Recommended by turdl3 as part of this list.

BABA IS YOU

Back when I was in high school, my campus offered a Computer Science course as an elective of sorts, and I remember sitting in that classroom with six other kids while our teacher explained the basics of programming.

"Think of programming like a logic puzzle. You have a set of rules you always have to abide by, and you need to figure out a solution to each problem by working within those rules."

Obviously, this is a very reductive way of approaching the subject, but I bring it up because I recognize that same programming mindset is at the core of Baba is You. The game's main mechanic of moving Nouns, Operators and Properties around to change the logic of the world is basically a programming language in and of itself. The internal syntax logic remains consistent, and each level in Baba is You is always centered around working within the logic of a level to achieve the same goal of making some variation of X IS WIN. It's just up to you to figure out how.

BABA IS MOVE AND OPEN

Despite that simple goal, Baba is You is a very difficult game in practice. Baba is You is always introducing a new Modifier or Property to experiment with well into the endgame, making sure that every area is constantly reinventing the wheel in a way that ensures that the player retains that sense of wonder the game held from minute one. But even with this unrelenting avalanche of ideas and mechanics, Baba is You remains accessible through its incredibly free-form approach to progress. The branching path level structure always gives the player options to progress, with completed levels unlocking other levels in an immediate radius instead of a linear fashion. The player is only asked to complete a relatively small fraction of an area to have it marked as "complete", meaning that even if you are truly stumped, you only need to complete the bare minimum to see the game through. The final level is even unlocked once you complete about third of the game, meaning that at any time, you can stop and clear the game if you have the smarts. Baba is You may be rigid in its puzzle structure and logic, but it's sense of progression is anything but.

BABA IS LOVE

Above all else, Baba is You is delightful. It's adorable aesthetic and endless innovation kept me going long after the ending was waiting for me, and even though the game could potentially be beaten after an hour or so, I put off that final level until the very end just to see what other tricks Baba is You had up its sleeve. Even in the final areas, puzzles were still wowing me with their creativity and putting a smile on my face even as I slammed my head against a wall for hours on end trying to figure out the solution. Baba is You is a truly one of the most creative puzzle games in recent memory, and its clear how much passion was put into its creation by the people behind it, and it's a game I highly recommend if you love a good brainteaser.

In a culture of greed, gluttony, and corn syrup, the amount of slop that we put into our bodies (myself included) goes right past our eyes. It's only fairly recently have we been able to see more and more of how our food is made, and how ineffectively it is distributed. Look up the food safety section on Wikipedia. If it's anything I want to take from this game, it's that you should be aware of what you eat. Be very aware of what you eat. Also, really cute creature design! Cheepoof definitely takes my crown. Also in love with Bunger as everyone should be. Bunger Bunger. Hahahaa.

An implicit encouragement of matter-of-fact objectivity, strewn about and undermined by moral and motive. Human sentiment being pushed to the periphery and pulled into focus by a mechanical rigidity. Life and personhood being smothered under an artificial sense of value. Both Papers Please and Return of the Obra Dinn feed a ritualistic fascination for rules, and use the satisfaction of following them as a thematic avenue into the player’s psyche in a way that only games can. Though I prefer Obra Dinn on the whole, I can’t help but wonder if Papers Please is more effective in this respect.

In Papers Please, Complicity is experienced firsthand, and as such, the intersectionality of its elements are an intuitive focus of discussion. In Obra Dinn, however, I find this kind of analysis a little more infrequent, which is understandable. It’s a bit murkier if the Greed the crew propagate and experience are adequately reflected and amplified through the player lens of an insurance adjuster/investigator that doesn’t actually participate in the events of the “story”. Without getting too autobiographical, I’ve seen the ways insurance adjusters operate – I know what kind of person that is, so from my perspective it has the potential to really work. I often ask myself, though, if Obra Dinn could have pushed that envelope a little further; if the game could have done just a little bit more with its framing device.

Tangentially, I think there is weight to the idea that both Papers Please and Obra Dinn eschew more meaningful aesthetics that would better contribute to their theming in exchange for a sort of minimalist shorthand that more quickly onboards the audience. Papers Please uses a cartoony USSR to microwave a visage of state power and bureaucracy. Obra Dinn, meanwhile, centers its morals in the wise, spiritual, “they were right the whole time” Formosan, and it maybe feels a bit orientalist. I have mixed feelings on both examples, but I do get a vague feeling that these games are a little loose and memetic in their approach their worlds, characters and stories. I’ve heard in interviews that Lucas Pope typically comes up with gameplay concepts (and in Obra’s case, 1 bit style) before deciding on a plot and environment that would be fitting for his games, and although I would absolutely not go so far as to say that these games’ worlds and narratives feel tacked on, (the ship Obra Dinn feels remarkably detailed and researched, for instance) I do wish more things in these games felt more interesting and considered.