Entry 4

While playing the physical prototypes of others digital games in class last Friday I noticed many points of interest. Firstly, while playing the game Angry Birds, it was abundantly clear that a rule set can make it break a game in terms of replay-ability and engagement. When myself and the others sat down to play, there was no rule sheet, but rather a piece of paper that simply said "This is Angry Birds". By not having a rule set we were left to figure out what pieces represented what, how the system worked, and what determined success. This left us creating our own levels that were often unexciting and not difficult, mixed with our self proposed rules that were always evolving and never constant. My main take away from this experience was that a clearly defined rule set is important in what makes a game fun, easy to pick up, and re-playable. 

A recent new game I played was Gravity Rush 2. Gravity Rush is a single player adventure game where you play as a queen with super powers to control gravity that are given to her by her cat. The kingdom attempted to assassinate her and replace her without someone more willing to follow their political agenda. It was unsuccessful and she instead fell to earth and lost her memory of her queen status. Throughout the game you regain your memory and attempt to work your way back up the class system to the kingdom to attempt to prevent a large vortex of darkness from dissolving the world. There is an apparent social commentary on class disparity. The gameplay itself I find to be boring in the sense that it is a free roam with the option to complete either main or side missions. The main story is told through a mixture of cinematics and comic strips that I find very interesting. Gameplay consists of you floating about the world and multiple levels, navigating by using your two forms, Lunar & Jupiter. Lunar allows your character to be lighter and Jupiter makes you heavier. Each form also has it's own fighting style as well. Combat is executed through melee attacks and gravity based power kicks. While I found Gravity Rush 2 to be incredibly unique, the gameplay was particularly uninteresting and the story unengaging.