Xbox

LIFE IS STRANGE: DOUBLE EXPOSURE [First Playthrough] (2024)

February 21, 2025

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This is the first of several LIFE IS STRANGE: DOUBLE EXPOSURE pieces and is an impressions piece on my first play-through and not meant as an in-depth, critical look at the game. This post and play-through reflects my decision from the first LIFE IS STRANGE that Chloe and Max left Arcadia Bay together. A later post will report back regarding a different direction.

Also: it is worth noting that DOUBLE EXPOSURE is a Deck Nine game, a company that is no stranger to the LIFE IS STRANGE series. However, Deck Nine has previously employed sexual aggressors and racists and may still. That they’ve succeeded in creating nuanced, diverse and accepting games despite the efforts of some of their staff is a testament to those who believe in the spirit of the first LIFE IS STRANGE.

I’ve played and replayed every LIFE IS STRANGE game, read all of the comics as well as the WAVELENGTHS follow-up novel STEPH’S STORY. And I wrote about all of them, some more than a few times because it’s a series that means that much to me.

So you’d think I’d have more interest in the latest LIFE IS STRANGE installment, a direct follow-up to the game that kicked it all off, that I’d be elated to revisit a world with Chloe and Max, albeit post-Arcadia Bay.

Yes, you’d certainly think that. At first, I was.

Then I heard that Chloe wouldn’t be in it. That it was about the further adventures of one Max Caulfield.

Here’s the thing: I don’t really care about Max Caulfield.

My favorite playable LIFE IS STRANGE characters are:

  1. Chloe Price (BEFORE THE STORM)
  2. Steph Gingrich (WAVELENGTHS)
  3. Alex Chen (TRUE COLORS)
  4. Max Caulfield (LIFE IS STRANGE)
  5. Chris Eriksen (THE AWESOME ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN SPIRIT)
  6. Sean Diaz (LIFE IS STRANGE 2)

(Sorry Sean!)

Max Caulfield is a bookworm, a shutterbug, a wallflower, and — as of the first LIFE IS STRANGE — she hasn’t had much in the way of life experiences. Her only other character traits are sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong and handing out unhelpful idealistic advice.

She’s someone fun to talk to in a used book store, but you wouldn’t walk out of that shop thinking that you’d met a complex, textured person.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE promised a new Max Caulfield for a new LIFE IS STRANGE adventure and, it does deliver on that. This Max no longer the doe-like youth standing in the shadow of Chloe. Despite her time rewind powers having atrophied, she’s more confident and self-assured and worldly. In my play-through, she and Chloe cut ties halfway through their cross-country roadtrip in Chicago and, following that schism, Max floated around as an acclaimed photojournalist before. Now she’s in her 20s and is an artist-in-residence at Caledon University, a small liberal arts school in Lakeport, Vermont.1

Unfortunately, despite being a respected artist, despite having lived and experienced so much — in Arcadia Bay and on the road — Max Caulfield is still pretty fucking boring.

We meet up with Max as she’s finally settling in at Caledon; she’s been there long enough to establish new friendships and know students names, but is still considered the new kid at school. Her two closest academic friends are poet and daughter of the dean Safi and astrophysicist Moses.

One night Safi and Moses and Max are having a few celebratory drinks to champion recent accomplishments. Safi gets upset by a call and takes off. Later that night, Max finds her shot dead. Max being the meddlesome kid adult she is, attempts to rewind time to prevent the murder and, instead, happens to open a portal to an alternate timeline where Safi is still alive, leading her to use both timelines to find the killer.

As LIFE IS STRANGE setups go, this one is bog standard, and shares a lot in common with Deck Nine’s LIFE IS STRANGE: TRUE COLORS: small, lush New England town, tightly-knit liberal community, death of a well-known citizen, and a protagonist with superpowers that aid in rooting out the murder mystery.

A protagonist who is an acclaimed artist with superpowers and is still pretty fucking boring.

Yes, Max has grown up. Her voice is no longer whisper thin, and she speaks in declarative statements instead of wishy-washy musings. She’s also queer now! (While I didn’t play her that way in the first LIFE IS STRANGE, yeah, a lot can change over the years!) She’s still frustratingly dull. Her taste in art and music non-offensive. She rarely has a bad thought towards anyone, even if they’re trying to -kill her-. She barely has any connections to anyone unless they’re right in front of her.

Max Caulfield in her 20s is still someone who, if you met in a bookstore or art gallery, you’d forget about the moment you walked away. Apart from her new split timeline power, very little has changed about her. That’s a problem, especially when you’re dealing with a series that has characters like the bitter and disillusioned Chloe, or Steph dealing with her queer crossroads, or Alex Chen’s dissonance juggling the good and bad in people as she’s thrust into independence after a life in foster homes.

One could make the argument that Max’s detachment and lack of decisiveness are due to enduring the weight of the events at Arcadia Bay but to that I say: “Nope, she’s always been that way.”

DOUBLE EXPOSURE could have course-corrected that, as it feels like a re-evaluation and response to the first game. Matters here are not as morally cut-and-dry, and there’s more nuance towards character motivations here in the first half of the game. It’s not all youthful indiscretions low-stakes teen criminal behavior. It’s an adult(-ish) world of academia, and motives here are far more complex.

At least, they are until you hit the second half of the game.

LIFE IS STRANGE has always struggled with its reliance on its super-powered younger protagonists, enough so that half of the games feature protagonists without powers. Unfortunately, DOUBLE EXPOSURE veers off into X-MEN-esque superhero antics. It pivots from allowing the super-human powers to enrich and deepen the narrative and characters. Instead of watching the emotional turmoil unfold by Max rewriting Chloe’s timeline in the first LIFE IS STRANGE, DOUBLE EXPOSURE turns one character into a Magneto-esque villain and force Max to either follow along or to maximize her powers to prevent something only she can prevent.

Between the superpowers and the academic politics, DOUBLE EXPOSURE is all about wielding power and influence and control. While that’s all well-and-good for say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that’s not what draws folks to the LIFE IS STRANGE games; we want out small-scale stories writ large. We want our nuanced characters and pathos and normal struggles framed against the chaos of the rest of the world. That’s entirely what the first LIFE IS STRANGE was built around: it was about Max and Chloe, their friendship and their estrangement, a world that would tear itself apart because Chloe’s continued existence was deemed that damaging, and one person who could rewind to save Chloe from her ordained fate.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE lacks that emotional core; it substitutes fleshing out Max’s personality with broader powers, more guilt, and more responsibility. If there’s any character here that shines, it’s because Max’s best friend Safi has secrets, Safi can be dangerous, Safi has objectives and goals and wants and needs.

In other words? She has a lot of what Max lacks, and what a follow-up to the first LIFE IS STRANGE needed.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE ends with the laughable declaration that “MAX CAULFIELD WILL RETURN” that, at first blush, reads almost as a threat. The majority of fans that wanted Max to return, wanted her to return with Chloe. I would have been happy if we had a more interesting Max, but on the other hand? They could have just made this game around an entirely new character, like they’ve done in the past.

However, this is meant as more an impressions piece, an examination of why — fundamentally — DOUBLE EXPOSURE was unsatisfying for me as a lifelong LIFE IS STRANGE fan. I didn’t get to touch on what Chloe is up to and how Max is dealing with it; Max’s adoption of digital versus analog; the soundtrack; the inverted scope of the game when compared to the prior major LIFE IS STRANGE entries; what exactly is canon in the LiS universe now, or even how Max Caulfield reminds me of GILMORE GIRLS’s Rory Gilmore.

And I do want to impress that, if you can let go of the franchise’s history, of all of that baggage, I would have enjoyed this game. Granted, I still would have laughed when I saw the closing placard, but I would recommend it to others. And I will be replaying it, and my opinion of it — and adult Max — may change! After all… “MEDIACLATURE’S LIFE IS STRANGE POSTS WILL RETURN”

  1. I’ve previously penned that the LIFE IS STRANGE series often reminds me of my life growing up in Vermont, and it’s not just because both rural areas of the northeast and northwest United States have similar topography and foliage. Quite a bit of LIFE IS STRANGE is influenced by Shirley Jackson, who is best known for penning THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL as well as other darkly weird tales. Jackson spent the bulk of her life in Bennington, Vermont right by the esteemed Bennington College and its unconventional and progressive teaching styles. Jackson’s novel WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE features the Blackwell family, whereas LIFE IS STRANGE’s school is named Blackwell Academy, after the rich Arcadian Bay Blackwell real estate developers. And now, here we are, in Vermont, in a school that could easily double for Bennington College. ↩︎

STRAY GODS (2023)

May 13, 2024

Just to note…

I’ve only played STRAY GODS once, so I cannot discern between any differences between lyrics and/or outcomes apart from the linked videos that I did not capture.

The STRAY GODS story I experienced is solely the one I played, so it may not feature the same songs, inflections, intonations, or lyrics that you may have or might experience.

Due to timing and circumstance, I wasn’t able to play STRAY GODS the moment it was released, which is a shame because anything that has the words ‘The Roleplaying Musical’ in its title is catnip to me, and to have to punt on it was trying.

That said, it was worth the wait.

I do want to get one thing out of the way beforehand though: by ‘roleplaying’ they literally mean ‘roleplaying’. This is not an RPG. This is an interactive novel. You are ‘roleplaying’ as the title character, a wayward young adult. The only interactions are dialogue trees via a very BioWare-ish interface.

(I will note: this game was willed into existence by the lead writer of DRAGON AGE so … none of the above should be terribly shocking news.)

Personally? I am absolutely fine with that severe amount of restraint, especially since I played it while suffering from a broken tailbone because games and narratives distract from obtrusive pain and angling dialogue trees was about the best I could do at the time. (Don’t ask, and no it wasn’t because of any Chicago snow or ice.)

Alas, I’m getting ahead of myself.

STRAY GODS takes Greek gods and situates them in a quasi-modern Earth. While the bodies said gods inhabit are ephemeral, they find new hosts and live on, partially thanks to the belief of those around them, as well as the dark shadow cast by their prior history.

If you’re a comic book and/or gaming nerd, it evokes a lot of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s THE WICKED + THE DIVINE which essentially posits mythological gods as rock stars in the modern world who inhabit mortals for their own purposes and, yes, spectacle and hedonism.

It also reminds me somewhat of Don’t Nod’s HARMONY: THE FALL OF REVERIE with its emphasis on mythological stories and tone and high stakes.

To riff on a slightly more popular work, STRAY GODS swaps the fairy tales of DC/Telltale’s FABLES’ inspired THE WOLF AMONG US in both the thick inkworks and comic book visual stylization which — oddly reminds me of AEON FLUX — as well as noir-infused conflict. However, there are no quick-time events; just dialogue. Reams of dialogue with striking shot-reverse-shots of static images.

If you’re here to play because you’re hoping to quell some sort of power fixation, you will be sadly disappointed, because here? Here, you are the mortal, and — not unlike one of many TWILIGHT ZONE episodes — it’s your life at stake, and only you can wriggle out of the noose.

All of the above may sound like I’m damning STRAY GODS with faint praise, but I am not. STRAY GODS is a gaming anomaly. It’s rare that games like these, games that are all about heightened emotions and all emotive and intensely personal conflicts, those finding their way in the world. I am endlessly thankful that it exists and? I am looking forward to replaying it and possibly taking a different tact to it and to see where that takes me.

The voice casting here is pitch-perfect. The majority of the cast are well-known for TV/video game voice work — Laura Bailey as Grace who has been foisted upon her the role of Calliope, Troy Baker as Apollo, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Persephone, Abubakar Salim as Eros — Salim voiced Bayek in my favorite Assassin’s Creed game — but also features FOR ALL MANKIND’s multi-faceted Janina Gavankar as Grace’s best friend Frankie! Felicia Day! STAR TREK: DISCOVERY’s Anthony Rapp as Orpheus! (Apologies if I left out anyone’s favorites — there’s a wealth of talent here.)

This is a work all about bombast and elation and care and worry and wrung hands and fear for the future and … well, perfectly attuned to all of the necessities that form the best musicals. (I will note? They undersell that while this is a musical? It’s first-and-foremost a rock opera.)

You can write off the static nature of the visuals which are essentially merged versions of sequential visual storytelling as economical, but they’re also emblematic of emotional moments that are frozen in time. Moments where you feel your life has changed; pivot points.

Granted, not everyone can appreciate that — obviously, those who are more inclined towards theatrics and are more emotionally grandiose will glean more from this than others — so take this recommendation with a pinch of salt.

As is the way with gods and fates, this has all happened before and it’ll all happen again. The end is pre-ordained, and everyone knows it, but you have to jump through the hoops to get there.

Are the songs in the vein of modern Broadway staples? Yes, yes, they are, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a ever-growing formula for a reason, folks.

‘Challenging a Queen’:

However, these sort of tales? Even if my engagement is simply pointing my directional stick at a quip or murmur or outburst and then hear the astounding belting of a grand duet? The journey is worth the effort.

If there was any doubt that this was a saccharine sweet musical, they put a pin in it at the end — at least with my tale — when Grace reunites with Calliope.

…and yes, I did try to romance Persephone but it didn’t quite work out. (For what it’s worth? I wrangled the second scene. So close, but yet so far.)

Addendum

Just one day before this post was scheduled to be published, it was announced that Summertime Studios will be releasing STRAY DOGS: ORPHEUS as DLC on June 27th! (Although, boo, as a console player I have to wait for some undefined time to play it.) Can’t wait to delve back into this world!

HITCHHIKER (2021)

May 3, 2024

Another Annapurna work! Similarly to OPEN ROADS, it takes place almost exclusively in cars which — yes, fitting for a game named HITCHHIKER.

However! This game? It’s a slow burn that becomes surreal as fuck. It’s one of the few games that feels justifiably and smartly inspired by TWIN PEAKS in that there’s a hell of a lot of symbolism, a shitton of folks talking in code, and a protagonist who has no idea what the fuck is going on and is literally just along for the ride. Most interactive TWIN PEAKS knockoffs? Not great! I’m looking at you, DEADLY PREMONITION. Not the case with HITCHHIKER.

HITCHHIKER is broken up into five chapters, five different drivers, and the bulk of the game simply consists of listening to them and looking around at items in the car and trying to piece together the life you can’t remember, as well as your meaning to exist.

I realize that sounds pretentious, but it’s engrossing enough that I had no problem running with it. Or riding shotgun, so to speak.

That’s it. That’s the game. Like OPEN ROADS, it’s primarily an interactive novel, but it’s so engrossing and weird and enthralling and I am absolutely here for it.

The voice acting is absolutely on-point. Visually, it’s fittingly stylized and off-kilter and far more colorful than you might think for the subject material. If I have one complaint it’s the extremely abrupt ending which? I’ll note? Not something I usually complain about.

It also features an abundance of crows, which I can never get enough of.

If you are into interactive narratives/novels, I can’t recommend it enough. If you aren’t? Steer clear. (No pun intended.)

OPEN ROADS (2024)

April 29, 2024

Annapurna has been one of the boosters of interactive novels over the past few years, publishing games such as SOUTH OF THE CIRCLE, TELLING LIES and WHAT REMAINS OF EDITH FINCH, just to list a few. The recently released OPEN ROADS is yet another quality narrative exploration addition to their library, one that focuses on the dynamics of mothers and daughters via a road trip to discover answers to family history questions.

OPEN ROADS has been in development for far longer than anyone expected. It was first revealed in 2020 at The Game Awards as as a project from GONE HOME development studio Fullbright, founded by Steve Gaynor who oversaw MINERVA’S DEN, DLC for the art deco intellectualism of BIOSHOCK.

If you keep up with gaming news, you may be aware that Fullbright as a development studio has essentially folded after practically everyone quit during the production of OPEN ROADS due to Gaynor’s toxic behavior.

Gaynor stepped down as CEO, but still, eventually everyone left except himself, and Annapurna allowed those that formed Open Roads Team to separately work on OPEN ROADS.

Sadly, this is a recurring theme within the gaming industry. Just a handful of days before penning this post, it was revealed that the narrative head and, later, CCO of Deck Nine — who developed of some of my favorite LIFE IS STRANGE games, games that mean so much to queer individuals — much like Fullbright’s GONE HOME — the creative environment was absolutely toxic.

My apologies for the severe digression. It’s awful that the working environment behind so many emotionally sensitive games that resonate for marginalized folks are still helmed by toxic assholes who take advantage of their position of power, but I feel the context is necessary.

Anyway! OPEN ROAD is a raw and unvarnished exploration of lives lived, but buried and hidden. It is definitely more of an interactive novel than a proper game — there are no fail conditions, there’s no risk; it’s a small interactive tale of a mother and daughter exploring their past and roots, mostly via car trips and the occasional abandoned abode. It’s simple, yes, but extremely effective if you’re into these sort of interpersonal stories that explore the nature of human behavior and emotions and coping and willful ignorance.

If there’s one facet I’d complain about, it’s that the character designs for the mother — Opal — and the daughter — Tess — is severely at odds with the 3D realism of the background surroundings. It’s especially jarring when they’re driving in the car as the environments are startling realistic, whereas the characters are very expressionistic. I will note that the design for the characters is very winsome and expressive, but the the game does have an undeniable visual dissonance.

I’m sure that approach was done by intent, and perhaps meant to be unnerving and evoke how fantastical this trip is — how it’s dreamlike — but from an aesthetic perspective? It did unmoor me.

It’s a wonder that this game was released to the world, despite everything. It’s so heartfelt and feels so personal and I can’t help but love and revel in it. It’s perfect for a Sunday afternoon play, especially if you aren’t afraid to shed a few tears.

THIRSTY SUITORS (2023)

April 22, 2024

“BATTLE YOUR EXES

DISAPPOINT YOUR PARENTS

FIND YOURSELF”

Such is the mantra of THIRSTY SUITORS.

It is so, so, so very tempting to describe THIRSTY SUITORS as the queer SCOTT PILGRIM everyone should have had, even though the former is a videogame and I’m referring to the SCOTT PILGRIM graphic novels. However? No, no, no, it is a very different beast.

THIRSTY SUITORS features Jaja. Jaja is a first-generation American-India transplant. She also goes through romances like toilet paper, leaving emotional turmoil in her wake.

After receiving her comeuppance via a garbage girlfriend miles away, she cycles back home to face the sexy daemons of her past.

To briefly note: I’m a white male (he/they) New Englander so I haven’t dealt with the very specific sort of parental passive-aggressive and negging portrayed here by a first-generation American-Indian woman, but I am married to a Greek woman so I’ve definitely witnessed something similar first-hand.

I will fully admit that I bought THIRSTY SUITORS because it looked like a spiritual sequel to one of my favorite games: JET SET/GRIND RADIO, all rollerblades and culture-jamming. Hell, when I was running club nights, we’d routinely use those JET SET RADIO gaming avatars to promote ourselves. SEGA was way ahead of the curve with that game. (That’s a story for another time.)

While THIRSTY SUITORS delivered on the JGR facet in that it was fun as hell — you can effortlessly skate around your neighborhood and the surrounding areas without facing much in the way of penalties — and it features the same exuberance and a similarly boppy soundtrack.

However, while it does incorporate the JGR mechanics to get around, THIRSTY SUITORS is first-and-foremost about one fuckup of a human being who has made so many bad decisions as a teen — someone who was innately alluring to others — someone who used people close to them like toilet paper, and is reckoning with that and trying to put matters, if not right, then not wrong.

Despite the name, despite what it says on its tin, while everyone here is horny as fuck, it’s about facing the night after as opposed to focusing on hookups.

This game is a fucking exhaustive emotional rollercoaster.

Like the best works, it’s framed as a daily structure. (Hey, don’t believe me? Watch DEADWOOD, which is strictly bound by sunrise and sunset.)

While the game mechanics are thrilling, really, the game is more about the narrative, and what a story. THIRSTY SUITORS is a breath of fresh air, detailing an immigrant story and 20-something angst. While playing it, I was totally gobsmacked that it existed because? Tales like these simply don’t exist in the interactive space, much less look as gorgeous and be so aurally hooky as this.

One of the things I absolutely love, love, love about this game is how physical Jala is. Jala isn’t the sort of person to just walk into a scene; they bounce into the action. Jala loves to flip around, and while part of it is a call to attention, it’s also just innately them. That sort of physical effusiveness is, oddly, no more on display than when Jala is cooking.

The first step to cooking is always: wash your fucking hands. This is the first game I’ve ever seen to prioritize it. (Also? If that’s not your first step in cooking? Uh, fucking learn it! Repeatedly wash your hands, you filthmongers!)

But I digress. Jala? Jala flips herself over and performs a number of acrobatics — and you have to perform a few quicktime events — to do so.

It’s a small note, but upon washing her hands? She flips on back to the stovetop! Everything is sliced and diced and served with over-exercised verve and I fucking love it!

As someone similar, as someone who can’t help but bop around in the kitchen, who can’t stand still, who is a weird ball of energy that always wants to be in motion, I couldn’t help but love her grace.

THIRSTY SUITORS is a game I wish continued forever. I loved every moment of it. (That said, I did skip every optional skating opportunity because I’m not in the mood for twitch-based gaming at the moment!) Did it have a satisfying conclusion? Most certainly. I still want more. I want a 7-UP of this game. 14-UP. 21-UP! (If you aren’t familiar with the reference? There’s an array of documentaries that follow folks every seven years of their lives. Highly recommended!)

I will note that, yes, I was disappointed that I couldn’t really romance anyone, but that’s not the point of the game or its narrative. Despite the flirting options, there’s really no wooing; it’s all about self-examination and self-scrutiny.

There aren’t many games that I feel the need to replay, but this game has been calling to me to revisit. It’s that good, and I feel like so much effort and thought and feeling went into it, but also seems like it was overlooked and under-appreciated. Please rectify that.

TINY TINA’S WONDERLAND (2022)

February 12, 2024

Every once in a while I suffer from a bout of ennui and I just want to play something mindless and shooty but without too much gore or, well, trauma. I just want to tune out, to hear and have a consistent hum in my hands, to let the vibration of the controller and the world wash over me.

DESTINY used to fill that void for me until I realized? DESTINY? Kinda an asshole of a game. Sheer. Fucking. Exploitation. It’s all about the dopamine and nope, not going back to that spigot.

Instead, I trawled the deep dive of PS+ Extra and found TINY TINA’S WONDERLAND.

I admit: I’ve never been a huge BORDERLANDS fan, which is perhaps what developers Gearbox are best known for. (Well, that and a kinda botched HALO PC port.) I did enjoy the Telltale series TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS, but the original FPS games felt too thin to me.

TINY TINA’S WONDERLANDS though? It hit the sweet spot for me.

I guess it’s BORDERLANDs adjacent? Aesthetically, sure? It’s all cel-shaded and broad strokes and pew-pew-pew!

What I love most about it though? It’s how it fucking nails the cavalier nature of being a dungeon master.

TINY TINA’S WONDERLAND (TINA from here-on-out) is ostensibly a meta-game, where the namesake Tina is forcing her friends to play a tabletop role-playing game and she’s having the time of her life while her friends? Well, Andy Samberg and Wanda Sykes are simply entertaining her.

(Yeah, I have no fucking clue as to how they wrangled such awesome voice actors for this game, but I’m not complaining! Oh, and Will Arnett is voicing the villain, as he does. Oh, and did I mention that Ashly Burch is the voice of Tina? As in Ashly Burch, the fucking voice of one of my favorite characters ever: Chloe in LIFE IS STRANGE? …yeah.)

Tina’s game goes way, way off the rails from the get-go, and I love to see it because while I’ve been playing tabletop role-playing games since my teens?

We have never, ever taken them seriously, despite the dungeon master’s most valiant attempts.

Every quest devolved into smiles and giggles and lunacy, and that same spirit is present in TINA because this game is wild and unapologetic and unhinged and sure, puerile at times, but it’s so much fun!

All of that said? Why. The. Fuck. Can Gearbox not ship the buggiest games ever?

It says a lot that I’m willing to play this game — this lampooning of Bethesda-ish role-playing games like SKYRIM — despite the fact that it’s buggier than Bethesda’s games, which are notoriously known for being buggy as shit!

Unlike any other game, I can’t go half an hour without it crashing on me. Also? It fucking overheats my PS5 to the point where the fucking console hard-crashes.

I literally have to unplug it to start it back up again.

Also? I’m playing it via the SSD! It should not be overheating!!

That is ridiculous. But I keep unplugging it and starting it back up again because that’s how much fun this game is.

(For what it’s worth, going completely offline — as in turning all online activity off via the PS5 settings — seemed to mitigate the issues, but that should not be the solution!)

I will note: the game does suffer from the normal bloat that I quickly realized BORDERLANDS does: there’s too much fucking loot. Micromanaging scores and prices and stats? It’s goddamn tiring! It’s overwhelming!

However, it’s a small price to pay for what is outlandish cotton candy-ish fun. It’s silly. It knows what it’s doing, and it knows how to make me laugh — even at some of the laziest jokes — and sometimes? Sometimes that’s all I need.

(I’ll note that I played this single-player, and I know that’s not in the spirit of the co-op friendliness of BORDERLANDS, but I’m not much of a co-op person!)

ASSASSIN’S CREED: MIRAGE (2023)

January 8, 2024

15 years of playing as assassins. We’re at the point where Ubisoft’s ASSASSIN’S CREED franchise is old enough that folks who grew up with the series are now the ones designing the series. Perhaps that’s why ASSASSIN’S CREED: MIRAGE (MIRAGE going forth) is such a throwback to the first game.

MIRAGE is more concerned with recreating the past, of hiding in shadows, of killing silently instead of taking on hordes of enemies to the tune of bonus points and combos. In other words: it’s cribbing from ASSASSIN’S CREED 1.

MIRAGE has no interest in the convoluted absurdity of modern technology/game developer company Abstergo. There’s no mention of this being a virtual reality recreation, throwing someone in current times to relive the past. The Abstergo Animus tech never quite appears — except in one clever moment near the end — and you’re simply roaming around Baghdad around the time of the Islamic Golden Age. Yes, The Order — the nefarious group of corrupt individuals whose terrible deeds have persisted throughout the entire series — still exists, as obviously the Hidden Ones (basically: the Assassins), however this is a far more grounded work.

The story is mostly boilerplate, at least until it isn’t: Basim and his bestie Nehal are destitute thieves until Basim finds a higher calling in the Hidden Ones. Basim is haunted in his dreams by a daunting and dark djinni, and hopes that by joining the Hidden Ones he’ll be rid of it. Matters escalate, wildly by the end, tying into some very mythic and outlandish events in the prior game, ASSASSIN’S CREED: VALHALLA.

All of that said, the story is rather banal, especially the yawn-worthy high-concept swings at the end. The gameplay and scenery is paramount here, all sand and stone and beams and air. It’s rather gorgeous, even if it’s not quite what one would call a technical marvel.

However, my favorite part here is the history the game imparts. For a number of years, the ASSASSIN’S CREED franchise has included historic details into their games, even adding educational free modes for schools. Previously, most of them felt facile, even insultingly irreverent. (One game featured a far-too-jovial character who would dictate the history of the era to you, and it felt like a 12-year-old telling you about a book they read that they didn’t quite comprehend.)

That’s not the case with MIRAGE. MIRAGE doesn’t quite put learning as a top priority but they do foreground it. It feels as if you’re reading a history book instead of text in a murder simulation. It quickly became my favorite facet of the game because I’m a big nerd. I do not know much about Baghdad or Middle Eastern history, much less the Islamic Golden Age but I found all of it fascinating and I quickly sought out every historical point I could. That’s what the ASSASSIN’S CREED games excel at: showcasing history, the lands, the environments and, especially, the architecture.

MIRAGE doesn’t come close to the emotionally evocative storied characters of my favorite ASSASSIN’S CREED game, ASSASSIN’S CREED: ORIGINS, but it does feel substantial even if it’s far smaller-scale and less boisterous and less action-oriented than the recent games.

LAKE: SEASON’S GREETING (2023)

December 20, 2023

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.

AFTERPARTY (2019) [REDUX]

October 12, 2023

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.

AFTERPARTY (2019)

SAINTS ROW 3 / SAINTS ROW 4 (2011 / 2013)

September 26, 2023

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.