This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

Let me be honest, right from the start. This isn't the first time I have played "Thomas Was Alone." It also won't be the last time I play the game. When I got my computer ages ago, it was the first time in a long time that I actually had a PC to play games on. I had owned work laptops, but never really a gaming PC. When I finally did get a PC and download steam, I was hit with a huge swath of games I had previously no access to. So many games that never made the jump to the X360 or PS3 (which were the current systems at the time). It allowed me to invest in indie games I had heard about, but never got to play. Two of my first purchases were "Thomas was Alone," and "The Stanley Parable."

So here we are, roughly 10 years later. My PC is dying from not being upgraded, and indie games come out on a lot more systems now. Here we are playing "Thomas was Alone" all over again.

Thomas, is probably best described as a narrative puzzle platformer. In each level you are trying to get a set of characters from the start of the level to their respective ending points. Each character that you come across has different abilities that can vary from something as simple as a longer jump, to the ability to float on water or act as a trampoline for other characters. You then use these abilities to traverse levels that have spikes, pits, or water hazards that could potentially destroy the character. No matter how you slice it though, the levels never really rise to the level of frustrating and the puzzles are never ones that leave you scratching your head for hours at a time. What is an incredible testament to the game design is that the levels progress at just the right difficulty curve that can appeal to most senses. One level's sole focus could be on teaching you a mechanic that you then take with you for the rest of the game, or it might teach you about a "trick" that then opens up how you beat later levels.

The base game has 100 levels, minimal collectibles and probably averages at a difficulty level of a 3 out of 10, while only taking you 2-4 hours to complete. If you are looking at this game on a stat sheet you wouldn't be wrong to question if the game is truly worth its price, but "Thomas was Alone" is so much more then it's base. There is a fantastic story here, amazing voice over, and truly fantastic music and that is all to say that by the end of the story you are left caring about squares and rectangles.

There is no big reveal here, but when I mentioned characters earlier, I am talking about different colored shapes. These shapes represent A.I. inside a computer program, and while we don't really know what they were designed for before we take control of them, we do end up caring for them in the end. Each character has a distinct personality and their own story arc, these are characters that as you play with them you learn to use them in effective ways, but also want to hear the story that is being built around them. For instance my two favorite characters are a small fat square named Chris and a long skinny rectangle named John. I can tell you so much about an orange square that has no facial features, no lines of dialogue, and no movement outside of when you are directly controlling him, but if you have played the game you know what I am talking about. All of this characterization is done through excellent writing from the creator, Mike Bithell, and delivered through excellent voice over work by Danny Wallace.

It is crazy to think about, but one of the things that makes the game for me, is the narration by Danny Wallace. There are few games that I can even think of where I pay attention at all to the narrator. I can tell you that Stanley Parable and Bastion have a pretty good one, and that the narrator for the original Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father makes me mute them almost immediately. Yet here we are, I linger in levels and wait to hear the full line being read out. I stop right before the ending of the level to make sure that there is nothing else that is going to be narrated, I feel emotions when I am supposed to feel emotions.

Some of that is of course the amazing job Mike and Danny do, but I would be remise if I didn't also give a shoutout to the music which helps make the game. For the most part it probably won't inspire someone to listen to the soundtrack while they are going for a run, or riding the train to work, but god damn, it works so well in the game.

Now, I know what people who aren't interested in the game would say and the trailer for the game probably isn't going to sell anyone who is on the fence, but I really can't stress enough how truly fantastic I think the game is. If I was composing a list of my favorite games (very different from "What's the Greatest") I would tell you that this game is easily in my top 20-25 of all time. It is probably my favorite "indie" if we have designations like that, and it is one of few games that is a universal recommendation for all of my friends. I went through this playthrough twice, once normal and from the start, and then through the whole game again with the commentary track from Mike turned on. If I had a complaint about this game is that I would scale the difficulty up a smidge, and I want it to be 120 levels long instead of 100, however those are negatives because I enjoy the game so much that I want there to be more. I want the characters to have more story to tell, I want to listen to the sweet music mixed with the narration of Danny Wallace.

Now, with all that being said, I am not going to tell you this is the greatest game of all time. I understand that it won't top Super Mario or Yakuza 0, and I know that some people will scoff at its art style, say the game is too easy, and disagree with me on the story and music. That's fine, if I am the one championing for this game the hardest, I can live with that cross to bear. To me, this is an incredible game, and one that after beating it again, I ordered the physical version of the PS4, just so I could have something on hand should i lose access to my steam account.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: Not this time

Where does it rank: This isn't a "Phil's all time favorite list", so I do have to take into consideration the game as a whole. There is a lot to love about this game, and some might argue that my three favorite things I like about this game are not 'Game" related. A movie could have a great story, narration, and music, but there is something about controlling these characters that ties those three together so well. If you somehow subtract those items, and just judge it on its puzzle platform bits, its a competent but not great game. Its jumping isn't going to rival Mario anytime soon, but I have it ranked as the 11th greatest game of all time. It sits between "Turtles in Time" (10th) and "Super Mario Bros" (12th). I am sure this spot is contentious, but when I look at the list, that is where I think it belongs.

Up Next: Blazing Beaks (Switch)

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion). Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for Listening.