Finally coming out of early access last week with its 1.0 update is Slime Rancher. I sat down with it for a long while over the last week, and I really liked it! If you’re here for the more nitty-gritty, keep reading. But if you’re just here for a solid game rec, you’re all good.
Catalyst Labs released Shadowrun: Anarchy this past week, and naturally I picked up a nice PDF copy. I then printed out that copy and stuck it in a binder. And then I read it. And let me tell you, I liked what I saw. Shadowrun is notorious at this point for having an overly complex system of dice pools, character creation, and in fifth edition, matrix and astral plane actions in addition to everything that happens on the physical plane. Trapped in a musty cellar? You can alter players’ dice pools on the conditions. Need to hack into some club’s server for a mission? Get out your dice. It’s no surprise that most GMs, myself included, offload some of these things to their players. You wanna register this sprite? Do your tests. Be honest if you glitched.
Shadowrun: Anarchy (or just Anarchy from here on out) seeks to correct some of these things. Most notably, it emphasizes the fact that it’s a collaborative storytelling effort. The GM is there to guide the story along with the help of the players, not so much create a world that players inhabit. From the get-go I can see Anarchy being great for one-off campaigns where people don’t have a lot of time to sit down and plan a run.
That being said, Anarchy gives players and GMs a lot to work with when it comes to character resources. NPCs and player characters have a dedicated chapter which includes a smattering of 60 fully-realized, fully-playable characters in every species, race, gender, and archetype imaginable. It’s incredible how many are in the book. In addition, Anarchy gives GMs a variety of goons to throw at their players. These range from large rats to small dragons and everything in between.
Anarchy’s character creation process is pretty straightforward. Characters pick their metatype, helps and hindrances, and character-defining cues. This is what’s new to Shadowrun in this version. As opposed to a dedicated GM running a sandbox that players get to experience, the GM acts as that one guy in an improv play that knows what they’re doing. In fact, most of Anarchy is like an improv play: there’s a lot more responsibility on the players to keep the story moving. Turns of gameplay are broken up into narrations, and players can expend plot points to make the story go where they want it to or keep their characters… you know, alive. Which is something I appreciate.
The cue system, as it’s called, gives players plot points to start out with and at the GM’s discretion, gives them more for exceptional narrations. Players do cool things, players get rewarded. Players have a say in the story. If they don’t like it, they can change it. It’s an engaging, fast-paced change from the typical tabletop model where decisions can come back to haunt players. In long-term campaigns, that still persists, though in shorter one-offs, it’s a lot more hands on.
Playing the game this past week went about as smoothly as I’d hoped. The premade characters helped out a lot. (GM Tip: Put character sheets in page sleeves so that players can use dry-erase markers on them. Pencils can tear paper and it keeps the sheets in pretty good condition.) The three players I had picked out characters with ease and we got down to running. We poked fun at the dad-joke cues that some of the characters had, and I led them on a run.
A sample Anarchy character sheet.
I think the hardest thing about running a game of Anarchy was letting go of a lot of the control you have as GM. As a fiction writer primarily, I have set places I want my stories to go and I spend a lot of time building the world they take place in. I’ve been worldbuilding for our upcoming Shadowrun show for weeks, and I still have a fair bit to go. I want things to be as realized and intricate to my players as they are to me. Anarchy takes a bit of that away because players can change things so easily. It’s not something I was really prepared for at first.
Another thing is some places in the book that haven’t exactly been proofread. Some paragraphs reference the alpha test version of Anarchy, which is pretty funny to look at now. Then again, every first-edition has its quirks.
There are other things that just come with the nature of Shadowrun. There are still a lot of rules, and some of them aren’t explained so well. I still have no idea how to orchestrate matrix or astral combat, let alone meatspace combat. Even though skills have been greatly simplified, it’ll take some getting used to.
Also: players get three plot points to start each game session. I mistakenly gave them none. (Sorry guys.) Other than the fact that getting used to a different version of pen and paper RPGs takes time, I didn’t see a problem with it. Catalyst Labs also included a guide on how to convert Shadowrun 5E to Anarchy and vice-versa. Which is incredible. The cues system really exists as something that can be removed, as well, so adapting it to a different setting wouldn’t be a stretch by any means.
While I enjoy the finer details of Shadowrun’s vanilla 5th edition, I find myself wanting to use Anarchy in more and more campaigns. It’s good news for my players, it offloads some of the nitty-gritty things that GMs go through, and it makes for a really nice experience overall. It’s interesting to see a pen-and-paper RPG styled more like a board game than anything else, and I like the direction Catalyst Labs went with Anarchy. To me, it’s a kind of party trick to keep in my back pocket. Anarchy makes it quick and easy to get a few friends together and run a session. It’s an incredible introduction to some of the conventions of tabletop RPGs, and Anarchy presents it in an easy-to-learn format. 10/10, Catalyst Labs. Well done.
Overall, I’m super in love with this release. Can you tell?
OH MAN. Here we go, guys. Furi is a game where many of my favorite things intersect. First, you have a neon-dipped, fast-paced game based around satisfying controls and combat. Next up, a somewhat vague story driven by characters who sincerely kick ass, in more ways than one. And finally, to round out this list of things, a shorter list: a killer synth-based soundtrack with collector’s edition vinyl, and immensely difficult gameplay.
I should preface the rest of this review by saying that I’m not used to difficult games by any margin. I’m pretty sure Bloodborne and Hotline Miami rank among the hardest games I’ve played. I don’t know if that says anything about me as a person, but I like to take it easy in my games. You know, go along for the ride.
Furi is having none of that. Even during its tutorial level, Furi pushes gameplay that’s challenging to most people. The fights are long and frustrating at times, and my only qualm here is that a checkpoint after a boss has lost a certain amount of health, maybe two-thirds, would be nice. Furi offers an easier difficulty for those who don’t want to put up with the normal one, but you sacrifice the ability to earn achievements and unlock harder difficulties. You also lose the ability to unlock their speed run mode.
There’s something that keeps me coming back to Furi even as the difficulty ramps up. There’s no feeling quite like decimating a boss in their final stage without getting hit, and it’s something that comes with practice. Even in my limited play time so far, I can see myself improving. And we’ll get to that in a bit.
To set the scene, where I’m at, anyway, you’re an unnamed silent protagonist breaking out of prison with the help of some other unnamed dude wearing a purple bunny hood. To gain your freedom, “The jailer is the key. Kill him, and you’ll be free.” After every battle, you learn more about your guide, and about why you were locked up in the first place.
This boss features Carpenter Brut’s “You’re Mine”, composed for the game. (via PlayStation Blog)
If you’re going to make a boss-rush bullet hell game, you need to nail the responsiveness of your controls. And congratulations, The Game Bakers, you’ve done it. Moving around is satisfying, as it should be with twin-stick games. You have a parry which will heal you when successful, a slash attack, and a dash at your disposal to get yourself out of tight situations and inflict damage. Parrying an attack at the last second activates a “perfect parry”, which knocks the boss down.
There’s some advanced tech in the movements as well, where you can charge a slash while dashing to avoid enemy attacks.While I find a lot of these are situational, it’s pretty nice to know. Along with healing after a successful parry, there are green projectiles that turn into health orbs when shot. They’re few and far-between, and it can sometimes be riskier getting to them than staying put.
There are a couple mechanics which make the long fights more manageable. One which I find breaks up the monotony of endless dodging is that after knocking out a boss’s shields, combat shifts to a close-quarters fight. Additionally, when you take a full bar of life off a boss, your current one is entirely healed. Conversely, the boss gets this advantage as well, and if you fail in close-quarters, the boss heals up their shields, too. This is another area where I’m critical of the choice. It seems unfair sometimes, as parrying while in close-quarters or during the shield phase doesn’t heal all too much, but it’s not a deal breaker.
Between the bosses, there’s a fair amount of exposition. These are like walking simulators with some story and background. I’m not a huge fan of walking through them so slowly. The great thing here is that there’s an auto-walk option, so you can sit back and enjoy the cutscene leading up to the next boss.
There isn’t much but talking and walking. (via The Game Bakers)
While I’ve already covered how difficult the game is, I haven’t quite covered how infuriating some battles are. There’s a lot to watch out for, and a lot to focus on. Sometimes due to the colorful nature of the game, projectiles and ground attacks blur together. And while it makes for interesting visuals and some pretty hard stuff to dodge, unfortunately it makes it so I can’t sit for hours and work my way through. I can do 45 minutes at most without getting sloppy– dodging directly into damage, parrying poorly, and giving up too much of my precious life bar. And unfortunately there’s nothing I can do to combat this but get better at rushing the boss and taking breaks.
I don’t want to, though. I want to be able to sink hours into the game without tearing my hair out, and to prove to myself that not only can I get good, but I can actually withstand the difficulty a game puts in front of me without falling off in how effective I am at fighting. I feel like the real fight here is to not set the difficulty to an easier one. And trust me, that temptation is alive and kicking even as I write this.
Up close and personal with the first jailer. (via The Game Bakers)
Despite all the shortcomings I have with difficult games, the one thing that keeps me going is the soundtrack. Initially I heard about the game browsing on YouTube. I can’t remember what led me there, but I saw a new track with Carpenter Brut’s name on it. I wasn’t a hard sell, Carpenter Brut is among one of my favorite synthwave artists. He sits among several others that are well-known for their music: Danger, Lorn, Scattle, and Kn1ght, to name a few. It’s available for purchase on Bandcamp (here!) as either a digital album or a collector’s edition vinyl, which is limited to a run of 800. Excuse me while I stare out my window and wait for it to arrive, please.
It’s worth the exorbitant shipping price, you gotta believe me. (Image via Bandcamp)
If you enjoy difficult games, or even just a challenge, do yourself a favor and add this one to your collection. I can’t urge you enough, without being entirely repetitive, about how much you should play this game. Even if you have to do it on easy mode, do it. There’s no game I’d recommend more from this year so far.