work is never done
so says the adage of yore;
no thanks to yon bull
Additional Comments:
First, it should be noted that I've been miserably slow at updating Beat All Games. Thanks to my tardiness, my exact memories of these games are fleeting. This game, along with Wheely and the next title that I'm going to try and wrangle out of my procrastination and general lack of passion towards writing such long winded tirades other than using it as an outlet to write something, were all completed two or three months ago. Only for the approaching end of the year I realized I should at least try and slap some sort of structured anger or appeasement. I doubt I'll even manage a Christmas Mario this year. Such tragedy. Though, admittedly, in addition to my growing apathy, my neglect has been spoon fed by the fact that I've been playing games as of late that are either entirely open ended and/or have a good many hours of gameplay present before any sign of an end is near. And anyone who's familiar with my particular way of playing games, a 40 hour game, for example, can easily be dragged out to 120+ hours over weeks and weeks of game time. No wonder attention to Beat All Games has dropped.
But enough of that. I present another in a series of fast growing favorites: 12 Labours of Hercules: The Cretan Bull. If it wasn't for a room full of games that I wish to play, and my desire to mix things up from title to title, I'd probably play every 12 Labours titles in a row. Sure, they're all essentially the same, but they're all so damn fun and addicting. As much as the first game enticed me with simple gameplay, the sequel cemented my love for the series. I feel foolish to say as such, but the games are executed so well. Perhaps because they still have an air of guilty pleasure wrapped around them. It's that hard to explain mobile gaming polish that coats the presentation that makes me ashamed to admit how wonderful the game is, but gameplay and execution shall always trump all and the devs seem to know a thing or two about gameplay.
Other than a new story, Hercules trying to capture the rambunctious Cretan Bull that's terrorizing the lands wherever he goes, there's very little in terms of new gameplay here. But that's fine. Why fix what isn't broke? Sometimes we genuinely do want more of the same. Hell, just look at some of the classics like Mega Man or Sonic - very little changed over the course of the first few games. When things finally began to change in dramatic fashion, hoping to freshen what the developers considered old hat, well the series, in my opinion, took a massive nose dive into a heaping pile of cow dung. If it works, let it be, and 12 Labours is doing exactly that. What is changed is small, but clearly impactful. New and interesting minigame boss fights, the ability to build outposts to advance your workers further into a stage, or even the new puzzle piece extraction to add a dash of collection mechanic. Nothing here is major, but it's all enough to make the game feel fresh despite being nothing more than additional levels that could have easily been tacked onto the first game as DLC. Too much change and surely the game would have taken on too much of a different feel; losing that special quality that makes 12 Labours what it is. For anyone who's ever wondered why Capcom created Mega Man 9/10 or Sega created Sonic 4, it's exactly for those reason, I should suspect. Of course, I don't have the inside scoop, so I could be talking out my ass, but still. There was a quality to the original games that people loved and desired more of just as they do with 12 Labours, again, so I would suspect. Either that or the developer is stuck in a developmental rut, but you know what? If that's the case, I say thank goodness for ruts.
Unfortunately, because of the striking similarities between games, there's very little else to talk about that I haven't already talked about previously. Perhaps I can groan over the puzzle piece mechanic insomuch that for the first two worlds, despite knowing puzzle pieces existed and somehow collected a couple by sheer happenstance along the way, I had no idea what I was truly seeking. For a while, I expected the various sparkles or targeted animations to be a clue as to their whereabouts but I was wrong. Eventually, I had to enter a stage and simply take in the detail. There I sat scanning the landscape for I don't know what. Once I realized what the pieces looked like, they turned out to be quite easy to pick up over the course of the game. Still, I wish there was some sort of device in place that introduced us to the concept. Everything else within the game is very intuitive, however that was the one mechanic that felt like a missed opportunity.
The only other thing worth noting, perhaps, is the difficulty when it came to expert mode. Compared to the first game, this one felt a lot easier. Could be that I knew what to expect and how to handle the game; that I had a better understanding of the necessary strategy to overcome situational obstacles. But then, it's also been over a year since I played the first title, and if other games have taught me anything, is that I easily become rusty after mere months of absenteeism. Maybe time strategy games don't befall the ills of prolonged absence. Makes sense since the game is devised around strategy and not skill. Still, with some of the additional elements in The Cretan Bull, there's enough to throw me off my game. Poke and prod at any number of hypotheses, but I can't help but feel the true state of the matter is that the sequel is simply easier. Unlike the first game where a number of levels tested my problem solving skills as well as my patience while under the constraints of a demanding clock, only a small handful of levels proved to be of the same caliber. Be aware I use comparison lightly here as even the difficult stages proved easy compared to the difficult stages in the original game. I believe there was only one that was truly comparable to the original game in the number of replays attempted. Perhaps some of the new elements not only added to the complexity and depth of strategy, but counterbalanced the difficulty as an unforeseen side effect. Who knows?
Whether the game built on the original, which it did, or simply stalemated the franchise, which it didn't, The Cretan Bull validated the franchise and its future, which at this point, I believe consists of four more titles. I know I have the third and fourth already in my Steam library and honestly can't wait to play them, even if they are more of the same old same old. As long as the same old same old keeps up the same level of fun and excitement, than more power to them. Hell, I'm not even mad that most of the soundtrack is the same - it's a fantastic soundtrack. More 12 Labours as is, with minimal but poignant alterations and/or additions and I'm all over it.
Rating: 4.5 waterslides out of 5
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