{"id":664,"date":"2010-03-25T20:02:02","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T20:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/?p=664"},"modified":"2010-03-25T20:02:02","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T20:02:02","slug":"echo-bazaar-%e2%80%93-a-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/03\/25\/echo-bazaar-%e2%80%93-a-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Echo Bazaar \u2013 A View"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m reluctant to call it a review because I don\u2019t feel I\u2019ve played the game enough to see everything, but I\u2019ve played enough that I know I won\u2019t be playing any more.\u00a0 After discussing the game last night with Richard Cobbett<\/a>, I decided to write this blog post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Echo Bazaar<\/a> is a game from FailBetter Games<\/a>, which is an ironic name for a company considering that the game has failed to keep me entertained enough to continue with it.\u00a0 However, before I continue here, I should say that lots of people have said lots of nice things about the game (see the Failbetter site) so it could just be that it’s not my kind of game; in which case, sorry guys.<\/p>\n

Firstly, I must say that I love the feeling they\u2019ve created with the idea, graphics, setting and background details.\u00a0 There is the potential for something wonderful here.\u00a0 It hints at Neil Gaiman and China Mi\u00e9ville, but doesn\u2019t quite deliver in the gameplay to match this promise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The game nearly failed at the first outing.\u00a0 There is no tutorial or clear instruction that covers what the new player is supposed to do or indeed what everything represents.\u00a0 It was only after persevering through experimentation that I began to get a handle on how it worked.\u00a0 The mechanics are a combination of RPG and card game where the possible tasks that are uncovered are very generic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I say \u201cpossible tasks\u201d because I\u2019ve lost count of the number of times I\u2019ve chosen something from the list only to find that I can\u2019t undertake the task because it\u2019s currently locked as I don\u2019t have enough of the inventory item that will unlock it.\u00a0 So why is it even in the list, wasting my time?\u00a0 Or why isn\u2019t it in the list greyed out and showing what I need to collect to unlock it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The generic aspect is what bugs me most.\u00a0 Not because generic tasks are a problem in themselves \u2013 many RPG games have such things \u2013 but in the way they are presented.\u00a0 When they\u2019ve been completed they stay available, which kind of shoves their generic nature in your face.\u00a0 It\u2019s worse when a task might seem more specific \u2013 \u201cseduce an artist\u2019s model\u201d for instance \u2013 but you can try it again and again, starting from scratch each time.\u00a0 The worst part is, you\u2019re often forced to do the repetition just to meet a target and move onto the next stage of the task.\u00a0 Suddenly it becomes a kind of levelling up grind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The game is seriously lacking in specific characters to come into contact with.\u00a0 There are hints of characters in the \u201clore\u201d snippets, but nothing substantial.\u00a0 As a result it\u2019s difficult to get a handle on my own character because, in many ways, interacting with other characters helps define a player character.\u00a0 Admittedly, it\u2019s not the type of game where the mechanics make character interaction very easy, but because the whole thing hints at character filled locations, there is the impression we\u2019re seeing them through layers of dirty, smoky glass or they\u2019re staying in the next room out of the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The game is in beta still, so I may be looking at it a little harshly, but it\u2019s difficult to see how they would make major improvements without changing the mechanics substantially.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I do wonder if they\u2019re approaching it the wrong way around when it comes to making money from the game.\u00a0 If you click on the \u201cFate\u201d tab there is a whole swathe of ways to pay for fate points, which can then be converted into game related things.\u00a0 I can\u2019t help but wonder if starting out with money-making aspect is putting the cart before the horse.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you really need a strong player base before monetising the game will make any sense?<\/p>\n

To be honest, I don\u2019t see a huge benefit in buying Fate points.\u00a0 The ones that I earned while playing I have yet to spend, mostly because I don\u2019t have enough or the things I have enough for seem trivial.\u00a0 There is nothing that really seems to give me a huge advantage in the game or if they did, what that advantage might be.\u00a0 You can\u2019t, for instance, spend the fate points on cool or expensive inventory items.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I\u2019m reluctant to pay for anything in the game when I can\u2019t see how it\u2019s going to help me towards the larger goals in the game.<\/p>\n

But wait…\u00a0 I have no idea what those larger goals are anyway.\u00a0 And this may be the biggest failing.\u00a0 What is the game actually about?\u00a0 When I look at it like this I can see a great setting and this is coupled with the game mechanics, but there is no real heart to the game.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid that this is a game with huge potential, but which is not delivering the right experience for me.\u00a0 What a shame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m reluctant to call it a review because I don\u2019t feel I\u2019ve played the game enough to see everything, but I\u2019ve played enough that I know I won\u2019t be playing any more. After discussing the game last night with Richard Cobbett, I decided to write this blog post. <\/p>\n

Echo Bazaar is a game from Fail Better Games, which is an ironic name for a company considering that the game has failed to keep me entertained enough to continue with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,50],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-commentary-games","category-games","tag-game-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steve-ince.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}