It’s been long enough since I beat Jedi: Fallen Order, Bloodborne and Darksiders III that I’m kind of itching to play another Souls-like too. I already own The Surge, I have access to The Surge 2 through Game Pass, and of course, I could continue my games of Dark Souls 3 on either PC (Pyromancer) or Xbox (Knight). Oh yes, and I started Code Vein on Game Pass, but that game seems too complicated. I don’t know when it happened exactly but Souls-likes have joined racing games and ARPGs as my comfort genre that I can always fall back to.
Edit: Oops, I forgot, I also have access to Remnant: From the Ashes too, through Game Pass and as a free game from Epic. So I actually have 5 choices on which one to play. Hmmm.
Well, I sunk DEEP into Ori and the Will of the Wisps this weekend. Started the game and now I would guess I’m 80% done, maybe more.
I think there’s a small part of me that irrationally doesn’t want to like these games. I mean, the first game had definite objective flaws, but I complained about them while playing the game to the end. And now most of those flaws have been worked out (partly by yoinking a lot of ideas from Hollow Knight, but that’s cool), and the art and music are even more beautiful and the level design is excellent, and I still kind of want to put it in the “it’s okay” category. But actually that’s unfair. It’s a really really nice game.
Maybe it’s the saccharine story? I mean, it’s actually quite deftly presented, but it still seems manufactured to evoke sensitive gamer tears. Cute creatures lost and alone, a family of misfits, poignant deaths…
I probably just have to admit that this is one of the best games of last year.
Yahtzee said as much on Zero Punctuation when reviewing the first one. He got some heat for it and in his Will O The Wisps review admitted he may have been too harsh… then pretty much dinged the second one for similar issues.
I mean, it’s not wrong. But on the other hand, attempting to evoke an emotional response is just part of storytelling in general, so that’s not really a valid criticism. For me, there were moments that felt like laying it on a bit thick that pulled me out of it, but on the whole it still worked. And even setting aside every story beat, the game would be among the best of last year on the strength of its exploration, combat, and visuals.
I don’t think his criticism was of the attempt to evoke an emotional response, it was the (in his opinion) cheap and easy way it was done. (Specifically referring to Blind Forest here - I don’t remember the details of his knock on Will O Wisps. And, as Nightgaunt notes, Yahtzee does have a reputation to uphold.)
I only played the opening movie and a bit past it (it’s the gaming equivalent of the ‘Up’ marriage montage!). It was skillfully done, but not exactly great drama, but a game doesn’t have to be great drama, and anyway fuck story in games, give me more gameplay, and around and around we go.
Unlike Tom, the idea that you can just change your character on the fly kind of makes my head hurt, so I’ve just been playing it straight as one character so far with no changes. We’ll see how far that gets me.
Got Hitman 3 and the earlier games, been really plowing through episodes from 1. Great fun, the challenges and stories are a good hook to replay missions (so far).
Starcom: Nexus. I am surprised that I am enjoying it so much. Arcade style combat generally turns me off and I am a crappy pilot in this game but I’m just good enough. There is none of the FedEx delivery stuff which I dislike and plenty of exploration with little repetition of events.
And research yields large bonuses so it feels meaningful.
It can be played in brief sessions and quickly picked up where I left off. Light fare to be sure but satisfying.
Until about 3 days ago I’d been playing a bunch of Loop Hero but I recently purchased the ARPG Last Epoch and have been really enjoying it. It’s still got that ‘hey, l wonder what a build that focuses on X or Y skill would do,’ which results in me rolling a new character. Plus I’ve just discovered the crafting system which is pretty neat.
I have spent an embarrassing amount of time with NGU Idle lately. Also dipped my toes in the Loop Hero pool (jury’s still out on this one) and am slowly working my way through Ghosts of Tsushima. And I’d like to check out The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante a bit this weekend.
