Steam Next: 'ANNO: Mutationem'

 Wake the heck up, Anno.

Next up in my long list of Steam NEXT demo games that I want to talk about, comes a game that literally gave me an introspection attack as I realised that I didn't know a game series on the periphery of my radar as well as I thought I did. Of course, I'm talking about ANNO: Mutationem. Again, you know the drill, I saw the logo and downloaded, although this time I did spy the name as well and went "Oh, Anno. I know those games." I'd never actually played one, but I knew them to be city builder games that were popular enough to spawn a franchise. (even if I've never actually seen anyone play it either in real life or over the Internet. I cannot be sure those games have ever been bought) And I thought, "Oh, this one seems to have Cyberpunk theme to it, I thought I remember them doing the future thing once before but I guess it'll be cool if they do it again. And a demo for a city builder game? Why not. Might be fun."

Of course, had I cared to devote a single iota of thought to the topic I might have realised something such as "Oh wait, aren't those games published by Ubisoft? Why wasn't this at their E3?" Or maybe I would have noticed how this game is stylised as ANNO, whereas the series I know is called Anno. (Actually, no. I never would have noticed that. I don't even know what an 'Anno' is, so how the heck am I supposed to know how it's meant to be spelt?) To my credit, I did think it a little odd that the logo picture prominently featured a form-fitting-skin-suit rocking anime girl in front of the city skyline, but I just wrote that off as your typical "Sex sells" marketing campaign. I mean heck, just look at the promo material for 'Ratten Reich'. A game which literally features a sexy Nazi anthropomorphic rat woman on it's advertisements. (These video game marketing people go nutty sometimes, what can you do?)

Now you know where this is going, don't you? ANNO: Mutationem is (unless there's a huge surprise waiting that I'm absolutely not expecting) completely and utterly unrelated to city building in any way, and I'm an idiot for thinking otherwise. Such to the point where I played through the entirety of the neon drenched, cliched, cyberpunk demo and only at the very last moment thought "Huh, there really isn't going to be a City management tutorial here, is there?" So I guess that means I go a whole 'nother generation not really knowing what Anno actually is or if real people actually play it. (I'm sure any Anno fans reading this would tell me otherwise, but I want any such people to stop and think for a moment: Are you sure that you exist?) Still, is this completely different game which I'm sure absolutely has justification for the name choice, worth your time? I'd say it is. But I'm not exactly 'in love' just yet.

Mutationem is a story based side-scrolling action exploration game that boasts a charming comic book pixel wash that disappears amidst some truly sweeping Cyberpunk vistas that just glitter with that 'hands-off' magic which makes this genre pop for so many. ANNO certainly looks the part of a Cyberpunk adventure game, and the brief areas of exploration the demo presents (which I certainly hope aren't just momentary calms in the storm of the full product) boast that enviably crafted balance of a glowing gilded tech monolith draped over a diseased filth-ridden corpse. Glowing sky scrapers above poverty, these devs know the genre they're working with. Although I don't quite feel they're reached out and owned it yet, given that their lore is still holding onto crutch genre staples with toothless expressions like 'Megacorp' without really giving them value. And yes, I've played but a demo so keep that in mind, but I find that to be a trap that a lot of genre-type projects fall for, so I thought it worth addressing regardless.

In terms of that story which ties the world to it's gameplay... well, I'm going to fall back again on the "it's just a demo" excuse for why I couldn't quite grasp what was going on. (even though it really did feel like the demo started from the beginning of the game.) From the moment you awake from a snowswept dream in a dreary techno apartment (which looks gorgeous with the blinds down, by-the-by) I got excited with the potential, especially with those optional contextual tooltips around the apartment, ever a fun and engaging way to bring me into a character and their life by living in their apartment for a brief sec. Only, when the actual story started being told I didn't really understand anything. (And I'm usually pretty good with this sort of stuff, I'm no narrative slouch!) I didn't really understand what the protagonist was about, who the AI that's important enough to share cover art space with was, or why I should care about our heroes family dramas. (Or even why she cares.) But again, 'demo'; I'm sure it'll come together better in the whole game. I'm relatively sure, anyway.

But with a side scrolling action game, it's going to be the action that we're here for anyway, right? We want to see the badass Cyberpunk goodness, and given that our protagonist doubles as a katana wielding anime magical girl (for some reason) the action has to write itself. And here's the part which confuses me and, I'll imagine, where my opinion is going to drift away from a lot of others who played this same demo: because I didn't think the combat was all that good. I mean it was functional, it worked exactly as you imagined it would from my set-up, but it didn't have anything special to it. There was no 'oomph' to Katana hits, no special rhythm or dance to the combat, no special combos to switch things up, (although I'll bet the combos, at least, will come later) it was just a bare basic hack and slash game. 

Now maybe I'm a little-bit spoiled for choice given the absolutely stellar-looking 2D action games that have been unveiled this year, but I didn't really think there was any 'magic sauce' in this formula. Even the special finisher, because this game does indeed have those to be triggered after a stagger, was entirely lacklustre. Everytime I pulled it off, no matter the enemy or my position, it would be the same animation, the camera would pull in to a point where the pixels stood out larger than was aesthetically pleasing, and I'd be treated to the most half-hearted jab-stab of all time. It was so bizarre, because everything else about this game looks so good and holds potential, but the thing I think is holding this game back just so happens to be one of it's most important features. Now again, the combat isn't terrible, or even bad; it just doesn't live up to the quality of everything else. And that's a bit of a big deal.

At the end of the day, ANNO is just another step on the industries apology tour to the Cyberpunk genre for the-game-which-must-not-be-named, and I'm forever happy to see these fruitful grounds get some spoils. (That's right, I called the genre 'Fruitful'! Just try and stop me!) I do think the game is teetering on being something really cool, unfortunately that extra step would require fundamental work and that is never easy to do or even guaranteed to work. That still does mean, however, that this game enters my list of 'ones-to-watch', just for what it's trying to do, more than for what it actually accomplishes. So to ThinkingStars I offer good luck and say "I'm routing for you", because polishing this rust may just unveiling a Crazy Diamond in the rough.

Tale of Immortal; China's new bestseller

I'll make a god out of you

China; an insanely huge demographic that gets widely overlooked in discussions about the 'worldwide gaming community' for reasons that should be rather obvious. They're isolated, cut-off from the breadth of entertainment which the majority of the world is privy to and subject to some of the strictest content restrictions outside of Australia. (Okay, I jest; they're just that bit worse than Australia in many fashions.) However, they still count for the single largest potential consumer base in the world over and so one might be forgiven in wondering what exactly is going on behind that great Chinese firewall of theirs. What games do they enjoy, what trends are they propagating, which fads are now leading features? I mean, we know about games like 'Genshin Impact' and 'Black Myth: Wukong', which have coveted international appeal, but what about those that pick up in the Chinese homeland itself. (Afterall, we know their less-than-pleased general opinion on Genshin)

However I'd be lying if I said this was all a total mystery, because as is the case whenever you decree that something cannot be done, people find ways to do it anyway. Thus there has been a few rather successful Chinese games hosted on the International Steam store from China to be played by other Chinese players, all of whom find tricks to sneak around the firewall that I, were I in their position, would be far too cowardly to use. (Good on them for picking their own entertainment free from supervision.) That's how we get a look at some of the rising games which end up being made specifically for the Chinese market, and it's also how we get to gripes with the type of games that those players want. (Whilst, of course, baring in mind that there'll be several different demographics of players within China and just because one set of players flock to one type of game that doesn't mean all gamers will do) And, would you believe it, they like RPGs too!

Back in February the Open World RPG 'Tale of Immortal' launched on Steam and within a week it had already hit over 100,000 concurrent players. This is all despite the game being in early access and not being due for release for at least a year. (With my experiences around Early Access, I guess that means you can expect the full game anytime between 2023 and 2040) In premise the game seems rather straightforward; it's about being a mortal and ascending to godhood by slaying various monsters and beasts from folklore, although to be totally honest with you I cannot ascertain much more than that because of the language barrier. What I can see, however, is the fact that Tale of Immortal seems to have a 2D sprite-based isometric artstyle that looks flat but allows for greater emphasis to be on the bright and colourful attacks and effects that tear up the screen. I won't lie and tell you it's the most appealing thing I've ever laid my eyes upon, but it certainly looks like something with a heart and soul behind it, which a lot more than can be said for most of the shovel-ware on the Steam store.

Seemingly playing out with the sort of '1 vs 100' gameplay you'd expect from an action scroller, I can already kind of see the appeal of this sort of title. Remember that I hail from the Souls kin and dip my toes in the odd ARPG, so I absolutely see the appeal of stepping into hopeless situations and wrapping them around your finger with enough skill and pig headed obstinance. For me, I always have that fascination of seeking out the weirdest looking/ or behaving bosses to add some level of variety to my experience, and if there's one thing that is easily noted in every screenshot I've see of this game, it's that there's a lot of wild enemies to slay. Of course, for Chinese players I'd imagine some of the appeal comes from facing off against creatures that they are familiar with, having learnt about them in school and growing up. Similar to how I love Hades because I studied so much Greek mythology that all those ancient gods and heroes felt like old friends and adversaries of mine. (Still, never would have expected Ares to smile so much.)

鬼谷工作室 (Ghost Valley Studio)  are an independent outfit, so I can imagine that all of this attention thrown their way out of the blue most have been humbling, even if just that little bit overwhelming, for them. Be that as it may, they've still reached out to news sources and confirmed how the team are 'working hard' on an English port as recently as this month. Seems they noticed the way the rest of the world was peeping over the fence jealously and wanted to capitalise on it; and good on them too. With having to keep up with the plethora of feedback (likely mountains more than they were expecting), whilst working on polishing off the rest of the game (Who's scope may have shifted in the wake of this success) and coordinating on translating the thing; these are some huge boots that the team have fitted for themselves and I hope they manage to wrap around it all, it'd make for quite the success story if they did.

It would also work towards this parity of Chinese and International gamers which feels like it has been brewing for a while now. What with the Chinese game Genshin Impact getting universal appeal, (and being so personally adored by me that I literally have the launcher window open twenty four seven at this point) the endlessly tantalising 'Black Myth: Wukong' game which promises to be the first AAA Chinese game to a degree that challenges even established worldwide AAA studios and even the recent launch of Chinese Steam. That's right, Steam have recently realised how much of it's player base have originated from China via firewall circumvention and decided to cut out the middle man and sell directly to the Chinese consumer. Of course, due to overbearing regulation and censorship there's 95% of the Steam library unavailable on the Chinese servers, so serious Chinese gamers will probably still go the hard way around things, but it's a foot in the door for now.

And yet I'm still not sure if this 'Tale of Immortal' is the sort of game for me, per se; but I'm still excited to see what becomes of it now that it's crossed the requisite fresh-hold to be considered one of the breakout games of the year. Right now Tale of Immortal and Valhiem are shock indie hits of 2021, perhaps making them a shoe in come Game Awards season. Perhaps when the English version drops and the game becomes more available my mind might change on it, because I'm nothing it not open to new experiences seemingly always. At least it would help to have this thing enter the reviewer circuit, because I can't seem to find a single big reviewer break down about what makes this title so appealing; though I suspect it might come down to this game just being new and a somewhat complete experience tailored towards the Chinese public, given how its success is apparently contrary to traditional Chinese gaming habits.

More cultures entering the International creative conversation can only ever be good for the whole. The more competition there is, the more everyone steps up their game and the greater the selection is for the consumers. (A rising tide- as they say) Tale of Immortal might not be the be-all-end-all on it's own (I think it looks decent enough) but in the grand scheme of things this, alongside the efforts of Game Science Studio, may lead to a whole hotbed of diversity being injected in the market and shaking up the formulas we've grown tired with. Might I one day play a CRPG without elves who only exist to make the same tired colonialism analogy that all the rest do? The only chance of that ever happening is with fresh ideas from other mindsets entering the conversation, and for the sake of my fantasy roleplaying sanity I beg for fresh ideas.