Not A Game Review

No year has been as tumultuous and full of personal lessons as this one. I've been both happier than ever and at my worst. And though this blog hasn't seen any posts for a while, I have still been sneaking off time from studies and work to game. Here is a list of what I've been up to the last few months.           The Evil Within (1 and 2) Image Credit: Tango Gameworks While the first game demands more patience, both of them are amazing horror games that are definitely worth checking out for fans of the genre. 2 also boasts of excellent direction; the ending sequence is right out of a big-budget  Hollywood action flick. With a soundtrack to match and the shift to an open-world from the first game, complete with side missions and enhanced character upgrades, TEW 2 was one of the best shooters I played this year.                                   ...

Image Credit: CBE Software This is probably the first time in my life that I am writing about a game that was released just last month; if you didn't know already, I almost never play games upon release. I might catch up with some a year later, or a decade - my habits are simply too erratic in this matter. Someday You'll Return is a game that starts off really well - it checks all the right boxes; music, setting up the story, a beautiful environment. But the closer you look, the cracks start showing up, until they're impossible to ignore. And then, the only thing you can do is marvel at how something that seemed so unique and promising simply failed to live up to its appeal. It was an uphill battle finding the patience to see it through to the end.  Simply put, it's buggy - I couldn't get a decent framerate at anything but low settings even though my machine more than meets the recommended specs. There are audio issues. The voice acting is average at best....

Image Credit: ONE-O-ONE GAMES I've never been one to state my opinions publicly. Deeply rooted beneath the strong belief that arguing over one's point of view on the internet is an exercise in futility (I'd rather do actual exercise) lies a tendency to disown the things I like for fear of being judged. But recently, someone close to me has been encouraging me to be more confident. There's a difference between keeping a distance from online debates that lead nowhere and not having confidence in oneself. So I'll just say it: for all the controversy surrounding it, I enjoyed playing The Suicide of Rachel Foster. You play as Nicole, returning to the family hotel to conduct an inspection to follow through on selling the property. In typical horror fashion, you get trapped there owing to a particularly severe snowstorm. The hotel itself is very spacious and beautifully designed. Described as an indie game, I definitely wasn't expecting this level of visual p...

Image: Remedy Entertainment In between bites of triple-choc ice-cream and thoughts of the recently beaten A Machine For Pigs, I sit down at my desk and surprise myself by writing about a completely different game instead that I can't seem to get out of my head since the last few weeks. I'll be honest - I tend to avoid shooters. Many of them fall prey to a pitfall of the genre - repetitiveness. That's a major reason as to why I give them a wide berth and stick to acclaimed, narrative-rich walking sims. This probably comes off as ignorant - I know there are tons of shooters out there with a gripping story - but for me, the first ones I came across were made by Remedy. Today, five years after I first encountered Max Payne on a seedy website that promised me a free .iso, I'll happily fight swarms of enemies if it's a Remedy game. I always appreciate innovation in a game. Nothing does it for me like the feeling of playing something new, something never seen before. ...

Witty writing with several genuinely hilarious moments. Don't go into this expecting a re-run of Oxenfree and you will most likely have a good time. 

Image Credit: Rewind The first thing that struck me as I started playing Amnesia was the ever-present darkness. It's overwhelming, stifling and instills into the player a sense of dread that can only be surpassed by the telltale grunts of a monster shuffling around the corner. Welcome to Brennenburg Castle. I have always been a sucker for games with a unique gameplay trait, or a rich story. Amnesia has both, which only makes it natural that I would thoroughly enjoy it. Though the game has monsters (or "grunts") that actually have the power to kill you, darkness is the real enemy here. When you're in the dark, you have limited visibility, barely enough to navigate. Stay in the dark too long and you start losing your sanity. You have the ability to light torches and candles wherever they might be present, but each one costs you a tinderbox, which are extremely limited in supply. Terrifying-atmosphere-wise, this is the closest I've seen to simulating a real...

You're invited to a party. You don't get out much, you don't have any friends. This occasion marks a deviation from your usual routine in life. You're worried about fitting in. Part of you doesn't want to go, but the one that's eager to experience life like the others do overrides your fears. Quite predictably, you end up getting bullied and locked up in a confined space. Did I groan at this sequence? No. On the contrary, I got chills because it felt like an episode right out of my life. I wanted to love this game, I really did. Coming off the high that was Detroit: Become Human, I went in with really high expectations. I'll get the good points out of the way first before I delve into the remaining part of my strongly mixed feelings. One thing that I could find no fault with were the performances by Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe; I imagine they'd practically feel right at home in a game that plays out like a movie. Another point worth mentioning is ...

A charming adaption of a best-selling novel (which I am yet to read) with genuine, heartwarming moments. It follows multiple storylines which - you guessed it - intersect at many points throughout the game. There's romance, political intrigue, choices and consequences - sometimes heavy ones. That said, this was definitely one of the most engrossing stories I have come across in a game for a while; I can only imagine how gripping the novel must be.  Definitely a must-play if you are looking for a touching story told in a point-and-click adventure format. 

Image courtesy of Rewind You know the feeling when you start playing a game that just connects with you in a way most games don't, and leaves you wanting more every time you stop playing? It is a battle with your inner self to stop for the day, and get back to the tasks on hand. It is an inexplicable attraction, almost magnetic in nature.  Somewhere in the decade between being 10 and playing my first game on our first ever PC (Zuma's Revenge) to being 20 and spending all my free time closeted in my room (I tend to fixate on that a lot) playing almost exclusively story-rich games, the feeling of eager anticipation as to what a game would bring next faded over time. Partly because games quickly turned into a routine fixture in life. Though I never indulged in excessive gaming hours (I still don't, except in rare cases), it was the same thing that happens with every other object of attraction in life; too much familiarity and the magic seems to fade. Though I enjoye...

He looked at the watch, lying sideways on the nightstand - he had never worn it after the first day. 7:47 am. Almost time.  He double-checked everything one last time. The bag - which would be stuffed full when he returned with the haul - check; wallet - check; phone - check. 7:49 now. Just a few more minutes. L ots of planning had gone into this; he had to pick the perfect hour to avoid the crowd. 8 am worked best. The store would have just opened for the day - he would be in and out in less than half an hour, back at the hideout.  As he walked out of his room, his mind erupted in a frenzy to stop him in his tracks.   "You have enough for at least two more days. Why want more? We'll consider this after we've run out. Come on. This is foolishness." Just a few more steps. Almost at the front door now. Keep going. "No. Stop. It's almost 8. You're going to run into a ton of people. Abort." He put on his shoes, the only pair he owned - he...

Another one of those games that I need to play in small chunks lest my mind decides to make my stomach violently eject any food I was careless enough to ingest in the past few hours! Jokes apart ( I was perfectly serious ), this game was extremely enjoyable - more so for me, because the game's protagonist bears an eerie resemblance to my new friend Johan.*  There are a few loose ends in the story, which I guess they were hoping to address in a sequel. The story itself plays out in a believable fashion, but it's the gameplay that steals the spotlight here. Right from the start, it is clear that the focus here is on the running, jumping and vaulting - which is perfectly fine by me. In fact, it is commendable just how authentic the actions feel, given the first-person mode. It is a relatively short game but felt a lot longer to me, only because of the frequent breaks I needed to take in between playing it. A special shout-out to the main menu theme, which is extremely ...

Going into Detention, I was expecting something along the lines of Fran Bow in terms of violence and story. Though comparatively lacking in the gore department (not complaining about that at all), the story simply blew me away.  What started off as a fairly normal mystery - you play as Wei, having fallen asleep in class and waking up to everyone having disappeared with only a typhoon warning left on the blackboard - slowly escalated into a deep dive in the tragic past of Ray, who is seemingly introduced as a side character in the initial stages of the game.  The game is set during the White Terror period in Taiwan; the political climate is highly charged, with suspected enemies of the state being locked up or put to death for the slightest perceived offense. It is in this setting, facing undead terrors that sound like they're right out of a horror movie, that Ray navigates her way through the deserted school. As time passes, and the environments - and monsters - ...

When I first browsed through the Origin Vault with a grin that would have made the Joker proud, none of the titles excited me more than Vampyr and A Way Out - here were two games that I knew I'd never purchase otherwise; it would be a crime to miss the chance to play them along with all the indie darlings the Vault had too.  And then, a sinking feeling. For some reason, I knew none of my online friends would want to play with me. Either they're super busy with their lives or simply do not care about story-driven games with the same passion as I do. It was one of those times when you know even before you ask that it's not going to happen, no matter what they say. And of course, I asked. And of course, it didn't happen. But then, I did something totally uncharacteristic - I went onto a Discord server, laying out an open invitation of sorts to play A Way Out with me. The best part? The other player wouldn't even have to buy a copy, they could play along as a fri...

The last game I played in 2019. Limbo was surprisingly fun, considering I have little patience for games that simply rely on puzzle solving and offer little progression in the story as reward. There's not a lot of explanation given here, as to who or where we are. You play as an unnamed boy in a bleak world, dodging giant insects and a vicious band of boys, all in pursuit of a mysterious girl who remains just out of reach. I badly want to go through interpretations of the game, they really intrigued me; however, doing that will surely mean venturing into spoiler territory. In no way do I want to deter the handful of people who read my entries from skipping this one because of spoilers. I went through several articles on the internet in order to wrap my head around the game and there are some very interesting theories out there which sound credible too. I'd advise playing the game first - won't take more than 4-5 hours - and then going through the theories and explan...