It’s 1986 publication. From Carrie to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Pet Sematary to Firestarter, King is no stranger to putting children at the center of fantastic tales. Yet he’s also given us numerous adult protagonists, managing to find an enjoyable balance between the two, both within individual novels and his entire corpus. It represents that balance, not just imagining a story where seven (yes, I’m counting Stan) middle-age adults manage to finally save their town, but actually setting up a twenty-seven year jump to allow for that. It's the best of both worlds, exploring the difficulties inherent in both childhood and adulthood, arguing that we need each---that imagination and that experience---if we hope to come out alive.

While watching It: Chapter Two I took note of how many people laughed throughout the film, and not just at the moments set up to be funny (looking at you, Richie). Rather, the film that two years ago had scared the pants off of movie-goers now entertained them in a much more relaxed manner. No one was hiding behind their popcorn; there were no shrieks of fright. I’ve seen more than one reviewer express displeasure at this change. What the hell happened? Isn’t an It film supposed to be scary? Well, yes and no. I think what a lot of people miss is how providing us with an adult cast inherently changes the way fear manifests, both literally in the case of Pennywise’s illusions and thematically in regards to the film itself. This sloppy bitch, as established, preys on children. His tricks have the illogical, fantastical veneer that reflect how children see the world: you’re scared of women with horrifically elongated faces, zombie-like lepers, and hungry mummies. They’re literal monsters emerging out from under the bed. Of course, as adults watching the story we’re easily able to see how these monsters represent much deeper, intangible fears: growing up and disappointing your father, falling ill like your mother always claims you will (to say nothing of contracting AIDS in connection with a budding queer identity), and the danger that comes with being alone and ostracized. Sometimes It: Chapter One gestures more firmly towards those underlying fears---such as the burnt hands reaching for Mike when we know his family died in a fire---but only once does it make the real horror overt, when Pennywise takes Mr. Marsh’s face and asks Bev if she's still his little girl.

Outside of pedophilia and sexual abuse, Chapter One’s real horror is mostly coded, symbolic, left up to (admittedly rather obvious at times) interpretation. It’s just under the surface and we’re meant to be distracted by the fact that, allegorical or not, there’s still a very creepy thing hunting our protagonists from the shadows. For two hours we take on a child’s perspective, biting our nails at all the things we once imagined hid inside our closets. We’re scared because they’re scared.

That mindset irrevocably changes once your group grows up. Forty-year-olds simply don’t freak out in the same way a bunch of thirteen-year-olds would, especially now that they know precisely what’s happening and have the mental fortitude to combat it. At least to an extent. Chapter Two isn’t as traditionally scary for the simple reason that the film now acknowledges what all adults eventually must: there’s nothing in the closet, there’s nothing hiding under your bed. Or if there is, it’s something tangible that can be handled with a calm(ish) demeanor and a well-placed ax. An adult might scream when something jumps out at them, but they’re not as inclined to cower. Adults might still be scared, but they’re better able to push that fear aside in order to take action. The group first reached that point in the sewers--- “Welcome to the Losers’ club, asshole!”---and now fully embodies that mindset with nearly three decades of growth and experience to draw on. This is why Ben investigating the library as a teen reads as teeth-chatteringly scary, but Ben and Bill as adults investigating the skateboard produces only a comment about how they're getting used to this nonsense. They know, and we as the audience know, what the real threat is and whether or not we need to shield our eyes when something starts clunking its way down the stairs.

All of which isn’t to say that Chapter Two isn’t scary. It’s simply scary in a much more realistic manner, killer clowns and Native American rituals aside. The fears have been aged-up along with the cast, stripping away the child-like fantasies that made us wet our pants in Chapter One. What’s the scariest moment outside of the jump scares? When two men and a kid beat a gay man and then chuck him in the river to drown. You’ll note that, unlike in the first film, Pennywise doesn’t actually have to do much work here. Seasoning people up with fear? The rest of the world is doing that for him. That first scene detailing a truly horrific hate crime (which, by the way, is based off of true events) results in a meal delivered straight to Pennywise’s arms. It’s people who targeted that couple, beat one of them within an inch of his life, and then tossed him over a bridge, bleeding and shrieking for help. All Pennywise had to do was scoop him from the water and take that first bite. He’s incidental to the film’s most cringe-worthy scene. We can argue all we want about how it’s Pennywise’s influence that “makes” the town this way, but any queer viewer knows that's simply not the case. In 2019 we're still living this horror, no Pennywise required.

Likewise, the two children we see murdered are much more overtly grappling with fears that have nothing to do with fantastical monsters. Dean, the little boy Bill tries to save in lieu of Georgie, is rightly petrified because a seemingly crazy adult is now stalking him. We as the audience know that Bill is just trying to help----that he’s not the real danger here----but that’s not the perspective this kid has, nor is it the issue the film is grappling with. We first see him approaching an idol of his, Richie, and instead of an enjoyable experience he winds up getting yelled at. The It films are only tangentially interested in the status of fans and their relationship with celebrities, but we know it’s a common theme for King’s work overall. Look at Misery and look at this cameo: a disenchanted fan of the 21st century, criticizing a writer’s novel and leveraging him for money. “You can afford it,” he tells Bill, swindling him simply because he can. The context of this little boy as a fan and Richie as the older, bigger, larger-than-life comedian adds another layer to the interaction. It’s not just an adult verbally attacking a child, it’s an adult this kid worshiped enough to recognize and quote his material from memory. Who easily walks away from that?

This little boy then finds Bill shrieking at a sewer opening, is manhandled by him, and told in the scariest way possible, born of Bill’s own fear, that he has to get out of dodge, fast. There are scary things out there, Dean freely admits that he’s heard kids’ voices coming from the tub drain, but right now the scariest thing is how badly the adults in his life are failing him: parents (from what little we can gather) are distant, his comedic idol is mean, and now this stranger is traumatizing him in the middle of the street. Once again, it’s easy to see how Pennywise isn’t needed to sow fear or even enact cruelty; he’s not a requirement for horrible things in the world, he’s merely their reflection. We see the same setup with the little girl under the bleachers. That scene demonstrates precisely how not scary Pennywise is. Here’s this child putting aside her discomfort over his looks and agreeing to be his friend. What’s worse than a clown with a creepy expression? The knowledge that all the other kids have already rejected you because of a birthmark on your face. Bullying is the far greater threat and one we’re 100% more likely to deal with in our lives than a killer clown, so the second film re-frames Pennywise to better acknowledge this. He’s scary because things like bullying and neglect exist to give him an easy in. He’s even scary because in this moment, hiding under the bleachers, manipulating this little girl, he’s fully embodying a child predator. Chapter One was a primal, “There’s a monster hiding in the shadows” kind of fear. Chapter Two is a, “We’re all going to die from climate change” kind of fear. Logical and largely inescapable. Characters like Richie don't need Pennywise to take some fantastic form to scare him. Homophobia has already done all the work.

Ultimately, I think of this as the Umbridge Effect. Who’s the most hated character in the Harry Potter franchise? I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the Dark Lord responsible for two wars, attempted genocide, and the death of our title character.

We despise Umbridge because she’s real. She’s relatable. She’s grounded in a way that Voldemort could never hope to be. We have no fear that an all-powerful sorcerer is suddenly going to come out of the woodwork and attempt to enslave and/or eradicate everyone without magic. That’s just not on our list of things to worry about. A corrupt politician, however? An instructor who uses her power to emotionally and physically torture students, getting away with it because of a cutesy, hyper-feminine persona? We’ve seen stuff like that. We’ve lived it. Umbridge represents all the real wrongs in the world when it comes to bigotry and privilege. Therefore we hate her---we fear her---in a way we could never hate or fear Voldemort. Now, in It: Chapter Two, Pennywise is the new Voldemort. Is an alien clown with an unhinged jaw and three rows of teeth technically scary? Sure, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the real problems that plague the cast: abuse, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, the fear that someone will hurt or outright kill you over some part of your identity. These are things we continue to fear long after the credits roll and the lights come up, and they’re now barely coded in the story:

It occurred to me halfway through my viewing that the people laughing at the characters’ new plights were the same ones who didn’t flinch when a gay man’s head cracked into the pavement. I had both hands over my mouth during that scene and I wasn’t snickering whenever Eddie had a panic attack, or Ben’s self-confidence took a hit. Because those moments, like our opening, hit pretty close to home for me; I didn’t find them embarrassingly humorous in the way much of my theater did. So many reviews in the last two months have insisted that Chapter Two isn't scary, but I think that depends entirely on whether or not you're struggling with these now explicit threats. We're not dealing with mummies and creepy portraits anymore. Instead, tell me how you feel about holding your partner's hand in public. Do certain memories make you vomit? Or freeze? Consider heading upstairs to the bath? The horror is dependent on how the audience views Bill's stutter coming back, or the bruises on Bev's arms.

The cast grew up. It’s a fantastic twist. It also means that the horror needed to grow up with them, resulting in a film that could no longer function as a simple, scary clown movie. Our ending reminds us of that. When did people laugh the loudest? When the Losers’ club was bullying Pennywise into something vulnerable. And yeah, I get it. It’s a cheesy moment that we feel the need to laugh at because it’s just so unexpected. Awkward, even. Since when are badass horror monsters defeated with a bit of backyard peer pressure straight out of middle school? If this were any other story, Pennywise would have been defeated by Eddie’s poker. The most scared member of the group finally finds his courage! He has faith that this simple object can kill monsters! He throws it in a perfect arc, splitting the deadlights in two! That’s a heroic ending. Something epic and fantastical, relying on the idea that the Good Guys will win simply because they believe in themselves... but that’s not how the real world works. That ending is a child’s fantasy. Sometimes you do the heroic thing and end up dying anyway. Which isn’t to say that the heroic thing is useless. It saves Richie’s life. It’s just that a single act can’t cure all our ills in the way that storybooks often claim they can.

How then does an adult deal with huge, intangible problems like bigotry and mental illness---the things Pennywise now fully represents? By saying “Fuck you” to those things again and again with all the support you can possibly wrangle up at your side. You refuse to let those issues control you; you drag those child-like representations into the light and remind yourself just how small they really are. We don’t get to beat something like depression by spearing it with a fire poker in some overblown finale. If we did, we’d all be having a much better time. All you can do is band together with friends and scream that you’re not going to let your fears define you anymore. Pennywise is a symptom of all the true horrors in the world. Sadly, you can’t beat those with a baseball bat. But you can acknowledge the heart of the issue, literally in the case of five friends squeezing until that one symptom, at least, is gone.

Image Credit

#1:https://www.screengeek.net/2018/07/10/it-chapter-2-character-mashups/

#2:https://earlybirdbooks.com/the-re-read-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe

#3:https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/7/4/19413771/stranger-things-season-3-review-recap-hopper-elevenrussians

#4:https://comicbook.com/movies/2019/08/08/harry-potter-movies-review-10-years-late-snape-dumbledore-franchise/

#5:https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/netflix/277257/give-the-dragon-prince-a-chance

#6:https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindamaleh/2019/04/23/she-ra-and-the-princesses-of-power-season-2-review/#ec7022c42953

#7:https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/avatar-the-last-airbender

#8:https://www.newsweek.com/buffy-vampire-slayer-turns-20-charisma-carpenter-shows-enduring-legacy-and-566123

#9:http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/alice-in-wonderland-the-movie/

#10:https://www.hindustantimes.com/tv/game-of-thrones-this-edited-out-scene-between-bran-and-sansa-reveals-so-much-about-finale/story-qFDHflH2dO6Kcki1wgsEyM.html

#11:https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Why-Ender-Game-Best-Possible-Adaptation-Book-40110.html

#12:https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/supernatural-end-season-15-cw-1196579

#13:https://www.slashfilm.com/it-chapter-two-scene/

#14:https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/9/12/16286316/it-cleaning-up-blood-scene-feminism

#15:http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-208633/photos/detail/?cmediafile=21647122

#16:https://stanleyyuris.tumblr.com/post/188300897715/chaotic-losers

#17:https://whatculture.com/film/it-chapter-2-every-character-ranked-worst-to-best?page=3

#18:https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/7uhrkz/the_most_hated_character/

#19:https://9gag.com/gag/am2X2Z4?ref=pn.mw

#20:https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-hated-characters-unpopular-worst-ranked/quickview/17

GIFs1-5:https://the-pretty-poisons.tumblr.com/post/188344826978/why-is-everyone-looking-at-me-\like-this

#It #It Chapter 2 #It Chapter Two #It Chapter Two Spoilers #reddie #mymetas

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kittenfemme27 · 4 years

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Magrunner: Dark Pulse

"That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die."

That’s the often misquoted line written by H.P. Lovecraft and spoken by his fictional “mad poet” Abdul Ahazred in “The Call of Cthulhu”, a short story written by the very same author. It’s meant to symbolize the same thing that almost all of Lovecraft’s work was meant to symbolize: That there are things that view us the same way we’d view a simple speck of dust, or an ant. As so tiny and insignificant that we’re practically unnoticed in the eyes of this massive and overwhelming force. Lovecraft had an intense fear and at the same time an intense fascination with the idea of being insignificant, of being forgotten and unworthy, of being completely and utterly impotent in the face of power that was greater than himself. Every “Old God” that he wrote about is so far reaching above humanity and so incomprehensible that even the act of knowing of their existence was incomprehensible for the human mind, and would oft drive those with that forbidden knowledge to complete and utter insanity. This isn’t really a disputed interpretation of Lovecraft's work, it's barely an interpretation at all. It’s considered a simple set of facts of the universe that he created.

So imagine my surprise when I started playing “Magrunner: Dark Pulse”, a fairly mundane and simple futuristic sci-fi puzzle game marketed to have a “Lovecraftian Twist” and the final nine levels have good ol’ Cthulhu himself checking in on me from the skies above, literally one hundred thousand times my size, and simply observing me like I’m his personal favourite little human. As he communicates with me and makes it clear that I am in-fact, his personal favourite little human and he just can’t wait for me to ascend to his level. As far as a piece of lovecraftian work goes, this game was a doozy. But we’ll get back to that. Before we even get there, I’d first like to talk about the game itself.

Gameplay:

Magrunner is a first person physics based puzzle game featuring magnetism as its element in which you interact with the puzzles in each room. Your goal in each puzzle room is to use various platforms, blocks, and other bits of very clearly marked tech in each room that may be magnetized with either a positive polarity or a negative polarity, and combine that with the physics of the Unreal 3 engine to solve challenges and make it to the next room. To be blunt, the game is squarely a Portal rip-off from its design ideals. Your makeshift magnet glove-gun hybrid can fire 2 colors, one being a negative polarity and one being a positive. Like-colors are attracted to themselves, whereas opposite colors reflect each other. The idea of using magnets in a physics based first person puzzler isn’t an awful one, and neither is the fact it clearly wants to ape Portal’s ideas. Where it fails, unfortunately, is execution. The physics aren’t up to snuff with what you do most of the time and it leads a lot of the puzzles to be confusing or simply frustrating, as even when you know what you’re doing you still have to rely on the physics system of the engine to cooperate with you. Early on, you are tasked with getting 4 small magnetizable cubes together to form into a large one. What this actually has you end up doing is fighting with the cubes and the level as they fling themselves wildly off of each other and into unreachable parts of the level itself. The entire game functions this way and it really removes any sense of challenge or control you have over each puzzle, often feeling like you lucked your way into a solution rather than figured out the puzzle yourself in any meaningful way.

Buggy physics in the Unreal engine are not the developers fault entirely though, the game is an indie project that was kickstarted and for that alone i’m willing to give them a pass on engine problems that they likely did not have the programmers to fix. But, unfortunately, I can’t give a pass on the game failing to iteratively teach you how the mechanics work level by level. Whenever you magnetize an object, it creates a field, and you can see this field thankfully by pressing a key. Anything in that field will automatically interact with anything else that is magnetized in it. In general, these fields are wildly inconsistent in how they operate. Usually, they’re spheres centered around the magnetized object and cause objects within the sphere to either attract or repel. On occasion though you’ll find pads that create a cone of magnetism going the direction that it faces, up to what is an arbitrary height. Later on, you’re given the ability to place your own fields on any flat surface, allowing the levels to become more bare-bones as you have to create the magnetism points yourself. All of this combined means that If you learn that something works in a previous level, there is no guarantee that it will work in the next level the exact same way. Experimentation in this game is often fraught with a frustrating sigh of not knowing if the game intended for something to work that way, or if you just broke the physics again. Don’t even get me started on the fact there are multiple combat sections inside a puzzle game, ugh.

Art & Sound:

Magrunners similarities to Portal do not end with the gameplay and design, however. Aesthetically, the first and second half of the three act game are ripped directly from Portal and Portal 2. The first half of the game features sleek interiors inside of a testing facility for yourself and other “Magrunners” where everything is cleanly lit, sparse on color and detail, as space-age and sci-fi as you could imagine. These first set of aperture inspired levels lack any sort of hard edge or detail, with every single element in the room being curved and well lit and as minimalist as possible. The second half of the game takes places in facilities “underneath” the one you were in prior and are dilapidated grey and brown ruins of previous testing facilities, complete with all the same tools and magnetizable pads and tech that you had seen previously but this time a much older and “70’s” style of sci-fi aesthetic, but covered in grime and dirt and dust from the years of abandonment and rot. I cannot understate how unsubtle this is. The first third of the game is Aperture Science bonafide and part right after is Old Aperture from Portal 2. Magrunner’s aesthetic inspirations are worn very clearly on their sleeve, and it makes the game feel very boring and bland by comparison. It’s impossible to play Magrunner: Dark Pulse and not feel as though it was simply a junior developer exclaiming: “What if Portal/Portal 2, but Magnets?!” while the rest of the developers collectively lose their minds from excitement.

The music of the game was provided, as far as i can tell by the credits, by Incomptech AKA Kevin Macleod. A musician known for releasing thousands of free songs for use in any creative project. This isn’t, by default, a bad thing. Most of the music was not things I had heard from his library before and thus I didn’t immediately twig that it was his library, but unfortunately the music selection isn’t enough. As in, there are not enough tracks to fit the game. There are 39 levels in total and each level features a music track, but often and especially in the later parts, the music tracks are entirely re-used. This is most apparent when one of the tracks is a rising piercing noise, like the type you’d hear in a horror movie right before the slasher stabs into someone, but it never ends or pays off. It just loops upon itself and becomes this droning nightmare of a track for however long the physics force you to stay in a level. I counted 6 times this happened and each time it was so loud and obnoxious and frustrating that I had to simply turn off the game audio to be able to bare the level at all.

None of the other sound effects are worth writing home about, either, unfortunately. In something like Portal, there are pretty iconic sounds within its soundscape. The sound of the portal gun firing and portals being created, the soft and child-like speech of the turrets, the chiding and derogatory AI voice of GLaDOS, yet Dark Pulse lacks anything even half as memorable. Aside from the repetitive music, you are only given small bits of dialogue between each level and that’s really it. There’s a lot of character they could have created here, for example: When you gain the ability to create your own magnetic fields at will, the center of them is a dog-robot that your player character created in his spare time as a child. Creating one of these points could’ve been met with an adorable puppy squeak or bark, anything like that. Your character or the various ones that speak to you could’ve chimed in at any point in levels outside of the beginning or end of them, and yet they do not. It’s a big missed opportunity.

Story:

Speaking of characters, whew boy, are there a lot of them

Magrunner takes place in the distant future where a corporation that is effectively Facebook has taken over the planet by connecting every single person to its service essentially from birth and making it as essential to daily life as possible. Because of this, this corporation has become the de-facto richest company in the world. Its founder, Xander Gruckzeber, whose last name is literally an anagram of Zuckerberg, has started a contest in which 7 contestants can compete to become “Magrunners” and take a trip to outer space in a ship that is being powered on experimental magnetic based technology. The contest involves each contestant going through a series of puzzles that prove their aptitude with the magnetic tech that Xander’s company has developed.

Your character, an orphan named Dax C. Ward, is the only one of the 7 contestants that does not have a corporate sponsor. Instead, he’s a boy genius who built his own robotic puppy at age 10 and at age 21 built his own magnetic glove that interacts with the magnetic technology and allows him to compete. Ever the underdog, you’re helped along by your adoptive uncle Gamaji who himself is a six-armed mutant and an outcast among humanity for it.

Sound a little on the nose? Like it may be lacking subtlety in any form? Yeah, the entire game is like that. From Xander’s last name anagram to the fact that your own character’s name is itself a reference to “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” which was a short horror novel written by Lovecraft, the game never really had a chance at subtlety in the first place. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but in between the re-hashed artstyle and the immediate and obvious references, and the fact that It tries to throw a very by the numbers cyber punk aesthetic ripped straight out of Blade Runner at you in an opening cutscene that it immediately abandons afterwards. It all just feels tired from the moment you hit New Game and incredibly confused about its own direction. It can’t decide if it’s a Lovecraftian setting, a Sci-fi setting, if it’s trying to say something about Facebook or if it's just going to be Portal: The Magnetic Spin-off.

As the game progresses and Act 1 ends, you find the corpse of another Magrunner being eaten by an anthropomorphic fish person. You are then told by Gamaji that he’s going to help you escape the facility, but this will require you to go through the older parts of the facility as he slowly hacks into the mainframe and tries to get you out via service elevators. Inside these older puzzle rooms are repeated writings on the wall, ravings of someone gone mad with the knowledge of the Old Ones, and giant sculptures depicting various Cthulhu-esque monsters. This would be bad and scary enough on its own, but Gamaji is quick to let you know that portals to some unknown dimension and fish monsters are being spotted in cities all over the world causing havoc and terror.

About halfway through Act 2, Gamaji drops the bombshell on Dax that his parents didn’t actually die in a car crash like he’s told him all his life, but that they were Old God worshipping cultists and that Dax’s birth in and of itself may somehow be related to that cult and its actions. This tracks, then, because Dax continually receives strange visions in the form of uncovered memories of “The Seven” attempting some ritual to seal off some force from beyond. Act 2 ends with the revelation that Xanders assistant, Kram, is actually behind all the ritual sacrifice and is attempting to summon Cthulhu himself to our world from the Great Beyond. So far, Act 1 and 2 have been rather cliche but haven’t been anything i’d call unremarkable or strange in a Lovecraftian inspired story.

And then Act 3 happens.

Act 3 sees you flung into the far reaches of Actually Literally Space, with various bits of the test chambers around that you must use to get to portals that are marked by a cute little icon of Cthulhu himself that transport you further into space and to the next level. You can quite literally see our pale blue dot to your side if you look, including a gigantic eldritch device that seems to be either siphoning souls to it, or depositing monsters onto the planet. The fact you can breathe in space is just handwaved as “Something Kram must be doing.” and is never brought up again. What really struck me more than anything in these levels, though, is that Cthulhu himself literally appears before you every 2 minutes in each level and simply watches you while repeating “Cthulhu... Fhtagn... R'lyeh...” over and over and over. This was the moment the game honestly lost any credibility from me. Simply seeing a statue in Act 2 caused Dax to go into a screaming panic as he was able to perceive how a human may be turned into a fish person. But seeing the literal Old God himself doesn’t bother him? And why is Cthulhu so interested in you in the first place? Unfortunately, we get an answer to both of those questions and it might be the most insane thing i’ve ever seen in a piece of Lovecraft inspired media.

Dax, somehow through the work of the cult that his parents were part of, is the chosen one. Cthulhu not only cares about him and wants to see him succeed, but even helps him to literally ascend and become an Old God himself. But not, of course, before letting Dax have a heart to heart with Gamaji wherein he tells him that he has seen through Cthulhu’s eyes himself and must now ascend, as he has no other option. Because Cthulhu is a big softie on adoptive relationships, I guess. The game’s final level has you face off against Kram in a boss battle where you fling explosive cubes at each other and attempt to destroy the esoteric relay connected to Earth. During their fight, Dax taunts Kram who tells him that what he is doing is the will of his Master, Cthulhu, and Dax knowingly retorts that what Kram is doing is “Not what He wants.” As if he has a direct line into the Old Gods mind itself.

I cannot overstate how much of an absolute failure of the mythos itself that this entire story arc is. The Lovecraft mythos was not, and never has been, made for “Chosen One” stories. If you survive an encounter in the first place, you’re often left with horrible scars that never truly leave you because Cthulhu and the Old Gods are in some ways meant to be representative of trauma and a fear of your own trauma. Making Dax suddenly an Old One and a special Chosen One is a complete and utter failure on a scale I've never, ever seen before. It’s been days and I'm honestly still reeling from the fact that was a design decision someone agreed on.

Conclusion:

Magrunner: Dark Pulse is a confusing and often frustrating game with a story that utterly fails its mythos and setting in just about every way possible. But I don’t want to pretend that I didn’t have any fun playing it. I did, and it’s not the worst game I've ever played. It’s not even so much a “so bad it’s good” game, but it’s more of an indie game that clearly tried its hardest and for that I can’t fault it. It’s developers clearly love the Cthulhu and Lovecraftian mythos and really, really, really loved the Portal series and wanted to combine those things into their own spin on it and in that respect, it’s competent enough that I could recommend it to someone who really enjoys those sort of puzzle platformer based games. But... man. That ending. Yikes.

#Magrunner: Dark Pulse #Review #Played on: PC

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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129. Knuckles the Echidna #26

The First Date (Part One of Three): She Loves You… (And You Know That Can't Be Bad!)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Chris Allan Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So this arc is kind of… eh, awkward and dull. There's really no action, and it's all centered around love and dating and whatnot like we're suddenly watching a bad will-they-won't-they sitcom. Everything is extremely heteronormative - like look, I get this is the 90s, but everything is about "boys and girls" and just ends up sounding really juvenile as a result - and everyone is really out of character, too. I mean, do Knuckles or Julie-Su seem like the types to wander around all lovesick like shallow high schoolers? Not to mention the Chaotix, especially Vector, are… well… ugh, let's just jump into this and get it over with.

The Chaotix are hanging around in their usual burger joint, when Espio mentions that recently he's heard some surprising news about Prince Charmy - namely, that he's gotten engaged!

Now, you remember how a while back when the Chaotix were first introduced I had to clarify that unlike in the games, where he's six years old, in the comics he's sixteen? This is one of those moments that completely threw me when I first read the comics, because I had been operating under the assumption all this time that he was six. Now, obviously sixteen is still pretty damn young to be getting engaged, but I was sitting here with my eyebrows furrowed wondering why Charmy's friends didn't seem more concerned that this six year old child suddenly had a fiancée. I thought that his parents had arranged his marriage to Saffron (for whatever reason her name is misspelled in this issue, with only one F) and that by going back to his role as a prince he'd basically doomed himself to having his love life strictly controlled. But no, I guess somehow in the short time since he left the group and went back home, he got into a serious enough relationship with Saffron that he proposed (or hell, maybe she proposed, who knows). It's possible there was still pressure from his parents considering his heritage, but for now we can only assume that it was a totally voluntary action on his part to get engaged to Saffron, which is just… really, really weird.

Now Vector is very displeased to hear this. Vector is, in fact, something of a gigantic sexist douchebag in this issue, talking big about how no woman could handle him, prompting Espio and Mighty to joke that Julie-Su is more than his match if they were to go head to head in a fight. We then cut to Julie-Su angrily and viciously firing her blaster while shouting about Knuckles "running out on her."

Geez, man. You think her insurance covers blaster burn marks on the walls? She's mostly angry because she wants to talk to Knuckles one on one, but he's not there with her right now. He's with his father, in some kind of apartment-like space within Haven (it's not really clear, but I'm assuming Haven given we're talking about Locke here) as his father makes him breakfast. Out of nowhere, Knuckles asks his father about "why boys and girls get together," prompting Locke to immediately spit out his coffee. Knuckles, unfazed by the sudden brown-colored backwash all over the table, starts going on about how whenever he's around Julie-Su, he feels "weird."

This is maybe my least favorite part of Kenders' worldbuilding in the comic. Apparently, the Soultouch is an instant romantic attraction between two members of the opposite sex amongst echidnas, essentially love at first sight. It's not outright stated, but in case you haven't guessed, this is why Julie-Su so abruptly left the Dark Legion when she first spotted Knuckles many issues ago, feeling like she "had to find him" but didn't know why. Knuckles asks that if the Soultouch is accurate, why Locke and Lara-Le ended up splitting up, to which Locke shrugs and says that he doesn't know, but even the best of relationships require a lot of work, which is maybe the most accurate thing written in this entire arc. Knuckles then utterly hilariously, and completely accidentally, makes his case for homosexuality by saying he thinks things would be easier if guys stuck with guys and girls stuck with girls, noting that he gets along way easier with his male friends and "doesn’t even think about other girls." Kenders clearly wasn't meaning to characterize Knuckles as a closeted gay, but that's how it comes across and it's amazing. Let Knuckles be gay if he wants, man!

Meanwhile, out on the street, Espio and Mighty start challenging Vector's flippant attitude toward women, taunting him that he probably doesn't even have the backbone to ask a girl out on a date right now. Vector, his fragile masculinity sufficiently rattled, stomps away and begins casing out the women in the area in perhaps the most uncomfortably out of character series of panels I've ever seen.

*sigh* Kenders… why in the unholy hell… did you think this was okay? Remember the sweet but clueless Vector in Sonic X who did his utmost to help Vanilla out and give her nice things because he had a crush on her, not caring about how "hot" she was or that she was a single mother with a little kid? Yeah, this isn't him. Ugh.

Julie-Su, meanwhile, has had enough of moping around in her apartment and takes a walk outside, trying to think of ways she can improve herself and become more confident. She happens to pass by a clothing boutique and glance inside, and as she muses to herself that perhaps she needs to stop being so serious all the time and learn to have a little fun - probably a good idea, considering she was part of a technological military group for so long - a passing echidna suggests to her that she go inside and try out the hat she was absentmindedly staring at. She's startled, but allows herself to be led inside by the echidna and an attendant of the store.

I very much disagree that it's "so her" - I feel like Sarah-Connor-style badass tank tops and combat boots are more her aesthetic - but regardless, the echidna encourages her and then invites her out for lunch. Fun to contrast his polite and complimentary approach towards Vector's more misogynistic one, huh? Back in Haven, while Locke is out of the room, Knuckles' musings are interrupted by Archimedes poofing in and immediately noticing his lovesick state. Upon hearing that Locke was rather awkward in trying to explain the source of his feelings, Archimedes offers his own advice for Knuckles' problem which basically boils down to "you'll never know if you don't take the plunge." Knuckles, encouraged, stands up and has Archimedes poof them away, and a second later Locke walks back in, surprised to see the room empty. Back in the streets, Vector is still trying to "score" to prove himself to Espio and Mighty…

That is the most uncomfortably-drawn swan I've ever seen. Like… why in the world does she have boobs? She's a bird! Birds don't need boobs! Argh! Archimedes poofs Knuckles straight into a restaurant, apparently having homed directly in on Julie-Su, because there she is, out to lunch with Raynor the echidna who asked her out, and to Knuckles' shock, she's holding his hand… better make a move fast, man, cause this polite dude is gonna win her over first!

Friend in Need

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Manny Galan Colors: Barry Grossman

So I think this is actually the first KtE arc that has a secondary story at the end of each issue - previously, they've all had one story taking up the full span of the pages. This story follows Mighty, in which he is approached by Nicolette the Weasel, who prefers to go by Nic due to her full name "not sounding tough enough for a bounty hunter," and who is Nack's previously-unmentioned sister (and looks exactly like him but with eyelashes and a crop top, because girl). She gives Mighty a red collar, which in shock he realizes used to belong to Ray the Flying Squirrel, whom he used to know. He agrees to come with Nic on her latest treasure hunting venture, providing the brawn she needs in exchange for his chance to look for what happened to Ray. While they're flying to their destination, Mighty becomes lost in memories of how he met Ray, leading to one of the most jarring character revelations next to "Charmy is a prince" - all we've ever known about Mighty up till now is that he has super strength and likes hanging around on the Floating Island, but apparently, six or seven years ago he was captured by Robotnik's forces and taken to a goddamn slave labor camp, where he found himself on a prisoner transport cart along with Ray. Ray had a very bad stutter, most likely due to fear and trauma, but was still kind to those around him, and Mighty began to look after him even though he was shackled due to his strength. But unexpectedly, one of the other prisoners on board this cart was Sonic! Keep in mind, we're talking about a cart full of eight year old children that Robotnik was shipping off. Mighty was skeptical of Sonic's confident attitude, with Sonic claiming that he was there to break everyone out, and that Robotnik didn't suspect him since he was only a child and up until recently adults had been carrying on the fight. However, with recent losses, the Freedom Fighters formed by Sally in the Sonic Kids special started taking up arms against Robotnik as well.

Let that sink in, man. This is why the leading members of the resistance against Robotnik were children and young teens. All the adults were dead or roboticized. Anyone who could have fought was gone. These children had no one else to stand up for their freedom; circumstance forced them to step forward and take the lead instead. Remember what I was talking about a while back, about Sonic having trouble settling down after Robotnik's death and how he was so used to war as essentially a child soldier that even in peacetime he found himself unable to relax? This is the true horror of the war against Robotnik. King Acorn's abrupt disbanding of the Freedom Fighters several issues ago may have seemed dismissive and uncaring, but in the end, his point of view does make sense - he doesn't want literal children robbed of their chance to, well, be children. Just think of how many main characters, and hell, even side characters, thought for so long that they were orphans until their family members started turning up after the war. Think about how many are still orphans for all their know - where are Amadeus and Rosemary Prower? Where's Bunnie's parents? Antoine's mother? Amy's parents? That is what the war against Robotnik cost society. It's actually kind of chilling.

Anyway, Nic wakes Mighty up from his train of thought as they land at the site of the now-deserted labor camp. Mighty is a little jumpy, still reluctant to trust Nic fully, but suddenly an unexpected face makes her appearance…

Fiona? As in, the robot that Tails supposedly fell in love with right before his solo adventure? She's a real person? And Mighty somehow knows her? Oh boy, there's a lot to cover here…

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #kte 26 #writer: ken penders #pencils: chris allan #colors: frank gagliardo #pencils: manny galan #colors: barry grossman

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awfulcomingdown · 5 years

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Drifter

I just feel like a dumb, mean, unhappy loser that no one cares about. Maybe not no one. Everyone looks at me with disdain at worst and pity at best. They feel sorry for me at best, they wish I could do better for myself, maybe. Maybe I can’t. Indifference, that is probably how most people look at me. Just someone to silently shuffle by.

I really can’t control how I feel when I’m upset. I feel stale and unmoving. I can’t reach catharsis. I don’t mean to be so rude and unlikable. If I would just act normally and stay calm these people might have liked me. I don't think they do now. I think they felt bad for me. “Are you okay?” they kept asking. I should have been more reassuring. I did not feel okay. I keep seeing their faces. A mix of worry and charity. Like they were trying to help a somewhat-understandably upset child.

Everything ended up being fine. Nothing was stolen or broken, I don’t think. I could have just enjoyed myself. I could have not worried so much.

Still stuck, I think.

. . .

I went into my brother’s room just now, and told him that if any of his friends ask, to say that I am okay, and that I am not upset, and that I am sorry if I was rude to any of them. He said “They all liked you, I think.”

This made me feel better. Both because he said that, and because I did a thing. I did something about how I was feeling, even if it was selfish or misguided, and I hope it wasn’t.

I hope they do like me.

Doing that thing you’re scared to do can make you feel so much better

. . .

Hyper Light Drifter tells you nearly nothing about itself. There were some giant, pink monsters. There was a flash of light. They were killed, their corpses now resting on the mountains in the background of your world.

You collect small pink triangles, pieces of larger pink squares, with little sense of their purpose.

You discover these presumably progression-enabling fragments in the hidden side rooms of dungeons, completely indifferent as to whether or not you find them.

As the screen blurs, the character you follow vomits up spats of blood at disparate and seemingly random instances.

Your companion floats by your side, wordless.

Flashbacks haunt your present, the dark shadows of animals linger upon your regaining consciousness in the wake of re-experiencing the horrors you’ve seen.

But you’re awake, and it's time to keep going. Stand up, who knows what is waiting down the road, and who knows what for.

. . .

When playing at your best, Hyper Light Drifter’s combat begins to resemble a turn based system. You move, you attack, you retreat, and then you wait for your enemy to make their move, and you dare not attempt to interrupt them. The combat system feels as though it is constantly pushing you towards patience and precision. Button mashing will have no effect. The feeling you achieve when you can feel your own skill leading to patient and purposeful movement is palpable. Dash in, take three swipes, dash out, avoid their attack, fire a shot, avoid, dash in, take your final swipe.

This of course all falls apart as the number of enemies is increased. You sit back in an attempt to allow your enemy the first mistake, only to be hit by an arrant bullet fired from across the hall, or by an ostensibly aimless green lion who seems to have just happened to have run into you. You panic. You mash the attack button. You take more damage. You try to run. There is no place to go.

. . .

I have beaten the game now. I beat it yesterday. After struggling somewhat through those first three areas, I quickly made my way through the final area.

I’m not sure how I feel about the game as a whole. I don’t think I will think about it. I haven't been. I don't think it affected me in any major way.

I wonder why that is.

There were moments when I really enjoyed the playing of the game. Those “I am an untouchable and precise assassin, fuck all these creatures” moments. But I don’t think that feeling will stick with me, it is barely here now.

It seems like the “game” part of games is not what I care about most. I loved Oxenfree and Night in the Woods. I really liked Celeste’s gameplay, it felt good, but as I sit here now I feel as though I maybe wouldn’t care that much if I hadn’t ever played it. I care about the way it looked and sounded, and the feeling of calm it sometimes evoked in me.

Maybe I just really love graphic adventures, or walking simulators, or whatever you might want to call them. I’m going to be buying and playing and hopefully writing about Mike Bithell’s Subsurface Circular next. I am excited for it. Maybe I will love it.

But I don't think I’m entirely uninterested in the “game” part of games. Reading about, or listening to people talk about, game design really excites me. It is one of my favourite things. I liked thinking about the ways in which Hyper Light Drifter encourages you to dash up close to slash enemies in order to regain ammo, making it so you cannot just play it safe and fire bullets from across the room. I also liked thinking about how, in rewarding you with ammo for breaking inanimate objects, the game further reinforces the feeling that you should be breaking every barrier and checking every wall for secrets and rewards. Those are interesting things to think about.

But I don’t know how much I really enjoyed playing this game. Breaking those barriers, slashing those enemies. It was alright, it was enjoyable.

So maybe the problem was the story. I really like the fact that they made an entire game with exactly zero lines of dialogue. That is a cool and interesting thing to do, but I think maybe it didn't fully affect me. I am sure it didn’t.

I think I’ve yet to find a game which fully, completely affects me. Night in the Woods is probably the closest I’ve come.

I am going to be playing Metal Gear Solid 2, Dead Space, Mass Effect 2, Sky: Children of the Light, and Subsurface Circular next.

I wonder which of these games will affect me most. I have my assumptions, but who knows.

I will continue to try and find the games which affect me, and continue to try and understand why they do or do not.

This is a fun game in and of itself.

- price

#hyper light drifter

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goliathbetagamer-blog · 4 years

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The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Review

Imagine what would happen if you took a half-season of The Walking Dead TV show, mashed it together with a Deus Ex or System Shock style of exploration and decision-making, and then drizzled it with the best aspects of a modern VR game.

What you might end up with is a survival horror game that’s oppressively tense and brutal, but also tugs on you relentlessly to explore every corner of its post-apocalyptic world for hidden loot and nuggets of lore. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is exactly that, and it absolutely nails the mix, delivering it with a level of detail and a depth of interactivity that feels like a genuine step forward for virtual reality.

You play as the Tourist, a storied survivor and living urban legend who seems to be immune to the fictional virus that makes everybody else a little bitier in The Walking Dead universe. You’ve rolled into the sunken remains of New Orleans following a rumor about a buried hotbed of limitless supplies called the Reserve, and the rest is up to you. It’s a simple setup, but one that's perfect for the size and scope of Saints & Sinners because it doesn’t immediately saddle you with any presumptions about your character’s morality.

You’re introduced to New Orleans by your old buddy Henri, but the moral choices you’ll make while navigating its several open-ended zones are yours alone. As an Obsidian fan, I was pleased to find that there were several major factions fighting for control of the Reserve, each with their own perspective on the bleak situation around you. One such moral choice involves a mission where a faction member will send you to rescue their brother in exchange for an important item, and it’s fantastic that you can then choose to upend the original mission and kill the brother, earning his captors as allies and instead taking the item by force – if that’s the path you prefer, of course. Saints & Sinners’ ending depends entirely on the decisions you make throughout the campaign too, few of which are decidedly ‘good’ or ‘evil’.

All that choice makes the Tourist primarily a shell for you to insert your own personality into, with decent voice acting that gives life to each dialogue option, much like Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series. By comparison, Telltale’s The Walking Dead accomplished some truly great feats of cinematic storytelling and meaningful decision-making in its hostile and zombie-riddled world, but it never gave me free rein to do whatever I wanted. That’s something I had craved for years when I was a regular watcher of The Walking Dead TV series, and while Telltale’s take on The Walking Dead certainly made me care about Clementine, it never made me feel like I was in that world.

Saints & Sinners scratches the itch for a truly explorable Walking Dead world with the grace and confidence of a well-lubricated bowie knife

Saints & Sinners scratches that itch with the grace and confidence of a well-lubricated bowie knife. The portrayal of killing zombies – or walkers – has never been as satisfying as it is here, and the abject terror of an unexpected walker swarm has never been as palpable. Zombie guts and brains are rendered with great detail, but what really grounds you in this world is the fact that weapons have appropriate weight and heft. Heavy weapons like axes and rifles require you to grip them with both hands for stability, while small weapons like shivs are much lighter and easier to land precise blows with. It’s not as nuanced as a game like Boneworks; you can’t wield just any item as a weapon, but this combat system is far more tactile and exciting than if you were doing it remotely with a gamepad or a keyboard.

Diseased walkers explode and unleash poisonous gases that lower your health pool when killed up close, meanwhile helmeted walkers are far tougher to kill, requiring a complete decapitation or extremely precise blows to exposed parts of their heads. This increased challenge only adds to the intensity of fighting an entire pack of walkers at once, a common occurrence later on, as you need to quickly pick and choose which walkers need to be killed in which way and in which order to preserve the durability of your best weapons. Rapidly juggling my inventory in real-time to acclimate to each fight forced me to be smarter and, as a result, Saints & Sinners never fell into that Action-RPG trap of becoming repetitive. I spent a little over 18 hours in the campaign – the story itself is a few hours shorter than that, but it was just loads of fun to complete scavenging runs and hunt for secret recipes on my own.

The walkers and human NPCs themselves have their own agendas too, often interacting with one another in interesting and useful ways. While the AI isn’t always the most bright, causing enemies to sometimes get stuck in hilarious and vulnerable positions, an impressive amount of the unfurling drama that makes Saints & Sinners exciting is simulated in real-time rather than deliberately scripted. To my satisfaction, I found that many of the quests allowed me to choose my own path to a solution, and it was a delight to discover alternate routes and secrets, even if the map can feel a little nondescript or claustrophobic at times. Even when I was presented with straightforward options for moving through a group of wary human NPCs or solving a quest with diplomacy – or simply by attacking an NPC directly – I could just as easily avoid interacting with certain characters altogether, either by attracting a herd of walkers and sneaking past the ensuing carnage, or by climbing over the side of a wall or up the side of a house. That freedom to tackle a situation so many different ways is fantastic.

And though the bigger story about breaking into the Reserve can sometimes feel pretty thin between long periods of exploring, looting, killing, and crafting my way through the streets of New Orleans, it was refreshing for a VR game to let me define my character through my own decisions in a setting as meticulously detailed and open-ended as this. While Saints & Sinners isn’t exactly the first of its kind, this caliber of storytelling reaches a height that VR had otherwise yet to achieve.

Zombalaya

Central to the tension of Saints & Sinners is that you only get so much time each day to do things before the city’s bells are rung and the streets flood with ravenous corpses. Once you head back to safety you can go to sleep and skip to the next morning, but the number of undead you encounter the following day increases. This creates a compelling risk-reward choice between pushing your luck past dark or playing it safe at the cost of worse odds tomorrow, driving the tension of the entire game.

That dilemma would be perfectly manageable if not for the fact that you only have a limited amount of inventory space, pushing you to think more carefully about what you grab. You also have to continue crafting or finding new weapons as your old ones tend to fall apart at a distressingly high rate. That forces you to make each attack count, which is easier said than done since you actually have to swing and aim with your real-world appendages. With a ticking clock looming behind all that, Saints & Sinners quickly becomes the perfect storm for adrenaline junkies.

Luckily, the inventory management is intuitive and feels great. Picking up items and placing them into your backpack is as simple as throwing them over your shoulder, and to access them again you simply grab the pack off of your back and pull items out of their neatly arranged slots. Meanwhile, weapons can be holstered in convenient slots on your waist and back while your journal and flashlight fit snugly on your chest. This style of physical inventory management has existed in VR games like Rec Room and Township Tale for some time, and it’s far more interactive and interesting than simply tapping on a menu screen with your fingers or pointing at some text with a laser pointer.

This is the perfect formula for some of the most terrifying moments I’ve had in a VR headset

Limited stamina is also a worry. Running out of stamina makes you slow and unable to swing, aim, or run away, meaning it’s all the more critical to land each and every blow with finesse. Likewise, having a strong weapon or beefed up stamina pool makes you feel satisfyingly powerful, but never so much that you can let your guard down, keeping combat engaging even as you get stronger.

If you do die to the shambling hordes, you’re forced to respawn at the start of the map while the day’s clock is still ticking, and you only get one chance to reclaim your inventory before it’s gone forever. As time wears on, high-quality supplies and weapons can become so difficult to find that scrounging up a broken bottleneck or screwdriver in the nick of time is sometimes the difference between life and death. This, mixed with the fact that your health and stamina pools are temporarily decreased when you die, is a perfect formula for some of the most terrifying moments I’ve had in a VR headset – but that terror was met with an equal amount of satisfaction if I could make it back to my loot and come out alive after.

It is disappointing that character progression is fairly linear, with only a few tech trees to branch into – Gear, Guns, and Survival – and no mutual exclusivity between them. There’s nothing stopping you from unlocking every possible upgrade at the crafting stations in short order, just as long as you can find the right components from scrapping items you find in the world, similar to Fallout 4. It’s plenty of fun to use newfound upgrades like the Nail Bomb and the Grass Cutter, and there are some recipes that you first have to uncover the hidden nooks and crannies of New Orleans to find, but it’s too bad that there’s no real way to personalize your Tourist beyond the story choices you make.

Verdict

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a noteworthy step forward for VR gaming, proving that a Deus Ex-like Action-RPG can feel right at home in a headset. Every one of its many interwoven systems clearly has a level of thought and care behind it, swirling survival horror and roleplaying staples together with nuance. Even though character customization can feel limited and the story is a bit short, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a fantastic example of what VR can be.

Developer: Skydance Interactive

Publisher: Skydance Interactive

Release: DateJanuary 23, 2020

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4

- Joystick Buff 🕹️🧡

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lazybarbarians · 7 years

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For the Emperor, by Sandy Mitchell

Kalinara: So, we had a bit of an unintentional hiatus as real life hit both of us pretty hard. But now we’re back. It was my turn to pick the book this time, so I thought I’d try something a bit different. I chose “For the Emperor”, the first of the Ciaphas Cain novels in the Warhammer 40K series

Okay, so, disclaimer. I don’t play Warhammer, any version. I only have the vaguest idea of how it works, or who the major players are, or what the hell is even going on. All of my knowledge of the setting comes from the tie-in novels. And I have to admit, as someone used to trudging through Forgotten Realms (I honestly suspect the popularity of the Drizzt books, despite the irritating nature of the main character, comes from the fact that they’re one of a handful of series that are reasonably coherent), the Warhammer 40K novels that I’ve bothered to read are actually, legitimately enjoyable.

Ragnell: I don’t play Warhammer either, but I appreciate being able to google what the aliens look like.

K::One of the most interesting aspects of these books, to me, is seeing how the writers tackle the innate ridiculousness of the setting. I mean, don’t get me started on the thousands of people sacrificed a day to keep the undead Emperor alive so that chaos doesn’t consume all of humanity thing. The setting uses the word “grimdark” unironically. Enough said.

R: This setting is like the world/universal version of Ash from the Evil Dead sequels. And now I think I’ll picture Ciaphas Cain as 90s Bruce Campbell forever.

K: And I can see why the setting works great for the game, but it’s got to be a challenge for any writer to dreg up human stories out of that mess. And it’s interesting to see how different writers handle that.

Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts series seems to downplay the most ridiculous aspects of the setting to focus on trench warfare in space. Sandy Mitchell, on the other hand, seems to be embracing the over-the-top aspects of the setting and matching them with an equally over-the-top protagonist: Ciaphas Cain.

According to history, Ciaphas Cain is a legendary hero, a paragon of heroic virtue whose courage and honor are unparalleled. However according to his secret memoirs (as compiled and annotated by Inquisitor Amberley Vail), Cain has a different point of view of the events. Ciaphas Cain, according to Ciaphas Cain, isn’t a hero at all, but a selfish coward who obtained his heroic reputation through a mixture of luck, good timing, and a really good facade.

The plot of the novel is pretty straightforward: it represents an extract from Cain’s memoirs about his first mission with the 597th Valhallan Regiment. But it’s the characters, not the plot, that make the story interesting.

The Valhallan 597th has an interesting backstory in its own right. It’s made up of what had been two separate companies that were devastated during a recent battle. One of the companies was an all-male front-line regiment, the other an all-female rear echelon group. This required a bit of an adjustment period, especially since the new senior officer was one of the latter.

One thing I liked about the conflict was that while sexism was a part of it, it wasn’t simply a matter of “ew, girls” so much as the fact that these were two very different companies with very different ways of doing things. And there really wasn’t any doubt that the women were as capable as the men in actual combat.

It was however a nice set up to ensure that we had about as many prominent female characters as male characters in the story.

R: Yeah, I appreciated that too. This is an extremely macho space fantasy, and it would have been easy to have one female character for the love interest for the whole thing but this writer went out of his way to give us a mix. That was really cool.

K: We also get to witness the first meeting of Cain and his annotator in person, which is a rather nice touch. Inquisitor Vail is a fun character in her own right, and she and Cain have a lot of chemistry. One thing that I stands out for me, on reread, is how much is said and not said about the relationship between the two characters. Neither of them ever use the word “love”, but Cain himself states that she made “half a lifetime of running, shooting, and bowel-clenching terror” worth it. From Cain, that’s saying something. Vail is less effusive, but in a footnote notes that she and Cain felt “more at ease in one another’s company” than either were used to. In a way, it’s possible to read the entire Cain series as a declaration of Vail’s feelings for Cain: she’s presenting us not with the legend, but with the man that she knew. Warts and all.

R: She seems to prefer him to the legend. I like that they have a kind of stock action hero-love interest thing on paper, where she’s a spy who surprises him and she relies on his combat prowess, but there is something really fresh about it. She never gets taken out specifically to prop him up, for example. They have their own strengths and weaknesses, and some social abilities in common. And they bond over the fact that she can see through him. In fact, this consummate liar seems pretty attracted to the fact that she perceives the true him and likes him.

K: It’s probably fair to note that his initial knee-jerk fear of being discovered is not as neurotic as it might seem. His personality foibles might well be an executable offense in this universe.

The fun of this particular series is in the unreliable narrator aspect. We actually get layers of unreliable narrator here. Since the stories are presented as parts of Cain’s memoirs, we’re getting Cain’s in character version of events, decades after the fact. Assuming, of course, that Cain is telling us the truth. And assuming, of course, that Cain’s recollections aren’t clouded with self-doubt, hindsight, or foggy memory.

Vail is another layer of unreliable narrator. She claims to be impartial, supplementing Cain’s account with outside sources when needed, and adding her own footnotes to provide contextual explanations (a good way to deal with the minutia of the Warhammer universe for those of us without the patience or attention span to read through the source books), but every so often her footnotes end up with a little more personal color than necessary.

We know that Cain’s heroic deeds happened. It’s documented clearly and reinforced. But the “how” and “why” is an interesting question. Is Cain the selfish coward that he thinks he is? Is he a hero suffering from imposter syndrome who doesn’t give himself enough credit? Or is he just a normal man dealing with a batshit insane society that has no comprehension or recognition of human weakness?

R: I have to say, whatever it is results in Cain having an extremely practical and grounded focus. The setting is so overblown, so masculine, so honestly scary in how the Imperium is set up and works and how brainwashed all these conscripts are that it’s helpful to have a guy like Cain as your narrator.

K: Other notable characters include Jurgen, Cain’s aide, and probably the person that Cain values most in the entire universe (though he wouldn’t/couldn’t admit it. But his reaction when he thought Jurgen might be dead was pretty telling), and Sulla, one of members of the 597th who annoys Cain the most.

I think I like Sulla because she’s a character who absolutely did not have to be female. Her major traits: a gung ho attitude that annoys the hell out of Cain, a tendency to purple prose, and a steller career in her own right, do not require Sulla to be female. She’s a comedic foil, not a romantic option, and is never discussed in terms of physical attractiveness. In most stories, she’d be a male character. And she could have been a male character here, as the Valhallan Regiment is co-ed. But instead, the future retired General Jenit Sulla is female. And I like that a lot.

R: Sulla’s great. I’m more a fan of Kasteen though, who did pretty much have to be female to balance out the co-ed thing, but has that practical side I like. Sulla’s more gung-ho “For the Emperor!” Kasteen and Broklaw are more down to earth like Cain, focusing on the immediate goal and how to obtain it without getting the regiment killed.

K: It’s probably worth talking about Cain’s role for a moment. He’s a Commissar, which, for people who aren’t familiar with the setting, operates something like an advisor, morale officer, and secret police. As near as I can tell, with my own limited exposure to the setting, their job primarily consists of shooting people for cowardice and heresy.

They’re generally not popular, for fairly understandable reasons. (It’s a warning sign as to how bad the situation was that Kasteen was actually glad to see him.) And represent one of the more mundane horrors of the setting, when you stop and think about it.

But that’s where Cain’s pragmatism and self-centeredness serves him well. Cain knows that Commissars are generally unpopular, and that the worst often meet with friendly fire accidents as often as they’re killed by the enemy, and he has no intention of allowing that to happen to him. Besides, he has a vested interest in keeping as many of his troops alive as possible so they can stand between him and the enemy.

R: Which is another great bit, a book where the intelligent survival choice is to actually build relationships with others and keep them alive. It stands out again, against the culture Cain’s immersed in.

K: Ultimately, what appeals to me the most about this book, and this series beyond it, is that it takes a premise that ought to be cynical: the legendary hero is nowhere near the paragon of virtue that he’s reputed to be, and makes it strangely optimistic. Even if we take Cain completely at his word that he’s the selfish, cowardly phony that he labels himself as, the end result is that he has had a legitimately positive influence on a lot of people. He’s saved worlds and he’s saved lives. And when you look at it like that, it’s hard to say that he doesn’t deserve to be called a “hero” after all, even if he’d never meant to be.

In the end, instead of a story in which a hero is exposed as a scoundrel, we have a story about how a scoundrel accidentally becomes a hero.

#For the Emperor #Sandy Mitchell #Ciaphas Cain #sorry to be sexist but only a man could have invented a chainsword and thought it would be a good idea #Warhammer 40K Starring Bruce Campbell #The Persistence of Optimism in Hyper-Macho Space Fantasy #Mutants. Always Mutants.#Bowel-Liquefying Love Interests

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sillyanimegamingroad · 4 years

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15 worst PC games of all time

There are many best games on different platform like PC, mobiles and consoles. Of course, considering that a game goes unnoticed is a matter that obeys, to a large extent, the perception of the observer. You may well know many games on the list that follows, and that you have even had one of those passionate romances with some of them that last months and years and that have ended up becoming one of your favorite games of the last five years. We do not intend to belittle anyone. We have listed 15 worst PC games of all time that do not get noticed.

… but we do intend to recall some titles that we simply believe did not receive all the attention they deserved in their day . Or that, over time, they have fallen a bit into oblivion. In other words: these 21 games deserve to be rescued (if they are not already part of your day to day life) as quickly as possible, and to be enjoyed as when they arrived in stores. Or for the first time! Complete your summer with a few minor threats.

Far Cry Primal (2016) – PC, PS4, XOne

Far Cry Primal

A very rare installment of the Ubi Soft saga that did not receive much attention due to its radical change in setting (similar in some respects, however, to the first games of the series) and because it was embedded between the fourth and fifth main installments. However, his inventiveness is tremendous, and his approach is so simple and direct that it seems incredible that it has not been fully exploited before : you are a prehistoric man who has to defend himself against enemy animals and anthropoids with what you have at hand, from lean hand-to-hand combat with bows and other weapons of relative sophistication. The idea of taming animals is extraordinary, and the cycle of day and night, each with its peculiarities, is very ingenious.

Virginia (2016) – PC, Mac, PS4, XOne

Virginia

‘Virginia’ takes a considerable risk by proposing a story with criminal roots , but where there is no dialogue. With a very short duration, just a couple of hours, the game is more concerned with its history than with its very simple mechanics, consisting simply of unraveling multiple flashbacks and abundant dream sequences linked to an FBI agent who goes to a small town to solve a problem. disappearance. Its very little interactivity earned it harsh criticism, but its delicious and dreamlike atmosphere is well worth a walk through its many mysteries.

What Remains of Edith Finch (2017) – PC, PS4, XOne

What Remains of Edith Finch

Not exactly a game that went unnoticed, but one that ran into a lot of misunderstanding since its launch, as it was accused of belonging to the (unfairly) hated genre of walking simulators . And although it has many elements in common with the foundational and superb ‘Gone Home’, it also goes much further: here we will walk through the enormous Finch mansion, passing through rooms of all its past and deceased members, and revealing the story of the death of each one of them at the stroke of minigames that transform the aesthetics and main mechanics . Very original and, at the same time, with a very classic and stimulating traditional narrative proposal.

The Surge (2017) – PC, PS4, XOne

The Surge

The sequel had much more acceptance, but the first installment, which went a little more under the radar, is the one that raised all the ideas that came later , and that its creators defined, with a confidence in themselves beyond any doubt, as a mix of ‘Rise of the Robots’ and ‘Dark Souls’ (!!!). That is to say: exoskeletons and robots that distribute firewood and lose limbs, and a meticulous, difficult combat mechanics with multiple possibilities for improvements for our hero. The result is much rougher and rougher than its sequel, and in a sense better, as it has fewer artificial additives.

The Evil Within 2 (2017) – PC, PS4, XOne

The Evil Within 2

A sales failure that neither the few fans of the original title liked nor those who kept asking for a rehash of what ‘Resident Evil’ already offers . However, it is one of the best survival horrors of this generation, much more concise and murky than the first installment, where the elements of action, exploration and crafting fit together perfectly, and which proposes a much more immersive semi-open world. An undeserved failure and a horror adventure, with the same protagonist of the first part but in a much more disturbing key, with a lot of tension to offer.

Nex Machina (2017) – PC, PS4

Nex Machina

This another worst PC games. With the collaboration of the legendary Eugene Jarvis (‘Defender’, ‘Smash TV’), Housemarque’s ever-trusted arcade masters pulled off what could well be described as the best double stick shooter ever . In fact, the game clearly pays homage to Jarvis’s ‘Robotron 2084’ with its minimal plot of mowing down waves of robots , and refines the company’s technique with a perfect action game and multiple extras (from score tables to dozens of challenges). Unfortunately, the failure of the game led the company to declare that ‘The arcade is dead’ and to launch other types of games: the next thing they will do will be ‘Returnal’ for PS5, in a different wave but equally very promising.

Ruiner (2017) – PC, PS4, XOne, Switch

Ruiner

A futuristic ‘Hotline Miami’, tremendously fun and violent, and with an aesthetic that anticipates what we imagine ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ to be. The story does not matter too much (someone hacks our mind and our brother has been kidnapped) when the action is so effective and devastating, but ‘Ruiner’ is somewhat more sophisticated than most games of its style, since it allows improvements in the weaponry, ammo, health and other aspects of the hero. A perfect example of how a simple mechanic like a punch does not necessarily mean neglecting the rest of the aspects of the game.

Echo (2017) – PC, PS4

Echo

Another worst PC games is Echo. A stealth action game with an absolutely devastating concept: you are in a strange palace in outer space (the settings are a true wonder of haunting originality) full of clones of you. Each action you do will be automatically learned by the clones, that is, if you attack frontally with shots, they will too. With this, the very mechanics of the game force you to limit your movements to the maximum so as not to give an advantage to the enemies. A concept so great that it is dizzying and, unfortunately, it did not have the impact it deserved: the indie studio Ultra Ultra had to close shortly after the game’s release.

Moonlighter (2018) – PC, Mac, PS4, XOne, Switch

Moonlighter

Moonlighter is also worst PC games in our list. Shopkeeper by day, adventurer by night. This is the fantastic idea behind this beautiful Spanish indie that mixes management and adventure. You will have to earn money by selling items to other villagers with an economy system that has a certain complexity, and at night explore four dungeons that are generated randomly and where we will find loot … to sell in the store. Let’s add a secluded weapon upgrade system and we have one of the best pixelated action RPGs of recent years.

Bad North (2018) – PC, Mac, PS4, XOne, Switch, iOS, Android

Bad North

Simple but deep strategy game in which you have to defend your lands from the waves of Viking invaders by placing troops on the coasts, improving them and withstanding increasingly ferocious attacks. The levels are generated completely randomly, but that doesn’t stop me from coming up with one of the most accessible and exquisite real-time strategy cases you can throw at your face. One of the best recent examples that simplicity is not laziness in mechanical design, quite the opposite.

State of Decay 2 (2018) – PC, XOne

State of Decay 2

This survival zombie has the elements that made the first installment famous, but enhancing the role-playing ingredients and with an addition to the mechanics: if you die, the perspective changes to that of another survivor in the camp that you had to build from scratch, enhancing the idea of a collective protagonist so akin to post-apocalyptic zombie fictions. The idea of multiplayer inviting friends or strangers is also very interesting, in games that cannot be stopped, to lay a cable with the construction and maintenance of other bases.

Furi (2018) – PC, Mac, PS4, XOne, Switch

Furi

Furi is listed in worst PC games that didn’t succeed. Hack and slash with hints of bullet-hell, focused solely on boss fights, and demanding as much skill as patience. Each combat requires between 15 and 20 minutes to be overcome, and requires memorization of patterns (which change throughout each confrontation) and a lot of tolerance for frustration, since there is no possibility of saving from the game until the boss of rigor has not been defeated. A unique aesthetic and an absolutely indie philosophy are the icing on the cake of a game that is best approached in an almost Zen mood.

Return of the Obra Dinn (2018) – PC, Mac, PS4, XOne, Switch

Return of the Obra Dinn

The creator of the must-have ‘Papers, Please’ gained much less impact with his next game, which deliciously mimicked the graphics of the early Macintosh, lending a perfectly skeletal atmosphere to the game’s plot. Here, an insurance inspector for the East India Company in 1807 boards a ghost ship to identify the sixty corpses of the crew with a contraption that allows him to observe the moment of the subject’s death.

A Plage Tale: Innocence (2019) – PC, PS4, XOne

A plage Tale: Innocence

A Plage Tale is also worst PC games. Dramatic and realistic, but at the same time endowed with a very careful and unique aesthetic, this indie is one of the most remarkable narrative games of recent times, which tells the escape of a couple of brothers in 14th century France from the forces of the Inquisition. The dilemma is simple: using force is not an option, but in the light areas you are in sight of the soldiers, while in the dark you are bait for the rats that transmit the plague. A delightful mix of historical adventures, survival horror, and stealth mechanics.

Arise: A Simple Story (2019) – PC, PS4, XOne

Arise

With mechanics, aesthetics and history that make simplicity its main virtue, this little indie narrates in a while the whole life of a man who has passed away. We will have to accompany him throughout the most significant moments of his existence, controlling small portions of time so that he can advance through his own memories. The small and simple puzzles are part of the game, but what is really brilliant about the proposal is the design and coloring of the scenarios and the striking metaphors about the key moments of any life.

Above are 15 worst PC games of all time that did not get noticed but there are many games that didn’t succeed.

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