Two beautiful games - reviewed by me
Aug. 25th, 2015 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susie_floOver the last few weeks, I've played two indie games on my shiny new PS4 that were unlike anything I've played before. Both were so beautiful and affecting that I feel compelled to review them. Anyone who thinks that video games are all hobbits and hand grenades might have their minds changed by these...
First up: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
This is one of the most visually beautiful games I've ever played - and possibly the most moving. To call it a 'game' is a bit misleading, in that there's pretty much nothing for the player to do, other than to walk slowly around a deserted English village after an apparent apocalypse and watch the story of what happened unfold gradually before you. Suffice to say, it's hard to find a review that doesn't liken it to The Archers.
G and I played it together over the course of a few evenings and we found ourselves pretty gripped. It is somewhat melancholy and there were parts that I found almost heartbreakingly sad while other parts were just gorgeous and dreamy, like when you wander off down a little mud track and find yourself in a stretch of dappled woodland, carpeted in bluebells, or walk across a cornfield in the evening sun.
The soundtrack is also incredibly beautiful and I've been listening to it on Spotify quite a bit. Apparently it's doing very well in the classical music charts independently of the game.
Anyone interested can watch the game trailer here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z8qv6qhhAY
Second: Journey
This is a few years old but was recently re-released with souped-up graphics for PS4. I remember reading the reviews back in 2012, when it won various awards, so I decided to give it a go.
This one is short and sweet - I played the whole thing in a single evening while the microbes were asleep and G was at the pub. Once again it's visually beautiful, although in a different way to Rapture, and it has a lovely soundtrack.
As far as 'gaming' goes - there's a little more for the player to do than in Rapture, but nothing like combat or racing or difficult jumps. You simply follow your intuitiuon and guide your little character on a continuous journey through a changing environment, with a little bit of mild puzzle-solving every now and then to help you along the way. The whole thing is done without any dialogue or narrative - just a very pretty soundtrack. You can wander about as slowly or as quickly as you like and, every now and then, you experience a sort of elation as you make a breakthrough and fly at speed to your next destination. It's not difficult at all - which means that, once again, you feel as though your main role is to follow the story, rather than achieve any trophies.
The game has a vaguely religious/spiritual feel to it, without referring to any particular belief system. Hence when you get to the end you might find yourself theorising with the best of them as to what it all meant.
Once again there's a trailer, should anyone wish to know more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU3nNT4rcFg
First up: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
This is one of the most visually beautiful games I've ever played - and possibly the most moving. To call it a 'game' is a bit misleading, in that there's pretty much nothing for the player to do, other than to walk slowly around a deserted English village after an apparent apocalypse and watch the story of what happened unfold gradually before you. Suffice to say, it's hard to find a review that doesn't liken it to The Archers.
G and I played it together over the course of a few evenings and we found ourselves pretty gripped. It is somewhat melancholy and there were parts that I found almost heartbreakingly sad while other parts were just gorgeous and dreamy, like when you wander off down a little mud track and find yourself in a stretch of dappled woodland, carpeted in bluebells, or walk across a cornfield in the evening sun.
The soundtrack is also incredibly beautiful and I've been listening to it on Spotify quite a bit. Apparently it's doing very well in the classical music charts independently of the game.
Anyone interested can watch the game trailer here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z8qv6qhhAY
Second: Journey
This is a few years old but was recently re-released with souped-up graphics for PS4. I remember reading the reviews back in 2012, when it won various awards, so I decided to give it a go.
This one is short and sweet - I played the whole thing in a single evening while the microbes were asleep and G was at the pub. Once again it's visually beautiful, although in a different way to Rapture, and it has a lovely soundtrack.
As far as 'gaming' goes - there's a little more for the player to do than in Rapture, but nothing like combat or racing or difficult jumps. You simply follow your intuitiuon and guide your little character on a continuous journey through a changing environment, with a little bit of mild puzzle-solving every now and then to help you along the way. The whole thing is done without any dialogue or narrative - just a very pretty soundtrack. You can wander about as slowly or as quickly as you like and, every now and then, you experience a sort of elation as you make a breakthrough and fly at speed to your next destination. It's not difficult at all - which means that, once again, you feel as though your main role is to follow the story, rather than achieve any trophies.
The game has a vaguely religious/spiritual feel to it, without referring to any particular belief system. Hence when you get to the end you might find yourself theorising with the best of them as to what it all meant.
Once again there's a trailer, should anyone wish to know more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU3nNT4rcFg
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no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 05:40 pm (UTC)I've been playing the episodic "Life is Strange" which I've found really affecting. It's a quiet slow thoughtful adventure game set in an American college. You play a young photography student dealing with the annoying nature of college cliques but things to get pretty dark. The last episode isn't out yet but I'm really really hooked on it.
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Date: 2015-08-25 06:01 pm (UTC)I shall google Life Is Strange...
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Date: 2015-08-25 07:35 pm (UTC)Life is strange is not for everyone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AURVxvIZrmU
it's more like watching an indie film than playing a game.
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Date: 2015-08-25 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 09:12 am (UTC)I think I might have to play it again with more mindfulness. Also I didn't realise that my character's flowing scarf would grow longer if I collected all of the secrets and glyphs in the game.
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Date: 2015-08-26 12:42 pm (UTC)I'm playing a game right now where you can summon helpers that are sometimes NPC sometimes real and I do have problems telling them apart. (Sometimes you only want to summon an NPC because you're doing something fairly mundane or you're just exploring and it would annoy a player.)
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Date: 2015-08-25 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-29 05:56 pm (UTC)I see you mentioned Never Alone below. The sidescrolling jumpy bits were too difficult for me, which was a shame because I loved the art style and the cultural stuff. I wrote a short review here, and there's some discussion in the comments about whether a game with an emphasis on culture and atmosphere "should" be hard to play or more forgiving. You might find it interesting!