Games Explored in 2018
For a game to make it onto this list, I'll either have finished it or at least passed its halfway point; not just picked it up and played it once. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to gauge its experience properly.
List items
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Incomplete.
Not sure if I ever will complete this. This game is truly unique but, unfortunately, its story and lore was spoiled for me a couple of years ago by my own will, along with the other Silent Hill games; as at the time I was simply fascinated by their narratives from afar and never thought I'd actually play them. The build, atmosphere and mechanic is truly admirable and I can absolutely empathise with how highly this game is regarded but, to my own fault retrospectively, the element of mystery is simply lost.
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Complete (every boss including DLC).
I had never played anything like this, and when I first started it, I hated it. I couldn’t stand how far apart the bonfires were for example, I just thought it was plain “unfair”. “Fake difficulty”, I thought. I was so wrong. The further into Dark Souls I ventured, the more I realised how the whole mechanic connected, how it worked, how I was not playing the game. The game was playing me.
It was there to teach me something that I couldn’t put into words, plus its world and lore was infinite-feeling, wise and beautiful. After 3 months of playing through this game, beating every single boss; when the final decision was made and the credits rolled: I felt nothing. No satisfaction, no payoff, no relief, no pride. Literally, nothing. You go and you go and you go and you go and then you just… stop. That’s it.
Just like life.
This is one of the best games I have ever played.
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Incomplete.
This game has charm and I find its existence refreshing, especially since, as a Batman comic fan, I feel it's one of the few medias to portray Batman closer to how he should be (unlike all the films). But I have to say that I don't quite understand the praise it's received, with it being referred to as an overall "fun" experience. For me, unfortunately, the word 'tedious' would be more fitting. The art, voice acting and music is great but, due to being plagued by frustratingly clunky controls, poor conveyance and a lack of flow, this game ended up feeling like it was trying to be something it wasn’t. I commend it for its variation, but I often felt like its attention was spread too thinly, resulting in a weird catamari of watered-down attempts all lined up next to each other.
I really wanted to love this game. I can definitely respect it as a milestone in comic book-inspired gaming, I just don’t think I’ll be picking it up again any time soon.
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Complete.
I wasn't expecting this to captivate me as much as it did, compelling me to beat it in two days. Its sense of flow was, for the most part, really well executed. I don't typically like shooters but this felt more like something grander that some shooting just happened to be apart of. The story was impactful and I loved how rewarding paying attention to the further lore felt, simply in and of itself. Memorable experience.
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Complete.
I have been meaning to try this game for years (way before Automata came out) but it is near impossible to find in Australia. I knew virtually nothing about it, I just wanted to try a Sqaure Enix game I hadn’t seen before. Finally on a whim, during a holiday in another state in Australia, I managed to come across ONE copy in EB Games in an old cruddy bogan shopping centre in the middle of nowhere; for the staff to then tell me “it was probably one of the only copies left in the country.”
At first, it didn’t quite seem to be hitting the mark for me, however, I couldn’t stop because there was this underlying feeling that I was missing something fundamental about what I was experiencing.
Then eventually, I realised how severely prone to being misunderstood this game is. This game really thinks outside the box but it doesn't seem like it at first. On a surface level, this is just a cheesy, predictable RPG with a recycled plot, weird dialogue from stupid characters, old PC style broken gameplay and a narrative with so much constant tragedy that it’s amusing due to its absurdity. But underneath, it's an ingenious meta commentary packed with subtle plays of irony and complexity that purposely force you to grimace, think and even possibly cry, which I admittedly did once (the fucking wolf and his father got me).
I tend to like “darkness” in art, but this game could get dark in a way that I wasn’t used to. It has this way of making you feel truly sad, disturbed, hopeless and empty. I love it.
When you finish this game, after you’ve saved your “cleared game” data which creates a save starting from the shorter 2nd half of the game, load it and it play again (it doesn’t take long because it retains all your powerful weapons and stats) because, trust me, the story keeps going.
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Incomplete.
Throughout my life, I have started and stopped this game about 4 times. Finally, this time, I made the conscious decision to start it and then at least not stop before the halfway point.
I have a complicated relationship with Zelda games. There are things I love about them (like their amazing character design and music) and there are things I loathe about them (like their unsatisfying and logically inconsistent "lateral puzzles"). I've never understood why people call Ocarina of Time a masterpiece (another game I started 4 times before I finished it), and I still don't. I must say though that despite my ambivalent apprehension towards Zelda, this one is definitely my favourite.
Some games don’t need an obvious dimensional narrative to feel full and adventurous because their mechanic and atmosphere is rewarding enough on its own (Dark Souls for example). Zelda, although having marvellous subtext, has always needed one in my opinion. Which is why my favourite is Majora’s Mask, it’s the only one I’ve played with a vaguely compelling narrative. It’s the least empty to me.
This game brings along a lot of the things I enjoy about Zelda and couples it with a brilliant tone and atmosphere facilitated by its narrative. The juxtaposition is captivating, feeling almost like a tragic accident, though it most definitely isn't; made even more obvious by the fact that Koji Kondo seriously knows how to compose an appropriate melody.
Good work, Majora's Mask. I could totally vibe with this fever dream :)
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Complete.
I've always been curious about Castlevania, I just never thought I'd have the fortitude to tackle it. But through the combination of me having picked up the enjoyable Castlevania netflix series last year, The Game Kitchen's 'Blasphemous' being somewhat around the corner, and the fact that I am god awful at sidescrollers; I figured, what a most convenient way to git relatively gud than to dive into a Castlevania game.
Rondo of Blood is often considered the apex “classicvania” of the series, known for taking everything its predecessors did right and accumulating it all into one classic experience. This 3D remake stays true to its source but is also improved where necessary. It’s tough, fun and looks great; ultimately combining modern accessibility with classic functionality. It also has, in my opinion, the best version of the iconic song ‘Bloody Tears’ :P
I will admit, though, that the experience felt empty to me, not in a profound way. I'm reluctant to say this is a fault of the game, but rather of me. If a game doesn't reward me heavily enough in and of itself for facing its challenges, it tends to feel clinical and cold to me; like I'm just playing on autopilot, mindlessly going through the stages. It was definitely charming enough for me to finish it, but let me just say I'm definitely grateful for how the substance of gaming has evolved since 1993.
Regardless, I would still recommend this game to anyone in modern times wanting to test the waters of the classicvania experience :)
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Incomplete.
Very different from the classicvania experience but fundamentally made from the same charming stuff. Having completed the first half and reached the mid-point of the second half (inverted castle), I must say this was a milestonic game. The interconnected map is amazing, the music is great and the art and character design is unique. Unlike Rondo of Blood, the story becomes more interesting as it progresses. The gameplay is challenging, smooth-feeling and offers flexibility for the player through chosen arsenal.
My only gripes would be that it gets a bit repetitive and that the lateral puzzles are a little too cryptic for me personally. Similar to Dark Souls, this game doesn’t tell you where to go, so if you go down a particular path too soon, you’ll run into a battle that you’re not actually ready for yet. Hence, the main reason I put it down was because, as the second half became noticeably more difficult overall, I ended up struggling too often to decipher my course of direction; and so, eventually, the repetition began to wane on me.
Regardless, if you’re at all interested in Castlevania, this is a definitive must-play.
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Incomplete.
So far I’ve finished Branch A and B, having made it half way through C.
I’m reluctant to say I’m disappointed because I was already aware of this game’s infamy, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little. I loved NieR despite its hiccups and the first Drakengard was definitely a product of its time yet had an absurdly unique story. This game, however, is a lot harder to love. I definitely don’t hate it, it just could’ve done so much more for me.
There’s barely any level and enemy variation, almost all being the same thing with different skins. The main bosses luckily tend to have more varied design. The music isn’t bad (not as good as NieR’s), it’s just that it’s the same 5 or so songs on repeat almost constantly. The combat and general control is fun for a short time but quickly becomes repetitive, tedious and more noticeably broken; feeling more like something out of an unfinished fan-game. The framerate can literally drop to what feels around 0.5 fps at times. I eventually started to find myself impatiently whispering “fucking hell” to myself at the beginning of *new* levels, which is not a good sign.
The character design is compelling, despite the characters themselves almost all being gimmick-vessels. The dialogue, acting and humour is, for the most part, extremely cringy with nothing to justify it being that way (unlike NieR having a satirical self-awareness).
One of the main things pulling me through this game is its compelling narrative, though difficult to see through to the end due to things holding it back; hopefully I’ll get through it. This is definitely a game best experienced in small chunks, as to avoid falling into the same kind of depression perpetuated by a monotonous day job; where although it all ends up being worth it, the journey just isn’t that particularly fun.
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