HawkThief
2007
A masterclass on building a whole experience instead of just a game, brought to you by the masters at valve. This game is a compact, funny, satisfying, well thought out puzzle experience. The research and thought that went into creating this game, calculated millimetrically, in order to provide a consistently good experience astounds me to this day and is the industry standard for quality. A good tutorial is one that teaches you to "think with portals" and pioneering those concepts is a testament to how amazing the guys at valve are at making games.
Obra Dinn is the most satisfying detective experience you can get in a game that still functions as a game.
This is not an investigation flavored story nor something else disguised as a game. This game is an honest digital interpretation of detective work, and playing feels like being a detective. Despite all the fantastical and digital aspects of the game, you will get immersed in this complex, ship spanning, murder mystery.
But why do i have to go through the samey lengthy, unskippable animation sequences
e v e r y s i n g l e t i m e?
This is not an investigation flavored story nor something else disguised as a game. This game is an honest digital interpretation of detective work, and playing feels like being a detective. Despite all the fantastical and digital aspects of the game, you will get immersed in this complex, ship spanning, murder mystery.
But why do i have to go through the samey lengthy, unskippable animation sequences
e v e r y s i n g l e t i m e?
2019
A classic, cutesy, programming-inspired, puzzle game made in a game jam? Count me the fuck in!
This game has no bombastic gameplay nor grandiose graphics or music. It's simple premise may even, in the very beginning, trick some people into thinking it's going to be a simple relaxing puzzle game to vibe to. These people could not be more wrong. This stress inducing game uses every single interaction to build up the next, every new little block added, every detail changed, even in similar looking stages, demand from the player that ever needed shift in perspective to see the often unintuitive solutions that those pieces offer to every problem posed.
The game never underestimates you and it has it's own "thinking with portals" way of teaching you the different interactions between the many ways you can alter the game state.
It does get to the point of showing how ridiculously complex those interactions can get once or twice where it might even be a little too much (If you know THAT level, you know what i'm talking about) but it prefers most of the time to ask you to think about pieces interacting and perspective shifts instead of being a game about trying every possible option until something magically works for some unknown reason or knowing what you have to do but still having to memorize the 347 (made up number) steps it takes to finish the level in one specific way (Seriously Arvi? WHAT THE FUCK?! and that solution is REQUIRED??¿)
5/5 tho, would play it again.
This game has no bombastic gameplay nor grandiose graphics or music. It's simple premise may even, in the very beginning, trick some people into thinking it's going to be a simple relaxing puzzle game to vibe to. These people could not be more wrong. This stress inducing game uses every single interaction to build up the next, every new little block added, every detail changed, even in similar looking stages, demand from the player that ever needed shift in perspective to see the often unintuitive solutions that those pieces offer to every problem posed.
The game never underestimates you and it has it's own "thinking with portals" way of teaching you the different interactions between the many ways you can alter the game state.
It does get to the point of showing how ridiculously complex those interactions can get once or twice where it might even be a little too much (If you know THAT level, you know what i'm talking about) but it prefers most of the time to ask you to think about pieces interacting and perspective shifts instead of being a game about trying every possible option until something magically works for some unknown reason or knowing what you have to do but still having to memorize the 347 (made up number) steps it takes to finish the level in one specific way (Seriously Arvi? WHAT THE FUCK?! and that solution is REQUIRED??¿)
5/5 tho, would play it again.
This review has spoilers, you can read it until you find a [SPOILERS] tag.
Beautiful game with awesome music and deep world-building. The mostly well crafted challenges managed to engage me despite the game's rough edges around the attack system, which does work most of the time.
This world was a joy to get lost in and to fight through and the care of the developers for the game was felt loud and clear.
[SPOILERS]
Path of pain was fine, i actually liked the freshness of having an actual maneuver challenge. Then the game expected me to get obsessed with it, I will not beat all the bosses in 3 different ways, I will not beat Zote 10 times, why do I need to go on a fetch quest 3 different times just to be able to fight Grimm? I mean, of course it's a good boss, it's the only actual content of the whole DLC, it HAS to be good.
Does this game think that I'm looking for an excuse to keep playing? If I wanted more of the same I would have sought it by myself, miss me with your completionist masochistic bullshit.
Beautiful game with awesome music and deep world-building. The mostly well crafted challenges managed to engage me despite the game's rough edges around the attack system, which does work most of the time.
This world was a joy to get lost in and to fight through and the care of the developers for the game was felt loud and clear.
[SPOILERS]
Path of pain was fine, i actually liked the freshness of having an actual maneuver challenge. Then the game expected me to get obsessed with it, I will not beat all the bosses in 3 different ways, I will not beat Zote 10 times, why do I need to go on a fetch quest 3 different times just to be able to fight Grimm? I mean, of course it's a good boss, it's the only actual content of the whole DLC, it HAS to be good.
Does this game think that I'm looking for an excuse to keep playing? If I wanted more of the same I would have sought it by myself, miss me with your completionist masochistic bullshit.
2015
An insecure, frail, sheltered male, detached from reality, prone to delusion... This game was made for me.
I won't talk much about how this games portrays women. Those are not fictional females, those are delusions.
But the way this game portrays men... the way this game portrays you... is what gets me. I don't care how good the gameplay is, i don't care if it is satire or not. This game was made do feed the insecurities that have already been, time and again, shoved down men's throats in order to turn them against women.
The whole process of love, has been reduced to an acquiral of a person through deceit for the sole purpose of souless sex. It is not only delusional, but it is purposefully so.
Do you think the developers of this game made those girls based off their vision of what a woman is? they didn't, they made them based on you, based on what they thought would make you the most immersed in their bullshit premise.
And i hate myself for liking this game, i hate the notion that most people have, including me, that you can separate those experiences from who you are. The only good thing i salvaged from this game is the fact that i now know how much of a piece of trash i am for liking it.
And i do still like it, cause it was made for me to like it, cause it is a pleasant, reckless delusion for insecure men.
I won't talk much about how this games portrays women. Those are not fictional females, those are delusions.
But the way this game portrays men... the way this game portrays you... is what gets me. I don't care how good the gameplay is, i don't care if it is satire or not. This game was made do feed the insecurities that have already been, time and again, shoved down men's throats in order to turn them against women.
The whole process of love, has been reduced to an acquiral of a person through deceit for the sole purpose of souless sex. It is not only delusional, but it is purposefully so.
Do you think the developers of this game made those girls based off their vision of what a woman is? they didn't, they made them based on you, based on what they thought would make you the most immersed in their bullshit premise.
And i hate myself for liking this game, i hate the notion that most people have, including me, that you can separate those experiences from who you are. The only good thing i salvaged from this game is the fact that i now know how much of a piece of trash i am for liking it.
And i do still like it, cause it was made for me to like it, cause it is a pleasant, reckless delusion for insecure men.
In those formative years of childhood, it is easy to find experiences that changes you deeply, a bit too easy sometimes. Most of my favorite games are games that shaped me when i still had no form and taught me a bit of who i was. Maybe my experience was different due to timing, for i am now 26. Maybe this game is just different and i will never know exactly how it would have affected me when i was a child. However, Exploring the universe of Outer Wilds made me feel like a child. I felt excitement and wonder, i felt fear and sadness, i felt loneliness and warmth.
And in some special times, i felt myself and the universe.
And though i now have form, those experiences still managed to reach me and i felt changed, as if i was shaped, as if i had just learnt some of those simple things you understand as a child.
It's a complete experience, akin to life, that can only be had once, something in this game makes it special. It is not the excitement or spectacle, it is not the mechanics or difficulty, nor an epic narrative, although this game's narrative is superb, not even the graphics. None of those aspects is what makes outer wilds the best game in the world. But i can't quite tell you what it is without ruining it one way or another. So go play it, I can't recommend it enough, It is art.
And if this game doesn't feel like all that, it may not be the right time or it may not be for you (i doubt that). Take your time, follow your curiosity, abandon your fear, don't resent this universe; for it has no will to be seen as evil and trust the god that made it; for it loves you and will not betray you.
And in some special times, i felt myself and the universe.
And though i now have form, those experiences still managed to reach me and i felt changed, as if i was shaped, as if i had just learnt some of those simple things you understand as a child.
It's a complete experience, akin to life, that can only be had once, something in this game makes it special. It is not the excitement or spectacle, it is not the mechanics or difficulty, nor an epic narrative, although this game's narrative is superb, not even the graphics. None of those aspects is what makes outer wilds the best game in the world. But i can't quite tell you what it is without ruining it one way or another. So go play it, I can't recommend it enough, It is art.
And if this game doesn't feel like all that, it may not be the right time or it may not be for you (i doubt that). Take your time, follow your curiosity, abandon your fear, don't resent this universe; for it has no will to be seen as evil and trust the god that made it; for it loves you and will not betray you.
1994
I have to start by saying that i'm biased towards this game.
It is the first game that i played with my mom, it is the first game that i got 100% (without a walkthrough) and it is one of my favorite games to this day.
The thing is... I'm biased towards this game for a reason. Cause even when i didn't understand the english that i needed to play games like The legend of zelda or secret of mana this game allowed me to immerse without using words or taking control away from me.
The ship touches down on Zebes, and there I was, lonely but never alone, exploring but never comfortable. The music and ambiance made me fall in love but what really hooked me was the fact that i was the one making the decisions, I decided where to go and when to go there. Each power up that i got made me wonder what i could do with it and the more i explored the harder it got and i got lost but i found the way in the end. The game went on and i got stronger, but i also got smarter and more used to controlling my character as well. Whenever i came back to the safety of my ship it felt less like exploring an alien planet, and more like home. Eventually i noticed that I had mastered the planet. And even though there are still speedruns and ROMhacks to be played, that pristine experience that i had just been trough was done and gone.
When i got older and discovered how games are all smoke and mirrors i could not ignore the illusions that this game employed on me but the mastery of those illusions is a difficult art and the more I played "metroidvania" games the more I appreciated the craft behind Metroid bacause most games do NOT feel like metroid.
And out of all the games that exist, this is the one that feels the most true to the "metroid experience" whatever it is that they added to those other games, I feel that it came at the cost of that weird balance of comfort and solitude, and exploration in an alien place that is unparalleled to this day.
It is the first game that i played with my mom, it is the first game that i got 100% (without a walkthrough) and it is one of my favorite games to this day.
The thing is... I'm biased towards this game for a reason. Cause even when i didn't understand the english that i needed to play games like The legend of zelda or secret of mana this game allowed me to immerse without using words or taking control away from me.
The ship touches down on Zebes, and there I was, lonely but never alone, exploring but never comfortable. The music and ambiance made me fall in love but what really hooked me was the fact that i was the one making the decisions, I decided where to go and when to go there. Each power up that i got made me wonder what i could do with it and the more i explored the harder it got and i got lost but i found the way in the end. The game went on and i got stronger, but i also got smarter and more used to controlling my character as well. Whenever i came back to the safety of my ship it felt less like exploring an alien planet, and more like home. Eventually i noticed that I had mastered the planet. And even though there are still speedruns and ROMhacks to be played, that pristine experience that i had just been trough was done and gone.
When i got older and discovered how games are all smoke and mirrors i could not ignore the illusions that this game employed on me but the mastery of those illusions is a difficult art and the more I played "metroidvania" games the more I appreciated the craft behind Metroid bacause most games do NOT feel like metroid.
And out of all the games that exist, this is the one that feels the most true to the "metroid experience" whatever it is that they added to those other games, I feel that it came at the cost of that weird balance of comfort and solitude, and exploration in an alien place that is unparalleled to this day.