25 Reviews liked by Sutakku
Fortnite
2017
Love revisiting this amorphous blob of skinner box contente every hundred-or-so days to see it take on a whole new form, almost unrecognisable to the one I experienced prior. The closest I'll get to channel hopping custom maps in TF2.
On one hand this fuckin game is an embarrassing heap of licences, brands and monetization. Stealing content from internet creators and selling them as pristinely packaged Emotes N Skins, gentrifying the culture of the moment into what is essentially a 33gb Nerf Gun advert.
On the other, there's a relative level of generosity on the user level that strings me along in a way that I need brain correction to effectively fight against. I bought one (1) season pass back in 2017 and have been able to afford every subsequent one through their rewards scheme. When the nefariously intended FOMO kicks in I still know they have my back to keep me a regular. The island of Fortnite goes through drastic changes with a suspicious enough regularity that I'm assuming the devs are crunching nonstop to keep the ship afloat. Entire mechanics and equipment can be introduced to the pool only to be removed without fanfare a few weeks later - They flooded the island and made a Waterworld season because why not. Should also be noted that Fortnite has a history of stealing unique mechanics from competitors hacking them in for themself.
This frustratingly enjoyable mid level engagement is kind of peculiar for me because my preference will always be single-player games, and I think Fortnite accommodates people like me, without a competitive bone in their body, by orienting a good three-quarters of the quest system around things that aren't related to combat. My sticking point with most of these games are that they just don't know when to chill, look at all the challenges on Apex or something, they're all different flavours of "deal xxx damage with x weapon". I throw on a movie or podcast and carve a path across the world map gathering materials, speaking to NPCs, doing environmental puzzles and prop hunts and finish a match in 3rd place under two rival streamers hopped up on GFuel haunted by the spirits of great architects, and still gain enough exp to unlock a handful of Battle Pass rewards. I unlocked Lara Croft by ringing doorbells until they broke. Help!!!!!!!
Also I know this will be contentious but I just straight up like the way the game looks. Any skin that isn't default is so meticulously modelled and textured it blows me away, the lighting as the day/nite cycle rolls over the trees and fog in the marsh and the autumn trees and the lakes and!!!!!! i could eat the screen and it'd taste like skittles. Anyway im logging this as mastered because i got 10 kills on the board right now.
On one hand this fuckin game is an embarrassing heap of licences, brands and monetization. Stealing content from internet creators and selling them as pristinely packaged Emotes N Skins, gentrifying the culture of the moment into what is essentially a 33gb Nerf Gun advert.
On the other, there's a relative level of generosity on the user level that strings me along in a way that I need brain correction to effectively fight against. I bought one (1) season pass back in 2017 and have been able to afford every subsequent one through their rewards scheme. When the nefariously intended FOMO kicks in I still know they have my back to keep me a regular. The island of Fortnite goes through drastic changes with a suspicious enough regularity that I'm assuming the devs are crunching nonstop to keep the ship afloat. Entire mechanics and equipment can be introduced to the pool only to be removed without fanfare a few weeks later - They flooded the island and made a Waterworld season because why not. Should also be noted that Fortnite has a history of stealing unique mechanics from competitors hacking them in for themself.
This frustratingly enjoyable mid level engagement is kind of peculiar for me because my preference will always be single-player games, and I think Fortnite accommodates people like me, without a competitive bone in their body, by orienting a good three-quarters of the quest system around things that aren't related to combat. My sticking point with most of these games are that they just don't know when to chill, look at all the challenges on Apex or something, they're all different flavours of "deal xxx damage with x weapon". I throw on a movie or podcast and carve a path across the world map gathering materials, speaking to NPCs, doing environmental puzzles and prop hunts and finish a match in 3rd place under two rival streamers hopped up on GFuel haunted by the spirits of great architects, and still gain enough exp to unlock a handful of Battle Pass rewards. I unlocked Lara Croft by ringing doorbells until they broke. Help!!!!!!!
Also I know this will be contentious but I just straight up like the way the game looks. Any skin that isn't default is so meticulously modelled and textured it blows me away, the lighting as the day/nite cycle rolls over the trees and fog in the marsh and the autumn trees and the lakes and!!!!!! i could eat the screen and it'd taste like skittles. Anyway im logging this as mastered because i got 10 kills on the board right now.
Doom
1993
After recently playing through a string of games I felt mostly lukewarm about, it's a fantastic feeling to revisit a game from my younger days that actually felt better now than when I first played it. (granted, that's mostly because I was a wuss when I was young and only played with cheats, but that's neither here nor there.)
I decided to go in for the authentic experience, eschewing the standard WASD/mouselook scheme and using the original keyboard controls, playing on the normal difficulty (Hurt Me Plenty). While it took a while to get used to and circle-strafing felt very stiff, it felt fantastic to experience the game as it was balanced for. I spent a fair bit of time on a knife-edge on the brink of death but the game never felt unfair (until the bonus chapter).
The beauty of this game lies in how it can suck anybody in and give you a viscerally satisfying experience no matter your skill level. I spent much of my run moving cautiously and conservatively while trying to kite enemies; an expert player would engage aggressively and blow through the levels with a time-attack approach. Both extremes are just as viable and just as satisfying thanks to some of the best level design I've seen in FPSs regardless of age.
With only brief text interludes between chapters, the game still manages to tell a story through its in-game details; the architecture becomes less mechanical and more organic as you descend further into Hell, and the dread you feel as you see the dead Hell Barons at the beginning of a certain level is one of the most iconic moments in all of gaming for me.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the soundtrack, which is both amazing as well as 100% suitable for the game's tone. One very small quibble with the soundtrack is how often they fall back onto the same chord progression. Fun activity: try to see how many tracks you can sing the Adam West Batman theme to. The answer: most of them.
This review is so gushy because there's so much good about the game. The secrets are rarely completely obtuse, but are so well-hidden and thought out that I missed out quite a few of them despite having played it before. And it seems the developers really thought of everything: you automatically switch to another weapon if you run out of ammo during a firefight, but the game is programmed to never auto-switch you to the rocket launcher so you won't accidentally blow yourself up. The amount of detail and thought put into every single aspect of this game was unmatched at the time, and I'd put this near the top of any list of games that everyone should experience at least once.
I decided to go in for the authentic experience, eschewing the standard WASD/mouselook scheme and using the original keyboard controls, playing on the normal difficulty (Hurt Me Plenty). While it took a while to get used to and circle-strafing felt very stiff, it felt fantastic to experience the game as it was balanced for. I spent a fair bit of time on a knife-edge on the brink of death but the game never felt unfair (until the bonus chapter).
The beauty of this game lies in how it can suck anybody in and give you a viscerally satisfying experience no matter your skill level. I spent much of my run moving cautiously and conservatively while trying to kite enemies; an expert player would engage aggressively and blow through the levels with a time-attack approach. Both extremes are just as viable and just as satisfying thanks to some of the best level design I've seen in FPSs regardless of age.
With only brief text interludes between chapters, the game still manages to tell a story through its in-game details; the architecture becomes less mechanical and more organic as you descend further into Hell, and the dread you feel as you see the dead Hell Barons at the beginning of a certain level is one of the most iconic moments in all of gaming for me.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the soundtrack, which is both amazing as well as 100% suitable for the game's tone. One very small quibble with the soundtrack is how often they fall back onto the same chord progression. Fun activity: try to see how many tracks you can sing the Adam West Batman theme to. The answer: most of them.
This review is so gushy because there's so much good about the game. The secrets are rarely completely obtuse, but are so well-hidden and thought out that I missed out quite a few of them despite having played it before. And it seems the developers really thought of everything: you automatically switch to another weapon if you run out of ammo during a firefight, but the game is programmed to never auto-switch you to the rocket launcher so you won't accidentally blow yourself up. The amount of detail and thought put into every single aspect of this game was unmatched at the time, and I'd put this near the top of any list of games that everyone should experience at least once.
Drakengard
2003
the most insane, maddening game you'll play outside of omikron the nomad soul. whilst i can be out here being the biggest asshole and defending the annoying/bad stuff as actually being good because it serves a greater thematic purpose, it doesn't mater if it was done on purpose or not because it works. the laborious, bloody gameplay. the looping, cutting music. the way the game in the second half turns into a horrific nightmare and everything goes wrong. it's amazing!
also big credit to the game for having the best final boss ever. just the perfect, most extra step way to top off this already frenzied video-game.
never want to play it again
also big credit to the game for having the best final boss ever. just the perfect, most extra step way to top off this already frenzied video-game.
never want to play it again
Drakengard
2003
the point of drakengard is that caim rocks
idle clicker devotees remaining awfully silent on the foremost clicker of its kind, complete with an accordingly peerless soundtrack and a cool dragon
idle clicker devotees remaining awfully silent on the foremost clicker of its kind, complete with an accordingly peerless soundtrack and a cool dragon
Fallout
1997
It's a game that's bare-bones the same way its fucked up world is bare-bones. At every corner lies the inheritance of life and history that passed without epiphany, and there is little to no deceit or irony regarding this. This is not a game known for its twists, but it is remarkable how quickly and subtly the desolation of the wasteland gives way to the possibility of exciting adventure, conspiracy, and political intrigue: so quickly do we have fun in the ruins. Even the good Fallout sequels impatiently and comprehensively embrace this frontier, and they are not necessarily worse for it. But there is something inimitably special about this first one, willing to impose the bones, ash, death, and dung of it all onto someone who hoped their little vault errand would turn into something bigger. At the height of its conspiracy, the edifice comes crashing down from the smallest, saddest revelation that like everything else small and sad about this game refuses dwelling. And so does the place you've called home.
Perhaps the greatest ending to a video game.
Perhaps the greatest ending to a video game.
The Outer Worlds
2019
The one thing I never expected an Obsidian game to be was terminally uninteresting but that's exactly what The Outer Worlds is. A collection of shallow systems, characters, and quests that sort of affect the illusion of a proper RPG with depth and consequence but in reality offers nothing of the sort.
The almost cartoonish lack of depth in the gameplay is mirrored in the story, which is a smarmy and infuriatingly smug monument to Enlightened Centrism that wraps itself in a veneer of anti-capitalist rhetoric so thin that it would struggle to appear meaningfully leftist even to someone who gets all their political opinions from Breadtube. Faux-empathetic South Park politics for the Rick and Morty generation, where picking an actual side is always fucking stupid and you should always strive for a meaningless compromise in order to preserve the status quo.
Genuinely astonishing that this came from the same studio that released Pillars 2 just prior, a game that, for all it's issues, actually had the guts to grab you by the neck and tell you to pick a fucking side, to get some god damn ideology, and actually let you meaningfully change the broken world it presented. That game was the real New Vegas 2 you've all been clamouring for, but no one bought it, so I guess we're stuck with this.
Nothing else to really say because there's basically nothing else in here. An utterly empty and vacuous game that doesn't even manage to surpass Fallout 4. A snake oil salesman promising you a miracle solution to bring back the Fallout you remember, but get past the fancy logo and uncork that bottle, and you'll find nothing in there but dust and echoes.
The almost cartoonish lack of depth in the gameplay is mirrored in the story, which is a smarmy and infuriatingly smug monument to Enlightened Centrism that wraps itself in a veneer of anti-capitalist rhetoric so thin that it would struggle to appear meaningfully leftist even to someone who gets all their political opinions from Breadtube. Faux-empathetic South Park politics for the Rick and Morty generation, where picking an actual side is always fucking stupid and you should always strive for a meaningless compromise in order to preserve the status quo.
Genuinely astonishing that this came from the same studio that released Pillars 2 just prior, a game that, for all it's issues, actually had the guts to grab you by the neck and tell you to pick a fucking side, to get some god damn ideology, and actually let you meaningfully change the broken world it presented. That game was the real New Vegas 2 you've all been clamouring for, but no one bought it, so I guess we're stuck with this.
Nothing else to really say because there's basically nothing else in here. An utterly empty and vacuous game that doesn't even manage to surpass Fallout 4. A snake oil salesman promising you a miracle solution to bring back the Fallout you remember, but get past the fancy logo and uncork that bottle, and you'll find nothing in there but dust and echoes.
Drakengard 3
2013
the video-game for the modern lesbian
Drakengard 3
2013
don't care that the frame rate is awful; don't care that the combat is asinine; don't care that the game is unpolished, janky, ugly, and poorly considered in every respect; don't care that it was subject to predatory dlc; don't care that accord's requests are emblematic of some of the worst there is in side quest design; don't care don't care don't care
what i do care about is that this is the ultimate manifestation of YT's disinclination to work in games juxtaposed with his earnest belief in the medium as a vessel for greater things. in his grimmest failure, he finds light at the end of the tunnel. an astonishing exercise in empathy generation, one of the best finales in a game, and the only one of yoko taro's works that makes great use of backwards scripting + sequential playthroughs
what i do care about is that this is the ultimate manifestation of YT's disinclination to work in games juxtaposed with his earnest belief in the medium as a vessel for greater things. in his grimmest failure, he finds light at the end of the tunnel. an astonishing exercise in empathy generation, one of the best finales in a game, and the only one of yoko taro's works that makes great use of backwards scripting + sequential playthroughs
Disco Elysium
2019
This review contains spoilers
Edit: I'm putting this edit in here to say that Disco Elysium is the type of game that I've grown to appreciate more over time as I listen to new perspectives on it and spend even more time letting it rattle around in my head. The comments below and the video/article linked therein are great, and honestly should be read in tandem with my review for a more full view of my thoughts on the game now. Since writing this review I've decided that this game actually deserves a spot in my top 5 favorite games of all time.
I just finished my second playthrough of this game, the first time in the vanilla edition, and second in Final Cut. I think it's one of my favorite games of all time, but every time I think about this game there's one thing that always nags in the back of my mind. I made a twitter thread about it, and this is a copy paste of that. I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this:
I've had some time to settle on Disco Elysium and I do still think that it's kind of black pilled to a degree that still bothers me. Like, I don't need every piece of art to inspire hope. I'm not trying to say "make Disco Elysium but make it hopepunk."
But at the same time, when the game (which only rarely mentions anarchism) relentlessly presents every single ideology as a failure, I don't think that's a great message to leave people with...
According to the game, centrism is laughable because it is incremental and bureaucratic to a point where nothing changes. Liberalism is laughable because it's just the rich profiting off worker exploitation, and workers chasing the status of the rich.
Fascism is laughable because it strives to go back to an ideal version of the past that never existed, and relies on foolish notions of race science.
But communism, the game says, is laughable because it is at its core about failure. About trying to build something better, but inevitably falling to the immense crushing power of global capitalism.
I think there are some good critiques of a particularly online brand of communism the game lays out. Critiquing the type of person who isolates themselves from the world. Preaching communism but taking no part in community.
Thinking they are The Last Communist who will be the Big Communism Builder and single handedly liberate the masses with the sheer power of rhetoric.
The Final Cut also lays out a critique of the type of person who has an almost religious adherence to communism as a metaphysical force that will solve every single problem as if by magic, rather than taking a materialist approach as is presented in actual communist analysis.
And it also lays out a critique of the constant infighting over minute ideological bickering within leftist circles. Where we shatter all connections with people who by all materialist analysis should be our comrades. The capitalists win when we can't even start.
A lot of these critiques I love, and a lot of them hit hard because sometimes it's hard not to fall into those types of problems. And they are massive barriers to achieving any kind of goal. At some point the work has to be done, and it has to be done together.
Like, even now I feel like this thread is self-indulgent rhetoric. As if I'm going to fix the fucking world by tweeting out my political thoughts about a video game.
But the thing that keeps bugging me in the back of my mind when I think about this game is, it has no solution. The most hopeful element, and to call it that it a huge stretch, is a union strike with ambitions of seizing the means.
The reason it's a stretch is because even then, the union leader is always made out to be someone who talks a big game about worker's rights, but who underneath it all, is out for their own power. This is also why it bothers me that anarchism is only ever mentioned in passing.
The game mocks the standard video game power fantasy of being the individual hero who saves the world, but it is also skeptical of the only means of collective action it portrays. It is very much implied that should be means be seized, they will be massacred yet again.
All of the game's hope lies in a personal redemption arc for the protagonist, for you to get your own shit together, but it is deeply hopeless about any future for society.
And I understand why to a degree. The game was made by an Estonian studio, a former satellite state of the USSR. The country's history is engrained with the fight against but ultimate defeat to the forces of capital.
The game also to my understanding, largely came out of the lead dev's own personal experience of getting himself out of a deep state of depression and self-loathing, and some of the game's best moments shine here.
There are aspects of this game that push it pretty far into "one of the greatest games of all time" territory for me. The absolutely incredible degree to which you can actually role play, and the amount of contextual and skill check based context is something to behold.
There are multiple lines of dialogue in this game that clearly come from such a personal place, and are so haunting, that they'll doubtlessly stick with me for a very long time. This is the type of game that can only be made by an indie studio with a strong creative vision.
But the absolute sheer hopelessness it seems to have for future society...it bothers me. It bothers me that this game, that is in a big way about not being black pilled, about choosing life, about choosing connection, about choosing to stay in this world and be human...
Is ultimately just so bleak about the big picture of it all. I don't need everything to be sunshine and rainbows. I don't need an indie game studio to present the solution that finally liberates us from capitalism. But god, I'd like something.
I just finished my second playthrough of this game, the first time in the vanilla edition, and second in Final Cut. I think it's one of my favorite games of all time, but every time I think about this game there's one thing that always nags in the back of my mind. I made a twitter thread about it, and this is a copy paste of that. I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this:
I've had some time to settle on Disco Elysium and I do still think that it's kind of black pilled to a degree that still bothers me. Like, I don't need every piece of art to inspire hope. I'm not trying to say "make Disco Elysium but make it hopepunk."
But at the same time, when the game (which only rarely mentions anarchism) relentlessly presents every single ideology as a failure, I don't think that's a great message to leave people with...
According to the game, centrism is laughable because it is incremental and bureaucratic to a point where nothing changes. Liberalism is laughable because it's just the rich profiting off worker exploitation, and workers chasing the status of the rich.
Fascism is laughable because it strives to go back to an ideal version of the past that never existed, and relies on foolish notions of race science.
But communism, the game says, is laughable because it is at its core about failure. About trying to build something better, but inevitably falling to the immense crushing power of global capitalism.
I think there are some good critiques of a particularly online brand of communism the game lays out. Critiquing the type of person who isolates themselves from the world. Preaching communism but taking no part in community.
Thinking they are The Last Communist who will be the Big Communism Builder and single handedly liberate the masses with the sheer power of rhetoric.
The Final Cut also lays out a critique of the type of person who has an almost religious adherence to communism as a metaphysical force that will solve every single problem as if by magic, rather than taking a materialist approach as is presented in actual communist analysis.
And it also lays out a critique of the constant infighting over minute ideological bickering within leftist circles. Where we shatter all connections with people who by all materialist analysis should be our comrades. The capitalists win when we can't even start.
A lot of these critiques I love, and a lot of them hit hard because sometimes it's hard not to fall into those types of problems. And they are massive barriers to achieving any kind of goal. At some point the work has to be done, and it has to be done together.
Like, even now I feel like this thread is self-indulgent rhetoric. As if I'm going to fix the fucking world by tweeting out my political thoughts about a video game.
But the thing that keeps bugging me in the back of my mind when I think about this game is, it has no solution. The most hopeful element, and to call it that it a huge stretch, is a union strike with ambitions of seizing the means.
The reason it's a stretch is because even then, the union leader is always made out to be someone who talks a big game about worker's rights, but who underneath it all, is out for their own power. This is also why it bothers me that anarchism is only ever mentioned in passing.
The game mocks the standard video game power fantasy of being the individual hero who saves the world, but it is also skeptical of the only means of collective action it portrays. It is very much implied that should be means be seized, they will be massacred yet again.
All of the game's hope lies in a personal redemption arc for the protagonist, for you to get your own shit together, but it is deeply hopeless about any future for society.
And I understand why to a degree. The game was made by an Estonian studio, a former satellite state of the USSR. The country's history is engrained with the fight against but ultimate defeat to the forces of capital.
The game also to my understanding, largely came out of the lead dev's own personal experience of getting himself out of a deep state of depression and self-loathing, and some of the game's best moments shine here.
There are aspects of this game that push it pretty far into "one of the greatest games of all time" territory for me. The absolutely incredible degree to which you can actually role play, and the amount of contextual and skill check based context is something to behold.
There are multiple lines of dialogue in this game that clearly come from such a personal place, and are so haunting, that they'll doubtlessly stick with me for a very long time. This is the type of game that can only be made by an indie studio with a strong creative vision.
But the absolute sheer hopelessness it seems to have for future society...it bothers me. It bothers me that this game, that is in a big way about not being black pilled, about choosing life, about choosing connection, about choosing to stay in this world and be human...
Is ultimately just so bleak about the big picture of it all. I don't need everything to be sunshine and rainbows. I don't need an indie game studio to present the solution that finally liberates us from capitalism. But god, I'd like something.
Death Stranding
2019
I really hope Kojima keeps making more ridiculous, utterly self-serious games like this because they have so much fucking heart.
My new favourite game, actual masterpiece
My new favourite game, actual masterpiece