The Arbitraries (Create Your Own Year-End Award) 2021

Games
42

I Don’t Know Who To Recommend This To
goes to Paradise Killer. I loved it, but a person needs to want to solve a mystery through first-person exploration. I think it got boring only when I decided I needed to collect everything (which is exactly how I ruined The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for myself about 3 hours in).

2021 Rise from the Backlog
goes to Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. Like Battlefront II, which I also played in 2021 for the single-player aspects, it’s better for being distant from what I remember hearing about its mistakes upon release. I feel good to taking a disc that sat around for some years, ostensibly to be played, and following through on that promise.

Tagged with Crafting and Survival, But I Loved It
goes to Subnautica. There must have been just little enough of those elements. I’ve played only the barest bits of this genre before. It’s like going to a concert for a band I don’t know because my friends want to do something. Usually it’s a death of time for me. Despite Subnautica working out, I’m remain highly skeptical of this style. Conan: Exiles frustrated me. I guess Valheim will end up being the next thing that might work.

I Hoped for Too Much from Tom’s Review
goes to Immortal Fenyx Rising. I thought there was supposed to be good dialogue. I thought I would save by buying the Gold edition with bundled DLC. The DLC didn’t end up being worth playing for me.

Never Would Have Played It If I Didn’t Listen to the Designer’s Podcast
goes to Gem Wizards Tactics. Enjoyable, but maybe because of the live reporting of bugs and feedback to a Discord server? I hadn’t really done that before. It was quite neat seeing things patched in the next day or two. Definitely a solid little tactical game.

43

Game I Think I Played Wrong
To your point: This was Paradise Killer for me. For some reason I started out with the inclination to see the whole world and figure out who the characters are and where they are before actually pursuing any leads in the mystery itself (like talking to the suspect). And the I kept getting lost and climbing around places off the beaten path and occasionally having fairly random conversations and it was all interesting but also never hooked me. And just as I burned out on it I realized I should have jumped with both feet into the mystery, but it was too late. I should go back to it.

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In my quick description, I missed that by summary sentences, Paradise Killer is the same as Forgotten City. I think two differences make Paradise Killer the harder one to recommend generally. It’s much bigger, with some interesting facets requiring traversal skill. And its setting and character are bizarre, though the sort that absolutely click with me. Anyway, if you give it another shot, I hope it hooks you.

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Best Steam user review:

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Best Steam user review developer response:

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Haha, lovely!