Our February edition of this blog is another oops-all-video-games post! We cover a mix of RPGs, deck-building, and interactive story games, with plenty of genre crossover.
Welcome to Elk is a cute story video game based on real experiences of people the author knew. It has a style reminiscent of comic books: most of the world is depicted in black and white (almost as if it was drawn with a sharpie), while interactive objects are cleverly indicated in color. The pacing starts off slowly, but picks up after the first hour, with some fun lightly puzzly tasks thrown in. There are also a few meta elements that break the fourth wall in an unexpected way. While it doesn’t wrap up with any profound meaning, as a collection of stories, it accomplishes what it set out to do. It’s worth a playthrough if you want a short game with some off-the-beaten-path narrative elements.
Difficulty: 1/5
Time: ~3.5 hours
Death Squared is a cooperative puzzle video game about communication, collaboration, and robot explosions. I appreciated the way the difficulty scales. The first few challenges get you used to the mechanics, and go on to teach new skills as you progress. Later challenges have you sequencing movement between players, and while some require good timing, it’s not overly demanding in this regard. There is a lot of learning from your failures to find new ways to cooperate (and failing is even fun sometimes!). There is virtually no story (beyond a Portal-esque “testing grounds” conceit), but this is a great choice if you want a casual couch co-op with cute puzzles that you can easily pick up and put down.
Difficulty: 2/5
Time: 6-9 hours
Signs of the Sojourner is a narrative deck-building video game that came out several years ago, though I only heard about it recently. Initially I thought it would be a fairly simplistic and trivial game, but the need for strategic thinking and planning evolves as the game progresses. After each conversation you have, you need to replace cards in your deck, which forces you to make decisions and adapt. The more conversations you have and the longer you stay on the road, the more challenging it becomes to progress and talk with additional characters. This gameplay mechanic thematically aligns with the story, and the choices you make have an impact on the narrative and the characters you meet.
While this mechanic does increase replay value, I constantly found myself wanting to replay conversations to see what I had missed. By the end, I was disappointed I couldn’t visit all the locations and characters, but it was overall a charming game.
Difficulty: 2/5 Time: ~7 hours
Life is Strange is an episodic adventure video game that plays like a movie where you’re able to determine aspects of the plot. The gameplay mechanics don’t pose a challenge, as long as you don’t miss things while exploring. The story is, as the title implies, strange, but compelling. The writing, voice acting, and graphics are generally quite good. Life is Strange: Double Exposure is easy to recommend for fans of the series, and it juicily teases a story cliffhanger at the end of the game. If you’re new to Life is Strange, play the remastered version of the original game before diving into Double Exposure, since it references a lot of plot points and choices from the first game. If you want puzzles or inventive game mechanics, though, this isn't the series for you.
Difficulty: 1/5 Time: 5 chapters x ~2-3 hours each = 10-15 hours
With gorgeous graphics and a sleek interface, it’s easy to immerse yourself in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The incremental onboarding and wide range of difficulty settings make this a very appealing option for first-time RPG players. Because I’m primarily interested in the narrative, I played on the easiest setting, but to my surprise, I enjoyed the combat portions as much as the rest of the game. I was able to customize my character with a fighting style I enjoyed (ranged magic), which helped me feel powerful and in control without making the fights too easy.
The writing in a handful of quests felt a bit heavy-handed, but given the sheer volume of dialogue, content and voiceover in this game, it is unsurprising (even if disappointing) that there are some misses. Though I could nitpick a few other things, with a game of this scope, it’s easy to forgive a few clunky portions. Overall, it looks great, it's a blast to play, and it’s an easy recommendation, especially for RPG fans or RPG curious folks.
Difficulty: Variable—choose your own adventure.
Time: ~40 hours for the main storyline, ~60 hours for all available quests
What have you been playing lately?
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