Fallen London calling
London has gone, well not gone exactly, it’s been taken elsewhere.
Echo Bazaar is a web-based game that uses social networks (Twitter and Facebook) for sign-in authentication. Of the countless games on my radar that grapple for my free time this one only asks for 10 minutes at a time, but I have a tough time deciding what to do with those minutes.
Setting
The game is set in Victorian London that has been pulled into the earth and now resides in what is commonly known as the ‘Neath. For what purpose? Well I’ll leave that for you to discover but I can tell you that this isn’t the first city to have been ‘acquired’.
The are many common elements that appear familiar but often have an unusual twist in this game.
Gameplay
You are limited to a maximum of 10 actions at any one time, these gradually refresh 1 every 6 minutes, you are also limited to a total of 60 actions in one day.
The type of actions you can perform are defined by your location and by your progress in one of four skills. These shape your character and the path they follow, new tasks are unlocked and old ones vanish as you gain experience in each skill.
Additionally there are also opportunity cards that can be played at any location.
Interactions
Although it uses social media for sign in, thankfully it doesn’t demand that you pressure your friends into playing to increase your enjoyment or bombard your social feeds with information.
The only messages are sent with your full knowledge/permission, messages to friends on twitter are sent via Direct message rather than appearing in your timeline.
Summary
The tales found in the game are entertaining and each new thing you discovers gives a little more insight and knowledge about Fallen London and it’s inhabitants.
There are many avenues to travel in order to progress the stories, whether it’s joining a lynch mob, lecturing at the University or spending time in the local pub, each is unique and unlocks more clues or mysteries.
The game isn’t without niggling issues that frustrate players, sometimes there is a lack of options and you need to grind the same content for a level, there is much that can be done without purchasing any in game premium currency (Fate), but without it some areas are locked from you.
That said I still find the game really enjoyable, I’ve been playing on and off since early 2010. You can ask friends to help you out, normally at the expense of their sanity, but that’s all part of life here in what remains of London.
a little this, turning to that over high ground
Thanks to Doks newly crafted blog http://oneoutnumbered.blogspot.com I now feel the urge to keep up with my writing efforts, well for at least a few weeks into 2010.
2010 the year that I mostly feel a mixture of happiness and exhaustion, I’m still adjusting to mangining my time in a new manner. Gone are those 6 hours gaming stints, I appear to just grab smaller chunks of time here and there as my gameplay charts shows and it’s easy to see what my major time sink has been recently.
I recently spotted that there is a Dawn of War II expansion (addon) called Chaos Rising due out at the beinging of March, which is rather cool as I’ve started replaying the game while reading the novel. The book is very enjoyable if you are a fan of the 40k universe and details alot of the backstory that isn’t in the game.
Well that is enough ramblings for now.
Now Playing : VNV Nation – Standing
Games and all things past
Well I hope you all had a great weekend and an enjoyable Halloween. Sadly we got no “trick or treaters” so the tub of sweets will likely sit in our kitchen until next year.
Due to my annoyingly awkward bus journey that is required for my trips to and from work my days shrink in hours to a point that full blogging takes a back seat to getting all my living done in the time allotted. I try and post on Twitter at least once a day so you can follow me on there if needed.
So first a quick round up of my activities since my last entry.
In other general “me” news I’ve taken on a interweb piece of work for a friend that I’ll clue you in on in the near future, but It’s quite exciting and different to my other projects.
I was luckly enough to have a wonderful 4 day weekend, yay for booking holidays. My reasons for this were to get some quality Halloween MMO celebrating done and I had another goal that I sadly didn’t manage to achieve in the time which was to read Mr Gaimans’ recently published Graveyard Book.
Thursday : We out in the morning and some lengthy gaming sessions in various titles, in fact i think i swapped about every few hours lol.
Friday Halloween : Rach and I spent some brief periods of the day in GW, entertaining the Mad Thorn King in Kamadam and Lions Arch in exchange for goodie bags and a hat costume piece. I must admit that I really enjoy the that each game has for different events during the year.
Saturday : It was a bright sunny day, but the wind was bitterly cold, a fact that we found out on a trip into Abergavenny. Taking a lot of wilpower I visited and departed from Waterstone with only 2 new graphic novels hehe. A new Game store has opened there, which is highly dangerous.
Sunday : A lazy day to start with as my long weekend was finally winding down. Taking a leaf from Van Hemlocks book, I’ve convinved Dok to re-enter Guild Wars joining myself and Rach on her first run through the Nightfall Campaign. Last night we focused on some of the first missions in Korma. Although this was old ground for Dok, but he was happy to use it as a refresher course before we continue on to the high missions.
In other gamey news:
I was immensely jealous of the folks that attented the EuroGamer Expo and got to try out Jumpgate:Evolution (a nice video over at the LimitedEdition blog and nice write up over at Van Hemlocks blog. This is the only new mmo that I’m even remotely interested in at the present time and i have to admit it look rather wonderful. I’ve So far resisted the urge to purchase Warhammer Online despite the fact that my clanmates from KhaosClan appear to be doing rather nicely and with high attendance each night.
I’ve finally completed Warhammer 40k – Dawn of War:Soul Storm, this weekend. I must admit it was highly enjoyable and there was some pretty tough challenges. I’d recently read a a comment about the graphics in the lastest expansion being very dated and old looking.
Admittedly the GFX are a little dated but in all honestly the game play really does make up for a slightly older graphics engine in the background.
Again and again, it comes down the old fact that I prefer a decent storyline with older graphics over highly detailed graphics with a short game.
