This week in video games: February 8 to 14

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      This week, it’s almost all about the indie game developers. Releasing tomorrow are Unravel and the PS4 version of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. And then there’s Firewatch, which has a Vancouver connection. But first, The Force Awakens is getting the Lego video-game treatment this summer.

      The Force Awakens video game coming this summer

      Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens promises to bring the same level of charm delivered by all the video games from the Lego franchise. In development for 2/3DS, PS3, PS4 PS Vita, Wii U, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, the title, based on the film released last Christmas, arrives on June 28.

      New gameplay features include Blaster Battles and “Multi-Builds” which gives players a choice in what to build in the game. The game will also have space dogfights.

      Unravel (EA) PS4, Windows, Xbox One on February 9

      Starring a character named Yarny that is made of yarn, Unravel is being published by Electronic Arts but was developed in Sweden by indie studio Coldwood Interactive.

      Playing the game requires using the yarn from the body of the main character, which can be used to traverse the environments and to climb, swing, and tightrope.

      And if you try and travel too far without replenishing your wool, well, you might find yourself having to backtrack.

      It takes two to triumph over Bruce Cockburn

      Another game from an indie developer that is being released tomorrow is Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. It’s been available on Windows and Xbox One since September, and it finally comes to PS4.

      It’s a cute and quirky game intended for two players to enjoy cooperatively (there is a single-player mode) that has you piloting a space ship through space, navigating and battling against “anti-love” forces and rescuing space bunnies.

      The game comes from Toronto’s Asteroid Base.

      Compelling Firewatch provides players with a curious game experience

      There isn’t any combat in Firewatch. There are no health packs or ammo drops. The game is presented in a first-person perspective, but it’s the furthest from a first-person shooter that a game can be.

      Vancouver’s Nels Anderson jokes that it’s a “first-person hiker”.

      In a conversation with the Georgia Straight, Anderson, a game designer, explained that the game’s focus is on the relationship between two characters. There’s the protagonist, a man who has taken a job as a fire lookout in a remote area, and his supervisor, Delilah, who exists only as a voice at the other end of a walkie-talkie.

      “The third character is the Wyoming wilderness,” Anderson suggested on the phone from his home office.

      Firewatch comes from Campo Santo, a small studio that includes people living in London, England, and San Francisco. Anderson is one of the game’s designers.

      The game doesn’t require players to survive or to solve puzzles. Instead, it’s a game that encourages exploration and reflection, much in the same way that roaming the remote wilds might.

      And there are mysteries. One is the past of the character that players embody. The other is: what, exactly, is going on? “There are signs that people have been there and done things.”

      “How the person playing the game chooses to engage with Delilah, what they reckon about the things that are actually happening in the story, and how that informs their relatoinship with Delilah will, hopefully, make that relationship feel very real and very tangible,” Anderson said.

      In a sense, players will bring a lot to the game because they will direct their own exploration. “There’s a lot of interesting detail to explore,” Anderson added.

      Firewatch releases on PS4 and Windows on February 9.

       

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