The best games I played in 2019

Hey hey folks, Dave here. I hope you all had a great 2019. It was a rough year, but when it came to the video games themselves (and not the industry), I have few complaints. I set out to have a new impressions video every Friday on the channel in 2019 and I succeded. I got to play a lot of great games. I began a series going through the Elder Scrolls saga, and a friend loaned me an Xbox One. This allows me to not only play Xbox exclusives, but a lot of games I've always wanted to try are on Game Pass. I don't have to worry about my laptop not being able to handle such titles.

For new viewers, allow me to explain how the list will work. This is not a list of the best games of 2019. No, this is a list of the best games I have played in 2019. Due to my funds and an ever growing backlog, I find myself playing more games from years past. In a shocking twist, everything on this list is no more than a couple years old. The oldest game is from 2016. There's a couple from 2017, a couple from 2018, and a couple from this year.

What I ended up doing was choosing from the 15 games I want to play more of after making impressions videos of them. To make hard choices, I cut the fifteen in half and rounded down to 7. Seven is a lucky number. These are the 7 games I want to play more of in 2020 or the years beyond. Whenever I can get around to it. These 7 games will be in alphabetical order, and then following this list will be my favourite game of the year. The game of the year is one I’ve played through in its entirety and then made a critique video about. It should be easy to guess which game it is for those who've been watching my channel in 2019, but regardless, let’s start the list with...

Control

Control is the most fun I had playing a game this year. The reason is Control ticks off a lot of my boxes when it comes to science fiction. Secret government agencies, alien technology, and a reminder our understanding of spacetime and quantum mechanics is woeful and rudimentary. These ideas are packaged up in a third person shooter with superpowers. Control feels good to [ahem] control on top of gorgeous lighting and use of space, cementing this as a game I cannot wait to return to.

Dead Cells

In my impressions video I said Dead Cells was the smoothest Roguelike I've ever played. How I didn't feel my time was being wasted by not making progress because cells can be donated towards game upgrades, and plus the gameplay is reward enough. As exciting as I found rolling around and bonking foes with my frying pan, trying out the shield and engaging with the blocking, stun, and parry mechanics added a whole new layer to my excitement. A further appreciation. I look forward to spending more time with this game and uncovering its secrets.

Forza Horizon 4

I don't play a lot of racing games, and when I do I prefer to hold down the accelerator and zoom around rather than learning how to navigate a vehicle through a fine tuned racing simulation. Forza Horizon 4 is a nice marriage of these two styles of play. I was able to just choose a car and drive, the guide arrows suggesting the best time to brake and turn, but for those who want to delve deeper, the options are there. What kept me playing was the magic moments kept occurring. The right car, the right lighting, the right song on the radio, the right landscape; I was gawking at situations I found myself racing in, and I want to return to experience more of these moments.

GRIS

GRIS is an audio/visual extravaganza. I liken it to playing through an art installation. It's light on gameplay because of what it's trying to accomplish, but I am interested in what new sights and sounds lie around the next corner, and what kind of emotional reactions the game will end up eliciting from me.

Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is special. It's special because of how alien it is. The solar system the player finds themselves in exhibits different behaviour than what we're used to. Much of the thrill of discovery is in figuring out how this universe works. What quirks inhabit each planet, and how to best use the alien technology available. I want to see if Outer Wilds can maintain its sense of mystery and discovery up until its conclusion, and I wonder just how strange this solar system ends up being.

Persona 5

It was during a PSN sale when I discovered Persona 5 was not a PS4 exclusive like I had thought it was. It was also available on the PS3, and during this sale, it was dirt cheap. What was I waiting for? Having loved Persona 4, I wanted to try this new entry in the series, whose sleek, and vibrant presentation had been talked about ever since its release. It's a joy to play. Perhaps a little drawn out, but the game makes allowances to give the player a stress free time, while keeping the core of what made the previous 2 entries beloved. I love the concept of the main characters travelling into people's hearts to cure them of their twisted desires, and look forward to continuing this tale. I am worried about the time commitment, but that’s a bridge I’ll cross when I come to it.

Unavowed

I'm a fan of the work of Wadjet Eye Games, the Blackwell series most of all. Unavowed takes place in the same world as those games, and is about a group of paranormal investigators / police. I love the attention to detail in the backgrounds, I love how hotspots have descriptions on them when moused over, and I dig the whole vibe of the game, becoming enamored with the characters. I look forward to getting to know the current cast even better, and meeting all the new members of the team.

Now we come to the best game I played this year. I created 5 critique videos in 2019, and all are eligible, as I played each title start to finish. The contenders are Killer7, Sleeping Dogs, Hollow Knight, Bioshock, and Yakuza 0. The winner? Drumroll please…

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is a rarity because when I finished the game, I didn't even start writing my critique before I began a second playthrough. I wanted to experience all the unexplored aspects left on my first time through, and it made me love the game even more. A lot has been said on Hollow Knight's value for money. How for only $15 US you get a platformer which keeps revealing itself to the player hour after hour (not even including the free downloadable content which extends the game even further). Affordable pricing aside, it's the level of love put into the art, the design, and creating a world crying out for exploration which had me returning to the game night after night, despite my frustrations with the movement and combat mechanics. A lot of games succeed by having their strengths outshine their weaknesses. Hollow Knight succeeds despite its weaknesses. My frustrations may have pulled me down in the moment, but I kept thinking about the game when I was away from it, and even though it's now been over 6 months since my second playthrough, I've thought about a third. More than any game, Hollow Knight captured my imagination and rewarded my perseverance. This is why it is the best game I played in 2019.

Now it's your turn. What are the best games you played in 2019? They don't have to be from this year, I'd just like to know the games you had the most fun playing. Please tell me in the comments. I hope you're all looking forward to 2020 as much as I am. It's not just a new year, but a new decade. The possibilities are endless. Let's all be the best we can be. I look forward to making and sharing new videos with you this year, and I hope you enjoy watching them. Happy new year everybody, and I hope you all have a wonderful 2020.

Why side stories are the heart of Yakuza 0

The sidestories of Yakuza 0 are the heart of the game. Yes the main plot is one of intrigue. It's a well told crime narrative with twists and turns, keeping players on the edge of their seat, but the sidestories, when Kiryu and Majima take time away from the immediacy of the crime drama, that's where the game truly shines. I think It's what endears players to this series and keeps them returning. Heck during the finale, I took a good 10-15 hour break from wrapping the game up to take over more areas in Real Estate Royale, and to finish up all the remaining sidestories I had an interest in. 10 - 15 hours. That's the length of a whole nother game. Eventually I became fed up with waiting around for the real estate money to come in and I wrapped things up, but even afterwards I thought about going back and completing Real Estate Royale and the Hostess Club. The only reason I didn't is the psychological effect of having the credits roll signaling that it’s time to move on. There are so many other games to play!

What makes the sidestories so important? Well Kiryu and Majima have a magnetic charisma of course (the way they wholeheartedly throw themselves into even the smallest of tasks) but I don't think that's why we like them as characters. They're good at fighting. Kiryu tends to think that’s all he’s good for, but it’s “why” Kiryu and Majima are fighting that lies at the heart of it. They’re protecting the weak while trying to get to the bottom of this whirlwind they've found themselves caught up in. The player is caught up in the same whirlwind. Wandering the streets of Kamurocho and Sotenbori is a moment of reprieve from the intensity of Yakuza 0’s tale. It's these inbetween moments when we're walking a character through a world, that's the time when Kiryu and Majima can be what we want them to be. It’s the time we have the most control over their direction. It’s the closest the player comes to having a sense of agency.

We tend to think of agency as an important factor in videogames. The core of the medium is its interactivity after all, and if a player is going to spend hours of their lives controlling a character in a virtual world, they want some input into how things are going to play out. They want a sense of ownership over the characters they are controlling. This is often why when games are talked about as being “linear” it is usually in negative terms. The term suggests that the agency of the player is being infringed upon. I don’t see this as a negative, but I think it comes down to the experience the game is promising. In the impressions video I made on Yakuza 0, I talked about how I thought Kiryu was going to have to make a quote "video game choice", a decision that affects the narrative. One way games give the player agency. so they can feel in control about how the story plays out. The reason this made me groan was up to that point the narrative was so well delivered that I didn't want to mess up the story the game had to tell me, by making my own decisions. That's why I was so relieved when Kiryu played out the scene according to his own whims. The only agency I have over Kiryu and Majima is wandering the streets. I mean I could let them get beat up during the main game's fights, but then the game would be over. Choosing what side activities to participate in, and which random strangers to help is the main form of agency in Yakuza 0. It not only helps endear us to Kiryu and Majima as characters, but to Kamurocho and Sotenbori as places.

What initially creates a desire for the player to help all these random passers-by is how off-kilter the stories are. From helping shut down a burasura ring, to training a dominatrix, to getting to use a mobile telephone! Hey the game is set in 1988. Such cutting edge technology is a big deal! Some of the stories are helping local businesses, or partipating in a side-activity. A few are linked to the giant Real Estate and Hostess Club projects that sucked up so much of my time. For instance I never especially liked the arcade racer Outrun. Spending so much time trying to get high scores to fill the friendship meter of the girl who works at the arcade so I could buy the place didn't improve my thoughts on the game. I still did it though, and took over that whole area. Now why did I put in all that time? Because no matter how out there or tedious the sidestories are, they all share one thing in common, Kiryu and Majima using the strength they possess to help others. These Yakuza showing empathy for the troubles of everyday citizens.

This makes the game a positive power fantasy. I think we like the idea of characters from the underbelly of our world being noble, living by their own sets of values. It gives us hope that the worst among us are still redeemable and not everybody who does wrong is a bad person. That we all have the power to help others and change for the better. Like most things in life, it's usually not as simple as that, but such stories let us enjoy characters like Kiryu and Majima restoring a sense of justice to the world they live in. This is reflected in Real Estate Royale and the Hostess Club as Kiryu and Majima are freeing Kamurocho and Sotenbori from the ownership and influence of unsavory and unscrupulous characters. We as the player are using the strength of these protagonists to create a stronger sense of community by helping people. Everyone can use their strengths for the betterment of the community, and in this case, the strength of Kiryu and Majima is literal, their ability to fight with wild abandon, and win.

Walking around the streets, I was often overcome with despair at just how many groups of malcontents were picking on innocent people. At times it made me question, if so many are like this, why is the world worth saving? Even Kiryu seems to think he's only good at hitting people, but now thinking about the side stories and all the people he's helped, I know that's not true. His compassion, empathy, and sense of justice are his strengths. His power, and ability to exercise that power is what allows him to succeed in pursuit of these ideals. It’s the sidestories and the strength of Kiryu and Majima creating this togetherness that showed me that most people are doing the best they can. Some of the worst folk can come around to helping others. They might just need to get some sense smacked into them first.

Thanks for watching. Returning to the conversation on player agency, I think we sometimes forget how fulfilling narrative agency can be. I’ve already mentioned how the sidestories further endear us to Kiryu and Majima but that empathy and conviction is also present in the main story. I enjoy controlling Kiryu because I like him as a character and I want to see the decisions he makes next. Yes, I have little agency over his decision making process (which is why the side content is so compelling), but I still am controlling him, and there is a fulfillment is helping characters reach their goal.

But what do you think? Was there enough player agency in Yakuza 0 to satisfy you? Was it because of the main plot, or the sidestories? How much of the side content did you complete before you said “enough is enough?” Let me know in the comments. If you enjoyed this video, why not buy me a coffee? There’s a link in the description. If you’d like to help me out in other ways, please give the video a like, share it on your favourite social media sites, or subscribe if you haven’t already. Until next time, I hope you’re all having a wonderful day.

A character chooses, a player obeys: a Bioshock critique

If you’ve had any interest in games criticism, analysis, or even game reviews, you might have heard the term “ludonarrative dissonance”. It refers to a dissonance, a schism or split between what the narrative of a game is telling you, and what the gameplay is telling you. A popular example is how in the Uncharted series, the cutscenes and dialogue portray player character Nathan Drake as a lovable rogue, yet the game has the player murdering hundreds of people. This term was coined by Farcry 2 director Clint Hocking in a blog post he wrote after playing Bioshock in 2007. I’m going to use the dissonance Hocking perceived in Bioshock as a jumping off point for my thoughts on the game after a recent playthrough. Needless to say that if you have not played Bioshock and you worry about spoilers, please go play the game before watching this video. If just for the fact that when the player meets Andrew Ryan, not only do I think it’s the strongest moment in the game, but I think it’s one of the strongest moments in the entire medium, and I’m going to be talking about it. If you enjoy video games, you really should experience it for yourself. 

Here is my understanding of the dissonance in Bioshock according to Mr. Hocking. The gameplay contract is as follows. Seek power and you will progress. A common enough gameplay contract, and important because the city of Rapture is built on an objectivist ideology. This pursuit of progress gives no room for morality, but the game undercuts this contract with the choice afforded to the player in their encounters with the Little Sisters. Bioshock gives the player a decision to kill or free what look like little girls, who contain Adam, a resource that will allow the player to access more superpowers and thus make the game easier. While this choice undercuts the gameplay contract, the choice itself is undercut because the player gains even more power by freeing the girls. Power that the player is told will be lost if they free the Little Sisters. The dissonance arises when we compare the gameplay contract to the narrative contract. The narrative contract of Bioshock is following the orders of other people. Listen to Atlas and you will progress (and it’s Atlas telling the player to harvest the Little Sisters for Adam). After the meeting with Andrew Ryan, the player is listening to Tenenbaum, who is the one that asks the player to save the Little Sisters. This late in the game I no longer felt the need for more power, and I think that's why Frank Fontaine causes the player to lose health and eve. To make the player miss the power they had amassed over the game, returning it to them before the final confrontation, whether their power came from either following the gameplay or narrative contracts.

The meeting of Andrew Ryan signifies a shift in the narrative contract, listening to Tenanbaum instead of Atlas. Why is this moment so significant? Well for one, it's brilliantly written and performed. It's the one time I bought into how weird the humans in Bioshock look and move because Ryan himself is so captivating. He's more than the sum of his parts. The players find themselves in the presence of a man that was able to build an underwater city. We’re confronted by the charisma and vision needed to persuade all those who helped make Rapture a reality. In the end Ryan chooses suicide because it’s a death on his own terms rather than being murdered by his puppet of a son. To his last breath he is indignant, sticking to his ideology (even if he had betrayed it before). The 'would you kindly' reveal like most plot twists isn’t as strong on its own when you know it's coming, but thematically it makes the whole sequence all the stronger. A man chooses, a slave obeys. We’ll examine the meta-commentary of this scene as it pertains to the player later. 

After his death, Frank Fontaine replaces Ryan as the game’s antagonist. Fontaine was made for a place like Rapture. I find his conversations with Jack leading up to the final boss fight touching, if not a little melancholic. Fontaine considers Jack family, but he can only see people in terms of business transactions, like when he housed and fed the poor in order to buy loyalty in the most vulnerable of Rapture’s citizens. He does care for Jack like his own son, but sadly he is one of those fathers that considers his son his property. That’s a nice division between Ryan and Fontaine. Ryan wants Jack to be his own man (just as he wants every person to carve their own path in life, and not feed off the accomplishments of others). Fontaine wants total control, and the power and prestige that comes along with it. I think both men do what they do solely for themselves, but their reasoning comes from a different place. It’s like Andrew Ryan represents the ideals of objectivism, while Fontaine represents its reality.

During the grand reveal of Rapture at the start of the game, Ryan passionately makes the case for Rapture as a city where no one will be constrained by moral limitation. Like he’s built this wonder for the benefit of others, but I think Andrew Ryan built Rapture solely for himself. A place to escape the world and live out an ideological fantasy. Of course even with a fantasy at the core of such a marvel as Rapture, it took scores of talented people to make it happen. I don't think we can do anything great alone. This brings me to why I think Bioshock is a great story, and why perhaps great stories are so rare in videogames. Great stories are full of great characters. It is the desires of these characters and the conflict between such desires that leads to the most compelling tales. Andrew Ryan is a great character. Perhaps at the expense of the supporting cast. He's definitely more interesting than Fontaine, or Suchong, or Tenenbaum. Cohen holds his own. But all these names I mentioned, they do leave their mark on the player even if Ryan towers over them. Out of the whole cast, Jack as the player is the least interesting character, and that's a paradox worth discussing. The player should be the most important character in a videogame, but they're often the least interesting, especially when they’re made silent. A player character is usually a silent protagonist because the developers think it will further immerse the player in the role if they’re not hearing a voice unlike their own (although Jack does talk in the game. Right at the start, and then never again, which is a strange choice).

Could the player being the least interesting character in Bioshock be part of the meta commentary of the Andrew Ryan scene? That as a player we are slaves to the designer. Just as Jack was conditioned through the phrase "would you kindly", the player has been conditioned by playing a lot of videogames. We follow Atlas not because we trust him (and if you've played System Shock 2 you likely never did) but because that's what you do in a videogame. You listen to the person that gives you goals. It allows you to move forward. It allows you to play more of the game. In games with narrative choices, players will often choose the path that reflects their values (such as not murdering little girls no matter what the player is told they are), but we're still making decisions in our own self interest. What makes us feel good, what will make the game easier, and what will allow us to play more. All the time we are slaves to the designer. Maybe that’s why so many feel the game loses steam once Andrew Ryan dies, and Jack is freed from his mental conditioning. It’s not that being a slave is what made Jack the least interesting character in the game, but while Jack is now free, the player is not. The player is still a slave to the designer. Jack still has no choice in following Tenenbaum’s orders, and if we want to see the end of the game, neither do we as a player.

I think another reason that people dislike the last act of Bioshock is because Rapture ceases to be important. It kind of fades into the background. Fontaine wants to rule its corpse. In the good ending, Jack and the Little Sisters escape Rapture and live idyllic lives on the surface. It's been said that if the player had actually undergone a full Big Daddy transformation the good ending might have been more thematically resonant. Selflessness over selfishness. Jack sacrificing who he is for the good of the Little Sisters. A refutation of the ideals that created Rapture and the Big Daddys in the first place. I guess this doesn’t work because as we’ve established, Jack doesn’t really have much of a character, and the player isn’t making a choice of sacrifice, they’re just following the predetermined game path to its conclusion. The bad ending is more thematically resonant. Jack leads an army of splicers to the surface to wage war on other nations. Rapture was built after World War 2 and the atrocities of the Holocaust. Most of the main players in Rapture are Jewish, as is Ken Levine. There's a strong theme of those that have been oppressed becoming oppressors themselves. The fall of Rapture is tied to many of the great minds that delighted in its morality free approach to progress, often committing atrocities on others to further this cause. In the bad ending, Jack continues this cycle.

My thoughts on Bioshock were made possible by reading and watching the thoughts of other writers who had something to say about the game. Links to these pieces are in the description. Now I’d like to hear your thoughts. Do you think Andrew Ryan failed the ideals that built the city of Rapture, or was its downfall inevitable? Was the meeting of Andrew Ryan the most powerful moment of the game for you as well? What are your thoughts on Jack being the least interesting character in the game because he’s controlled by the player, and how that plays into the meta-commentary of the Andrew Ryan scene? Please let me know in the comments. If you liked the video, I’d love for you to buy me a coffee. There’s a link in the description. If you’d like to help me out in other ways, please give the video a like, share it on your favourite social media sites, or subscribe if you haven’t already. Until next time, I hope you’re all having, a wonderful day.

Hollow Knight and the joy of exploration | Dave Critiques #42

Hollow Knight is the best game I have played this year. I love it so much that after finishing my first playthrough with the bad ending and 76% world completion, I immediately started up another game and have been following a guide to see and experience everything I missed. So why do I love the game so much? That’s actually an easy answer, the exploration. There is so much to explore in Hollow Knight that even near the end of my playthrough I was opening up new areas. The scope is impressive, especially for a game made by such a small team. So why was the exploration so enjoyable? Well that’s what this video is here to answer. If you have any interest in playing Hollow Knight I advise you to go do so, and come back and watch this video once you’re finished. For everyone else, let’s continue.

In my notes I wrote that Hollow Knight is “A Metroidvania without signposts”. The more time I spend with that sentence, the sillier it seems. Most Metroidvania games do not have signposts, and Hollow Knight actually has quite a lot of them. What I think I meant was that a core feature of the genre is that from the opening areas of the game, there are sections that are inaccessible until the player gains the right upgrade. Whether it’s Super Metroid, Symphony of the Night, or even games like Dark Souls, progression is fairly linear until a good portion of the way through. If that’s the case, why is there a joy of exploration in all these games despite their initial linearity? Well part of it is the tease of being able to access a new area later. When coming across an area we can’t get to, an idea has been planted in our mind that once we gain some new ability, we’ll be able to come back and see what’s hidden. We might get tired of all the teasing however, so from the start of the game we should be constantly finding secrets. Hollow Knight is full of hidden pathways with rewards at the end of them. Oh sure some are just geocaches or emblems that can be sold for more currency, but there are charms, grubs, mask and soul upgrades, new abilities, spells, bosses, and even new areas. That chime that sounds when a secret is uncovered is always a delight, and on more than one occasion following a breadcrumb of secrets and chimes led me somewhere I hadn’t been before, or opened up a new pathway to a place I had.

I think this enjoyment of secrets and their rewards play into the general aesthetic of the world as well. Hollownest is mysterious and hostile. Who is our character? Why have they come to this place? Just what happened to turn all these bugs into mindless killing machines, and can we do anything about it? We’re not wanted here. The inhabitants will kill us at a moment’s notice, and that combined with the treasure creates a sense of adventure. It’s like we’re raiding tombs. We’re excavating the secrets of this place, and where that doesn’t result in a tangible benefit, it at least can result in a sense of understanding.

I do wonder how much of Hollownest is required to visit for completion, and how much is optional. Until the City of Tears I think the path is fairly linear. Most players will beat the False Knight in the Forgotten Crossroads, walk into Greenpath, fight Hornet, and then take the path from Fog Canyon to the Queen’s Station. They’ll go into the Mantis village in the Fungal Wastes, gaining the wall jump ability before entering the City of Tears. After defeating Soul Master Crystal Peak is accessible, but if you saved up enough geo and bought the lantern, you could beat the Mantis Lords and go into Deepnest. You could even unlock the Royal Waterways and find yourself in the Ancient Basin. I think that the game wants you to go to Crystal Peak or Deepnest. Both lead to the Resting Grounds where the Dream Nail is acquired. From there it’s as simple as finding the dreamers in locations you’ve already visited, and defeating the Hollow Knight for the bad ending.

Now if you want the good ending, you do need to visit more of the world. You need to go to Kingdom’s Edge and fight Hornet again for the King’s Brand before heading into The Abyss for the Shade Cloak. You need to visit the Queen’s Gardens and defeat the Traitor Lord to meet the White Lady for part of the Kingsoul, not to mention travelling around the world to upgrade the Dream Nail to access the White Palace. I had thought that this meant that the only truly optional areas were the Howling Cliffs and the Royal Waterways, but to get the upgraded Dream Nail you most likely have to fight Gorb, and Isma’s tear certainly makes exploration easier.

Is the magic trick Hollow Knight performs simply the sheer amount of exploration and secrets on offer? I imagine that even a dedicated player without the use of a guide would be finding new parts of the world on subsequent playthroughs. How much of the joy of exploration is due to the benches? The more you explore, the further away you travel from a safe space, and the greater the tension. You might stumble upon a boss, die, and have to trek back, fighting your shade before seeing if you can take revenge. It could be the cartography. How the new additions to the map aren’t recorded until you make your way back to a bench. The further I played, the more joy I had in filling out every section of the map. Like I was mastering my understanding of the game space, even if I wasn’t a master of the platforming and combat required to traverse it.

Which is funny to say because the combat and platforming are such a prominent part of the game. I’d say the combat may even be the focus. It’s a simple, yet elegant system. The nail is short and can be slashed in front, above, or below while in air. Unlike other games, this downslash needs to be timed. The short nail is what made the timing so frustrating for me, and the downstrike was one aspect of the combat I never felt comfortable in my ability to execute. 

That feeling of not being able to grasp the downstrike echoed my general mood regarding the platforming. I never became comfortable with the wall jump. I’m used to a feather touch with wall jumping. Brush up against a wall and repel off. In Hollow Knight, you need to grip the wall. More time is needed before the jump can be executed. Throughout the whole game I never felt comfortable with movement and combat. I became more adept at using these systems as I played, but I never felt at ease controlling the Knight. Despite this, I do want to compliment the game that despite my frustrations with what I feel are two thirds of its core experience (the platforming and the combat), I enjoyed the exploration and atmosphere so much that I am playing through it again, and have been singing its praises to anyone who will listen.

When No More Heroes was released, one of the criticisms of the game was that its open world was empty and didn’t hold much for the player to do. I can no longer find a source, but I remember reading that Goichi Suda implemented this on purpose. He was making a point on how he found the open worlds in games like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas boring. I remember that being the first time understanding that a part of a game could be made frustrating or tedious to communicate an idea to the player. Since then I’ve come across other examples, most notably in the games of Fumito Ueda. Ico is a small boy, so his combat is nothing more than flailing about with a wooden stick, and Argo and Trico from Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian are animals who don’t always listen to the player’s instructions. They have their own autonomy.

I’ve always found this idea troubling because it can be used to excuse bad game design. Even if a designer says they put something players dislike in their game for a specific purpose, the execution of what they were trying to accomplish may not have been successful. What this means is that a lot of what we see as “good” or “bad” design can come down to a player’s interpretation, and the reasoning behind it (as it can with any decision made creating a work of art). I bring this idea up because the frustrations I had with the Knight’s controls could be for such a reason. The knight is a nobody. A failed experiment. One of tens of thousands. It could be said that the only reason the Knight accomplishes anything of renown is due to the help of the player, although he did pull himself out of the Abyss and leave Hollownest before we have a chance to control him. Who the Knight is creates a reason why I might find the platforming a little slipperier than I would like or the combat overwhelming and without a sense of power. It could also be why the game revolves around soul and healing. Like the Knight, you as the player are far from perfect. You’re both going to make lots of mistakes, but the game has given you a way to be able to keep going when that happens. Hallownest may be the home of the Knight, but it is unknown to the player, and as I found the exploration of Hollow Knight the most compelling aspect of the game, getting to uncover every nook and cranny of Hallownest felt like the Knight and the player coming to understand the world, and maybe even themselves, a little better.

Thanks for watching. One fear I had about starting the game again is that as I’m now familiar with the world, the exploration might no longer be as enjoyable and I’d be left with the elements that frustrated me in my first playthrough. I’m happy to report that is not the case. Part of the reason why is that I missed so many areas, hidden paths, and even bosses on my first playthrough. Through my research for this video, I have become more confident with my charm choices, and the use of spells, so the combat has become less frustrating. I’ve increased my skill with the down slash and with the platforming, but I am dreading having to put these skills to the test in the White Palace. This second playthrough is making me love the game even more.

So now I’d love to hear from you down in the comments. What is your experience with Hollow Knight? Was the exploration the main draw for you as well, or was it the combat and the platforming? If so, what about the platforming and combat do you enjoy so much? If you enjoyed the video, why not buy me a coffee? There’s a link in the description. If you’d like to help the channel in other ways, please like the video, share it on your favourite social media sites, and subscribe if you haven’t already. Until next time, I hope you’re all having, a wonderful day.

The Two Weis: Mechanical and Narrative Justification in Sleeping Dogs | Dave Critiques #41

Hey hey folks, and welcome to my critique of Sleeping Dogs. Just a friendly reminder that if you haven’t completed the game, there will be spoilers in this video. If you wish to avoid them, please pause, and go play the game before returning. For everyone else, let’s continue.

At multiple times during Sleeping Dogs, Wei Shen will be called in to have a meeting with his handler Raymond. Raymond is sympathetic to Wei’s double life, having to be part of the Sun On Yee Triad as well as respect the law as an undercover police officer. Wei does not return any sympathy or respect in these scenes. They are annoyances, interrupting his work, that is ultimately more important than someone in the police force making sure he’s ok. I understand the purpose of these scenes. We as the player are meant to sympathise with Wei. We want to get back to the enjoyment of playing the game. Beating up rival triad members, driving around town, engaging in shootouts and becoming further embroiled in triad drama. Despite this, I always felt that the heightened drama and tension of these exchanges felt unearned, especially because it felt that Wei was always in the right, and there were never any consequences for telling Raymond to go pound sand. After all, the cops are the good guys. Raymond may be an annoyance, but he would never do anything to put Wei in any more danger, and his threats to shut down the undercover operation hold little weight because despite being pulled further into the triad lifestyle, Wei is getting results.

A couple years ago I played Driver: San Francisco for an impressions video, and I remarked how enjoyable it was playing an open world game as a police officer. Not just because the missions were about helping people rather than causing violence, but it gave a reason to try and limit the carnage I might otherwise engage in seeing these games give players the tools to do so. Not that you can’t go on rampages in Sleeping Dogs, but being a cop puts a check on the damage I might otherwise be causing. In GTA IV for instance, I remember finding it amusing to walk up to random pedestrians and start punching them. I wanted to provoke a fight and see how it would escalate. In Sleeping Dogs there are lockboxes scattered throughout the world, and most of them are guarded by groups of triad members or other street gangs. This is a game sanctioned way to blow off some steam and engage in the melee combat system. Even near the end of the game, I would be driving or walking around when the glint of a lockbox would catch my eye, or I would notice the red goon markers on my minimap. I would take time out from heading towards the next mission to attack a few enemies and acquire some more cash that I had no use for. Beating people up in public is not following the letter of the law. That’s called assault. Seeing as the people I was beating up were bad people themselves, and I was undercover, the game gave me justification to wail away to my heart’s content. That’s the spirit.

And maybe that’s why the world of Sleeping Dogs feels so alive to me. I think I had more fun driving around Hong Kong than any other open world space. It might be the small things, like how following the GPS will take Wei through side alleys. This is his home, he knows the shortcuts. It might be the vendors who buff your stats whenever you buy food from them, or the people always having conversations outside your apartment. There’s a sense of ownership of the space by beating up the thugs. I’m making the city a better place. Visiting the shrines and looting the lockboxes is just a reward for my due diligence as a citizen. This is outside the mission structure. During the missions, all bets are off. I’ve hit pedestrians, crashed countless times, and generally behaved like the triad maniac Wei is posing himself as. While these actions will lower the cop experience and increase triad experience, what’s interesting is that the missions have no bearing whatsoever on face experience. The time between missions when I’m engaged in races or just helping random strangers, that increases notoriety and causes people around town to recognize Wei, as well as leading to greater rewards from the clothing and vehicle vendors. Just like we’re stuck between being a cop and rising through the triad, there are two Hong Kongs. One inside the missions, and one outside, and never the two shall meet.

There are also two Weis. Does Wei ever reconcile the two versions of himself? At the end of the game, speaking to Officer Teng, she questions which Hong Kong feels like home to Wei, the side of law and order or the side of chaos and violence. To me this suggests that Wei’s heart was never really on the side of the police. The police are just a way for Wei to get his revenge on the Sun on Yee. It makes the drama with Raymond make sense. Wei excuses his own methods and behavior because it’s all in service of the greater good, taking down the triad. The problem is he feels most at home in the triad. The player certainly does. It’s much more enjoyable to race cars, beat up thugs, and get into shootouts rather than follow the law. Especially when the player doesn’t have to. Sure there’s a penalty during missions for such reckless behaviour, but the cop missions then reward similar mayhem. Since it’s an open world game, there is no long standing consequence for going on a rampage or changing Wei’s behavior. That after the credits, the game loads Wei back in his swanky apartment with a golden gun and gives you free reign to do whatever you like in this virtual space tells me that Officer Teng’s concerns are justified. It would be one thing to say that the chaotic side of Wei is all the fault of the player. We’re the influence pulling this character in the direction of the dark side, but we have no control over Wei’s attitude in the cutscenes. Wei relishes his freedom in the triad, and resents the police when they try and correct his behaviour. Even though Wei is a police officer, in the end, he might not be that different from any of the Grand Theft Auto protagonists. He just has a better excuse.

Thanks for watching. What are your thoughts on Wei’s internal conflict. Do you think that there was actually a war going on inside him for his loyalty to the police or to the triad, or do you think he was firmly on one side or the other the whole time? Let me know in the comments. If you’d like to help the channel and show me some love, please like the video, share it on your favourite social media sites, and subscribe if you haven’t already. Until next time, I hope you’re all having, a wonderful day.

Killing the Past: Personal & Ideological Conflict in Killer7 | Dave Critiques #40

Hey hey folks, and welcome to my critique of Killer7. Just a friendly reminder that if you haven’t completed the game, there will be spoilers in this video. If you wish to avoid them, please pause, and go play the game before returning. For everyone else, let’s continue.

I thought that playing Killer7 on the PC with a mouse and keyboard would make the Heaven Smile less terrifying. That the fear they instilled in me the first time I played through the game was because of how fiddly I found aiming in first person with a controller. I was wrong. The Heaven smile are scary because of what they represent. The slow inescapable approach of death. Their laughter is inhuman, and entering a new room and hearing that low chuckle always unnerved me. The cackle they emit when you kill them does not represent a moment of triumph, but is the Smile having the last laugh. You have not escaped death, only delayed it. It doesn’t matter how many you kill, because if you exit the area and return, they will be back. They always keep respawning.

In the first mission, Angel, we are informed that there are only 14 Heaven Smile in the building. Then the duplicator is introduced. They’re breeding. I have a theory that the Heaven Smile might be a contagion, a virus that humans can catch, but we only encounter 3 types of Heaven Smile. Those created by Kun Lan, the new varieties created by the US government, and the weaker offspring of the duplicator smiles. My theory was based on Andrei Ulmeyda turning into a Heaven Smile, but that suggests the government experimenting on citizens to create a weaponized version of the Smiles under their control, and not a contagion. I honestly don’t know what’s worse. I also have a theory that the Smiles may be increasing in number as a countermeasure to stop the player from uncovering the past of Emir Parkreiner, but we’ll return to this theory a little later.

Then there’s Iwazaru. We chase him through the basement of Garcian’s trailer, after transporting there from Battleship Island. Unmasked, we see that our trusted servant and guide throughout the game has been none other than Kun Lan. Matsuoka tells us before entering that final room that this is the original and final Heaven Smile. Kun has been keeping tabs on the Smith Syndicate this whole time. Perhaps that’s another reason the smiles appear in greater numbers as the game progresses. Not only is Emir remembering who he is, but he’s under the control of Harman Smith, Kun Lan’s rival. We’ll discuss the chess game between Harman and Kun throughout the video, but what if all this time we thought that Emir was one of Harman’s pieces, when he was actually one of Kun’s?

In the second mission, Sunset, missiles have been fired at Japan from an unknown source, and the US government is deciding whether or not it wants to intervene and save the island nation. There are factions within the US government that think Japan has outlived its usefulness as an ally. They feel the Japanese government is too corrupt and not worth the effort of the US to save. What makes this ironic is that we find out later that the Japanese have been controlling the US government for some time through the US elementary school system, and thus the election process. The Japanese have decided the result of the US presidency for decades.

It is suggested that the party responsible for the attack on Japan is the UN Party (not to be confused with the United Nations). They are responsible for the creation of the Yakumo, a policy that is at the core of Killer7’s political conflict. In Sunset when Christopher Mills relays the orders for Garcian and the Killer7 to kill Fukushima (a restaurant owner that is in possession of the Yakumo), they run into an assassin trying to retrieve the document for the Liberal Party (another Japanese political faction), as well as a third assassin working for the International Ethics Committee. The Killer7 dispatch of both assassins and the Yakumo falls back into the hands of the UN Party under its new leadership of Kenjiro Matsuoka, who is backed by Kun Lan.

The Yakumo is the UN Party’s foreign policy for a world under Japanese leadership. As politics can be defined as any idea successful in gaining and maintaining governmental power, the desire for all these factions to gain the Yakumo conveys the absolute power of an idea itself. While it is unclear whether or not the Yakumo has any supernatural significance, it does bestow power on those who possess it. Andrei Ulmeyda got his hands on a piece of the Yakumo, and was able to grow from a post office clerk into the owner of a mega corporation. True the corporation is a fraud, a wooden placard that topples when the Killer7 make their way inside it, but perhaps all political ideas are the same. They contain the ability to gain and maintain large amounts of money and power, but are built on a precarious foundation. They only continue to exist and flourish because people believe in them.

If the UN party are behind the missile attack launched at Japan, the question then is why? Was it all a ruse to have the US government move on Fukushima through the Killer7 so they can retrieve the Yakumo? It’s suggested that similar to how the Yakumo was born out of the ashes of World War II, by destroying Japan with an even greater attack, a new era, and the fulfillment of the Yakumo policy can rise like a phoenix from the ashes of the devastated country. Perhaps this is also a modern form of the Bushido Code, the idea of death before dishonour. This idea holds weight thanks to the Heaven Smile. If the UN Party were not being controlled by Kun Lan, they are after Matsuoka takes his leadership position during Sunset. Kun Lan is responsible for the creation of the Heaven Smile, and their main method of attack is that of blowing themselves up by coming into contact with their enemy. Suicide bombing, reminiscent of the Kamikaze attacks from the Japanese during World War II, another embodiment of Bushido.

The second half of Sunset takes place in the KAKU Building, where over a game of Mahjong, representatives of Japan and the US are discussing whether or not Japan will be saved. The talk breaks down when one of the representatives is accused of cheating. The KAKU Building is flush with the motifs of gambling. There are puzzles with dice, poker hands, and horseracing. The 4-way Mexican standoff and the resulting executions have an inevitability to them that they too were part of the game being played, and this game could not have played out any other way. A strong theme running through Killer7 is that of politics as a game. Of countries and key figures as pieces on a chess board. This turns literal when Garcian finally enters the forbidden room of his trailer and sees that Harman Smith and Kun Lan are engaged in a game of chess. One that has been played before, and whose stakes are much larger than the pieces on the board. Garcian and the Killer7 are pieces in that game. This is the core experience of playing Killer7. Killer7 is an action game on rails. The player can only move these characters on predetermined paths, and only certain members of the group can access certain areas. The pieces cannot move freely.

One of the reasons Killer7 blew my mind when I first played it is that Harman Smith and Kun Lan are representational characters. They’re more than just a single person in a single place at a single time. A young Harman Smith killing his older counterpart with a tommy gun is an example of this. The chess game alongside the showdown in the Heaven Smile headquarters, and the epilogue in Shanghai show that Harman and Kun are rivals, but it is a friendly rivalry. It’s not as simple as good vs evil. They couldn’t be friends if that were the case. It’s more Yin and Yang. Two sides of the same coin. I thought perhaps they represented order and chaos but it would be screwed up if Harman represented order as the leader of the Killer7, a group of assassins.

There’s an east vs west dichotomy to their rivalry as well. If the Yakumo is supernatural in origin, then it is likely that Kun Lan had a hand in creating it. He created the Heaven Smile which I think are a weapon for the Japanese in the same way the Yakumo is. Perhaps the Yakumo is a wildcard and the pieces that Harman and Kun are playing with are as simple as the Killer7 vs the Heaven Smile. The epilogue in Shanghai shows that no matter the state of the world, this idea of competing ideologies between nations has to play out. It’s simply a different landscape. Their meeting in Shanghai is 100 years after the only narrative choice the player gets to make, whether or not to kill Matsuoka. This decision results in either the US or Japan winning the current game of politics. A decision that ultimately doesn’t seem to matter 100 years later.

If the game between Harman and Kun is as simple as the Killer7 vs the Heaven Smile, what about the mission titled Alter Ego? The Killer7 have a showdown against the Handsome Men, a sentai task force created by the US government for the purposes of combating the Heaven Smile threat, which at this point has become global. The showdown between the Handsome Men and the Killer7 ends with credits for a 16-bit video game before we see Kun Lan. Were the Handsome Men yet another of Kun’s chess pieces? An obstacle put in the way of the Killer7 to thwart Harman winning their game? As long as we’re talking about obstacles that are not Heaven Smiles, are Andrei Ulmeyda and Curtis Blackburn similar pieces?

Garcian Smith’s real name is Emir Parkreiner. A trained assassin who as a teenager murdered the Killer7 in a hotel, murdered his school principal Harman Smith, and stuffed him in a safe. The school that Emir was trained at is controlled by the Japanese UN Party, and the missions the Killer7 have been undertaking are for the US government. Emir carries the weapons of the Killer7 in his giant briefcase, meaning that changing into members of the Killer7, Harman Smith being the leader of the Killer7, and Garcian’s subservience to Harman are all in Emir’s head. We discover this in the final moments of the Smile mission.

Opening the safe at Coburn Elementary creates a cut on Emir’s forehead, revealing his third eye. He’s starting to see again. These memories have been repressed. As we make our way back to the Union Hotel, Emir recalls the assassination of each member of the Killer7 before he meets a young Harman Smith who assassinates the Harman and Kun playing the game of chess. The Forbidden Room might have only been accessible through Emir. Finally on the top of the building, Emir confronts what he’s done. He shoots his younger self in the third eye. He’s come to terms with that part of himself. In the final mission, Lion, Emir is Garcian no longer, and one of the consequences of that is that he can no longer see the Heaven Smile.

Let’s discuss my theory about whether or not the game is taking place inside Emir’s head. The Smith syndicate is the only group that can see and take down the Heaven Smile. This is thanks to Emir’s powers, and it’s not until the US government develops The Handsome Men that they have any alternative to relying on the Smith Syndicate. The Syndicate who might ultimately be under control by the Japanese because of Emir’s repressed education. The world of Killer7 has a theme of death and rebirth, or at least death not being the end. Most of the characters the Smith Syndicate kill appear in later levels as remnant psyches. Dan Smith had already been killed by Curtis Blackburn when Emir took his life in the Union Hotel, and it is suggested that Emir has lived more than once. He certainly looks well for a man born in 1942.

Returning to the game of chess, and a question I asked earlier, whose piece in the game is Emir? It might sound obvious to say Emir is Harman’s piece as Harman is the leader of the Killer7, but this is only because Emir wills it. When Emir interrupts their game, Harman is terrified of him while Kun is maniacally laughing. This is a different Harman from the one leading the Killer7. A Harman that remembers Emir murdering him. So is Emir Kun Lan’s piece? Emir was trained by the Japanese, but he has also been warring with the Heaven Smile as he is the only person capable of seeing them. I think that Kun wants to stop Emir from realising who he is, and that is why more Heaven Smile appear the closer we get to the end of the game. The Union Hotel is infested with them. Of course by this point, the Heaven Smile created by Kun have gotten away from him. The US government’s creations and the offspring of the Duplicators are the majority of what is fought. Was this part of Kun’s gameplan? In the end, Emir (as the player) makes the choice which nation wins the game, and by this point, Harman and Kun are no longer alive to witness its conclusion. Not that it matters. As Kun says in Shanghai, “The world doesn’t change, all it does is turn”.

Thanks for watching. In the end Killer7 presents a nihilistic view of human nature and the conflict between nations. How those that kill desire death themselves, or at least the death of their past in order for them to move on with their lives. In the Union Hotel, the soul shells, the collectibles needed to pass through the Vinculum Gate, are located where Emir executed the Killer7. This leads me to believe that the soul shells in the other missions represent previous assassinations of Emir (as himself, or through the Smith Syndicate). That he has to revisit the past and come to terms with his actions before being allowed to move forward. What do you think? So much of the game is open to interpretation, and that’s why I think it’s such a worthwhile work of art. I’d love to hear your interpretations in the comments, or your queries as to how certain characters or elements fit into the grand scheme of things. As always, if you’d like to help the channel and show me some love, please like the video, share it on your favourite social media sites, and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. Until next time, in the name of Harman, I hope you’re all having, a wonderful day.

The Best Games I Played in 2018

Hey hey folks, Dave here. Well, another year has come and gone, and boy were there a lot of excellent videogames to play. 2018 was the year when my laptop finally let me know that it wouldn’t always be able to run the latest AAA games, but there were plenty of other more playable experiences to be had. As usual, I went back in time to play games I’ve always wanted to, and the majority of my impressions videos on the channel in 2018 were indie titles. I know my PC can run those.

I’ve picked 8 games out of the impressions and critique videos from the last year. 3 of the games were released in 2018, one was ported to PC this year, and the rest are from years passed. Since the majority of these games are from my impressions videos, it’s not the complete game that caused me to put it on this list, but the joy I experienced in the short time I spent with it. Its potential to delight me in the future when I return to complete it. You might see some of these games in one of my future best of year videos. As always, the games are in alphabetical order, so let’s get to it!


Demon’s Souls

This is the only game on the list that I played through for a critique. It’s the only Souls game I have completed, and I am happy that I put in the time and effort to do so. What makes Demon’s Souls special is what I imagine makes all of the souls games special. That they instill a sense of perseverance and learning from one’s mistakes in the player. That no challenge is insurmountable, and given enough time and effort, anything can be accomplished. Playing a magic user, I learned to love the benefits of ranged and melee combat on top of the overpowered nature of spells, endearing me to the game more strongly than it might have if I just played a pure melee class. I look forward to returning to Demon’s Souls in the future, as well as playing the other Souls games for this channel in the coming years.


Dustforce

Dustforce was my first impressions video of 2018. It started off the year in the best possible way. What makes Dustforce special is that aside from the novel concept of a platformer based around cleaning, the game is a purely mechanics driven platforming marvel, and the player improves and adapts to its quirks as more time is spent with it. As I progressed through Dustforce, I definitely became more confident, learning new tricks and techniques that aided me in returning to earlier levels to achieve those coveted SS ranks. Even though the game has time based leaderboards, speed can be your enemy. Most of my failures were caused by panic. Executing every move with deliberation and precision steered me right. Speed resulted as a consequence.


Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

I only got to play the first level of Metal Gear Rising for impressions, but what a memorable first level that was. There’s a fluidity to Raiden’s movement and animation that makes controlling his actions feel amazing. You know the feeling that even though the character on the screen is doing ridiculous things that should break immersion, they feel like an extension of the controller you’re holding? That’s how it struck me. Throw in the ability to chop enemies or anything else into confetti, combined with the standard ridiculous but compelling Metal Gear plot, and you have an action game that I can’t wait to return to. I hear the themes of the game are quite prescient to the times we find ourselves in as well.


Planescape: Torment

Planescape: Torment is regarded as one of the best videogames ever written. One of the things I love most about videogames is the stories they can tell, so I definitely want to see this one through to the end to find out if I can see where such praise is coming from. I think what I liked the best about my time with Planescape is how inventive it can be because it relies so much on text. The planes are a place where anything seems possible, and while I’m sure the majority of my time with The Nameless One will be disturbing and more than a little heartbreaking, if my time with it has been any indication, I look forward to experiencing this tale of immortality in its entirety.


Return of the Obra Dinn

Speaking of disturbing. Return of the Obra Dinn is a game where you use a magic pocket watch to transport yourself to the instant where the crew of the Obra Dinn met their often grisly demise. Rendered in a green monochrome reminiscent of the original Apple computers, the level of intricate narrative weaving that creator Lucas Pope would have had to gone through to make all these stories and their clues link together is remarkable. I have no plans to continue my playthrough, but I applaud the game’s originality and the excellence of its execution.


The Missing: J J Macfield and the Island of Memories

I love the games of Swery. They’re not always the most polished or technically sound, but they have a lot of charm, and I always find myself attached to the characters that inhabit these strange worlds. The Missing is no different. I spent my impressions video talking around the games’ main mechanic because I didn’t want to spoil the scene that kick starts JJ's journey. I’ve been playing this one through with a friend, and we’ve been mostly enjoying ourselves. It’s not exactly a lighthearted adventure, but it does have its moments. I’m looking forward to being able to share my thoughts on the game with you fine folks in the future.


Wandersong

I had the biggest smile on my face while playing Wandersong. Its cute cardboard cutout art combined with musical mechanics makes for a delightful time. Despite the whimsical tone, what I played is not all sunshine and rainbows, and I think the game is foreshadowing some rougher emotional moments. I look forward to seeing how these tones balance themselves out, and if the joy of the game ends up feeling all the stronger because you can’t have highs without equal lows. Wandersong is what I’m looking forward to playing the most out of everything on this list.


Yakuza 0

Speaking of balancing tone, we come to the final game, Yakuza 0. Every story beat is full of dramatic conflict and tension. I always wanted to see what happened next as the stakes for Kiryu kept rising. I wanted to keep punching my way to the next cutscene. The violence and loyalty of Kiryu shifts once Kamurocho opens up, the player engaging in side stories where Kiryu helps the citizens of this small slice of Japanese nightlife. I want to see this crime drama through to its conclusion. Even though my laptop is not up to the task of running the game smoothly, I can’t wait to start pummelling hooligans, and singing karaoke again.

And that’s another list for another year. Links to all the videos I made on these games in 2018 are below in the description. Now it’s your turn. I’d love to hear what games you enjoyed playing the most in 2018. They don’t have to be from 2018, and you don’t have to have finished them. I just want to know the gaming experiences that were the most memorable for you. I might find some new games to add to my ever growing list of doom. Let me know in the comments. I hope you all had a great 2018, and that you have plans to make 2019 your best year yet. Let’s be all we can be. I look forward to all the wonderful new experiences on the horizon for this year, inside and outside of videogames. Happy new year everybody, and I hope you’ve all been having a wonderful day, and aren’t too hungover to enjoy the rest of it.