As RedState's resident geek, I talk a lot about movies, television, and recently, my favorite books. However, I wouldn't complete my geek requirements if I didn't talk about my favorite video games, and seeing as how a lot more of my readers are gamers than one might guess, I think discussing games that really grabbed me and wouldn't let me go is a great idea.
By the way, if you want to see what my top five books were, you can follow the link below.
Read: Five Books That I Really Loved and Think You Will, Too
Video games are the top entertainment industry in the modern age, far outpacing Hollywood by leaps and bounds. It's no wonder. Gaming is an international pastime that connects people from Wyoming to Japan, and video games aren't the simple pixelated toys of the past. Today, they can be complex, heavily artistic, and can convey a story in unique ways. I've often called video games the "great storyteller of the modern age," and you'll see why in my top five.
You can easily split games up into two columns. There are the AAA studio games that are typically unimaginative, safe, and corporate-heavy. However, the great thing about video games is that, like books, anyone can make one and release it, creating an incredible movement around it.
The games below are not just fun, but also affect me to some degree. If you're a gamer like me, you may have heard of some of these, and if not, I recommend trying them out as soon as possible. Let's dive in.
5. Return of the Obra Dinn
In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn disappeared with its captain and all 51 souls. Then, on October 14th, 1807, the ship drifted into port at Falmouth, damaged and crewless. You play as the East India Company's insurance investigator to figure out what happened to the ship and the crew.
The game was released in 2018 by a man named Lucas Pope. The graphics look like something out of an early Mac system with CRT monitors, with all monochrome pixel art that utilizes pixelated chiarascuro to create images, but this artistic style was a brilliant move by Pope because it helps to sink you into the world of the Obra Dinn. Pope transforms these graphics into something of a lo-fi realism that you can walk around in, look into details about, and piece together clues with.
As the investigator, you can use your watch to see frozen snippets of the crew when they were alive. You begin at the end, where you see the Captain defending himself from maddened crew members... or did the Captain go mad? It's unclear, but as you piece together who the crew was, how they died, and when, the story unravels, but the mystery only deepens.
This is a mystery game that doesn't just tell a fascinating story as you delve in; it has you paying attention to every detail to find clues. Every unknown entry into your log will glare at you, making you want to push deeper and discover more. The brilliance of the game isn't just in its gameplay either. Pope manages to endear characters to you despite only ever giving you snippets of dialogue and frozen moments. The tragedy of the doomed crew begins to sneak through your detachment as you learn more about them. Even the ship becomes a character in and of itself as you familiarize yourself with it and work to go deeper below decks.
To this day, Obra Dinn is one of the most creative games I have ever played, and if you're into sluething like I am, this game is a must-play.
4. Dave the Diver
It's hard to say what kind of game Dave the Diver is, because it's so many different games in one, and they're so masterfully melded together that you'll be a few hours in and you'll have had four or five different experiences.
You are Dave, a portly guy who loves the sea, loves adventure, and also happens to be the manager of a sushi bar where his best buddy, a sushi chef named Bancho, creates incredible culinary works from the freshest ingredients. During the day, you'll take Dave into the mysterious "Blue Hole," a massive underwater system teaming with sea life, ancient wonders, and bizarre events. As you explore the depths, you'll capture fish ranging from small clownfish to massive tiger sharks, bringing them all to the surface for Bancho to create amazing dishes with. At night, you'll open the sushi bar and serve customers Bancho's creations, planning out menus, managing staff, and impressing judges.
But it doesn't stop there. The Blue Hole isn't just home to sea life of every variety; it's also filthy with mythological creatures, unique events, and junk you can gather to craft things with. There's a wacky cast of loveable characters that assist Dave in his quest to be the best purveyor of sushi in the world, from eco watchers to anime-obsessed weapons experts.
The charm of Dave the Diver isn't just in its packed gameplay. The pixelated SNES-era animation is combined with smooth, integrated 3D graphics to really sell a world that is alive, mysterious, and full of wonder. As you're trying to capture a fish, a massive whale might sail by in the background, driving home just how small and vulnerable you are, but you can't help but stare.
There's so much to do in this game that you'll hardly ever run out of activities, but at the core is the sushi restaurant. Diving into the water and exploring the different underwater biomes to find fish that you can then turn into dishes to sell to consumers is more fun than it has any right to be, and roped-in players will find themselves having loads of fun searching out ingredients for recipes, which also include farming vegetables.
This game will suck you in if you're not careful, but it's ridiculously fun.
3. Hollow Knight
A kingdom in ruins, its inhabitants maddened, its survivors barely hanging on, and in the midst of the mystery is you, a nameless knight of no identity. What happened to the kingdom of Hallow Nest? Where is its king? And who are you?
Hollow Knight is probably one of the best games ever created, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this. It falls snuggly into the category of "Metroidvania" style games, where you explore a 2D space, unlock new abilities to progress further, and fight through enemies. There are a myriad of games that fall into that category, but Hollow Knight stands out above all of them.
First off, let's talk animation style. Everything in the game is hand-drawn and animated. It looks like you're playing through storybook pictures with old-ink textures, layered upon other layers to give it that old Disney-style animation flair from movies like Snow White, but if a Disney character was having a nightmare. The time and effort put into every design detail really stand out, and the landscapes themselves become parts of the story. The game's creators, Team Cherry, were perfectionists, and it shines through. You'll find yourself pausing from time to time just to look at the scenery.
Then, there's the gameplay. It's tuned to perfection. Hollow Knight is a difficult game by design, but while it can be challenging, it's not unfair. Its spiritual parent is the Dark Souls series, and it shows. Hallow Nest's atmosphere is soaked in melancholy and lost glory, but the dangers can be unforgiving. You can't go in swinging wildly. You have to time your jumps, strikes, and look for openings. You're going to die over and over again as you learn the patterns of foes and bosses, and that's part of its charm. It turns combat into a puzzle.
But my favorite thing about the game is the story. Like Miyazaki's Dark Souls, it doesn't just serve you the story; it has to be uncovered through item descriptions, lore tablets, and visual storytelling through environments and dialogue. There are dozens of channels on YouTube solely dedicated to fishing out the lore Team Cherry put into the game, and without spoiling anything, this is one of my favorite stories of all time. It's tragic, but filled with self-sacrifice, love, and hope. Just when you think you've finished the game, you haven't. There's more to uncover.
This game was such a masterpiece that its sequel, Silksong, which was released just this year and is just as brilliant, crashed Steam's servers when it released. If you're up for a real challenge in a game made with more love than any before it, then you need to buy this game and boot it up.
2. Disco Elysium
I've never seen a role-playing game as unique as this one, and sadly, you may never see its like again.
You play as a detective who was sent to the city at the edge of the world to solve a murder. Who are you? You start not knowing. You have amnesia thanks to your "disco lifestyle" of hard drugs and alcohol. This actually allows you, the player, to build the primary protagonist yourself. Are you a straight-shooting, no-nonsense cop? A goofy, loveable, carefree partier? A substance-ridden slob? Are you a capitalist or a communist? That's for you to decide.
Your job is two-fold. Discover who you are and what you were doing before the amnesia hit, and figure out who the murder victim is and how he was killed.
Disco Elysium is one of those games that is so creative that you'll spend a lot of time wondering how they thought of the concepts you encounter. Every character is uniquely voiced; the cast of characters doesn't just include townsfolk, suspects, witnesses, and fellow officers. Along with all of that are the voices in your head. The main character's brain is so fried that aspects of his personality have become entities in and of themselves that talk to both you, the player, and each other. Sometimes they're in agreement, and sometimes they're at odds, and you have to decide which emotion to go with in a certain moment. In true RPG fashion, you can improve various skills and also emotions to be more acute and insightful.
But what sets Disco Elysium apart from other games is its atmosphere. The story is what you make it, as you do real detective work to get to the bottom of the murder. You have to decide who to trust, who to accuse, and rely on your chosen skills to help you reach your best conclusion. Especially on the first playthrough, who you are will be mirrored onto the protagonist, and the game's world and its characters will shift and react to you.
The art style of the game is also incredible. While it's a top-down isometric world, the art is like a neo-expressionist oil painting. The city feels grimy and soggy yet beautiful. It's almost like a fever dream come to life.
Do not pass this game up. Due to internal issues between the developer and publisher, you may never see a game like it again.
1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
This is probably my game of the year.
This game reminds you that even though Hollywood seems to be devoid of any original thoughts or creative artistry, there are people with real passion out there who still care about good storytelling and artistic merit. The animation in the French Belle Époque style is beautiful and helps tell the story of a world where art is both life and death. The surrealism of the environment, enemies, and characters is so original that you could look at it like one would analyze a painting.
The other thing that's interesting about this game is that it's not supposed to exist, at least not one of this detail and scale. The studio that made it, Sandfall Interactive, is not a AAA studio; it's a small indie group, yet the detail from the art style to the gameplay mechanics blows AAA studios away. Even the music is so fantastic and deep that you would think it was created by a big name in the music industry, but it wasn't. It was created by a French music teacher the devs found on SoundCloud.
The story is haunting, tragic, and fantastic. You meet characters in the city of what was once Paris, but thanks to some great apocalyptic event, they are survivors who, every year, dwindle more and more in number. The reason is a mysterious entity known as "The Paintress," a towering entity so large that she can be seen from the shores of the city from far away. Every year, she rises and paints a number on a rocky spire, and whoever is the same age as the number dies and vanishes in a storm of rose petals. During the events of the game, the number 33 is reached, and characters are forced to say goodbye to loved ones, and children watch as their parents vanish, leaving them to the care of others.
But the people aren't resigning themselves to their fate. Every year, an expedition leaves the city and ventures into the wilds to explore and discover to stop the Paintress once and for all. You take a cast of fascinating characters on a desperate journey of survival, picking up the pieces and trails of previous expeditions, and unraveling the mystery of the Paintress and the world these characters inhabit.
This game isn't just a superb example of passion and aristry in action; it's an emotional roller coaster filled with tragedy, action, and a touch of humor. As you play the game and dig deeper into the mystery, you'll find a plot centered around love, emotional connection, and regret. Gameplay mechanics tie into personalities and become a puzzle in and of themselves.
I think it's easy to say that Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 has set the new standard for RPGs.
