Yeah, WB is just late to the party. Sony was going to make a dozen different live service games, but they're reading the room now and cutting that forecast to less than half. With any luck, this is the tail end of the live service era.
At least it can still be played offline, though character unlocks do require an internet connection. They also replaced the krypt mode, which was itself pretty grindy, with a far grindier mode that's far less fun this time around, so a significant chunk of the value is gone.
I beat Dungeons of Aether, both in the story mode and in the roguelike challenge dungeons mode that I didn't realize was there at first. The story mode is structured more like an XCOM or Midnight Suns, with a home base to buy upgrades at between missions, while the challenge dungeon mode is more like the Slay the Spire structure that the game's combat system sets expectations for. I wish I liked this one better. There are some decisions they made in late-game enemy design in the pursuit of adding challenge that I very much disagree with, where in lots of situations the game can just always react to what you do with the mathematically correct decision rather than allowing you to bait out attacks like the game teaches you to do. Also, one of the playable characters, Hamir, just seems way better than the other three. I beat the roguelike mode on my first try using Hamir. I got my money's worth out of this one, and it's got some really neat ideas, but it lacks the replay value you'd expect out of a roguelike. I think they need to take another go at this one and let it bake some more.
I then moved on to Backpack Hero, which I played in early access before they added its own story mode with a more macro structure, and I guess that's just what the roguelike market is doing these days, huh? So far, I don't think it's quite as good as just doing a regular run, but this game does have that replayability that you come to a roguelike for. I'll see the story mode through before moving on to the other games I'd like to finish before the year is done.
It is surprising every time a game sells this many copies, because it's so rare. By Wikipedia's count, only 5 other games have sold better, and for the length of time it's been on the sales chart, we can realistically only compare its success to GTA V and Minecraft.
I have trouble reconciling that with the PC market, where the same version of a game I bought 4 years ago would be able to run at better resolutions and frame rates the next time I get a new machine. From where I sit, it does just appear to be worse value in the console space.
Alyx is an interquel, if we're going to say that's a real word, and it released on a platform most of the audience just won't ever have. Also, it doesn't so much continue the story as it does promise to continue the story. They admit that they've got work to do.
People brought this up at the time, and the go-to problem with it is if you go too far back, like your 1812 example, you have to deal with reloading a gun being one of the most time-consuming actions you can perform. WWI was taboo for a while due to chemical and trench warfare, and for the most part, devs still shy away from it.
I'd like to see more first-person shooter campaigns in general. They've mostly disappeared. And what I don't mean are the likes of Dusk or HROT that harken back to the Quake era. I'm looking for the era just beyond that, like Halo, BioShock, Half-Life, F.E.A.R., Crysis, 007 games and so on. A Cyberpunk expansion and, to a lesser extent, a remake of System Shock are all I have to scratch that itch this year. Someday the indie scene will cycle around to getting nostalgic for that type of game, and I'll get more of it again. With Free Radical facing near-certain death on that TimeSplitters revival, so do my hopes for getting more of that type of FPS again. With LAN and split-screen co-op and deathmatch with friends while we're at it too. Trying to make a game into a live service that inevitably dies is just telling me not to buy the few promising games that come around, like Friends vs. Friends.