150 Word Limit - Stealth Bastard Deluxe (PC, 2012)

Welcome to 150 Word Limit, a column where I try to write down my thoughts on and/or review something in 150 words or less. Today's subject; Stealth Bastard Deluxe, developed by Curve Studios and released on November 28th of 2012.

The inception behind Stealth Bastard Deluxe, a stealthy 2D puzzle platformer, is interesting. Jonathon Biddle, the game director, stated that he wanted this game to avoid the awkward scenarios in other stealth games where the player has to fumble their way back into the shadows after fumbling out of them. Stealth Bastard Deluxe succeeds at not having any of those segments, which it manages by making being spotted very punishing and speeding up the pace of the game. When the levels aren't focusing on puzzle elements they tend to force the player to skirt the line between being stealthy and progressing at a controlled pace, which make up the best parts of the game. However, for people who aren't up for doing some puzzles or who want a stealth game that lets them take their time, Stealth Bastard Deluxe won't satisfy them.

Steam and it's top-selling games as of 8:40pm EST on 7-15-2013

So, I noticed something odd about the Steam Game Hubs...

My CounterStrike: Global Offensive Invite

I'm Now An Official Games Journalist!

I welcome the world of late-night announcements and free video games with open arms!

Article #1: Portal 2 Level Editor To Be Released May 8th

In this article I took a straightforward approach with the knowledge that was present; have a snazzy intro paragraph, report the information that I had, talk about a personal experience relating to the news, and throw in a joke or two. I think it worked out really well, even if it took 45 minutes to write.

Article #2: Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 is a thing

...And this is the article where I stopped giving damns. It's basically one big joke/rag post on Call Of Duty and BLOPS 2, with an almost 100% serious paragraph that failed to be that. Now, I do want to get something out of the way; I don't hate Activision or Treyarch or Infinity Ward (although Activision does need to be slapped every now-and-then), it's just that Call Of Duty is such an easy target that I HAVE to go for it. Think of it like a nerdy stand-up comedian and the mention of Twilight fans; the comedian just HAS to make fun of the ridiculous culture surrounding the poorly-written books.

The Steam Negative Sale

I would buy that for $-21!

Some Thoughts: NightSky

To put it simply, NightSky is a ball-rolling 2D puzzle-platformer. Every stage you roll your character (a black sphere) around, maybe solve a puzzle or two, get to the right side of the third screen and move on to the next area. It's not some epic journey with all of these events and bigger set-pieces with every change of scenery. I think that's why I like it though; the game is trying to impress you by what it is, not what it's attempting to do.

Let me explain; there's a difference between impressing people by who you are and what you're trying to do. While a scientist may have discovered something that may change the world, the scientist is still a scientist who does long, complicated equations and probably spends all of his day in a sealed room. The scientist, as a person, is unimpressive. Now, look at a passionate chef that manages to juggle cooking three meals and would gladly re-make an entire dish if he thought that it wasn't up to whatever high standards a person would have; who would you rather have a chat with? While I'm sure either choice would be interesting, I feel that a majority would find the chef a more engaging person.

I believe that above analogy can be used in terms of the video game industry. Many big-budget games (and even some small-budget ones) impress you with specifically what's happening rather than what's there. While I'm sure Call of Duty is a solid game, I can't think that people play it because they're looking for some feeling or weight to the world; they're playing it because events are unfolding and kill-streaks are incoming. I also can't see any other reason why the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series is so popular and is considered a cult classic besides having a world that screams "I want you dead" at every minute.

Now, back to NightSky. The reason it fits in the "I'm impressing you by being what I am" category is that the whole game lacks a sense of straight-forwardness. There isn't any precursor that suggests that what happens next is what should be happening; it just happens. This is one of the reasons why Minecraft is popular; there's no coherency to the world, things are just as they are, giving that sense of an unpredictable future. NightSky follows this mentality, going from dark caves in one area to a high-above-the-clouds city of Victorian architecture. This sense of unpredictability that I had playing NightSky for the first time is what really enhanced my experience. Of course, I'm not really surprised by this since the game was made by Nifflas, a one-man team that's known for making very unique and unsuspecting games. Either way, I enjoyed this game. I guess that's the end result.