I missed out on a ton of stuff this year because of …reasons. Here are just a few works that I regret falling through the cracks.
TV
THE CURSE
I will watch anything that Nathan Fielder is a part of. One of the best moments of 2017 was seeing a screening of NATHAN FOR YOU’s series finale — Finding Frances — with Fielder for a post-screening Q&A with John Teti and Fielder calling up Teti’s mother.
So, yeah, I feel I let myself down by not watching this as every episode unfolds.
DEAD RINGERS
This is one of those shows that I simply cannot sidewatch, which I quickly found out after starting the first ep. However, I also haven’t been able to find the time and — most importantly — the right mood to singularly focus on the show.
As one might expect given that I love Cronenberg, plus it reminds me quite a bit of Soderbergh’s THE KNICK, I’ll certainly be prioritizing it in 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA_XOruRFfU
DOOM PATROL Season 4
I’m woefully behind on DOOM PATROL — halfway through the second season, sadly — but I have no doubt that if I had been caught up and found the time to watch the fourth and final season that it would have made this list.
HOW TO WITH JOHN WILSON Season 3
I did start the third and final season, but quit more than one of the episodes because it was too squicky for me. I’ll return to it, as this show is brilliantly executed, but haven’t watched enough to call it a 2023 favorite.
Videogames
BALDUR’S GATE 3
This one was intentional, as 1) I never got into the prior BALDUR’S GATE games and 2) given the scope of the game, waiting seemed to make sense and 3) I knew I didn’t have the time to invest in it in 2023. Perhaps in 2024, or even 2025 (if the world still exists).
THIRSTY SUITORS
I love me my personal narrative games, and this quirky and extraordinarily stylish one which seems like it’s course-correcting SCOTT PILGRIM — yes, I know the new Netflix series also tackles that, but I haven’t watched it yet — combines facets from every one of my favorite games, from COOKING MAMA to JET SET RADIO. I do not know why I am not playing it right now.
STRAY GODS
…an epic, mythic musical RPG that makes me think of Kieron Gillen’s THE WICKED AND THE DIVINE. Why am I typing these words instead of playing this right. the. fuck. now?
There are far too many others to list, but those are the highlights. So little time, so many works to enjoy. Here’s to diving into them in 2024!
Due to a number of factors I didn’t get to swim in as much media as normal this year, and what I did read, watch or play often wasn’t released in 2023. Consequently, instead of breaking my favorites of the year by medium, I’ll list them all in one post.
Books
BIG SWISS by Jen Beagin
“I will often buy a book solely because of a sharply designed, well-executed cover. Jen Beagin’s BIG SWISS was one of those books. […] I saw the cover, refrained from opening it, balked at reading the inscription in the slipcover and thought to myself: “I don’t know what this book is about, but I know I need it.‘”
IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE: A COMPLETELY AVERAGE RECOVERY STORY by Julia Wertz
IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE — the full title is IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE: A COMPLETELY AVERAGE RECOVERY STORY — is quite the epic as it’s over 300 pages long and spans quite a bit of time and change. It still contains Wertz’s immaculate architectural reproductions, but also retains her expressive cartoon roots. When I was reading it, I’d gawk at the street in one panel, then laugh at the exaggerated simplicity of her comic self throwing her arms up in the air. It’s a perfectly calibrated work.
“This episode is wall-to-wall horny in a celebratory way, in the way that I wish sex was more popularly portrayed. It’s mostly about Harley buying drugs to give Ivy the best orgasm of her life — which leads to one of the best lines of the show: ‘Oh you cannot possibly be mad about me wanting to get you off too good. THAT IS NOT A THING!’”
Season four doubles down on Harley and Ivy’s relationship, as well as the dissonance between their aspiring goals: Harley is part of the Bat-Family and trying to do good in the world, and Ivy is the Legion of Doom’s — as Lex calls her — “She-E-O”. Hijinks and emotional beats ensue.
Thankfully a fifth season is on its way, and it will almost certainly be on next year’s favorites list.
THE BEAR Season Two
I was not as wild about the first season of THE BEAR as others. Instead of repeating myself, see my post about that season here.
The second season maneuvers in a way that is catnip to me. It made sure to properly convey Chicago’s robust food scene, and turned the show into a character drama anthology.
I know everyone loves Honeydew and Fishes and Forks, but my favorite episode is Sundae. Sydney, portrayed by the endlessly curious Ayo Edebiri, is instructing herself through tasting a variety of foods; she’s teaching herself instead of being taught by others like in Honeydew and Forks, and she does so mostly silently by trekking around the city to low-brow and high-brow restaurants and diners.
It’s all show — don’t tell — which for a show that relies on taste, a sense that can’t be easily conveyed through a televisual medium, makes it all the more remarkable, and that it does so in a such a subtle and nuanced way is a stunning achievement.
BOB’S BURGERS Season 14
It’s hard to believe that this scrappy, winsome show has been on-air for twelve years. It’s even harder to believe that each and every season has been a gem, practically flawless and immensely entertaining and endlessly re-watchable.
Of particular note this season is its second episode, The Amazing Rudy, which focuses solely on ‘Regular-sized Rudy’ and his family issues and general insecurities and it’s such a sweet and heartfelt episode, expertly woven.
This show, while yes it’s often puerile but hilariously so, never ceases to surprise me. Every Sunday it’s on is a delight. For the past few years, I’ve indulged in December 26th BOB’S BURGERS marathons to wind down from the holidays, to remind me about family bonds and laugh and chuckle to myself and just feel my body warmed by the Belcher family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQdRPJic2z0
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Season Four
I enjoyed STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS’s second season although I felt a bit let down a few times — that musical episode could have worked more around the characters, for instance — however, it was the LOWER DECKS crossover that made me seek out the animated LOWER DECKS.
LOWER DECKS is perhaps one of the most reverent and spiritually original recipe STAR TREK, moreso than DISCOVERY and STRANGE NEW WORLDS. It’s both about the wonder of space and exploration, but also about being part of the Federation, something grander and being proud of being a part of that, even though it has its drawbacks.
It is also by far the most overtly nerdy STAR TREK show out there as it really, really leans into the lore and history of the series, to a point where I know I’m not even getting a third of the jokes or references, but it’s so finely crafted that it’s still extremely entertaining.
Also: I would have been watching it out of the gate if y’all had just told me it was basically a BAJILLION DOLLAR PROPERTIE$ reunion.
SUCCESSION Season Four
What can be said about SUCCESSION that hasn’t already been said before? They fucking stuck the landing. The final season is one hell of an emotional rollercoaster from start-to-finish, with pitch-perfect scripting, pacing, claustrophobic camerawork, exquisite costuming, but what I’ll remember most about the series, and especially the fourth season?
Motherfucking Kieran Culkin.
Of everyone in the Roy family, Roman is the most idiosyncratic, the most broken, and this season just heaps more and more shit on him and how he deals — or doesn’t — is a fucking marvel. This is one hell of a performance — in many multi-faceted ways — and so much of the final season hinges on him without calling attention to that fact.
If this is the end of prestige TV — and it certainly seems like it might be — I can’t think of a better show to close the door.
WELCOME TO WREXHAM Season Two
As I wrote in my prior WREXHAM post, I firmly believe this show will be an inflection point for sports documentaries. Everything about it could have gone wrong: the self-insertion, the rich American saviors, the forced attempt at an underdog story, etc. However, WREXHAM manages to acknowledge all of the above and focus on the humanity of what sports do, not just for community economics, not just for townsfolk, but for a greater good.
Everything about this show feels like it comes from the heart, a place of well-wishing. While there is the push-and-pull and tension of budgets and over-spending, this is not an exploitative work. Yes, it does bring up some fundamental questions of capitalism and sportsman-like conduct, but that’s baked in and well-handled.
I can safely say: we’ll never see another documentary like this again. Get in while the gettin’ is good.
Film
BARBIE
This was one of the few first-day blockbuster film viewings for me in 2023, and well, it did not disappoint. (That said, I was hoping for a more energetic audience, but a less exuberant one is probably better than one far too rowdy.) Gerwig deftly threads the needle between American culture and consumerism, nostalgia, social commentary, and gender politics, all while also being endlessly entertaining and a visual starburst.
While Gosling rightly gets many accolades, I feel like Margot Robbie has been unfairly overlooked here, not just for the work she put in to will this into the world, but also her understated and sly performance. While it’s certainly a more subdued and backgrounded performance from her — odd words to type, considering she’s playing the titular role and she’s not exactly quiet — she does a lot with it, and there’s a lot to work with!
(Please note: I mean this in comparison to how broad she could have played it.)
I think most folks knew this would be a fun film going in. I don’t think anyone was prepared for just how smart and subversive it’d be.
It took me back to when I first saw JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS in that it’s so witty and intelligent and so winsome and fun and thoughtful. It makes the most out of what film can do; it’s a visual and aural extravaganza that doesn’t speak down to anyone, but can please just about everyone.
In other words: an absolute triumph of a Hollywood film.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
I am not the right person to discuss this film, but its runtime is supremely justified. Not a moment or exchange is wasted, and all of the money and Scorsese’s humanity is all on the screen. It’s a supremely taut epic, albeit one that I didn’t suspect would be more in the vein of GOODFELLAS than some of his more quietly dramatic works.
That said — and I know the editor and Apple were absolutely against this idea — bring back the intermission. The theater I saw FLOWER MOON at? I needed to use the facilities and because it’s in a strange mostly-deserted urban mall with very meandering stairs, well, I lost a good ~12 minutes and missed at least one key point. Would I know where to even put an intermission in this film? Nope, but between this and watching THE IRISHMAN in the theater, I appreciate Scorsese’s big swings but … give us just a slight bit of respite during the film.
Nonetheless, it’s all the more reason to watch it again.
Live
RATED Q
To repeat myself from prior posts: RATED Q is a monthly screening event at my favorite theater — the Music Box Theatre — helmed by Ramona Slick that features queer and underground films, prefaced by a themed drag show.
They’ve held these events on for at least two years now — I have had a hard time finding a list of prior events — and, despite being queer, I didn’t quite think it was for me.
However, when they announced that they’d be screening a print of BOUND, I knew I had to go, and it was a fucking revelation. It was brazen, it was audacious, it was fun, it was celebratory; it was ecstatic and electric. I couldn’t help but keep coming back. CATS! LEGALLY BLONDE! BRIDE OF CHUCKY! HAIRSPRAY! And the next screening? Motherfucking JAWBREAKER!
I know it’s an unfair favorite to post given how local it is, but seriously, seek it out if you’re ever in Chicago on the second Thursday of the month.
(Also? I accidentally intruded on the above photoshoot. Not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed about that.)
SKINNY PUPPY
This was a reunion show (R.I.P. Dwayne Goettel) — allegedly their final tour — of a classic electro-industrial band that I endlessly listened to in my youth and still listen to, to this very day.
I might be one of the few folks out there who will always go to bat for Last Rights. Scrapyard is probably no one’s favorite song, but it’s my favorite song from that album, perhaps my favorite of theirs overall. That fuckin’ break two-thirds through?! If you know, you know.
I have attended a number of reunion shows. Most of those I have regretted attending as they cast a pall over their works. This one I did not. In fact, it was far better than the majority of shows I’ve seen as of late and made me appreciate their works more than ever.
It was wall-to-wall theatrics; they hit all of the right notes and it had the verve of a far younger band. I never saw them live but had seen taped live performances and it felt like they hadn’t missed a beat.
I walked out feeling exhilarated and very privileged that I managed to see it. (It was a sold-out show but I lucked out and knew someone with tickets who couldn’t attend at the last second. Thanks, Chrystyne! Wish ya coulda been there!)
Videogames
COCOON
COCOON is an absolutely exceptional puzzle work of a game. Immaculately executed, absolutely gorgeous; it’s a game that makes you feel like you’re being taught to walk; your body innately wants to do so, but needs certain soft nudges without feeling pressured.
(Except for the bosses. Yeah, I know; there’s no real fail condition here, but I really hated the bosses. I understand the need — escalating action and resultant relief and all — but geez, I did not enjoy those bouts.)
It’s a tour-de-force of game design, one that has raised the bar. The gorgeous art design and soundtrack is just icing on the cake.
VIDEOVERSE
Still planning on writing more about this, so I’ll try to keep it brief:
VIDEOVERSE from developer Kinmoku — who willed into the world the very necessary work ONE NIGHT STAND — is not just a love letter to the days of internet old, but it scrutinizes when folks realized they could reach out and communicate to strangers and form bonds without exactly having to do so face-to-face.
It’s a merger of talkers and WiiU communities. While the novelty of exploring those communities would be worth the price of admission, the interwoven narratives are extremely effective, as well as the striking throwback interface.
It also has perhaps my biggest endorsement: I burned through my first playthrough on my MacBook Pro in my office on launch day.
I almost never game in my office as I like to keep my professional and recreational lives separate. I might play one PC/macOS-only game a year. This year it was VIDEOVERSE and it was well-worth it.
I’ve previously penned about Whitethorn Games and Gamious’ cozy mailperson game LAKE and, just in time for the holidays, they’ve released the substantial expansion (to use the parlance of the 90s) LAKE: SEASON’S GREETINGS to further the adventures of the Weiss family and their letter-carrying duties.
To quickly summarize LAKE: it’s the late 80s and you play as Meredith Weiss, returning to her hometown of Providence Oaks, Oregon. Her father is the town mailman, but unable to tend to his duties so Meredith takes up his route while trying to suss out what she wants in life.
Interactively it’s very low-stakes, but emotionally it’s high-stakes. Catnip to me.
It’s structured around days that often open and close around phone calls or just winding down, the intermediate time spent running mail-centric errands. Dropping off packages or letters while musing over the future of her life. That’s it. That’s the game. Cozy as fuck, but still supremely narratively substantial.
LAKE: SEASON’S GREETINGS follows the same structure, but instead of playing as Meredith, you’re playing as the original mailman: her father Thomas.
Meredith was supposed to come home for Christmas but she gets stuck debugging the video game she’s working on. Her parents are frustrated but understanding, and they go about their lives.
Similarly, you’re delivering mail to all of the same townfolk as Meredith did — the queer movie nerd, the grouchy general store shopkeep, the wistful bookstore owner while interacting with your slightly sketchy gambling addict co-worker. It just takes place a bit later in life, right around Christmas.
What results is the same gameplay loop as before, but doesn’t feel quite as substantial. While LAKE was a cozy game, there was a sense of tension, of ennui with Meredith. Thomas, on the other hand, is perfectly comfortable just doing the same thing, day after day, letters in mailboxes, packages dropped off, coming home to his loving wife and reading on the couch until he has to wake up and do the same again.
The sole sort of narrative friction is that of folks in the town questioning whether they should stay in Providence Oaks or move along to another phase of life. I admit: few games would even think of considering broaching that subject! (NIGHT IN THE WOODS is one, though.)
This feels more like an afterthought, though. While Thomas’s wife Emily mentions moving elsewhere, it is very much ‘what if?’ speculation. Yes, that fits with the game’s non-confrontational vibe, it lacks the dramatic undercurrent of Meredith’s internal conflict. Thomas is feeling action from others, rather than born from any sort of personal agency.
DLC and expansions are often used as a way to push the boundaries of the pre-existing game — THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: SHIVERING ISLES is a perfect example of this, where it goes from being a relatively grounded medieval fantasy, then dives directly into surrealism — whereas SEASON’S GREETINGS hedges back instead of pushing forward.
I realize I’m grousing a lot and that’s because I loved LAKE so much, and SEASON’S GREETINGS is a very substantial add-on as opposed to just, say, two more hours of mail delivery. It could very well be a separate game and no one would notice if they hadn’t played classic LAKE.
Emotionally, it doesn’t hit me as hard as classic LAKE did.
That’s fine! I loved playing SEASON’S GREETINGS! Right now, all I want to do is play cozy games, and this hits the spot. I loved reuniting with the folks of Providence Oaks. I loved playing matchmaker. I loved caring about how I drove around because I adored the town and the mail van.
As usual, given the fact that it takes place in Oregon, the environment, the locale, and those who inhabit it reminds me of LIFE IS STRANGE and also my home state of Vermont, it — well — it took me back to a younger me. That’s not nothin’.
LAKE: SEASON’S GREETING gives you more of the same, albeit slightly watered down, but that’s perhaps by intent; it’s Christmas, and many of us don’t want more melodrama foisted upon us. Grab a cup of cocoa and tuck in.
Stumbled a bit and have to repost a prior horror entry, the very dark horror/comedy videogame AFTERPARTY. Two besties die and go to Hell and attempt to escape via a number of drinking contests.
It’s a lot of fun, but for perhaps for its content it was overlooked, even though the studio’s prior effort — OXENFREE — was a critical and commercial success.
If you’re looking for something spooky with laughs and lots of booze, you can’t do better than this.
Shortly after Rockstar Games’ open-world crime spree GRAND THEFT AUTO 3 took the world by storm, there were a lot of copycats. Volition Studio’s SAINTS ROW 1 & SAINTS ROW 2 certainly were two of them. The two games were grim and gritty crime-centric open-world games and I personally had no interest in playing them.
SAINTS ROW 3 changed all of that. While it retained the open-world driving-and-shooting staples, it dispensed with the grime and replaced it with levity and silliness and genuine camaraderie between characters. Additionally, it injected brightness and vivd colors, including the Saint’s signature purple.
It took me a while to get around to playing it simply because, well, it looked juvenile. I didn’t believe I wanted anything to do with a game that allowed you to bash thugs with giant dildos.
I admit: I was wrong. SAINTS ROW 3 was a genuine joy to play. It’s centered around a gang of misbehaving misfits as they try to make their mark on the world while having fun doing so, and each member has their own very distinct and expressive, vivid personalities. (They also swear a lot, which I can’t help but fucking relate to.)
There’s nothing more emblematic of this oddly heartfelt approach than — I shit you not — a sing-a-long to SUBLIME’s What I Got between yourself and Saint member Pierce as they drive towards a mission.
They’re terrible singers! (I’ll note: I imagine those behind the game directed them to do so because all of the voice actors here are amazing.) However they laugh and riff and are clearly having fun and it’s one of the few extremely joyful moments I’ve experienced in a video game. It is an effortless depiction of friendship, which is so goddamn rare in video games, and it comes out of left field, deep into the game and you do not expect it. It’s worth playing solely for that moment.
“I don’t get angry when my mom smokes pot Hits the bottle and goes right to the rock Fucking and fighting; it’s all the same Living with Louie Dog’s the only way to stay sane Let the lovin’, let the lovin’ come back to me.”
SAINTS ROW 4 takes the irreverence and bonding to a whole other level. The opening is one of the greatest in gaming history. It’s a gigantic silly spectacle that heavily leans on Michael Bay’s ARMAGEDDON, even down to weaving in AEROSMITHS’s I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. Oh, and then you become the President of the United States and motherfucking Keith David is your VP.
It is absolutely bonkers and I love it.
“More fun. Less mercy killing.”
The entire sequence is worth watching, but if you want to skip to the extravagance, jump to 9:50.
If you’re wondering why you don’t see your character’s face or hear them speak in that scene, it’s because Volition wanted to launch you into the game without having to create your character first. It is worth noting that the SAINTS ROW games are exceptional about character creation, and still are one of the few games that allow you to define practically every representation you can think of, including trans and non-binary characters.
(Also, I love how svelte the undefined character is.)
It helps that at this point, SAINTS ROW 4 felt quite polished, instead of the somewhat rickety gameplay nature of the prior games. (Again, I’ll note: I did not play the first two and I have absolutely no interest in doing so, but they did have a reputation of feeling rather slapdash.)
Unfortunately, those two are the peak of the series. There was a SAINTS ROW 4 expansion — GAT OUT OF HELL — that took the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13TH sequel approach of throwing everyone into Hell, which felt like a bridge too far but it is still entertaining and if you enjoyed SAINTS ROW 4, well, why the fuck not.
What followed was a hard reboot of the franchise with SAINTS ROW (2022), which sadly was not well-accepted by fans or critics and resulted in Volition being dissolved after 30 years of game development.
Despite Volition’s dissolution, SAINTS ROW 3 & 4 exemplifies the fucking sort of trashfire of a person I am, and I absolutely embrace that and love them for those experiences.
If you only have modern consoles, it’s pretty difficult to play SAINTS ROW 3, but SAINTS ROW 4 is readily available. If you can seek either of them out, they are worth your time.
NIGHT IN THE WOODS hits more than a little too close to home for me. This video game from developers Infinite Fall and Secret Lab may, at first blush, look like a cozy and cartoonish narrative-forward exploratory game, but the anthropomorphism and vibrant colors belie a dark tale of deterioration and dysfunction and self-examination.
You play as Mae Borowski, a twenty-year-old cat-like college dropout returning to the deteriorating mining town of Possum Springs, where her parents and high school friends still reside. There’s a darkness in her past, numerous disturbing incidents from her youth, and she’s seen as a blight that’s come back to haunt her dilapitated hometown. While her parents are supportive, they’re also slightly resentful given that Mae was ‘a miracle baby’ and that they scrimped and saved for her to be the first Borowski to head to college, Mae laid waste to that dream. They may end up losing their house due to Mae’s nature. She’s still perceived as a kid; she’s irresponsible and impulsive and selfish and she doesn’t take the world or herself seriously.
I find it hard not to identify with Mae. I, too, am a college dropout although — unlike Mae — I didn’t drop out early, but did so in my final year. Part of it was financial as I simply ran out of money, but part of it was also due to a lack of motivation. I was in film school and realized that while I love film and love setting up shots and positioning lights and breaking down scripts and analyzing and writing about film, I knew I was not fit for the hustle required to make it in the industry. So I abandoned that pursuit, got a low-level tech support job that paid well-enough for a twenty-something and I worked my way up to be a web developer, a position I’ve held for many, many years now.
Like Mae, I was what you would call a troubled youth. I acted out from a young age, which only increased with each and every birthday. There were a number of counselors, a lot of yelling, all sorts of destruction, run-ins with the law, etc. It got to the point where parents refused to allow their offspring to fraternize with me. I got involved with a lot of older folks who were very bad for me, and I was embroiled in more than a few situations that I was far too young for. Like Mae, I didn’t exactly lie to folks, but I knew how to hide matters. There were a lot of surreptitious trips to cities and places no one else knew about. While I could go on, I think you get the point.
To put it succinctly: I have never been invited to a high school reunion, and no extended family members attended our wedding.
I was a real selfish piece of shit, a black sheep, whereas Mae is a black cat.
However, like Mae, I still have supportive friends from my youth, and I still have close family, even if they still remember how fucking awful I was. Those were bridges I never managed to burn, thankfully.
NIGHT IN THE WOODS is an unflinching work and I will say: you do not have to have been a real piece of shit to identify with Mae. She’s smart, she’s quippy, and she has a very unique voice. She just hasn’t found her place yet, but it isn’t Possum Springs — despite the fact that it’s the only place that begrudgingly accepts her.
While NIGHT IN THE WOODS tries to be something more than just an interactive side-scrolling novel — there are a few mini-games, including a Zelda-ish dungeon game and a number of rhythm games that are amazing riffs on JOY DIVISION’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and BAUHAUS’ ‘Bela Legosi’s Dead’, they’re more annoying than engaging. They’re often too fiddly, even if it’s supposed to encapusate Mae blindly playing bass to songs she doesn’t know. There’s an art to controller-based rhythm games that feels lost here, and leaves one feeling frustrated. (That may be appropriate for Mae as a character, but it also resulted in a lot of swearing on my behalf.)
I initially played NIGHT IN THE WOODS shortly after it was released, six years ago. I decided to pick it up and replay it recently because I remember it as being a low-friction game with great art design, a lot of unique personalities, voices, and witty banter.
What I forgot was that it’s ultimately a tale about an existential crisis and psychotic break.
There are a number of hints and allusions to Mae’s actions and behavior before she headed off to college, but it takes a while until Mae ultimately confronts matters and, while I will not spoil them, this tale takes a number of dark turns, culminating with Mae having to reckon with her past, her skewed mind, and her fundamental disassociation with, well, life.
So, despite appearances, it’s a far more soulful work than one might expect. It’s a tale of societal expectations, of guilt, of reckoning, of family, of friends. This is not a lark; it’s a deep dive into how one can fucking completely mess up their life and still manage to survive, but feel endlessly haunted.
(iOS/PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox) I previously castigated games that want to be films and, by the standards I set in that write-up, SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE hits every note. Sure, you can navigate your character around, explore a bit from here and there, choose an emotional response to someone’s remark, but it’s first-and-foremost a linear experience to tell a single story, to imbue a specific sort of emotional hurt.
However, I did note that — if done correctly — those grievances could be forgiven, and SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE is one of those works.
SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE opens with a pilot (Floyd) and a British climatologist (Peter) in the cockpit of a plane that’s crashed in the middle of nowhere Antartica. Floyd is immobile, as one of his legs were crushed in the crash. Peter sets out to find help at one of the few neighboring research stations, following a pulsing beacon that pierces through the snow. As he goes from station to station, he intermittently recalls the events that brought him here: his initial struggles with his research, in finding a like-minded fellow scientist who helps inspire him with his work that is meant to help Britain which is in the midst of the Cold War, in falling in love with said fellow scientist, then faced with the dilemma that the school overseeing his research doesn’t want to give the fellow scientists co-credit for the research because she’s a woman.
Notably, said partner is not onboard the crashed plane.
While SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE dabbles with thriller and espionage elements — Peter’s higher-ups are constantly fretting about the Soviet menace — it’s first and foremost about two people bonding over their scientific curiosity, how they inspire each other, how they trust each other, and how institutions can cause someone to betray a loved one.
It’s an extremely potent and effective tale, bolstered by the sparse but simplistically dazzling presentation. While the game consists of flat colors and simple shapes, it all comes together in a brilliantly evocative way. It’s a series of gorgeously austere set pieces that alone make it worth playing.
As previously noted, the game does feature some emotion-based interactivity. Occasionally, when Peter has to contribute to a conversation, you get an ‘emotion prompt’ that allegedly can affect how the game progresses. (I’ll note that they do often mirror the beacon that is clearly visible in the opening of the game.)
As I’ve only played it once, I can’t attest to the efficacy of that, but I do have a hard time imagining that the game significantly plays out much differently in the end, regardless of your emotional choices and that’s fine by me! It is telling the story it wants to tell. As with most stories, it’s not about the conclusion, but the journey.
(PC/PS5/Switch/Xbox) Developer Don’t Nod are mostly known for creating decision-centric, narrative-forward works such as their LIFE IS STRANGE series, so it’s not surprising that their latest game — HARMONY: THE FALL OF REVERIE (HARMONY from here on out) — takes narrative branching and decisions even further.
However, unlike any of their prior games, this is a visual novel. You aren’t navigating a character through 3D environments. You aren’t pressing ‘X to interact’. You talk to a number of characters who inhabit the town of Atina on a slightly-not-too-distant-future cyberpunk Earth trying to overthrow an exploitative and immoral corporation, while also juggling the needs of almost-gods (called ‘Aspirations’) — the likes of which go by the names of Chaos, Bliss, Power, Glory, etc. — who live in Reverie which is another realm altogether and have helped guide humanity over the ages.
So, basically cyberpunk mythology. If you’re into that, you’re into it. However, don’t go into this game thinking “Oh, it’s Don’t Nod! More teen angst and tears!” because you will be greatly disappointed. (Or you may be elated; I don’t know your taste.)
I’ll note that, if you think this is a thematic departure for Don’t Nod, it is not. Their first game was REMEMBER ME, a 3D action/adventure cyberpunk thriller that had a number of inventive techniques and a very striking design. Sadly it bombed, however the poor sales caused them to course correct into smaller, more intimate — and less-expensive to produce — games like LIFE IS STRANGE.
To backtrack a bit: you play as Polly, the daughter of Ursula — an impetuous free-spirited poet — who has disappeared, and Polly is back to help search for her, despite the fact that there’s a lot of bad blood and estrangement between Polly and her mother. Polly then becomes embroiled in both the scheming of the Aspirations as well as the revolutionaries in Atina, while still trying to maintain some sense of herself.
It sounds dense and complicated but, as noted above, it’s boilerplate cyberpunk mythos. However, it is very pretty boilerplate cyberpunk mythos! The background scenery is immaculately imbued with details but also really sets the disparate tone of the two realms, and it’s colorful! So much sun and surf and what I would call cozy urban landscapes. (You may disagree.)
I’d also like to note that, while the character designs aren’t as bonkers as say, PARADISE KILLER, they are sharp, and I really appreciated some of the more unconventional static postures, such as Polly consistently tugging at her own shoulder as a sign of apprehension, or the exuberance of Bliss’ gestures.
I’d be remiss to neglect the musical contribution of Don’t Nod staple Lena Raine, whose indelible work on LIFE IS STRANGE still rings through my head. It’s an aural treasure.
However, a visual novel is only as good as the story it tells, and while HARMONY spends a lot of time place setting, it pays off in the fourth act. (Yes, the game does explicitly break itself down into acts and chapters, just in case you weren’t absolutely aware that it is a visual novel.) The fourth act leans hard on a lot of Don’t Nod tropes — don’t worry, I won’t detail them but, if you’re familiar with their games, you’ll know them when you read them — but also serves as a humanist breather for the game. While it takes a while to get there, that’s when the game really comes into focus, narratively and interactively.
Yes, the interactivity. This is the real marvel of HARMONY. Don’t Nod takes dialogue trees to the next level here, swapping what’s usually just a ‘Select a Response’ prompt to a full-fledged actual dialogue tree that looks like a skill tree you need to continuously manage in a FINAL FANTASY game.
I’ve only played through the game once, although I will eventually make my way back as I don’t care for the impact of some of my initial decisions. (I’ll note: while the game does provide text hints as to the repercussions of your choices, they can often either be misconstrued or downright misleading.) It’s an extremely inventive implementation, but also feels like something a programmer definitely enacted because it’s basically just one big flowchart. I’m not going to complain about it though, as it’s a breath of fresh air.
One quibble: the text size? Way too fucking small. This is a complaint I’ve had since HD gaming was embraced, and it’s only become more of an issue: too many developers design these games on dev stations inches from their face, as opposed to playing on a TV several feet away.
I understand designers who get frustrated when variable font sizes are incongruent with their finely planned layouts — I remember the websites of the late 90s — but seriously. I know I’m getting old, but allow folks to adjust the font size, as well as subtitle drop shadow intensity. I don’t want to have to squint or lean towards the screen to read some superficial lore that may or may not aid me in my journey.
More and more game developers seem to be aware of this, but apparently not Don’t Nod, which seems strange (pun intended), and — for myself — resulted in an often frustrating experience given that this is a visual novel and text is paramount.
Last but not least, I’d like to underscore how refreshing it is to see a combative mother/daughter relationship in a game, one that isn’t fully explained but one that the player intuits. (Perhaps if I’d chosen a different branch here and there, I would know more, but I don’t!) Families are complicated, and HARMONY hones in on that in ways that some might find unlikeable but I simply find to be part of trying to live one’s life the way one wants to. Is that selfish? Perhaps. Whether you feel it is or not depends on which branch you choose.
(PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox) There’s a thin line between cozy, fun puzzle games and cozy, frustrating puzzle games. Some video games look cute, swear that they’re a breezy affair, but then a few hours in you’re searching for walkthroughs and then shouting out to no one: “How the hell was I supposed to know to do that?!”
CARTO is from Taiwan developers Sunhead Games, and the central conceit is basically: “What if we had a Zelda game with no combat, and you could move and rotate the tiles that make up world maps?”
It’s a fantastic idea that they endless exploit, and it has more than a few other facets going for it: the art design is cartoonishly spectacular; it has a great score that I have accidentally fallen asleep to more than once; and the writing is an appropriate amount of whimsy and melancholy for all ages.
You play as Carto, a young girl who gets lost during a storm and is thrust onto islands where, when someone comes of age, they are forced to leave their family behind. Carto helps heal a lot of these people as she pushes forward to be reunited with her grandmother.
Like I said: whimsical, but also melancholy.
However, some of the puzzle design felt lacking to me. I rarely try to lean on walkthroughs and while I love logic and lateral thinking puzzles, I found some of the puzzles simply maddening and, when I found out the solution, I knew I would have never have solved them on my own.
(It doesn’t help that every fucking site that features walkthroughs now is just an endless array of modals, pop-ups, auto-refreshing and ads.)
That said, I do not regret my time with it, or my cheating. If you use walkthroughs when you realize you need them, it’s a very cozy and very cute experience. At first blush, you might think that it’s an adorable mobile game ported to consoles, but no — it’s far more substantive than that.
(PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox) Modern video game creators love space, especially abandoned space stations. Take TACOMA (which I recently wrote about). If you want a deeper dive? Sierra’s adventure game SPACE QUEST, which has five-and-counting sequels. SYSTEM SHOCK of course. PREY, the one specifically developed by Arkane (because I never played the predecessor).
Why is that? I think part of the reason is that you can get away with more rigid geometry with space games — organic matters require more complexity — and space outposts and vehicles are very specifically angular. Also, you rarely have to render other humanoids. Overall, the development experience for such games can be perceived as less-taxing in financial and technical ways.
That said: I’m not complaining. I love a good haunted space station tale or game. It’s perfect for feeling isolated but also slightly in touch with humanity, as well as imbuing the awe of the cosmos on you. Consequently, I was surprised to see that — via my PS+ Extra plan — I could play the Dutch game DELIVER US THE MOON.
I’ll admit, I partially wanted to play it because that is one amazing title. It unconventionally tells you everything without telling you anything.
DELIVER US THE MOON is a high-concept sci-fi justified rant against the short-sightedness of our use of Earth’s resources. In the near future, all energy resources have been depleted, but they discover a new one on the Moon, Helium-3, which they can then beam down to Earth.
Of course, it took them a good decade to build the tallest man-made structure ever, but they did and, for a while, all was good. Then it all goes terribly wrong and the Helium-3 station goes dark, effectively causing the same to happen on Earth.
After a number of years, a shuttle is cobbled together so they can send a scientist up to investigate and get the station back up and running. Matters escalate.
While DELIVER US THE MOON might look like an exploration simulator or — to use what far too many consider a pejorative — a walking simulator, it’s far more like a less-intense PORTAL. A lot of puzzles — sadly, many of them feel rather familiar to me — and even a few first-person platforming bits. They also mix in some timed action events, which are not my favorite things, as well as moment that evokes Alfonso Caruso’s GRAVITY.
I’ll note that TACOMA was released after DELIVER US THE MOON, but it’s hard to ignore the similarities: both feature an abandoned space station, both are hardly action-centric, both are first-person, and both tell their narrative mostly through found spectral, abstract holographic records. In my opinion, TACOMA pulls it off better; it has puzzles, but no platforming, no time-limited scenarios, no quick-time events, and the holographic storytelling is far more interactive and inventive. (See my write-up for more.)
Yes, both games set out to do different things, but they dovetail quite well together. If you like one, you’ll probably enjoy the other and vice versa. Either way, if you are a sucker for slightly-creepy jaunts in the isolation of space, it’s worth your time, although you might find one more frustrating than the other.
![AFTERPARTY (2019) [REDUX]](https://mediaclature.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/afterparty_art.jpg)
