Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: 12 Orbits and Better to Upload Two Souls
Fear and Simplicity in Gaming
12 Orbits is a multiplayer arcade game created by Roman Uhlig, an indie developer from Germany. Players will be controlling their own ball of fun. 12 Orbits is intended to be played using any interface that can connect and allow for anyone to simply pick it up.
I do mean any interface, for 12 Orbits is a single button game. The goal is to keep the ball corresponding to the player’s given colour alive while hitting the white balls to turn them to their colour. Balls already claimed become dangerous hazards on the field, and need to be avoided lest the player wishes to be killed and lose their claimed balls to their killer.
This is where the single button’s first functionality comes in. The white directional indicator on each ball also doubles as the player’s life force. By pressing their given button, players can ‘flip’ their ball around, acting as a dodge to protect themselves while giving a quick speed boost for the dodge’s duration. During this time, the player cannot collide with anything, which means that the white balls are also dodged and cannot be claimed, balancing a risk vs reward system.
The second use of the single button is given in the title; ‘orbit’. As seen on the maps, dark grey circles are present — when pressing their button within these fields, the players do not dodge. Instead they begin to orbit the circle at their given location. This allows them to alter their direction quickly and slingshot themselves at their targets.
The key is in the simplicity and accessibility; once the rules are covered, nearly anyone can grab any input device they can think of and join in. Mobile devices are supported, gamepads, keyboard, and even random clickers that get configured. 12 Orbits wants anyone and everyone to be able to play no matter their enjoyment of video games, and with such a simple yet addictive gameplay mechanic it is hard to say that it didn’t succeed. Pull this out at any party or family gathering to bring a bunch of people together watching orbs spin in circles and cheering for random colours of the rainbow, and you won’t be disappointed.
Welcome to the mini series within PEGBRJE: “Games I’m Too Scared to Play Properly So I Usually Have To Watch Someone Else Do It!” Not very catchy, unfortunately.
This is a horror game called Better to Upload Two Souls created by Tokaint, a solo developer with a fixation on content creators and YouTube creation. This is actually the sequel to their hit game ‘Better to Upload’, a horror game based on content creator CoryxKenshin. In this sequel, certain content creators have signed up for an initiative ,created by Cory, to clone themselves. This is to alleviate some of the content creation load, yet keep the content flowing all year round. Two onlookers, however, question the ethics behind these clones being forced to work, and start to question if Cory himself is even real on stage.
In the spirit of the ‘jump scare content’-styled games, BtU2S will have players attempting to survive a night jumping in to the simulated world of the first game once more in an attempt to discover the plot of the mad scientist that is orchestrating it all. Where it differs from this style is in its execution. Players are jumping between the real 3D world and the simulated 2D to avoid being killed by ‘Paralysis’ who seemingly exists in both. The actual person the player represents will be in front of a TV, entering the simulated world to trick the scientist in to thinking that everything is fine. Once in, players will be given objectives by their partner that will break the simulation down to find out more about it, while avoiding the terror that has been unleashed on them.
The fear is in this duality, for Paralysis can attack the player no matter which state they are in. In the 2D world, players will see the simulation break down somewhat as a warning before it arrives, giving them ample time to hide before venturing back out in to the darkness of Cory’s House. The ‘real’ body of the player needs to sleep, making each night the player has in the simulation timed, as sleep spells doom. Constant worry about the ‘real’ body gives way to paranoia, and BtU2S feeds on this until it all culminates in a jump scare that resets the night back to the beginning.
As implied, I was unable to ‘play’ the game, at least properly. After the intro’s dystopian future in which content creation is all anyone seems to live for, then drops you in to a house and waves at you to try your best. I barely survived the first night, and as is tradition for me at this point I jumped over to YouTube to see the progression. I’m sounding like a broken record at this point, but horror just isn’t my genre. But for all of you that like horror — especially if you played the first and loved Tokaint’s aesthetics and plot — this is a fantastic game to hop in and try out. It was made for content creation, funny enough, so good luck surviving the nights.
Mild aside, I had to restart the whole game after getting caught in a loop after alt-tabbing for a few minutes, where I would be sent to the home screen over and over. It’s still being updated to this day, so there’s bound to be some kinks here and there.
