Done!

Title: Dishonored⭐
Release Year: 2012
Play Year: F24
Developer/Publisher: Arkane Austin/Bethesda Softworks
Time to Beat: 17 Hours
Thoughts: This game is simply excellent. As many who have played this game have said, I do not like stealth games. Yet, I finished this. I *enjoyed* finishing it. Every aspect of this game felt intentional and beautiful. Even the short comings only feel as such because there are facets of this game that are 10/10 in their own right. The voice acting, the art style, the level design, the writing, the characters, the world, the mechanics, the systems. All of these are unique and well-crafted. Even if I was anxious about beating a level, the narrative and motivation would draw me in. Akin to SuperGiant Games, it feels like Dishonored is *the* game to recommend to your friend who doesn’t like stealth games. Because it isn’t a stealth game. Dishonored is all about what player you want to be, and how far you are willing to go to realize that vision. You can spec up into an assassin build and take the world head on. You can have fun and the plot will stay intact. Or, you can experiment with the mechanics and get out of your comfort zone with non-lethal assassinations. Most importantly, you are rewarded for the latter. You are rewarded with more of the world (you have to go to different locations), interact with more NPCs, hear more dialogue, and see clever endings with solid payoff. How they pull this off is simple in words: the game is as difficult as you want it to be. I don’t envy the engineers for the systems, but it works! This game can be really easy. You can use wallhacks as a power and teleporting. The AI have a very forgiving vision system and leave you alone pretty quickly if you disappear. It means you constantly have opprotunities to change how you approach the level, or just restart it entirely. I personally save-scummed just to try new strategies over and over again. I didn’t want to be punished, so I wasn’t. As with any immersive sim, I don’t think I pushed the systems particularly far. The only critiuqes of this game I have concern the story. It’s fairly obvious and heavy-handed at times. It’s also quite linear and short. Each level is very fun, but very constrained, so finishing the level can feel a little unceremonious. Because you spend time in the world before the assassination encounter, and you must leave the scene of the crime, it’s a non-normative level design/pacing. It must be said, the ending leaves everything to be desired. It is shockingly quick and absent of meaning or message. Overall, I am so happy I played and finished this game.

Title: Pokemon Black⭐
Release Year: 2012
Play Year: WI24
Developer/Publisher: GameFreak/Nintendo
Time to Beat: TBD
Thoughts: I think this is the best Pokemon game. I get it. As someone who played every single of game in the main-series except this one, I had always heard that the Black and White games were different. Now, I can I say that I agree. So, I am mostly going to say what others have already said. The story is more nuanced, but more importantly is given space to breathe. The Team Rocket equivalent is muddied in a very refreshing way, especially with N as a character. It should be high praise that this game felt like i was present playing a Pokemon game and not just going through the motions. I will also say it was the first time since Sword and Shield that I felt wowed by the animation gimmicks. Every Pokemon game there some marginal animation improvement and it typically feels like a waste of resources. But here, I was genuinely excited with each gym to interact with the 3D space or see these magnificent bridges and cityscapes! This is the best of Pokemon in the classic handheld era hands down.

Title: Mass Effect 3
Release Year: 2012
Play Year: SU2024
Developer/Publisher: BioWare/EA
Time to Beat: 40 Hours
Thoughts:

After nearly a hundred hours, I have finally rolled credits on Mass Effect 3. A series that was created in 2007. 17 years ago. A series I grew up around, albeit on the periphery (in my ME1 review below). A series that felt so mature and was endless in scope. A true space opera. A series whose first two games I scored a 9/10 and 10/10, respectively.

A series so strong, I wrote a love letter to it.

Even with all of that well-earned goodwill, I must admit, I spent most of Mass Effect 3 incredibly frustrated and bored. I was so angry at the shallowness of the new characters, the litany of bugs (way more than ME1 or ME2), and endless fetch-quests and mismatched game mechanics. The shameless fan-service and lazy re-introduction of past characters.

However, by the end, each of those 100 hours rose within me and spilled out in the tears leading up the final moments. Read More…

Title: Pentiment⭐
Release Year: 2022
Play Year: SU2024
Developer/Publisher: Obsidian/Xbox Studios
Time to Beat: 23 Hours
Thoughts: The only context I had for Pentiment when I was gifted this game was, “it’s a lot of reading, but it’s worth it.” I was told it was beautiful and that the unique fonts for each character (and their scratchy, crunchy sound effects) would wow me. However, neither particularly hit me in the way I was hoping. I spent the first hour or so just… walking around. Having conversations that bored me and disconnected from the whorish artisan I had begun playing as. And then, everything changed.

The conceit of Pentiment is that you are a traveling artist who gains a residency at a church and, while you are minding your business, one of the members of the church is murdered. As the only outsider, you are tasked with solving the murder. What unfolds is a period drama intertwined with political tensions between the nobility, the church, peasants, and townsfolks. Informing these tensions are the fact your village is sat upon Roman and Pagan ruins. All of which are reflected in the smallest details, such as the fonts and character traits you can choose. Set in the early 1500s, there are few time periods so rife with change – during the Renaissance and right before the Enlightenment. It is also during the earliest stages of colonialism and the Spanish inquisition.

While that context and time period are interesting in and of themselves, it is the deep internal uncertainty that ravages the main character that drew me into the narrative. The way the developers use the trappings of the time to visualize Andreas’ (the main character) internal struggle, while also giving no “right” answer is deeply troubling in the best way. There is a sense of powerlessness that holds you as you fight against time to do the right thing for the community. The first time Andreas is drawn literally into a book to have a conversation with another character, I was wowed. Or his internal self, seeing it decay and implode over time. Even having a moment to take in the breath-taking paintings was well-worth playing this game. These flourishes were so helpful in realizing what art meant to people in this time period. How you can be one bad winter away from starvation, yet the mural must be completed. How much control these artifacts have over who the townspeople and peasants become.

While I was playing I never knew how long the game would last, or where it would end. I will say I found the journey much more satisfying than the ending, though both are a treatise in dealing with uncertainty and a lack of control. I personally think the game dragged on a little longer than it should, but the final act is well worth the play through.

Title: Prey⭐
Release Year: 2017
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks
Time to Beat: 22 Hours
Thoughts: 

Prey is exactly the kind of game I hate. It’s a game with too many systems and too little guidance. It is too easy to feel stupid or lost in a game meant to “fit any play-style.” Prey is also difficult. Especially in the early game. You are meant to feel powerless and carefully plan your enemy engagements – which usually amounts to finding any way to *not* engage. However, you aren’t told this. Instead you will be stonewalled by a Voltaic Phantom or die one too many times to a household object. In either case, it can feel unforgiving, unfair, and directionless. If you end up finishing, you may feel that you didn’t play “correctly” and still don’t understand why people love this game so much.

Prey is exactly the kind of game I love. There is a level of craft unmatched in a modern era of conservative development and severe crunch. Every whiteboard, email, and sticky note is bespoke and has its place in the lore and history of the world. It is so clear the people who made this game are skilled and were given the artistic license to make a work of art. As a player, you are rewarded in-kind for every inch you choose to explore. I never tired of the feeling of revealing even the smallest new clue. The writing, overarching story, and voice-acting bring to life the remaining humanity of Talos I. The stakes feel high and consequences crushing. With side-quests that will last in our memories and smash our hearts, Prey is simply masterful.

If you have looked up anything about Prey, then you know eggshells does not begin to describe the care people have when speaking about this game. It is essentially unanimous that knowing as little as possible is the best approach to Prey. But, I think it’s possible for me to write about my adoration without spoiling, so here we go. [Read On]

Title: Venba
Release Year: 2023
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: Visai Games
Time to Beat: 1 Hour
Thoughts: This game received a lot of critical praise in 2023. The closest I can come to understanding why that would be is the Green Book effect. The writing feels timid and the story safe. I appreciated the perspective of the mother as that is rare in any medium, but wish they had leaned into more complex dialogue. You can’t say that it’s too short for that, look at What Remains of Edith Finch or really any AnnaPurna game. The recipe book conceptually is a powerful and grounding object in the game, but it doesn’t pan out that way. I wish there was more heart and introspection from the act of reading and cooking.

It’s an okay game with a lot of untapped potential.

Title: Hogwarts Legacy
Release Year: 2023
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: Avalanche Software/Portkey Games
Time to Beat: 28 Hours
Thoughts: So, this is obviously a controversial game. While that controversy has mostly died out, it is still important to make a measured decision on where your money goes. I will link a few articles that discuss the controversy and analyses so you may self-inform. My reasoning is two-fold: First, my dad plays one-two video games per year. Before Hogwarts Legacy it was Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, games I have no interest in. I want to stay connected with him and this game is the way. Second, I bought it through Humble Bundle (a charity game store), am within the targeted community, and realize there is no “right” decision concerning giving money to a bigot versus supporting a studio. Fuck J.K. Rowling and I played this game. Okay, here is the review!

As a child, I was the target age for Harry Potter. My mother read them before I could read, I saw the movies when I was still in single-digits, and read through the books front-to-back and back-to-front. While I don’t care for the franchise as an adult, it meant a lot to me and my family growing up. So, I am infused with nostalgia with this franchise. Even though I hate J.K. Rowling, I would be lying if I said a small part of me wasn’t hoping to relive a bit of that magic in what has been a tumultuous half-decade. I will start with the good.

This game is gorgeous. I played on PC and was wowed every step I took. Whether in Hogwarts or out in the world. Whether walking, on a mount, or on my broom. In a cave or in an open valley. I was constantly in awe of the beauty of this world. Cut-scenes also keep pushing the envelope. Whether bleeding in and out of the game world or cinematic moments, they are all magic. Nearly as beautiful are the animations. It feels so goooooood. I adore casting spells. They have that oomph and stringing together new combos feels euphoric. There are enough talent upgrades to keep early unlock spells fresh and I enjoyed setting up multiple loadouts to play around with new enemy types. Combat is very difficult starting out, but the curve certainly dive-bombs later on in the game. Lastly, flying somehow feels just how it feels to watch it as a kid in a movie. Handling is tough but the feel of it is spot on. Truly magical.

Ha ha ha. Now onto the bad.

Oh, there is so much bad about this game. As with all reviews, they are subjective. As a gamer, I enjoy story, characters, and dialogue over most other facets. I am willing to put up with janky combat (looking at you Mass Effect) if the story keeps me enticed. I never thought a Harry Potter game, which has almost 30 years of nostalgia to use, could have me skipping cut-scenes and dialogue. This is practically unheard of. Where to begin. The characters are flat. Almost laughably so. They are one-dimensional with no charisma or intrigue. Every character you meet is laughably and over-the-top nice or evil. I found that if I skip through all of the dialogue and just read the last message that I get the gist of the conversation. Dialogue choices are not help. These too are overwhelmingly binary – too good or too evil. That’s no real choice. In times where you think you are making a meaningful decision it is often overridden immediately after. And, oh god, the story. I don’t expect a “good” story from Harry Potter. I expect a magical one. Coming-of-age. Heartwarming tropes. Friendship. SOMETHING. Not only is this plot filled with plot holes, but it lacks and feel. I don’t understand, or personally disagree, with my motivation. I don’t care what happens. The silver lining here is the voice acting. Big shout-out to the voice actor for Professor Fig. Though, it always falls short due to the dialogue and story. You simply can’t save it with just voice acting. Unfortunately these shortcomings make the whole game feel smaller, less interesting, and more grueling than it needs to be. I would also be remiss to not mention the handling of “diverse” characters. Especially the token trans character. While much critique has been writing about this character, I will add a sentence or two. It feels like all dialogue written about or from these characters were passed through a PR team. It was over-the-top how the writers hit you over the head with “diverse characters are good people.” Instead of showing, they kept telling which makes for awful and unconvincing interactions. Marginalized people are complex and have faults. Our plight comes from structures and cannot be solved by our individual actions. To paint them as such is an affront to our experiences and space in video games.

In almost 30 hours, there were 3 or 4 quests that will stick with me. Ones where I felt the *magic* of Harry Potter. Quests that tapped into the endless pools of nostalgia this game is sitting on, but seems to only ever make shallow fan-service references to. The quest-lines with Poppy and Sebastian. Freeing mythical creatures and watching Sebastian tear himself and his family apart actually felt like there were stakes. Or that there was something in the magic of this world. What is salvageable are the in-betweens. The gameplay loop is moderately fun. As you progress you get more base-building like features. The personalization and ability to invest in potions, herbology, and beast-masters feel genuinely pleasurable and attainable.

Overall, I am disappointed in this game. Much more so than I anticipated. I just don’t think they needed to work particularly hard to give Harry Potter fans something to believe in. It feels like the game designers were top-notch and created mechanics that were fun to play with enough light RPG elements, fun transmog, and base-building to create a deeper gameplay loop than anticipated. However, it is marred at every step by a story so safe and sterile that it removes you from the fantasy of being a witch or wizard.

Title: XCOM: Enemy Unknown ⭐
Release Year: 2012
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: Firaxis Games/2K Games & Feral Interactive
Time to Beat: 18 Hours (In Progress)
Thoughts: Huh, this is really fun.

I, like many folks, was intimidated by this franchise. An XCOM game always ends up on “top 100 games of all time” lists, but it feels like a niche pick. I mean, it’s in How Long to Beat’s top 50 most backlogged games. A game where everyone can agree that it’s amazing, but only if “you’re into it.” With a tradition coming from table-top RPGs, with slow, methodical movement and decision-making, my first thought was “must be boring until you’re 30 hours in and you finally ‘get it’.”

Not true at all! Playing on Normal, I am having a lot of fun! I have to say the tutorial for this game is horrid. It (intentionally?) leads you to essentially kill your whole squad – not only humbling, but also teaching you bad tactics. Regardless, once I got a few missions in I was having a lot of fun. The graphics are just fine in 2023 and the aesthetic provides solid atmosphere that I am happy to stare down onto street scapes and forests during the missions. Given that you can pickup Enemy Unknown for XCOM 2 (widely considered the better entries of the series) for a few dollars on a Humble or Steam sale, I think it is worth trying out to see if it’s for you!

To be honest, the reason why I decided to play XCOM now, instead of putting it off, was because its developer Firaxis created Marvel’s Midnight Suns. A game that is as surprising as it is really, really good. These are the type of games that help bring me into a genre of video game. So, I went out on a limb and booted up XCOM: Enemy Uknown.

I love this game. It has sucked my time away. I can have 5 hours past by without even noticing. The gameplay loop is addicting. To me, it resembles Dave the Diver or Cult of the Lamb, where there is this balance between gameplay and management. The perfect combination to melt hours away.

I played on Normal for about 10 hours before deciding to scrap it and start over with all the new knowledge I had discovered. Turns out, this is what you’re supposed to do. Reading on forums, XCOM games are meant to be cycled. It really isn’t about the plot or finishing the game. It’s about immersing yourself in the mechanics and having a really, really good time. So, I don’t really care if I beat this game, I’m having too good of a time!

Title: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars ⭐
Release Year: 1996
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: Mountains/Anapurna
Time to Beat: 7 Hours
Thoughts: I am not a fan of Mario games, but this one won me over. Somehow Square Enix was able to take the dull and intentionally flat character of Mario and make him funny. I can’t get over how funny this game is. The way the characters use physical humor or impersonation to make their jokes with no dialogue. It feels reminiscent of Scooby-Doo. I was always so surprised each time I would have a long/important dialogue interaction because I would always be cracking up. I can’t overstate how strange, odd, and fun the characters and story are.

The gameplay is fun, but I found the method of finding out enemy weaknesses and team-building to be opaque. To be fair, I didn’t try that hard either. I was good enough to win all of my battles with a few slips here and there, but not interested enough to push the game’s systems. That is one thing I will say: if you are willing to explore and push the game’s systems, you will be rewarded. I wasn’t and I think I missed out on really memorable moments, but I am okay with that.

Two things. First, I played the 1996 version of this game rather than the 2023, so navigating the perspective was rough. I think most of my issues with this game would be solved with the remake. Second, I got stuck in a battle loop with the five-color boss fight (Peach was the only one alive with Lazy Shell armor and we would trade 1-damage attacks for eternity). That’s where I gave up and watched the last hour of the game on YouTube.

Totally worth my time, even the 1996 version, and I recommend. It’s not too long and it is so surprising and fun enough to warrant the time commitment!

Title: Florence
Release Year: 2018
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: Mountains/Anapurna
Time to Beat: 1 Hour
Thoughts: My god, this music. I would just stop at scenes to listen to it for a few minutes longer. I am leaving the game on in the background as I write to retain that feeling before I go to sleep. The story is predictable and bland, but it’s useful. It’s useful because it is so common and why not package it into something so effortlessly beautiful and hopeful. With small interactions that feel clever and keep you present, Florence is an hour well spent.

Simple, short, and elegant. Honestly, the music is worth playing this for an hour!

Title: What Remains of Edith Finch⭐
Release Year: 2017
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: Giant Sparrow/Anapurna
Time to Beat: 2 Hours
Thoughts: I wrapped up What Remains of Edith Finch at 11:19PM on New Year’s Eve 2023. Perhaps a teary goodbye is exactly what I needed to finish off this year.

I feel submerged in the character of this island. The atmosphere keeps you tense, but not afraid. The narrative figuratively and literally pulls you along from room-to-room as you unravel this family person-by-person, piece-by-piece. The unique exploration and sheer ambiance of this game would be enough to walk through and have their lives revealed. However, the vignettes you are treated to are phenomenal. They push walking sims, and potentially video games, in the way they betray expectations and whisk you away only to return you that much heavier.

It would also have been enough to tell this family’s story. There are enough common themes, major surprises, and unique mediums of narrating that being present would have held me hooked for the two hours. Listening to the calm narration, I am caught in silent horror as I listen to her gentle voice. However, the ending brings us close to a truth few wish to contend with. One in with a 17 year old takes on with the grace of the passing tide. I find myself unwilling and unwanting to let go – as I know what will happen next.

The credits roll.

Title: Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition ⭐
Release Year: 2010/2021
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: BioWare/Electronic Arts
Time to Beat: 33 Hours
Thoughts: And Mass Effect 2 comes to an end. Unlike Mass Effect 1, I staved off the ending as long as I could. It was such a beautiful experience and I am so moved. A longer review, with spoilers, is here “A Love Letter to Mass Effect 2.”

Title: Mass Effect 1: Legendary Edition ⭐
Release Year: 2007/2021
Play Year: WI2023
Developer/Publisher: BioWare/Electronic Arts
Time to Beat: 18 Hours
Thoughts: In  2008, I was listening to the Sarcastic Gamer Podcast and was amazed that three adults could talk for hours week-after-week about this game called Mass Effect. I was entranced by how invested they were in their stories, each unique to each person. It was endlessly entertaining, but felt too difficult and mature for me at the time. After a false start in 2014, I dusted off Legendary Edition to give Mass Effect a go to begin clearing out my decades long backlog.

I am so happy I played this game. Just open this game and play the first mission – trust me!

In many ways, Mass Effect is perfect for me. It is primarily narrative driven with combat that is a means to an end. Pretty good for the chatty child of Half-Life and Halo. I played on the default difficulty and never felt challenged by the FPS elements (pro tip: learn to use the talents ASAP). I usually struggle with open-world games, but Mass Effect uses its size not to get lost in, but to fill with shorter, lighter content to breakup the intensity of its story. Actually, it uses everything else to fill in the story. To make the stakes higher, to get you further invested in the characters and your choices. The loop of chasing down politics in the Citadel, running one-off missions in the Traverse, chatting up your crew, or pushing the main story forward satiates many tastes. It is no wonder then that I beat it in 18 hours over just 3 days.

There is little to show its 16 years of age. Sure, the combat is a bit clunky and controlling your squad is a recipe for insanity. But, this game is as fun, engaging, and artful as any AAA game today. My heart was pumping with each encounter with Saren, a fantastic villain. How the narrative rolls through multiple plot twists and revelations is masterful – I was had many times! And I wanted to be. I was so immersed and so excited at my next opportunity to make a choice.

If I look at my list of gripes, it is short and forgivable. There is not a single issue I encountered that would bar my giving a recommendation. The unexplored worlds are sparse and are really the only part of this game that blatantly shows its age and limitations. There are still quite a few (minor) bugs. Dialog sometimes repeats itself, my game crashed a few times during FTL scenes, it is maddeningly slow to run around the Citadel, and dialogue can be exceedingly tedious to do simple things like buy weapons.

Yet each of these is met with equally small, but mighty positive examples. I love that some of your side-quests will become broadcast during your elevator rides – a clever way to mask those loading screens. I genuinely enjoyed clicking through planets and surveying or just reading about them.  And the side-quests! I chased monkeys around a small, forgettable planet! I killed a Thresher Maw, which led to revealing an Alliance conspiracy. I stopped a rogue AI on the moon, was tasked with taking about rival space bandits, and so much more.

There was never a moment in those 18 hours that I felt was wasted. The writing is some of the best in video games, and at a scale unmatched by most studios. The story is a full-blown space opera and I am deliriously happy there are two more of these games to explore. Even with a 16 year industry deficit, this game stands the test of time. The world is beautiful and unbelievably large for 2007.

Now, the only decision is: should I restart ME1 or start ME2?

Title: Diablo IV
Release Year: 2023
Play Year: FA-WI2023
Developer/Publisher: Activision-Blizzard
Time to Beat: 30 Hours
Thoughts: I have so much to say about this game. But, I will keep it brief.

Two pieces of context. I am 2000+ hour Diablo II and Diablo II: Resurrected player. I have played Diablo II on and off since it released. I love Diablo II and it is one of my favorite games of all time. I played through the campaign of DIablo III a few times, mostly out of desperation that I would find the fun I had longed for in the decade between releases. I gave up after maybe 30 or 40 hours.

Diablo IV is something different. It doesn’t make me crave “just another run” like Diablo II. It doesn’t humble me with its visuals and the world like Diablo III did upon release. There is so much I like, no love, about this game.

First and foremost: it’s fun. For the first time since maybe Overwatch, I couldn’t take myself away from a game. While recovering from surgery, I would wake up and play until I was too fatigued, and then do it again the next day. I can’t explain why, but I have never loved creating new characters just to see what they look like tearing through a new horde of monsters. To me, a game that makes the hours melt into the sunset is one worth talking about!

There are a litany of other facets to praise such as the music, voice acting, cut-scenes(!), character design (Andarial’s first form??), animations, and viewpoints. I almost forget to mention them because of how outstanding Blizzard is with these factors – but they should be praised many times over. Even small things like how skipping dialogue still allows the next line to flow fairly seamlessly. This game gives you mobs regularly, you get to feel powerful, and ultimates hit hard. The “open world” – if you can call it that – motivates me to keep on searching and I feel a nice tingle when a new part of the map gets revealed. There are even some genuine gems in the side-quests (Anata). And, in my opinion, they stuck the ending. What was a story about war became a much more intimate tale of belonging, motherhood, and the nature of freewill (just wish they leaned into it the whole time!).

All of that being said, there is much to have gripes about. First and foremost: this game isn’t good enough. It isn’t big enough. The story isn’t cohesive enough. The world isn’t as immersive as it should be. It isn’t long enough. It lacks many of the modern features in many other action, Japanese, and C-RPGs. It’s so incredibly hard to see one of the largest game studios release a game that is squarely in the shadow of Baldur’s Gate 3. It doesn’t live up to basically anyone’s expectations for Diablo IV.

And yet? It does the most important thing – it’s fun! Something that shouldn’t be taken lightly in our current era of games. It is a true pleasure to be pulled back into a game over and over again. So, I can leave much of my disappointment behind as I spam another chain lightening. I don’t care, I just want to hop back into Santuary and play the campaign again!

Title: Limbo
Release Year: 2010
Play Year: FA2023
Developer/Publisher: Playdead/Microsoft Game Studios
Time to Beat: 2.5 Hours
Thoughts: Truly one of the OG indie titles that really put indie games on the map. It is tight, atmospheric, and keeps you moving along. Given that 13 years has gone by and that I am trying to get through the game after a few starts over the years, it feels like a bit of a relic. It is linear to a fault. It feels like this game was made to get casual gamers into the indie scene. There is so little room for ambiguity and each mechanic feels tuned to death.

Okay, I finished it up. I ended up a using a guide to help me through the last couple levels, which helped me realize why I don’t really like this game: it feels like the developers do everything they can to force you into their solution to the puzzle. It doesn’t feel like you discover a solution so much as finding the tells that you are doing what they want. For example, everything happens at the last second, so if that isn’t happening, then it’s probably something else. It is so linear and doesn’t allow for creativity.

One thing this game did help me learn (because I wanted to finish it fairly quickly) is that you get a lot of the game designers intent by trying and dying frequently. I felt like I really understood the vision of the platforming and puzzles because I spent less time trying to figure them out and more time just doing stuff!

Title: Inmost
Release Year: 2019
Play Year: FA2023
Developer/Publisher: Hidden Layer Games/Chucklefish
Time to Beat: ~3 Hours
Thoughts: A cinematic and atmospheric indie game with incredible pixel art and music/sound design! I found the ambiguity of the story and non-linear vignettes to be quite intriguing. Ending did not stick the landing for me.