An honest-to-goodness single-player Arkane game, with Dishonored 2’s caliber of level design, would probably be the catalyst that finally convinced me to get an Xbox.
I was almost relieved that Redfall arrived as such a dud because I didn’t have to make this decision on that game’s behalf. Still boggles my mind Bethesda took the minds behind the greatest modern immersive sims and assigned them a live service game. What a waste.
I’m not terribly familiar with the franchise personally. I had twice tried and failed to get into Fallout 3 back when it was released, and I’ve seen a video or two elsewhere (I think Hbomberguy did a video on a couple of the games a while back).
This video goes through every single game in the series (including Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel) sequentially, starting with the main game and then each expansion/DLC. He talks about story and gameplay, but also about the stories of their productions, the various influences that inspired the general feel of the universe, successes and failures, and how the identity of the series shifted as it changed hands.
So to answer your question, the highlight is that I feel like a certified expert without ever having really played any of the games. It’s also just ultimately 9.5 hours (7.5 confirmed) of high quality critical content.
Still playing the field since finishing my second BG3 playthrough a few weeks ago:
Sniper Elite 5: I wish I’d known about this series 10 years ago. SE5 is a surprisingly fun stealth action game, with enormous sandbox levels that encourage varied approaches, styles, and paths. Lots of unlockables and customizations (and unlike the new Hitman games, those unlockables can be used across all levels once you get them). Unfortunately I’m just not super into this kind of experience anymore, but I still had a lot of fun for the time I did spend on it before getting worn out. I’m keeping it on my system because I’m sure it will scratch another itch soon.
Bus Simulator 21: I wanted something I could zone out with, just kind of dive into mundanity and focus on little details. The game does meet that criteria conceptually, but the gameplay just doesn’t feel super well-tuned, and you get these little penalties for everything that goes wrong. I didn’t play it long enough to deal with the business management aspect, which I think is a significant part of the appeal, but it really just didn’t click like I wanted it to.
Firewatch: Skipped this when it released and was a huge deal. I didn’t know anything going into it and really liked the format of the game, exploring the woods, pulling up the map and compass to navigate and all that. Characters and performances were exceptional. But ultimately I was kind of disappointed because …
spoilerit makes you think it’s building to some fascinating conspiracy but ultimately reveals it was just one nutjob playing games. I guess I was more invested in the superficial potential of the high-concept narrative than the actual story the game was probably knocking me over the head trying to tell.
Concrete Genie: Really stellar artistic achievement. The quasi-stop-motion style of the in-engine game, the animations of the genies, and the sketchbook style cutscenes all looked phenomenal in their individual styles. The story was touching and I loved the idea of a hero whose value is his artistic drive, but I was a little bothered by what I felt was a fairly reductive approach to bullying. But the biggest problem was that the game feels really incomplete. Exploration is competent, but the drawing mechanics are not nearly robust enough to tap into the creativity it’s trying to celebrate, and the final act of the game introduces a whole new set of mechanics that, again, are really shallow. By the halfway point, the game felt more like a really, really sophisticated proof of concept than a completed game.
Two Point Hospital: This game is doing a much better job with what I was hoping to get out of Bus Simulator 21. Love the art style and UI. No complaints, just something easy to dip into from time to time.
Paradise Killer: I just started this and it is fucking nuts in a very sincere way. Opening lines: “The Syndicate created the first Paradise Island to worship their dead alien gods. Guided by Leader Monserrat, the Syndicate attempt to resurrect the gods by forcing Citizens into psychic worship rituals. However, the worship invites demonic corruption from beyond the stars. The islands always fail. The islands die and a new Paradise Island is born. The cycle repeats.” Really unique art style and game world. Time will tell if the investigative core lives up to the rest.
This doesn’t strike me as a bad move on their part. From the way the responses are worded, this feels very much like it’s intended to counterbalance negative impressions specifically for potential buyers who might otherwise be swayed by negative comments.
If I’m on the fence about something, I can be pretty easily swayed by a negative review that enumerates things that I’m specifically on the lookout for. Like if I saw one of those reviews that said bad story and boring gameplay, I would find myself think “sounds like the Bethesda formula hasn’t updated enough for me,” but I could be swayed back then other way by a dev response that enthusiastically mentions the exploration and crafting. “Maybe there’s enough here for me that I don’t need to bother with the story.”
Is it underhanded? Maybe. But it seems like a no-lose scenario either way for Bethesda.
Haha, yeah I get what it is and what’s happening, but I could never wrap my head around tracking it all. It was too chaotic in fights with more than a few enemies, and I guess what I really meant is that I do not get how the system is realistically meant to facilitate the kind of participation and strategy it seems to expect of me.
I read a lot of forums around that time about it, and I do recognize that a lot of people not only like it but prefer it over turn based, but it just doesn’t work for me.
Can you tell me how it compares to Subnautica if you’ve played it? I’ve been looking for something that scratches that very particular itch that Subnautica hit so well, and so far I just don’t like the aimlessness of the other survival/crafting games I’ve played. Subnautica’s purposeful progression really hit the sweet spot.
I keep trying No Man’s Sky, but after 2 years I finally figured out why it never clicks for more than a few hours at a time: it’s essentially a live service game, which for some reason I never recognized. It throws all its updates at you immediately, which destroys any real sense of earned progression in some ways, and its economy is designed for frequent and persistent play and multiplayer, so if you’re just playing casually, progress is sloggy as hell in other ways. And there’s just a thousand discovered things to do at all times, it’s overwhelming. It’s my fault for misunderstanding, but I’ve been trying to play it like I played Subnautica, and that’s just not what this is.
The closest I’ve come so far to recreating the Subnautica magic was Dysmantled, which is a totally different game in a lot of ways but really terrific in its own right. Looking forward to their next game, Dysplaced, next year.
Anyway, I’ve had my eye on The Forest lately. Waiting for a sale, wondering if it will fit the bill.
I played maybe half or more of PoE and still do not get RTwP at all. I was playing on normal difficulty but started getting absolutely trounced frequently, so I gave up. If I’d thought about it at the time, I would have just dropped the difficulty, but it didn’t occur to me until so late I’d forgotten too much to pick it back up.
I personally think TLOU2 is one of the most effective works of art in the entire medium and I love the game top to bottom, but I’m also overjoyed to hear they’re working on something else now.
I too hope it’s more cheerful, for the exact same reasons.
I finally finished my second run of BG3 myself for a grand total of about 200 hours. I haven’t played a single game that much probably since Oblivion 15 years ago, and I racked those hours up over a much longer period of time. It’s difficult to comprehend, no less express, how monumental an achievement this game is. The only thing that stopped me immediately rolling another character is the memory of the final gauntlet of major battles in act 3 (including the one who sings their own boss theme, which I didn’t do the first time). I’m not following any build guides or anything, so it’s been a pretty stressful week of game time and I’m ready to relax a bit.
On that note, I started playing Omno. It’s fine. Nothing really stands out: not a big fan of the art style, the score is pleasant but not as noteworthy or impactful as something like the score in Gris, and the gameplay is simple and tight. I think I’d have lost interest if I wasn’t playing immediately after 200 hours of BG3. But since I am, it happens to be hitting the right notes.
It’s definitely my favorite game in recent memory, it might even be one of my favorite games or single most favorite game ever.
I just began act 3 of my second playthrough, which has amounted to an obscene amount of playtime for me. I play single player games exclusively, and these days am often eagerly thinking of my next game anytime I hit the 30-hour mark of whatever I’m currently playing.
BG3 is a truly monumental achievement. Plus Karlach is indisputably one of the best characters ever created for a game.