Downfall Review

10/06/200908/01/2010 Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Before reading our review of Downfall below, you could also view an alternate take on the game in the form of our interview with the game’s developer Remigiusz Michalski. The interview contains intriguing side-to-side comparisons of Michalski’s work-in-progress sketches turning into the full-fledged game.

The Davises are on a holiday road trip from London, but find themselves in pouring rain and lost in a tiny rural village in Devon, South West England. Suddenly Ivy’s not feeling well, and as the couple stops for a much-needed breather, Joe Davis decides to seek for medical help and a place to stay overnight at a nearby hotel. With the couple’s relationship already under some considerable strain, the hotel seems to exude unexpected hostility, and the foreboding little town seems blanketed in dirty secrets.

Joe suddenly finds himself falling, all too conveniently, into the role of the problem-solver.

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Max Payne 3

10/06/200910/06/2009 Martyn Zachary 5 Comments

Guys, I don’t know how to put this nicely. I solemnly swear, The Slowdown won’t be turning into Negative Gamer any time soon, but… do forgive us, for just one post, while I try to explain this to our advantage. When Max Payne 3 was first announced, we collectively voted, in unison, to absolutely hold our judgement – after all, we’re nothing short of massive fans of Remedy and the Payne franchise. I recently completed ‘The Fall Of’ no less than three times, in the row, during the previous xmas holidays.

Yet this is what we all thought: The new logography seemed to be a poor man’s combination of the ‘Impact’ font and grunge cross-hatches. The reimagined Max seemed as if he had been suddenly relocated, against better judgement, from film noir territory directly into the realm of Kane & Lynch. Everything that was iconic about Max Payne seemed to have been conveniently axed.

Mind you, we thought we had it all wrong. I guess this is where we have to come to terms with the fact that things have really changed somewhat; VG247 happen to be showing off an unfocused photograph of a forthcoming GameInformer cover, and… boy, it does not look pretty. Kotaku, on the other side of the tracks, are hinting at a potential multiplayer feature.

I don’t know what to think. Do you?

A Bugged Fate

09/06/200909/06/2009 Martyn Zachary 1 Comment

Being the bearer of bad news is never fun, but we do finally have to report that nothing has changed since Mixnmojo learned, last February, that Crackpot Entertainment had lost their publisher for the still unreleased second part of Insecticide. The website reported that Crackpot was considering distributing cutscenes from the second episode on Youtube “in an attempt to complete the story as best they can in lieu of the actual game”, but so far only videos from the first episode have been uploaded.

SouthPeak Games’ Rob Burman confirmed earlier today that Insecticide has indeed not been added to their “line-up of titles”, and Crackpot president Michael Levine did not have anything further to add to the situation (apart from a plug for Planet Cazmo). Gawrsh.

This is a very unfortunate time indeed to advertise a verbose, sibylline review for a two-part game that might never be properly concluded, but perhaps some hilarity can be found in-between the lines, especially since the review was written back when Tales of Monkey Island was still just a collective wet dream (…or a headline in someone’s secret legal papers) and LucasArts seemed to have forever abandoned their roots.

You can read the anachronism here – in the meantime, let’s keep our fingers crossed for Crackpot!

Breakwater Crumbling Before the Narrative Flood

08/06/200908/06/2009 Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Since it looks like most of us are still reeling from the potentially lethal after-effects of E3, there is thus very little new press out there right now – other than the ostensibly amaranthine recaps and bullet point lists – so I thought I would just as well direct our attention to something completely different.

So. I enjoy reading Richard Cobbett. We go way back (…well, he does) as I originally chanced upon his blog, as an impressionable young man, thanks to his very questionable coverage of Sin Episodes. ¹⁾Thank you archive.org! I couldn’t find the original post on his website. He’s cool and stuff and it so happens that he totally agrees with me on Guybrush’s new hair.

To cut to the chase, he has recently débuted an all-new interactive website called Narrative Flood, under the fantastic subtitle “Because Story Matters”; the right words indeed, in the correct order no less. I would like to be so bold as to highlight just a few intriguing topics that have already been tackled on the website, types of themes that I would hope to ultimately discuss here at the Slowdown as well:

A straightman take on Al Lowe’s often-disrespected but ultimately oft-reminisced and …yes, even beloved Leisure Suit Larry series and Larry’s romantic search for Real Love ™. Cobbett argues, like Lowe himself, that the “packaging … always promised much more sex than was actually in the games” ²⁾http://www.noisetosignal.org/2008/10/the-nts-interview-al-lowe
Sexy vs. Sexy, a discussion of the dangerous high-wire tap-dance that is the use and abuse of sex appeal in games.
Arachnophobia vs. Altruism, in which Your Hero laments the monstrous throng of spiders in games. I can’t help but mention I’ve only recently bested my own arachnophobia in video games; For instance – to keep on bringing up Sin any way I can – some years back, I simply could not envision myself playing Wages of Sin, the expansion pack, because the very first enemies in the game so happened to be spiders. I do have to add that I did ultimately conquer most of my fear during my relatively recent play-through of Dark Messiah.

A refreshing new website with a focus I can full well get behind – please do take a look!

References [ + ]

1.	↑	Thank you archive.org! I couldn’t find the original post on his website.
2.	↑	http://www.noisetosignal.org/2008/10/the-nts-interview-al-lowe

Downfall Interview with Remigiusz Michalski

06/06/200912/01/2010 Martyn Zachary 8 Comments

We recently talked to the very accessible Remigiusz Michalski about some of the more burning questions relating to his horror adventure game, Downfall. In our interview, we touch on his feelings about being an indie developer – including how Steam had shockingly outright rejected the game as unfit for their audience – and how the game’s style and structure really came about. Michalski also clarifies how the game relates to the adventure game genre all the while gently jabbing poor Guybrush.

The interview additionally contains never before seen side-to-side comparisons of development sketches and exclusive versions of backgrounds – including unfinished art that never made it to the game – to allow readers more insight into Michalski’s development cycle.

Here at the Slowdown, we also noticed how some players have been on the fence with the amount of gore in the game, so we wanted Remy to clarify the true nature of the horror present in Downfall. In turn, we also learned how some of the game and its locations are really reality-based.

Finally, we intend to publish our complementary review of the game, with more in-game screenshots to go, in a matter of a few days; If you’re interested in the game, the easiest way to read the forthcoming review is to subscribe to us on Twitter or to our RSS feed. Downfall is currently available on Direct2Drive, and our thank you goes to Mr. Michalski for taking the time to answer our questions.

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