Mixtape; Ovehated piece of art! Now where's the gameplay?

[FakeSympathy]

Last Thursday on 5/7, this "game" was released.

And this might be one of the biggest divide between critics and gamers; And after playing it myself, I can definitely say both sides' arguments are fucked beyond belief.

The critics and review medias are throwing 9/10s, or near perfect scores because of a beautiful story and animation and those alone makes it a great game. And that is simply untrue

The gamers are arguing this "game" has no gameplay at all, and that it has absolutely no redeeming quality. Which is also untrue.

What we have here is a beautifully animated and voice acted story, however at a cost of having little to no player inputs impacting the flow.

Think of every interactive-story games you ever played (Tellltale Games, Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain, etc.). Now imagine all those sequences having a set path, you don't get to control much, and you are watching a literal movie.

In a small sections where you do get to make some controls and inputs, you will find just how little is there to do in this world. And the animation style might work as a movie or a tv show, but as a game it just feels off.

You are essentially playing $20 to watch a movie of teens living in the 90s, going on one last roadtrip together, coupled with awesome soundtracks.

So no, it's not the worst thing as the internet is making it out to be (typical), but it also hardly qualify as a "game"

And that's about all I can say for this game. Notice how short this review is? That's how much content I got out of it.

No joke, I'd take Beyond Two Souls, or any of the David Cage games over this; Because at least you do SOMETHING to make the story actually interactive

 

[Ezekiel]

But you still succeed if you fail the button prompts. How is it a game with no failure states?


I got a good response when I posted this tweet on Gamespot. Blame graphics. I know this game isn't a looker, but still blame graphics. Guessing the lazy bastards made it on Unreal Engine instead of their own engine as well, and still they did not want to go through the effort of making a real adventure game as I can safely assume Blade Runner is!

You know, was playing Blade Runner about 2-3 weeks back, old old game, 1997, and adventure game.

Within the context of the tech at the time (multiple disks) it attempts to create as many multiple endings, and random - outside of the player events as possible. It's possible. The player can die in fire-fights, miss clues that change the story, kill NPC's (one character being a pedophile pet shop owner I shot).

Even little twist didn't see coming where someone I 100% predicted was a replicant (the girl at the start of the game) was in fact a human with a replicants, and even as I type this, not sure if this is fixed or dynamic and changes with each replay.

Which won't Google, as that's the magic of it.

Look at that in 1997 and then look now, where we are praising crap like this as the second coming, Blade Runner should have been build upon and widely surpassed multiple times over, this game existed when many people on this forum or game reviewers themselves didn't exist, but we've settled for this.

The this is benchmark, apparently.

Teens kissing in a perspective that's disgusting if not pornographic.


The game looks cringe and immoral. Constant nostalgia baiting. Celebratory tone as the teens defy their parents, get drunk with older guys and destroy property. One commits arson and then threatens to set the forest on fire too in front of a cop father, who gives in and lets her go. Arson and a threat to do more, in California.

 

[BrawlMan]

Sounds way more fun than any david cage game. I know my older brother would enjoy this, but I would tell em to wait for a sale at half off

 

[Phoenixmgs]

When any game gets rated high because the story is good, the writing/story almost always ends up being pretty shit.

 

[Ezekiel]

I still don't understand the appeal of the intentionally choppy framerate. I watched a video about it, but can't exactly remember the rationale.


Action scenes in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as well. Why did it become trendy?

 

[CriticalGaming]

Wait how is it 10/10 to play an x-ray kissing mini game, and telling a cliche story about teens on a roadtrip.

But it's problematic to play an exciting action game that invokes fatherhood?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Teens kissing in a perspective that's disgusting if not pornographic.


The game looks cringe and immoral.

Yep, that scene is totally designed to be sexually arousing and NOT meant to represent how awkward and unsatisfying the main character's first kiss was. I'm not surprised you would call this pornographic and immoral.

OT: As for the game itself, its own concept unfortunately locks it in. They can't really veer away from the whole thing being a mixtape, as that is what the game is, but it means that both on the character and gameplay front it's lacking in meat and potatoes. The characters are fun and the gameplay sequences are neat, there's just not enough of it.

 

[BrawlMan]

But it's problematic to play an exciting action game that invokes fatherhood?

Anybody who calls Pragmata problematic are nothing more than insecure buttholes who knows they'll never amount to anything or like projecting their sins/wants on to something/people who did no wrong. Ignore the fuck heads. The game is done so well and touched a heart of actual sane and decent or good people out there. The people who find it problematic are nothing more than a super loud and tiny vocal minority.

Yep, that scene is totally designed to be sexually arousing and NOT meant to represent how awkward and unsatisfying the main character's first kiss was. I'm not surprised you would call this pornographic and immoral.

He goes to grifters for validation every single time over the silliest arguments or nothing problems. Nothing surprises me either. If this game is doing well and it makes him mad or other people mad, I do not mind.

 

[Ezekiel]

Yep, that scene is totally designed to be sexually arousing and NOT meant to represent how awkward and unsatisfying the main character's first kiss was. I'm not surprised you would call this pornographic and immoral.

Disingenuous. I said the x-ray kissing is disgusting if not pornographic. If you're gonna accuse me of misreading the game's morality, don't snip. Quote the rest of my post, where I explain why it's immoral.

 

[Ezekiel]

He goes to grifters for validation every single time over the silliest arguments or nothing problems. Nothing surprises me either. If this game is doing well and it makes him mad or other people mad, I do not mind.

I didn't go to grifters, and the toxicity that you continue to spew at me after telling others you would leave me alone is worse than my "negativity" and anything I've done to this forum.

 

[BrawlMan]

On to much more important matters.

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/mixtape-is-at-the-center-of-another-tedious-culture-war-discourse-and-i-think-i-know-why/

Controversy or not I know my older brother will probably play this at some point. I'll still tell him the wait on a sale though. Though if he wants to go full price with it, I'm not gonna stop him.

 

[Ezekiel]

On to much more important matters.

This is so immature too. He starts it every single time and then walks away saying something like, "On to more important matters."

 

[BrawlMan]

Here are some interesting reviews here:

​

Though the third video has a point. Ignore the noise and experience it for yourself.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

*sigh*

I was going to post in the hot takes thread that the Mixtape "controversy" may be the dumbest fucking internet gamer thing I've ever seen and then y'all make a whole thread doing it.

Never before have I been so embarrassed to do the same entertainment is you folks.

I played Mixtape. It was fun and good. Get a life.

 

[BrawlMan]

played Mixtape. It was fun and good. Get a life.

I didn't even know there was controversy until today. Like I said before, I'm not giving the haters and the bitches any mind. They all live lonely, empathetic lives and the only friends they got are just people united by hate and nothing more. They all stab each other in the back, when given a chance or at the slightest convenience.

This isn't a day one purchase for me but I wouldn't mind playing this game once. Plus i'm busy with a Geometry Wars style shmup at the moment. We got some catching up to do.

 

[thebobmaster]

Meanwhile, I haven't played Mixtape. I like visual novels, the lack of a true fail state doesn't bother me (Until Dawn/Supermassive Games in general say hi on that working for certain genres), but...yeah, I try not to be that guy, but I'm just so tired already of hearing about Mixtape and how it's awesome and the worst thing ever made and now immoral for not punishing the main characters for their transgressions (something that has happened in WAY more media for WAY longer than not, and it's not really up to media to set a moral standard anyways).

But yeah, I try not to get drawn into "controversies" in gaming like this, but Jeebus, this one is just a lot.

 

[BrawlMan]

yeah, I try not to get drawn into "controversies" in gaming like this, but Jeebus, this one is just a lot.

I've learned just to ignore the fools anytime they bring up a "controversy". They're so addicted to hate that that's all they know, and they are never truly happy. Sure, everything's in the money but a lot of these guys and some gals who do this thing every day are all interchangeable, and replaceable. They either don't know it yet.Or are too, in denial, that one day, somebody exactly like them will replace them, and it won't make a butt of difference. Youtube has done it before and they have no problem doing it again. Especially when they come up with acids rules and guidelines every single month or year. Even the grifters are getting tired of the policies, but they don't want to admit it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Disingenuous. I said the x-ray kissing is disgusting if not pornographic. If you're gonna accuse me of misreading the game's morality, don't snip. Quote the rest of my post, where I explain why it's immoral.

You said "Teens kissing in a perspective that's disgusting if not pornographic." Why bring up specifically teens kissing and it bordering on pornography unless you're making a particular moral judgement? All when the game was conveying a moment that's deliberately awkward and icky.

And the immorality of the game - teenagers defying their parents, getting drunk, and wrecking things - that's not depicted as a good or bad thing, but as a thing teenagers tend to do. The game starts with the three main characters skateboarding down a road at high speed against traffic; this is obviously not going to be about kids obeying the law or their parents. Name me one teen movie where that is the case.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

That aside, seems like one of those games where how much you enjoy them seems to depend entirely on how much you enjoy the writing and presentation of it. I dunno, I don't really see much of a point in calling out a game for lacking gameplay. As long as you have any input beyond starting and stopping, it's a game. I'd never call out a visual novel for lacking gameplay, even if all you do is read it and occasionally press a button to get to the next text window. The Silver Case is one of my favourite games of all time, and for all intents and purposes, it might as well be a book or a manga. But that's fine. It's just the genre of game it is. I'll judge it on its merits as a visual novel and not its hypothetical merits as a racing game or whatever.

I haven't played Mixtape yet. It seems alright, for what it is. I don't know, I find it kinda funny. It's almost this weird subgenre of twee coming of age stories set in American small towns. More often than not in some coastal town in the Pacific Northwest. The only on of those I really vibed with was Night in the Woods (Not set in the PNW, I know.) And, I dunno, this one's set in the 90's, but aesthetically, it seem way more rooted in early 10's indie hipster culture. The whole beanies and flanell shirts and thick rimmed glasses thing, it's way more hipster than it's actual grunge, I'm pretty sure. Although, of course, I'm not American and was a young kid in the 90's, so that impression is based mostly on media from the time. All I remember of the late 90's here in Germany is this song being on the radio all the time.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

An argument this stupid deserves the lamest move in an argument: citing Webster's dictionary.

Definition of VIDEO GAME

an electronic game in which players control images on a video screen… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

video game
noun
: an electronic game in which players control images on a video screen

Nothing about a "fail state" or whatever.

Shitting on a game because we like it "just" because of the music, art, visuals, and presentation is like shitting on a song "just" because we like the beat and production. These are properties of these things!
Internet stupidity often amounts to dismissing parts of things. It's the tacos-are-a-sandwich argument, but not fun.