My 11-20 Favorite Video Games

Forever ago, I wrote a top 10 favorite video games list.  I regret some of my entries (my top 10 now would have a few changes) but instead of rewriting it, I'm just going to leave it as is and talk about some honorable mentions.  Well, that was the plan, but this got long enough that I decided to just go with a straight 11-20 list.

I'm using the same rules as before, one game per franchise and no arcade cabinets which should be its own list.  Also, the last 3 or 4 (or, 17-ish to 20) get pretty fuzzy so this is more a list of what I think at the moment rather than something set in stone forever.

11.  The Last of Us

This was my final cut when I wrote my top 10 and I only really cut it because the game was only a year old by then.  I regret that because it's really the culmination of a lot of video game trends from the previous generation.  No video game "felt like playing a movie" more than this game.  I'm indifferent to the idea of games trying to be movies as long as EVERY game is not trying too.  I know some people hate this, and that's fine, I just like all sorts of styles of games.  The Last of Us is probably the best game trying to be a movie we may ever see since current gaming trends have moved more to open world and/or emergent storytelling, as well as desperately trying to convince us VR isn't just a fancier Nintendo Wii.

This game has great characters, great storytelling, a cliche setting, and solid gameplay.  The gameplay uses a great stealth system despite few actually considering this a stealth game.  Yeah...I don't know why Joel has super human hearing either but I didn't use it much and still stealthed my way around.  The gun play is straight up an Uncharted clone which is acceptable.  The setting is post-apocalypse zombie times but you rarely fight zombies in the game as the majority of enemies are rival human groups.  At least the zombies get a twist on their creation with a fungus actually found in nature.  They all look like grotesque human-mushrooms too.

Well, mushroom-esque.

The characters and story really sell this game though.  The first 20-30 minutes is notorious for getting players teary.  That has to be some sort of record for "fastest time to get players emotionally invested".  I personally really like the games softer periods during exploration/scavenging sections since they really build character.  It gives the player time to relax and appreciate some banter (can't be TOO relaxed though as sudden zombie/human attacks can happen).  Joel and Ellie's character arcs are fantastic and their relationship grows during the course of the game.  Spoiler but (highlight to read), Joel goes from hating Ellie and considering her "baggage" to eventually considering her to be his surrogate daughter.  The voice work is among the best ever done in a video game, if not, the best of all time I'm not kidding.  It's so good that the occasional weirdness with Ellie being an escort AI can seem more jarring here.  Unlike Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite for example, there is no reason for Ellie to be mostly ignored by enemies.  She does occasionally get in trouble and requires saving but it's pretty rare.

Maybe the only game that makes you care about a character as a parent type.

That ending though!  Possibly my favorite ending in video game history.  A lot of people at the time seemed confused or hated it but that is because gamers are fucking stupid.  Ambiguous endings are fine and this one isn't even that ambiguous.  We know the fate of these characters and you'd have to be an idiot to not know.  No, the only thing ambiguous is, Spoilers again, did Ellie know Joel lied?  They must have spent a ton of time on that final shot cutscene because you can see Ellie thinking it over before saying, "okay".  Joel doubles down on his lie when pressured to tell the truth.  I think, Ellie knows Joel lied, but accepts it.  She knows Joel can't bare to lose another daughter...even if that means dooming humanity.  People also hated the ending because of Joel not being a perfect hero.  Why?  He is an anti-hero.  He has had questionable decisions earlier in the game.  I'm sorry a video game made you play a murder machine who isn't a bastion of good.

Finally, about The Last of Us 2.  I'm...torn.  I loved that perfect ending and now we might get resolution to something that didn't need it.  It would be stupid not to make another considering this game nearly swept game of the year awards and sold a fuck load, but hey man.  What about art?

12.  Resident Evil 4

RE4 is fantastic and one of the most influential games of all time...for better and worse.

It invented the over the shoulder camera for 3rd person shooters.  Actually, 3rd person shooter wasn't really a thing until this game.  Everything from Gears of War to Mass Effect to The Last of Us above owe a debt to inventing this camera angle.  It seems innocuous now but before RE4, 3rd person perspective was always behind the back and elevated even if shooting was a mechanic.  Many had to use a lock on aim mechanic and enemies became bullet sponges (sometimes, still are).  Think the early Tomb Raider games.

RE4 also popularized the escort mission.  These were awful until the AI improved and designers realized escort characters should be able to defend themselves or be mostly invincible like Ellie in The Last of Us or ALWAYS invincible like Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite.  The escort character in this game is Ashley and she is, the worst usually.  You had some basic commands like wait/follow so "wait" was frequently used until you cleared an area of all danger.  Even then, there are scripted moments where you have to protect her while also fighting enemies attacking yourself like the elevated castle area where you protect her trying to pull levers to open a gate (if you played this game you know what spot I'm talking about).  Those scripted moments are tense but also frustrating.  It's weird.

Agreed.

The game also popularized, but did not invent like so many people think so....quick time events.  Failing these usually meant immediate death and some, like a long ass cutscene knife fight, required a dozen button presses.  It was annoying as hell.

Still though, this game is pretty awesome.  It seems to go through drastic tone changes in its 3 acts.  The village is the only part that has horror moments but even then, something about protagonist Leon Kennedy's lines seem a bit off.  After a super intense fight in the village, everybody leaves after the church bell calls them and Leon says, "Where did everybody go?  Bingo?"  AH YES.  This is the first, and so far, last Resident Evil to finally make fun of itself.  Act 2 in the castle gets super cheesy.  The main villain in this act is just....well, watch.  I mean.  Come on.  That is Premium Grade A cheddar.  Act 3 goes straight action as any pretense of this game being a survival horror game is thrown out the door with chain gun wielding zombies (they're not actually zombies but, they are).

Even with a game having fun with itself and being cheesy, there are still times when its horror roots appear.  Even in act 3, the Regenerators.....*shudder*, the breathing.  Oh god, the breathing.  I can't deal.  You always, ALWAYS, hear the breathing before you actually see one and panic sets in (they are really tough to take down too).

Also, the merchant.  The fuck is this guys deal?  Why is he here?  Why is he always ahead of me?  I'm pretty sure I'm his only customer yet he's so into it.  Possibly the most bizarre NPC in video games from a narrative stand point.  His existence doesn't even start to make sense but he's just so pleasant and a welcome sight in a game when upgrades and better weapons are really needed.  Fights are usually by the skin of your teeth (you can't take much damage, usually, and some enemies have one hit kill attacks).  This guy has not appeared in another Resident Evil because every game after this took themselves way too seriously.

You BETTER buy it at a high price.

If RE 1-3 are basically the same style, how come RE 4-6 messed up?  5 and 6 are basically the same as 4 in gameplay but it's missing the same "style".  They feel off.  RE7 looks to be the start of a new trend and WOW did they take a long time to go "indie horror game".  Or...lets do PT/Silent Hills since it got cancelled and make Konami look stupid.  I'm okay with that.

13.  Silent Hill 2

Out of any game I'm going to regret on this list, it's probably this one.  Most of my memories of this game center around the beginning and it's sort of twist that everything might be happening in the protagonists head (sorry to spoil a 16 year old game but you probably knew that)  It's weird to still like James Sunderland after all this time since his writing and acting is pretty awful.  The gameplay isn't really that great either with early 2000's cameras (yeah, remember those?) that would suddenly switch sides and disorient the player.  IF those were on purpose, and a big IF, is still up to debate.

The tone, setting, atmosphere, and general direction was so good its flaws felt lost in the fog (Ed note - come up with a better joke).  The opening 30 minutes is very quiet and very foreboding.  Silent Hill's iconic fog becomes thicker and thicker as you move through the park.  After you encounter the first monster, they appear after you are aware one is around you due to a radio static mechanic.  You don't know where, due to the fog, and it's so nerve racking.

A lot of people consider this the scariest game of all time but I don't think so.  What it does instead is make you wonder what person James is.  Is he hallucinating all this or not?  This game is famous for playing on psychological dread.  The beginning, in retrospect, should be a red flag since the story starts out with James getting a message from his dead wife to meet her in a park.  Uh, yeah, that's a ghost brah.  Also, the story shows that James might not be the best person...

Yeah I trust this.

I should note that this game has the first appearance of Pyramid Head (link is NSFW??) who is also in the Silent Hill movie and....just.....the worst*.  In the game, he is tricksy.  James shoots him a bunch from the closet in the first cutscene with him (you can actually see him through a gated hallway before hand and ITS VERY INTIMIDATING) and he just runs off like a little bitch.  It's okay though because he later just torments you via cutscene until a tough boss fight.  He's basically a plot device.

*I've seen an absurd amount of video game movies, yes, including some of the Uwe Boll ones.  I should...do a thing.

14.  Super Metroid

Back to old school stuff.  I didn't own a SNES but this is the game I played a lot off when I borrowed my friends (along with Chrono Trigger).  As far as the best game that FEELS Nintendo now, this is the best SNES game ever, even though I consider Chrono Trigger much better....does that make sense?

This game has two special aspects in my heart.  The first is the creepy intro with the awesome music and sudden boss fight with Ridley.  The other is its world style.  I have liked many games that share the same style of game world.  It's kind of like a 2-D open world but not really.

Super Metroid usually had gear/equipment requirements to get to a new area making it a bit more linear, but so many games have copied the "map".  Remember VVVVVV?  Same style of map. Castlevainia games also do this (but I never played those) hence the term, "Metroidvania" for these types of game worlds.  There are a ton of old Newgrounds games, Adult Swim games, and a personal soft spot of mine, Knytt Underground, that had the same world-style that I just adore.

This map.

And here is where I need to make a note considering the lack of Nintendo games in my top 20, as this is the last Nintendo game to be on here. - Mario and Zelda are never going to be that high on any of my lists.  Outside of my sister's NES, my friend's SNES, and a lazy babysitter/older cousin who just sat us in front of a NES, I haven't played that much Nintendo.  A friend of mine in high school (aging myself here) had a Gamecube and we played the shit out of some Smash Bros....the first one.  Another friend had a N64 and we mostly played Goldeneye (severely overrated game fucking fight me nerds).  But I also had a killer PC because my dad loved new tech so PC + Genesis/Playstation was enough.  I HAVE played most of the early Marios but very few to completion.  Zelda?  Not, a, single, one.  I've never played a Zelda game and honestly, have no desire too.  It seems like "My first action-RPG" and no thank you.  That said, Breath of the Wild looks cool.

Super Metroid failed to make me want to play more Metroid games.  It's spot on this list was introducing me to a game style that I really like and that many games have copied.  It invented a sub-genre that seems quaint now but it's that broadening of styles that I wish more games would do.

15.  Portal

I like clever puzzle games and Portal might be the cleverest.  "Lets make a FPS with sort of real physics and portals and puzzles," said nobody ever.  Yet, Portal happened.  I know that Valve bought the rights to a game that was basically the same thing and expanding it to "the cake is a lie" proportions but it's still clever.  (Ed note - Christ Jason!  These jokes are terrible).

The backstory to this game is astounding considering there is no codex or any dialogue outside of one character.  All speech comes from GlaDOS who is sneakily evil....the BEST kind of evil....while also being sympathetic.  She is a weird anomaly in media these days, GOOD VILLAINS.  But the hype around this game is sort of a negative too as emergent and "environmental" storytelling really takes off after Portal.  While I'm not against these things, not even a little, I hate it when they become the ONLY things that provide narrative.  Just because it worked in Portal doesn't mean it's going to work elsewhere.

Hey sweetie.

I seriously contemplated putting Portal 2 here instead but I just love the companion cube so much.  It's hard enough for games to make you care about characters yet Portal made you care about an inanimate object.  That....is kind of bizarre.  There is a weird loneliness vibe to this game that I haven't really felt since the original Doom games, 1 and 2.  (Okay....maybe Shadow of the Colossus as well).  The only real character other than Chell, yourself, is the villain so....*

*...I know there are other characters but none actually exist in the game world.  You don't meet any of them.

Valve hates trilogies though so of course no Half- Life 3 Portal 3.  If only developers could make a good third game.....

16.  Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

You knew this was coming assholes...uh...at least, one MGS game.

This is probably the only game in the MGS franchise that nailed the ridiculousness of MGS and the seriousness of its story line.  This was secretly the best stealth game ever made until Deus Ex: Human Revolution came along and was actually successful in hitting the player in the feels despite the ridiculous melodrama.

I have talked way too much about Metal Gear Solid on this blog so I'll leave this entry as this:  Birth of Big Boss is brilliant.  The Boss (different character) is the only person who explained the point of the entire franchise.  "Snake you've created a time paradox" comes from this game and actually makes sense.  And yes.  MGS has time travel that isn't stupid....well...it's more of an Ass Creed Animus thing but gahhhhh moving on.

17.  To The Moon.

Don't you roll your eyes at me.  This game is great.  While I know a lot of people know the title, I'm pretty sure a lot of you don't know what this game is actually about.

You play as two scientists named Evaline (Eva) and Neil who have sci-fi technology that allows them to manipulate peoples memories.  Old people on their death bed hire them to re-write memories so they can right a wrong or die happy or whatever.  (A misconception about this game is that they travel through time and change it.  They don't do that.  Reality stays the same they can just change memories).  A man named Johnny hires them so that he can go to the moon in his memories except...he doesn't know why he wants to go to the moon.

This game is on the list, and my highest rated indie game, solely due to the story.  It's really impressive as Eva and Neil learn about Johnny and his wife River in reverse order.  They have to reach his earliest memory to re-write it so he goes to the moon.  They start at his old man memories and work backward.  And as for the reason he wants to go to the moon?...oh my god.  I shit you not but this is the only game ever that got me straight up crying.  It's notorious for it.*  If you cry more from tragedy or sentimentality it doesn't matter because this game has BOTH.

*The game has a lot of really good humor too so don't expect it to be some depressing slog.

...I'm getting teary just looking at it.

Gameplay is mostly just exploration and clicking on things.  You get some light puzzles, most of which are panel flipping to "make a picture", but there is also a bizarre action sequence late.  The game is made in RPG Maker even though it doesn't use any 16-bit RPG staples other than "notes" that appear in an inventory screen and classic text bubbles.  This is yet another game that maybe shouldn't be considered a game but who cares.

Again, I cannot express the emotional impact this game has even if it seems manipulative in retrospect.  It is incredibly unique in this regard and one of only a few games that can provoke a strong emotional response like other mediums can.  Aerith dying in Final Fantasy 7?  Whatever, kid shit.  This game will leave everyone crying.

18.  Catherine

Yes, Alternate Covers.

Ha, WOW.  This is quite the tonal shift.

An Atlus game made by the same team that makes the Persona games, Catherine is unlike any game ever made.  The number of games I can say are truly unique I could count on one hand and this is one of them.  Catherine is a...um...anime TV show drama/psychological thriller/alcohol enthusiast trivia game with block pushing/tower climbing gameplay that also uses a player choice driven narrative?  Yeah....yeah that's kinda close.

I don't usually put puzzle games this high but along with Portal, this game is too good to ignore.  The puzzle sections, which is half the game, are really good.  The objective is to climb a tower of blocks by pushing or pulling blocks, usually with gravity defying physics, with a timer gradually taking lower levels away.  There are also different types of blocks like immovable ones, ice ones, bombs, spikes, etc.  For all the talk about the puzzles being super hard, they start pretty easy...but holy shit do they get hard and the timer/trap blocks just increase the tension.  Unfortunately some towers require you to move behind the tower via a hanging mechanic (like platform hanging) and the camera is balls when you do this as it doesn't follow you.  Also, for some stupid reason, the controls become reversed and it is super disorientating.  Still though, conquering each stage is satisfying as fuck.

This game has a very adult themed story and a story not really ever covered in games.  The story is about cheating on your girlfriend, as the cheater, only maybe you didn't?  Or you did?  Of course with the Persona team, the story is much weirder than a normal infidelity story*.  The game also has a forced confessional that asks you some...honestly, pretty tough binary questions about what you consider a relationship, emotional commitment, what you see in potential partners, and yeah, sex.  Whoever wrote these questions is a genius demon by the way as they start benign and kinda stupid, but they eventually get pretty tough.  Also, you can see the answers via pie graph of every other person who played the game and compare them to your own.  Some have a 80/20 split but others have close to 50/50.

Since sex is a major theme of this game, for once NO, the characters are not pointlessly sexualized.  

*The ending kind of ruins the story but I don't think it's that big of a deal.  The player's choices can effect who you end up with, or neither.  Spoiler (Highlight to read):  Catherine is a succubus so it makes the whole cheating thing cheap.  It would have been a stronger story if it wasn't clouded in demon nonsense but the player can manipulate choices to end up with her anyway.  Basically, the player can choose to be with the succubus.  

BTW, this game has 9 endings.  3 with Catherine, 3 with Katherine, and 3 called the "freedom" endings which ends up with the player with neither.  I'm not sure if that is a MRA joke or not.

Finally, you're probably wondering how a story about infidelity has anything to do with tower climbing and block moving.  It's actually super weird and kind of a spoiler but I will say the puzzle sections only happen after leaving the bar every night (with drink trivia) and occur in your sleep.  But if you die in your sleep you die in real life blah blah blah.  It...play the game it makes more sense.  Man I should replay this.  It's worthy of its own post.

19.  Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Not going to make the same mistake I did with The Last of Us.  This game absolutely deserves a spot on here and for once, a game I've written about before (twice).

Open world games are better off trying to copy this world than GTA or The Elder Scrolls.  Secondary quests are just as good in quality as the main quests.  Witcher contracts are surprisingly good as side quests as well.  There is dumb Ubisoft collect-a-thon icons on the map, a ton of them, but that is really the only big flaw of this game to me because #AllQuestsMatter.  Still though, the quality of the good stuff covers up the quantity of stupid shit really well.

The story is fantastic.  The characters are great too even if Geralt's line delivery is sometimes dull as a butter knife.  I know, "emotionless Witcher" blah blah, but it is weird when he does show the slight hint of emotion.  Everything with the Wild Hunt and especially Ciri are really, really top notch.  Even the love triangle is pretty good for a video game even though by other media standards it is pretty blah.  (Also, it's a subplot so don't be too weirded out that I bring this up after entry #18.  Just a coincidence I swear).  And I've mentioned this in the review but the Crones can go fuck themselves.  Great story there too but seriously fuck em.

I feel bad because if you clicked on my review links...I'm just repeating myself so moving on.

This game might move up my list in time depending on how this game ages and the ones above it age.  Honestly, Ultima was way too high, Sonic probably too high as well, and maybe Total War.  Nostalgia is hard to gage.  Even Shinobi 3 was hard because that game is seriously....too low.  I love that game man.

20.  Uh...Let's go...

I'm not going to do a 21-30 list because that would be dumb. I'm probably forgetting a game I will remember 6 months from now.  This will be slightly controversial but lets go,

Oxenfree

Get fucked previous entry I had here.

Just read my Oxenfree review.  This game is fucking rad.
...................................................................................................................................................................

Follow me on Twitter.

Oxenfree Ending and New Game Plus Discussion. Spoilers Obviously.

General review is here.

So...lets talk about that ending.  If you want to play the game, go do that, and come back.  It's only 5 hours long (it took me 7 cause I stopped a lot and wandered around looking for one missing anomaly for over an hour only to find it where I started!).  If you don't want to but still want to know what the hell I was talking about at the end of my review about a gimmick ending, read on.

Spoilers again.  Last warning.

Oxenfree Review

I freaking love this game.  Mystery games are really making a comeback in recent years after their DOS heyday and this one just nails it.  There is so much mystery in Oxenfree that the game actually spawns into a post game ARG (alternate reality game) which is weird and cool and not as obvious of a marketing gimmick like most ARG's.  The characters and story are fantastic.  The voice acting especially is superb and easily among the best EVER in a video game.  The gameplay is simple but actually complements the story rather than distract from it.  This game is so good I'm actually delaying a ready to go blogpost because I now need to re-write part of it.

I'm going to have to spoil the first 15 minutes of this game a few paragraphs down.  If you want to go in completely blind, stop reading.  

Oxenfree is about a group of teenagers who go to an island for a "generic all night teenage party-debauchery".  The player character, a girl named Alex, brings her radio because creepy broadcast anomalies are rumored to occur on the island.  You do this and shit gets weird.  The rest of the game is about figuring out what the hell is going on.

Blue-ish hair is just a coincidence I promise.

The game is highly story driven so relies heavily on dialogue and player input on that dialogue. Almost no lines are said by Alex without player input (which is pretty incredible if you think about it).  Almost every line Alex says is chosen out of three possible options and flow naturally with conversation.  These conversations typically happen while moving around the environment and exploring, rather than the old RPG standard of standing in one spot to talk.  You can do other things while choosing dialogue tree options and it works really well.  Granted most of those other things is just running around and exploring but hey.

My only real criticism with the game is the dialogue tree has two, for lack of a better word, "types" that the player has no way of knowing about before hand.  Some dialogue options will interrupt another character speaking while others will wait for the other character to finish speaking before Alex will.  A majority of the options seem like the interrupt type, so if you want to hear the other character finish their thought, you have to gamble with a dialogue option that fades away and click on it at the last possible second.  It is too easy to miss an option if you click on it juuuuust too late and just because you wanted to hear what the other character had to say.  This also kind of makes Alex look like an asshole who is always interrupting her friends but conversations happen pretty naturally regardless of these interruptions so it's only a minor criticism.  You have the option to not say anything in any of these interrupt dialogue trees as they fade away but that usually feels less natural. Basically, awkward silence often leaving a conversation hanging.

The options follow Alex like comic book style text bubbles.

The characters are great with solid writing and fantastic voice acting.  It sometimes has a little of Life is Strange syndrome with some of the dialogue being a little too witty for a teenager but only barely.  The writing does age-up the characters a bit but I thought it was pretty average for the age of the characters even if occasional lines seemed more natural to a character in their early 20's.  Their actual ages are ambiguous but dialogue about college suggests they are around 18, or at least high school seniors, which makes the aging up pretty forgivable.  Also, there was no painful eye-roll inducing dialogue except for some of Ren and Jonas' jokes which were purposely bad.  I may have been blinded by the excellent voice acting to notice any egregiously bad lines or the voice acting was so good they elevated any bad lines.  The voice cast is truly excellent and mostly unknown actors.

The characters are developed really well and are given personality and backstory just 15 minutes into the game.  Alex is sort of the leader of the group, somewhat forced into that role, but she plays it well.  Her personality is a little more basic as it can be altered by the player but within the framework of the game.   She is kind of a smart ass and a bit sarcastic at times, but she can take things seriously too. She might be the one most willing to solve the mystery of the island.

The other characters you meet first is Alex's best friend Ren, who is something of a hipster doofus, and Jonas, her JUST met step-brother.  Ren talks a lot, A LOT, and talks quickly.  He also provides levity as he isn't always taking everything as seriously as he probably should.  Jonas' mother died and his father got with Alex's mother and they see the island trip as a good chance to get to know one another.  He is somewhat of a foil since you spend much of the game with him as Alex's "sidekick".  He spends a lot of time initiating conversation for the player to respond too but his back and forth with Alex is well done.  He is a character in his own right.

There is occasional photo taking.  Part of this games weird aesthetic.  

Soon you meet the last two of the group.  Nona is probably the least developed as the shy, quiet girl who Ren has a thing for.  She's still solid though and plays that archetype well.  Then....there is Clarissa, or "Goddamnit Clarissa".  Clarissa is a bitch and it's quickly established that she has a history with Alex.  Just 15 minutes in the game, you learn Alex had another brother named Micheal who died.  You can choose to bring this up or not but the dialogue option lets the player know.  Later on in the game, you will learn the meaning of this conflict.

I bring this up because games rarely establish this much backstory in such a small time frame.  Everything we need to know about them and their dynamic with each other is established so the game can focus on A.) figuring out what is going on with this island and B.) attempting to resolve conflicts within the group.  Yes, it is contrived that a lot of this information comes from the group playing "truth or slap" on the beach, but it's a storytelling convention I'm fine with.  RPG's typically have a character mention something vague with a box popping up about "codex/journal entry added" where you can read more.  Here, the backstory is happening in the narrative of the game rather than needing to read about it elsewhere.

Oxenfree is supposedly a "supernatural thriller" which makes the tone generic creepy.  This game isn't scary, at all, but it does have the occasional jumpscare which never got me.  Ok...one got me but the horror level of this game is something akin to Tales From The Crypt, Are You Afraid of the Dark, or even The Twilight Zone.  Oxenfree is more charming than eerie, though it does have its unsettling moments.  It's more of a mystery game than a horror game.

OOOOOO.  They glow red.

The art style is not usually a style I like, the Double Fine game style (sorta), but I love it in Oxenfree.  It's a watercolor painting, Double Fine game, vague expressionism...with Poltergeist influences....if that makes sense.  The game uses TV tracking lines sometimes and glitches as scares or just general creepiness.  (It's not totally unlike Anatomy in this regard although I'd argue Anatomy does a better job with it considering each games intention with it.  Oxenfree's glitches are more to add to the creepy tone, and it's very good, but Anatomy uses glitches to instill dread and it's perfect at it.  Hard to beat perfect).  How much of the glitches and static is for general aesthetic purposes and how much is for "scary game time", I'm not sure.  Rarely, weird images will randomly pop up for a split second during these glitches but I instantly saw a number in one of them and thought, "this is cool" rather than "AHHH OH SHIT".  Not sure if that was the intention but I liked it!

They are so fast screenshots are hard to find.  Here's just regular glitch usage.

While the gameplay is mostly centered on exploring and conversation, there is also the radio that Alex brings with her.  The radio is the primary puzzle solving tool.*  It can also be used as a "walking tour guide" though the island.  It's also useful to bring it up at random because the radio will pick up weird, creepy signals.  This is everything from old timey broadcasts, to random gibberish, to actual morse code.  Luckily, you can bring up the radio at any time, allowing a more free flowing style of exploration.

*Protip: There are piles of rocks that get the main story started at the beginning where Alex brings out the radio for.  Well, the game doesn't outright say this but other piles of rocks can be found throughout the island.  I found this out on complete accident but all those other piles are worthy to bring the radio out for too.

It's not the cleverest mechanic but it's alright.

The gameplay isn't groundbreaking or anything but that isn't really the focus of the game.  The radio mechanic does start to get tiring near the end but luckily the game is only around 7 hours and mostly avoided padding.  Don't be a long game if you don't need to be a long game, ya know what I mean? The mystery story throws in a lot of twists and wrinkles to keep you engaged, as well as the inter-personal stories between characters in the group.  Obviously, a mystery story in a short game means I can't talk much about it due to spoilers, but it's really good.  Despite the answers to the mystery being pretty straight forward, something about the story always feels a little off....and wow that ending.

The game has multiple endings dependent on the player's choices through the game.  This is almost entirely on the groups relationships with each other and how you effect them.  The main story mystery ending is pretty much the same for everyone and it's soooooo cool....but maybe kind of a gimmick?  I swear other games have done this but I can't think of any off the top of my head and this aspect is too abstract to Google a list of others.  I tried.  I guess Undertale kind of, KIND OF did it but not really (I also didn't play that game.  I'm going off what I've read about it).  I know I'm being vague but lets just say the ending has a..."feature" that is absolutely great.  And also a bit sad because it makes you want to look up more, which leads to the ARG* mentioned at the top of the post, but it's over.  There are a lot of archives of it though, which is nice, I guess.

*That is NOT the only thing it leads too.

Oxenfree is a great game.  If you liked Life is Strange, this game has a lot of similarities.  It's sort of marketed as a horror game but it's not.  I know some of the pictures I used make it look like a platformer, but it's also not that.  It's just a great story driven mystery game with a charming/creepy setting.  Charming and creepy, weird combination I know.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter.

I will talk about the ending some more in a future post filled with spoilers.

Darkest Dungeon Review

Darkest Dungeon might be the first game I've played that convinced me that most people who reviewed it did not actually finish it or at least played it for a long time.  This is because the game has 2 minor flaws that become major flaws later in the game.  At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite....I also did not finish it but, BUT, I played long enough to actually take on the first stage of the Darkest Dungeon before realizing that I didn't want to subject myself to all this bullshit any longer.

For those of you that don't know, Darkest Dungeon is a dungeon crawler with turn based combat and perma-death.  You recruit from a randomly selected group of heroes to help retake a castle/town from Lovecraftian inspired horrors a relative accidentally unleashed unto the world.  You basically play as the town, "Hamlet", sort of like how you play as the base in Xcom*.  Upgrading your town is imperative as that can lead to upgrades for your heroes.  The early game revolves a lot around grinding for gold and heirlooms rather than XP.  It is sometimes preferential to abandon a poorly going dungeon run as you can keep loot but not XP.  Also, level 0 heroes suck and the start of this game is where most of the dying comes from.  It's not pretty.

*Yeah I know narratively you are the "commander" as a meta off screen character in Xcom.  Don't yell at me.

You will still have heroes die in completely arbitrary and seemingly broken ways later in the game too though.  This is due to the games first flaw....

1.  The Game Relies Too Much on Randomness.

And a lot of menus.  

Maybe I'm just unlucky (absurdly frequently) but enemies seem to like to gang up on one hero.  This is a problem because the game is designed to have heroes and enemies dish out a lot of damage, while also not being able to take much damage, and it is difficult to heal.  You cannot heal between battles in a dungeon unless you eat food for a pathetic amount of HP per food, or use camping abilities but you can only camp so often (and not at all in small dungeons).  I've entered a dungeon and in the very first battle, got surprised, and had all 3 or 4 attacks hit on one character who died. This happens in the early game and late game.  It doesn't matter what level you are.

Light is a mechanic in this game and having high torch light increases the chances that enemies are surprised (giving me the first four shots in the first round), a higher scouting chance (the dungeon map shows what's ahead) and enemies don't hit as hard.  Thing is, it's not impossible for enemies to still surprise you in high light, and for whatever reason, they can still land critical hits with ease.  Three hits plus a crit to even tank characters are enough to kill them.  There is a deathblow mechanic that a character at 0 hp won't die until the next attack and each character has a death resist percentage, but it rarely helped in these situations.  Also, I've read from super fans that to avoid this you should....just take it it happens.

Get killed by flags.  FLAGS.  

This means that there is a part of the game where the outcome is completely random and doesn't rely on player input.  In Xcom, the RNG never made me feel like it was completely unfair if a character died (only a little unfair).  In Darkest Dungeon, many deaths felt like there was nothing I could have done to prevent it and that's broken.  Worse, these one round deaths tend to hit the first or last character in your 4 hero lineup which tends to be a tank or a healer.  If the healer is taken out in one round...just quit.  You're done.*

*Okay.  Earlier small dungeons are completable without a healer and supposedly so are higher level ones but good fucking luck with that.

Speaking of healers, there really are only two, the Vestal and the Occultist.  I found the Vestal to be the only viable one because the Occultist's heal, non-upgraded, is 0-10 hp.  I swore I was consistently getting heals below 5 far more often than 6-10 and yeah.  I was.  I even wrote it down for a couple dungeon runs and complained on Twitter about it.  When you do upgrade the Occultist heal holy shit it can still hit for 0 or 1 or fuck.  Why is 0 hp an option especially when the heal can afflict the hero with bleed damage? I know it's like Blood Magic or whatever but common.

Always

I ran with usually a Vestal as my healer hero but due to the Stress mechanic (more on that in a second) I had to keep six of them in my barracks.  If one dies, and due to enemies ganging up on a single hero, happened too often, I can only recruit another one when the game randomly decides to give me one.  This is painful because at one point I only had two Vestals and had to wait roughly 7 dungeon runs before the stagecoach (recruitment center) finally decided to give me one instead of 1,000 Lepers.*  If there are only two healers in the game....sorry, I mean ONE healer class in the game, why aren't they a more frequent recruitment option?

*I can't stand the Leper class.  They are tanks with mediocre HP, low dodge, VERY high attack but very low accuracy.  If I was still playing this game and a Leper missed an attack just one more time I might punt my computer.

Don't be fooled.  This should say, "Miss."

Everything is so random in this game even small stuff bugs me.  Characters also have "quirks" which can be good or bad.  Most are usually specific like having high stress versus some enemies but high critical chance, being good at scouting some areas, being prone to stealing loot for themselves, sometimes eating all the fucking food, and some have slight stat buffs or debuffs.  These can change after every successful dungeon run and they make no sense.  Why did a character I used in the Ruins become good at scouting the Cove when I wasn't there?  I can trounce a dungeon run only for my most badass character to develop a negative qwirk about refusing to visit the brothel to relieve stress.  That makes no sense.

Character stats also make no sense.  How come a character with 125% chance to disarm traps fails occasionally at disarming traps?  200% is the true 100% in the game.  That's not a potential percentage that is a score.  Actually, some stats ARE a score like attack, speed, dodge, etc yet the ones with percentages are treated the same way.  Lots of games do the 200% thing and it bugs me in them too but at least some make sort of sense with anything over 100% being absorption.*  This is just dumb.

*Like, if a character has 125% fire defense, a fire attack at them would lead to healing that character.

This games claim to fame is its stress mechanic but let's be honest here.  It's just another HP bar.  0 is good, 100 is usually very bad*, and 200 is dead.  Stress is accumulated from low torch light, enemies landing crits, some enemies having attacks purely to deal stress damage, triggering a trap, and for no fucking reason whatsoever.  Stress is even harder to heal and usually requires you to pay for a multitude of stress reliving options at the tavern or the church.  Those characters are unavailable while you do this though which leads into the 2nd flaw of this game...

*At 100 stress, a character will get an "affliction" and ruin your day.  Most of these lead to losing control of the character making them choose abilities at random or skipping a turn at random.  All of them greatly increase stress in the rest of the party so you might as well abandon the dungeon if this happens early in the run.  (Late in a run, you can gamble but it will be tough going).  Rarely, at 100 stress a character will get a "virtue" instead which is awesome. They greatly reduce party stress.  This saved my ass a few times.  Always remember them.

It me.

2.  The Grinding is Out of Control.

"But Jason," you say, "it's a dungeon crawler.  They all have grinding."

Yeah but this game went way overboard.  There is very little variation in the dungeon designs, enemies are recycled way too much even though you do see some new ones at higher levels, bosses are recycled, you sometimes have to grind for either gold or XP due to the gear you need to buy instead of both at the same time, and you have a large team with frequent perma-deaths. New recruits are always level 0 (until late when you can buy higher level ones, given at random again, for an obscene amount of money) and they have the worst stress.

The stress mechanic of level 0 characters makes the grinding far worse than other dungeon crawlers because level 0 characters gain stress much faster than even a level 1.  Just starting a dungeon with a level 0 and they immediately have 20 stress.  It's like starting a stage at 4/5th's health for no reason other than to piss me off.  I guess that makes narrative sense but nothing else in this game does so why should this?  It doesn't matter if you bring level 1's and 2's with them to protect them because enemies seem to really gang up on them.  Maybe I'm just unlucky (again) but I swear this is on purpose.  Also, lower level dungeons are capped so that a level 3 character cannot go in them, but for some reason, lower level characters can take on high level dungeons.  Why in the holy hell would I want to do that?  Well...I know WHY, to level up somebody quickly, but this game is far too random for that to be viable.  It's either slow grind, or absurd gamble.

Indeed.

Because characters need to heal their stress, you need to level up many characters because it's extremely unwise to play a character two dungeons in a row.  Also, they won't heal stress idle so you MUST pay for their stress heals, which are expensive when every character needs it, so you may have to grind just to pay for that.  AND, for some reason, they might like the stress heals too much and become unavailable for several dungeon runs in a row.  Maybe I'm still unlucky but this ALWAYS happened to my higher level characters forcing me to grind with the losers for a bit.  What.  The.  Fuck?

Both of these two flaws get amplified by a third flaw only found later in the game...

3.  The Rules in the "Darkest Dungeon" Levels are Beyond Stupid.  

After a while, you learn to minimize the RNG bullshit and get efficient at grinding a bit faster.  Certain strategies let you do this....ie. ONE strategy which is kill everything in one hit.  The game makes it difficult to upgrade speed (for some reason, almost all trinkets that you can equip reduce speed or accuracy or BOTH) but not impossible.  Once you build a team that can always hit first and hit hard, no need to worry about having one character get annihilated in one round....usually.

When you take on the Darkest Dungeon a window pops up warning you that leaving the dungeon early will result in one of your characters randomly dying.  OH OKAY.  What kind of arbitrary bullshit is this?

Indeed.

I bet this was a compromise between developers.  Some wanted this area locked in so that you couldn't run away, but that meant a poorly planned dungeon run might lead to an entire 4 hero team getting wiped out, so they compromised on a punishment.  I'm only guessing at this because I can't think of any other sane reason to have this mechanic.

It didn't matter though because I absolutely recked the dungeon.  I didn't have a single character drop below 50% health and stress levels were fine if you ignore my Hellion hovering around 95 for the last 3 fights.  But then...the game drops a bomb.

After absolutely destroying the first level of 4 of the Darkest Dungeon, (which is rather straight forward and kind of like a boss rush mode for a dungeon), a window pops up saying my heroes are traumatized from the horrors of the Darkest Dungeon and refuse to go back in.  Are.  You.  Fucking.  Kidding.  Me????  I obliterated that dungeon on my first try.  If anything, the dungeon should fear me!   My best team, my A-Team, is now useless.  This means, that I need to fully level 16 characters, max upgrade them, and gear them to the teeth to finish this game.  That is ridiculous.

I already used "Masochistic"

The grinding just increased 4 fold which means I have to deal with the random bullshit much longer than anticipated.  Yes, yes, I learned how to do it efficiently but that still meant at least 20 more hours of JUST grinding to get where I want to be.  I went in thinking my A-Team would be doing every DD level, and if somebody dies, I have a full B-Team where I can promote somebody and so on.  Nope.  Plan is null and void.  EVERY team must be the A-Team now.

...This blogpost is stressing me out.

After my rage subsided, I spend a good 30 minutes just looking through my roster to build my plan.  I would max out my B-Team, then grind my C-Team, and worry about D-Team later.  My plan didn't last long.  I played one more dungeon, in the much hated Cove area....and this is where I rage uninstalled the game.

My B-Team with two level 6's and two level 5's, in the very first battle, got surprised in MAX LIGHT, and all 4 attacks (TWO CRITS) land on my Man-At-Arms and kill him, a level 6.

I didn't even get an action.  He was killed because the game decided it had been too long since I had a death.  There is no strategy to beat that.  That is fucked up.  I didn't even finish the fight.  I stared at my computer for 5 minutes, exited the game, and uninstalled.

No.  NO.  I'm done.  I've been writing this blogpost on and off for 2 damn weeks.  I'm done.  I'm rage quitting this blogpost.  No conclusion paragraph!

I don't even care.  This is my post I'll end it however I want.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter.

Rogue One Review (Spoilers)

Since I'm writing this well after release....spoiler warning.  The whole post.

Anybody that follows me on Twitter may have seen my angry-ish rant (it reads angrier than I actually was) about Rogue One.  Honestly though, it's okay.  I was having a pretty shitty day and Rogue One was just kind of mediocre so I judged the movie pretty harshly.  Also, some of my old Star Wars fandom came out a little because the movie had a couple head nods to extended universe fans.  It was a nice gesture but all I could think about is how the context was all wrong.

I think because of my past super fandom, Star Wars is super hard for me to critique until it has aged for a while.  I too was in denial after first seeing The Phantom Menace many years ago.  I initially thought it was good!  It probably took me a full month to admit that not only was it not good but not even average.  Star Wars just has that effect on some people (me).

Rogue One gave me the opposite feeling at first because a. It's not a main series Star Wars movie and therefore, b. Doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie.  I knew this going in and it still threw me for a loop.  100% objective, I am not.  My fandom got the better of me.

Having gotten figuratively over it, I think Rogue One is between average and sitting on the fence of being a good movie.  It's certainly not great but not bad either.

(Note - Not everything in this post is going to be me complaining.  Trust me.)

The movie has 2 big flaws, the first being characterization.  Uh...why can't I remember any new characters name outside of Jan...Orzo?

Pictured here.

I mean Jyn Urso and WOW does that name look like a name I came up with while writing my own Star Wars short stories when I was 12 years old.  That's the problem with Sci-Fi names.  It's a fine line between acceptable and laughable.

Anyway, Jyn Ursa Major...

Pictured here.

...is orphaned at a young age because Star Wars has never had a protagonist like that.  Also, she is a criminal to the Empire, which makes the Rebels look into her, even though the Rebels themselves would be criminals ah fuck it nevermind.  Actually, they want to talk to her about her dad because he is the chief architect of the Death Star and whyyyyyyyy?

What is it with this universe and everybody important being related or at the very least, met at a younger age?  The twist at the end of Empire Strikes Back is one of the most shocking in movie history but it certainly doesn't feel like it now.  And I know this "everybody knows everybody" complaint is a nitpick but it's one that has annoyed me endlessly.  When the young Han Solo movie comes out and he ends up being an orphan who is raised by Chewbacca I will fucking burn down a theater*

*I won't actually do that.

Galen, Jyn's father, is actually one of the better acted roles in the movie.  His purpose is pretty cool too as most of his existence is to fill the Death Star weak point plot hole from A New Hope.  I like that the weakness was there on purpose now rather than an accident that the Empire never found but the Rebels did while looking at Sci-Fi blueprints.  It...doesn't explain Return of the Jedi but whatever.  The other reason for his existence is to give Jyn motivation and that works.  I'd prefer something different but okay.

The other characters include Cassian Andor who is there to spout exposition, be Jyn's friend, and not really be a character in his own right.  I have no idea what this dude's deal is.  The movie also had blind warrior monk named, uuugh, Chirrut Imwe, and machine gun guy named after a Warcraft raid boss, Baze Malbus.  Those guys are badass and wish the movie had more screen time for them.  Forest Whitaker is in the movie too.  His character's name is Plot Device because that's all he is.  He saves young Jyn and gives her her father's message about the Death Star.  That's it.  He also doesn't leave with the rest of the crew when the Empire attacks his town because his purpose is over.  He's done.  It's fine.  I'm fine.*  I don't even care.  His character could be completely removed from the movie and basically nothing would change.  Who cares?

*I'm very not fine.

Also, I wasn't too keen on the acting from Jyn and Cassian.  I don't think the fault is with Jessica Jones and Diego Luna though as flat acting is usually the directors fault.  9 out of 10 times, directors have to dial an actor back from overacting.  In Rogue One, emotion from these two was not allowed.  Every moment that should have had an emotional moment like Jyn's father dying or, THE TWO OF THEM dying at the end just landed with a thud.  This might have to do with keeping the movie somewhat kid friendly but that doesn't explain like half of Pixar's movies.  Emotion, even sad ones, are fine for kids.

This is the only face she makes.  It's weird.

The main villain is Imperial General #1964, or, that dude who wore all white.  He's fine.  He is there only to move the plot forward and I'm okay with that.  He's not really the star of the show because Grand Moff Tarkin is in the movie.  Also, Grand Moff Tarkin is in this movie....why is Grand Moff Tarkin in this movie?

Peter Cushing died in 1994.  In this movie, he is completely CGI and while I will say it was great (and it better be since this movie has Star Wars money) there was still some uncanny valley shit going on.  I get him being there since the Death Star was kind of his baby but come on.  He's in like 4 scenes.  Is this what the reshoots were about?  Wanting to get their monies worth?  I still think CGI should be a last resort for impossible shots but this was unnecessary.  Just give him a cameo and be done with it.  His scenes could have been filled with Darth Vader instead.  Fuuuuucking NOBODY is going to complain about too much Darth Vader* and he wears a mask.  You could have anybody in that suit.

GAH!

*James Earl Jones must be feeling like Alec Guinness cause that line delivery....oof.  I don't think he wants to do that voice anymore.  It still could be directing with him too though cause even his acting was off.

The characterization of this movie ties into it's 2nd major flaw.  2/3rds of this movie is just kinda filler.  The first act is meh, the second act is uuuugh, and the third act is awesome (Note - I told you not everything in this post was going to be me complaining).  I expected more character development because this story is mostly known already.  We didn't need to check in with how the building of the Death Star is going.  We know already.  We didn't need to check in with the Rebel's and how wishy-washy they were about actually getting the plans.  We...actually we didn't know that.

It bugs me that the team had to "go rogue" in order for the Rebels to get the plans in the first place.  Why?  What is the reasoning here?  They tested it on a planet already at low power.  Even if you don't think it can actually destroy a planet are you at least not concerned that it can take out a continent?  And even if you think getting the plans is a suicide mission, isn't it worth the risk?  I know they change their mind but still.

I will say though, that last battle scene was fantastic.  From an audience perspective, this climax was fantastically directed (making the dull acting even weirder).  Ever since, damn, Revenge of the Sith, space and/or air battles have seemed too chaotic.  Just a bunch of ships, lasers, and explosions overwhelming the screen.  The eye doesn't know where to go.  Here, you actually have shots following specific fighters allowing the action to take place in front of you as if you were the pilot....kind of like the original movies.  And even the ground battle has a, dare I say, Saving Private Ryan vibe with the camera often focusing on our heroes.  The camera is close to head level as if somebody is running along side the soldiers with a camera on their shoulders.  It seems like a camera man is actually there and that's really cool to do in a Star Wars movie!  For once, the intensity of the battle is actually felt instead of just looking like pretty fireworks.

Why did it take so long for a Star Wars battle scene to look this good?

Regardless of how I feel about any other part of this movie, there is a scene, when Darth Vader boards a ship and.....it's the best Vader scene ever made.  Not kidding.  He just destroys everyone.  It's like joining an Overwatch game and finding a pro player on the other team and they pick Genji.  They just....you're done son!  And I love how the scene lets him fling motherfuckers with the force while also letting him use his lightsaber...it's so well choreographed.  I have a slight boner right now.  Why can't movies have good villains?

Despite spending most of this post complaining, Rogue One is okay.  Wish it did something else with its characters but holy crap were those action scenes good.  It's like a bizarre Marvel movie where the action scenes are nonsense and the character development is solid (with flaws here and there).  I need to let my Star Wars fandom adjust to this new spin-off movie idea and maybe I won't fly off the handle right out of the gate.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A quick side note that didn't fit into my post.

I saw this movie the day after Carrie Fisher passed away and I was not expecting a stand-in with CGI touch up Leia to be there at the end.  My wife and I let out an audible "Owe" and we cried a little.  Not full on sobbing but it was a jolt to the system enough that I had to wipe away tears.

Other than David Bowie, Carrie Fisher is the biggest celebrity death I'm sad about in 2016.  Like many a thousands of boys and girls, she was my first crush.  Yes, yes, slave costume but even without that, she was great.  Leia was an excellent character in an era when strong female characters were kind of rare.  Okay...A New Hope isn't that great for her but Empire and Jedi are, slave costume* and all.  I hope Disney doesn't CGI her character in future movies extensively.  Also...if she has scenes in Episode 8 already filmed....I don't know man.

I mean, the costume didn't hurt.  Cut me some slack I was 12.

*One of the best moments from Jedi is when she strangles Jabba the Hutt to death with her own chain.  Cold - fucking - blooded.  The barge was gonna blow up anyway and she straight murders her captor.  It's Jabba so, you know, fuck him, but in repeat viewings it's almost like insult to injury.  I fucking love it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter.