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Dan Henig – Danger Snow.
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Back when we were not in the grips of a global pandemic, which honestly feels like a decade ago – I went to EGX in London. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to receive a press pass and I got the chance to talk to some awesome developers about their games. My longest interview with developers were with the crew from Gamechuck, which lasted over an hour! We ended up talking about the various projects they were working on, the origins of those ideas, future plans and what they wanted to get across to their players in the long-term. We have stayed in contact since then and the crew has been great at keeping me aware of their upcoming releases and demos, which we have covered before on the site.
If you cast your mind back to early March of 2020, you will remember that I released an article about Speed Limit – the high-paced arcade inspired game that reminds us what travelling on the Tube could be like if acted upon the internal rage we all feel at people’s behavior on public transport. Well, this week the full game is being released across all platforms and I was lucky enough to receive a review code for this awesome game! Honestly, I was made so happy that I was offered a review code, first time in the history of Mind Games that I have been offered one rather than applying through a system. It is the little things that make us smile.
Two totally not shifty people sat on a train.
Of course, a lot has changed since the demo of the game was released last year but feel free to go read my piece on that and come back to this when you are done. Totally not trying to encourage people to read more of my articles. Wink wink, nudge nudge, guilt guilt. Anyways, lets talk about Speed Limit and my time with the game, as well as some interesting things that I highly encourage you to check out for yourself.
The core gameplay of Speed Limit can be summed up with one sentence – keep pushing on, regardless of what is close behind you. Regardless of agents with grenades, bikers with a death wish, aggressive jets or the various railway signs waiting to decapitate you, your goal is simply to keep moving. Your main weapon is your trusty pistol, which has infinite ammo (thank god) and can take down your standard enemies in one shot, like a gun would actually do in the real world, come at me video games. And no, you cannot just stand there and shoot the conga line of death following you along the train until they are all dead, trust me, I tried. They are infinite. They are inevitable. You stay in one place for too long, you are dead.
…remember to duck
Where Speed Limit really shines is in its timing. Every time you die, you learn more about the level that you are playing. You discover the number of guards in a train carriage, the location of barriers that you could crash into on the road, the movement pattern of enemy helicopters. The more you play Speed Limit, the calmer you are. It is an intriguing experience to say the least, especially since during my first playthrough, I panicked and screamed a lot as I sprinted down the train carriage, with like twenty knife wielding men chasing me. Now, when I play that level, I move almost rhythmically, dodging and weaving like I am Neo from the Matrix.
GET AWAY FROM ME
Gamechuck have taken all the good points from the arcade games of old, such as a kickass soundtrack and unique mechanics that do not get overused to the point where they are not fun anymore, and turned it into a high-paced, action packed romp through childhood nostalgia but without the dodgy control schemes and constant drainage of our loose change. Even the transitions between levels feel smooth and badass, as you ramp your motorbike into a helicopter or hurl yourself from the roof of a moving train into a passing car. Honestly, I felt cool and I am sat writing this article in a hoodie with my weekly dungeons and dragons’ session in about an hour.
VROOM VROOM NERDS
The more runs of Speed Limit that you play, the more detail you notice. Suddenly you think to yourself, why is that helicopter crashed over there? Why is there a hole in the roof of this train? Why are all these government people trying to kill me? Why do they have throwing knives? Why are the battleships on some mundane river near the city? Who was that person at the beginning? Now, I am not going to spoil it for you. I feel that it is something that you need to witness yourself, after all, it took me by surprise. There are not many games that I can outright say that you should play instead of watching footage, but Speed Limit feels like one of them. From time trials to achievements, there is so much to this little indie game that there is no way that I could get through it all in an article. Plus, there is an achievement for ruining the paint job on an enemy’s vehicle in a particular stage and that genuinely made me laugh when I received it.
Look at that sunset water. So pretty. Goddamit.
You have boss fights, kickass music, cool level transitions, intriguing story clues, unique level mechanics and a beautiful art style inspired by the arcade games that a lot of us grew up with. What more could you want?
I want to say a massive, massive thank you to the whole crew at Gamechuck for being so awesome throughout all our conversations and interactions, as well as sorting out a switch review code for me amidst the chaos of the world. They are an amazing indie company that deserve all the love they can get, and I guarantee they are worth every penny you might spend on their games.
Have you ever wanted to quit your job, leave your home, journey to the winter tundra and live-in isolation with no-one but your pack of huskies for company? No? Not at all? Well then, you have not played The Red Lantern. Released last year by Timberline Studios, The Red Lantern is a story-driven game focused on you and your team of five sled dogs, as you attempt to navigate the Alaskan wilderness and reach your new home. Your survival is dependent on the resources you obtain during the journey, as well as those you remembered to pack in the first place.
The main selling point of the game, obviously, is your dog team. Every decision that you make will influence your dog’s wellbeing, whether that is rationing out food, using your limited medical supplies to heal a pup’s wounds or avoiding groups of elk in order to not upset one of your team. When you start a run, you have a limited number of resources – food, medicine, ammo and fire kindling. If you only have two bits of meat left, do you feed your pups and take the risk that you might starve before you reach your destination?
What is with all these awesome games and their gorgeous snow?
At the start of the game, you get to choose four dogs to add to your team from a choice of eight, meaning that there is enough variety to warrant a second playthrough, just to see each of their personalities. When you meet each dog, you are told a little about them and what they could bring to your team e.g., Bodega loves his treats, Iggy likes to hide in the snow and Noodle just needs some gosh darn love. Each pup has such a distinct personality and look to them that I want to cuddle them all and conquer the world with my army of huskies.
During my first run through the game, I had the following team:
Chomper – He is the protagonist’s dog from their old life in the city and the leader of your little pack. His nemesis is squirrels.
Barkley – Feisty but loyal, this big boy will fight bears to protect you.
Fin – Can sniff anything and everything out, however, tends to find skunks instead. She is a very shy pup who does not like cuddles at first but comes around eventually.
Slayer – Speedy, reliable and always ready to run. They are afraid of elk though. I do not blame the pup; those horns are scary.
Stilton – A blue eyed angel who is an older pup but is as watchful as Heimdall. He will never steer you wrong.
LOOK AT THIS GOOD BOI.
With the incredible voice talent of Ashly Burch playing the protagonist and five loyal doggies by your side, each run through the game comes alive. The wildlife you encounter, the decisions you make, the beautiful night sky as your team races across a frozen lake, all add to a game that manages to perfectly encapsulate the exhilaration, isolation, fear and wonder that your protagonist feels as they try to make it in the harsh wilderness. Your only companions are your pack of hardworking pups and the various wildlife that litter the landscape, including some dickhead owls who led me into so many charging moose that I think they are just doing it on purpose now. Screw you owls. Screw you.
Similar to roguelike games such as Hades (which I will write about soon), The Red Lantern is a game of trial and error. Each run through the Alaskan wilderness, you come across different scenarios, forcing you to decide how you will spend your limited resources. When you eventually fail, be that from hunger, injury or exhaustion, you wake up in your van – ready to try again. However, what does not kill you makes you stronger. Say you freeze to death out there during a run, well your protagonist will realise that they need to pack more fire kindling. If you find a key item whilst you are exploring, it becomes a permanent part of your inventory for all future runs. Trust me, you will never be more excited to find a bit of flint than when you have run out of kindling for the fourth run in a row.
The dark may contain horrors but I’ll keep them at bay.
The Red Lantern is filled with little moments that stick with you from run to run. Each dog on your team has a miniature story arc that you can pursue, allowing you to dig into their personality and bond with them. Every story has its own merits and memorable interactions, but Fin’s arc was what stuck with me the most over my time with the game.
Fin is a shy pup. Known as a keen tracker by her previous owners, Fin is an independent soul who prefers the wild to her comfortable doghouse and the affection of her musher. To begin with, Fin will only cautiously sniff your hand, preferring to keep her distance from both you and the more boisterous dogs (looking at you Chomper). One night though, you wake up to discover that your beanie is missing. Checking the camp, you see that Fin has it clutched in her paws as she sleeps, using your scent to soothe her. The next time you go to sleep, the game gives you an option to let Fin have your beanie – which although it leaves you cold, brings the pup comfort. Later on, she lets you scratch her, happy for the love. The game makes you work for her affection, builds that relationship of trust and gives you a sense of accomplishment when you see that tail wag.
That notification honestly made my day.
More than anything, The Red Lantern is about having faith in your team and in yourself. Life is filled with the mistakes we have made. I have screwed up more times that I have pairs of socks. It is what you choose to take from those missteps that will make all the difference later down the line. Just because you have screwed up before, does not mean you will never succeed. You need to believe in yourself, because in the end, you are the only one whose opinion really matters. Our friends and family, we love them dearly but, in the end, it is your burden to bear, not theirs. A failure is a setback, not an unbreakable roadblock. That is something that I am still struggling to remind myself of. Especially now, where my mental health is not in a great place. I know that I used to be in a much better place. I know that I can take better care of myself. However, that does not lessen the effort it has taken to build myself back up to this point.
Anyways, that’s enough existential crisis conversation for this week. Thank you all for your kind words on last weeks piece and I hope you will continue to support everything I do. New D&D episode coming Saturday evening as well, which has been a delight to edit since it is essentially Phoenix Wright on drugs. It will make sense when you listen, I promise.
I’ve not given up on this site and the positive impact that I want it to have on the gaming community. A lot has happened in the world over the last four months, which hasn’t helped with the issues of motivation and burnout that I’ve talked about before on the site. If I’m completely honest with you all, I just haven’t wanted to write recently? Normally, I’m a very creative person. I love to build worlds and weave stories from nowhere, to sketch out goofy comics and play music. A lot of that has been sapped out of me during these trying months. What remains has to be rationed out carefully, so that the things that I hold dear don’t wither away to nothing.
The majority of my limited creativity has been laser focused on my D&D sessions with friends; in building elaborate backstories and complex plots for my characters and worlds. If I had to analyse the breakdown of my time over the last four months, I can say with certainty that outside of eating, sleeping and doing my job, I dedicate my time to escapism. Be that watching videos, binging new series, reading, playing D&D, playing Among Us or laughing at my kittens antics – I have preferred to avoid dwelling on my own mental health for too long. I’m well aware that it isn’t the healthiest approach to the world but at the moment, it’s all I can really work up the effort to achieve.
This is the sixth article I’ve tried to write over the last few months. The only thing I’ve been able to keep up with is editing together my D&D campaign episodes, which we do in podcast form. That’s what those Dungeons and Junkiez posts are all about! Yet, when it comes to writing, I keep starting pieces on games that I’ve been enjoying and rarely get past the opening sentence. Fun fact, I’m actually writing this in my web browser rather than in my usual Word Document. That’s the danger of losing motivation, it builds the association between your negative mindset and the activities that you are taking part in at the time. Part of me is scared that I won’t be able to write a proper article again, even though I know that is a bunch of rubbish my brain came up with.
Going into 2021, my main thought as I sat on my sofa, in my place, alone, on New Years Eve – a kitten on each leg, was that I didn’t want to fail you all. I know, I know, I could never fail you. Your support has always been unwavering, kind, generous, heartfelt and encouraging, no matter what I’ve produced. You are all the reason that my EGX panel even happened. I would never have taken that chance if it wasn’t for the community that stands behind me and cheers me on. MindGames wouldn’t have made it through the shitshow that was 2020 without you all. I’ve had so many dips this year, some of them deep enough that I wasn’t sure I could climb back up. Our choices mould who we become and I know that I’ve become a better person because of this site, because of this community, because you all manage to find something meaningful in my ramblings.
Right now, I’m sat at my desk in my makeshift office where I work from home. It’s where I’ve worked since I started my job back in August. Despite having good control over my hours, a positive work environment and a boss who is brilliant, I’ve struggled. Heck, I have more free time now than I did this time last year. Even whilst in my final year of university, production managing a show and holding down a part-time teaching job, I still found the time and the excitement to sit down and write about gaming and mental health for you all. Now, with all these free evenings, I struggle to cook dinner for myself. It’s weird. Depression’s a bitch.
I’m well aware that this piece doesn’t make much sense, I’m really just speaking from the heart of what’s been going on in my life for the last few months. I think the global pandemic has fucked with a lot of our mental states, which is something we need to accept. It’s ok that you’re not doing well. It’s ok that you’re anxious, that you’re afraid or you’re angry. We’ll get through this. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.
I’ll be back with a proper piece by the end of the month. I promise you all 🙂
This is episode two of my campaign for Dungeons and Junkiez, the fab folks that I play with every tuesday. You can find my first episode on the site, and all the other campaigns over on Visionaries Global Media! Hope you all enjoy 🙂
Pirates Of The Quarantine by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Just Breathe by Wayne John Bradley | https://soundcloud.com/ayneohnradley Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
Beautiful Oblivion by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Highland Song by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Uncertainty by Arthur Vyncke | https://soundcloud.com/arthurvost Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
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