Talking Point: Do We Still Want Achievements On Switch?
It’s been many years now since Xbox 360 introduced its achievement system and added an extra layer of gamification to your games. Microsoft’s system-level Gamerscore was introduced way back in 2005 (that’s right, fourteen long years ago). That little dopamine hit on hearing the ‘Achievement Unlocked’ sound struck a chord with a whole generation of gamers and they soon became an addiction. Bragging rights for grabbing the most obscure, most difficult ones made adding to your Gamerscore a point of pride for many.
Valve soon followed suit on Steam and Sony’s Trophy system made the word ‘platinum’ a verb. Nintendo gamers, however, never got to experience that sweet, sweet addiction – not at a system level. Many titles implement the achievements used elsewhere into the game itself, but Nintendo has never created a similar framework of its own.
If we’re honest, after fourteen years achievements have fallen off our personal radar somewhat, and wouldn’t rank particularly highly on a wish list of features for future Nintendo consoles. We’ve got used to not having them. Of course, they’d be a fun extra, but we’re not clamouring for them like we did a decade ago. In fact, we thought that was the general feeling amongst Nintendo gamers, but a quick scan of social media shows that there’s still a healthy appetite for a platform-wide system on Switch:
With Xbox achievements arriving on Switch in due course thanks to the release of Cuphead and Xbox Live integration, it seems to have reignited people’s passion for the little pop-ups. Calls for Nintendo to ‘get with the times’ are easy to hear, although for a company that believes ‘the true value of entertainment lies in its uniqueness’, implementing a system based on a competitor’s fourteen-year-old success hardly showcases the ‘Nintendo difference’, does it?
Still, it’s a feature that many players crave. Personally, we’ve fallen out of love with them a bit, for various reasons. For every game that uses them creatively and encourages you to experiment or play a different way than you might otherwise, there’s another which simply doles out the cheevos as you finish a level. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but they lose significance to us if they’re simply a mark of progress – sure, you can ‘prove’ to your online mates that you’ve completed a game, but that’s not enough of a draw.
They’re not particularly developer-friendly, either. Microsoft’s mandate that all games were required to include unlockable achievements created extra work for game devs, and its easy to understand why so many take the uninspired form of ‘You completed Level 3!’ or ‘You jumped 10,000 times!’ It’s another layer of work added to each platform the game releases on, and while it’s often easy to track certain player stats and actions (especially on modern platforms), it can be more difficult for smaller indies already crunching to get the game running and not wanting to tack on a bunch of dull, token achievements after they’ve worked so hard on the core game. Being creative takes time and the best achievements are imaginative and playful.
They can be mighty intrusive, too. You’ve just completed some emotionally significant narrative moment – shot a traitorous friend, galloped into the sunset or whatever other video game scenario you care to remember/invent – and up pops the notification. You’ve completed a game, spending hours battling your way to a reckoning and you sit there, bathing in emotional and physical catharsis as the screen fades to black… doop-doop! ‘Achievement Unlocked – Winner Winner!’
We’re exaggerating, of course, and other platforms do allow you to mute notifications, but a platform-wide system is inherently ignorant of the actual content of the game, so if a developer hasn’t thought carefully about how achievements will unlock across all supported platforms, you often get these pop-ups destroying the atmosphere of a tender or significant moment. These interruptions occur on Switch already, of course. While playing Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice a couple of weeks ago, emotionally striking and heavy moments were repeatedly interrupted by Switch telling us that ‘Tony80085 is online’ (a pseudonym has been used to protect Tony’s true identity, but we do wish he’d make his bloody mind up!).
Despite Switch not having an overarching infrastructure, many games implement their own achievements lists, and perhaps that’s enough. No, you don’t get the platform-wide integration or that satisfying unlock sound, but we’re rational human beings for crying out loud! Do we really need that – or even want it – in all our games?
Perhaps the best place they could fit in on Switch would be the selection of retro titles that come with your Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Little objectives could provide some of the focus lost with the introduction of save states and give players an incentive to revisit those old classics on the service. Many of us have fired it up, dipped into a few classics before losing interest and closing it down after a few minutes. The wall of games arguably induces paralysis and it somehow feels ‘easier’ – or more satisfying – to play something else despite loving stone-cold classics like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Zelda.
Save states would render anything as boring as ‘Achievement Unlocked: You finished 8-4!’ utterly pointless, so Nintendo would have to be very creative – very different – with its challenges. We’ve seen that the company is happy to play with these classics with the SP versions it’s been dropping and the service only contains a small selection of games, which would make a blanket ‘system-level’ structure possible where it would otherwise only be realistic (logistically speaking) from the very start of a console cycle. Others have already taken the trouble to gamify retro titles in this way – Retro Achievements has been doing it for ages.
There are plenty of opinions available on the subject of achievements, and the most interesting ones tend to come from game designers themselves. Keith Burgun and Chris Hecker’s thoughts are worth a read and delve more deeply into ideas of intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards and the mechanics of how achievements actually work.
They used to be the new thing – an incredible bit of seasoning to go along with Xbox Live on the 360 – and we have fond memories of them, but now achievements themselves are almost retro. Some would argue that they’ve had their heyday and it’s probably time to forget about them. Nintendo-only gamers never sampled their addictive properties in the first place, but anybody who has gone cold turkey with Switch need only hear that little unlock ‘dong’ once to have their nostalgia booted up and experience little ‘cheevy cravings.
What are your thoughts on achievements at a system-wide level? Do you still care about them on other platforms? Have Nintendo gamers really missed out? Feel free to share your thoughts with a comment and vote in our poll.
Random: The Karate Kid’s Son Upgrades To Switch In Cobra Kai Season 2
It almost looks like a Nintendo Switch lifestyle shot
One of the most popular web television series on YouTube right now is Cobra Kai. It picks up exactly thirty-four years after the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament at the end of the iconic film The Karate Kid, where Daniel LaRusso (played by Ralph Macchio) defeats his rival Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka).
The new series is currently in its second season and while it’s mostly filled with a lot of flashbacks to the original films, there are also a lot of modern cultural references thrown in for good measure. For example, throughout season two, the popular television and book series Game of Thrones is name-dropped, and in the first and last episode, Daniel’s son Anthony “Antonio” LaRusso can be seen playing a Nintendo Switch.
In the previous season (released on YouTube last year), the character is spotted playing Tekken on a PlayStation Vita:
The sixth episode of season one – Daniel wonders why kids are so obsessed with technology Who could resist Tekken?
Of course, the roles have been reversed in the past when Atlus brought The Karate Kid to NES back in 1987, a game which loosely followed the action of the first and second films.
It seems like a positive sign for Nintendo when one of the most popular web television series of 2018 – and one that’s likely to be similarly huge in 2019 – has swapped from a Sony console to its hybrid system. Then again, it has been a natural move for many gamers in the real world as support for PS Vita dries up. You’ve got to hand it to Sony’s portable, though – it has hung around long after first party support ended and it’s always been a nice little system; Switch should be proud to pick up where Vita left off.
Are you a fan of the Karate Kid? Have you been watching Cobra Kai? Do you think movies, television and web series are an effective way to promote video games? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-26-2019, 10:32 AM - Forum: Windows
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Anniversary update for ‘Sea of Thieves’ available for free April 30
The Anniversary Update for Sea of Thieves is available for free on April 30 with Xbox Game Pass or on Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, and our biggest update yet is packed with content we know will appeal to players of all kinds. From the glory and gunfire of competitive multiplayer in The Arena to the serenity of fishing up your latest catch for the Hunter’s Call Trading Company, the Anniversary Update brings something for everyone. If you’re the adventurous kind of pirate, though, it’s likely Shores of Gold – our first set of narrative-driven Tall Tales – that caught your eye when we unveiled the update back in March.
Today, we’re taking a closer look at what it means to bring story-focused adventures to a shared-world game, and some of the new gameplay features players can expect as they seek out the mythical Shroudbreaker relic.
Shores of Gold is made up of nine distinct Tall Tales, each of which can be tackled as part of a pirate crew or by a solo player. Although each Tale is part of a larger saga that spans the Sea of Thieves, they can be enjoyed individually and you’re able to replay Tales you’ve completed previously. In fact, each Tale has been structured to be played repeatedly, meaning you won’t always find secrets and solutions in the places you might have been expecting them.
Your quest to reach the Shores of Gold, a legendary location filled with untold riches that lies within the deadly Devil’s Shroud, begins with the hunt for an ancient relic that can clear a path through the fog – a relic once sought by the Pirate Lord himself. All of this takes place upon the same shared seas as always, so other pirate crews may have their part to play in your adventure.
This perilous endeavour is just the start of an epic journey that will lead players across the Sea of Thieves. There’ll be ancient parchments to decipher, puzzles to solve, traps to dodge, and battles with fearsome enemies that stand between you and your ultimate destination – the massive, mysterious island known as the Shores of Gold.
Along the way you’ll meet a rag-tag cast of heroes and villains, some of whom are familiar faces from the game and the Sea of Thieves expanded universe, along with an all new assortment of warmongers, cursed rogues, star-crossed lovers and more. Every tale features professional voice acting to help advance the story, not to mention secret lore books and commendations to work towards as you play.
If all of this has you itching to take the wheel and weigh anchor, you haven’t got long to wait before the Tall Tales – Shores of Gold arrives as part of the Anniversary Update on April 30. Until then, more clues await in the official trailer.
Key Features
Tall Tales – Shores of Gold brings nine story-driven adventures to the shared world of Sea of Thieves.
Players can enjoy each adventure as part of a crew or alone, and Tales are designed to be replayed and enjoyed again and again.
New types of gameplay, including enchanted tools and artefacts to master and new locations to explore.
Decipher long-lost journals and ancient puzzles, battle against fearsome new foes and dodge deadly traps in underground labyrinths.
Tales designed to imbue excitement, fear, sadness and joy, with characters voiced by professional actors.
Available to all players for free as part of the Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update.
New to Sea of Thieves? Join the adventure with Xbox Game Pass or on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. If you haven’t tried Xbox Game Pass yet, join today to get your first month for $1 and get access to over 100 great games, with new titles being added all of the time. Prospective pirates can learn more at xbox.com/seaofthieves or visit the Sea of Thieves website at SeaofThieves.com to embark on an epic journey with one of gaming’s most welcoming communities.
In this short quick article, we will show you how to change a user password in Ubuntu Linux using the graphical interface as well as the command line interface. As you are well aware, most operations on Ubuntu are applicable to its derivatives such as Linux Mint, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and many others.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-26-2019, 04:30 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Super Mario Maker 2 Gets Release Date
One of the major surprises to come out of February's big Nintendo Direct presentation was Super Mario Maker 2, a Switch follow-up to the acclaimed Wii U/3DS creation game. Nintendo had previously announced the title would arrive sometime this June, but now the company has pinned down an exact release date: June 28.
That isn't the only major difference in the upcoming game; unlike the original, Super Mario Maker 2 also gives players the ability to create slopes and angled surfaces, something that wasn't previously possible. Other improvements include the ability to customize how autoscrolling levels scroll, and an assortment of new tools such as on/off switches and more. You can watch the Super Mario Maker 2 announcement trailer above.
The first Super Mario Maker launched for Wii U back in 2015 and was subsequently ported to 3DS the following year. GameSpot awarded it a 9/10 in our original Super Mario Maker review and called it "a game of joyous creation and fun surprises." Critic Justin Haywald wrote, "The game won't necessarily turn you into the next Shigeru Miyamoto, but you can almost feel a little bit of that magic rubbing off every time you upload a new creation."
The other big surprise announcement from February's Nintendo Direct was the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remake for Switch. That game is likewise slated to launch this year, although Nintendo still hasn't announced a firm release date. You can read more about it and all the big Nintendo exclusives of 2019 in our roundup.
Random: Walmart Is Selling A Bundle Of 300 Switch Consoles For $76,506
We do love to have a good browse for Nintendo-related products now and then, sometimes coming across some not-to-be-missed deals, but we’ve never seen anything quite like this.
At the time of writing, American retailer Walmart has a listing for 300 Nintendo Switch consoles. We don’t mean that they have 300 in stock; we mean that they are selling all 300 in one bundle. If the 299 you were originally planning to buy just aren’t enough, you can pick this up for the inconsequential sum of $76,506.
Amazingly, the listing tells you just how much you can save by purchasing the 300 in this super money-saving deal. Apparently, you’ll save a whopping $13,194 by buying them together. Thank goodness Walmart is here to save the day.
We’ve grabbed a screenshot for you, just in case the product listing gets taken down
In all honesty, we have no idea what’s going on here. You’d assume it must be some sort of error, but we just put a bundle in our basket to try it out and it all seems to work as expected.
We’d normally ask you to leave a comment below letting us know if you’ll be picking up whatever we’re talking about. So, continuing our good old Nintendo Life tradition, will you be spending $76,000 today? Do let us know below.
Psyduck And Snubbull Join The Pokémon Build-A-Bear Range
Both Psyduck and Snubbull are set to join the Pokémon Build-A-Bear collection, it has been confirmed. The pair will be available as online exclusives.
The Psyduck Bundle includes a 13-inch Psyduck plush, a Raincoat and matching Rainhat, a Luxury Ball Hoodie, a Psyduck 6-in-1 Sound Chip, and a Build-A-Bear Workshop Exclusive Psyduck Pokémon Trading Card. The Snubbull Bundle includes a 15-inch Snubbull plush, a Vest and Bows, a 6-in-1 Snubbull Sound Chip, and a Build-A-Bear Workshop Exclusive Snubbull Pokémon Trading Card.
These new cuties join Pikachu, Eevee, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Vulpix, Meowth, Jigglypuff and Alolan Vulpix in the range.
Both Pokémon will go live on buildabear.com and buildabear.co.uk tomorrow. If you’re interested in picking them up, you’ll probably want to check out this pricing info (all in USD):
– Online Exclusive Pokémon Psyduck Bundle (includes plush, a Raincoat and matching Rainhat for Psyduck, a Luxury Ball Hoodie, Psyduck 6-in-1 Sound Chip, and a Build-A-Bear Workshop Exclusive Psyduck Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) card): $65, plus tax – Online Exclusive Pokémon Snubbull Bundle (includes plush, a Vest and Bows for Snubbull, a 6-in-1 Snubbull Sound Chip, and a Build-A-Bear Workshop Exclusive Snubbull Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) card): $55, plus tax
– Make-Your-Own Pokémon Psyduck plush: $32, plus tax, sold separately at Build-A-Bear Workshop stores and as part of the online exclusive bundle; includes a Build-A-Bear Workshop Exclusive Pokémon TCG card. – Make-Your-Own Pokémon Snubbull plush: $32, plus tax, sold separately at Build-A-Bear Workshop stores and as part of the online exclusive bundle; includes a Build-A-Bear Workshop Exclusive Pokémon TCG card.
– Raincoat & Rainhat for Psyduck: $13.50 plus tax, sold separately at Build-A-Bear Workshop stores and as part of the Online Exclusive Pokémon Psyduck Bundle. – Psyduck 6-in-1 Sound, $7 plus tax, sold with the Make-Your-Own Psyduck plush in stores and as part of the Online Exclusive Pokémon Psyduck Bundle. – Snubbull 6-in-1 Sound, $7 plus tax, sold with the Make-Your-Own Snubbull plush in stores and as part of the Online Exclusive Pokémon Snubbull Bundle.
Do you have any Pokémon Build-A-Bear plushes already? Will these be joining the collection? Tell us below.
Timely backups are important. So much so that backing up software is a common topic of discussion, even here on the Fedora Magazine. This article demonstrates how to automate backups with restic using only systemd unit files.
Two systemd services are required to run in order to automate taking snapshots and keeping data pruned. The first service runs the backup command needs to be run on a regular frequency. The second service takes care of data pruning.
If you’re not familiar with systemd at all, there’s never been a better time to learn. Check out the series on systemd here at the Magazine, starting with this primer on unit files:
This service references an environment file in order to load secrets (such as RESTIC_PASSWORD). Create the ~/.config/restic-backup.conf file. Copy and paste the content below for best results. This example uses BackBlaze B2 buckets. Adjust the ID, key, repository, and password values accordingly.
Now that the service is installed, reload systemd: systemctl –user daemon-reload. Try running the service manually to create a backup: systemctl –user start restic-backup.
Because the service is a oneshot, it will run once and exit. After verifying that the service runs and creates snapshots as desired, set up a timer to run this service regularly. For example, to run the restic-backup.service daily, create ~/.config/systemd/user/restic-backup.timer as follows. Again, copy and paste this text:
[Unit] Description=Backup with restic daily [Timer] OnCalendar=daily Persistent=true [Install] WantedBy=timers.target
Enable it by running this command:
$ systemctl --user start restic-backup.timer
Prune
While the main service runs the forget command to only keep snapshots within the keep policy, the data is not actually removed from the restic repository. The prune command inspects the repository and current snapshots, and deletes any data not associated with a snapshot. Because prune can be a time-consuming process, it is not necessary to run every time a backup is run. This is the perfect scenario for a second service and timer. First, create the file ~/.config/systemd/user/restic-prune.service by copying and pasting this text:
Similarly to the main restic-backup.service, restic-prune is a oneshot service and can be run manually. Once the service has been set up, create and enable a corresponding timer at ~/.config/systemd/user/restic-prune.timer:
[Unit] Description=Prune data from the restic repository monthly [Timer] OnCalendar=monthly Persistent=true [Install] WantedBy=timers.target
That’s it! Restic will now run daily and prune data monthly.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-26-2019, 04:30 AM - Forum: Windows
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Oversharing and safety in the age of social media
Many years ago, I worked with healthcare organizations to install infrastructure to support the modernization of their information systems. As I traversed hospitals – both in public and private sectors – I was often struck by one particular best practice: the privacy reminders were ubiquitous. If I stepped into an elevator or walked down a hallway, there was signage to remind everyone about patient privacy. Nothing was left to chance or interpretation. This was also pre-social media, so the concerns ranged from public conversations or inappropriate use of email, to leaving a document on a public printer.
Fast forward to 2019. Our society and culture have changed. We are much freer with our personal information on social media. We talk openly about our lives and post pictures and family information in the wild. We are less concerned about our privacy, as we use these platforms to connect with others – a connection we might be denied given our busy lives. However, as has oft been written, these platforms can be a cache of riches for someone seeking to steal your identity or compromise your email and other accounts. This same type of free flow of information is also following us to other parts of our lives and making it easier for the bad guys to attack and profit. Let me explain with a few examples.
I travel a bit (okay, a lot). While my global travel is mostly for work, this provides an informative world lens for people watching and listening. I am often between flights in an airport reading or catching up on email and overhear a wide variety of conversations – without even trying. Recently, I was in the U.S., delayed at the Chicago O’Hare airport for several hours as “there is (was) weather in Chicago,” the worst phrase in the US travel industry. I overheard a man on the phone discussing his declined credit card in detail, including his full name, billing ZIP code, card number, expiration date, and so on. My shock quickly faded when I started thinking about how many other times I was in public and overheard things that could lead to financial or IP or other loss for an individual or company. The number is non-trivial. That’s when I decided to tweet some simple advice, and solicit input via my twitter feed.
The results were equally horrifying and amusing. Some even thought my post was an attempt in social engineering. Overall, the response convinced me to write a blog as the evidence I gathered suggests this isn’t a small problem. Rather, it’s a real problem. So let me start by sharing some examples and then make some suggestions (which may seem obvious to many of you) on how to protect your privacy and security.
Notes from the airport lounge: social engineering is a thing … a really big thing. Please protect your personal information (like credit card numbers, sensitive customer information etc).
And a few drinks later I’ve learned about unannounced acquisitions… marriage infidelities, the amount of debt someone owes, passwords pulled up from a word doc. pic.twitter.com/pPDDZd6xq7
My favorite are people who have had their credit card disabled because their travel inadvertently flagged fraud prevention. So they are in the middle of the airport, reciting all their personal info to the bank to get the card turned back on.
How you never lock your system when you walk away because it’s so inconvenient to enter your credentials. o_o. // How people on the CTA hold their phone outward and call utility companies and banks and provide information loudly. >_<
At one of my first IT gigs we kinda beat each other out of the first one by changing people’s desktop backgrounds to annoying memes. (I got to the point of using a bluetooth dongle and my almost-smart phone to autolock it lol)
I recently interacted with a thread where it asked individuals for the security weaknesses that they recognized in their orgs and felt would be critical if not fixed. I’m sure if people didn’t warn against accurately responding might in fact harm their org if used by attacker.
So how do you protect yourself from theft of personal or proprietary company information in public? The super obvious, somewhat flippant answer is: don’t share any of this type of information in public. But, at times, this is easier said than done. If you travel as much as I do, it becomes impossible to refrain from conducting some confidential business whilst you are on the road. So how do you actually protect yourself?
Many people will read this blog and say, “well that’s obvious,” but sadly it is not, based on what I have personally observed and the feedback I received in preparation for this post. When in these types of situations, my recommendations are:
Use privacy screens on your laptop and your phone when in public, in meetings, and on airplanes. I cannot tell you how much confidential information I could have obtained just sitting behind someone on a plane.
Do not discuss confidential information in a public place: restaurant, club, elevator, airplane, etc. Based on the Twitter solicited feedback, people somehow think planes are cones of silence.
If you must conduct personal/confidential business on the road, wait until you arrive at your hotel or find a quiet place in the airport/club/restaurant where your back is to a wall and you can see anyone who is located by you. Use your best judgment.
Never give anyone your password. I don’t know how to say this more strongly. Do not ever give anyone your password.
Use a password manager. Don’t reuse passwords. This way if someone does obtain one of your passwords, you limit your exposure.
Be cognizant of what you put on social media. I am very active on social media but, remember, your information can and will be used against you. Be careful of when and how you post to avoid advertising when your home will be vacant for vacation or any personally identifiable information that could expose your passwords.
If someone calls you claiming to be from your bank, the IRS, the police, your company, a tech support organization, offer to call them back from a number that is published on their legitimate website or the back of your credit card, etc. Do not give any confidential information to an inbound caller.
Use encryption for sensitive data and sensitive communications.
If you must install IoT devices at home, segment them to a unique network.
If you are renting a private vacation home, there are some very good apps to scan the network to make certain you have privacy (e.g., cameras in a location that was not disclosed by the owner)
I am not a fan – at all – of listening devices at home, but if you do have one, remember there is a possibility we will find out all of your conversations were recorded. Be aware of what you say….
The world is quickly evolving as we embrace more technology. The onus is largely on users to protect yourselves. While this blog is just a high-level discussion on social engineering and privacy, using common sense is always your best defense.
Sigma Finite Dungeon is a difficult game to hate, if you have any affinity for tactical turn-based rpgs. As a focused expression of mechanics, it’s a no-frills dose of gridded goodness. As literally anything else – something visually impressive or narratively curious – it fails.
Part of the initial disconnect in my first several runs was just getting over the fact that there was no story. TRPGs are well known for them, and some of the best are often hoisted among some of the best video game stories ever told. That there really was nothing here but a basic “kill the guy at the end of the dungeon” trick felt weird. You definitely get over it, but not before reminiscing over the Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battles of yesteryear.
There is a certain brilliance in stripping the genre down to its basics. As the best roguelikes are want to do, you start to gain a real appreciation for the core pillars of the genre’s they help deconstruct. TRPGs, even with rousing narratives, tend to be very systems-forward engagements, so I was surprised to find that they could even be isolated and manipulated the way they are in SFD.
Starting with a hero character with its own special class, you’re tasked with delving through eight floors of procedurally-generated dungeon in order to slay the dark elven god at the very bottom. On your way, you will hire allies, collect weapons and armor, fight various types of enemies, and try not to die. If you, the hero, is killed in battle, then the game is over.
None of this sounds all that new, but every system you interact with is both completely transparent and almost fully customizable or interactable. All of the six classes of characters you’ll run into can be upgraded into higher, more specialized forms. There are no gear restrictions to each class, but the sorts of special abilities you’ll learn while using certain weapons will be limited. Sometimes, it’s not a terrible strategy to deck out one character in heavy armor and a shield, while giving the rest of the squad bows to attack monsters from a distance. It encourages you to try something weird to fit a playstyle, or to discover a whole new one.
For all of its freedom, it could be more forthcoming as far as guidance and tutorialization. There are a set of screens that point out important HUD and menu options that serve as a help guide, but most of the nitty gritty you’ll learn by doing. As a game reliant on replaying it a bunch to learn how it ticks, there’s still a limit to what you should know going in and have to learn on the fly. And even speaking to what they do outline, I wished SFD found a more engaging way to teach you the ropes, instead of sending you the equivalent of PDF files to study yourself.
How characters are geared largely determines the abilities they can learn by leveling up, but for the main hero, you can find many opportunities to teach him things he wouldn’t have normal access to, even further diversifying your team’s capabilities. This doesn’t extend to your hirelings, which is a bummer. You buy their attendance from one of the assortment of shops you may find on your journey, where they are populated at random. You’ll have a hard time having back to back runs with identical team composition, which is par for the rogue-like course.
Navigating any giving dungeon floor involves a lot of tapping. You tap on the floor. You tap on crates. You tap on lanterns. Exploration is very mind numbing, as you spend much of the time just touching stuff and hoping gold falls out. The randomized rooms don’t even bother making much of a labyrinth to navigate. Rooms are often full of objects that look like someone reached into a bag and just tossed whatever was in their hands at it. I found myself wishing there was no exploration at all. If 70% of the rooms are going to just be empty, why even let me aimlessly tap around them?
The ones that aren’t empty are full of monsters. This is where the real action happens, and where the game most resembles every other member of the genre. Characters all have movement ranges (in squares) determined by their class. There are action points, magic points, attack templates determined by weapon, etc. The things this game does like all the others isn’t the interesting part. It’s the goofy stuff SFD lets you do outside of it that’s cool.
For me this usually starts and ends with the push mechanic. Any character and shove moveable objects or units into squares or obstacles next to them. If I want a character who would otherwise be a square away from range on an enemy to get in close, I might have the previous guy in line push them. If I want to hit an enemy on the other side of a friendly without risking full weapon damage on them, I push my buddy into him. Push monsters into spike traps, or on buttons that activate flame traps on their own friends. Push crates into unwitting skeletons and watch them explode. I can’t tell you how much mileage I got out of such a little mechanic.
This is mostly to do with how so much of the map can interact with each other. In small ways, of course, but all the small ways equal a menu of big ways that make every battle a tactical smorgasbord. SFD doesn’t have unlockable secrets that change the gameplay or add options to some sort of meta tally like other roguelikes – these little encounters are the reason you re-roll and start again after an untimely death.
That said, the replayability of SFD suffers because of its severe lack of goals to reach outside of the main line. As roguelikes have evolved over the years, they’ve all found ways to keep you playing that don’t involve just beating the game. It’s disappointing to see SFD not heed this pattern, and it might be hard to see anyone staying engaged after finally beating the last floor.
There are some elements of other tactics games that are whole missing from this one, as well. Backstabbing is a thing, but that’s one of the few ways to gain any positional advantage over the enemy. There’s no elevation or flanks to use to your advantage. Nor is there cover options to mitigate ranged attacks. The numbers and chances to hit on your profile are, more often than not, the only sort of damage you’ll do.
People won’t be sharing screen shots of the game either. As the hand drawn sprites are individually cool, the sum-of-their-parts areas they create are visually bland. The menus are basic and ugly. Character sprites are pretty one note no matter what gear you deck them out in. Monster sprites, on the other hand, look great and are easily the best visual elements in SFD.
As a whole package, Sigma Finite Dungeon feels like an illuminating, if unfinished, experiment. There is a very good set of basic tactical elements that make playing the game a good time. I just wish there was more here that would keep me playing for a long time, or a presentation that didn’t make me feel like I was QCing the thing instead of playing it.
