You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
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Episode 11 – Exodus: Odyssey
A story about a father and the daughter who longs for adventure in a universe where using warp gates to get between systems introduces Time Dilation. What follows is a bit of a chase as once his daughter runs off, it truly becomes a race against time to find his little girl. The episode does a good job of letting you know how much time has passed with each jump… acting as a strange backwards countdown meter of sorts. This does a decent job of building the struggle against a foe we don’t see a lot: Time Dilation is constantly working against him finding her…
Episode 12 – Spelunky: Tally
Do we ever really wonder about the characters we are playing? Yes, they may only be a collection of pixels and commands, but since they are acting as our avatars within the games we play, you’d hope to treat them as well as you can. I’m honestly not trying to kill my character constantly… I just want to get through this level with the impossible monsters and pits and everything else in between.
Ana Spelunky is one such character who makes her runs in a cavern system, only to find death greeting her at every turn. And it is one thing to be effectively immortal, but the sheer weight of living/dying/living again could very easily weigh on you psyche. Pulling you down into a depression if you aren’t careful.
Episode 13 – Concord: Tale of the Implacable
Can we just get a 1/2 hour show with the characters? That’s what I want.
It’s really a slightly more motley (and alien) crew of smugglers who are just trying to make their way through the universe. There’s betrayal, death, chases, escapes, turns, double turns, and everything else you would want from a show that gives me a slight Firefly feel (which is really some of the highest praise I can offer). I don’t actually want to spoil anything as there are plenty of twists and turns making you want to say: “You son of a bitch, I’m in.”
Episode 14 – Honor of Kings: The Way of All Things
How do you fight a god? How do you defeat a being who knows everything you are going to do before you do it? How can you go against a supercomputer who controls your city, but is slowly becoming more and more destabilized. People are suffering, yet the only way to stop it is to challenge the city to a game… and find a way to win.
When all those who have gone before you have died or gone mad, how do you manage to come out victorious?
Episode 15 – Playtime: Fulfillment
I’m not sure if this is a warning to everyone watching it or just a fun exercise of running through a heavily played virtual reality world. I’m reminded of the Black Mirror episode about the Social Media rankings suddenly dominating everyone’s lives. In Playtime, we see a scenario where your day to day life is all about getting the next upgrade or new skin for you bike/outfit/whatever.
It’s one of those things that is interesting to watch, but for the most part I am not one of those people who plays games trying to get the coolest and best look for my character. I fundamentally just want to be engadged in the storyline or in the mechanics of the game more than ensuring I come across as something/someone cool because of having the latest and greatest “thing”. The story is the thing, and all the rest is just noise.
And maybe that’s the point.
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John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.
He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!
Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.
His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com
Read more at this site