Games

 So in a lull, I went back to Insomnia: The Ark, which I bounced off of before. I did better and got farther into the game, but it's still a little bit of a struggle.

The "old school" isometric style itself isn't back. The dieselpunk aesthetic on a space ark works well enough. I'm fairly neutral on what I've seen of the story - not horrible, but nothing has really brought together the material scarcity setting and the sort-of-supernatural aspects for me. I ran into a few bugs and translation issues. The combat is not terribly great - being almost impenetrably difficult starting out (one or two hits can lead to death), but becoming so much easier with better gear and potential companions. A lot of time is spent traveling back and forth between zones on the "world map," which feels like a waste.

Overall, it's a bit "meh" and I may get back to finish it eventually, but I'm not in any rush.

On the other hand, I was quite looking forward to Horizon: Forbidden West. Even better that it released on PS4 as well as 5, so my lack of a current console wasn't a barrier. I feel a little bad that it sucked me in before Elden Ring released, so I haven't even touched ER yet.

Forbidden West may very well be my game of the year. It's early to say for sure, of course, but I think the story focus will end up resonating better with me than something like Elden Ring (which has been receiving higher score ratings in general).

It has much the same setting and feel of the first game, naturally, but builds on it. The story picks up with Aloy trying to fix things after the fallout of Zero Dawn. In the process, there's plenty of new territory to explore, new tribal conflicts to deal with, new enemies are revealed, more history is revealed... it's pretty much everything a sequel should be.

I would say there seems to be a bit more focus on those around Aloy. Several friends, new and old, accompany Aloy on some missions and through the greater story. That is a good sequel-thing, but it also works for the character(s) - Aloy is learning she can accomplish more with allies, which means both introspection and opening up to others. That's noticeably challenging for her when she was raised as an exile, lost her father figure, and has had the weight of saving the world placed squarely on her shoulders. And as I'm nearing what I think are the final story missions, there is clearly development in the character. She is not the same character she was at the start of the game. Genuine character arcs are not that common in video games, so I respect and enjoy seeing this.

I would also observe that the characters in the game tend to be very emotive. This feels a little bit unrealistically simple to me, but that presentation grew on me very quickly. While it might be more realistic to have to focus more and dig deeper into a character to see their motivations, that takes time that doesn't exist in the medium. I would rather have a character seem shady at the beginning of a questline before pulling a betrayal if it makes that betrayal feel more understandable and justified, I think. And the same can be said for other developments.

This leads me to the quests. There are a lot of "standard" side quests in that you are sent to a location to get a thing or kill a thing or talk to a person. And yet, I found myself interested and feeling for a lot more of these than usual. I don't recall such positive feelings about so many quests since... I don't know, Witcher 3 maybe? While the actions felt pretty standard, the emotiveness of the characters led to me caring in many cases. And some of the side quests had real, solid emotional punch. Helping an inventor rediscover holographic displays of Las Vegas was rewarding in a way some currency and a gear item can't compare with. "Healing" the machines venerated as "land gods" by a tribe packed a punch when the machines thrummed at the reboot and the people sang along with them. Even seeing how people interpret leftover messages from the last war with the Faro swarm can be fascinating. Events in the game have made me genuinely smile and tear up throughout in a way games rarely manage once or twice with their big moments.

And I'm still impressed by the narrative revelations the team pulls of with the game's story. I would say I've been less surprised than I was in Zero Dawn, but I still love to see the way developments unfurl to reveal more details about the world and people of past and present.

The open world is good, but not anything truly new in gaming. Ranged combat is solid and varied. Melee combat is functional, but not outstanding. Traversal mechanics work well enough. The focus is still a good in-setting excuse for game prompts. The loading times on PS4 are a bit long. I did run into some bugs - mostly clipping/geometry issues with Aloy or NPCs falling into rocks or once falling through the map entirely. From a tech perspective, I find a handful of bugs like that to be expected with open world games, so nothing really took me out of the game for that long. As a game package, it's solid and quite respectable.

The story, setting, characters, and narrative delivery, though, all boost this so much higher for me. Those elements mean so much to me that it works well in a way that I suspect a game like Elden Ring probably won't. Mind you, I'm hoping to enjoy ER as well, but Horizon: Forbidden West is looking pretty hard to beat.