LONG BLOG
Media Moments 2022: Games, the B-List
Not every game I liked was a world-ending superstar. Sometimes they’re just good.
Cult of the Lamb
There’s a lot of village builder games, lots of rogue-lite action games, and even a lot of farming games with dungeons. But beyond the rock-solid mechanics here, there’s something so endearing about Cult of the Lamb. Your village feels close, even when things get rough. Even when I’m sacrificing them or drugging them, or they keep running up to me wanting to eat shit. The game is weirdly obsessed with shit. It’s not in-your-face about it. It’s subtle. But shit’s an ever-present, endlessly renewable resource, and a surprising number of your follower will ask to eat some. I don’t know why. I love how cute this game is, and how it’s systems tie together.
Ooblets
I can’t claim Ooblet is the best farming game, or the best critter collector game, or has the best of any of it’s elements. But it’s really got something beyond the sum of it’s parts. A strong sense of place and aesthetic. It’s such a vibe. The stupid-cute characters, the stupid-cute puns, the stupid-cute ooblets. The stupid-cute entire game. I love living there in Badgetown. In most farming games, I never quite gel with the story of leaving the city for a life on the farm. I don’t fantasize about farming. But Badgetown is awesome. It’s a goofy, twee, stupid place and I would absolutely live there. It’s one my top places in a video game I wish were real.
Immortality
This really feels like the culmination of what Sam Barlow’s done up to this point. A well-acted, non-linear, mechanically unique mystery that is shown not told. All of that could also describe Her Story, his first game. But instead of a single woman being interrogated we have 3 entirely produced movies and you’re scrubbing through the footage in an editing bay, along with behind the scenes and other related footage. It’s the same basic concept, but on another level in every way. It’s not even just the scope, the ideas are just as leveled up.
Beacon Pines
This is going to sound hyperbolic, but Beacon Pines feels like the future of adventure games. I don’t mean I’m blown away by technology, I mean it understands how people think when they play games with branching story paths. Imagine you’re playing Mass Effect and you’re making your choices, but instead of having to keep replaying it, you can navigate the literal flow-chart of decisions you’ve made up to that point. That’s what Beacon Pines does. You can navigate to any previous decision made, using new options you’ve picked up along the way. In fact, that’s the central puzzle. Choices are never wrong or wasted, and nor are they permanent. It’s just what I wanted from adventure games. You really should play this.
Harvestella
In a generation filling up with farming games, I was a bit intrigued to see Square Enix not only take a swing, but construct a whole fantasy story and world with a bunch of crystals and make it a whole thing. And boy did they ever make it a whole thing. Honestly, it’s only half a farming game. I heard one reviewer say it feels like it’s in the Mana series and they had a point. I played a lot of this game. The farming works, the combat works, the dungeons are fun, and the story is actually pretty good, especially the side-quests. I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece, but the story gets so much cooler than I would have expected. I have some strong quibbles with the game, like having no defensive options in combat and having the day-night timer apply to dungeons, but I was clearly hooked-in for a good while. If you play farming games, this might be worth looking at. Play the demo.
LOOK WHO CAME:
