I love video games. That's a statement
that brings out a variety of reactions. Some people share the passion
and are happy. Some don't share the passion but still respect it and
smile politely. Then you get people who are utterly baffled by it.
They tend to think I'm either an overgrown child (maybe valid) or an
idiot throwing his life away. I wholeheartedly reject the latter.
Video games output swings from mindless blockbusters to the most
pretentious artistic endeavours you can imagine. In this blog what I
hope to do is discuss a few of the games I've found interesting which
aren't hugely mainstream in the hope even one person who thinks I'm
an idiot for playing games can start to understand why people play
them and the kinds of experiences you can get in 2013. We've come a
long way from shooting ducks and playing Mario on a Nintendo console
on Christmas morning.
Dear Esther is not really a game at all
in that there is no playing it. You control walking and looking
around with no other real interaction. The focus is on the narration
which discusses the story of the island you are set on and of a man
who has written letters to “Esther” and whose life involved the
Hebridean island the game is set on. The last few years has seen a
rise in art games thanks to it being easier to distribute games to
consumers electronically and Dear Esther is one of the better
examples. It looks gorgeous and has terrific sound design. The
narrator is particularly superb and manages never to be irritating or
overly expressive. It's cheap and a short ride but shows how games
can give this experience in an evening which leaves you genuinely
lost in thought. Dear Esther is closer to literature than a film,
given games chase to be more cinematic it's nice to know some games
chase the lure of a good book.
Have you ever wanted to play a fever
dream from the Czech Republic? Enter Botanicula! Here you play as
five creatures who set out to save the home tree from some evil
spiders. This is a point and click adventure, you move from screen to
screen clicking on things to effect the environment and solve
puzzles. The puzzles are rarely taxing and this is easily a game you
could play with anyone from children to your partner with little
worry of everyone getting frustrated and giving in. The game has a
charm which is utterly magical and brings a charm to this Pixar
hating face. The visuals are vibrant and the sound is brilliantly
bizarre thanks to the and DVA who do the music and also all the sound
effects often with silly noises and odd instruments. The effect is
charming and often hilarious. The humour of the game is the star
though and the scrapes the characters get into have you giggling away
whilst bringing you closer to their plight. You could easily call
this a children's comedy, and like all good children's entertainment
it appeals to adults as well.
This is easy to sell. They create
animated recreations of the universe and you can muck about with the
attributes of the celestial bodies to see the effects. Make Earth
eighteen times larger? Send a Jupiter sized asteroid into Mars? Make
the Sun smaller and watch the orbits of the planets fly out of
control?Just watch how our solar system works? Easily done and with a gratifying level of statistics behind
it. Educational software is largely garbage but Universe Sandbox just
puts the tools in your hand and let's it raise interest rather than
actually try to teach you. It's the ultimate way to waste ten minutes
and a very well made thing to have sitting on your PC. Also did I
mention you can make huge asteroids smash planets out of orbit and
into other planets?
So this isn't strictly out yet but the
still in progress version you can download is still well worth a
look. You play an Eastern European style (it's all fictitious
countries) border crossing official in the early 1980's who have
recently opened up and allowed people to cross. Your job is to follow
the bureaucratic rules set by the government and to ensure those who
are allowed entry have the right papers. You use the interface to
identify any problems with the documents and if you miss anything you
are docked pay. Your pay is needed to keep your family in food and
medicine whilst paying off rent. The look and sound of the game is
very evocative of the setting but the genius is in the story. The
snippets you receive from those who pass imply large political
changes in the area and soon enough the danger of the fluctuating
politics leads to more complicated requirements to enter. This takes
you longer to check and is a big deal seeing as you get paid per
person processed. It also will have mini stories which give you a
moral choice. Someone comes in and passes you a note saying a certain
name has kidnapped her and is planning to sell her into a human
trafficking ring. The certain name appears next but his papers are in
order. Do you let him in or send him back knowing you will be docked
pay your family badly needs. The game is still in development but
early indications is that it could discuss some interesting themes
over authoritarian societies and the position of people working
within them. The manner in which it could discuss this whilst asking
morality questions of the gamer personally is fascinating.
I'll leave that there and I urge you to
try one. Even stick it into YouTube and have a look. Games have
started to deliver a broad array of experiences and if I can get one
person trying a game they never would have tried before then I'm
happy. I'll go back to non-gaming chat next blog. Until then stay
safe.
"That's the second biggest monkey head I've ever seen" Guybrush Threepwood
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