Gu Po: Biochemical Crisis in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou, Tomb Raider of the Miao Family

If I had to describe my first impression of "Gu Po" in one sentence, the title of this article would be more appropriate with a slight modification: the experience of playing is "Yunnan Biochemical Crisis", and the plot is "Miao Tomb Raider".

Whenever I open the game, this slightly teasing comment will rustle into my mind. After more than ten hours of quietly slipping away from the ancient tomb, I suddenly realized: "Perhaps I was bewitched by this game?"? .

Indecisive in the face of difficulties

The plot of "Gu Po" belongs to the category of special royal ways. The story is set in a mysterious clan in the southwest border that believes in insect gods. The girl shoulders the shackles of fate and replaces her missing mother to become a guardian of the clan but will lose her life as a "Gu Po". During the ritual of becoming a Gu Po, a sudden change forces the protagonist Gu Jiuxun to face her fate in advance. She must go to the forbidden area of the clan - the General's Tomb, to adventure and save her family. However, beneath the surface of the ancient tomb, there are many cruel truths waiting to be seen again.

You see, now there is an ancient tomb, and there is also a beautiful girl's shadow. Is the Miao ancient tomb shadow quite appropriate.

Adventure to save people is not a fresh story motive, and it has been described in countless works from ancient times to the present: Sam saves Amelie; Ethan saves his wife and children; John Wick saved his Ford vintage car and so on. "Gu Po" must put in some effort in order to stand out in terms of plot. In the literature obtained in the early stages of the game process, we can learn that the emergence of many anomalies and monsters that occur in ancient tombs is closely related to certain human experiments conducted here. In my opinion, it belongs to the classic explanation method of "indecisiveness in case of difficulties, quantum mechanics"

Although it may sound like a second rate science fiction story with a few obscure and difficult to understand academic terms thrown around as a dog skin ointment, I think "Gu Po" is more like an attempt to provide a reasonable explanation for things that are said to be superstitious or even magical, gradually integrated into traditional culture through historical circulation, and revolve around other plots. This perspective that combines folk customs with science fiction has indeed brought me a slightly different kind of fun, somewhat similar to Arthur Clark's science fiction masterpiece "Fountain of Heaven".

In addition, Gu Po has designed several branches on the storyline of Gu Jiuxun's deep rescue of his family, which can be directly experienced by players, ultimately leading the plot to three different endings. In addition to the main bright lines, there are also additional dark lines buried in the collection of literature in the game, which is commonly referred to as "fragmented narrative". Regarding the records of Gu Jiuxun's mother, the diary, legends, and notes of female researcher Miao Mu, the fate of generals and thieves intertwined in this ancient tomb, forming the unique worldview of Gu Po.

In addition to the existing storyline, the game also features ancient stories such as Meng Huo and Guan Suo interspersed in

Birds fly far away with the phoenix and phoenix

The theme of "tomb raiding" in supernatural novels appeared as early as the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Literary works on this theme have been interpreted to this day, and its theme has evolved from the initial warning and intimidation of the world not to rob graves to depicting the fantastic adventures in the process of tomb raiding. So in such works, various ingenious mechanisms that protect the heritage of the tomb owner and terrifying monsters that grow with the dead for a long time appear one after another, serving as plot clues for adventure stories.

In Gu Po, mechanisms and monsters also make up two main gaming experiences: puzzle solving and combat. Players control the protagonist from a third person perspective, constantly exploring the open area of the ancient tomb, searching for key items to crack mechanisms, uncovering new exploratory areas, and interspersed the combat part.

In my opinion, the puzzle solving experience of "Gu Po" is more like conquering a maze, without the high difficulty puzzles that get people stuck like math problems. It is more about testing the player's familiarity and understanding of the map: I encountered an interaction point here, and I need to consider what kind of props can be used here; I found another prop there, and I need to recall if there were any places where I could use this prop before, or if I could carry it with me and pay attention to where I could use it. In addition, there are also some small puzzles that are independent of the main puzzle solving, and successfully solving them can earn rich resource rewards.

Then there is the combat part, in simple terms, it is shooting from a third person over the shoulder perspective. The protagonist Gu Jiuxun possesses a specially crafted "Gu Gun" that can be used to kill monsters in the ancient tomb. As exploration deepens, new weapons and strengthened weapon components can also be obtained.

The enemies in ancient tombs also have various forms and combat methods. For example, the sickle has a faster speed than the average parasite, while the moth and ghost need to use the strength or props obtained in the subsequent process to deal with it.

Based on the principle that all fear stems from insufficient firepower, "Gu Po" builds a bridge called "survival fear" between puzzle solving and combat, although the cartoon style of Miao territory is not very unrelated to terror

In battle, players will be injured and ammunition will be consumed during shooting. There is no other dimensional pocket that can hold all the items. Players need to coordinate the remaining space of their backpack and the materials for synthesizing items. After all, no one wants to retrieve a few bullets from their pocket or rush around with a blood bottle and an empty gun when they need to recover health.

Wait a moment, do you think the backpack interface looks a bit familiar

And the synthesis inside this backpack?

A map that will change color after exploration?

Even a dimensional storage box?

Friends familiar with the Resident Evil series should have already noticed that the prop system design of Gu Po is basically inspired by the world's most successful survival horror game, and there are no physical skills or evasion, which is the taste of Resident Evil 2 (and the developers are indeed a group of Resident Evil fans).

As mentioned at the beginning, the overall impression that "Gu Po" gave me was like removing the raccoon city, Claire, Lyon, R.P.D., and drawing a framework based on it, and then filling in the story of this remote Miao region. Even the small feature of "after using a puzzle item, there will be a small icon indicating that the item can be directly discarded" has been completely preserved.

In my opinion, this highly biochemical prop system is not simply a rote application. Firstly, this system itself is already mature enough, and there is no need for later generations to reinvent the wheel; Furthermore, the game system and plot setting of Gu Po are also well integrated. For example, the process of synthesizing bullets, drugs, and enhancing weapons in games is called "making Gu", "refining medicine", and "making tools", respectively. Gu Po Gu Po, as the name suggests, is a witch who knows how to use Gu. In the setting, it is a character who sacrifices her mastery of secret techniques to defend the clan against evil, receives training to master skills and apply them at any time, which is reasonable and reasonable.

Gu Po also has multiple difficulty levels and a timing function prepared for quick pass players. In terms of achievement, there is even a limit on the number of steps, so prop placement, map design, and monster distribution are all very particular. This is also similar to the approach of encouraging players to repeatedly challenge themselves after the end of Resident Evil to increase the value of replayability.

I remember hearing a saying in Mr. Shan Tianfang's book review that goes like this: "Birds follow the phoenix and fly far away." It says that birds can also fly far away with the power of the phoenix. "Gu Po" is probably like this "little bird", carrying the feathers of the "Phoenix" in the Resident Evil series.

Painted Skin and Painted Heart

When I saw the various character designs in "Gu Po", I once doubted whether the developers had any mysterious preferences or intentions, because their clothing and game style didn't really match. The Miao ethnic costumes in my impression are as follows:

And the protagonist is like this:

It can even be like this:

And the researchers in the laboratory are like this:

Even monsters:

How to say it, it's really not serious! Anyway, I hope to have more.

Regarding the visual effects and artistic style of Gu Po, it can only be said that there are different opinions. People who like it may feel that this is enough, and the focus of the game is on the experience rather than letting the visuals dominate. Those who don't like it may think that the cartoonish art style is not in line with the game theme, weakening the atmosphere and immersion, and indirectly reducing the game experience.

However, it must be admitted that the visual performance of "Gu Po" can sometimes seem crude. A classic example is the game, which was originally a third person game. When the protagonist performs actions, it switches to the first person camera sliding, and the character's movements are expressed through perspective shaking. Whether climbing a ladder or drilling a hole, the poor handling method always makes people feel somewhat out of touch. Similarly, the facial expressions of the characters also appear stiff, which is not easy to delve into. After all, before a major update, Gu Po even adopted a low poly style. Independent works are limited by budget, but unfortunately the visual party may have to take a detour.

However, I think that although "skin" may not look as good, the sincerity of "heart" can be seen. Before constructing the map, the production team had already excavated Han tombs such as the Guishan Han Tomb in Xuzhou and the Nanyue King Tomb in Guangzhou, and referred to existing archaeological achievements in the design of the tomb chamber structure. Cultural relics such as Han Dynasty Quxu, Changxin Palace Lantern, and Bronze Running Horse were also added to games as collectibles or interactive objects. I have seen many Chinese style games with only ancient elements, but there are still few people who delve into the true traditional culture and folk themes of ancient times. In this regard, I think "Gu Po" has done a good job.

Sun Cezhao Lv Fan's chess situation is the oldest Go chess manual in the world

From various perspectives, it is difficult to say in which aspect "Gu Po" has particularly outstanding performance, but correspondingly, there are no overly outrageous shortcomings. The game's victory lies in a stable and solid experience, and the price of 68 is indeed not expensive. The developer Magyu Studio is a small team of only 5 people. As the first product of the distribution studio LightOn, the complete version of "Gu Po" has made significant progress compared to the early experience stage due to limited resources. Although there is a suspicion of forcefully promoting domestic independent games, I still have to say that this game is worth a try.

Benefits: Leave a message in this article to have the opportunity to obtain an activation code for the Steam version of Gu Po

Update on July 23rd: Congratulations to @ Se7en422 @ dajiangzaitian @ Eric Black for obtaining one Steam version each.