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Diablo 2 Resurrected (PC)

Diablo contributed quite a bit to my early adolescent life. The internet was a new frontier. Early teenage nights (8th grade) were spent on the playground that was Battle.net: chatting with friends and strangers, trying to scam people of their unique weapons, dueling outside of the rogue encampment, griefing lower level players; somewhat ‘acting out’, but in an environment without any repercussions. We played the game, too, of course, but at the time it wasn’t about grinding the endgame rather than bunking off with some of the boys.

I played for a bit in college, as well. It felt different in terms of motivators, but still very satisfying. My roommate and I would fill the nights with 3-hour play sessions, taking turns doing magic find end-game runs and divvying up the loot between our accounts afterwards. We all had played the game in high school, and the purpose it served at this stage in our lives was different. It offered a time-sink when we had seemingly an endless amount of leisure time. It is fun to min/max your characters; plan a skill tree up-front and execute - watching a build come together in front of your eyes. Grabbing a high rune during a Baal Run or trading for your perfect gear piece for your build was thrilling.

So now, at 33 and with two kids, I played the remastered version to determine what it offers me at this stage in life. Now, I found that I greatly appreciate the heavy atmosphere. The soundtrack is near-perfect. The loot system, while novel at the time, is still pretty good - if not slightly unforgiving. Each class plays quite differently. The game is designed super well, and of course the nostalgia hits me hard. It’s still incredibly satisfying witnessing your character gain power - mowing down hundreds of enemies that once could wreck you in a few hits.

But… I play through the campaign once, and I am left satisfied. I don’t have the will to continue. The matchmaking online has not changed since 2004 (perhaps good and bad). Classes are not balanced - and the best ones have gear that is ungodly expensive. Drop rates for gear or runes that are worth anything are probably as low as they ever were… but when there is 5 hours of free time a week, I just do not want to spend it trying to gear up my character. 

I don’t think a game will likely ever recapture the old ‘Diablo 2 feeling’ that I revere so much. But that is OK. Life moves on. Interests change. Different things give you pleasure. And the memories are always there.

The past is a candle at great distance: too close to let you quit, too far to comfort you. - amy bloom

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Elden Ring (PS5)

At this point, From Software has an incredible portfolio of action/adventure games that all share similar DNA. Exploration is the focal point of Elden ring, and it is a great joy. The game has one of the most beautiful overworld maps, which is riddled with secrets and points of interest. The player is always rewarded for taking the time to explore - often in the form of a unique item, a boss fight, a save location, or an NPC character eager to ask a favor. There is no way to get around comparing Elden Ring to Breath of the Wild in this regard, except I never suffered from exploration fatigue as I did in Zelda’s world, likely due to varied environments and a sharp ramp-up in difficulty towards the end of the game. 

Many other “open world” games cannot wait to tell you where to go or what to do next, at the cost of robbing a player of agency. After all, is your open world game really “open” if the only interesting things to see or do are marked within the in-game map? Pick a game and you might also agree: GTA, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider Man, Batman, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Forza Horizon, Red Dead, the Witcher. 

Don’t misunderstand - Objective indications are good for onboarding a new or returning player, or to lead players to crafted experiences. But instead, what Elden Ring serves up is an entire world that is brimming with natural points of interest. This is paired with a ‘devil-may-care’ development attitude towards the player’s engagement with major portions of the game. Stumbling upon a small teleportation device in a hidden area could unlock a secret area with, perhaps, four extra hours of gameplay and an incredibly rewarding boss fight (this is in reference to finding Mohg, the Lord of Blood). 

The game “Takes You Places”, too. While the first 30 or so hours cover some familiar fantasy fare (not in a bad way), the last two-thirds of the game is filled with creative or beautiful world building. 

Souls games always seem to have a poison swamp in them somewhere along the line. No way around them, either - just need to trudge through while taking damage over time. It’s stressful.

I was pleasantly surprised at how familiar the fighting feels in the game, like slipping into my favorite pair of slacks. For some reason, the solicitations had me thinking that the team was attempting something a bit different with Elden Ring. Nope. It’s just open-world Dark Souls. I’m not complaining, though. 

There are hundreds of weapons, all with a unique look, move set, stats, skills, and modifiers. However, this brings me to my first of a couple minor criticisms. Upgrading weaponry towards the beginning of the game is expensive and uses limited resources, which somewhat penalizes trying something new. I was paralyzed by choice, and found a lot of success utilizing the same two weapons for the entirety of the campaign that I grabbed literally in the starting area. The progression could have been more satisfying. I often didn’t even pay attention to what I was grabbing off the ground. I straight-up ROLLED my assailants with a strength/dex build (curved sword) that eventually turned into full strength (golden halberd) about mid-way through. I actually felt over-powered with this build for the middle third of the game (my second, and final, criticism). Moreso just going through the motions until I was out of whatever area I was trudging through. Forgivable, as I was still having fun… but ‘middle third’ ends up translating to about 25 hours of gameplay played over a month or two of my life.

Everyone likes talking about the difficulty of these games, so here’s my input on the topic. For my money, the “action” FromSoftware games are more challenging (see exhibit A). I think this is because there are no alternative solutions to boss battles other than ‘getting good’. What this means is that Elden Ring is likely the simplest of the series, but also the most appropriate point of entry for a newcomer. And I think that’s actually a good thing. There were certainly points throughout the journey where I became stuck. But with a world to explore as great as this, the way to surmount a challenge is not to repeatedly bash your head against the wall, but to set out in the opposite direction until you encounter challenges better suited for your level. The last few hours of the game we’re very hard, though. As it should be.

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Half Life: Alyx (PC - VR)

Alyx tries hard to justify being a VR game. It mostly works. All of the gun play has a great tactile feel to it (more on this later). It also leans heavily into the ‘horror’ elements of the series - a genre that VR handles particularly well. The game is actually scary, at points, making great use of darkness, sound, and frightening enemies that are often jumping towards your face.

The combat is great. Reloading a gun is a pleasure and also a skill to be mastered - it can be tough to finish a timely reload under duress. Drop a clip, grab a new one over your shoulder, insert, chamber a round - all real actions that the player needs to do with two hands. Upgrades will add new scopes (hold the gun up to your eyes to use them), increase clip sizes, and other benefits. It’s also super satisfying, and nerve wracking, to use real cover. Drop and hit the floor. Peek your head around corners. The enemy attacks are powerful and will take the player out quickly if one is standing out in the open.

If we move away from the ‘VR’ components, all of a sudden, we’re in familiar territory. It’s not Half Life 3… but it does play into the broad narratives set by the mainline games. Alyx also shares the same format as the games preceding it: a chapter-by-chapter linear narrative, stages filled with heavily crafted encounters that are mostly excellent. Most of the time, stages are defined by a ‘theme,’ as well. “Oh, that was the conveyor belt level” or “The level in the hotel”. The good ones leave a big impression for years to come. 

As an example, there is a whole stage that I felt introduced grenades really well. The first time I came across a grenade, I was standing on some scaffolding looking down on several zombies below. It’s EXTREMELY satisfying pulling a plug and giving the nade a toss down below and watching havoc unfold. Fast forward 5 minutes, and I found myself face to face with my first Heavy Commander - standing 7 feet tall and in my face. Good thing I had time to practice tossing grenades, because they are about to become a central mechanic to my combat strategy. The Commander’s gatling gun is reverberating throughout the abandoned subway station in which I find myself. I load a grenade and toss it from out of my cover; it hits but I don’t hear any bodies hitting the floor. I pull out my pistol and blind-fire around the corner until he goes down. A satisfying conclusion to a very intense encounter. And just as comfort starts setting in, the game starts serving up more varied scenarios (Half life 1 and 2 did a good job with this, too), stripping away weapons in favor of a stealth level, for example.

I suppose these are the takeaways from my experience: horror game, great combat, and continues the Half Life story. Hearing that will either generate interest or not. My final takeaway though is not as good of news; it’s very resource heavy. I didn’t have a bad GPU the first time I played this game, but it was chugging along fairly poorly to the extent it took away from my experience. The load times are terrible too, compounded by the fact that I was wearing a VR helmet the whole time. This is all PC dependent, obviously, but it sets a barrier to entry that is too high.

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Bowsers Fury (Switch)

3d Mario game. 100 stars/shines/moons/whatevers. Free-roam open world. 7 different islands. For most, that’s probably all the information one would need to intuit what type of game this is.

Mario games are always charming, this one notches it up a little bit extra. Bowser’s Fury is especially cute because of the kitty-cat theming. There’s just a bunch of cats living on the islands? It’s never really explained. You can even pick them up and run around with them as they claw the air out in front of you. Mario can dress up like a kitty-cat too.

The go-anywhere map works well, no surprise. Each of the island has some sort of central identifier to it, not unlike the Super Mario 3D World game that is packed alongside Bowsers Fury (for the record, Fury was much more enjoyable for me to play). One island has platforms that flip on or off every time Mario jumps. One island has a super tall tower to climb up. One island is a colosseum with several different boss battles. Just hop onto the swimming dinosaur thing and race over to wherever you want to go. There’s fast travel later in the game too.

All in, it’s probably only 6 hours of gameplay, unfortunately. But it’s scrappy and unique. It’s worth playing. There are cool ideas in here, it feels like we’re able to play some sort of weird prototype for the next Big Mario Game.

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Inscryption (PC)

I’m a curious gamer, something I have known about myself for a while now. I just want to learn about the macro: what does this game do differently? What mechanics does it use, and how can I overcome the challenges it presents? I like learning rulesets - this extends to board games, card games too. A huge downside to all of this, though, is that sometimes a lot of games to me will have a short shelf-life. It gets a little expensive. I’ll pick something up, play it for 3 to 4 hours, and feel that I have gotten my money’s worth now that my curiosity is fulfilled. (Although is it a downside if I still enjoy my experience? Maybe not)

Inscryption is brimming with new and exciting concepts and rules. What makes it stand out from the massive card-battler crowd (Hearthstone, Slay the Spire, Gwent, Pokemon, Dominion, MTG, etc etc) is that in order to beat Inscryption, you need to break the game. Study the rules so that you can exploit them. This might mean preserving only the most overpowered elements into your ‘death card’ you get to create and use during successive playthroughs. It also might mean you need to stand up out of your seat and find hidden cards by solving puzzles in the cabin you are locked in. 

The micro-game here is fun too - the card battler itself. I enjoy games that forecast your opponent’s next move (Into the Breach did this very well), so that you are always making the most informed decision possible. I was frequently doing quite a bit of mental math during critical turns, “should I sacrifice this card as a meat shield, or launch an all-out attack and hope for a good card next draw”. There are also about 10/15 different bosses - all of which are brilliant and have a completely unique attack mechanic that is never re-used. Nothing ever comes down to a DPS check, you just truly need to solve for the new mechanic. For example, the Angler boss will ‘charm/hook’ your most recently played card to fight against you. He’ll spawn low-health chum buckets that will lure in a massively powerful shark card if you accidentally damage them. Or, later in the game (when things get super weird), a boss that you will inflict damage on by selecting the largest files you can find within your computer’s own hard drive. Crazy.

All of this is wrapped in a thrilling package. It’s a horror card game for a while. But then it kind of turns into that Pokemon Card Gameboy game from like 2001. And then it gets weirdly meta and finds excuses to layer in full-motion video (like with an actor) that is surprisingly not cringey. And then there’s a real-life ARG component that I didn’t engage with.

It’s easily my favorite game I played in 2021. And it’s not close. It’s the most creative game I have played in years - probably since the Witness (2016). 

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Returnal (PS5)

There is a lot to love about Returnal. The ‘game feel’ is just right, and a great foundation for a roguelike. It’s a graphical showcase for the PS5 - probably tied with the Demons Souls remake they did. Particle effects abound. I played this with my in-laws in the room who were locked-on to what they were seeing. There’s so much on screen (think about those bullet-hell video games - almost a subgenre in its own right), that you need to train your eyes to process only the important information. 

The sound design is spooky and gross. It’s the first PS5 game that put the adaptive triggers into effect - squeeze to the resistance point for primary fire - pull all the way for alternate. The way the controller is done almost means you have six different trigger buttons at your disposal. 

All of this, yet I still compare this game unfavorably to Hades, which came out about 9 months prior. There are 10 different weapons in this game, yet only two of them are viable options - most weapons are holdovers until you pick up a ‘good one.’ Hades had the same number of weapons, but each of them generally required a completely different playstyle - all of which felt powerful.

The story is nonsense, absolute gibberish. Playing Hades, the story is literally what kept me coming back at the very end.

The difficulty is not balanced either. I had 16 deaths in the first 12 hours just to beat the first three biomes (out of 6 total). I breezed through the last three biomes in just four tries of about one hour each… all of the ending bosses I completed on my very first attempt. 

The pickups and upgrades are boring. How does +10% armor sound to you? Or maybe +5% health? None of them will change the way you approach the combat encounters. 

The player should soon learn that the only items you will need to beat the game are an assault carbine with good numbers next to it, and health regen items (think death defiance). The rest is just noise and shouldn’t be engaged with. To make matters more dubious - some chests have a chance to inflict a ‘malignant effect’ on the player. This is an entire risk/reward system embedded in the game, but it is a losing bet every single time. Why would I risk assuming a game-ruining debuff (like +50% increased damage to the player) just to OPEN a chest, not knowing what is inside of it? Especially knowing that 80% of items are not going to be useful.

My final conclusion is that this is an amazing 2 hour video game that takes 20 hours to beat. Played/beaten in April of 2021.

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Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS5)

Miles is a good dude, and it's heartbreaking that he doesn't have any confidence. He takes American sign language courses in college and practices with his cute deaf neighbor. He supports his grade-school teaching Latino mother as she runs for counsel in their home neighborhood of Harlem. He humors his goofy best friend (which has an uncanny valley resemblance to essentially the same character in the Tom Holland Spiderman movies). His father died in the first game while serving in the NYPD, and he tries to honor him every day. He helps the homeless. He helps his community find their lost pets. He wins all the city-wide science awards, and his middle school project is on display in the midtown museum. 

Miles also beats the living shit out of like 40,000 criminals, gang members, and rogue militias around manhattan. He channels electricity through his body and slams people off the top of skyscrapers. He can turn invisible and likes to spy on his ex-girlfriend and root around on private property. He single handedly takes down a multi-billion dollar energy corporation that is literally building a bomb that will devastate an entire borough of New York City.

It's mindless fun, a good game with heart, and doesn't overstay its welcome with about a 6 hour campaign and another 4 hours of side content. And it runs really really well on PS5.

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

There are very few games that actively made me feel like I was wasting my time. Unfortunately this was one of them. 

Despite its tremendous charm and zen-garden like qualities that were more than welcomed in the COVID19 era, I felt like I was logging on every day to do some chores with little to no short or long term satisfaction, beyond the basic pleasures of moving around a relaxing game environment. While pulling weeds on my island I couldn't help but be nagged by the fact that I should literally be doing this same exact thing in my own backyard. I kept expecting to unlock more interesting decorations or customization options. They are (very) slow-dripped to the player, and they’re expensive too. Big time investments required. I see the appeal here, maybe if you don’t have your own career, home, and child to manage? But it’s not for me.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Remastered) (PS4)

Replaying classics in the modern day sometimes shatters my perception of them. While revolutionary at the time, some mechanics can seem outdated, or the tone of the game makes it obvious it was made in a bygone era. Happy to report that this game, at least the single player campaign, which I recently replayed, is still great. 

The remastering is well done, the game is smooth as butter locked at at least 60fps, and the look and sound is top notch as one may expect - this is as “AAA” as games get, after all. This was no surprise. It’s also a very challenging game on the hardest difficulty - I had to drop it down after just one or two levels.

What was surprising to me, though, is that the level structure, story, and tone are still interesting and impressive 13+ years later. While often linear in nature, the levels offer plenty of opportunity to splinter off and explore to get favorable positioning on enemies. Several stand out above the rest. Most famously, the mission All Ghillied Up is a flashback to an assault on soviet era Ukraine that can be completed without alerting a single enemy, but dynamically changes depending on the player approach. The level is followed up by an epic sprint through the city to await extraction by the Pripyat ferris wheel. Another level has you commanding a group of soldiers as you raze several Russian hideouts in a small town, in whatever order you choose.

The game also offers some much more interesting takes than a nationalistic “rah rah military.” One level you play as an AC47 gunner viewing the ground through black and white infrared vision, essentially invincible, and absolutely decimate hundreds of human ground soldiers while your crewman jokes with you over your headset. It’s pretty messed up. The game climaxes in a race against the clock through Russian bunkers to try and disarm several nuclear missiles that are in-transit to major US cities. You succeed and save millions of Americans (who never were even aware of the danger), but still have one more mission to escape the bunker with your life. Many soldiers perish. There’s no grand celebration at the end, just chaos and trauma. 

I did play a couple multiplayer matches for old times’ sake, but was left satisfied with a very good single player campaign.

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Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)

My very favorite thing about Horizon is that it is low-key a dinosaur hunting game. There are about 30 different enemies, or “machines,” that look and behave in very unique manners. To succeed, you need to take some preparation measures that often involve a combination of stealth, crafting, equipping the right gear, studying your enemy for weak points, and executing with a demanding precision not too unlike something out of Bloodborne or another From-Software game. There are traps at your disposal, but often it's the most fun to load out with a bow and try to target breakable objects on the enemy’s exterior, like a small, protected gas tank that can explode if hit with fire arrows only after you strip off the protective outer layer of armor. And if you’re not connecting on precise shots, you're not dealing much damage - arrows will simply bounce off your enemy’s surfaces without a scratch. The scale of these enemies is really impressive, too - specifically the massive wingspan of the flying Stormbird or towering heights of the T-Rex like Thunderjaw.

The challenge wanes towards the end of the 30 hour campaign, unfortunately, as I was starting to be strong enough to just run into a pack of enemies and tether everyone down before wrecking with an upgraded spear. (The additional DLC does amend this issue by adding to the end-game).

I did find that I was having the most fun by turning everything else off and taking this game at its surface. The story is not interesting. It is slow-dripped at a snail’s pace, often in the form of long, boring audio-log segments at the end of mainline story quests. I started skipping every single NPC conversation because they only seem to want to explain things to you - about the world, about their family, about their tribe. It's SO serious, too - there is not an ounce of humor anywhere to be found despite plenty of opportunity. I also bounced off this game the first time I tried to play it because the tutorial area is 6 hours long. It took me about 6 hours of gameplay to finally get to an area in the map where I felt I had the freedom to choose where I went, which is a massive, gaping issue in an open-world game. 

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Ori and the Will of the Wisps (PC)

Ori the rabbit controls so wonderfully. I think he’s a rabbit, or perhaps even a bunny or a hare. The simple act of running and jumping and moving through these amazing environments is fun in and of itself. It’s eye popping and caught the attention of friends when I was streaming it. I don’t think it’s a bad thing that this game is pretty much just the same as the first Ori. I appreciate the game’s focus, too - it's a short game and one can experience the whole thing in just a couple sittings. Hard not to recommend this to anyone given its accessibility and inexpensive buy-in.

The value proposition of Microsoft’s subscription model is quickly increasing. I’m not sure how the economics exactly work here, but to pay the $5/month just for one month in order to play through this game is wonderfully appealing.

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Star Wars: Fallen Order (PS4)

Here’s a quick way to grab my attention: Respawn entertainment (Titanfall) developed a single player third-person action adventure game that fits in a canonical Star Wars universe. Not only that, it draws inspiration from the Dark Souls series and has elements of exploration from the Metroid Prime series. Hate to be a big negative Nancy right off the bat here... but unfortunately what we’re left with is a mish mash of watered down elements that come together in a somewhat dull package.

I’m going to lead with what I think to be the (potentially) fatal flaw, which will metaphorically mirror my mind’s journey in playing through this game. Fallen Order is not long - maybe 12 hours? But the first 5 hours are boring. Quite boring, to the point that I only played this sparingly as a third or fourth backup game. Cal, the player character, feels sluggish, has no interesting powers at first (all the cool ones are locked until certain story events). Cal hardly any health, too. He keeps either getting pulverized in one single hit from an unbalanced boss, or demolishes an enemy scott-free. Sure, its a Star War and you might guess the story would be good (or at least, worth experiencing to learn a bit more about the world itself), but the mcguffin in this game is to find and explore tombs built by an ancient (extinct) alien race to try and find a map to all the universe’s force users. As a result, it feels much more like an inconsequential Tomb Raider game. [The game is set between episode 3 and 4, so a list of force users is of particular interest of both the Jedi and the Empire.] To hilariously prove my point about the inconsequential nature of the story, once Cal finally tracks it down - spoiler alert - he slices it to pieces with his lightsaber before a fade to credits, which is a gesture I actually kind of enjoyed.

There are 5 planets to explore. Not much to talk about here though, as I couldn't tell you much about any of them. They’re all pretty bland. The wonderful thing about the Souls series’ exploration is that you always seem to be moving forward while somehow flipping a switch or getting on an elevator that unlocks a convenient shortcut back to your home base. That isn’t how this game is structured, unfortunately. Levels are generally linear paths with meditation save points sprinkled along the straight and narrow.

I am glad I stuck with it, though, as the game finally gets good about 2/5ths of the way through. The combat as I mentioned is very ‘Sekiro’ in nature - fast paced and parry-heavy; the classic ‘stun an enemy after you break their stamina with enough well timed blocks,’ or ‘reflect an enemy projectile if you block at the right moment.’ It is fun and feels good throughout the game, especially once some force powers are finally unlocked. It ends on a high note with three or four boss fights that would fit right in stride with some of the classic battles of From Software studio games. There are also two different lightsaber types that had pros and cons, so deciding when to break out the double sided sword felt like a fun intentional choice the player was trusted with. 

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Sopranos: Road to Respect (PS2)

After the infamous closing scenes of the Sopranos series’ final episode, I was thirsty to learn a little bit more about the show. I quickly discovered that HBO published a canonical PS2 game with a story that takes place between Season 5 and 6 of the TV series. I’m all over this.

This game is a beautiful disaster. Somehow the studio obtained almost all of the primary characters from the TV series to provide their likeness and voice acting for this game. As expected, the performances are absolutely whole-assed efforts from the whole cast. It’s hilarious to hear James Gandolfini, Tony Sirico, Michael Imperioli, etc committing themselves to such a tainted product - it’s worth youtubing some of the ‘behind the scenes’ footage that the developer shot and released in the form of a bonus DVD that shipped within the game. The writing was also penned by the show’s mastermind David Chase, which is, again, hilariously good especially in context of a broadly awful video game (although good writing is not the same as a good story, as evidenced by this game). What kept me going was the simple act of interacting with these characters between missions at Vesuvios or the Bing or wherever, while thinking about how the hell this product got the go-ahead.

Two big things are wrong in this game. The first is that playing it is not a fun experience. The game is a linear beat-em-up. You are provided with finishing moves and grabs and other stuff, but I’m certain it would be possible to play through the 3 hour campaign (and it’s a very long 3 hours...) by mashing the X button. (As an aside to help frame the release of this game, it came out in 2006 alongside Oblivion, Twilight Princess, Bully… some legitimate all time greats)

The second thing I took issue with is a bit more interesting to pick apart. The TV series was compelling because it graphically highlights numerous character flaws, and any portrayal of this post-glory day mafia lifestyle that could possibly be construed as glamorous is quickly deconstructed. All of the characters are villains the the audience is generally meant to cheer for their demise. I read a statement once somewhere that the Sopranos has the most anti-mob message of any of its contemporaries, which is a statement I’d agree with.This PS2 game offers pretty much the opposite.

The “protagonist” of this game is Big Pussy’s son, Joey LaRocca, who does nothing but beat the shit out of thugs and speak in one-sentence quips. You can choose how to respond, too - tough, neutral, or smooth - but it has absolutely no bearing on how the story shakes out. You spend the whole game working under Paulie trying to climb the chain and doing odd-jobs for the family. It's just a boring grind that offers no interesting insight to the point that I have to wonder if some executive overwrote some of David Chase’s scripts or beats to conform to a more accessible story. 

I only spent a couple hours messing around with this on an emulator. It was interesting watching some original Tony Soprano footage on an old shitty PS2 game, but I’m not certain it was worth my time at all.

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Disco Elysium (PC)

Strikingly written, Disco Elysium is equivalent to reading an interactive detective novel with a haunting soundtrack looping somewhere in the distance. It is overwhelming despite being small in scope - you play as a cop trying to solve a murder.

A cop awakens from a drug fueled bender on the floor of a hotel in a distant city, completely devoid of all memories. Not only do you need to solve a murder, you need to deduce that you’re here to solve a murder in the first place without embarrassing yourself or losing authority status among the town. And how is this for a wrinkle - the hotel owner says you have been so disruptive that you need to send him 130 real in back-damages by the end of the day. And a high as balls 12 year old is hucking rocks at the corpse (still in the tree where it was hung three days ago when you arrived in town), and he is not taking very kindly to your requests to stop. 

Fast forward and youve gotten yourself in some more shit. You have desperately accepted 130 real from a big wig from the shipping corporation (lets call it a bribe) to try and pin the union of dock workers for drug trafficking because they have been on strike for the past two weeks. You’re also pretty sure that the third party “muscle” employed by the union were the folks responsible for the murder you’re trying to solve... but they’re also the only people in town with the means to get the body out of the tree. Oh, and the lorrymen who transport shipped goods to and from town once they’ve made landfall have been protesting outside the docks, too, because they are also out of work. They’re making getting in touch with any union representatives incredibly challenging. 

I could go on and on here about morally ambiguous choices and how one cannot simply be a bystander to this political mess while also accomplishing my goals as an investigator - which is also made even more interesting once finding out that my partner, who is from a rival district, was sent to essentially ‘compete’ over who is legally required to govern this shitty unwanted dock-town. Apparently our precincts do not think all that highly of our abilities.

I don’t know if the opportunities in this game are endless, but you can get yourself into and out of some shit quite effectively. It is reminiscent of a tabletop RPG, but DM’ed by a novelist. Start by picking starting perks (theres a ton to choose from - maybe 30?) and roll virtual dice for every skill check. If you screw up, that option will become locked... but I’m sure you’ll figure out another way to solve your problem. 

My smart ass decided that, while very hungover on my first day, I should try and shoot the restraints keeping the body held up in the tree in the center of town (but not before threatening the aforementioned 12 year old dug addict that I would kill him if he kept calling me a f****t). I missed my shot, and much to my partner’s disgust, ended up decimating the deceased’s chest with one of my four remaining bullets. 

Day 1 of in-game time was a study in learning about my setting and my place within the larger narrative. Day 2 presented some major story breakthroughs in my own story. Elysium has an uncanny ability to make reading and responding/choosing dialog options a stressful event. Saying something offensive can lead you down a dead end, and failing a skill check will damage your ego and image. I’ve managed to embarrass myself by playing this game - this just doesn’t happen in this medium.  This game might be a masterpiece? I dont know quite yet, but I cant wait to find out.

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4)

All my favorite themes from the Souls series carry over to this game - dire combat, tense and atmospheric exploration, and rich lore. However, they are stacked much differently in this game than we have seen before - the focus is on white knuckle combat encounters. 

Sekiro is combat perfection. There is a joyous skill-based gameplay loop. Study your enemy, devise a strategy, perfect your timing, and then execute. There are no happy accidents like in Dark Souls; you either dominate your enemy the right way or you will not win the combat encounter. I have not quite experienced another single player game that has given me as much of a rush. 

The premise is that almost every enemy can be killed in one hit (out of stealth), including some of the bosses. Each encounter is centered around breaking your enemy’s posture through deflecting their attacks at just the right time, or chipping away by landing hits. Stealth-based gameplay levels chain together some very intense boss battles - and there are quite a few of them, maybe 30. My only complaint is that because each enemy can be overcome without any upgrades, it means that the upgrade tree feels a little obsolete. This was my favorite game of 2019.

[nerralert]

Hexologic (iPhone)

Sounds like a Daft Punk song. I’d describe this as a picross/minesweeper mashup. There are numbers on the side of hexes that indicate how many dots should be in one row. The game cleverly only divulges enough information required to solve the puzzle. 

It’s really high quality but ends too soon - maybe there are 60 levels total? By the time level 50 started things actually began to get a little challenging, but unfortunately at this point the game is pretty much done with.

[nerralert]

Flip Flop Solitaire (iPhone)

Another Zach Gage game, who made some other favorites of mine like Really Bad Chess, Sage Solitaire, Type Shift. By the way - Really bad chess is chess, but yours and your opponent’s chess pieces are completely randomized. The easier difficulties give you stronger starting pieces than the harder ones (like a full row of knights). Simple but great.

Anyways... that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Flip Flop Solitaire is spider solitaire, but you can stack up and down the card hierarchy rather than one direction. The single suit matches are easy 4 minute sprints. You can play double (and triple/quad) suits as well, which let you stack on off-suited cards by number but do not allow you to move the entire stack unless they are appropriately sorted by suit. Its a perfect airplane or waiting room game.