Category: Video Games

The ’18 Best Games of 2018: Part I

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing, You Might Have Missed

If that title sounds like a lot, don't worry—this is a two-part list, and if you're pressed for time, either half should be an enjoyable respite from the apocalyptic rain of acid and flames that, if anything, should bring 2018 to a close. In the grand tradition of Mario Kart's Nitro and Retro halves (well, since Mario Kart DS at least), I'll be listing the best games I've played this year in two halves—first, games released in 2018; second, games released elsewhere (well, mainly in the past) that I first played this year. And maybe the sum of the two will be a bit long, but hey, there's a really awful pun near the end of this one (can you spot it?), and you can go grab some popcorn at the intermission.

How Deltarune Tells a Story About Loss and Loneliness… with Some Help from Children’s Lit

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing

Right now, it's rough around the edges, clearly a bit unfinished, but still crystallized in a way that feels wholly rougher, odder, and more unique than its more polished predecessor. In that very literal sense, I hope it does end up as a Majora's Mask to an Ocarina of Time—a piece of art that leverages the iconography of a (brilliant) original to tell a weirder, rougher kind of story. One wholly appropriate to the brand of children's literature it draws from, and the control-based medium in which it makes its home.

You Might Have Missed: The Final Station

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Reviews, Video Games, Writing, You Might Have Missed

It's as if the player is walking over an anthill, unaware that this complex and convoluted warren exists beneath their shoes. And over the course of the game, this conceit will be used again and again and again, sometimes with added flourishes or small tweaks to its simple formula. Every level is circular, just as the game itself is, with the end of each circle adding a final revelation.

On XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, and the Stories We Build for Ourselves

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing

But now I'm in the position of having lost weeks of my life to the modern XCOM series: first to XCOM: Enemy Unknown in May, and now to XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. And to explain why, first, I need to tell you about Brigitte "The Truth" Martine.

Like Clockwork: Working Through Depression in Shovel Knight’s Clockwork Tower

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing, You Might Have Missed

This is an article I wrote for First Person Scholar, a really awesome website that does work in the space between academic journals and popular games criticism. It's about a game that's very close to my heart for how it's helped me work through anxiety and depression.

Fire and Ice: How God of War Thematizes its Doubled Combat

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing

But in the aftermath of that feeling, I realized something else—that the euphoria I'd felt in the wake of that fight came alongside the dropping of the game's initial facade. Kratos is not redeemable. He is a monster, and those blades represent that. Only a monster can wield them as he does. Only a monster can descend into Helheim and fight his way back out. Only a monster can harness that fiery maelstrom to survive those hordes of ice.

You Might Have Missed: Night in the Woods

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Reviews, Video Games, Writing, You Might Have Missed

About an hour into Night in the Woods, a modern adventure game from a small team called Infinite Fall, Mae Borowski reuintes with her high school bandmates for practice. Since she'd left for college, their drummer—Casey—had disappeared, and their guitarist and singer, Gregg and Angus, had recruited another old classmate named Bea to take both … Continue reading You Might Have Missed: Night in the Woods →

How Doki Doki Literature Club Paints an (Almost) Authentic Picture of Depression

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing, You Might Have Missed

From one angle, Team Salvato's (free) visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club looks like an attempt to capture a bit of Undertale's signature metafictional magic. A game that begins as a piece in a well-defined genre ends up being anything but—picking apart both the mechanical and narrative tropes that a player might expect from, respectively, a visual … Continue reading How Doki Doki Literature Club Paints an (Almost) Authentic Picture of Depression →

Dream No More: How Hollow Knight’s Story Mirrors the Myth of Prometheus

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing, You Might Have Missed

Hollow Knight expands from the journeys of a wanderer through a vast, decaying kingdom—beginning with a simple descent into the Forgotten Crossroads and ending with something much like deicide. And in between, a retelling of the Prometheus myth takes shape—the story of a clever, ancient being usurping its creator and granting its subjects a new form of enlightenment.

You Might Have Missed: Hollow Knight

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Reviews, Video Games, Writing, You Might Have Missed

My favorite moment in Hollow Knight came about a quarter of the way through my forty hour playthrough, when I descended through the Fungal Wastes and found myself in a giant pit at the center of a hidden village. Three mantises—for Hollow Knight's kingdom of Hallownest is a land of insects and bugs—sat on tall wooden … Continue reading You Might Have Missed: Hollow Knight →