{"id":39704,"date":"2017-07-16T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=39704"},"modified":"2017-07-16T14:06:11","modified_gmt":"2017-07-16T18:06:11","slug":"strafe-the-lost-patch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=39704","title":{"rendered":"STRAFE: The Lost Patch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in May, I mentioned that I was playing STRAFE<\/a>, the procedurally generated FPS with permadeath. About that time, I got sick of the game and quit. I’d played 42 games, and the random number generator still hadn’t blessed me with the random drop required to begin the game in the second zone. Which means I had to play through the entire first zone every single time I started a new game. I was sick to death of the first zone and I just wanted to see what the later levels looked like. The typical game went like this:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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  1. New game.\n
  2. Play through twenty insufferable minutes of the first zone YET AGAIN. The procedural generation keeps the game fresh, but not THAT fresh.\n
  3. Reach the end of Zone 1 without ever seeing the random doodad needed to unlock the shortcut to Zone 2. I wonder what it looks like? I wonder what the odds of finding it are? I wonder where it drops. How close am I to finding it? Next game? Another 42 games?<\/em>\n
  4. Arrive at Zone 2.\n
  5. BOOM! Surprise threat in Zone 2 kills me.\n
  6. Repeat. Actually, screw that. I’ve got better things to do with my time than grind through 20 minutes of work for 5 minutes of fun.\n<\/ol>\n

    I love the end-of-level summary. Here I missed par by 1 second. That sucks. You get a bunch of bonus supplies for coming in under par.<\/div>
    I love the end-of-level summary. Here I missed par by 1 second. That sucks. You get a bunch of bonus supplies for coming in under par.<\/div><\/p>\n

    The game seems to be confused about its identity. It positions itself like a 1996 shooter, but then it’s got all these roguelikeYes, this term is a mess. It’s not my fault. Can we not argue about this for once?<\/span> elements and no save system. It positions itself as this fast-paced thrill ride like Quake or Serious Sam, but then healing is incredibly rare, there are traps, some foes do lots of damage, and you often need to spend a lot of time wandering around empty levels hunting for keycards in order to progress. So the game acts like you’re supposed to run and gun, but the mechanics push you towards careful, methodical play. <\/p>\n

    So I shelved the game. I mean, I’ve got over 180 un-played games on Steam<\/a>, so there’s no reason to slam my head against one that’s wasting my time.<\/p>\n

    But then three weeks ago, the STRAFE developers posted this to Twitter:<\/p>\n

    \n

    New patch up on steam! It brings in "The E-Z Discovery Zone" (easy mode) featuring optional "Murder-Time" & fixes. https:\/\/t.co\/9TunLPBKfw<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/DXLUhRpMlh<\/a><\/p>\n

    — STRAFE\u00c2\u00ae (@STRAFEgame) June 25, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n