[GAMES] Hero of the Kingdom III (2018)

Initially, I didn't plan to start the next one so soon, but here we are.

(the view isn't so HD actually, but I love that logo changes according to the story)

This one I played longer, basically because the mechanics of how you earn and where you sleep etc. changed. I think this part of the game which reflect your occupation is pretty cool.

For example in previous game you are just a person, so you sleep at camps or in the inn, but you barter for that sleep.

But in this game you're a hunter, so you can take a rest anywhere. You cook for yourself, this is how you can eat and get energy. Next thing you learn how to brew potions which are essential in the game and also parttime as a blacksmith, which is essential too. You learn a lot of skills in this one.

You grew up with your uncle, because your parents unfortunately passed away, he was the one who taught you hunting. But during the earthquake your house is buried under rocks (honestly, this is brutal), so you're a homeless guy (this is why you camp and it's a separate icon even) which now need to earn his way. Later you hear that the path between villages was blocked but there are many monsters dwelling in the caves which can serve as another way around. You saw orcs before the earthquake. When you travel to another village you slowly find out that orcs occupied the caves leading to mines and people are stuck there. You fight your way there. Later you clear cave by cave occupied by orcs and demons and finally see the castle.

During your journey you have visions of a maiden who got a ruby from the Forbidden Valley, she was enchanted and came to the heart of all evil that is happening - Earthquaker. So the ground shakes a lot. You have to defeat all demons to defeat Earthquaker and release he kingdom from the horrors.

Because of this there is a lot of fighting and this is why it is essential to eventually learn how to make your own weapons and brew potions, since the orcs, zombies, spiders, snakes, demons etc. all require weapons and potions used on them. Because your weapons can break at any time and of course potions disappear after use. You also learn mining to get your own ore and herbalist teaches you how to collect herbs whether alchemist taught you to brew potions.

What is very different from the previous ones too is that looting is infinite.

While resources in the second game were limited so you had to use them sparingly, here everything respawns within time (including enemies). Also if you need something specific you just need to remember the location, flowers or animals will respawn at the same place. The same goes for everything else, like eggs or mushrooms or fish etc. This way you have endless resources. It helps a lot because doing it yourself of course is cheaper than buying it and you need a ton of weapons and potions for all those orcs and demons.

Must say it is fun, but surely is easier. Also because you're mainly fighting in caves, there is only a tiny portion of quests like saving people from caves or doing other stuff. I felt like in general I spent time on looting, hunting etc.

The only thing that bothered me the most is the upgrade of fighting skills, because the more you fight, the more pro you become, but not all creatures give you that option (and respawned ones do not grant you upgrade either), so before I reached 100 I had to look around to find which will help me upgrade. Since everything is in several different locations.

Oh yeah, this one saved the princess who woke the Earthquaker, but did not end up with her, he is a free hero. Which I find a nice nuance. In 2nd game the two princess and you travel together and face adversities, but here the princess is partially responsible and we remember that the hero lost his uncle in the beginning. So we don't ask for anything or a princess (we saw her only in visions too), we're an honorable pal.

[GAMES] Hero of the Kingdom II (2015)

Lol, I had no idea that just by opening the game I will spend the entire night playing it and finishing it.

HotK is a relatively short quest game with simple mechanics and story that is quite perfect for people who like to not stress out over a game. And you go from zero to hero as well. The way it looks like can be seen from the logo shot, it's very simple and does not require much from your computer, so much so that my poor and outdated laptop did not go berserk on me from overheating, huffing and puffing (I mean the hidden object games I play should be the easy ones, but they're not) and this was essential to me for finishing it in one sitting. So yay for games like that.

As for the quests and the adventure it is simple as well (it's shallow but what to do with it, it is how it is). You come along with your sister to a shore, but your sister is kidnapped by pirates. Thus you build up your reputation and money to find a way to save her which is to build the ship of your own and by the order of the king you also travel the sea in search of the pirates only to find out there is more to the story.

The world of the HotK is a fantasy world (which we always love), so among the historical type of setting you'll see some creatures.

The quests are simple find and help and sell and get reputation and money type.

I must say, the moment I found out how I can make money without looting and support the expenses without stressing it out I was the happiest (after all with all the looting things stop from appearing on the screen, so you can't just loot the woods and sell things indefinitely). Because that combo of buying wood, making it into a charcoal and then selling it to the blacksmith and earning on the difference was a game changer.

It's great that this is a series. I suppose each time you start as a new character and build your way up. Even in this game there is a reference to the first game.

All in all nice.

[Games] LOST LANDS 1-8

Honestly, Lost Lands overall are fun! I'm an avid player of Hidden Object genre and throughout the years I played different games from different studios and they all had their own good sides and flaws. Playing LL made me think that I might have played one part a long time ago, but memory is vague. But what is important is actually to play from the 1st part till the last part, after all it involves same loast lands in every scenario and you meet the same characters and even the same places. So I find this pretty interesting. Also made me realize how some of my preferences changed through years of playing HO. Previously, I very much appreciated the hard work when all the characters and cut scenes were mostly drawn by hand and I had less affection for 3D models moving around and Lost Lands uses just that. I found that it's actually not that bad and they moved to the first place instead. My least favorite is still when real people are used and cut into the game, it looks weird (sorry about that, it's all hard work, but preferences are preferences after all).

The story is also quite simple. It is most vivid in several games with bigger stakes  - to save the world. Usually, as detectives or someone involved we investigate one person or event or place, but here things are bigger. In the first part we meet Susan whose kid was abducted into the fantasy realm to become a vessel for soon-to-be born dark overlord, so we chase to that realm to save our kid. We should praise brave moms tbh, usually in HOG we always play as a "detective"~. Susan becomes a well-deserved main character and savior of Lost Lands, many times. LL even have legends about her, so it's kinda cool. The 7 games actually felt great and I think that the 7th game was a nice closure to the story and the series in general, after all it's the first time her son gets involved and realizes what his mother did all this time. I find that the 8th game was more like trying to drag someone from their retirement to get the chance and re-launch the game.

The fantasy realm is quite small, yet not completely small, each game shows different parts of it, but several locations keep appearing, like Maaron's (mage) house or the Magic Academy or dwarf mountains etc. The first game of course doesn't have it all, it's just a starting point, more like a pilot game with starting point in the forest, then dwarf mountains and ending with the castle in the sky. Gives you the feel of adventure. But honestly I really love fantasy and I feel like it's been a while since I played something where there was a fantasy world. The design of those places is really nice. The forest has a swamp and a spirit (really not mad at 3D figures, sometimes it makes me want to learn as well).  Next are dwarf mountains and the mountain spirit and a lot of intricate paths within the mountain and then is the castle outside, one standing at the edge of the cliff and another is hovering in the sky, so we have a feeling of going and up-up-up.

Oh yeah, the puzzles! Since lately I've been playing mostly games from Elephant games I kind of forgot the fun of puzzles, since they use mostly the same limited types over and over. Although here there are similar types here and there, but I think there's a huge variety of puzzles to solve and good thing they are not complicated, so the progress doesn't get stuck, but hidden object scenes aactually are not present after the first part. This made me amazed, because he mechanics were changed to shadow silhouettes, so you have to explore a scene instead of finding objects from a list. With the help of the map (which for my memory full of holes is ideal) I actually didn't need a walkthrough guide, which is saying a lot.

And it's been a long time since I've played the bonus chapter, usually I skip those, since they don't bring anything new (mostly use the universe of the world to add something). LL use approach when showing a story in the bonus chapter from a different character's pov, taking any period of the original storyline.

So starting from the first part Lost Lands: Dark Overlord, I basically played all consequent part. In the second part 'Four Horsemen' the game mechanics change a bit and they stay the same till the 7th installment. What I liked the most is that hidden object scenes were changed to shadow ones where you explore the scene, find the object that represend that shadow outline and use it on another object in the scene before you solve it, it feels more logical in general, after all it's as if you try to use all the objects near you to help yourself. Another mechanic that I liked is that when the object from inventory is the right one to use it is indicated by a small gear, so you definitely know that what you do is right. Also the inventory, I really appreciated that some items could serve for almost entire game, stuff like a knife and matches, after all in many games it seems devoid of logic to have a sharp knife but still find another item just to open smth when you could have easily cut through. So I really appreciated that items in this game were just right and were not devoid of logic of where to get them. Like for example in games that go through times, one moment you find item, especially if it's something specific like an emblem in one time, but use it in another, feels weird. Or when you use an item but don't use it in the other scene, although it feels useful. Unfortunately, the 8th game 'Sand captivity' partially got rid off the small gear indicator, it's very weird how some scenes use it and others don't, so it got messy. And tbh the 'Sand captivity' lost the lustre of previous games to me. It was longer, but it was kinda boring, the process seemed to feel like I spent more time on it. Also because Susan in this game is already a grandma, she again needs to save her son who touched an artifact, her granddaughter was also brought into LL, it felt like they might want to get a new main character, but Susan was the savior of LL and the Earth unknown to others all this time. But when you drag her when she's older, it feels like author who tries to drag their most known character back into business, while they just want to spend their retirement growing flowers and fishing. Leave Susan alone. Reminded me of Boris Akunin, I truly love his series about investigator Fandorin, but the series covers almost an entire lifespan, from when he was younger to when he was in his 50s. Some even pointed out that he acts too much like an action hero, but I must say.. have you seen some grandpas that work out? Those videos where someone with a cane walks to a bar and then almost does flips easily. So I'm not that against it. But it still always feels like the authors drags someone out just because they're most popular. 

The short overview of the entire series:

Dark Overlord: Susan visit Lost Lands for the first time, she must save her son from becoming a vessel for soon-to-be-awakened Dark Overlord. (****)

The Four Horsemen: Susan has to help defeating Four Horsemen of apocalypse who are after a magic compass. (*****)

The Golden curse: Susan once again travels to Lost Lands to solve the Golden Curse and help Lost Lands to get rid off the awakened monsters. (*****)

The Wanderer: The pirate ship from LL appears on Earth and this connection might break the boundry and destroy both worlds. Susan must find the way to save the ship's captain. (****)

The Ice Spell: In the middle of the summer the LL were enveloped in freezing winter when the spirit of Icy mountains came. We're saving LL from eternal winter. (****)

Mistakes of the Past: Suddenly LL fell into chaos because of an evil witch Cassandra. This was a mistake that Maaron was responsible for and now he tries to solve it, letting Susan travel to the past. Cassandra must not live. But in the past Susan was caught in the act by Maaron, which changed his character and going back to the future things changed once again. Susan must fix everything. (*****)

Redemption: LL are in danger. On Earth the buried heart of a great evil that was sealed for years was discovered and the heart must never find its' owner. Susan must find a way to help, but she is confronted with her son's accusation that she is missing for months from home. Susan happens to take her son to LL where he finally finds out that what his mother did was much bigger from what he imagined. (*****)

Sand Captivity: Susan's son, Jim, touched an artifact from LL and became a sand sculpture, Susan who is now a grandmother has to go back to LL to find how to lift the curse. (***)

Must say that my favorite one was probably the 3rd game, the Golden Curse. I think it felt quite epic and different. The next one should be the 6th game, Mistakes of the past, since it has time travels back and forth, pretty epic.

I enjoyed it, immensely.

[Time Princess] Selfie #6

 

[Time Princess] Selfie #5

 

This hair fits the storyline of Saga of Vierra so-so much. As if she is a descendant of the dark days and her hair darkened when the whole world of elves was submerged into darkness and was poisoned.

[Time Princess] Selfie #4

Most satisfactory femme fatale look with gorgeous appearance and stunning bearing.

[Games] Monument Valley

 

Tbh Monument Valley is one of he cutest games ever. Combining both puzzles and lovely graphics. I applaude to people who created it, because despite some levels being quite easy to pass, but the matter of perspective in more complicated levels really was like a small wonder. As a PC player I was really happy when they became available on the computer and playing it was full of joy. Both MV and MV2, both have their own charm and idea.

Person like me, who is not cut out for action games and enjoys puzzles this was such a lovely game :3 I wouldn't mind more games like this, but it is evident that due to complexity of perspective it is easier said than done, it's not as easy as "creating" other puzzles that do not need invention tbh, but just require use of the base.

[Time Princess] Selfie #3

New hair from new 'Power Game' set, don't care about the set, which looks like a carpet, expensive, yet carpet, but hair is cute. My lucky paw got it on the 4th try from 6 tries in total. I think it suits immensely well with this dress. Collectively now the doll looks like an anime/fantasy game character. Cute <3

[Games] T O W N S C A P E R

Just build a city

TOWNSCAPER is an awesome city building game. With no real objective, just infinite sea, differently shaped grid and a smart AI that automatically transforms built blocks according to its' own logic and elements. Yet it's so addicting, calming and tbh really cute (pigeons~)

Adorable town has a more classic look with stone buildings and tile rooftops. The color scheme has a full rainbow + beige and whites, which allows you to combine, mix and match. Just before you know it, you already built a small fantasy town.

The game has in-built grid, which can be made visible, it allows you to see that the shapes are usually not uniformely square, that's why it becomes even more fun to build all types of houses.

Experiencing different types of building "technique" it becomes more or less clear how do the elements work and what combination will bring you what result (like how to build an arc, lighthouse, enclosed garden etc.).

It's lovely that despite not having any objective, the game still has few interesting functions, such as lighting. You can position the sun in menu and even if you make the sun go down, it will actually become night time and the lights in windows will light up and it'll become a lively night scene. Tbh I find this part absolutely adorable.

The only function I haven't tried yet is actually a castle in the sky, I had no idea that you can actually do that before I saw a screenshot from the game. Honestly, I was like - hmm, why I haven't thought of it before? 

Since it's a city built on the sea, the only thing that it might have lacked was greenery, yet the game generates cutest folliages her and there, small tree or bushes and if you build an inclosed house with empty area in the middle, it'll automatically convert it into a garden.

 

No, honestly, why it is so cute. As a person who seeks relaxation in their gaming experience, I'm definitely voting for games like these - simple with a heart :)

[Games] I N S I D E

INSIDE is a 2.5D puzzle-platformer adventure game. There are no dialogues, no info, only you, who plays as a young boy without face or identity and travels from point A to point B. There is no clear destinction where the boy came from, we only know that his starting point is him stepping out of woods and sliding off the rock, and there is no explanation why he goes to his point of destination before he finally arrives. And with several endings the fate of the boy also becomes unclear, raising several questions like: should he end up where he ended, was he the one who controlled his path or he was the one being controlled?

The starting point of adventure begins in the woods, the boy slides off the rock and travels further seeing vague things in the fog that look like cabins, he also sees the back of the truck with people leaving. These people are obviously vigilant and you can also see and hear guarding dogs that rush to hunt and kill the boy without any mercy, whenever they notice him.

If you're noticed by people, you'll be chased and subdued with a stun gun and presumably taken away. Your only choice is only to run and jump into water to hide. You not resurfacing for some time makes people lose their attention. But when you dive for some weird reason there is a yellow cable between the rocks. That is a Hidden place and a yellow cable leads you to a strange small spheric mechanism from which you can pull out the core and the lights of this mechanism will be extinguished.

Swimming underwater makes you invisible in the eyes of guards and under the vail of thick gray fog you enter a small corn field before you see some presumably abandoned farm. It has living creatures like chicks and pigs, but there are no living people around. There is also another hidden place, under the rooth of the pig den, for this you need to pluck one of the planks and get inside, climbing to the beams and jumping at a small wooden platform. Surprisingly, the pigs around you aren't making any fuss when seeing an intruder, it also is obvious that no people are around since the pigs are so malnourished and thin. Passing this delapitated farm and climbing the fence, passing a huge pool of water from the never-ending rain it's the first real open space that shows a stepe and mountains in the background, what is surprising are bodies of pigs lying around. One of which gets agitated and tries to attack the boy, but when you lead it to the wall it smashes into the wall like a no-brain, then the boy pulls out something that reminds you of a worm, getting rid off it also changed the pig's attitude, it instantly becomes docile. You use it to reach a helmet that hangs on a cable, but you're too small to reach it.

Using the helmet makes the dormant people in the background move and they do all the moves you make them do, helping you to move the support that make the boards collaps, but the moment you disconnect from the helmet, people enter the dormant state again, being unmoving and forgotten in this place. They won't be last puppet people you will meet on your way that will follow you whenever you wear the helmet. Moving further you see a truck that load people, they do move, but have this robotic and puppet feeling like previous people, this is their only difference. They are also dressed in an office attire, making them look like a cannond fodder office workers, an unedning free labour that never talks and never asks questions, always resolutely and blindly following. Are they same puppets or people who just gave up under the iron watch of the armed guards is also unknown. But what is evident is their obedience and almost always bowing posture.

The boy follows his path to half-built empty warehouses that have strange cages of unknown use on the background, smashing the planks on the floow with a safe he can now jump down again seeing a yellow cable and another machine in a hidden place on his way. There is again a helmet and puppet people for your use to solve the puzzle and open the door to move up and from the roof you can see the familiar trucks and guards and also people marchin in unison. The buildings you pass through look half-destroyed, some look like they were office building in the past, some may be living quarters, but everything looks abandoned. Only endless marching of puppet office workers keep resounding on a big road. The boy moves to a building that has nothing but several robots and few bodies dressed in an office attire, but unfortunately to move up you have to turn the switch on, which also turns the robots on and if you enter the beam of light you are caught by them and they stun you. Passing the next location the boy is unfortunate to step on a rotten board and he falls down ending in a row of puppet people who march, because of your abnormality the camera moves to follow you, but if you move like everyone else it won't ring the alarm. This is one of the sections where you see not only guards, but other types of workers, they also wear same black office clothes and surprisingly have children among them, few take notes while looking at the marching people. Only at the end of the line where guards who don't mind you, the dogs who are more keen to emotions feel your fear and your staggering breathe and start to chase you. Your only choice is to make a dangerous jump and trick the dog to stay alive. Once again you have a chance to connect to the helmet that controls a puppet on rails. But when you move further you see that above rails is another helmet and you make the puppet under your control to connect to it, which with a change of music wakes another puppet human from the box. You use this chain control to move to the next place. And with the latch open you jump into the water. This is the first place that has water and more than that it has controls to fill the sections with the water or on the contrary - release it. You pass this abandoned experimental area and being on the rooftop can see in the distance a railway, one is has opened carriages that carry the countless number of puppet people.

And again you encounter robots that use a light to detect any moving living object, but also you see pretty familiar cage, now filled with several puppet people. The cage is not closed, but they don't move away from the cage. Going down you enter a huge underground place that has many abandoned train cars and also several mad dogs. The only thing you can do now that dogs detected you is run and use your witts, because if dogs catch up it's an instant death. Blocking their path and leaving dogs behind you move on, seeing one lit room among the darkness of half delapitated buildings and water. It is unknown how this water came to be. To get a glimpse of the answer you enter a small submarine and travel underwater, but what seems to be the end is just a hole covered by wooden planks, breaking them you enter a huge space that feels never-ending.

You feel absolutely insignificant in this vast space. Swimming further you see an entrance with a mark '2' on the road and everything around you feels like a tilted building of unimaginable sizes. Countless gates, countless sections, countless stairs, countless offices and premises you pass through, before see something lurking in the water.

When your light light on it you see something that looks like a child with a really long hair, but it is afraid of light, most certainly it spent so much time in this underwater darkness that any light hurts its' eyes, but this child that can freely breath underwater will forcefully break your submarine and pull you out making you drown from the lack of oxygen, but maybe it is just too lonely in this darkness and doesn't want to be alone anymore. Only with the help of light you can pass and outsmart the underwater child taking your chance to escape and blocking its' path. You finally see a shore and leave the submarine seeing a tall black wall in front of you. It's thick and when you try to enter you actually fall down. Surrounding you are half-destroyed mines, the rails are half-swallowed by sand, it has several levels and in front of the upper one there is a switch that shows number 19, if you enter the platform the number changes, so you have to have 19 people on the platform. All you have to do is collect them, for which on the lower level there is a controlling helmet you acquire, but unlike previously, it disconnects from the cable yet continues to work. When you wear it, all puppet people who were standing without moving in miners' work clothes start to crowd around you and help you in places you can't reach. Going around all three levels which show unimaginable size of those mines you collect all puppet people to move forward.

Standing in front of the gate the obvious vibrations hit the walls, but when the gate opens you can finally feel the shock waves, first ones smash your helmet off, next you take cover otherwise the shock wave will smash you into minced meat. Only cover of hard metal and rock can protect you. The shocks waves are never-ending, you can see the places it is originating from. At this point the music intensifies indicating danger and you have to use everything around you to pass this section, also passing a room with test objects that were destraoyed by the shock wave. Reaching the end of this section the music become more serene as you finally escape. 

Later you enter the underwater section, a laboratory that definitely studied the children that could swim underwater without air supply, like sirens. The siren can instantly indicate you underwater, but loses your trail when you exit it. The space taken for these labs is gigantic.

And when you think you outsmarted the siren not to become its' playmate, there is again a creeping music and in the next pool of water the siren find you again, indicating that it knows fully well all the areas that are opened to it. You have to direct the siren to have time and escape it. And when you think you finally succeeded you have an accident and fall into water and the siren takes this moment to grab you and drag into deeper waters. You think her actions are malicious, because the boy definitely drowns, but moving lower the siren takes the cabel that usually is connected to control helmets and plugs it into the boy.

The boy drowns deeper and deeper before reaching the bed of this sea and suddenly wakes up, being able to also breath and swim underwater. The boy again enters a ginarmous space filled with water, with huge constructions fully drowned, it is obvious that these areas was once inhabitated and served as some sort of research institute, there is also a number '3' on the floor. The boy enters another are through scavanging system. The constructions aound him are huge, but what is more importantly are working. Here boy enters something that is like a lab, but what is different is that the water is above him, not complying with any law of gravity.

There are also people in the water, all connected to helmets, but having their bodies parasitized by worms. The boy has to open a huge hatch inside the water to get out of this place. 

This is not the last place where the water doesn't comply with the law of gravity and can be manipulated and used to cross the areas, but it also gives you the idea why the many areas are underwater. You also free another crowd of puppet people who, feeling the boy's presence, follow after him and huddle around him. With their help you enter a new area that seems to be a core area at the moment. It is fully operating, there are working places, thought ampty, you can see that there is a phone receiver not being hung up as if someone rushed somewhere.

It is hard to tell what time of the day it is, it feels like this area is under the ground. Passing through you see number '4' printed on the wall and the path. There are also see-through boxes with obvious experiemnts being held, but no viewers in sight. All viewers are actually standing in front of a huge reservoir, what is inside is unknown to you right now, some people notice the boy who is so out of place, but they do nothing.

As if leaving you to yourself to act however you want. The boy goes around and finally enters the reservoir finding a huge blob-like creature - the Huddle - which is made of humanoid limbs. But if you swim to the window where you can see researchers someone will point at the Huddle behind you, pointing that you should go there. Disconnecting the Huddle the boy is sucked in inside of it and becomes its' part and escapes the reservoir. This is the only place where you need to move backwards to proceed. Previous mines had several layers to explore, but it only had one door that led you to exit. Here, the Huddle goes back to fall through the elevator shaft and fall exactly at a place that looked like a diorama. What is surprising, this diorama is surrounded by people, as if they were waiting for your arrival, knowing that this is the only place you can go to. They all watch rather closely, exclaiming but not running away, some even accidently get under Huddle's many feet.

You run through the institute with many people either watching or following you, they are afraid of being crushed by the Huddle, but if looking closer they do help the Huddle to move forward (like the person who helps the Huddle to open the door, one opens the hatch). It gives you the idea that you're led on your way. Or you're controlled on your way and people just see the results of their experiment. Because when you enter a large auditorium you can see the single spotlight on a device, but below it is an obvious way down, a hatch.

The vague silhouettes when the Huddle falls down come forwards and you can see clearly that the circle of silhouettes before were people obviously waiting for the Huddle in this large area. The hatch is closed above, leaving no way out but only to swim in the dark and look for the way out.

The Huddle follows the light and resurfaces, seeing the wooden enclosure, breaking through it the Huddle suddenly falls down and rolls down the cliff before it stops in the single spot of light among the withered yellow grass.

Alternative Ending: Can be triggered if you find all the hidden places that are indicated by yellow cables and de-activate all the spheres you can then enter a final hidden place with a bigger sphere, this hidden place surprisingly is right next to the reservoir with the Huddle. Sphere's hatch only opens after de-actiovation of all sphere devices. And on the board in the background only one light is left, this is one of the hidden places that had a lever you could have not opened without a correct combination.

The secret hatch in the corn field right at the beginning of the game has a spheric device on the left and a closed hatch on the right. In this underground like place there is a helmet with an empty chair in the background in front of many screens and on the right wall there is a huge cable, that if unplugged completely turns off the energy and all lights disappear. You can see how the boy kneels down on the ground, unmoving.

To me it never mattered that the game itself has quite easy to solve puzzles. What builds INSIDE into unique experience is the atmosphere of the game itself, supported by incredible music and a story opened to interpretation, giving birth to many theories.

Because in the end, you as a player might sit and think - who is controlling who in the end? And only playing it twice can give you this idea. Because the first time, you go the obvious way and the boy is absorbed by the Huddle, but the second time you open the hidden sphere and you can get rid off control by unplugging the cable. There is also a theory that many gamers support - is that the boy is controlled by a player. My personal theory coincides with it, but it sounds more like - the boy is controlled from above, because he is given a choice, either to become the Huddle or disconnect the sphere, because someone left the sphere out there.

World of INSIDE from given elements:

• AREAS. The size of the town, institutes and experimental area is unimaginable. It is hard to say is the city was built underwater to later have so many areas drowned or the water was channeled in. But what makes me believe that these areas are still divided comes from this type of thinking. On the way you see distinct numbers like 2, 3 and 4. I haven't seen indication of Area 1, but it makes me believe that no one expected for Areas 2, 3 and 4 to ever appear. The Areas are also separated by their certain experimental directions. It is also possible that Areas 2, 3 and 4 were built simultaneously with how close and interconnected they are with Area 4 being the core we try to reach. The forest the boy goes through gives you an idea that it is used by the main organization or research institute, so the reach of them is far and wide, all of the farms look abandoned and the city we enter feels like it went through some type of major event. Most of the city is obviously built above and below the sea level and feels very strange with many underground houses that were once living quarters. The second Area is the most destroyed one, although the world is 2,5D and the angle shifts, but the obvious tilt makes you think of some serious catasptrophe that happaned and made such a huge structure tilt. When one reaches the final stage it also feels unrealistic and artificially created with how the wooden boards built look like a stage decorations, just large in sizes. Plus the diorama that the Huddle passes by identically reflects where the Huddle ends up.
• HUMAN / EXPERIMENTS. Throughout the game you realize there's at least several human experiements going on. It is unknown what came first, but it feels right to say that the results of the previous ones were carried out to the next one. 1) Worms. This is an actual reference to Inside's predecessor, Limbo, it also had these controlling type of worms. We see them implanted into pigs, but later when your reach the puppets in the water area you can see that some are implanted with those too; 2) Sirens/mermaids. They appear several times. One that follows the submarine and the other follows you underwater. One mermaid is shown to be still connected with the cord floating alone in the long abandoned area, only reacting when the boy comes around. The mermaid experiment turned out a success, presumably, but maybe not really used, yet if the mermaid was controlled and was given the task to implant the boy with the cord, then it explains a lot; 3) Humanoid puppets, unlike humans, that do appear in the game, humanoid puppets don't really feel any pain or any emotions, they can easily be torn apart. This experiment is the most successful, since countless numbers of those puppets are used as free labour and also numerous transparent boxes show experiments being help on them; 4) Mind control. It is obvious that there can be a mind control via the helmet as well as a chain control of host - puppet - puppet; 5) The Huddle. It differs from the rest of the humanoid puppets in size. The reason why the Huddle was create is unknown, one of the theories is to intensify its' controlling power and call for the boy from far away. There are also traces of other experiments, but the most the institute is interested in is the Huddle with obvious lead and control; 6) Shock wave. The poligon for the shock wave is an are that follows the mines, but throughout the next areas you can also see the special covers that are used there; 7) Gravity. The water that is on the ceiling and defies all laws of gravity.
• BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. This theme is pretty obvious. In some point in time the research and military took over any other form of living. The research is the core of it all, deeply connected to the military. The population of real people feels scarce in comparison to humanoid puppets. Maybe that was the reason for their creation in the first place, but it made a turn on its' way. But despite that the cameras on the walls, detecting cameras, robots, they all work for one purpose only, detect the anomaly, which makes this world absolutely tyrannical. Even the whole interpretation of the ending can have this notion attached to it.

Playing this game several times throughout years, I was immersed in its' incredible world and atmosphere each time. The vastness of the world, the openness to interpretation of its' elements made it one of the best games for me. I can never get enought of its' ambience.

RATE: 10/10

[Games] Resident Evil. VILLAGE. Phenomenon of our tall crush.

 

Lady Dimitrescu

a.k.a Alcina Dimitrescu, the matriarch of the Dimitrescu clan from Eastern European country (which should be obvious judging by her last name). She resides and rules over the castle Dimitrescu she inherited and lives together with three women she mutated and calles them "daughters".

Although she has such energy that I can bet anything we all say - hi mom - when we see her.

Damn, I love her design so much out of all the characters that we've seen so far. Yes, I'm a huge sucker for more historical looks she has, she has this amazing domineering height and she looks like a woman, her body is not statuesque, but she's not fat either, it's just right. Her marvelous almost morbid paleness with a dust of gray, same as her gown. It's meticulous, yet has the decadent feeling, the dustiness gives you the feeling of dread. Yet not as strongly as her pale, almost transparent eyes. I also like how they chose red lipstick, as if her lips were forever stained by the blood of her victims.

It is evident that Resident Evil Village was heavily influenced by vampirism (or should I say the cliche we know about vampires) and the overall entourage supports this image: delapitated dungeons, traces of many victims being tortured, decadent furnishing and grandeur of the castle itself and the most evident is - obvious traces of human bodies being eaten and blood drunk. Aesthetic feeling of beauty and horror combined. Same goes for the villaness herself.

Pretty obvious references to me:

• Dracula. Whose origin is not only an Eastern European country (Transylvania, the historical region of current Romania), but also had three "daughters", same as Lady Dimitrescu. Three daughters, or just daughters of Dracula were used in cinematography not once. Just giving an example is Van Helsing movie with three vampire daughters.

• Erzsébet Báthory, the Hungarian noblewoman, mainly infamous as the most prolific serial killer. Was said to practice vapirism as she used the blood of her young servants to prolong her own life. Lady Dimitrescu is rumored to be behind a number of homicides that cover a period of approx. 70 years and all the killings happened in the castle.
• Not so obvious reference, but since the game developers are Japanese that's why I mention this manga. As for the elongated claws of Alcina I must say the only time I saw such a thing. Yes, I've seen it before. Was in Tsubasa, reservoir chronicles, creation by a CLAMP team about CLAMP characters' alternative universe where they travel to different worlds, in one of which they meet vampire twins and the way their fingers elongate to become a weapon is pretty similar, you can see for yourself:

Kamui (original character of X series, twin brother to Subaru in TRC)

Although the exact date of birth of Alcina is unknown, but at least her current dress style is a reminder of early 20th century. 1930's to be precise. Incorporating the simplicity of an everyday dress with the non-decorated fabric and the dare of evening gown with the open decolletage and an accent flower.

It is hard not to notice Alcina's uniqueness in the string of RE villains who combines the obvious charm and creepiness. Maybe that is the reason for the excitement that appeared among the RE players and not only, just her image made people who are not connected to RE see her and think - this lady got something about her. Or we are just having a silent crush on tall ladies. Personally, I've seen countless excited tweets about Lady Dimitrescu alone and it seemed that majorority of people can't wait to be killed by her in the game. She doesn't only get guys excited, but honestly she can bend anyone. At least I'm pretty bent for her :3 The uncovered joy reached the RE team as well, along with the developer who sent a heart-warming thank you to the fans and shared a fact people wondered about, that Lady Dimitrescu full height in the game is around 2,9 meters. That's our tall lady~.

But it also made me wonder, why everyone around, including myself, are simping so hard for our vampiric tall crush? Let's not refuse the obvious. No, not that obvious protruding part many want to be crushed in-between, but the fact that she is tall, she is not only pretty (despite that beauty being creepy too), but she is very tall. We've seen our share of beautiful ladies, but we definitely had not had enough of beautiful and tall ladies that dominate us. Pretty ladies are everywhere, there is nothing new about them in games, even if they are villains, no matter how harsh that sounds. But what about tall, dominating, strong women? I don't think one can name many. The only example that stands out and received very positive reviews was Brienne of Tarth, from Game of Thrones, played by amazing Gwendoline Christie in the TV show adaptation, who did not only shine on the screen, but became an icon outside of it. That's why I find the appearance of Lady Dimitrescu so unique in the sea of petite flowers, even inside the game where her three daughters don't actually look much different from each other I find this fact simply ironic.

Let's be honest, tall women can't appear just at any role, that's true and partially it's good, I don't want them to lose their uniqueness, but they can occupy special roles that leave a deep imression that's for sure.