Hitman: Blood Money and why people think I'm a psychopath

This is my first "game review" on this site.  I might review others.

The other day, while walking the dog with my wife, I said the following words to her:

"So I thought about sneaking up behind the guy and strangling him with garrote wire, but I decided to use the sedative instead."

It took me a few seconds to realize that there were other people on the sidewalk next to us.  I had to grin meekly and stammer out that I was talking about a videogame.

Several years ago, I picked up a copy of "Hitman 2" at a local Gamestop.  I had seen it on sale and thought I'd give it a whirl.  The concept definitely hit me in the right spot.  A stealth/infiltration game where you have to assassinate a high-profile target, using the environment and disguises in order to get close to him.  Your character was Agent 47, a six-foot-six, broad-shouldered bald guy with (for some reason) a barcode dyed into the back of his head.  Apparently he's a clone of some kind.  Since I didn't play the first game, I didn't quite get the backstory, but it didn't matter.  I didn't like the game.  After a few false starts, I gave up.  Years later, I read in several game journals that Hitman #2 was considered the low point of the series, and #4 was a pure work of genius.  

Seriously.  What's up with the barcode? 

So, on a whim, I nabbed #4 last week and popped it in.  Again, I took over the role of Agent 47, who was hired to sneak through an abandoned amusement part full of thugs to take down a criminal kingpin.  Fair enough, only I had to struggle through the worst tutorial ever.  "Hold down the right-trigger to go into sneak mode.  Sneak over to that guy over there and release the right-trigger to garrote him."  Okay, fine.  I'd sneak over and release the trigger, only to have my Agent 47 stand up and do nothing.  I crouched down again and maneouvered him into a different position and tried again.  Nope.  Agent 47 stood up again, and this time my target noticed me.  He whirled around and started shooting at me, and the game basically told me that I screwed up and I'd have to shoot my way through the level.

 

Here, Agent 47 strangles the gangster properly.  It took me several tries.

The problem was, I *wanted* to play stealthy, but the game wouldn't show me how.  It's not a good sign when the game's tutorial pisses you off.  But, I gave it a few more tries.  And wouldn't you know it, I got the hang of it.  Soon I was sneaking around and silently taking down dudes left and right, hiding bodies in convenient locations and moving closer to my target.  Finally I passed the tutorial section and was on my way to my next target.  I was to take down a Chilean vinyard owner and his son, who were using their wine cellar to mask their drug factory.  They were having a party on the grounds, which was used as a cover to gain access.

Put away that gun, 47!

I entered the grounds and I found myself completely lost.  I saw a bunch of doors, a bunch of people walking around, and a whole area to explore.  There was no map, no "goal" indicator, no nothing.  And I was playing on easy mode.  So, I took a few hesitant steps toward a door.  I opened it and went inside, and a guard nearby yelled at me in Spanish.  I kept walking and the guy shot me.

Restarting, I entered another door, which led to a hallway.  I walked down the hallway and into some kind of guard station, where a bunch of guards were listening to the radio.  Again, they leapt up and began yelling at me, and then attacked me.  Yeesh.

Restarting a third time, I entered the same door but took a look around.  There was a fuse box and a closet.  I disabled the fuse box, which turned off the lights.  One of the guards started coming my way to see what was up, so I hid in the closet before he could see me.  While he was fiddling with the fuse box, I silently crept up behind him and injected him with a sedative.  I stole his uniform and hid his body in the closet.  Now, I could walk around the grounds unmolested by the guards.

What?  I work here.

It was at this point I began to see the point of the game.  You had to explore.  You had to experiment with things and see what effects they would cause, and use them to your advantage.  And you will fail.  A lot.  Once I figured out that the point of the game was to fail and to retry, I began to enjoy myself much more.

Sorry Santa.  I need your suit to sneak into the Playboy mansion.  No, I'm not kidding.

What's my point here?  I guess lately there's been a trend in gaming about not letting the players fail.  That they have to be constantly rewarded or else they'll feel neglected.  This was a lesson that was hammered into my head when working in the casual market, but it effects the hardcore as well.  A hardcore game like Grand Theft Auto (which I love) tells you what to do and where to go at any given moment.  I've gotten spoiled by that, and I often expect it.  Hitman: Blood Money doesn't lead you by the hand at all, and I'm - strangely enough - loving the everlasting crap out of it.

And hey, the disguises are awesome.  What other self-respecting bald assassin would dress up as a clown to infiltrate a child's birthday party in order to get close to a mafia agent in the witness protection program? 

I'm glad I gave this game a chance, even though it's a lesson how how Not To Do A Tutorial.  Maybe I'll give the other games in the series a try, but I'll just pretend #2 never existed.

(Unrelated side note.  I saw only one episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and I didn't like it at all, so I never bothered watching the show again.  It was the one with the robot Buffy, which people tell me now is the worst episode in its entire 7 season run.)

-Dave

Happy New Year!

So, 2010 comes to a close and it's time for the usual Looking Back post.  It's been an interesting year!  Many changes, many lessons learned, and many things to look forward to.

Let's get the only "down" out of the way.  It came early and was over with quickly, with our publisher dropping our in-the-works project due to it not being casual enough.  While disappointing, it has proved to be a blessing in disguise. We are focusing more on the games we and our customers like, instead of what someone else says is popular.  While the security of having a publisher with deep pockets is missed, we're enjoying the freedom much more. We might work with a publisher again, but only if their goals coincide more directly with ours

2010 has also been the first year I can safely say "we" instead of "I" without sounding pretentious, since my wife Janet has joined me full time.  Our long-term project is something we're both very excited about.  It's something completely different from what we've been doing so far, but it's also a natural progression.  You'll probably hear more about that mid-late 2011.

2010 has marked our first release as a publisher, with Erin Robinson's Puzzle Bots. It's proved to be a  critical success, rocketing Erin to indie stardom.  I am extraordinarily proud of her, and am pleased to have had a small part in getting her there.  The game also secured a place on the Steam service, making it our first internally developed game to be accepted by them.

I've learned to accept my major weakness: PR and outreach.  In a nutshell, I suck at it.   So I bit the bullet and hired someone to help me with that.  Emily Morganti, former PR manager at Telltale and now working freelance, is helping us out and has become practically indispensable.

As for what's next?  We've got another game coming out in February, which we should be announcing in a few weeks.  Like Puzzle Bots, it was developed by somebody else and we were asked to sell it on their behalf.  We've spent the last several months adding voice acting and adding a few graphical improvements here and there.  It's a gorgeous piece of work, and it will probably be the biggest game we've released to date. 

Also coming in April is the fourth Blackwell game, which I've called Blackwell Deception.  I haven't announced it officially yet because I want the focus to be on the game we're publishing first.  Once that's released, you will be hearing lots more about Blackwell.

And after that?  Wait and see!  All-in-all, 2011 is already shaping up to be a very exciting year.  And it will mark our fifth year in business.

I couldn't have made it this far without any of you .  To those of you who followed me since my freeware days, to the loyal customers old and new, to my friends and family (and my sister's unborn twins!!), to all my colleagues in the biz - a big sloppy thank you.

And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

-Dave

Holiday sale!

In case you missed it on Twitter, on the official website, or on facebook (yeesh when did I become a social networking hound?), we're having a holiday sale!  Until January 1st you can nab all three Blackwell games for $9.99.  Here's the official press release:

Wadjet Eye Games Announces Holiday Sale on Blackwell Mystery Game Series

Through Jaunary 1, get three great indie adventures for just $9.99 from www.wadjeteyegames.com

NEW YORK, December 20, 2010 – Independent developer and publisher Wadjet Eye Games is announcing a special holiday price for their Blackwell adventure game series. Now through January 1, the 3-game bundle is on sale for only $9.99—a 60% discount on the usual $24.99 price. The downloadable PC bundle, which contains The Blackwell Legacy, Blackwell Unbound, and The Blackwell Convergence, can be purchased from http://www.wadjeteyegames.com.

The Blackwell games are atmospheric mystery games reminiscent of the “golden age” adventures from Sierra and LucasArts. When Rosa Blackwell’s only relative dies after languishing in a coma for twenty years, Rosa thinks the worst is over. Then Joey Mallone, a sardonic ghost from the 1930s, blows into her life and reveals that she is a spirit medium. As much as Rosa wants to turn her back on her family legacy, it’s now up to this unlikely pair to assist tortured souls and cure New York City’s supernatural ills, whether they like it or not.

The Blackwell games were created by a small indie team led by Wadjet Eye Games founder Dave Gilbert. Features include retro cartoon graphics, a point and click interface, voice acting, a fully orchestrated soundtrack, and unlockable extras such as concept art and voiceover blooper reels. The story-driven gameplay focuses on investigation, character interaction, and puzzle solving. Throughout each game, the playable character alternates between medium and spirit, with each character possessing unique abilities.

Since its debut in 2007, the Blackwell series has developed a cult following among adventure and casual gamers. This year The Blackwell Convergence won an AdventureGamers.com “Aggie” award for Best Dramatic Writing. A fourth game, Blackwell Deception, will release in 2011.

To learn more about the Blackwell games, view screenshots and trailers, or purchase the bundle at the $9.99 holiday price, visit the Wadjet Eye Games website at http://www.wadjeteyegames.com.

What?

Sorry for the delay between posts.  Been crunching on a project and there hasn't been a lot to talk about aside from "Woke up.  Turned on the computer.  Worked for 12 hours. Went to bed." 

I've entered the world of publishing a second time and am going to be publishing another developer's game, a la Puzzle Bots.  We'll be announcing it in January, so stay tuned.  It's looking pretty sweet.

But, to tide you over here's an old picture of me with pens in my ears:

-Dave

Playing cupid

In one of my first entries on this blog, I wrote that I have become an expert on the location of every electrical outlet in all the cafes within a five block radius of my apartment.  As laptopping in cafes becomes more and more common (these days there are more cafe people with laptops than without), this knowledge is necessary for survival.  There's no worse feeling than lugging your laptop to a cafe, waiting in line, and then turning around with your drink to see that all the tables by the outlets are taken by other people.  Seats by the outlets are coveted positions, and nothing brings out the worst in people when others are doing the coveting.

Several months ago, I went into a local Starbucks and gleefully nabbed the last table by an outlet.  I ordered a coffee and bagel, set up my gear, plugged myself in and got to work.  Five minutes later, I heard an angry "Hey! Excuse me!" from in front of me.  I looked up, and there was a pert blonde lady in her late-twenties, looking down at me with daggers in her eyes. 

"I reserved that table," she said through a deepening frown. "It's mine."

I blinked and removed my headphones.  "Reserved?" I asked, genuinely confused.  "How?"  Could you actually do that?

"I put my jacket on the chair," she said.

I looked behind me and saw nothing.  "I don't see a jacket," I told her truthfully.

"Yeah, it's over there." She answered, and then pointed to a jacket - which was hanging off the chair of an entirely different table.  "See? It's right there." 

"Um," I replied, talking slowly and trying to find the right words. "That's not this table.  That's another table."

"Well, I *meant* it to be this one."  She retorted, as if it was obvious.  "So could you get up?"

I debated for maybe half a second. I looked around at the crowded cafe, where every table (bar the one with her jacket) was taken.
"Sorry," I said.  "If you wanted this table you should have put your jacket on this table."

Her eyes narrowed into slits. "You are SUCH a gentleman," she huffed. Then stormed over to the empty table to collect her jacket.  Just then a guy at another table waved at her and said "Hey, there's an outlet here.  I'm not using it. You can share this table with me, if you want." She looked at him, looked at her stuff, huffed again, and then reluctantly agreed.

Normally the story would end there, but today I went to the same cafe and I saw her again.  Not only that, but she was with the same guy!  They didn't recognize me (why would they?) but for some reason I recognized them.  I couldn't tell if they were a couple or not, but I'd like to think that they were.  That on that fateful day, they shared a table and made a connection.  That he hesitantly asked her out and she agreed, and after a short time love bloomed. 

Maybe they'll get married one day, and decades from now they'll tell their grandchildren about that jerk who enabled them to meet by not giving up his table.

-Dave

The Blackwell Guide to NYC

It is no coincidence that many of the Blackwell locations are places that I visit quite frequently, or places that I enjoy.   

Blackwell Legacy had Washington Square Park, which is a park very close to my apartment.  I pass through there almost every morning while walking the dog:

The dog in the image also looks suspiciously like my own.

Blackwell Unbound had Roosevelt Island.  I used to take walks there quite often, as the tram going over there was close to an improv club I used to go to. The improv club moved, so I don't make it over to Roosevelt Island as much as I used to.

This is my wife Janet, who is not in the game.

 And Blackwell Convergence had this awesome tree in Central Park, by the Gothic Bridge:

A few months ago, my wife and I took a walk on the High Line, an old elevated train track that was recently converted into a park.  It's become one of my favorite places to go, so it was inevitable that it would end up in Blackwell Deception:

 

Maybe I should write a Blackwell Tourist Guide.

-Dave

Café people: Creepy sleeping guy

There were times - especially back before I was married - when my schedule was thrown hideously out of whack. I'd wake up at 3am, full of vim and vigor, strangely itching to work but not wanting to hang around the apartment.  So I'd walk the ten minutes to Union Square and enter a 24 hour Starbucks.  Late at night, it's like a different world.  I'd see drug addicts, drunks, late-night partiers just coming out of the nightclubs or bars, and yes - a homeless guy or two.  The staff would crank up the music to ridiculous levels in order to prevent patrons from falling asleep (which they did, often). 

My schedule is pretty normal these days, but if you ever play Blackwell Legacy or Blackwell Unbound, you can play them knowing that a good chunk was programmed while some frazzled drunk was at the next table, squinting at my screen and wondering what the heck I was doing.

Anyway, I was reminded of those carefree days when I entered one of my usual cafés this morning.  It was a Cosi's, one of several that are scattered downtown.  I went to this one because it is close to home and it was absolutely pouring rain outside.  The staff know me (I go a lot) and it has a wall-length window that gives an awesome view of the street.  The only problem is that there is only one decent electrical outlet.  If the table is free, it's a sweet spot to work.  It's tucked away in the corner and nobody bothers you.  For some reason, this table is usually free in the mornings when I show up.

So this morning I enter the cafe, drenched from the rain, and see that the table is free.  I make my way over, but then notice one small niggle.  The outlet was partially blocked by a chair - one of those big, faux leather things.  Normally not a big deal, as I'd just maneuver my electrical cord around the chair.  The problem was what was IN the chair - an overstuffed, scruffy, middle-aged guy in dirty clothes who was snoring away with his head slumped on his chest.  Next to him was a small coffee - evidentially purchased to justify his staying there - but he wasn't planning on drinking it any time soon.  The staff at the place were looking at him with distain, but were saying and doing nothing about it.  I asked one of the staff ladies, and she said that the "Manager said it was OK, since he bought a drink."  Like it or not, the guy was staying.

So, I had a choice.  One - I could go to the table and start working without plugging in my laptop, hoping the creepy guy would get up and leave before my battery ran dry. Two - I could actually WAKE the guy so I could move his chair and plug my cord in. Or Three - go back out into the torrential rain and go somewhere else. 

I took another look at the guy. He was starting to drool. My mind made up, I chose the third option.  I walked out into the drenching downpour and made my way to another place.  So I began my day significantly wetter, but significantly less creeped out.

What would you have done in this situation?

-Dave