Review: Linger In Shadows
It's finally here. And, 7 minutes later, it's gone. Just like that.Published 09/10/2008 at 21:22 by nofi
Linger In Shadows: Demo [8]
LingerInShadows Is A Game [6]
LingerInShadows Rated [3]
It was back in March when TSA revealed the presence of something rather special that looked likely to be released on the PS3. Being big fans of the demoscene, especially in the Amiga’s golden years, this piqued our interest enough to continue posting each time we found out something new, and with each blog post our fascination with the art/game combo grew.
It’s ironic, then, that the video posted in our very first article on the game was 99% of what finally hit the PS3 earlier today. Dubbed as an interactive art piece, Plastic’s undoubted technical skill really is just a seven minute 3D demo, and when 2 minutes of that are the introductory credits, even at £2 you’re bound to feel a little short changed.
So, what is it? Well, you’ll need to be aware of what the demoscene actually is to really ‘get’ Linger In Shadows, and TSA isn’t the place for a history lesson, but it’s essentially a tech demo meant to show off the abilities of the demo crew in question, with Linger being a showcase for the aforementioned Plastic, a polish demo group. Sure, it’s 60fps and nice and high-def but to be fair, it’s nothing we’ve not seen before and it’s certainly not visually mindblowing, despite some clever touches.
So, we’re reduced to a five minute realtime ‘movie’ involving a crumbling city, a strange mask and a dog, which is split into 5 segments which pause and rewind indefinitely, at least until you provide the required input to trigger the next section. And this is where the ‘game’ element comes in. Basically, using the triggers you cycle back and forth through the segment, wait for the joypad light to flash at the top of the screen and repeat what it tells you.
From shaking the controller, to tapping a button, this is barely interactive, and when you do gain some semblance of movement it’s usually nothing more than something rotating or a light flashing on and off that opens up the next area of the demo. Had this been better implemented, with a little more subtlety and less obvious signposting, it might have worked better but as it stands it’s a cheap way to make the demo more than it is.
And after that you’re left with the game’s final trick: the ability to move the camera slightly via the Sixaxis motion sensing and the Triangle button. Move the camera into the demo’s darker areas (the Shadows, we’d imagine) and you’ll pick up little Love-You notes to other members of the demoscene, which translate into Trophies once the game is saved (Trophies don’t pop up during the demo, only when you quit). It would have been nice to read more about these other teams, and see movies of their demos, but sadly all you’re doing is filling in slices of a pizza wheel, like some 21st century Trivial Pursuit, only without the questions and the drunk uncle.
We’re probably victims of our own hype here, but this a) should have been free and b) much, much better. There was huge scope for something here, but we can’t help shake the feeling that someone got involved at the wrong stage and changed what could have been an impressive technical example of the PS3’s graphics muscle into a rudimentary, almost insultingly basic joystick tester – as a demo it’s great, but would have benefitted from remaining a demo. Budbrain Megademo, all is forgiven.
Note: as a game blog the above text reflects our opinion of Linger In Shadows as a game, not as a demo. There are other far more qualified demoscene sites out there, like scene.org, better suited for reviewing it as a demo.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
nofi | 09/10/2008 21:35
Wants a custom tag.
4307 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
edgefusion | 09/10/2008 21:41
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I tend to agree, it is pretty much overhyped and described to be something much more than it actually is. They said on several occasions that the way you interact with this ‘game’ would surprise you. The reality is no part of it is surprising or done in any particularly inventive or even creative way.
I personally wasn’t expecting a great deal from it, but I did think it’d be a nice opportunity to see some real creativity from artistic minds. Sadly that’s not the case and it’s far too abstract to really mean anything to many people (if it even means anything at all).
cc_star | 09/10/2008 21:46
Team TSA: Writer
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Basically 2 quid for some Trophies
djhsecondnature | 09/10/2008 21:47
Team TSA: Media
893 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I disagree slightly. As an art piece I thought it was brilliant. However, that will lead to a huge difference in oppinion as it is pretty much art. I understand you’re point, but for £2, I enjoyed what I experienced.
colossalblue | 09/10/2008 21:49
Team TSA: Editor
1405 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Awesome, I’ve always had my doubts about this, especially as they couldn’t decide what it was themselves. I was so nearly tempted by it’s cheapness just for some HD graphical prettiness but now Nofi has slammed it I’ll be looking elsewhere for HD graphical prettiness. Wipeout HD maybe, in a different way but pretty nonetheless.
edgefusion | 09/10/2008 21:50
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£2 for trophies though if that’s your bag.
colossalblue | 09/10/2008 22:13
Team TSA: Editor
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One look at my meagre trophy tally is enough to confirm that I am not in it for the silverware. If less trophies were coolest I’d be cooler than everyone. Except Michael, he must think trophies are for losers. Like that kid at school who said that only real losers get A-grades. I believe he’s in prison now. The kid from school, not Michael.
gazo69 | 09/10/2008 21:52
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1152 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I’ve just bought 16 trophies for £1.99, damn rip off.
Ok so £1.99 is not gona break the bank, like you say it should have been free.
It was an experience for me, not seen anything like it before, plus i had a bit of fun working out what the hell i was supposed to be doing, although i was not that impressed with the graphics.
discharge | 09/10/2008 21:58
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I’ve been playing it for an hour or so now…..and I really like it!, why?, its weird, its odd, its slightly infuriating, its creepy looking, its easy and hard to control, you can take snapshots of scenes(so what i hear you type!), I feel there is more to come, it doesnt look or feel like its over, all I can say is for £1.99 its worth the experience of ‘what the hell is this about’ feeling.
Its going to be (for me) one of those things you buy for no reason and end up liking it more than you thought, its a nice little 10minute or even over an hour toy which passes the time nicely.
Thats what i think and I give it a 7/10 for oddness alone.
stefhutch20 | 09/10/2008 22:19
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I agree. Sure it only lasts a couple of hours at the absolute max, but that’s why it’s £1.99. And it definitely gets the prize for most times I’ve thought ‘WTF?’ in 7 minutes.
Slamori | 09/10/2008 22:18
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0 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I registered just to say this comment. (registering is hard to find by the way , may I suggest fixing that)
I 100 % do not agree with this review , I will even say it different I think its eve ridicules. Just because a game doesn’t involve violence and shooting doesn’t mean that it sucks. its very unique and very cool to have such art game available.. its the first time ever that a console has something like this. Imo this game doesn’t even deserve a Review since you cant. its the best 2.99 euro spend ever.
colossalblue | 09/10/2008 22:27
Team TSA: Editor
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opinions are what it’s all about mate, I’m glad you liked it but Nofi obviously didn’t and since it’s his website, his opinion is the one that makes the front page. Luckily there are people like you who will disagree and help get us all talking about it.
I think this kind of “Interactive Experience” isn’t a bad thing, it has the potential to be very interesting. I just think this looked a bit poor and the fact that it only lasts around 7 minutes (content-wise, not playability) makes me think that it’s overpriced by about 2 euro.
colossalblue | 09/10/2008 22:27
Team TSA: Editor
1405 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I forgot to say welcome, so… Welcome!
nofi | 09/10/2008 22:45
Wants a custom tag.
4307 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I appreciate the art, and would probably have scored it higher if more of the demo had existed in place of the ‘game’ part, which is poor.
The tech is fine, the mood is great and the music superb, but the fake game add-ons spoil the whole experience, hence the score.
Should have been left as a tech demo instead of shoe-horning in all the crap.
bonzajplc | 09/10/2008 23:12
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0 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Hello.
What I can say after reading the review is that you have created some kind of holy vision of our demo, after we have shown it on Breakpoint. But it’s still a demoscene demo. Not a game. And it seems you have forgotten about that major fact. You also seem to act as being well oriented in the demoscene history by mentioning two good old Amiga groups. Well the things has changed and demoscene doesn’t do megademos anymore. What I wanted to achieve is to change a form of a demo like “Mental Hangover” has moved megademos into history in 1992. So basicaly we wanted to add some interactivity to show that realtime can be preserved in demos while not trying to make a game. For me it’s sad that you have reviewed “LiS” as a game while knowing that it was shown on BP at the first place. But it’s your site.
As for the lack of demoscene groups descriptions. There are Trophies descriptions that are my personal words for those groups. It you’re willing to dig into it – just google the demoscene group names. Ah yes and one more thing. The demoscene has changed a lot past last 20 years. It’s not anymore about who will draw more bobs
.
Cheers!
bonzaj of plastic
pseudonym22 | 09/10/2008 23:14
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Ok did you not read the Playstation blog with the designer of this software clearly stating it is NOT a game. So why are you reviewing this as a game? You make it evident when you say “you’re left with the game’s final trick”. You’re doing us all a disservice by offering an opinion on a product you clearly did not know what its intention was. I suggest going to the PS Blogs reading what the designer said and rewriting this before you scare away people from a unique interactive experience.
nofi | 09/10/2008 23:27
Wants a custom tag.
4307 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Of course. I’m well aware this is meant to be a demo, however the review was perhaps worded badly at certain points.
This is a gaming blog, though, and we reviewed it with the game intentions as other non-games, such as the PlayStation Eye games: http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2007/10/30/first-batch-of-playstation-eye-titles-reviewed/
There are clearly ‘game’ elements here, too.
colossalblue | 10/10/2008 00:34
Team TSA: Editor
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I think the problem here is that it seems to not quite know what it is. If it’s not a game why have PSN trophies, surely that adds an element of competition that marks it out like a game?
I’m all for more art of any kind being distributed to as many people as possible but surely when it’s distributed next to so many game demos, game videos and game music it is reasonable to compare it to what it is associated with?
cc_star | 10/10/2008 01:24
Team TSA: Writer
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My opinion is that Sony meddled with it, added Trophies, or talked to the creators about adding them, and hey presto everyone started talking about a game.
The feeling then was that it must be a game, and although it has been said to not be a game, but an interactive experience, no its art, no it’s got Trophies, so there must be aims, and tasks to complete, so it must be a game, and around in circles, releasing a demo with a price with Trophies says game to me, and that may or may not be Sony’s fault not Plastics
But, I think Plastic should be pleased with what they’ve accomplished, and I hope more people do the same, after all there could be new effects, filters, nifty programming optimisations or whatever discovered that make it into full RRP games.
At the very least this post has received the most comments of the day here, and when you take into account TGS is happening, that is no mean feat, and this must be half the point?
nofi | 10/10/2008 06:58
Wants a custom tag.
4307 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I think that’s exactly it. At Breakpoint this was a quirky, reasonably emotive demo that for some reason Sony got involved with and changed for the worse.
The interactive bits (which I am calling a game) ruin the experience, in my opinion, and are completely unnecessary, and the ’sections’ were clearly added in at the eleventh hour to shoe-horn in the Trophies, again purely there to attract gamers looking to boost their medal scores.
I apologise to the guys from Plastic for the harsh review, but I assume they had some control over the outcome of the project and are thus slightly to blame too. Obviously I don’t know 100% what happened here, but in my opinion the demo should have been free as I said in the review, and should not have contain the ‘game’ elements.
And to all the people complaining about the review (you should see some of the comments on N4G on this) – it’s just a review, one guys’ opinion. If you only want to read biased, bankrolled 10/10 scores for your precious PS3 please look elsewhere.
An interesting one, to be sure. I await further emails today…
mcphatty | 10/10/2008 09:52
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262 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I’ve only been looking at this site for a couple of weeks now (its very good, but im sure you lot get enough praise so on with the bashing… hah not really) and I quite like how this stack of comments has turned into an argument about a review!
So well done for saying what you really think on your own site!
djhsecondnature | 10/10/2008 16:31
Team TSA: Media
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Well said.
Pixl1983 | 10/10/2008 09:40
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Morning guys. What did I miss?
……….ooohh…………..
TheRook21 | 10/10/2008 10:29
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584 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I purchased this as it was cheap and I thought it would be intreging… and it was… the first loop (the credits) confused the crap out of me as it rewound and I had no idea what was going on… after some playing around I figured out what it actually required to progress (I liked the distortion effect from shaking the controller)…
After playing through the first time I nabbed a few “greets” (Fairlight & someone else apologies for not remembering exactly which one).
I went through 2-3 times and probably wont go back to it… perhaps just to show people it (using Watch) its nice bit of eye candy and adding a bit of interactivity was good… if the motion sensing controls were a bit iffy (as they can be). I have to agree with the pricing… I think 1.99 is a little steep… for what is just under 7 minutes of (high quality visual art) I earn about £10 an hour and this effectively at the length of it equates to £16.91 for a full hours “video/gaming” if you break it down.
I’m glad I got it and I’m glad it came out as its just a good example of how consoles etc should be opened up to allow all kinds of unusual stuff that people just would not see elsewhere without knowing about it…
I think as a game the review deserves its score… as it has been said to have some minor “game” elements. Which I would say if you took the whole demo into accounts 2 out of 10 would be the gaming aspect and the other 8 out of 10 would be the artistic stylings.
I hope if more get released in the future the price will be lower (50p-£1 – no offence demo scene people not saying your work is not worth much) but its more likely people wont kick up a fuss for paying 50p-£1 for something thats short when mostly people on consoles are after gaming… and you consider stuff on the PSN for £2.99 which can net you 10+ hours of play time…
But I cant blame the demo sceners/Plastic for the pricing as thats Sony’s cross the bare.
Anyhow all in all its a very artistic piece which visually is nice and the artistic styling is very good. Not what I expected as I know nothing of the demo scene.
As a point (it may be there but I may have missed it) perhaps if a future one does occur maybe a quick explaination of what the GUI is/what you should look out for…
anyhow good luck in your future stuff
TheRook21
Lanselta | 10/10/2008 13:27
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528 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I’ve havn’t dowloaded this demo, and neither will I. I was always of the impression that demos are simple snippits of a/v coolness (and why not add a bit of hmi) that are a great win win for all. People enjoy the demo, people get exposure from the demo.
Why o why put a £ or $ or € on it!!! Win win GONE!