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Underground Highlights: The Best Outlying/Experimental Games of 2021- Part 5 (Finale)

January 18, 2022 Scott Thurlow Dialogue Tree

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5: Wondrously Weird & Borderline Bonkers

Now we arrive at the final section in the series. As I mentioned at the outset, these last two in my opinion best represent the spirit and style of games in the exploratory sphere I’m hoping to shine a light on. They are the most exemplary and arguably ambitious of the bunch, serving as my final pieces of evidence that encompass the essence of the entire endeavor.

For the penultimate title, throw on a trench coat and fedora, as we head to the seedy bars and back alleys of Backbone. A debut by developer EggNut, published by Raw Fury (who I’ve come think of as a lower key Annapurna, picking up very solid titles in the last few years.) Released June 2021, it was self-described as “a post-noir roleplaying detective adventure in which you step into the shoes of a raccoon private investigator in dystopian Vancouver.” Backbone is actually more of a laidback side-scroller/adventure game heavier on dialogue exchanges and atmospheric themes. It’s largely linear, with only the barest illusion that choices/options might alter the storyline. So just a note, it’s not strictly a traditional RPG in the above advertised sense.

Backbone is instead a story set in an alternate near-future world filled with anthropomorphic animals channeling various noir chestnuts played off against your role as downtrodden detective Harold Lotar. Harold is a haggard raccoon P.I. living in the dumps and struggling to make ends meet. So par for the course in his line of work and this genre, he is tasked with investigating mysterious happenings and disappearances in the city. Backbone introduces all this in a straightforward manner, initially hitting the expected notes of the source material. And then in a daring display, it veers jarringly into grindhouse/horror territory. I would venture that when that turn comes (and trust me you’ll know it immediately) it is the litmus test/breaking point test for most.

The scene in question hits roughly 1/3rd into the plot, and from there fully embraces it, sprinting through and reveling in its pure left-turn oddness. I completely understand the view that it might be too much of a stretch, and could turn many off. But my view is that’s exactly the point. It’s a ballsy artistic choice both in terms of the internal themes/narrative, as well as big ask for the player’s suspension of disbelief. Yet I maintain it’s worth it in the end precisely because of its boldness and insistence on seeing it through. What Backbone ends up feeling like is a Raymond Chandler novel that, when time came to apply his signature trope, the man with the gun who came through the door was David Cronenburg. It’s certainly not a pitch you hear every day, but Backbone is determined to committing to it.

Backbone incorporates broad questions regarding applicable contemporary concerns such as: the morality/ethics of possibly beneficial (but highly experimental) technology, biological modifications and the side effects of their use on both society and the environment in the long-term. In addition it layers in more personal existentialist anxieties that are treated equally importantly, as imparted by the scale of viewpoints from the range of characters who occupy various echelons in this version of Vancouver. The quality of the interactions/musings on these topics isn’t profoundly engaging in every single instance. Many discussions are realistic, resonant and emotional. But at times they can turn into an immersion breaking ‘trying too hard/pretentious’ bent of arthouse pseudo-philosophical/mystical metaphysical ruminations. More often than not though there’s enough substance and insight to keep it all mostly compelling. In this way, Backbone is reminiscent of Kentucky Route 0, and that is a positive comparison in my book.

While certain plot elements and conversations may be polarizing, there’s one aspect of Backbone I don’t think can be derided in any way: its top-notch pixel art. It is some of the very best, noticeable even among the many titles doing the same. Strolling across refuse-strewn motel parking lots and deteriorating theatres and later through corporate residences situated next to high-rise labs, the world never ceases to impress and one-up itself visually at every turn. Backbone’s world building is a big part of its strength and appeal, as locations practically bleed the style through the screen in their fantastic renditions. This is only elevated by brief moments of switching to pulpy comic cut scenes during key moments and connecting chapters. And of the jazz-y noir-ish leaning soundtracks in the discussion, Backbone features easily the superior score, solidifying its place in the field.

The graphic landscape is limited in scope but densely packed with minute details, clever background inclusions, and the right amount of believability to the point where despite the nature of its furry populace, everything in Backbone seems perfectly natural. As you spend time in this world and mull with its characters, you end up wanting to know more about these creatures and their reality. How did they come to inherit this version of Earth? What really is going on both within and outside the bounds of the narrative? Will there actually be any answers forthcoming? 

Backbone reaches perhaps just a little too far to totally achieve its intents. It presents a blatant challenge to the audience fairly early on, accepting that it might lose members of that audience for it. I won’t argue that bits are clumsily integrated and reactions will vary extensively. You may well find it various shades of frustrating, boring, and/or disappointing. But that’s also why I highly recommend Backbone, and placed it at this spot on the list. It’s a stimulating work on the forefront of experimentation. It supplies an array of topics which take center stage over mechanics/gameplay, before throwing an entirely genre-changing curveball into the mix. It then hopes you’ll give it enough credence to take the leap and see the rest of it through as a whole, including its own cracks in the pavement. I whole-heartedly second that you do exactly that. If nothing else Backbone is a piece of conversation starting art. Where exactly that conversation goes depends highly on personal subjectivity, but it is assured to be interesting ground no matter the case.

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Finally we come to the last title, of which I have the most to say about– UnDungeon. Kickstarted in 2017 by Laughing Machines (great studio name too) it’s been out in various early access builds since, being fine-tuned and updated along the way. Research shows it was originally supposed to be pure rogue-like with some RPG mechanics thrown in. Over the course of development it pivoted into a more narrative focused title, yet still retaining some vestigial elements of the former. It was eventually published by tinyBuild and released November 2021, barely promoted and buried like so many others. Until I got my hands on it. Let me state before we go any further that my review/impression of UnDungeon will be all over the place, much like this game itself. I know it’ll seem disjointed at parts, and while I’m attempting to keep it all coherently manageable, there’s a lot to break down and delve into, much of it crossing over at various points on the Venn diagram of topics. So just fair warning for what lies ahead.

First thing’s first: I hate the title. That is, the actual name “UnDungeon.” Within an hour of playing I came up with numerous, better, and more appropriate ones. I know that’s pretty subjective, but I’m just saying there are definitely better choices and if you end up playing it, I bet you’ll agree. But let’s focus on the actual game itself. The funny thing is, even though I saved this one for last and it’s ostensibly the most ‘out-there’ title, in fact I would actually posit it’s exceedingly familiar at a cursory glance.

UnDungeon channels the golden era of SNES action J/RPGs, and admittedly that hits near and dear to me. Nostalgia is certainly a factor in this choice, but to give an idea, the fairest and most recent-ish comparison I’ll make is to Hyper Light Drifter, at least in terms of presentation and broad aspects. A more obscure reference might be that it reminds me quite a bit of the Numenera games, both Torment: Tides and the parent tabletop incarnation. UnDungeon plays out like an Arthur C. Clarke/Philip K. Dick/Frank Herbert acid trip cocktail composed of ambitious byzantine sci-fi. Your grand journey begins as you are reborn an animated construct from the subspace-time stratum of proto-matter that permeates the membrane of the Void. Brought into existence by a recent reality-shattering cataclysm to herald and thus prevent the further collapsing of the seven capital dimensions after The Shift, by finding the decaying world piers and activating their energy cores because…!

Immediately all this high stakes cosmic setup and lore is thrown at you from the intro onwards and never really lets up. If anything, it accelerates into increasing complexity as it builds and veers towards plaid levels of fucking absurd. Every single word of it though is clearly lovingly chosen by artists/writers who are, if nothing else, extremely enthusiastic about sharing this Frankenstein’s monster world they’ve painstakingly crafted. Stripped down to its bare components, it is unlikely to be anything not seen before (up to and including a literal bazar of the bizarre.) However UnDungeon filters everything through its own twist on a multiverse spanning psychedelic sci-fi yarn, populated with a diverse cast of characters. The developers have it all firmly laid out in their minds and are attempting to beam it directly to you via a hypnotically absorbing fever dream, in video game form.  

There are certainly criticisms to be made. Sure, it doesn’t all make sense, all the time. Yet after a few sessions with it I had to ask myself: were Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Illusion Gaia and all those other beloved worlds in the same vein from my youth any less obtuse? Maybe. Maybe I’ve absorbed so much since those, and become so irrevocably cynical and jaded in the wake that I’m unable to see with fresh eyes. The point is even given all that, UnDungeon contains so much of the kind of setup I’ve always enjoyed, it could be a modern spiritual successor to them and the possible entry point for younger audiences to experience for the first time. A conduit in the medium to immerse themselves in the way I did with the above mentioned titles when I was but a kindling. And crucially, like them, UnDungeon is so impressively sure of itself; backed by an unwavering sense of confidence that you’ll find something cool in the swirling tapestry of the setting, one with an esoteric history and epic destiny that you are now a part of.

That might be as good as place as any to segue into the presentation, because fucking hell, visually it’s incredible. Boasting some of the most stunningly detailed 16 bit pixel art I’ve ever encountered, and the absolute best of the bunch on this list, I was constantly awed by its direction. Matched to a subdued and melancholic Western-tinged synth soundscape, it is truly masterful at establishing the look and feel of its decaying world/s. Together they do a seamless of job of selling this rich universe with superb atmosphere and striking style. I don’t have much else to say on this front because it really is that amazing and that simple. Just take a look and see for yourself. If that doesn’t impress you, then you are as emotionless as one of the soulless semi-immortals trapped in the static abyss between the matrixes of reality.  

Let’s talk now about the mechanics and gameplay. As mentioned, UnDungeon’s design is generally composed of easily recognizable templates. I can literally list off the elements it contains one by one and I guarantee every single one you’ve seen before. Quests are fare like: find this techno-magic McGuffin, rescue some NPCs, discover a monster’s cave and slay it, etc. There’s a karma system, companions, upgrades, inventory management and equipment upkeep. Weapons/effects/stats/items possibilities are all extensive, with a myriad array of choices and an equally robust crafting/trading system. Perhaps even too extensive and robust, owing to its rogue-like roots.

Combat is deceptively simple/familiar but soon enough becomes Souls-like in dickishness. It’s easy enough to grasp to start, the core is real-time hack-n-slash with spells/abilities. But everything soon ramps up, introducing some weird and sometimes outright unnecessary, not to mention player-unfriendly wrinkles. The enemy placement/encounters along with their ranking system can swiftly become overwhelming bordering on insurmountable. Yet fittingly, that is perfectly in keeping with the nature of UnDungeon as a whole: cramming all these systems, none of particularly unfamiliar design, and piling them on top of each other until it all threatens to collapse completely, just like the multiverses in its plot. It can be daunting in its pacing of narrative and mechanics, but if you’re willing to invest and give it a chance, everything becomes somewhat more manageable, up to a point.

I say that because in full disclosure, I poured about 15 hours into UnDungeon, reaching what I thought was the end, and would have been satisfied if it were so. Instead, that was seemingly just the conclusion of one world as it were, as afterwards the story continued, and a whole other map beyond the first opened up. The problem was by that point I discovered I was hopelessly underpowered and understocked, while because of the way the enemies work, the difficulty ramped up into nigh-impossibility.   

And lest you think me not of the ‘get-gud’ mentality, I ended up restarting a new game and attempting to use the foreknowledge and training to do exactly that. Except the game got more grueling, just as difficult if not more the second time around. On this playthrough I only made it to about the first third of the initial area until I hit a wall I just couldn’t power through, even though I had overcome it before and knew what was ahead. So while I did put it aside, I still could not stop thinking about it, and earnestly wanting to see it all through to the end eventually. While I may never do so, the simple fact that it was able to provoke that sensation so intently is a huge credit in my book and something that honestly hasn’t occurred much with any recent games to that degree, making it one of the most impactful to me. 

Backbone and UnDungeon are exotic and strange beasts for sure. Perhaps one more than the other. Nevertheless they both clearly have a specific well-thought-out vision/intent/ambition behind them, even if the execution can be uneven, whether intentional or not. They’re at once gorgeous, bizarre, flawed, and awesome pieces of gaming artistry. Messy but not in a janky way. Pretentious yet un-ironically exuberant in sharing their depictions and presentations. They channel well-worn mechanics and story threads in an identifiable retro aesthetic filtered through a kaleidoscopic post-modern lens, imbuing themselves with a sense of newfound wonder.

These are inspiring fringe works from aspiring avant-garde creators. Those who are tinkering with intriguing takes and off-kilter risks, away from the tired dullness of AAA main stream (and even arguably the established indie scene.) If, like me, that sounds appealing to you, then you absolutely owe it to yourself to experience them firsthand. As in my view they embody the hopeful possibility that gaming art like this can continue to exist and thrive in the face of everything that seems set against it, and that is the true cause for celebration.

So with that, I hope you enjoyed my breakdown of these titles, and again I urge you to check any/all out based on my thoughts and descriptions. Let’s support this type of creativity and boundary-pushing, reward the artists’ efforts, and ensure that more like them will be both viable and encouraged. Here’s to that happening in 2022 and beyond. Cheers my friends!  

Underground Highlights: The Best Outlying/Experimental Games of 2021- Part 4

January 14, 2022 Scott Thurlow Dialogue Tree

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4: ‘M’ is for Moody

After the whirlwind tour of the Milky Way and beyond, we now return to the confines of largely normal Earth-side reality, with two titles grounded in more common occurrences, namely a breakup and the death of a family member. These next pair are also more ‘game-y,’ containing more developed mechanics married to their narrative frameworks.

First up is Maquette, a debut by Graceful Decay and published by (you guessed it) Annapurna. There wasn’t much information I could dig up about its development history or the dev in general other than, like a large percentage of this list, it’s a small startup endeavor. What I can tell you is that it released in March of 2021, and was also an early PlayStation Plus title on PS5 (a mystical device that supposedly exists.) Even then, like most others here, it was out with little fanfare and overall coverage.  

In terms of genre, Maquette rest firmly as a walking sim puzzler (and if you know me, you know I enjoy a good one of those.) Billed as an “Escher-esque recursive simulation” framed around the dissolution of a 20something couple’s relationship. In its tale of two lovers (and eventually exes) Kevin and Kenzie, Maquette strives to channel an Edith Finch vibe. It does at times tap into that vein of bittersweet melancholy, even if the dialogue can be a bit stiff and perhaps cringy in spots. The voice acting sells the emotion though, even when the actual lines fall flat. It’s not enough to distract all that much, but given this is a story based heavily in reliving past conversations between two people who are presented as representing the quintessential modern dating paradigm, I thought it at least worth mentioning.

So while the narrative overall is fine, it’s there and does its job without much complaint, the core concept is what drives Maquette. Based around an Alice in Wonderland-like mechanic, wherein there exists an exact diorama replica (the titular structure) of the world around you, and via stepping into it yourself as well as bringing in objects nearby, you either grow/shrink them to open/create pathways forward. It’s a very neatly pulled off design, and a satisfying visual trick. Each vignette is a set of well-thought out obstructions/solutions, and a captured moment in the history of Michael and Kenzie’s romance and breakup as it unfolded. It’s relatable if not particularly revelatory material. Life gets in the way, people drift apart, etc. But it is that mundane aspect that makes Maquette so easily accessible. Sometimes shit sucks, and it might be no one’s fault, so you’ve got to remember the good times, not dwell on the bad, and keep going as best you can.  

In the art design field Maquette employs this hazy, dreamily surreal watercolor style that I’ve come to be quite fond of, even if it might be in danger of becoming overused in titles like this. Here though, it does perfectly match Kevin’s recollections of himself, Kenzie, and what happened from their first meeting to falling in love and then falling out of it. Memories aren’t perfect replicas of events, and the look of the world smartly reflects this. It’s an impressionist painting of what was felt at a given time in the past, and how that might have changed when viewed from a later perspective. Which of course is itself reflected in the overall essence of the puzzles, and is what Maquette does best. 

Like most of its ilk, Maquette does fall on short side, but every level is completely self-sufficient. Each of the 7 sections moves the plot along at a solid pace, and provides new/interesting challenges in approaches to advance and see the whole picture. It’s not Portal tier, but it is more complex compared to other similar titles. The journey may be more interesting than the destination, especially in light of the story’s conclusion. But the time spent on the carefully constructed road to reaching it never overstays its welcome and presents some enjoyable puzzle models embedded in an everyday slice of life piece.

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From love and death of it, we move onto the inevitability of death itself in Mundaun. Also released in March (so I guess ‘M’ is for ‘March’ too) from developer Hidden Fields and published by MWM Interactive (who similar to Annapurna, are probably more well known for their film distribution.) Mundaun is a mystery/horror folklore tale rooted in Nordic/Swedish tradition. By default, it is entirely voiced in a native dialect, Romansh, which lends it credibility and an air of a great foreign production.

The story begins with middle class worker Curdin, who receives a letter from his childhood priest informing him that his beloved grandfather, Flurin, has passed. To honor his grandfather, Curdin returns to the village of Mundaun (which awesomely is an actual place in Switzerland) to attend the funeral as the only other family member able to do so. Immediately the game drops you into this idyllic community nestled in the snowy Alps via a winding bus ride in a fantastic opening scene. While the setup may be commonplace, it veers into a sort of supernatural/magical realism hybrid, setting the stage of a remote and possibly perturbing place, the very definition of a normal seeming town with more than its share of darkness beneath.   

After paying his respects, Curdin encounters a sinister individual while visiting the barn where Flurin supposedly died in a fire. This figure hints that there was much more to Flurin’s life (and demise) than previously suspected. Based on this disturbing encounter Curdin begins to investigate the increasingly strange circumstances of his grandfather’s death as well as discovering secrets dating back decades into the past. Other local figures, like the aforementioned priest as well as an obligatory spooky little girl accompanied by the goat she apparently communicates with, offer their own cryptic knowledge.

Drawing from vintage folk horror like The Wicker Man and Children of the Corn, Mundaun is excellent at establishing a false sense of safety before introducing its more uneasy elements. Initially, the town is threat-free, and while the sun is out you’re free to leisurely poke around. At night however it slowly populates with a growing number of unsettling foes to be fought or avoided. These are small in variety but extremely effective in their creepiness/danger factor. A title like this also needs the necessary eerie soundscape, and Mundaun delivers with its desolate windswept mountains and creaking, groaning interiors.  

Mundaun contains a number of mechanics in the FP survival horror tradition: health/inventory management, and a choice of stealth/combat to deal with enemies. Most of your wanderings entail mainly key/McGuffin hunting, rooting for that bit of direction that will provide further clues and point to the next general objective. There are optional upgrades to seek out as well (my favorite being gathering ingredients to brew coffee which increases max fear resistance, obviously.) All mostly standard stuff, and all well-implemented. Additional areas of the town and surrounding countryside, each seemingly more inaccessible and foreboding than that the last, open up as the in-game days/chapters go on. The methods to navigate these are distinctive, such as riding a ski slope or driving up a mountainous road in a beat up old tractor van. Worth mentioning too is the standout UI, as it’s one of the most natural and immersive done in such a title.  

I haven’t mentioned the art style yet, as I’ve been saving it because even amongst the other designs in this list, it stands out near the top. Meticulously rendered in hand penciled sketches, it creates the impression that everything is an off-putting lithograph come to life. Truly excellent to behold, it is the perfect complement/contrast to the picturesque elements imperceptibly transforming into bleaker versions of themselves, insidiously blanketing larger swathes of the town. It mirrors Curdin’s rising terror at the things he uncovers and the hidden, forgotten corners of Mundaun that his quest for the truth sends him to.   

Throughout its duration Mundaun expertly balances established elements with amazing visuals; like an illustrated Swedish Grimm fable that jumped off the page into a long lost Resident Evil game. It nails a few of my close interests and influences: FPS surv-horror in an impeccably uncanny atmosphere bolted onto a classic cursed/Faustian bargain story composed with a modern sensibility, all with eye-popping graphic design to sustain the whole way. There is some solid replay value as well, with multiple endings that change the flavor of Curdin’s fate in non-trivial ways. Mundaun is one of my favorite titles of 2021 in general. It was a hugely pleasant surprise, and I think deserves to be in the discussion of best indie horror games. For any fan of such, it is essential playing material. Just keep an eye out for mystical goats.

Part 5 (Finale)

Underground Highlights: The Best Outlying/Experimental Games of 2021- Part 3

January 11, 2022 Scott Thurlow Dialogue Tree

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3: Cosmic Catharsis

It’s time to space out in this section, as the following titles take us through the far reaches of the known (and unknown) cosmic horizons, exploring the nature of reality and oneself, often at once. A quick caveat: both the below are quite short, roughly 3-4 hours each, as well as containing very little in the way of mechanics. Indeed, main criticisms against them were for being less videogames and more ‘interactive movies.’ While that isn’t without validity, my argument and reasons for choosing them are exactly due to that aspect. These two toe the line between ‘game’ by strict definition and reach across to something akin to a digital art show to which interactivity has been integrated. Nevertheless, they fit right into the sphere and spirit of this series. So let’s blast off into the outer regions of far-flung nebulas.  

Our first trip through interstellar introspection is Genesis Noir, from developer Feral Cat Den, published by Fellow Traveler. Originally designed throughout 2016 and Kickstarted in 2018, it was picked up somewhat quietly by Microsoft in 2019 in their indie grab, and finally released on GamePass in the spring of 2021. Though it received minimal attention, it also gathered praise from those few who did check it out, and to which I will be adding my own approval.  

Genesis innocuously begins with a seemingly down to earth setup. A struggling watchmaker, appropriately named No Man, searches for the murderer of his former lover Miss Mass by a popular local saxophonist, Golden Boy. It’s a no nonsense classic noir set up. But very quickly it turns into something else, something much more. These characters also act as representations/personifications of fundamental forces i.e. energy, time/entropy and mass. Genesis is both a pulp drenched mystery and a crash course in the history of physics theories, from the creation through the possible ends of the universe as a whole. And it is skillful in the way it is able to combine them into a single thread, having one be an almost literal microcosm of the other.

No Man’s quest sends him backwards and forwards through the formation of the known universe on a mission to synthesize a black hole, which would prevent (by destruction) said murder (and universe from forming.) To do so, he ends up participating in events like seeing the first stars alight to the evolution of life on Earth. The whole ordeal is marked by a minimalist hand-drawn chalk-y sketchbook style (think Spy vs. Spy) with a wonderfully done nightclub jazz score by Skillbard. This mix is infectious, as the soulful tones follow the epic journey No Man embarks on for its duration. From witnessing the creation of protons, planets and plants to eventually seeing the rise of humankind, No Man is confronted with and contemplates the primal powers leading up to his current predicament before deciding what to do about it.      

It’s a bit difficult to describe and convey in either words or static images just how much of the magic of Genesis Noir is in its incredibly fluid animation and transition scenes. It has some of the most well directed use of visual perspective and orientation I had ever encountered. It comes across more akin to a grad school indie film that happens to be in game form, certainly more experimental than most titles covered here already. And while I do understand the complaint of “not really a game,” Genesis is so cleverly conveyed via the medium that the spectacle alone is worth the price to behold.     

In terms of actual gameplay it admittedly thin. What is there consists of a smattering of light point-and-click adventure segments. You’ll pretty much be manipulating objects in a scene, rotating viewpoints or matching notes to progress the unfolding of the noir story via way of the Big Bang. Some of these puzzles can be a little obscure and unintuitive even given their simplistic nature overall, but these are minor hurdles in an otherwise nonstop fascinating unfolding of animation and environmental storytelling interspersed with dreamy poem-like text interludes.

The whole shebang plays out like a dream in fact, with leaps in logic and the introduction of sudden side characters who help and hinder along the way. No Man tumbles through a tumultuous roller coaster tour of space-time that culminates in a show stopping finale of graphical/animated wizardry. Yet despite its focus on the sweeping grandiose of the cosmos, Genesis Noir is a short and sweet ride. It does however come close to capturing the awe and splendor of the vastness of space with its exceptionally unique animation and aesthetic. It is a playful but thoughtful celebration of ideas and philosophies regarding the nature of reality and how we relate to it in our everyday lives. Take my word, buy the ticket and take the incredible visual ride Genesis Noir has on offer. After enjoying the aesthetic treat, you just might find yourself reflecting on what it means to be part of this strange existence too.

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If Genesis Noir is the opening act here, then Artful Escape is the triumphant headliner. Envisioned and partly developed by a former musician who left the industry to focus on creating games, I mention this fact because it clearly shines through in Escape’s aural landscape. The music/soundtrack is integral to the experience, equal to and just as important a part of the story as the characters themselves. Escape is published by Annapurna Interactive, segueing me into another side rant: AP’s game publishing side is on the way to becoming something like the A24 of the scene. They’ve picked up many great underground/up-and-coming titles in recent years. Definitely keep an eye on anything they’re attached to, as chances are it’ll be interesting and/or cool as hell.

In Escape you step into the shoes of Francis Vendetti, a young aspiring musician living in the shadow of his more famous and long-deceased older relative, who is a clear Bob Dylan reference. Francis returns to his humble hometown of Calypso to ostensibly be the main attraction in the annual festival celebrating his idolized uncle. The problem for Francis is that he isn’t quite comfortable being put in this position, and would much rather concentrate on becoming his own man and artist instead of being inextricably linked and expected to be to something he knows deep down that he’s not.

Grappling with this burden on the eve of the concert, he’s awoken in the middle of the night by otherworldly visitors and promptly whisked away on a Bill & Ted-esque space rock opera. The connection is even more prevalent in the character of ‘Lightman.’ This dude is basically Rufus and George Clinton rolled into one. He serves as a mentor to Francis, elucidating him on the ins and outs of the galactic music circuit, helping Francis hone his own inner rock prowess one shredding solo at a time. 

While he tours the dark side of the moon and other colorfully fanciful alien worlds alongside Lightman, Francis continues to struggle with his self-doubt, identity, and the creative process. He works through coming to terms with his own ideas and image of what one can be versus external pressures and pre-existing expectations. Whilst doing so, he molds and reshapes himself bit by bit, shedding the stigma previously attached to him and veering from the road he was ‘supposed’ to take. Each time he entertains an increasingly growing extra-terrestrial crowd, rocking various interstellar venues harder and harder, Francis also makes gains in building up the confidence to truly come alive on and off stage. 

Mechanically Escape is a stripped down platformer with QTE rhythm ‘bosses’ at the end of each planet/section. Again it’s very loose, established and uncomplicated gameplay, but the simple act of ‘holding x to rock out,’ jumping and windmill strumming your way through each level is its own entertaining reward. Like I mentioned in the opening, the music is so strongly connected to Escape’s (and Francis’) identity that they become one and the same, and you as the player by extension come to feel like a guitar god with them, if only fleetingly.    

Escape does feature some pretty big names for this tier title in the voice work department. Lena Headley, Jason Schwartzman, and Carl Weathers(!) are among the most notable adding their talents to the cast. There are also lots of nice background details/gags/puns scattered throughout, while the design of many of the alien worlds pays tribute to psychedelic album covers/art. More than any other title in this series, Escape embraces the pure magic of music, effortlessly evoking the afterglow of a killer concert that sticks strongly in memory. When the final chord has reverbed away, Escape neatly wraps up Francis’ tale. He returns to Earth a new person, fully embracing who he has chosen to become and prepared to forge his destiny going forward. In this way Escape contains shades of Sable as well as something like Night in the Woods in its exploration of introspection and self-discovery. And similar to those, it caps off the encore by imparting a positive message about finding your own way and voice in the world, even if it means taking a risk and going off the path others have laid down for you without considering if it’s what’s best for you or is what you truly want. If Buddy Holly and David Bowie (Buddy Bowie perhaps) dropped in for a (game) jam session with Pink Floyd, the result would be Artful Escape. And that is a performance that should not be missed.

Part 4

Underground Highlights: The Best Outlying/Experimental Games of 2021- Part 2

January 7, 2022 Scott Thurlow Dialogue Tree

Previously in Part 1

Part 2: Wandering the Wastelands  

These next two share a tenuous link in general setting, i.e. the titular ‘wasteland’ but that is only a very broad overarching connection. In tone and gameplay they are almost mirror opposites. Yet each approaches from an angle that capitalizes on their respective strengths to cement immersive experiences–one tending toward tense and the other a calming zen-tinged voyage.

Let’s start with the former in the form of Chernobylite. A PC release from earlier in the year and ported to consoles a few months later. It was Kickstarted a few years back in 2019 by The Farm 51, the devs of Get Even (which in my opinion was a fine try but rather unremarkable in the end.) As might be implied from the title, Chernobylite is very much unabashedly in the vein of Russian/Eastern European post-apocalyptic titles like STALKER and the Metro series, channeling the ever popular Radiation Zone vibe. Even so, it brings its own spin on that well-tread ground with an interesting story and originality in its supporting lore. It avoids some clichés but also leans into and embraces others respectably to provide a solid entry in the genre.

Your role here is one Prof. Igor Khymynyuk, former physicist, and now turned (for lack of better term) Stalker, venturing out in search of his missing wife and the mystery surrounding her disappearance combined with the strange happenings in the Zone. The framework is sturdy, a firm foundation fleshed out along the way via its two core mechanics and supported by good atmosphere/attention to detail. A fittingly haunting soundtrack adds a nice layer and goes a long way to maintaining Chernobylite’s sense of uneasy tension.

The main loop is split between active FPS sections separated by downtimes of hub base construction/upkeep and team management. Each in-game day starts with choosing a mission/task attached to a list of locales. These entail a moderate range of mid-size levels with slight variations on goals and opportunities depending on story progress. You can also send any companions on more minor off-screen missions, with various odds of success based on their equipment and abilities. Taking care to assign each of them to those with the best chance of succeeding, which will in turn provide further supplies and other bonuses.

There will generally be two or three possible leads to pursue specific to certain maps, meaning you’ll have to choose and optimize which ones to tackle and when. Once you drop into a level, you’ll alternate between resource scavenging and/or recruiting more NPCs and/or key info gathering. There are soldiers and mutants/monsters to fight or stealth around, accompanied by the obligatory Geiger meter mechanic. As you comb through and revisit locations, accumulating more breadcrumbs (and sometimes just bread) you’ll begin to unravel more of Igor’s life and backstory, with the long term goal of gearing up enough to have a decent chance at tackling the overhanging heist/rescue mission.

The base building portion is comparable and even handles similar to something like Fallout 4, but nowhere near as unwieldy nor finicky. Individual tolerance and patience for such systems varies, but I would argue it isn’t too annoying or time-consuming here, and contains just enough to keep you chasing the next upgrade and perhaps sparing a little on the side for extra lockpicks/ammo/health kits etc.

Both the action oriented FPS maps and the hub construction are soundly designed and fully functional, propped up by touches and tidbits along the way to make the characters and their situation sympathetic. For example, training with the NPCs you’ve managed to convince to join grants not only stat improvements but also adds some moments of interaction that play out quite well and establish deeper character connection and development. These parts serve as an effective connective tissue and a way to bolster investment. There are multiple endings and smaller permutations possible dependent on previous choices. All are nicely woven in too, especially as played out during the extended final encounter, making for a strong finish and a memorable conclusion.

I won’t deny there are bumps and rough edges in Chernobylite’s trek through the Zone, mainly in the technical area. But given its more modest roots and clear ambition, it has the potential to become a sleeper hit/cult classic/hidden gem. It’s easily better and noticeably improved over Farm 51’s prior releases. Chernobylite slips comfortably and confidently into the sub-genre/canon of ‘Zone’ games and is worth your time if that’s an area you’re into. I’m quite interested in what the studio does next, and hopefully it gets a boost in some key areas (like production quality) to increase exposure and garner a wider fan base.

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After surviving the radiated dangers of Chernobylite, let us shift to the soothing and stress-relieving landscape of Sable. Announced back at E3 2018 and shown off sporadically before finally releasing in Sept. 2021, it was a title that immediately grabbed my attention. A debut title by developer Shedworks (named so by the indie duo who worked on and made it literally in a shed. Right on!) inspired by, in their own words, “Star Wars and Breath of the Wild.”                  

What is probably most immediately noticeable about Sable is it strikingly slick comic style, highly influenced by Mobius. Utilizing a soothing subdued color palette that impressively and dynamically changes with the day/night cycle, it is some of the best looking and distinctive art design in recent memory. The entire world emits a welcoming and warm vibe, complimented by an equally serene soundtrack by Japanese Breakfast. It beckons the player to step into the splendor of the setting.

The story is basically a coming of age tale, framed through a futuristic but ruined planet littered with the remnants of wrecked spacecraft and gigantic rusting terraforming machines. Here you are the titular Sable herself, a young woman on the cusp of embarking on a ritualistic walkabout (or more accurately rideabout) of discovery and introspection. After bidding your tribal home farewell, you set out to meet and greet various inhabitants spread out far and wide before settling on a vocation, marked by collecting sets of masks representative of each respective possible career.

As per above, the visual storytelling is top notch here. So much of the world can be extensively explored, and searching through its windswept landscapes and crumbling monoliths will tease out narrative morsels that gradually add up to expand the lore. To its credit, nothing is ever rotely exposited, instead doled out in manageable and well-written snippets. At its best, Sable’s aesthetics combine with the player’s imagination, bridging them together to create a wondrous sense of discovering this place’s unique lost history/culture and possible future.

Sable plays essentially as a laid back exploration/puzzler, with no combat whatsoever. It does have what could be described as light quests, with a deft touch approach to hand-holding and sign posting the player. The world is populated by a reasonable number of NPCs, who largely dispense simple fetch/discovery quests, all serving to nudge you towards various locales throughout the expansive feeling (but in practice mid-size) world.

If I had to compare it to some others, Sable would be something like an intersection of Eastshade, Journey, and Haven (all excellent unto themselves.) The sheer sense of freedom of movement is definitely one of if not the biggest highlights alongside the artwork. Gliding across the beautiful ruins on your custom hover-bike under the shades of the rising moon while distant towering formations and imposingly shattered landmarks dot the horizon, knowing you can go explore them at your leisure, is a truly freeing and delightfully relaxing experience.

Thematically Sable pulls off a tale of positivity, something that many games could surely use more of in these uncertain times! It’s one of initial doubt overcome by eventual empowerment; of self-realization and acceptance after having gained both internal and external wisdom. It’s also a somewhat brief journey, clocking in at around 8 hours, with perhaps an extra one or two if you stop and smell every single desert rose. Like the transience of youth itself, it revels in its time before settling down with a satisfied sense of adventures had and rest earned. If you’re looking for something to unwind with, and gorgeous to look at, Sable will impeccably hit that spot.  

More: Part 3

Part 4

Underground Highlights: The Best Outlying/Experimental Games of 2021– Intro & Part 1

January 4, 2022 Scott Thurlow Dialogue Tree

As we put 2021 in the rearview, I wanted to pivot a bit from the traditional ‘Best Of’ list and instead shine a spotlight on some titles that I feel are further beneath the usual radar. I’m going to be looking at ten of the most interesting/experimental-leaning titles that probably slipped through the cracks, two at time in a five part series.

My thought is to go through them roughly in order from likely familiarity/relatively known, gradually moving through the more obscure and ‘out there’ ventures, and culminating on the two that I think most exemplify the category of game/style/mindset I wish to focus on in this series, delving into them with the deepest analysis. These are, I propose, the most creatively engaging works being made in the industry right now, and the goal is to attempt to outline why I feel that’s the case, and share and spread the word about them.

By nature, they are all from fairly new/smaller/unknown studios. I’ll provide a brief overview and some details about the developers as well before jumping into my analysis and breakdown. So with all that out of the way, let’s get to it:    

Part 1: Freshly Familiar

Don’t let the subtitle mislead, these first two here are great games. It’s just as I said in the intro, they’re probably the highest visibility entries and thus can serve as a good starting point. So let’s start with almost certainly the most well-known title in the mix by now—The Forgotten City.

This one started life in 2015 as a Skyrim mod meticulously handcrafted by a dedicated solo developer. It rapidly built up reputation within the community, garnering much praise and attention. This culminated in being recognized with wins in both the Australian Writer’s Guild and Game Developer Awards. With renewed interest and a (slightly) bigger team/budget, Forgotten City was heavily reworked and revamped over the course of the next 4 years into a fully polished standalone. The final version dropped back in Sept 2021, exposing a new and larger audience to its fine-tuned experience.

In the new and improved incarnation, City takes its core premise—a story and character centric time travel mystery—and sets it in a picturesque Roman-styled city. You as the PC are then thrust into this place, where it is made apparent that the seemingly serene hamlet is haunted by an ominous ‘golden rule.’ That rule, if broken, will kill all its citizens, and you by extension. To prevent this, you must uncover the root of the strange edict and unravel how and why it’s happening, luckily quickly enough gaining the ability to reset the loop if/when events go awry. Armed with this power, you can now repeat the day, filling in the general rules of the loop by meeting NPC inhabitants and learning their personal history/routines/motivations, gradually acquiring knowledge to follow/solve leads and opening further threads.

These are the main activities the gameplay consists of. A majority of your time will be spent going through dialogue trees and exploration/puzzle solving. This is occasionally broken up by brief sections of combat scattered in. A valid enough criticism may be that combat could’ve been utilized a bit more/expanded, but it still very much works as is with a firm grounding. Besides, that aspect was never truly the main focus, as the actual star is the narrative itself and its robust components. It’s all kept engaging as you uncover more clues and retain info/items across iterations, thus making it more manageable and usually adding a new piece or two of the puzzle each time. There are multiple solutions and endings, each varying in degrees of narrative resolution, but all coherent and complete. While I will admit (trying to avoid spoilers) the ‘true reveal’ wasn’t as shockingly clever as it may have wanted to be, your mileage may vary on its use, but again it nevertheless made sense relative to what preceded it.

The true greatness of City is its attention to care and detail in the world and storylines, and how it melds . There are moments when you’ll discover a new interaction or useful item hidden away, which opens up possibilities while filing in more knowledge that can be exploited later down the line. Also in the course of its presentation, you’ll notice copious intelligent nods to ancient history/culture/philosophy from which it takes inspiration. NPCs are written extremely well, even though notably the models do show their stiff Skyrim DNA animation-wise. But this is greatly made up for by excellent voice acting and personalities, which goes a long way to selling the characters and the believability of their situations.

Throughout it’s roughly 15 hours Forgotten City showcases a creatively woven combination of elements. And it pulls these off with a satisfying flourish, bringing its own take and commentary on established templates. The whole endeavor deserves much credit, setting the general tone for titles to come, and is why I chose it as the leadoff entry.  

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The second title I’ve picked here is Death’s Door, the sophomore release from Titan Souls developer Acid Nerve, published by Devolver. Released in June 2021, it unabashedly shows its source influences (i.e. Zelda et al.) but with an updated and wonderful presentation. Nostalgic-tinged retro may still be all the rage, but there is an important distinction between merely repeating the past as a prop, and using it as a springboard to interject more modern ideas.

Death’s Door manages to do just that with an almost perfect balance. And again the reviews and response reflect how well it does so. Combat is fluid and tightly satisfying, the story compelling, and the art/level design absolutely stellar. It starts from familiar ingredients but refines them to various degrees. Door understands precisely what its predecessors were, and exactly why they worked. It then takes those time-tested structures and wraps them around its own strong sense of world-building and earned confidence in gameplay.

Your role in Door is a bipedal weapon-wielding soul-collecting crow who works at the “Dept. of Death” in a fantasy afterlife of Kafkaesque nature, complete with its obscure rules and regulations, clearly analogous to real bureaucratic institutions. Even grim reapers have to punch in, and shit goes wrong on the pipeline sometimes. Which is why, after such a mishap, your nameless crow must set off to navigate a series of locales/dungeons in search of a stolen soul and the reasons behind its theft. It’s a pure darkly-leaning fairy tale setup, but one of distinction in a rather muddled mess of games doing the same. It is pleasingly charming in its exploration of somber subject matter juxtaposed with some absurd humor. Both are handled well, and themes of loss, grief, the afterlife, and finally hope/acceptance in the face of all those are touched upon throughout the journey.

The vision and feel of the world is where Door truly shines, entwined with the aforementioned design, to impart a lovingly crafted series of environments. (Side Rant: I think perhaps at this point a term can be coined for the use of diorama-like perspective Unity art, as has been done in a number of titles both in and out of this specific genre. Like a famous quote goes, “you’ll recognize it when you see it.”) It also throws in familiar-feeling but equally thoughtful puzzles, sprinkling in upgrades and other secrets throughout for the thorough-minded explorer.

All this while constantly battling an increasing bestiary of inventive monsters with some quite tense encounters, especially when it comes to the main bosses, where the Titan Souls influence/evolution shows most strongly. There are a handful of weapons and abilities to work with, each unique and different enough functionally so that none feel redundant or unnecessary, in addition to the above mentioned extra and hidden upgrades.

Death’s Door is immediately accessible, but not a simple breeze either. Similar to many of its other aspects, it contains what approaches to be the perfect challenge curve. There’s of course a secret ending/epilogue requiring more adventuring/exploring post-credits (or if one is extremely meticulous it is possible to achieve in the first playthrough.) But the main storyline is entirely satisfying unto itself, and the process from start to finish never gets dull or repetitive. There is always something very cool to see, fight, or find every step of the way. It’s modern Zelda-like done damn right by those who know precisely how to do it, and gets a heartily enthusiastic crow caw for that.    

Thanks for reading and check out the next parts:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Data Dump: 2020 Games Lists At-a-Glance & Raw Thoughts/Impressions

April 14, 2021 Scott Thurlow Dialogue Tree

With our Top Games of 2020 episode out now, here is my accompanying list as well as all my rantings about each and every title I played during 2020. Peruse and enjoy.

2020 Lists [this year’s through-line would be excellent use of soundscapes: Tsushima, FF7, WL3, Doom, Meta, GR, CP, ZA4, Curse, Visage, Amnesia, WD: L, Haven, CP77]

Top 5

1 Cyberpunk 2077 [whether or not it’s the ‘best’ (though it for sure is!) could be considered moot due to the whole circumstance of the post-release debacle. It is certainly the most important game of the year in terms of impact and reverberating through the industry/medium and beyond. A fantastic core experience with technical hitches that were middle of road at best in terms of marring said experience. It’s really the baffling PR choices made by this specific studio combined with subsequent responses that make it the most interesting case study of the year. But to reiterate, it does kick the most ass in the most ways]

2 Ghost of Tsushima [strong second, sat at #1 until CP77, even so, badass horserace]

3 FF7 Remake [having never fully played the original, found it engaging and enjoyable, story and gameplaywise, with extremely high production value]

4 Kentucky Route Zero [avant-garde indie of the year, the most resonant/well-constructed one]

5 Doom Eternal [jockeyed for position vs. RE3, in the end Eternal > Doom ‘16, while RE3 < RE2. DLC Pt 1 released end of year to cap it off, other releases eventually eclipsed RE3]

Honorable

1 Wasteland 3 [Improvement in almost every way, one of the best recent CRPGs, amazing soundtrack to boot]

2 Cloudpunk/Ghostunner [Justify the tie as an indie cyberpunk double feature. Both use the aesthetic/setting well, yet are polar opposites on gameplay/tone. CP slower paced, deeper narrative and thoughtful themes vs GR frantic futuristic ninja murder-death simulator with obligatory trope ridden story stapled on. Cloud takes the edge as the more intellectually/emotionally impactful piece. Can see them each achieving well-earned hidden gem/cult classic status, soundtrack shout out to both as well]  

3 RE3Make [very solid but criticism that it felt more like, admittedly good, RE2Make DLC is valid] 

4 Haven/Falconeer [Under the radar indies with unique spins. Great use of Unity especially art/graphics. Engaging implementation of ideas in cool worlds, also share a satisfyingly smooth freedom of movement/navigation in game. Thus a tie]

5 Watchdogs: Legion [Legion wins vs. Valhalla in the Ubi civil war]

Mid-Tier/Solid

1 AC: Valhalla/ Last of Us 2 [close tie, each having specific self-indulgent wank, otherwise fine]

2 Metamorphosis/Call of the Sea [Tie for niche W-S puzzler using classic literary material/framework. Commendable jobs with the material, just not quite breakout]

3 Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2/Carrion [tie for best retro award, justified by M-V connection, literally in Bloodstained’s case]

4 Maneater/Zombie Army 4: Dead War [Tie for comfort junk food. Fun during, forgettable after. Maneater a slighter spicier/more memorable meal]

5 Spiritfarer- The most YMMY type title. Narratively commendably competent, relaxing experience but eventually grindy gameplay.

Shit’s Weak [all indie horror/psych-thrillers, in a year that sadly, competition for was weirdly rife in the lackluster area]

1 Remothered: Broken Porcelain [the most annoyingly janky/technically flawed and worst written of all the horror-thrillers]

2 Those Who Remain [less glitchy vs. Remothered, but easily less memorable than 3-5]

3 Maid of Sker [muddling middle of the road, not doing anything new/unique but fine environment]

4 Amnesia: Rebirth [as stated in full review, completely ‘whelming’] 5 Visage [not bad per se, certainly the best 2020 indie horror comparatively, closest to making the cut for Mid-Tier but still slightly wanting]

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2020 Games: Raw Thoughts/Impressions/Ramblings  

Kentucky Route Zero: Stumbled upon somewhat offhandedly, apparently somewhat of a semi-pretentious cult favorite. Released in 5 main acts interspersed over 7! years with tangentially related interludes, starting in 2013 with the final chapter in 2020 alongside a collected console version. Originally crowd funded then pub’ed by Annapurna (who also did Outer Wilds.) Bought with the refund PSN did for the odd Moons of Madness delay situation. KRZ self-describes as a ‘surreal road trip visual novel piece’ composed of strange dialogues in various Lynch/Jarmusch-lite setpieces/vignettes, all amusingly melancholic with an overall vibe of being something like a fever dream of capitalism’s toll on the average citizen and thus the socio-political landscape as a whole. Wonderfully bizarre, eerie, and ever so slightly obtuse while not taking itself too seriously the whole time. An excellent standout example is the phone menu skit. Simplistic yet striking art style. Takes a drop of blood from/has flashes of a slew of things like: Water Tastes Like Wine, Brazil, American Gods, After Hours, Night in the Woods, Twilight Zone, Raw Shark Texts and Edith Finch at moments without ever feeling exactly like any of them specifically. Definitely quite distinct/unique and confident in itself as an original work. That said, it’s not quite mind-blowing next-level shit, but as far as its clear ambition to exist as a piece of substantive art in the medium goes, KRZ for sure is of note/interest to a particular sector, of which I am definitely a member. GOTY list for artistic achievement/endeavor.

Zombie Army 4: Dead Army- Sniper Elite with zombies (from the same devs w/largely same assets) with all the grindhouse B-movie fare semi-silliness and gameplay that pretty much implies. First one I tried outside the mainstay WW2 titles. Has elements of L4D, Vermintide with co-op options, customization, horde mode and level/ranking/upgrades. Solo’ed just the campaign on hard. Bit of arcade style ala FC5 + its Zombie-specific DLC obviously, along with Doom 2016 i.e. combo/score tracker, special execution kills restoring health etc. Even makes 8-bit level up noises when picking up ammo etc. A back to basics 3PS after KRZ and the other more artsy/experimental titles I played prior. Still prefer the main series since shooting hordes of endless undead is somewhat antithetical to quietly picking off soldiers from afar, but it works well enough for the most part and is mechanically solid. Some review said it had Carpenter-esque motifs for the sound design; that’s pretty spot on, and adds a nice touch. A junk food game for sure, good dumb fun done well similar to Just Cause et al. and sometimes that’s satisfying enough. Took exactly a week to do. Summer 2020 bought the first 3 compiled for $5 and played through on normal. Were fine/fun too, but 4 is better than all.  

Pathologic 2 Episode 1- A well-received “reimagining” of a weird-but-cool PC cult classic from 2005 by the original devs. Described somewhere as akin to ‘playing through Tarkovsky’s Stalker’ which was both hilarious and attracting. PC version Feb 2019 then quiet on the port until announced less than a week before release 3/6/20, just before my birthday/prior to the onset of the C-virus heh. Thus for $36 I bought and played through on and off at that time. By design is high in difficulty, though later for 2 they added a (rather extensive) range of optional sliders. I tweaked them to the low end to wander through the hazily anachronistic magical realism tinged Industrial Revolution unnamed Town, encountering its oddball citizens and goings-on without excessive (however purposeful) frustration, even if that meant missing the intense stress inducing intended experience. That said, on first playthrough I got trapped in an unwinnable loop, dying and respawning repeatedly at the same point unable to heal/cure myself, each time taking a permanent stat penalty, in a nightmarish spiral. However thematically impactful, was practically real fuckin’ annoying, thus had to bust out the almighty save scum to push on. It wasn’t the first instance of such and that was grating, if again perhaps the point. Artistically is most reminiscent/similar to Deadly Premonition crossed with Vampyr and a bit of We Happy Few, flawed as those all were. Some elements/UI are counterintuitive and/or ill tutorialized (though again scant hand holding is part of its package) combined with noticeably stuttered framerates, constant freezing/loading and late game crashes. Putting aside mechanical jankiness, the writing is philosophically Russian as hell filtered through a bizarre and often creepy but not wholly incomprehensible ‘living theatre’ metaphorical and sometimes literal framework. The vibe is surreal and strange, somber yet playful with introspective fourth-wall breaking lines/scenes sprinkled throughout. It can be infuriating that it’s great when absorbing the narrative/atmosphere, but that will often (and I do mean often) be broken by the aforementioned performance issues and/or the difficulty spikes. The world/setting is so unique and well realized, it seem an oddly harsh choice not to be able to immerse in it without the intense pressure and steep curve. Finally there is the matter of the fuck you non-ending if taking an earlier in-universe deal to alleviate the death penalties, which I did but still hit a wall. Eventually restarted entirely and finished on a second playthrough, which speaks volumes. Reloaded at the final fork to do 3 possible endings, the 4th being the above slowroll. With all that, it certainly is an intriguing/thought-provoking title and can see why it’s held in such esteem by devoted fans and critics. Fantastic discussion piece and a beautiful but messy piece of art. Supposed to be 2 more main episodes (the original was 3 separate storylines/character perspectives) but scant news that can be found says that may or may not happen due to lukewarm sales. Grabbed one and only short DLC a month or so after for $10 in support, nice to dip back into the world if only briefly.

Doom Eternal- Had it PO’ed but decided to finally skip/boycott Gamestop and get it digitally, due to their handling of the virus situation combined with their general assholery to employees for years prior. A hill I decided to die on at the time. Across this line you do not…etc. As for the actual game, aside from Bethesda’s bitchiness with their .net shit and having to get around that, it’s intense frantic fun as promised with a few cool tweaks to the previous rock-solid formula. Slick/tight as hell on all fronts, looks and runs great even on my aging PS4. Pretty much all one could ask for in the sequel. Played on hard, took a week and change, happily spent time to find all extras/secrets. Must be noted had a few ludicrous hiccups/glitches that really shouldn’t be present in a title of this caliber, all were easy enough fixes, still stupidly annoying. Overall highly enjoyable and one of the best produced 2020 releases. Season pass for 2 part DLC, easily locked up. Duked it out with RE3 to make GOTY list, as I deem it more roundly
improved overall from Doom 2016 vs. RE3 a slight downgrade from RE2. DLC 1 was just as solid.

Moons of Madness- Was looking forward to this one for a while. PC 2019. Lovecraftian tale set on Mars. PO’ed digital w/ slight discount. Had a 1/21/20 port date, then got delayed three days before release and PSN gave out refunds for it. Yet 8 gigs worth of it/entire thing still downloaded then a patch for another 7, total 15 all the while the locked icon remained on my PS until the new 3/24 date when it became avail to buy again and unlocked/played as normal. Strange situation overall. It’s a solid enough sci fi isolation walk-sim in the vein of Observation and SOMA, both good influences. Although the omnipresent black goo/gunk I think looks the same in all. Starts off with mostly standard stuff– find this, fix that etc. dropping glimpses and hints of the monsters as it progresses and ramps up. Serviceable though veering to cliché at times writing/voice acting but graphically/aesthetically quite high production value for a smaller dev. Could’ve used an extra chapter to actually go to the titular moons, though I liked the more classically Lovecraftian option of two possible endings quite a bit even so. Convenient enough to Plat. A decent W-S take on cosmic space horror. Worth checking out if into that specifically.

BL3 DLC 2 Love, Guns & Tentacles- Followed up Moons with this, to keep the Lovecraft theme going. Fun to see their more light-hearted take on the material within the existing world. It’s a kind of great fuck you to Lovecraft the man as well, with the framework being a gay marriage on Planet Innsmouth basically. Very cool visuals, required refs/riffs on the source. One quite good chain of sidequests. Along the way acquired some sick combinations of guns that destroyed enemies which made it extra entertaining. Liked it better than DLC 1 Handsome Jackpot though that was pretty good.

Control DLC 1 The Foundation- Was excited to jump back into this world but bit of a rocky start with being rusty as well as confusing quest directions and grueling combat encounters. Adds a few new abilities and extensions of previous ones. Still very neat setting to explore and good expanded lore/after-story content, when not frustrating/time-wasting due to the above. Trippy Train quest also dickpunch design, but cool idea. Was considering getting all DLC specific trophies but it just seemed like more of a chore than it might’ve been (RE3 was more engaging to Plat.) Foundation was overall decent enough but the second Alan Wake tie-in better. 

RE3 Nemesis Remake- Demo looked and played just as excellently as 2. Never got to play much, if any, of the original (it’s blurry in my memory) so was a fresh experience in a way. PO’ed the digital, since Gamestops were closed at the time for C-Virus, awesomely fitting of course. Access to dl on stroke of midnight, quarantine release party! But since Sony throttled the speeds, took forever. It is slick as hell, RE engine perfectly suited for rendering the modern vision. Almost more ‘colorful’ in a sense, with the neon dread drenched streets of Raccoon city vs 2’s largely interior PD and lab etc. (though since it is set mostly around/during the events of 2, they can get away with reusing some assets/locations) Somewhat akin to 2 (again roughly narratively concurrent with) play switches between Jill and Carlos (though they aren’t separate campaigns) broken up by boss scenarios with the titular Nemesis. The original clearly was the transition to the action era going into RE4 and the remake contains a nice mix of elements from 2 and modernized iterations of that period. Has all the other hallmarks of Capcom’s so far highest quality remakes, they are absolutely the new standard and while part nostalgia/part RE3 never being as popular comparatively thus steers me to maintain 2 is the better title, 3 on its own delivers top tier surv-horror-action from the once and (at least at this point) current reigning champs of it. It’s quite conducive for replay, shorter than 2 with fun unlockable bonuses helpful for tackling increasingly harder diffs, of which there are 5 total. Each run needed to Plat remained both enjoyable and intense since higher diffs throw a few curves and changeups into the mix, and did a final leisurely playthrough on easy for the last trophy. ~30 hours spent. Have to credit the modern/remade REs staring with 7 and onward for getting me into multiple replays, since not usually my style. Resistance multiplayer mode included but installed separately (helpful for storage purposes.) No real interest in it, had other titles to go onto. Mostly due to the criticism of it feeling more like RE2 DLC vs a full title, loses a few points.

My Friend Pedro- Devolver pub’ed, solo auteur dev. From 2019, dropped on PS 4/2/20. Supposed to be quick funny/fun ‘bullet hell ballet’ platformer with over the top cartoon violence. Wanted to check out, $20, decided w/ E’s input to pick it up vs Vampire: Coteries. It’s neat and visually appealing. Not pixel art, more of a modern sheen. A mix of something like Hotline Miami and Counterspy, mechanically and genre-wise. Well designed, enjoyable to play and watch the carnage unfold, can be done in quick bursts. Ala Miami has a score/grade for each level of course, though I often don’t get into that much. What story exists is pretty much what’s to be expected from a title of this nature/pedigree, it’s there mostly as a framework, throws in both clever and cliché parts. Soundtrack fine but not particularly grabbing. Solid indie junk food game, worth it mostly though not achieving new heights. Good for one leisurely playthrough.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake- High praise/reviews. Originally wasn’t planning on getting it, though demo was indeed impressive. Based on advice from my trusty droogs (who do fondly recall the original) decided to check vs other concurrent considerations. Locked up ~ week after release. Time at last to see what all the fuss is about, given never having played the original/no attachment to it, unlike every other gamer on earth, which obviously makes me the most qualified pundit on the planet at this point to ‘objectively’ review/experience it. Graphical fidelity/visual presentation top notch, soundtrack to match. Clearly a lot went into production value. World design cool with the future magic/steampunk aesthetic. Writing mostly solid but it’s the stellar acting that truly sells it, even if it veers into anime-cliché here and there. Many genuinely humorous/heartfelt character moments/interactions all perfectly delivered, but still grounded under a more serious setup. Did the original have such an obvious environmental theme/bent and some more mature language? Either way works here. Gameplay on the whole nicely tuned, mix of real time action (DMC5 ish) with ATB bar building alongside on the fly party switching/ability/spell selection. Useful and in-depth inv/upgrade system. It does look and run beautifully, though sometimes the action can get confusing in hectic battles. Quite linear vs more open world, can seem somewhat penned in given the expanse of the world presented otherwise. Pulls out every stop with the rush of battles/bosses during the last 2 chapters. The ending itself by accounts seems to be a meta take/subversion/weird retcon of the events/legacy of original and the audience’s expectations of it, but I can’t speak much to that. It mostly works well enough, maybe just a touch Evangelion-esque but nowhere near those insanity levels. Being technically only 1 (albeit large) part of a range of future releases, thus not the full original saga, cliffhanger sequel bait is basically baked in. Yet does achieve its own internal sense of complete/consistent tale taking ~50 hours playtime personally. Refreshing and overall quite fun/entertaining to play a (perhaps to many the)classic JRPG that retains the core elements, extensively updated with modern sensibilities/improvements. A high caliber package, GOTY list.

John Wick Hex- PC 2019. $20. Shorter semi-turn-based strategy take featuring our collective favorite hitman. A rocky first impression. ~10 crashes in the first few hours on top of some of the mechanics induced frustration. Second session admittedly smoother, but while a cool core design thought on paper matched with nice GN aesthetics, decent music and the actual movie talent (Mcshane, Reddick) voicing adding authenticity, in practice execution is not lazy per se, instead more sloppy and quite rough on many fronts: map readability, interface, erratic AI and avatar behavior. Makes it a slog most of the time, hard to strategize when assumed input/displayed info is inconsistent, as well as fear of yet another crash during. Stage clear replay also a neat idea but animations look choppy/off too. Unfortunately a pretty disappointing, underwhelming experience. Seriously considered getting refund which says a lot, but decided fuck it, and trudged through before Ion Fury. A better idea I think would’ve been to just ripoff Hotline Miami or Katana Zero (perhaps even Superhot) since those styles of lighting fast ultra-violence are built into the Wick IP and would lend to feeling like the character vs. as is. Ghostrunner did it better.

Ion Fury- Largely well received 2019 PC release. Ported in May for $25. Retro 90s FPS Duke Nukem/Painkiller homage/spiritual successor…built in an updated version of the Build engine. Pub’ed (though not dev’ed) by 3-D Realms. It is damn solid, certainly does what it says on the tin. Impressive old school level design, enemy encounters, item pickups/secrets, with the best modern tech rendering the aesthetics from one of the original standards, making it both crisp yet doggedly adhering to the era. Shooting/movement is frantic, good array of weapons w/ alt modes, very Doom-like as another clear throwback ref. Leans into the over-the-top action cheesiness, with the badass Sarah Connor expy protag quoting Die Hard, Army of Darkness or lines such as (while wielding the SMG) ‘I spray, you pray!’ etc. accompanied by a great score. All around excellent touches, quite enjoyable romp and a well-made title unabashedly wearing its influences/elements. Leisurely playthrough on third hardest diff, getting all secrets/Easter eggs using walkthrough. Closest thing to a Blood Dragon experience in a while. Biggest deal breaker: better get your skills/mindset into old school FPS twitch and quicksave like a fiend.

Maneater- Open world RPG/GTA, as a shark. $40, solid price point. Wanted disc copy, PO’ed via Gamestop w/ free shipping deal to test their service. Delivery window said 2-4 bus days after release but of course that made it over Memorial Day weekend. Fri of release got a confirm from UPS. Few days later, a GS email said it was delayed (though from what?) with a humorously dumb tautological explanation. Got it the following Wed afternoon, which was satisfactory. Ala Plague Tale and Greedfall, got more excited to play as release ticked closer and caught more footage. Middle to solid reviews. Biggest complaint seemed to be repetitive quest design and decent combat but lacking depth, balanced by good world design and fun abilities to mess around within it. That all is fair, it’s almost exclusively kill quests in an Ubi-lite icon littered map, but that design, while dated, does work best in this context. Not overbearing or even particularly large just for the sake of it, good on them there. At its core is largely enjoyable. Chris Parnell’s straight man narration of largely well written and genuinely humorous tongue-in-cheek reality show framework, pop cult refs coupled with solid though not amazing looking locales adds a lot. The undersea diversity of environments is a highlight, making what would be boring into interesting places to explore with distinctness, i.e. the swamp vs the freshwater lake etc. Chomping on sea life from fish to alligators, knifing through the surface to leap out snatching humans off beaches/boats is all highly entertaining. RPG/upgrade system is robust enough and fun to experiment with combinations of abilities. Can certainly be classified as another junk food game, but one of the better in recent memory. 17 hours total. Small glitch/bug on final trophy for Plat, but internet had a workaround. Mid-tier to low Honorable.

Those Who Remain- indie FP/W-S psych horror w. Alan Wake vibes. Low-key exposure. Took some digging but in late March the pub, Wired (looked more into them, did Close to the Sun and Deliver us Moon) announced a virus delay for both digital and longer one for physical. Grabbed digital for $20. Mediocre reviews, general sloppiness on design/world, lack of narrative impact/within genre as a whole. It is mostly underwhelming. While environments look nice, and it portrays all the standard creepy locations, i.e. abandoned gas station, diner, barn and backroad etc. well, framerate is a little choppy and checkpoints annoyingly spaced w/ instant deaths via monster done better elsewhere (Amnesia, Outlast.) Writing also pretty cliché, somehow reminds me of Soul Suspect, if anyone remembers that fucking game. Thinks it’s being profound but ends up in trope land 101. Voice acting detached delivery, which almost always breaks immersion when a character points out what should be shocking/strange things in a weirdly deadpan manner. Some cool things: the way the shadow people crowd just outside the light menacingly but motionless and switching between ethereal versions of shifting locations to solve puzzles, even if that is also neither particularly new nor unique (Layers of Fear.) Ala Perception, cool concept but iffy and unimpressive execution. Mediocre at best, weak list. 

Deliver Us the Moon- Atmospheric sci-fi of a mysterious happening on the titular planetary satellite. PC 2018, PS port dropped late April for $24. Should’ve got it vs. Wick Hex in hindsight. A good setup that builds investment with rock solid writing, pacing, and integration of themes. Crisp visuals, echoes of Moon the movie of course, also Observation, i.e. harder leaning sci-fi that manages to create some tense/cool moments while slowly unveiling more details of the narrative as you explore via the usual route of logs/puzzles etc. ~8 hours. Able to 100% via chapter select. Easily the better of the two Wired games (vs. Those Who Remain) and one of the best (for all intents and purposes) recent Walk Sims.

Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood DLC. Western flavored romp with new characters vs. previous trend of bringing back known/favorites. The most Space Western thing to ever Western in Space. Slightly more serious in tone vs prior, but still bits of trademark humor sprinkled in, mostly works as a good changeup. Another solid DLC from the series, and the best of 3’s overall.

Last of Us 2- Delayed twice, first in Feb to May. Then C-virus made it TBA briefly until dropped in June. It was notably surrounded by a number of unfortunate controversies starting with the plot detail leak followed by the inevitable backlash of online dick behavior, harassment and review bombing. There are certainly greater issues at play and not to brush them aside, but most of that then contributes to muddying discussion of the actual storytelling itself. Which on the topic of, is better than 1 in a number of ways, but still not next level narrative, though I grant 2’s makes more sense overall in terms of character decisions and motives even if it took the earlier setup to get there. What it is and always has been is acceptably solidly written (I maintain Naughty Dog are best at pulp adventure, not gritty realism.) Core gameplay is tight, probably the studio’s most finely tuned 3P stealth-action that I comfortably fall into. Highest production value and fidelity on animation, extremely well voiced as expected, with some of the best in the biz. It is a fine move (but again not revolutionary) to swap between the perspectives/backstory of two characters who are each other’s antagonists, if only to arrive at a theme of ‘revenge is bad/creates a vicious cycle.’ Thank you, philosophers of Naughty Dog. It also gets a bit self-indulgent ala Rockstar and didn’t necessarily need to be as long, there were definite obvious stopping points before the actual end. So between the arguments for and against, ultimately I end up mainly standing my ground of it being no more or no less than completely serviceable, elevated mostly by the performances, level design and visuals. Overall a finely done sequel, mid-tier.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2- Announced then released fairly quickly. Breather after LOU2, before Ghost. $15. Every bit if not better than Curse 1. Spot on 8 bit feel, style, and sound. Solid replay value with extra/alternate endings and changeups on stages/setups w/ old and new companions, capped off with an unexpected but pretty cool 1941-like scrolling/bullet hell section blasting demons on the moon in a magipunk spaceship. Plat it, no annoying boss rush trophy either. The best retro fused release of the year.

Superhot: Mind Control Delete- Apparently originally a planned expansion that became a full title, a ‘hybrid rogue-like’ given out free for anyone who bought the original. Fan friendly for sure. Acceptably solid overall, basically more Superhot in indeed a rogue-like series of scenarios w/ cool new random upgrades ala Downwell. Played a bunch while awaiting Ghost, good time killer in a fun way. As E remarked, it’s more John Wick than the official game itself. Obviously the freeroll was a bonus, but it works just as well as the main game, pretty fun though ymmv as to how worthwhile it as a standalone.

Ghost of Tsushima- Delayed slightly from June to July in Last of Us 2’s shadow of virus schedule shuffling. Highly anticipated. It is indeed fantastic, perhaps my own hype and bias elevates it, still reviewed excellently by and large. AC: Red Dead Samurai, but that’s reductionist and doesn’t do it justice. Ala Horizon: ZD, takes a bunch of familiar conventions and weaves them together into an exhilarating take in a fresh setting. Shaving off the outdated, annoying elements and replacing them with a number of unique touches, especially the reduced HUD melding environmental clues with traditional mechanics, activities, and collectibles. Argument can be made that it is in fact a culmination of the best open world design past and present. Combat/stealth intuitive yet challenging, mastering the systems is supremely satisfying, and just by nature looks badass as hell, particularly the standoffs. Both the world itself and level of character/gear detail is stunning, artistically and aesthetically, while the load times are impressive as well. Story is notable, a bit more somber and serious, with a definite theme that it sticks to and builds upon with deft nuance start to finish. I chose the Japanese voice option with English subs for authenticity. Kurosawa grainy black and white filter is an amazing touch too. All around one of the best games of the tail end of the gen/Sony exclusives. The capoff being it’s convenient to Plat vs previous similar games, no missable or excessive time wasting bullshit. Was so well received Sucker Punch did free co-op oriented DLC. Good shit. GOTY list. Obviously had to duel vs. Cyberpunk, with Ghost losing by a razor’s edge.

Maid of Sker- Another virus delay, June to July. Indie FP surv-horror walk sim based on an actual ghost tale about a Welsh hotel. Writers from SOMA attached. Mixed reviews, gist being good atmosphere/score but uneven design/gameplay. It does have a solid environment and soundscape that combine quite nicely, especially since the framework is based on audio/musical motifs as well as mechanically for the monsters. Light Lovecraftian but somewhat distinct from others in its vein. Story/writing/voice all perfectly fine. Core loop is RE key hunting and finding safe rooms while avoiding enemies ala Amnesia, Outlast and Perception, with all the positives and negatives inherent to that flavor of games. Overall a decent entry in the genre from this year, certainly better than Those who Remain. Not standout like Ethan or Edith but roughly within range of Layers 1 and Moons of Madness. That said, vs. the rest of the field so far, drops to lower-mid weak.

Metamorphosis- Based on ‘Kafka’s imagination’ says the tagline. Did the story previous week for TLS. It’s fairly neat and decently clever, basically both major Kafka stories taking place concurrently. The player takes the role of Gregor transformed, solving puzzles/exploring from the perspective of a bug, while his still human friend Josef K goes through the events of The Trial, with the level design and narrative mirroring the famous bureaucratic absurdity. Even has alternate solutions for a few, some tied to trophies. Uses a bright and visually appealing surreal-lite art style reminiscent of a mashup between Edith Finch, Little Nightmares, and Outer Wilds. Playful music/score helps too. Is littered with direct quotes/scenes from the original works and Kafka himself, as well as other references both literary and beyond. Unique and well done, a largely faithful reverent homage with some additional humor/flavor thrown in. Has two possible endings, both appropriately downer. Convenient to Plat. Will likely only be appreciated by a much narrower audience range, but I’m well within that. For 24$ a worthwhile piece, quality indie W-S for the year.

The Council- Deep sale $8. Vaguely remembered about it when originally dropped in 2018. Focus Home pub’ed. Telltale episodic style with XP tree and more branching narratives. Set on a mysterious English Lord’s island post-American Revolution/pre-French. Not my favorite period, but an interesting enough setup. Play as the son of the head of the French sector of an expy for every secret society in any work like this, on a quest to find your missing mother and rubbing elbows with historical figures of the era. Napoleon and Washington obviously being ones, and even more obviously Washington head of the American branch of the Order. Graphically fine on the surface, but the actual animations/expressions and voice acting are all a bit stilted, firmly in uncanny valley land. Writing/dialogue can be uneven and exposition-y; sometimes solid, then incongruously anachronistically breaking the immersion. Some commentary comes across heavy handed, even if well-meaning at times. Most egregious is a mid-plot twist that spirals into ludicrousness by the end. More positively, it contains good ideas for expanding the conversation/investigation/inventory mechanics seen in the likes of Sherlock Holmes and the recent Lovecraft games, with a fairly robust skill/effort system (almost like Numenera) determining what options/actions are available in various situations. Serves as a blueprint for the evolution/future of the genre which I would like to see adopted and improved in others. Relaxing title with some rough edges, yet manages to be somewhat unique and more or less succeeds at what it sets out to do. 

The Messenger- From 2018, $10 sale. Devolver pub’ed. Ninja Gaiden homage mixed with some M-V retro style. Is old school hard, but not entirely unfair. Almost has a Mega Man vibe too with some of the laser walls of death etc, platforming and enemies. Graphically solid as hell, excellent music, level and boss design. Some bits of meta-commentary/references sometimes try too hard, but overall serviceable. Switches from 8 bit to 16 bit about halfway through, each representing a different time period in the story, 16 bit being the more M-V areas vs. the previously straightforward 8 bit action/platformer. Neat idea, works well overall. Came with free shorter DLC but with ramped up difficulty and some additional clever takes on a few NES-era classics. Overall for the price, very worthwhile.

Control DLC 2 of 2 AWE- Alan Wake tie-in, officially connected them both in same universe. Was looking forward to quite a bit. Think it’s easily better than DLC 1. Wake’s actor is always excellent, and the mechanics still feel great, no asshole/annoying scenarios like Foundation. Writing weird/solid/enjoyable as ever, a nice touch is a side mission that unlocks replaying bosses and set pieces like the Ash Maze. Ends on solid sequel bait of future game/story for both it and/or Wake 2, am on board.

Outer Worlds DLC 1 of 2 Peril on Gorgon- Pass for both $25. Noir-tinged adventure/mystery on a new asteroid location. Basically the plot of Serenity, but still cool jumping back into this world. Added a few small but welcome additions for weapons/gear etc, even if otherwise mostly more of the same from the main, which is completely fine. Remains fun, clever, and solid as hell, expect nothing else from Obsidian. Though did have a bug that seemingly prevented me from earning XP after a certain point.

Borderlands 3 DLC 4 of 4 Psycho Krieg & the Fantastic Fustercluck. Delve into Krieg’s mind/backstory ala Claptastic Voyage. Keeps up the quality overall, though I was never the biggest fan of Krieg as a character, it does a decent job of covering his past history and connection to the other cast. Level design remains visually appealing, quests usually entertaining and more loot always aids the fun factor. Close second/third best of B3’s DLCs.

Crysis Remaster- Originally July. Switch released on time, but backlash on lackluster looking trailer delayed it to Sept for others. Powered through on hard over the course of a few days. Disappointingly doesn’t appear up to snuff for such a legendary graphical beast, complaints were valid. Looks good, just not mind blowing/expected from the hype. An ok port job at best. Still, remains a fun and classic FPS, forgot how many weapon options are avail to mess around with. While design has been lapped at this point, had to start somewhere and thus some credit must be given to it on that front. For $30, harmlessly fine if slightly unimpressive.

Wasteland 3- Delayed from May. Isometric old school CRPG from inXile ala Pillars of Eternity, who for years has been Obsidian’s closest and best competitor. Reviews squarely positive, although most noted bugs/crashes, which I pretty much expected, but banked on being mitigated by patches since was holding off until after the prior FPS/DLC spree, given W3’s scope. Lives up to being a solid series sequel. Engaging story setup and generally improved gameplay/interface from 2, all around production value, from music (sidenote: apparently Mary Ramos served as music director, who frequently works with Tarantino. Given that, it makes sense that the soundtrack is perfectly and cheekily evocative, with the final unexpected element of the playthrough recap being sung vs narrated the touch that elevates it all) to voice acting, all while keeping the classic look and feel. Characters/quest writing exhibits their trademark balance of post-apoc seriousness and dark/absurd humor, fittingly since their lineage descends from FO1-2. Number of standout set pieces (Reagan Robot and the Gippers vs. Godfisher cultists, fights vs iconic Scorpitrons.) Did still have noticeable amount of crashes so bit of a sour mark. Conversely, found a quest bug that generated essentially infinite money, so exploited that a bit for large amounts of ammo. Its rough edges can be largely forgiven as otherwise it’s a quality experience in the genre, respectfully delivering on its promise, equally good if not better than W2. DLC to come, likely way down the line.

Rise of the Tomb Raider 20th Annv. Edition- Free PS+, filler/breather after W3 before the late Oct releases. Took up less space than expected, only 15g. Solid reviews from 2015, touted as one of the better/best modern titles in the franchise. Never played any TR entirely through. Came with all the DLCs and a trove of freebie items, cool on them. Rise does have slick production value, with the genre and era’s trappings of design/mechanics that mostly work together with the magic maguffin dujour linked to ancient Byzantium to make a solidly put together 3PA. A nice leisurely play and pleasant surprise, AAA junk food appetizer.

Remothered: Broken Porcelain- Didn’t play the initial title, Tormented Fathers, but devs stated not strictly necessary to get into this one. Had a recap for the plot of that anyway so fine there. Release was moved up a week, thus giving me a jump on the 2020 Halloween games. Bought day one $30. Slowroll intro/fake opening level dissolving into credits was a cool touch, readying me to go along for the ride. It’s sure trying its damndest in a noble effort to be a solid/relevant indie horror game, striving for AA(24) style writing, characters, atmosphere, etc but more often finds itself devolving into B-movie clutter cliché/nonsense. Interesting setup at least and voice acting is well-done, so good on that I guess. But goddamn did my initial and onwards experience focus wholly on the annoying design, outright brokenness and overall sloppiness. Extremely janky prompts/interactions along with ill-tutorialized mechanics and frustrating uneven AI encounters. Exacerbated by getting caught in excessive glitches of, among other things: an infinite/nonloading screen, half clipping through walls rendering me immobilized, enemies not functioning properly (when sometimes they triggered at all) such that neither they nor I could be killed, a key item not respawning thus preventing progress, etc. Weirdly it never outright hard crashed, instead having to close and restart game app. Not that that’s any better. Reviews also backed up the numerous issues, some declaring it a straight up rush job and downgrade vs Fathers. Day two put out a 4g patch that was supposed to fix shit but didn’t notice any difference, most noticeably not registering my skill upgrades and not even being able to spend points to upgrade anything. Chapters are short, which in a better game would be a complaint, but is a mercy in this instance. Eventually hit a spot where in an endless chase I was stabbed dozens of times without dying, while monster took an equal amount of ineffectual gunshots, with seemingly nowhere else to go/do to proceed, or whatever I was supposed to do was not clear at all, though assuming something may have supposed to trigger again and didn’t. So tried to complete it for critical duty, but fuck it, game didn’t put in any effort, why should I, at that point enough was enough. Firmly terrible without being fun/amusing about it. Logline would be “Bates Motel meets a poor man’s Scanners on bad backstory acid.” Rebuggered: Broken Pathetic more like it! A hideous mess that, somewhat ironically, is in reality exactly the fractured disjointed story it’s attempting to convey. A wholly unworthy effort/investment. Extra disappointing since on paper had promising potential. Those Who Remain and Maid of Sker were at least by and large functional. What’s up with the subpar quality of most of 2020’s horror/thrillers?

Need for Speed: Payback- Was on PS+. Not supposed to be great, mostly cause of eh production value and mtx bs, but was free. Something I wouldn’t normally check out but ended up killing time with it after deleting Remothered in contempt the weekend before Doom DLC and Amnesia Rebirth dropped. If nothing else it’s a fun/entertaining enough competent arcade-y driver with expectedly cheesy by nature Fast and Furious ripoff/reject plot and voice acting. Although Naomi from Expanse is in it, so she’s actually solid. Was never planning to play it that long, so can’t speak to how asshole grindy/insidious the upgrade system is in the long haul, really just found it kind of inoffensively charming and the perfect cathartic breather to cleanse out the unpleasantness of Broken Porcelain. Throw in the category of decent mindless junkfood.

Doom Eternal DLC Ancient Gods Part 1 of 2- More classic Doom brutal but fun as hell action. It’s not fucking around either, pretty hardcore and throws you directly back into the fire with no ramp up, though with maxed out upgrades. ~6 hours so a bit lengthier vs what might be expected from such DLC, combined with Part 2 may add up close to a full campaign. Aside from the slightly jarring difficulty spike, no complaints and excellent bonus it snuck in before end of year to tack onto a surefire GOTY entry.

Amnesia: Rebirth- PO’ed w/ PSN discount for under $30. Frictional returns for a late gen entry in their seminal series. Reviews decent-solid but not glowing. Historical note: while I respect Dark Descent for its impact, Machine for Pigs was a superior iteration I think, and it wasn’t even Fric! SOMA is their best work to date that I stand by. Rebirth at the core remains a respectful variation on Mountains of Madness a/o Nameless City style Lovecraftian storytelling, and explicitly set in the same universe that Descent set up. Is glossier graphically, more fully and well voice acted vs previous and mostly maintains the aspects it always was best at, namely solid as hell atmosphere/writing with appropriately haunting soundscape. Gameplay yet more of the physics item puzzles, light source and ‘fear’ (i.e. insanity meter) management, creeping around monsters etc. It’s all workably there, but never seems to aim to rise above that level. Has all the expected hallmarks, but weirdly that is perhaps precisely the criticism. It’s unmistakably Amnesia, and at the same time it’s kind of just that, albeit with a slicker/fresher coat of paint. It’s hard/weird to critically slice this one up, given again its legacy but also valid to an extent complaint that the studio somewhat is riding purely on their reputation without necessarily innovating/improving on the formula they popularized if not invented. So it’s not quite substandard, instead merely standard with no standout aspects. At ~8 hours ends up an enjoyable enough even keel that manages to neither particularly disappoint nor impress. To quote Young Justice, it’s completely ‘whelming.’

Ghostrunner- PO’ed w/ PS+ discount under $30. Indie cocktail of Mirror’s Edge, Superhot, Valley(!) and Hotline Miami. Or maybe just Dishonored on crack/speed. Sold on that pitch plus trailer was quite cool. Positive early reviews. 17 main missions but built with more of the repeat session/speedrunning community in mind, who should certainly have a field day since it is both quite replayable and fast paced as hell. Twitchy precision ninja wall-running/grappling/katana-ing, one hit kills on both enemies/player, instant respawns upon death, all set to pulsing synth in nicely designed arena-ish levels offering a few avenues of approaching combat/platform scenarios. Can be punishingly demanding/difficult, compounded by same issues as always with doing this kind of stuff in FP cropping up, i.e. missing what seemed to be perfectly finely timed/executed series of maneuvers, enemies killing you from off screen/out of view etc. A limited but useful skill/upgrade system has you playing literal inventory Tetris, neat touch. When firing on all cylinders, elicits an alternating adrenaline pumping/satisfying cathartic comedown flow to it. Wraps everything in a fairly standard but unobtrusive cyberpunk dystopian story framework with matching slick neon drenched decaying city visuals. Sleeper of 2020.

Cloudpunk- PC released April, ported to PS in Oct. $25. Solid enough reviews, grabbed it since Song of Horror was delayed and as a follow up to Ghostrunner, keeping the cyberpunk streak going and because it’s the perfect inverse. Whereas GR is intense nonstop precision action made in Unreal of course, Cloud is a lower-fi Unity voxel art GTA-lite/Uber worker simulator set in Corporate Cyberpunk City #45-N57. Atmosphere/world visuals and building all top notch. Leisurely exploring the beautiful Lego brick city-world in flying car and on foot, delivering items/taxiing denizens of various dispositions and having philosophical conversations with them. Especially notable since the main character is a 20-something expy for a struggling Middle-Eastern woman, bereft of friends and family in a strange, overwhelming place. It’s not the easiest character/material to handle, and sometimes approaches pretentiousness, but mainly does it justice, in my view and estimation anyway. Both Rania and the characters she bounces off of are well realized through soundly written and acted interactions that often reflect/comment on pertinent societal concerns/realities through a semi-satirical near-future bent. At first the personal stories seem separate, but throughout them a greater tale about the city at large is interwoven in cleverly organic ways, well executed. Artistic and engaging in a charmingly relaxed style, stellar soundtrack/score to accompany. 2020’s Night In The Woods. Displays a sincerity backed up by real heart that goes a long way. I found myself quite invested and had an unexpectedly great experience with it. The true sleeper hit of the year, perfect combo w/Ghostunner.

**As an amusing aside, while the names of the above two are individually serviceably fine, they are also so borderline generically conventional as to be completely interchangeable: Ghostpunk, Cloudrunner, Ghostcloud, Punkrunner. Meanwhile 2077 is just like yep, Cyberpunk, done here**

Hollow Knight Voidheart Edition: Free PS+. E talked it up earlier. Remembered it getting high praise as a modern indie successor to the (mostly Metroid end) of the M-V genre with a slight D-S bent. Given out near tail end of this gen, good deal. Dipped toes in a bit when Legion didn’t arrive as expected. Great, crisp art style and combat, cool world. Classic M-V navigation which can vary for me. Hate getting lost/stuck/unsure of what to do/go next. Didn’t quite grab me/wasn’t feeling it at the time, not because it was bad though, will be keeping it for later. Did Visage instead.

Visage- $35 under the radar kickstarted/early access horror title. Full release dropped around Halloween. Missed it in the face of all the others, but supposedly quite good one, so picked up about a week after to make up for the lackluster batch previously. Self-described as channeling P.T.’s vibe i.e. wandering around a modern eerily empty house solving light inv/environmental puzzles while seeing subtle tricks with lights, doors and Layers of Fear-style spatial warping. Though it opens on a pretty intense scenario, the story is overall standardly fine. Presentation is what elevates it, crisp graphics while maintaining a largely well implemented and genuinely unnerving sense, without totally relying on cheap jump scares (though it’s certainly obligingly got those too.) When the usual grotesquery finally does hit, it’s done perfectly well; it’s just that I’ve seen so many variations of that same stuff, but that’s indie horror I suppose. A subdued (but solid) soundscape/lack of expected ambient music in such a title might seem an odd decision, but the minimalism undeniably adds to creating an off-putting King-like sense of uneasy dread, making it somewhat stand out from so many others attempting the same. There is always going to be that fine line between repetition/boredom by traversing the same sections attempting to figure out how to proceed vs. keeping up tension. With a shorter ~6 hour run time is able to cut out many frills, gets you in and through with little padding. No technical issues either, points there. Would be really cool in VR as a great haunted house experience. Will hand it the best/most rounded of them for 2020. Worth checking out especially for fans of the genre/style.

Watchdogs: Legion- WD2 was solid enough, certainly an improvement over 1. Legion’s footage looked pretty cool. Reception generally positive, praised the ‘recruit any NPC’ as akin to Middle Earth’s Nemesis system which is accurate-ish. While waiting for delivery, some darkly amusing events happened surrounding the game made especially funny due to their/Legion’s nature; source code leaked, had to be patched up due to crashes and other issues, and finally one of the radio/podcast personalities was taken out post-release due to protest against her allegedly bigoted real world views/statements. Also comical that the entire premise is an Orwellian surveillance nightmare in 20 Minutes Future London, yet Ubi would claim it’s ‘not a political stance.’ And while true it’s cheekily cartoonish, it is obviously a statement unto itself as a setting plus the backstory of corrupt government conspiring with a cutthroat corporation to frame a hacktivist group as terrorists in order to set up said 1984 state. The entire mission structure is built upon rallying the denizens to resist their oppression. Gameplay is highly entertaining and fluidly flexible given the amount of tools/options on hand. Quite enjoyable to mess around and hack everything in sight, fuckin’ up the city to stick it to the man, all the while surrounded by nonstop Britishness oozing from every pore of the world, including the radio stations. Swapping between a crew of randomly recruited citizens with various quirks/stats/items/models/accents equates to RP’ing through a film grad Guy Ritchie film, good logline. Digital anarchy in the UK is a right lovely lark mate, innit! Played with permadeath enabled, but since it doesn’t trigger until a handful of missions, spent a solid chunk of time building up my group/resources with no consequences. Credit Ubi a little for curbing some of their usual excess and having a smaller/denser map with less random chores/collectibles scattered everywhere. Too bad Valhalla didn’t follow suit, thus Legion is the better 2020 Ubi game.

AC: Valhalla- Ubi double kill bill w/ Watchdogs: Legion. Solid/high reviews. Definitely a good choice to finally go with Dark Age Viking-era Norway and England for the period setting. While I argue that they may never be able to top Black Flag, Valhalla takes a few cues from it, along with the RPG-ish elements introduced in Origins. However it doesn’t take Watchdogs’ cue for sizing down the map/world and instead takes one from RDR2 with the over-realism, which can be an overbearing finicky slog, especially with my OCD completionist tendencies. Poured 100+ hours into it, fatigue definitely set in towards the end. Best aspect is probably the combat; frantic/fluid, most Dark Souls-like series has had so far, various fun/cool abilities. Loot distribution more condensed at least, less random items of wavering quality thrown at you everywhere, and though skill tree initially seems ungainly, it ends up working. Most characters are well-realized/portrayed and the overall tale has a more somber tone than the previous couple. It manages to be both deeply personal and sweepingly epic, leaving home behind to set off for 800s Anglo-Saxony, and upon arriving having to navigate hostile land and the sometimes literal byzantine politics. Better written than last few titles, by a small margin. Along the way is bolstered by more light hearted/interesting side stories that run the gamut through English and Nordic culture/history/mythology. On the technical side was riddled with lots of small annoying bugs/glitches affecting quest progression/event triggers. Had to more than once reload saves from earlier/hoop jump to solve, and still got scattered crashes on top. Worst instances I can recall from the series, likely stemming from it again being just too bulky. Early on thought it might be a tougher call vs WD:L but overall Legion wins for pure fun/entertainment factor.

Cyberpunk 2077- The most roller coaster release of the year in terms of anticipation/hype/response. Had 3 delays, April-Nov-Dec. Leading up the mindset was something like ‘it better be the most/best cyberpunk to ever punk in cyber!’ Upon and post-release it was beset by the maelstrom (retroactively awesome term I choose) of: CDPR’s crunch controversy, last-gen review/footage embargoes, backlash on such due to poor performance/bugs etc. large day zero/one patches that still didn’t fix everything. CDPR then pledging even more patches in months to come, while promising/directing the most dissatisfied to get refunds, which got real messy real quick. Suffice to say not exactly the greatest launch look for such a high profile title and touted dev, and just got more bizarre as it unfolded. Like: Sony as a seemingly fuck you response, did offer full refunds and pulled it from the store entirely! Motherfucking unprecedented. MS shortly guaranteed refunds too but didn’t’ outright yank it. One of the best moments came via a reporting on the fallout, where in a CDPR meeting a question from staff to management/board was essentially ‘isn’t it hypocritical what you’ve done in this situation, with this particular game, given its specific themes?’ Which is amazingly hilarious and spot on. ‘You’re being the Corpos here, how’s it feel!?’ Then the investors sued! Simply incredible stuff.
As for the game itself, it is a quite immersive and incredibly fleshed out world (small but dense—no wasted space, which is probably the future of open world) channeling some of the best/most recognizable aspects of the aesthetic set up by one of the early TTRPG inspirations via Mike Pondsmith’s original vision. Plot/characters top notch work, best narrative/atmosphere/world as is their forte. Standout elements/moments that elevate it include: the evolving relationship between PC, Johnny Silverhand, and supporting cast; noir tinged missions and twists; song titles/references quest names; myriad attention to setting details accompanied by great dialogue and standout setpieces. Admittedly graphics can be a little fuzzy/iffy, AI a bit odd, and driving especially hit a few hiccups. Had a fine but not totally impressive few opening hours, then fell into a quite enjoyable groove through a chain of organic/emergent events/missions, but that culminated in a crash shortly after and more throughout the whole playthrough. Still, was sold enough to be excited for subsequent sessions. The oddest annoyance was it sometimes reset my inversion/HUD settings. The rough edges are undeniably present. Saga continued when ~week after release got hit w/ a fresh last minute 17G hotfix which had to clear up space for. And another week after that to fix a critical save corruption issue. Good on them for churning them out quickly, but goddamn it officially then claimed the ‘honor’ of eating up the most HD space for any game ever. Despite all that, at the core it headshots the high looting-crafting-hacking FPS RPG mark when it all works and that’s my favorite style. Even hours in kept itself fresh. Basically a déjà vu Skyrim/New Vegas situation, and if I can claim to love those despite all their considerable jank, (and let’s be fair, well before the era of regularly expected hotfix/patches) and am willing to forgive technical hitches vs. delivering a memorable story and stable enough experience, then is CP77 really all that different on that front? Perhaps the key factor is CDPR’s shadiness vs. their prior reputation. Final summation: Yes, it has bugs/glitches/crashes. But all that fell away when I was more often than not blowing heads off fellow cyberpunk criminals on the mean streets of Night City dressed in sick gear and rocking a fully upgraded magnum, or slicing them up with arm-blade implants while hacking the shit out of everything and genuinely invested/engaged/surprised by the quests/stories, main and side, from start to end. A delicious cocktail blend of: Bladerunner (of course,) New Vegas, Deus Ex, West World, Altered Carbon, and Borderlands, all topped off with its own unique spicy garnish and a truly killer soundtrack. Indeed ends up being my GOTY.

Carrion- Released Spring 2020, got on XS GP Jan ‘21. The Thing, except you play as the monster. Pretty cool concept, indie dev pub’ed by Devolver, obviously. 16-bit vibrant appealing pixel art, simple but elegant controls, especially movement given the nondescript amorphous tentacle-and-teeth design of the creature. Essentially a M-V, navigating connecting levels, unlocking abilities to progress in puzzles/combat. Short and enjoyable, good for brief sessions, 6-8 hrs. 100% it. Minor gripes: lack of overall map to mitigate the required backtracking, and a fairly mundane take on the material, not attempting anything beyond the bare bones. Could slip into a tie w Curse Moon 2 for mid-tier indie/retro.

Call of the Sea- Released Dec 2020. Good reviews. XS GP early ’21, as was the case with a block of games around the same time. Lovecraft-tinged, naturally. W-S puzzler. Solid atmosphere using a dreamy/surreal impressionist watercolor aesthetic matching the tone/theme, similar to Metamorphosis. Good voice acting, story/puzzles are mostly what would be expected but executed quite well. One of the better if not best 2020 supernatural-tinged sims. Tie w/ Meta for the genre and literary connection. Did all but 1 achievement. ~8 hrs.

Haven- Dec 2020. XS GP early ’21. A low key RPG-lite explorer/crafter, same devs as Furi. Sci-fi story of young lovers fleeing their oppressive homeworld in a stolen ship, (obviously) ending up on a dangerous planet, having to scrounge for survival and finding clues to their culture’s past along with each other/themselves throughout the adventure. Heavily anime in plot, tone and aesthetic. Excellent art, chillwave soundtrack matches the gliding mechanic while exploring/collecting resources in the world. Tying gameplay to narrative via the progression system of building each partner’s relationship trust/confidence through dialogue and combat/resting moments is a neat touch somewhat like God of War in that sense. Very relaxing with a solid core of emotional thrust driving it. Both characters are grounded and believable, voice acting sells it, though conversations can veer into overly cutesy territory. Unassumingly inoffensively enjoyable enough experience. Actual couples would probably have a better time with it. Did 85% of achievements. 15-17 hrs.

The Falconeer- On GP early ’21. Fairly under the radar. Solo dev, Wired pub’ed. Ride a giant falcon NeverEnding Story style, and dogfight/bomb other falcons, pirates, dragons, sea serpents and forts in a semi-feudalist Lovecraftian meets steampunk setting. Cool world building/mythology/lore with intriguing story, themes of classism/economics decently sprinkled in. Very appealing, crisp but soft art/visuals. Mechanically firmly functional, fine range of abilities/items. Can be both relaxing to soar above the ocean exploring locations, or intense battling in the skies while doing missions. Unique and quite fun. StarFalcon 2020. ~15 hrs, 100% achievements. Easily recommend and slipped late into honorable 2020 tied with Haven. DLCs to come.

Spiritfarer- On GP early ’21. Got fairly high praise, mostly for the story/characters followed by the explo-craft/farm mechanics that tie into the narrative. Framework is acting as the new Charon archetype for departing spirits and fulfilling their last requests in a cool looking/well designed world. Night in the Woods + Water Tastes Like Wine and they settled down in Stardew Valley. A number of the shades are the main char, Stella’s, friends/family/loved ones. Others are just random townsfolk, but all with unique/distinct personalities, likes/dislikes etc. and who transform into anthropomorphic creatures after joining Stella on her houseboat. They set forth on a bittersweet journey of coming to grips with loss and providing closure for both the passengers and Stella herself. Has a delightful hand drawn Disneyesque art/animation style that was recently the case in a rash of games I played around this time. A reflective laidback pleasantly chill low pressure smell-the-roses title with thoughtful themes and writing. Leans toward the routine/chore based loop of Stardew and the like. Fine but not one of my favorite core mechanics as it can become repetitive/grindy with all the various ingredients etc. required to satisfy the NPCs/build structures/advance through the story. Still, is another well done what I’m terming as a genre ‘Relax-em-ups’ ala Haven, Eastshade, et al. Soundtrack is soothingly fitting too but also not as standout as the aforementioned and similar others. About mid-way through I guessed the ‘twist’ would be that it was Stella who dying, not everyone else…called it! Still fine, even if it’s a bit obvious. Overall enjoyable just not quite to par with some of the above games. Free updates through 2021 but will likely pass if it’s just more loops of meeting NPCs and building shit.


Narrative Timbre: How the f**k I got here. Three records that changed my life.

March 26, 2021 Chris Morgan Blogs, Narrative Timbre

For his first vlog entry, Chris talks about the first three records that changed his life.

Our Star Wars review.

Blaster Beam — Craig Huxley and Craig Huxley with Bear McCreary and use in the Klingon Battle.

7th Generational Heaven

March 9, 2021 Scott Thurlow Dialogue Tree

It was recently my birthday, and as I teeter ever more precariously on the precipice of being 40, a conflux of events (i.e. being trapped in my house largely alone by both the pandemic and local weather) allowed me to have another musing that I decided to turn into full article form. In the last month or so I went through a marathon of 7th console generation (X360/PS3) titles, some of which were replays of old favorites, others ones that I never got to back in the day. At the end, I realized that this generation is now removed and distinct enough to have its own retro feel/style, and indeed nostalgia. Agreed upon to have lasted roughly 11 years, from 2005-2016, it’s since been almost as much time removed from the 7th Gen. In light of that, I feel the games of its time can be looked back upon from the shores of the present and retrospectively assessed. 

I’ll readily admit the SNES period (4th generation as defined/agreed) was seminal for my sensibilities. Coinciding with my adolescent/teen years, by nature nothing can take away the profound influence of that era on myself. It was a time of legends, when Chrono Trigger, Link to the Past, Illusion of Gaia, Super Metroid, Mario World, and all those glorious monsters roamed the earthly realm of consoles, building monuments and constructing wonders in my pop culture mind. Their impressions are indelibly etched upon my formative gaming psyche and are firmly locked in place.

By the time of the 7th Gen though, both the medium and I had a more robust history and were (relatively) more mature. 30 years on from its infancy and rise, the industry and discussion around games were evolving. It was possible at that point to start learning to appreciate and analyze games in a deeper, more critically thoughtful manner. Though they still assuredly employed a bevy of tropes/issues for good and ill, creativity overall was flourishing. Gaming was comfortably coming into its own and a new paradigm was forming, shifting organically as it advanced.  

Another factor to consider when viewed/played through the modern lens, is that on the technical side, the generation was in full swing. Developers, programmers, art designers, and all others who had a hand in those sections were familiar enough with the hardware’s workings to be able to fully take advantage of its capabilities. World/map/level size was comfortably manageable; functionally spacious but in most cases nowhere near approaching the later bloated overwrought design philosophy. Likewise, textures and backgrounds, the ephemera and guts of the game worlds, were more refined than ever, though not exactly photorealistic. They were undoubtedly “graphics” but no longer distracting/immersion-breaking in the way the previous pixels and polygons could be. Character models/animations/cut scenes were increasingly realistic and on the charmingly better side of uncanny valley, though still clearly fake and residually chunky/blocky in cases. Finally, running times for single-player experiences generally clocked in at a sweet spot of 10-15 hours (with increasingly more containing a multiplayer/online focus as those components rose to prominence.) Long enough to be substantial/satisfying but without demanding too intense or excessive a commitment from players.

On the other side of production, writing and story arcs pushed innovative and fulfilling narratives, elevating characters out of simplified one-dimensional territory. While a majority leaned somewhat ‘cinematic,’ they were not necessarily attempting a 1:1 ratio to television and movies. Rather, they utilized elements that best served the plot and strove to fuse with familiar/established game mechanics. Voice acting was becoming more professional and fluid while still retaining a (sometimes purposeful) stiltedness. It was grounded and believable enough to sell the action/emotion despite sometimes ending up just a little too much or not enough to achieve that little extra. That description itself is ungainly, but it is the best way I can put into words. The overall feel is difficult to describe academically, but like pornography, you know it when you see it and when it works, or doesn’t.

All that to say that development processes, technology, and imagination combined seamlessly in the best examples of 7th Gen works. When everything was humming in tune and firing on all cylinders, the effect was like nothing else that could be attained in other media, creating that ‘future is now!’ mood. If I could point to a specific title, Alan Wake would be my clutch case. It melds the live action segments, acting and writing with the best of the mechanical/technical/performance methods of the era into a perfectly paced plot and riveting gameplay.

This balanced combination served to influence and spearhead an ushering in of a new direction/vision in games. Keeping in mind too the indie scene was still very fresh. While beginning to burgeon, it wouldn’t be for another generation and a half or so that the scene would start to fully bloom and eventually explode. There were certainly a handful of releases throughout which we’ll see reflected below, but at least at the time, it was the higher profile gourmet items that were yet at the forefront.

Thus we arrive at the zenith, what I say is the sickest stretch, culminating in 2010-2011. These two years saw a slew of top notch releases that were critically/commercially acclaimed, and are to this day well-remembered, often appearing on ‘best of’ lists and perennially in remaster discussions/requests (some of which have gotten the treatment.) The titles released in this short spell contain the essence of the 7th Gen, creating that specific nostalgic sense I mentioned above. Even if you may disagree with or dislike any of them, I submit that the gauntlet is so stacked that there’s bound to be some in there that one would be hard-pressed to admit aren’t due their credence. Let’s go through some highlights shall we, and tell me it’s not an incredible assortment.

2010: Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake (RDR and AW the same fucking day!) Fallout: New Vegas, CoD: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, Just Cause 2, Crackdown 2, Starcraft 2, God of War 3, Fable 3, Rock Band 3, Just Dance 2, Limbo, AC: Brotherhood, Super Meat Boy, Civilization 5, Bayonetta, Dante’s Inferno, Darksiders, Singularity, Dark Void, Rayman 2, Bioshock 2, Deadly Premonition, Heavy Rain, Metro 2033, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Dead Rising 2, Scott Pilgrim vs. The Word, and Mafia II (both recently remastered.)

2011: Dark Souls, Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Minecraft (full release post-alpha,) Infamous 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, L.A. Noire, Portal 2, Witcher 2, Dragon Age 2, Dead Space 2, CoD: Modern Warfare 3, Killzone 3, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, FEAR 3, Battlefield 3, Saint’s Row 3, Yakuza 4, AC: Revelations, Catherine, Alice: Madness Returns, Bastion, Dead Island, Shadows of the Damned, Duke Nukem Forever (I know, I know! but historically, it was this year) Terraria, Binding of Isaac, Driver: San Francisco.

While an argument could be had on the merits and details of each, that ’10 or ’11 don’t quite boast the oeuvre of its preceding/antecedent one, it’s a moot conversation in my opinion. This my friends is a goddamn epic horse race with some all-time big guns in both. No matter which in your opinion ‘wins,’ everybody gets paid out on the strength of the entire run. 

For reference and somewhat in the spirit of fairness, below is a briefer compilation of a few other high caliber titles from the 7th Gen outside that two year stint:

Halo 3 2007
Bioshock 2007
GTA 4 2008
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves 2009 (i.e. the best one)
Fallout 3 2008
Batman: Arkham Asylum 2009
Dragon Age: Origins 2009
Borderlands 2009
AC II 2009
Dishonored 2012
Far Cry 3 2012
Last of Us 2013 (at the tail end leading into the next/8th generation)

All great stuff, and accuse me of cherry picking as you will, but I maintain none of those years individually contain the breadth and wealth of 2010-11. Do the research and reply! And either way, my intent was to underscore/emphasize a larger argument: That this illustrious period set an immediately recognizable template for what came after, and that in some permutation persists to this day. Identifiable echoes of the era reverberate across the following generations and easily into the most recent turn.  

Having the luxury of looking back and being able to play a slice of these titles formulated and cemented my stance on that. If I were a betting man, which I am, I would advise you to also look out for an upcoming wave of remasters and/or indies that will attempt to capture the aesthetics and modes of the 7th Gen. And that is not a bad thing by any means, as long as we qualify that with the ever-pertinent and infinitely applicable ‘when done right/respectfully.’

I hope you enjoyed traveling down this short memory lane and semi-prediction regarding the 7th Gen with me. As always, do ship any comments etc. should you be moved to do so, and I’ll see you in the upcoming days of retro future past.

-Scott Thurlow  

The Joys of Junk Food Games

February 23, 2021 Scott Thurlow Dialogue Tree

Since I’ve been quite quiet on the article side of things here, I thought I’d try to start back up this year by covering an idea I’ve had for a bit, but haven’t discussed or expanded upon until this point. (And that may or may not make it onto the actual podcast this season.) Nevertheless I’d like to go into what I’ve come to term as junk food games. Not ones based upon such properties (although those certainly exist, anyone remember Cool Spot, Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool or Yo Noid?) but titles that exist and serve to satisfy a shorter-lived craving. Games that don’t require excessive commitment, but that can and do hit a certain spot and leave you full but not bloated.     

By and large the titles that get the most attention usually remain the gourmet/premier entrées. An intimidating gauntlet of impressively arrayed main courses ala Red Dead Redemption, Fallout, Mass Effect, God of War, Witcher or [insert similar AAA open-world/massive RPG here.] Then you’ve got another category I coined– the buffet games, i.e. pick pretty much any Ubisoft title or facsimile thereof (Mad Max comes to mind.) These can be satisfying for what they offer as well; a large (sometimes overwhelming) assortment of a broad range of elements, some of which you may or may not find appealing. Finally you’ve also got the side snacks as it were, titles such as Goat Simulator, My Friend Pedro, Untitled Goose Game, and I Am Bread (rather aptly titled for my purposes.) Not quite complete combo meals, instead more like tasty finger food in game form.  

Still, I think there can be drawn a clear delineation or at least a set grouping to attach the label of junk food to the kinds of games I have in mind. I almost was tempted to call them mindless/dumb fun, but I dislike those terms as they seem much more dismissive, and my argument is that there is a definite and welcome place for these titles without necessarily having a negative connotation. Many are rather naturally the hallmark and purview of scrappy mid-tier developers with clear ambition, often working within a limited scope and budget constraints.

Perhaps a proper definition would serve us best at this point. For the kind of junk food games I’m thinking of, I mean those that don’t pretend to be anything but sheer entertainment; the burger, fries, and soda of the industry. They are made without ‘AAA’ money and staff, are smaller in scale/scope/length, and are intended less as heavily narrative/character focused (although they are not entirely devoid of those either.) More often than not though, the action/gameplay is at the forefront while the story sort of floats on top, or maybe more aptly functions as the dipping sauce. A good recognizable example of which might be something like the Just Cause series, though there are a number of others that lie in the sphere.  

In particular I would point to The Zombie Army Trilogy DLC/Expansions and specifically the 2020 standalone Zombie Army 4: Dead War as exemplifying the junk food classification. Indeed Dead War was the initial catalyst/impetus for this very topic. To me it is the quintessential junk food title. Having played most of the Sniper Elite titles previously and generally enjoying them, I was sold on the premise of an alt WW2 setting with, what else, Nazi zombies. Admittedly the idea in and of itself is by no means original, but it means the game can comfortably embrace the established tropes while utilizing its engine and assets to provide an engaging and entertaining experience. It’s good for soloing as well as geared with a Left 4 Dead style co-op experience in mind, and it all really clicks.

I recall a specific instance in Dead War when, following an intense wave battle scenario and before moving onto the next stage, an NPC radioed my character and delivered the line, “Hey, don’t forget to kill Hitler!” Yes, thank you, that is literally the central conceit here. Neither I nor I believe my PC avatar was ever in danger of neglecting to accomplish that vital goal. But you see, that’s why it’s the epitome of a junk food game! It’s such a ridiculous and even throwaway inclusion, but yet it totally fits for the game overall. It’s every perfectly serviceable 3rd Person Action/Shooter ever, with Nazi zombies. Of course it would have such an interaction. Within the confines of its own context, there is no other better moment to encapsulate it. I laughed both along with and at it, and went onto the next level eager to consume more.

Another strong contender for junk food game poster child would be Terminator: Resistance. Described by a number of outlets (who gave it the time of day to review) as “surprisingly decent,” it takes a very familiar framework and wraps it around utilitarian FPS/RPG-lite mechanics topped with franchise references/connections. A number of fans even consider it cannon, as well as a much better successor than the latter films. I personally had an excellent time with Resistance, and it snuck into my Mid-Tier/Solid list on Top Games last year. It didn’t overstay its welcome and delivered on pretty much every front it set out to. Definitely worthwhile, especially so since I snagged it on discount. Recently it was revealed Resistance did well enough to garner an enhanced edition, coming later in March this year, and I fully salute that.

There are a few others to mention to check out when you’re feeling in the junk food mood: Maneater is yet more great fodder (and also had a generational upgrade version.) It has a pretty unique hook, marketing itself as a “ShaRkPG” and features Chris Parnell doing a fantastic version of his trademark straight-man deadpanning absurd situations shtick. Finally, the latest junk food title I enjoyed as of date of writing is Werewolf: Earthblood (and more on that in an article to come.) Based on the World of Darkness tabletop setting, it plays like a stripped down Batman: Arkham style 3rd person stealth/beat ‘em up, in which you winnow down rooms of guards, then inevitably flip out and morph into the titular creature, tearing the remaining mobs of enemies to shreds. Gratifying as hell and I give it the official stamp of solid sustenance.

Certainly there are a slew of other titles that can easily fall into the junk food group (drop some in the comments if you’re so inclined.) My point is that it should be the case this category thrives and these games should be given their due for what they deliver. Sure, you might forget about the ‘meal’ in short order, but you probably won’t be able to deny it was delicious while you were devouring it. Until next time, happy munching my friends.  

-Scott Thurlow

Citizen Fincher: A Rewatch Retrospective

December 3, 2020 Scott Thurlow Guest Spots

Joe Soria

Twitter – @airosah

Letterboxd – https://letterboxd.com/airosah/

Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable. 
-Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman), Se7en 

The eve of a new David Fincher release seems to be an ideal time to reflect and celebrate the career of one of Hollywood’s most consistent and influential filmmaking voices of the past 30 years. 

His upcoming release Mank appears to be a departure for him –  his most personal and realistic, shot like it was made in the 40s based on a script from his father who has since passed away, and probably a limited amount of murder/death.

FINCHER RULES

I felt like destroying something beautiful. 
-Jack (Edward Norton), Fight Club

Just like Fight Club has rules, so do Mr. Fincher’s films adhere to a set of guidelines worth covering.

Commercial from the start Fincher did his time with a decade plus of music videos artists as varied as Madonna to Ry Cooder to The Wallflowers (Sixth Avenue Heartache) but once he made it to Hollywood he was a go big or go home type director. No small scale, micro budget indies here. Just star studded, mid to high budget beautifully shot films.

His work is carefully considered with precise execution, often choosing tougher projects with subject matters that he can properly realize. Quality and consistency are Fincher cornerstones. His discerning eye of interesting, dark material makes him trusted by film lovers of all breeds.  He is no slowpoke but propensity for larger projects and attention to detail may clarify his limited output of 3 films per decade compared to other big Hollywood directors in his strata.

Dirty up movie stars Take beautiful movie stars and beat them up a bit, make them “uglier,” or distressed as if they haven’t slept in weeks. Scarring, bruises and bandages recommended. See: Mara, Pitt, Pike, Gyllenhaal et al. 

Run time not a limitation The actors may talk and move fast with flashy edits, but Fincher is not afraid to linger and his film’s runtimes more often than not top the two-and-a-half hour mark.

Make it dark then turn down the lights some more Shadows and washed out color palettes are a must. Yellowy, aged, decrepit are a plus. Basically, it always looks like a winter night all the time, or is raining etc. constantly ala Se7en.

Make it heavy, brutal and violent From the depressing prison of Alien³ to the dark alleys and crime scenes in Seven’s unnamed town, the dimly lit basement and shithole living spaces of Fight Club or the gloomy winter Nordic landscapes of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Fincher sure has a type… of preferred scenery.

Don’t forget the voyeurism Fincher being an avid Hitchcock fan clarifies the connective tissue of his oeuvre even more. The amount of watching people from dark areas and thinking about doing bad things to people or figuring who is doing bad things to whom is another hallmark of his. It’s all a mystery that leads down a deep dark hole.

Haunting, bleak, denuded scores Whether it is the Dust Brothers, Reznor/Ross etc.  the scores of his film are a character unto themselves providing their own sinister layer.

Impeccable music choices I dare you to try getting “Hurdy Gurdy Man” out of your head after watching Zodiac. And Fight Club might have one of the top all-time climactic needle drops in film history with the Pixies’ “Where is My Mind?”

FINCHER TIERS

You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.
-Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), The Social Network

Numbered ranking is hard and an exercise of how you feel at the moment. Tiers are where things really sit. But having a nice round number of ten allowed me to rewatch all of these films in full in a 2-3 week period to get fully immersed in the filmography. COVID is good for something.

Seeing as Fincher likes his characters dazed, hazy, beat up and knocked down it only seems natural to split these tiers into alcohol levels at a bar that you should not be visiting right now.

TOP SHELF

The Social Network

Se7en

Fight Club

Zodiac

I mentioned my distaste for ranking but when it comes to the number one choice it is The Social Network and then the rest. Make the rules, break the rules. (High school me would still offer to battle present day me in the alley in defense of the greatness of Tyler Durden.)

This propulsive, quippy, cutting apocryphal origin myth is so good on so many levels. Watch Fincher take his best script (an Aaron Sorkin opus that hums), assemble a cast of burgeoning stars – Jesse Eisenberg, Arnie Hammer, Rooney Mara, Rashida Jones and Andrew Garfield, an unreal Justin Timberlake performance, scored to perfection with his first Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross collaboration (potentially score of the decade) and put all the pieces together in the most scene to scene engaging film he has ever made.

Don’t fish eat other fish? The marlins and the trout!
-Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), The Social Network

An important clarification, The Social Network is not the story about a web platform full of family photos, garbage and vitriol. In fact, the key to the whole story is exclusivity and coolness. When The Social Network was released ten years ago, it was THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Revolutionary but not necessarily genius. Fuckin A Addictive and integral to daily life for netizens. A decade later it is a much reviled, debated abomination filled to the brim with confusion and resentment. The funny thing is that the film actually predicted the downfall of what people liked about it in this movie. Once everyone can join and there is advertising it would become uncool. And boy did it ever. That and because of your uncle.

The Social Network is like a fine wine that gets better with age. It was a timely document that is even more prescient and pointed in hindsight as the capturing of a moment that can’t be replicated – an exploration of the Silicon Valley creation myth at its heyday right after the dotcom bubble. The early days of the humble geeky, fun internet are gone. And unlike the other tech origin tales, this is an east coast elite Ivy league snipe-fest, big money infighting at its peak.

A film full of typing and depositions and drinking beer feels like the most action packed film Fincher has ever done. Between the energy of the initial all-nighter coding explainer, the internship contest and that beautiful interstitial UK rowing contest, Fincher shows that he can make anything thrilling. In fact, that is what makes this film so truly impressive a feat –  without spilling a globule of blood, this is as violent and searing a movie as he’s ever made. The perfect weaving of all of Fincher’s favorite themes, motifs, and characters coming in right at two hours of no fluff. 

Se7en gets a nod for setting the formula and the Brad Pitt breakout. A grimy, Hitchcockian story that amps up the gore and the voyeurism, and brings in that perfect, iconic, final twist. The early excellence showcase that for most would be hard to exceed.

You wouldn’t happen to have any animal crackers, would you?
– Dave Toschi, Zodiac

Zodiac expands the world of the one week timeline of Se7en into an exhaustive decades-long true crime tale, multi-perspective period piece featuring three amazing co-lead performances in Downey, Ruffalo, and Gyllenhaal.

Fight Club – This one creeps in from its importance to my film culture youth and did hold up on a rewatch. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are at the peak of their powers and get a script worthy of their talents. Some of it does feel a bit dated 20 years later, like the slomo intro sequence and sex scene but they were also a real filmmaking trend starter that lasted for years.

What does hold up? Many of the things that felt revolutionary like the anti-consumerist vamps and the whole segment of pretending to have diseases to get comforted (still funny). The performances from the headliners (Pitt, Norton, Helena Bonham Carter) as well as peak Meatloaf. The scenes of Norton’s dreary office, his single serving friends and his awful road trips to car collision sites. And lastly, the need for a place to feel included and to get out that negative energy building up inside of you. (As long as you are not hurting someone who isn’t expecting it, blowing off steam in a productive manner can be healthy.)

MID SHELF

The Game

Gone Girl

The Game is a high quality puzzle box film where Fincher succeeds in modernizing the Hitchcockian potboiler. Probably the most overlooked Fincher film, it doesn’t have the pomp and circumstance of the top tier choices, but what it does perfectly is utilize Michael Douglas as the counterweight to his Gordon Gekko role. The character is also amazingly wealthy but without the smarm living in predictable manner with silence and solitude. 

This era of Douglas was full of interesting choices that mostly hit the mark – Basic Instinct, Falling Down, Disclosure, The American President, Wonder Boys, and Traffic. Still, The Game is missing a supreme distinctive quality to catapult it to the top level. 

Why should I die? I’m not the asshole.
– Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), Gone Girl

Gone Girl is a well made adaptation of a popular Gillian Flynn novel. Rosemund Pike has the best role and performance of her career leading this kidnapping story remix. Ben Affleck is passable as her husband under the microscope of the law. And a quick shout out for a heat check performance from Tyler Perry as the high priced attorney working the case. Overall, this is an interesting film with a great performance at its center that I never took a huge shine too. 

If you are in the mood for a dark thriller, this pair are a good double feature with as solid twists as any. If you haven’t seen ‘em, they will go down smooth enough.


WELL / REPLACEMENT LEVEL

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Alien³

Panic Room

Being a fan of the original books and the Swedish film series, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo seemed like the series made for Fincher. But something didn’t quite click. Maybe it was the disconnected attempt at Nordic accents played by a bevy of Brits and Americans (Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara and Robin Wright). Maybe it was just the explicit brutality and the abusiveness which is direct from the book. It has style and energy but falls flat overall in execution and cohesiveness.

Panic Room is the most straightforward, Hitcockian work of Fincher’s career and it suffers as what is often the shlockiest. With a decent concept and script, it takes a lot of his preferred themes and motifs but ends up their weakest most watered down version. Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, and a very young Kristin Stewart put in admirable work but overall it just doesn’t fire on all cylinders at any point. 

It’s like a lion. Sticks close to the zebras.
-Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Alien³

In an interview with The Guardian in 2009, Fincher stated in regards to Alien³, “No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me.” I’ll say it is not the best of the series but it is passable for a debut and showcased some of what he could do visually, so still worth a look for that.

SWILL

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Before my rewatch of Benjamin Button, I thought my memories of the film might have been harshly negative. Nope, it was just as incomprehensible as ever.

Brad Pitt stars in this alternative New Orleans-based version of Forrest Gump. Instead of sitting on a bench and talking about a box of chocolates though, Mr. Button is born old only and ages in reverse. Cate Blanchett, one of the world’s other greatest film actors, spends most of the movie quivering and old in a hospital bed thinking about old/young Brad Pitt. Oh yeah and it just so happens that is also the day of Hurricane Katrina? As the kids say, WTF?

I hope you enjoy my clock.
-Monsieur Gateau (Elias Koteas), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Who am I to try and stop someone like Fincher to step outside their comfort zone? Oscar bait, special effects, big budget, passion project sorta jazz. Fincher’s chance to escape the dark corners of a room full of murder and blood. But I can imagine he could have done anything he wanted, this choice just seems off and the results are just as off.

One interesting thing that this film has going for it is what I can see as the only war scene he has ever filmed. At sea, nonetheless. And it is quite amazing. If it weren’t for pretty much every other scene, this would be an interesting film. As a close to three hour slog of grandpa Pitt, this one is a true eternal never-rewatch if there ever was one.

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So there you have it, 10 films over 30 years summed up in a few pages. Some worth savoring and some worth ignoring. Early reviews indicate that Mank is definitely a return to form for Fincher (and maybe his first real Oscar bait) but only time will tell. Happily, we won’t have to wait too long.

I did leave out the Netflix TV work but I will pour one out for the excellent Mindhunter overseen and sometimes directed by Fincher. If you are looking for something excellently creepy to watch this winter, you could do much much worse.