Skill Expansion Pack
I feel I deservedly put off purchasing the expansion pack(s!) for Lode Runner HD, especially since I have not been able to get someone to go in on co-op with me for the last achievement on the base game. The Journey Expansion Pack has made me unfathomably angrier than I ever remember being at the base game--perhaps in large part due to the completionist in me being aggravated at a SECOND achievement unattainable due to lack of a Player 2. [No, kiken has not been receptive to even playing a single level, much less the whole set.]
I want to say my multiplied frustration has to do with more than just the missing achievements, though not being able to finish what I've started is an increasingly big deal to me [even in games]. Certainly unemployment is a big intensifier, particularly a lay-off after barely over a year from my first real permanent, non-retail job--that's devastating.
Another huge factor is, in my assessment, that Lode Runner is such a "digital" game in that everything is sectored off a la StarTropics. Unlike StarTropics, however, Lode Runner is very analogue in its controls, which leads to infuriating misfires when improperly aligned. In a real-world equivalent, I suppose guns can misfire for no particular reason, so I'll let that slide, but then it also misfires when an enemy is too close. How does THAT work? I can't imagine any other weapon failing to fire just because the enemy isn't at least a unit away.
[Granted, I can't imagine the predictably-respawning terrain and selective gravity of Lode Runner, either, already the stuff of nightmares for me... which is why it's strange that I still enjoyed the game as much as I did.]
I can't say my complaints are unique to Lode Runner HD, though, since I recall something of the same problem in the ancient Apple ][ version as well. It just suddenly got to me in a way I never expected, such that I'm convinced it's a symptom of unemployment. At least the puzzle ["Skill"] expansion can be completed in as few as 5/35 puzzles solved, apparently--that, or I got a really lucky glitch. [Five of thirty-five is "all" puzzles completed?!]
So as much as I enjoyed this and other versions of the game in the past, I'm not really inclined to spend a lot more time on it than necessary. My time is getting more valuable, especially without a job in the foreseeable future--hopefully the job thing will change, but it's weird how much worse wasting time feels when there's no job waiting. Some vacation! The best I know to do is not to get in a habit of doing too much that doesn't work toward some kind of productive goal--comic yes, gaming no. [Kiken would argue that gaming is its own goal, but I'm drifting towards the point where my high scores aren't what I want in my eulogy as my finest achievements. Just personal preference.]
I want to say my multiplied frustration has to do with more than just the missing achievements, though not being able to finish what I've started is an increasingly big deal to me [even in games]. Certainly unemployment is a big intensifier, particularly a lay-off after barely over a year from my first real permanent, non-retail job--that's devastating.
Another huge factor is, in my assessment, that Lode Runner is such a "digital" game in that everything is sectored off a la StarTropics. Unlike StarTropics, however, Lode Runner is very analogue in its controls, which leads to infuriating misfires when improperly aligned. In a real-world equivalent, I suppose guns can misfire for no particular reason, so I'll let that slide, but then it also misfires when an enemy is too close. How does THAT work? I can't imagine any other weapon failing to fire just because the enemy isn't at least a unit away.
[Granted, I can't imagine the predictably-respawning terrain and selective gravity of Lode Runner, either, already the stuff of nightmares for me... which is why it's strange that I still enjoyed the game as much as I did.]
I can't say my complaints are unique to Lode Runner HD, though, since I recall something of the same problem in the ancient Apple ][ version as well. It just suddenly got to me in a way I never expected, such that I'm convinced it's a symptom of unemployment. At least the puzzle ["Skill"] expansion can be completed in as few as 5/35 puzzles solved, apparently--that, or I got a really lucky glitch. [Five of thirty-five is "all" puzzles completed?!]
So as much as I enjoyed this and other versions of the game in the past, I'm not really inclined to spend a lot more time on it than necessary. My time is getting more valuable, especially without a job in the foreseeable future--hopefully the job thing will change, but it's weird how much worse wasting time feels when there's no job waiting. Some vacation! The best I know to do is not to get in a habit of doing too much that doesn't work toward some kind of productive goal--comic yes, gaming no. [Kiken would argue that gaming is its own goal, but I'm drifting towards the point where my high scores aren't what I want in my eulogy as my finest achievements. Just personal preference.]