To download and play the game:
Through Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/409160/
Through the developer’s website: https://crowscrowscrows.itch.io/dr-langeskov-the-tiger-and-the-terribly-cursed-emerald-a-whirlwind-heist
Video Playthrough (Don’t recommend, it’s much more
interesting if you play yourself. But just in case.)
For this assignment I chose Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and
The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist. It’s a videogame. It’s free to
play, available on mac and PC, and all that is needed is a free program called
Steam to play. Its duration is only about twenty minutes. The inspiration for
choosing this game was the topic of storytelling within videogames. This is a
video game about video games. It is important to me because it comes from a
creator who takes more of an abstract approach to video games. This particular
one was created by William Hugh, a co-creator of the critically acclaimed
Stanley Parable. My first choice for this assignment was going to be The Beginners
Guide created by Davey Wreden, the brains behind Stanley Parable. It is about
someone struggling with something they don’t understand. But it costs money and
is much longer at 2 hours.
The Beginners Guide and Dr. Langeskov are reactions to the
Stanley Parable and its unexpected success. Critics say that it isn’t a video
game at all. Now, if you don’t know the Stanley Parable, you play the role of
an office worker. A British narrator-god voices your life, saying what Stanley
will do next. But you can choose to do what he says, or make a different
choice. Every choice is commented on by the narrator. The only thing is that
there is no real progression. You wander around an office building dying with a
narrator criticizing your decisions. Much like Dr. Langeskov it’s a game you
have to play. While critics say it isn’t a video game because there isn’t
linear progression, The Stanley Parable is a video game about video games. It’s
idea came about when Wreden thought about how most video games confined a player
to its rules, and what would happen if that wasn’t the case.
Dr. Langeskov is a satire about video games. It’s a response
to the idea that the Stanley Parable wasn’t a game, a joke aimed at the
internet’s presumptions of how games are made. I can’t say much more. All I can
help you with is background, now you have to play it. These developers make
games which are so dependent on surprise and discovering things yourself, which
is why I chose it. All I can say is that you should play it, and wait until
everyone has, and then discussion can take place.
If you enjoy it, I highly recommend you play the Stanley
Parable, then The Beginners Guide, then Dr. Langeskov for a second time and it
will reveal a much larger message about video games in general.
After the Stanley Parable, this game felt like a spoof, of a spoof. It felt like many aspects were there simply to get a reaction, or flip the players usual predetermined reactions most games would force the player to do and make the requirement the opposite. I'd say it's more of an anti-game than an actual game.
ReplyDeleteI have not played Dr. Langeskov, but I have played the Stanley Parable and the demo version, which I thought were fun. I had a lot of fun playing with the narrator and hearing him get snarky or sassy with my character in the game to make progress. It felt like I was hearing a narration from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which made it very involving for me. You have made a very persuasive recommendation by showing the origins of how it was made based on an original work and how they gave it a different approach to the main plot of the game. I have really taken an interest in checking it out and I cannot wait to play it.
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