2024 December
To-Play: 0 | Completed: 14 | Retired: 5 | Evergreen: 3 | Punted: 3
Est. Time to beat: 0h (We’re done!)
With some decisions, I actually managed to get through all 25 games planned for this year, with a total of 3 evergreen and 3 punted for later.
Somehow ended the year with a series of 4 "feel bad games".
I'll do a 2024 wrap as a first post on Substack, and all subsequent posts will go there instead of on Facebook.
What started out as short notes have evolved into walls of text. I may need to think about how to approach this for 2025.
So here we go with my thoughts on the final batch of games of 2024.
EVERGREEN
Vehicles seem like a disadvantage compared to simply going on foot. Both the trike and truck require good driving surfaces and infrastructure which needs resources to build up. Is this commentary on something or just weird game balancing?
Whereas on foot, I can carry a bunch of PPCs and set up a network of ziplines.
I got to the part featured in the trailers with the soldiers and tank. It talks about war and, in a typical Kojima way, it's almost incomprehensible.
What I can gather is that when a lot of people die, instead of going to their own Beach, they create a special Beach and this is what it is. No, I don't know what a Beach is other than it being a different place you go when you die.
While this represents WW2, there was a previous chapter for WW1 which I totally forgot until I went back to check some videos online...
There was a good classic use of loot to help navigate the sewers
Death Stranding seems like the most polished version of these chore simulators. Its game loops are so tight and continuously scratch that lizard brain that it's almost meditative. Loads of micro decisions like picking up scattered packages, replanning routes, deciding methods of overcoming obstacles.
I'm about halfway through the game and will continue with it in 2025 as the multitask game that it's perfect to be.
[2025 Me: Well, I didn’t go back to the game since then and recently uninstalled it to make room on the PS5 for other games. With Death Stranding 2 coming out in a few days, there is non-zero chance I might give it another go some time in the near-ish future…]
PUNTED
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I redid the plateau earlier this year and didn’t go back to the game at all.
I’m going to put this back into the backlog
I think it's worth another try through a diff lens and headspace. The question would be whether to continue this save from the plateau or an earlier one where I took down one of the beasts?
[2025 Me: We’ve since gotten not only Tears of the Kingdom but also the Switch 2 versions of both games.]
COMPLETED
I've previously played Oxenfree on the handheld where the characters look 2D on the smaller screen. On a bigger desktop screen, they are clearly 3D on a painterly background. In the accompanying documentary, they dove into how they created the art style.
The game features a pretty cool dialogue system that interrupts and flows naturally (most of the time). It enables seamless walk & talk without halting the gameplay or taking away the controls. From the documentary, it seems like one of their key goals and I'd say they're pretty successful.
Amazingly, I went into the game almost blind and was surprised by the creepy vibes. It felt like an episode of the X-Files (a series that somehow I finally just got into)
It was a very vibey game that reminded me of Lone Survivor. There are small things like a mirror in a dark room that made my hair stand.
The game hinted at the reactivity and playability throughout and everything felt natural. It culminates in a final group photo that reflects the choices made throughout the game. It revealed what percentage of players got the same choices in a final breakdown but doesn't reveal the other endings. I did a brief look around online and found mostly speculation.
The game explores complex, familiar relationships that I don't really have a perspective on, from loss in the family to step-siblings. It sort of reminds me of The Bear where a lot of the mystery of the relationship dynamics stems from a death in the family.
I don't know if I missed some suicide/self-harm warnings but those might help some players.
There are also some trippy visuals with flashing colours. There are options to disable effects but I'm not sure if those helped. Maybe the game could also use a warning for light sensitivity/epilepsy.
The voice acting and performance is pretty critical to the whole experience. The sound design is both creepy and very analog-sounding, adding a whole other layer. There is a chapter on audio in the documentary.
I really liked the use of the in-game map as a journal for objectives and key radio frequencies.
Oxenfree features a start screen which is the background of the last save that seamlessly blends in when you start. I always thought games with those were classy.
There are some wonky moments in navigating 3D paths where a character might back onto the same path when I was trying to navigate a bend, but that is typical in 2D games.
It's a little noticeable when everyone uses the same animation set and does the same loop in sync, especially when running, but totally acceptable within their probable budget constraints
Unless it's due to something I messed with, Oxenfree is one of those rare games that left the mouse cursor unthemed
It features a very neat way of doing flashbacks while making them fit the continuity of player control, which I eventually learned affects the ending.
In a final twist, I played a sequence where I'm giving some dialogue to some reflections and it dawned upon me that those messages I'd received from those reflections were sent by other players. Now I'm sending mine…
[2025 Me: Oxenfree 2 has been available on Netflix for a while—Netflix acquired the studio, Night School Studio. It’s playable on the Pixel 8a so I’ll check it out at some point]
Finally went back and made the phone lock the app so that hopefully it doesn't get cleared and reset as often.
It features a somewhat familiar art style but I can't really identify it.
The unique gimmick of the game is the use of a camera to detect the player's blinks. Wearing glasses and having smaller Asian eyes probably made it extra tricky. At multiple points it detected me looking down as a blink. While having it available on the phone probably expands the potential player base (as not everyone might have a camera on their computer), using a touch screen and holding the phone still while playing presents an extra challenge for the game's unique input system.
Memories literally flash in a blink of an eye, even as I strained to keep them open. Is this also representative of repressed memories that are not accessible unless we really dive into them?
Eventually there is a twist in the mechanics where I needed to keep my eyes closed. It became more of an audio experience from then. I can't remember if the game recommended headphones but those would help in this section. I doubt most people who play games on their phones will use headphones but maybe that's just me.
The game seems like an exploration of the meaning of life and one's legacy, told once by the protagonist as an unreliable narrator and then again after he's confronted by the ferryman.
There is a really scary representation of illness.
When I read up on the game online after completing it, I found some takes suggesting Benny (the protagonist) wished for his mother's death. However, I read it as him wanting to see her get recognition for her music, even if only at her deathbed, to live up to her father's expectations.
A unique experience that I probably wouldn't have checked out if it wasn't offered on Netflix.
So I went from one spooky game to another. I've had Hellblade for ages and it could be the pending release of Hellblade 2 that put this on the list for me.
Audio, Visual and Immersion:
The game is designed to be very immersive with the camera pulled up close to Senua, the protagonist. The use of binaural audio and playing entirely with headphones as recommended really situated me inside Senua's head, because of all the voices she (and I) is hearing.
The game has an atmosphere of dread throughout, with no jump scares but definitely in the realm of horror. It became obvious very quickly it's going to be a "feel bad" game.
The voices are constantly talking. It was never truly explained what they are except I learned that Senua is cursed with what her people call the Darkness. The voices hint and advise, cheer Senua on, and mock her. It seems to be a form of psychosis, with new voices appearing as the story progresses. This is probably the trickiest game to subtitle, which explains why it's never truly in sync or capturing the voice I'm trying to listen to.
Something extra unnerving is how Senua sometimes looks directly at the camera and addresses the player. At a later sequence, the player inhabits the perspective of another character and she talks directly to the camera again.
Considering how immersive the game is and how close Senua is most of the time, it's almost a miracle I didn't get motion sickness at all. The camera's slow and smooth rotation helps, and I appreciate the game's take on sprinting backwards as backwards hops.
The whites of Senua's eyes remained very clean and white, standing out against the grim and dirt and her cracking face paint. There are no veins or blood effects, even after being tossed around.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is mainly puzzles interspersed with combat. I enjoyed the puzzles which were mainly perspective-based – lining up objects to form runes or finding the right point of view – mixed with some portaling between dimensions. The various ways the game tried to hide transitions/loading while swapping/teleporting was fun.
There were a few unique puzzles, including a maze and a blindness trial that challenges the player to navigate with controller vibrations. I didn't enjoy one particular sequence requiring Senua to run from a fiery being while solving alignment puzzles, with instant failure if caught.
I switched the combat difficulty from dynamic to regular after a while. The game's focus on immersion meant no tutorials or prompts – I was surviving on "gamer knowledge." Eventually I learned about the focus ability to slow time and parrying. The lack of prompts meant I had to Google how to correct Senua when unbalanced on beams.
Story and Setting:
The story is steeped in Norse mythology, with lorerunes providing Norse legends. I'm not quite sure why Senua ended up in a Norse setting. Since it's all in her mind, it could be desperation to enter her invaders' myths for a chance at saving her love. The game features disturbing sequences, including being stalked by the Beast, with truly horrifying failure states reminiscent of the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy.
As the story progresses, a distinct male voice joins the female ones, revealed to be her father's voice representing darker aspects of her psyche. At the ending, Hela's voice matched one of the main voices Senua had been hearing.
Issues and Complaints:
The lorestone collectibles use sequential runes rather than unique ones, making it difficult to track missing stones or reference guides.
The face-finding mechanic for conversing with Senua's mother appears only a couple of times, unless I missed something.
Encountered a bug where I respawned at a boss without a weapon and got stun-locked.
Final Thoughts:
The final fight music, "Just like sleep" by Passarella Death Squad, creates a perfect vibe for the climax.
I still need to watch the accompanying Hellblade Feature documentary.
While I had many thoughts about Hellblade, I'm unsure about playing the sequel anytime soon, if at all, mainly due to how emotionally heavy and challenging the game was to get through.
[2025 Me: very different formatting here, not sure what gives… I might gotten an LLM to help format/edit]
It's been a while since I played a visual novel and I actually dozed off during the first few sessions.
I played this exclusively on the handheld.
While I can't really remember the previous games, it has simple enough mechanics. I'm actually impressed by how often I knew what to interact with, with minimal "pixel hunting". I think it's a combination of clear exposition and good sign-posting and feedback.
It took me a while before making the connection between this game and Bird Story.
Like To the Moon, it revolves around entering memories of a dying customer/patient to fulfill some dream and/or address regrets.
Eventually I did get hooked by the mystery revealed at the climax and was looking forward to seeing how it would be resolved.
Like Hellblade, the game does some smart hiding of transitions. There was a section where the game became nonlinear which surprised me.
Like the previous "feel bad" games, it revolves around themes of life's choices and regrets, with an extra dose of lost innocence.
[2025 Me: I have one last game in the series in my library—Imposter Factory]
