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Majestic Nights

Majestic Nights

Written by Rob Larkin on 10/30/2014 for PC  
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You start the story as John Q. Cardholder, a retired spook with the Agency on his tail. Later missions will see you take the helm as Cam, a private investigator.  The game features a solid, cel-shaded look from the classic isometric perspective. The creators are attempting to capture a vintage 80's feel and I think this this choice of perspective works to harken back to the feel of the original Fallout or Shadowrun. Even though those games actually date to the 90's, the perspective lends itself true to the retro feel. Not to mention a stickler to 80's design would be stuck in an 8 bit side-scroller.  

The preview copy was a beta version delivered via a Steam code and contained only the prologue, Chapter Zero. You pick up as Cardholder, an uber-agent with a long history in clandestine work and cover ups. While the message that Cardholder is something of a legend in the field is abundantly clear form the go, I also found myself taking a quick dislike to him as he generally treats the NPCs as nothing but a means to an end. There's gruff and grizzled and then there's just being a jerk and Cardholder erred too often towards the later for my tastes.

The game does boast of full controller support but the documentation was lacking.  I couldn't actually figure out how to fire the  gun with my controller and had to switch to mouse and keyboard for combat.  Full disclosure, I do use a PS3 controller on PC with some 3rd party drivers, so that could be part of the issue, but I was unable to find an in-game menu with controller actions that would have alleviated any confusion. Combat features a cover system for an element of strategy but it is mostly point and click to take down enemies before they fire enough rounds in your character to take down you. The driving force of the game is the plot, which allows you to try and talk your way through many of the combat scenarios instead of fighting through. So while combat can come across as something of an afterthought, that's not a particularly damning criticism for a game that is focused on storytelling.  

As for the storytelling, the majority of the Prologue was actually more linear than I would have thought. For the most part it seemed to be go find some guy, talk to him, navigate a dialogue tree to get the info you need which usually leads you to talk to some other guy. For mission critical characters, if you mess up you can just talk to him again and the conversation starts anew. There were a few non mission critical conversations that could end in success or a failure that never seemed to really effect the over-arching narrative.  Dialogue, however, could have been paced better as having to retry a particular conversation sometimes felt more like a chore than a revelation. My main annoyance was that the same button is used to quickly skip through dialogue as is used for one of the options when presented with a branching choice. So often when retrying a certain lengthy section I would mistakenly hit the skip button one time too many and make the same choice as previously done and force year another attempt to again try the new branch. 

Really the whole endeavor of the game relies on the strength of the story, as is often the case of episodic content such as this.  While the prologue has a big reveal at the end, it wan't really the shocking hook I hoped for. It seemed to wrap up the episode neatly, rather than sink its claws in with a cliffhanger. While I could agree with the argument that the cliffhanger is a cheap mechanic in principle, the lack of one didn't make me immediately open my wallet to see what happens next.  What the prologue  does do is paint a clear picture of what the game will try to achieve in later episodes, which I expect will be a bit deeper. The elements are there for a non-linear story-driven experience but I can't say the prologue really nailed that. I feel there was only one real puzzle to be solved (the bartender mentioned in the video below), while most of the rest was pretty linear with only a minimum of visual clues as to where to actually go next (such as being told by multiple NPCs to go downstairs in a club with no visible stairs).

The biggest challenge, however, is that the game attempts to create a world where every conspiracy is true, but what makes a good conspiracy actually good, is that there is an extended anticipation of disbelief until the evidence finally mounts to the point that you question your preconceived notions of the status quo. If we establish from the outset that the unbelievable will end up being the outcome, then the journey is difficult to invest in, and the journey is what actually drives the experience home. 

I think this is a game that is best understood by playing through the Prologue yourself. Episode Zero, Sunset After Dark, should be available on Steam and Episode One should release this week to coincide with PAX Australia.  If it's your cup of tea, then future Episodes are $4.99 each, or the season pass of all 6 should be available for $19.99. It's a good pricing model that lets you try before you buy. The first episode is set to be released imminently with future ones paced from now until April. A schedule is available on the Majestic Nights website. There's also a video below of Lead Designer Samuel Jensen doing a walkthrough of the prologue which shows the gamin in action and details some specifics like the combat system and advancing through NPC interactions.

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.

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First picked up a game controller when my mother bought an Atari 2600 for my brother and I one fateful Christmas.  
Now I'm a Software Developer in my day job who is happy to be a part of the Gaming Nexus team so I can have at least a flimsy excuse for my wife as to why I need to get those 15 more minutes of game time in...

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