Games
The Outer Wilds finished out about how I had come to expect, though not how I would have originally guessed. It veers a bit more into the territory of artistic experience than compelling narrative. It worked well enough and has a certain charm, but I can't say it had deeply marked me or anything.
I'm finding I need to start categorizing a game's lore as independent of story/narrative. The *Souls games are known for the depths of the former, but it's all related by inventory item descriptions and a few cryptic lines from NPCs here and there. The Outer Wilds is somewhat similar in that, with perhaps 99% of the information coming from reading text files left behind. There's all of one NPC in the whole system who's looping with the player, and you can't have a very in-depth discussion with them. That makes for a somewhat lonely experience.
Now, I really liked the exploration aspects and piecing together the lore mysteries was interesting. I describe the control/movement in the game as somewhat floaty, but that fits the aesthetic and works well enough. There's no combat in the game at all really. Dark Bramble can die in a fire (both for creepy atmosphere and touchy navigation requirements), but I found the other locations in the system to be interesting in one way or another.
Overall, I enjoyed the game and I find it easy to recommend to anyone on board with the basic premise who like to explore and unravel clues left behind.
I'd probably be playing Ghost of Tsushima now if it had been out about a week earlier, but it will wait. Instead, I'm deep into Hollow Knight, which turned out to be a much larger game than I thought. I'd seen art and commentary that made it out to be a side-scrolling platform/action game with a gothic/cute look.
I expected a 10-15 hour game with maybe a dozen bosses. Instead, I think my playtime shows over thirty hours (though some of that is paused/idle) and I've been through at least that many boss fights with no immediate ending in sight. The gameplay is good, particularly as you get more abilities unlocked along the way - they serve both in combat and traversal. The level design feels a little more "Metroidvania" to me than "Soulsborne," though some of that may be the 2D nature of it all. There are shortcuts, though I still find myself trekking long distances to access new areas or re-try some bosses.
That's probably my only real complaint at this point. I feel my time in the game has been heavily padded by running around and fighting through many of the same routers over and over. I try to be efficient, but it's not always possible. I feel the game would be a better experience if that aspect of it could be better condensed.
Hollow Knight is also more a lore game than a story one, at least so far.
I do not know why my knight character has come to Hallownest or what really befell the kingdom. I only know a little bit of what the character even is. I'm gaining abilities. I'm pursing some power of an old king and absorbing power from some sort of old guardians, though I wasn't really given any understanding of why with the first one. It just seemed like a momentous event... and then one of the early zones was overrun by nasty infection stuff - that seems... uhh... bad? One NPC seems to be encouraging me to break some cycle of perpetuation in the area (which sounds very Soulslike), but with little detail what that means. There's an oppressive weight of history over everything, but I don't yet have the pieces to understand what it all means.
And I'm generally okay with that, but I think the experience would be better for me if the reveals were not taking quite so long and the important details weren't quite so obfuscated. Which sort of brings me back to - I think the game would be better (for me) if the narrative arc of it moved faster.
But I am into it and intend to finish it.
Even if I don't know what "finishing it" even looks like at this point.
I'm finding I need to start categorizing a game's lore as independent of story/narrative. The *Souls games are known for the depths of the former, but it's all related by inventory item descriptions and a few cryptic lines from NPCs here and there. The Outer Wilds is somewhat similar in that, with perhaps 99% of the information coming from reading text files left behind. There's all of one NPC in the whole system who's looping with the player, and you can't have a very in-depth discussion with them. That makes for a somewhat lonely experience.
Now, I really liked the exploration aspects and piecing together the lore mysteries was interesting. I describe the control/movement in the game as somewhat floaty, but that fits the aesthetic and works well enough. There's no combat in the game at all really. Dark Bramble can die in a fire (both for creepy atmosphere and touchy navigation requirements), but I found the other locations in the system to be interesting in one way or another.
Overall, I enjoyed the game and I find it easy to recommend to anyone on board with the basic premise who like to explore and unravel clues left behind.
I'd probably be playing Ghost of Tsushima now if it had been out about a week earlier, but it will wait. Instead, I'm deep into Hollow Knight, which turned out to be a much larger game than I thought. I'd seen art and commentary that made it out to be a side-scrolling platform/action game with a gothic/cute look.
I expected a 10-15 hour game with maybe a dozen bosses. Instead, I think my playtime shows over thirty hours (though some of that is paused/idle) and I've been through at least that many boss fights with no immediate ending in sight. The gameplay is good, particularly as you get more abilities unlocked along the way - they serve both in combat and traversal. The level design feels a little more "Metroidvania" to me than "Soulsborne," though some of that may be the 2D nature of it all. There are shortcuts, though I still find myself trekking long distances to access new areas or re-try some bosses.
That's probably my only real complaint at this point. I feel my time in the game has been heavily padded by running around and fighting through many of the same routers over and over. I try to be efficient, but it's not always possible. I feel the game would be a better experience if that aspect of it could be better condensed.
Hollow Knight is also more a lore game than a story one, at least so far.
I do not know why my knight character has come to Hallownest or what really befell the kingdom. I only know a little bit of what the character even is. I'm gaining abilities. I'm pursing some power of an old king and absorbing power from some sort of old guardians, though I wasn't really given any understanding of why with the first one. It just seemed like a momentous event... and then one of the early zones was overrun by nasty infection stuff - that seems... uhh... bad? One NPC seems to be encouraging me to break some cycle of perpetuation in the area (which sounds very Soulslike), but with little detail what that means. There's an oppressive weight of history over everything, but I don't yet have the pieces to understand what it all means.
And I'm generally okay with that, but I think the experience would be better for me if the reveals were not taking quite so long and the important details weren't quite so obfuscated. Which sort of brings me back to - I think the game would be better (for me) if the narrative arc of it moved faster.
But I am into it and intend to finish it.
Even if I don't know what "finishing it" even looks like at this point.
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