Topic: Jason Rohrer Anthology Impressions

I DL'd it earlier cuz I had 200 points sitting on my account, just waiting to be spent. I started it, and it's got some pretty interesting concepts for its simple style.

The first game, Passage, has you traveling with your spouse through what is apparently supposed to be Life. You can choose to keep walking straight, or walking downward to find treasures for extra points. Eventually, time goes by and you and your spouse will "die". However, the point of racking up points seemed completely lost to me because the game didn't even save the high scores. That's right; the game DOES NOT save your scores (either that or I have no idea how to view them), which is pretty lame since even simple games like Pyoro and Paper Airplane chase save your high scores.

The second game, Gravitation, has you choosing between either playing with some pixelized child and exploring in classic platforming fashion. When you explore, you collect stars which you can then use to burn at the fireplace to rack up points. Once again, however, there seems to be no point in gaining points, since the game does not tell you your high scores. This is also a much longer and strange game than Passage, as when you play with your "kid" you gain higher jumping capabilities and your hair begins to "catch fire". Then the season changes to what seems like Winter, and your jump becomes extremely low, and you have no choice but to go back down to burn your found stars in the fireplace for points.

The third game, Between, I could not play because it requires a second player. However, I'd assume that you can't save your score in this game, either.

Lastly, there's the option to read Mr. Rohrer's comments on the games. Though they are insightful to the player, I cannot help but feel that the guy is so full of himself because he believes his simple creations can stimulate the emotions of the player. This is undoubtedly true, but it just seems that the game mentions how meaningful the games are a bit too much.

So, all in all, they are not bad games, but I think some work could've been done to make them better, such as having better graphics or at least adding the ability to SAVE SCORES! I'd say to be on your toes when deciding to DL this one, as cheap as it is. 5/10

Anyone else download it? If so, what did you think?

Haven't played them yet. But from what I've heard/read they were originally pc games (public domain i think) and are more about life/meaning than gameplay (hence the lack of high scores).

I opted to skip this collection, as I've already played Passage and Gravitation on my PC. To me, these games are not about graphics or stimulating gameplay, but more about how the player interprets the experience, like interpreting what an artist was trying to convey through a painting. In Passage, for example, when you meet up with your partner, your freedom of which path to take is limited due to the widening of your area. Parallels between this and real life human relationships at the cost of freedom are easy to see. That's the brilliance of JR's work, IMO. He finds very organic, natural ways to express real life human relations through basic game rules.

Hm... interesting how you guys interpret it. Though I really wish you could save your high scores, even if it isn't your traditional "game"...

@Q&B: i'm pretty disappointed in the lack of high-score saving as well. i get that it's artsy and stuff, it's really about life and stuff happening to you as a person and all that, but it still seems like a glaring oversight to not give me the opportunity to do better next time IMO. He's already quantifying our choices in his games by assigning point values to them in the first place, may as well give us an easy way to keep track of how well we've managed to do according to his standards.

I downloaded as well. Just played Passage. It wasn't moving or anything like people say it is, but kind of thought provoking all the same. I remember being a little shocked when I realized that my spouse and I were getting older, and that I could explore the world beneath me.

The scoring system does feel a teeny bit out of place.

When the PC versions came out, I think it was said the points you gain from events come at the expense of other choices; so it might make sense to not reward high scores (by keeping track of them).

@jdarrell: you may as well say that not keeping track of high scores in SMB makes sense because if you choose to stomp on a series of enemies individually as you go rather than chasing a launched koopa shell down the line (for the doubled-as-you-go and eventual 1-up bonus), the points you gain come at the expense of the points you didn't gain by doing it the other way. no offense, but how does that make sense?

In JR's games, every element right down to the color of the pixels has meaning behind it. I can see how high score saving would interfere with his intended messages. Instead of having the player just experience the game they would instead be chasing some superficial carrot on a stick. And sure you can do this in the game, focusing on your score and ignoring the message, but in the end just like a man who spends his time in pursuit of big numbers instead of a meaningful life, you can't take those big numbers with you when the game is over/you die.
Those looking for a more traditional game by Rohrer, complete with high score saving, I would recommend the puzzler Primrose. It's got the same elegant design as his other projects, only with more of a focus on enjoyable gameplay, with no life messages.

On a positive note, Gravitation was slightly better than Passage. I need a friend for between, though.

Didnt like this game, think your 200 points should go somewhere better!

If you want to keep that friend, you won't make him play Between with you.

Haha okay. Maybe I'll just find another DS and play it with myself. BTW, are you reviewing this?

Nah. I would, gladly...but I got Ghost Mania instead.

Hey, you lose some...you lose some. But as least we get hilarious reviews out of it.

I wish Passage made me cry, seeing as it did other people. Oh well. I know too much about it now to experience it with an open mind.

EDIT: @Qwikman Forgot to mention that I heard the DS was apparently not capable of handling the original graphics for Passage, so they had to tone them down. Seriously.

ah well. at least it was only 200 points, i guess.

Not to take anything away from the pending NL review, but if anyone is curious what the multiplayer experience of Between is like...but doesn't have a friend to play it with...here's a little piece I wrote some time ago.

http://chickenbrutus.livejournal.com/23363.html

thank you for that, saves me some time (and what surely would've been a pissed-off husband afterward, lol)
edit: just played it for a little bit with Oddy, good god it must take hours to complete that damn tower D:

In light of all of this Between-ness, will someone download the PC version and play with me?

EDIT: Me and TBD just played it and, um, ...

I'd be veeeeeery curious to hear if your experience with it differed in any way from mine. This is a case in which I truly hope to be proven wrong!