…I’m pretty sure I’m about to pull some Leverage shit.
I am super excited about this content.
And immediately I’m loving this mechanic. I’ve been thinking a lot about this kind of semi-randomized timed inescapable conflict which functions essentially like an upgraded version of the nondiscardable flash cards (i.e. high level Nightmare cards that plunge you deeper into Nightmares).
I feel like it has a lot of potential because it introduces, to an extent, a kind of even more overt roguelike element to the game where you’re forced to make certain choices and confront situations that are semi-randomized.
One of the great strengths of Fallen London is that it’s fundamentally a narrative game, but it has these sorts of strong roguelike elements and elements of real strategy that differentiate it from being just a semi-randomized choose your own adventure.
One of the biggest weaknesses is that it often slips into the worst parts of other RPGs–grinding to progress with the story most prominently, repeating actions that don’t make much narrative sense to repeat, &c–and this kind of mechanic adds an element of excitement, from what I can see, that counterbalances some of those tendencies (tendencies to like… be boring, basically)
It’s really cool to see them pushing the actual strategic elements of the gameplay, since a lot of the high end play right now (Mahogany Hall is probably the worst offender here) feels more driven by grinds than strategy.
This is one of those choices that I really love that I think the game could lean on a little harder at times, where they really emphasize the character action. I love it when they change the “go” text to something like this because it often really pushes home what you’re doing–in this case, being pretty, well, over the top shameless in your ironic posturing.
And my character is absolutely the kind of person who would embrace something this utterly shameless.
I just finished this. I think it took about two candles, so like many things the play experience is improved if you’re an Exceptional Friend… though honestly I think if one were to spend an entire day playing through this as their actions recharged it’d still be really fun.
The end profit is 50.00 e, making this something like 1.25 e/a–not bad as a grind, really! I think it could be even better if you manage to draw the right cards, start out with low menaces, and have a better strategic sense of how to navigate the cards that I did jumping in the first time.
But that’s what’s so interesting about it: it’s a grind that IS deeply strategic and how well the grind goes depends on your choices, choices which actually require adaptability. I mean, there’s something to be said, if there’s going to be grinds, for kind of mindless ones where you can pretty much do a set type of action repeatedly till you get what you want. For someone that sometimes struggles with executive function, those kinds of mindless grinds can be a great way to keep playing the game (and not waste my subscription!) even on days when I’m having trouble planning out actions in my daily life, let alone in a videogame.
What this new thing offers is a midgame and lategame grind that I think I’ll end up coming back to repeatedly because it offers so much in the way of strategy… and while it doesn’t do much for the overarching narrative of Fallen London it feels like it functions as a kind of construct-your-own-narrative in a way that other carousels don’t (most notably the very vague and consequentially very boring Wilmot’s End carousels, which feel like thematically and narratively they should work much more like this does). That kind of replayability feels significant to me since I’m finally starting to hint content borders.
I think actually the best thing about this is a line at the end that comes in an action that I’m pretty sure is there for purely mechanical reasons–a “cleanup step” for this mini game. I’m not going to spoil it but it was one of those great little moments that Failbetter excels at when the fun and excitement sort of fade in the background and the questions of identity, memory, and truth start seeping into the foreground again.
I love those little bits of poignancy that catch you when you least expect it.
Anyway, A+ minigame, @failbettergames. Challenging, tense, and very worth replaying.
