Games I like, and why I like them
So, I feel like if I want this think to keep going, I should probably post something even when there's nothing I particularly want to say. So, I guess I'll just ramble for a bit. Maybe talk about games I like.
So, I guess I'll start with a list of games that I really like:
Antichamber
Axiom Verge
Crypt of the NecroDancer
Freedom Planet
The Witness
Myst
Fez
Transistor
Distance
FTL: Faster Than Light
Super Metroid
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure
Undertale
Frozen Synapse
Batman: Arkham City
Dishonored
Magicmaker
Psychonauts
And, I suppose I'll explain why I like each one.
Antichamber subverts all the expectations that you have going into it. People familiar with first-person games have it the worst, because Antichamber was specifically designed to mess with your preconcieved notions of how it works. Walking back through a doorway might not lead to the same place you were before, and some doors are only open if you don't look at them. It's a uniquely relaxing and intellectually stimulating experience.
Axiom Verge is a modern Super Metroid style, exploration/combat game. Made by one guy, it boasts an awesome soundtrack and tons of interesting weapons. The most interesting thing, in my opinion, is how the game avoids the traditional powerups that would be expected from a Metroidvania style game. You don't get a double jump - instead, you get a drone that you can launch away from yourself, and later gain the ability to teleport to it. Rather than have many types of breakable blocks to hide powerups, you gain the ability to simply phase through 1-block wide walls. It's a unique game that, despite its weaknesses (*cough* Boss Fights *Cough*), is well worth playing.
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a fun, rhythm-based dungeon crawling roguelike where every enemy has an ultimately predictable pattern - the challenge comes from managing your position and equipment relative to the enemies and traps, all in time to the beat. A godlike soundtrack seals the deal.
Freedom Planet is the Sonic game we all want. Fast, dynamic, and funny, with the perfect amount of escalation to ensure you never get bored. The anthropomorphic animal characters might be a deal-breaker for some people, but the game is just plain fun.
The Witness might be the best puzzle game I've ever seen based around a single concept - Start at a dot, and draw a line. And yet, despite the deceptively simple mechanic, the sheer degree of complexity that can arise from such a simple idea is astounding. There's not a single game I can think of that can produce the sense of dawning comprehension that The Witness creates, the feeling of "Oh my god. Of course! I get it! I understand now!".
Myst might be one of the first games I ever played, back when I was little, and it's always been a favorite. It's calming and intellectually interesting in a way that few other games are. The game gives you few answers, and you are expected to theorize and make notes on your own. In a way, I feel like Myst might have been an inspiration for the fragmented, ambiguous setting and plot of the Dark Souls series. The sequels to Myst are good too, with Exile being particularly fun. Riven is interesting, but the sheer difficulty makes me hesitate to recommend it to anyone without a significant amount of time and patience. What other game would expect you to decode a foreign numbering system with only the clues you might find in a small classroom?
Oh, that's right. Fez did that too, and that's a big part of why I love it so much. The sense of mystery, the sense that something happened, and that your real goal is to figure out what. Decoding obscure riddles. More than the dimension-flipping gameplay (Which is still fantastic), the setting and mystery of Fez is what makes it one of my favorite games. It's a pity that the creator decided not to make a sequel.
Transistor is a fantastic game for all sorts of reasons. Likable characters and a unique setting make the story interesting, while the combination of real-time combat with a pause-based planning phase gives combat an ebb and flow. The power-combining system is a concept that I have always adored, and the unbelievable soundtrack is the icing on the cake.
Distance is a survival-racing game with interesting mobility mechanics, a high-tech aesthetic, and again, a great soundtrack. The game's best quality is its ability to create a feeling of momentum, of being "In the zone".
FTL is a rogue-like spaceship management game, where you must carefully determine how you spend your resources in order to survive. Your crew members can be ordered around your ship, patching hull breaches, fighting boarders, putting out fires, and manning subsystems in order to effectively fight enemy ships. This game, too, has an excellent soundtrack, shifting seamlessly from the standard version of an area theme to the battle version when you encounter an enemy.
I don't think I need to explain the masterpiece that is Super Metroid. It set the bar for all future exploration games, and elevated game design from a necessity to an art. It's famous for its ability to guide the player without any need for constant tutorials, and its abilities are still used as a standard for games today.
Shantae: Half-Genie hero is a fun game, plain and simple. It combines all the secret-finding and platforming fun of the classics with all the modern conveniences we can't do without. Plus, it's funny as heck.
Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure is the story of a mayfly's first and only day of life, all set to music. The game is a veritable rock opera, and I'm fully willing to admit that I was in tears by the end of the game. It does a fantastic job of making you empathize with the little guy, and it's an incredible experience.
I don't really think I need to explain Undertale, either. The combination of a fun but challenging "Combat" system with an unrelenting sense of humor gives this game its charm. It's also one of the first truly successful games to utilize any form of meta-narrative.
I suck at Frozen Synapse. But that's entirely my fault. In fact, being a simultaneous action-planning turn-based tactics game, it couldn't be anyone's fault but mine that I suck. If you lose to someone in Frozen Synapse, it's because they were better than you, plain and simple. Of course, this game has a great soundtrack as well, and is one of the few times in recent memory that I've really heard any form of electro music that isn't dubstep.
Batman: Arkham City is just a good game. More than anything else, the game makes you feel like you are Batman, and that's really the ultimate goal of any Batman game. Gliding across the city, mowing through crowds of enemies, and picking off thugs one by one all feel fun.
Dishonored is a game where you can combine your abilities to do all sorts of things, and I've always loved games that do that. Combine an interesting, mysterious setting with a wide variety of powers and gadgets, and you've got one heck of a power fantasy.
Magicmaker is a pretty little-known game, but it does something I love. In Magicmaker, you combine different parts to create spells, with all the different aspects of the spell interacting. Like I've said, combining powers and abilities is something that I've always loved, and this game is based on it.
Psychonauts is a collect-a-thon platformer, like Banjo-Kazooie, mixed with the twisted imagination of Tim Schafer, with a heaping helping of psychological humor. I don't know how else to describe it. Play it.
So, I guess I'll start with a list of games that I really like:
Antichamber
Axiom Verge
Crypt of the NecroDancer
Freedom Planet
The Witness
Myst
Fez
Transistor
Distance
FTL: Faster Than Light
Super Metroid
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure
Undertale
Frozen Synapse
Batman: Arkham City
Dishonored
Magicmaker
Psychonauts
And, I suppose I'll explain why I like each one.
Antichamber subverts all the expectations that you have going into it. People familiar with first-person games have it the worst, because Antichamber was specifically designed to mess with your preconcieved notions of how it works. Walking back through a doorway might not lead to the same place you were before, and some doors are only open if you don't look at them. It's a uniquely relaxing and intellectually stimulating experience.
Axiom Verge is a modern Super Metroid style, exploration/combat game. Made by one guy, it boasts an awesome soundtrack and tons of interesting weapons. The most interesting thing, in my opinion, is how the game avoids the traditional powerups that would be expected from a Metroidvania style game. You don't get a double jump - instead, you get a drone that you can launch away from yourself, and later gain the ability to teleport to it. Rather than have many types of breakable blocks to hide powerups, you gain the ability to simply phase through 1-block wide walls. It's a unique game that, despite its weaknesses (*cough* Boss Fights *Cough*), is well worth playing.
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a fun, rhythm-based dungeon crawling roguelike where every enemy has an ultimately predictable pattern - the challenge comes from managing your position and equipment relative to the enemies and traps, all in time to the beat. A godlike soundtrack seals the deal.
Freedom Planet is the Sonic game we all want. Fast, dynamic, and funny, with the perfect amount of escalation to ensure you never get bored. The anthropomorphic animal characters might be a deal-breaker for some people, but the game is just plain fun.
The Witness might be the best puzzle game I've ever seen based around a single concept - Start at a dot, and draw a line. And yet, despite the deceptively simple mechanic, the sheer degree of complexity that can arise from such a simple idea is astounding. There's not a single game I can think of that can produce the sense of dawning comprehension that The Witness creates, the feeling of "Oh my god. Of course! I get it! I understand now!".
Myst might be one of the first games I ever played, back when I was little, and it's always been a favorite. It's calming and intellectually interesting in a way that few other games are. The game gives you few answers, and you are expected to theorize and make notes on your own. In a way, I feel like Myst might have been an inspiration for the fragmented, ambiguous setting and plot of the Dark Souls series. The sequels to Myst are good too, with Exile being particularly fun. Riven is interesting, but the sheer difficulty makes me hesitate to recommend it to anyone without a significant amount of time and patience. What other game would expect you to decode a foreign numbering system with only the clues you might find in a small classroom?
Oh, that's right. Fez did that too, and that's a big part of why I love it so much. The sense of mystery, the sense that something happened, and that your real goal is to figure out what. Decoding obscure riddles. More than the dimension-flipping gameplay (Which is still fantastic), the setting and mystery of Fez is what makes it one of my favorite games. It's a pity that the creator decided not to make a sequel.
Transistor is a fantastic game for all sorts of reasons. Likable characters and a unique setting make the story interesting, while the combination of real-time combat with a pause-based planning phase gives combat an ebb and flow. The power-combining system is a concept that I have always adored, and the unbelievable soundtrack is the icing on the cake.
Distance is a survival-racing game with interesting mobility mechanics, a high-tech aesthetic, and again, a great soundtrack. The game's best quality is its ability to create a feeling of momentum, of being "In the zone".
FTL is a rogue-like spaceship management game, where you must carefully determine how you spend your resources in order to survive. Your crew members can be ordered around your ship, patching hull breaches, fighting boarders, putting out fires, and manning subsystems in order to effectively fight enemy ships. This game, too, has an excellent soundtrack, shifting seamlessly from the standard version of an area theme to the battle version when you encounter an enemy.
I don't think I need to explain the masterpiece that is Super Metroid. It set the bar for all future exploration games, and elevated game design from a necessity to an art. It's famous for its ability to guide the player without any need for constant tutorials, and its abilities are still used as a standard for games today.
Shantae: Half-Genie hero is a fun game, plain and simple. It combines all the secret-finding and platforming fun of the classics with all the modern conveniences we can't do without. Plus, it's funny as heck.
Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure is the story of a mayfly's first and only day of life, all set to music. The game is a veritable rock opera, and I'm fully willing to admit that I was in tears by the end of the game. It does a fantastic job of making you empathize with the little guy, and it's an incredible experience.
I don't really think I need to explain Undertale, either. The combination of a fun but challenging "Combat" system with an unrelenting sense of humor gives this game its charm. It's also one of the first truly successful games to utilize any form of meta-narrative.
I suck at Frozen Synapse. But that's entirely my fault. In fact, being a simultaneous action-planning turn-based tactics game, it couldn't be anyone's fault but mine that I suck. If you lose to someone in Frozen Synapse, it's because they were better than you, plain and simple. Of course, this game has a great soundtrack as well, and is one of the few times in recent memory that I've really heard any form of electro music that isn't dubstep.
Batman: Arkham City is just a good game. More than anything else, the game makes you feel like you are Batman, and that's really the ultimate goal of any Batman game. Gliding across the city, mowing through crowds of enemies, and picking off thugs one by one all feel fun.
Dishonored is a game where you can combine your abilities to do all sorts of things, and I've always loved games that do that. Combine an interesting, mysterious setting with a wide variety of powers and gadgets, and you've got one heck of a power fantasy.
Magicmaker is a pretty little-known game, but it does something I love. In Magicmaker, you combine different parts to create spells, with all the different aspects of the spell interacting. Like I've said, combining powers and abilities is something that I've always loved, and this game is based on it.
Psychonauts is a collect-a-thon platformer, like Banjo-Kazooie, mixed with the twisted imagination of Tim Schafer, with a heaping helping of psychological humor. I don't know how else to describe it. Play it.
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