I can't get Fish Sticks out of my head. Not the food, but the stray cat with a squished face and stubby legs that I wrangled into my shack in Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel’s new roguelite strategy game, Mewgenics. The shop, the pub, the dentist; no matter where I go, I…
I was, like so many of my 1990s-born peers, a huge Sims girlie. I spent hundreds of hours as a teen and young adult making people I knew, characters from shows I was obsessing over, or original characters I wanted to experiment with, and diligently following their life paths and…
Throughout all of this is the lovely music, the gorgeous artwork and a moving story. That intro sequence brought a lump to my throat, but I wasn't sure whether the game would be able to sustain that ability to be affecting once it became less cinematic. But as the story plays out and I completed tasks I was fed more snippets. The game gradually reveals what's behind the tragedy of the forest and that emotional facet is unspoilt by unforgiving and unadventurous mechanical requirements.
Apart from the splendid graphics, there's nothing particularly outstanding about White Night, but it's a decent horror-mystery game. It'd fit beautifully under the Alone in the Dark banner and seems like a much more obvious successor than…well…
If it's playing I can close my eyes and feel what HLM made me feel. Because my associations for HLM2 are confusion and frustration more than exhilaration and escapism, the second doesn't seem to have power. But there are some lovely pieces in there for sure.
Shelter 2 has a memorable visual identity and a considered soundtrack, but in terms of survival and a rewarding exploration of the space there's just not much there.
It's very simple to complete, and your interaction with the world is fairly primitive. And yes, sliding tile puzzles. But it also has a deeper story and much darker tone than you'd expect from the casual market... I rather enjoyed it.
I'm not sure the Homeworld games were first built with the expectation that they'd stand the test of time like this, but because there was so much care, because there's been nothing quite like them since, and because the remastering has been sensitive, this package comes across as beautifully timeless, and as essential as real-time strategy gets. Welcome home.
Look, Sunless Sea isn't for everyone. It requires patience, and it requires no small amount of imagination. For those who have those qualities, or are prepared to try and acquire them, I would say that Sunless Sea is an uncommonly rewarding roleplaying game, and an essential one.
Take your time, play with the flora and fauna (although be careful, it's not all friendly), search out the gems (some are cunningly hidden), and enjoy taking your time. This isn't a game to rush, but to wobbily savour.