Matthew Glenn, Ollie Luddy and Will Sawyer’s Tales From the Backlog | Winter Spectacular 2020
Hiya, Co-editor, Ollie back again!
This year has seen us all locked away in our own personal space more than usual (even for us - people that write about, make and play video games for a living). And while 2020 has for the most part been a tortuous hellscape it has had one upside for many people that play video games. We no longer have an excuse not to clean up our backlog a bit. Even as someone that tends to be of the opinion, play what you feel like when you feel like and don’t be pressured to enjoy prescribed parts of this hobby, I can’t help but admit to feeling some pressure to play the industry’s most well-regarded games. Most of that pressure probably comes from me wanting to “know my history” of games and it’s not like anyone will ever actually test me on what Super Mario Brothers Special or Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball are but, you know, you can never be too well prepared.
So with more games being delayed than released this year thanks to “ThEsE UnPrEcEdEnTeD tImEs”. Me and a couple of other startmenu contributors thought the perfect way to wrap up the year would be by running down what we can finally say we’ve gotten around to. And with the festive month that’s in it, what better way to do so than MEANINGLESS AWARDS!?
Ollie Luddy
Best Game I Should Have Played in 2019 So I Could Give One of Them GOTY That Year: Resident Evil 2 and Control
Best Classic Game You Were All Right About: Okami, Shadow of The Colossus and To The Moon
Best Game That I Can’t Imagine Having Never Played Now That I’ve Beat Them: Yakuza 0 and Nier:Automata
Game That Most Feels Like it Could Have Released This Year: Rez: Infinite
Game That I Played a lot of But Now Feel Really Conflicted Bbout: Assassin’s Creed: Origins and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
In a recent episode of The Giant Bombcast, Jeff Gerstmann mentioned that games like Cyberpunk are built on trust. He described by the end of Cyberpunk he didn’t trust the game to remember his decisions let alone see them impact the game later on. This is true of a lot of games Fallout, Disco Elysium and Mass Effect; these are all games which we have to put trust in, they are also all games where you look past their shortcomings in the name of that trust being rewarded. Fallout’s jankiness, Mass Effect’s combat and Disco’s short runtime can be set to one side because you put faith in that game to fulfil its other promises to you. The Witcher III is a game built on trust. It is a 100hr+ RPG where you have to trust that cultured menus, occasional (or frequent if you played it at launch) glitches and obtuse potion brewing will all be worth it because the game fulfils its promise of your decisions mattering in a large living world that not only is changing with the times but because of your choices.
Quit being so pretty, I’m trying to critique you.
When the Witcher III’s main quest ended I spent a moment thinking about what I thought might have happened next, only for me to discover there was an epilogue which was shockingly similar to my head-canon. This didn’t feel fanservice-y that world is still in turmoil, my Geralt is still kind of a fuck up and there are still problems aplenty to go around. But I felt like my trust had been rewarded. Until it didn’t.
You see 2020 is the year that crystalised something for me, when I put trust in a game it’s no longer just it’s gameplay and it’s systems I’m putting trust in, but everything around it. I put nights and days of my life into The Witcher III, felt a deep connection to some of its characters and, hell, I bought a Geralt statue and the game on three platforms.
I trusted it.
And in January/February when I finished with the game that trust felt rewarded. There were things about Cyberpunk that concerned me, after seeing it at Gamescom, and CD Projekt Red had already had a couple of news stories written about it’s working conditions. But honestly, the Witcher III’s post-launch support and GOG’s business practises (being more consumer-friendly than Steam and not much else) balled me over. But as the months wore on, more and more stories started to come out; bad business, gross and edgy marketing and a community that acted as a petri dish of toxicity. And it all became much, much clearer. And now in December my time with The Witcher III and even Assassin’s Creed: Origins (but less so because I only played about 20hours of that) feel tainted beyond redemption. There is a level of either ignorance or arrogance exercised by both CD Projekt and Ubisoft that cannot be overlooked in their actions this year. The trust eroded and the art of thousand’s ruined. Maybe (probably) I’m a fool for trusting faceless corporations in any way but at the end of the day, it happened. I got wrapped up in trusting the game, trusting the people making it and trusting companies that represent them and now I’m here, at years end with two games that I really enjoyed but leave me feeling bitter every time I think about them.
Co-Editor for startmenu that occasionally stop scribbling nonsense on the walls to write articles about video games. Human embodiment of Donut County’s ‘Have a Garbage Day’ loading screen. Twitter: @BasicallieOllie
Matthew Glenn
I will always maintain Tekken 7’s slow-motion hits at the end of a round is the coolest thing in any fighting game.
Best Game I’ll Never Play Again: Tekken 7
Best Game I Won’t Stop Playing: Modern Warfare 2019
Best Game That I Wish I Enjoyed: Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds is an experience that encourages exploration, invites discovery and delivers adventure without holding the player’s hand. The journey is the focus, and without an obvious beginning or setup and no explicit conclusion, it is certainly unique. A linear story, coupled with focused quests make up the backbones of most video games these days but are concepts Outer Wilds rejects. It’s an achievement that this design works at all. I respect and am engrossed with what the team at Mobius Digital was able to pull off. But unfortunately, I didn’t have much fun playing it.
Modern Warfare is basically the same game as Outer Wilds when you really think about it.
I truly wish I enjoyed Outer Wilds, but each gleaming impression I heard gave me pause. When I hear, ‘an open world focused on discovery,’ I start grasping for the guard rails. You see, structure comforts me. One of my first gaming experiences with my husband was playing Saints Row: The Third Co-Op. As he explored the world getting into gunfights, blowing up cars and finding secrets, I was trying to reach each waypoint as soon as possible. I don’t dislike the mayhem of open-world games or the wild moments when systems collide, but I enjoy doing so with a degree of purpose. While it feels like a killjoy describing it, I know that focus allows me to experience and play more games.
Lack of structure isn’t isolated to lack of discrete quest in Outer Wilds. The game’s focus on freedom permeates its story, gameplay, even the player’s understanding of mechanics and the universe. It all comes together to build on the themes of recursion, community, and finality. And the more I experienced this cohesive design, the more unapproachable it felt for someone who played games the way I do. After each cycle the conclusion felt nebulous, and I felt like I never started or finished anything.
Credit where credit is due, the music in Outer Wilds will likely make you cry.
There were also extenuating circumstances that diminished my experience. While I played this on Xbox Game Pass, which is a great service, I was playing it on my original Xbox One, which had performance issues. Flying the ship felt disorienting and mushy, which fed into the game’s homemade / campgrounds aesthetic. But while I knew the spaceship you’d find on Etsy isn’t supposed to perform with the precision of a Tie Fighter, controlling it felt unwieldy and became tedious.
I’m glad I experienced Outer Wilds. I’m happy I was able to understand the journey. But as much as I respect the craftsmanship, I can’t say I enjoyed the trip. And I honestly tried, but with each cycle of the loop, with each melancholy close to Andrew Prahlow’s beautiful score, I reached the same conclusion. This game wasn’t made for me, and that’s ok.
Matthew Glenn is an indie developer working on a new project with Digital Daydream. If he’s not playing Fire Emblem or Xcom, you can reach him on Twitter at @webnet.
Will Sawyer
It’s chilly out lads. Maybe bring a jumper.
Game That is The Sole Reason my Backlog is so Big: Destiny 2
Best Game That I Initially Dismissed as Not Being my Thing but Ended up Really Enjoying: Ori and the Blind Forest and Pikuniku
Funniest Games That Was Funny and Not Just Stupid Like Borderlands 3: Lair of the Clockwork God and Donut County
Best Time That I Had to Wait for a Console Port for so That I Could Actually Play it: Return of the Obra Dinn
Watching indie games succeed on PC while seeing console versions sidelined always sucks a little, knowing that you may never be able to give it a shot, unless you invest in a gaming rig. Thankfully, a few times this year I’ve been able to check out some wonderful indie darlings through the magic of console ports. Lair of the Clockwork God, Pikuniku, and Observation to name a few. However, one of the first games I played in 2020, and the port I had been most anticipating was Lucas Pope’s insurance detective-puzzle-future-cult-classic, Return of the Obra Dinn.
After seeing a few videos featuring the game and hearing how great it was, I knew it was something that I’d have to try, but I was immediately disheartened to see I had no way of playing it. Luckily, a year after its release, a Switch port was made available, and I eventually got around to playing it in January and was immediately sucked in.
From the premise of determining the fates of the 60 souls aboard the Obra Dinn ship, to the simple yet fascinating gameplay that has you examining frozen points in time from every conceivable angle to unravel mysteries before your eyes, Return of the Obra Dinn is an intriguing investigation puzzle game. But because of all the cerebral exercises that the game demands, I was left with lingering thoughts in the back of my head about another puzzle game that I absolutely despise.
This game was the critically acclaimed indie puzzler The Witness. A beautifully complex puzzle game for most, but a tortuous, ridiculous, and underwhelming experience for me. I got it as an Xbox Game With Gold and just wanted what I thought would be an easy 1000 Gamerscore. Despite really trying in the beginning, I finally gave in to just looking at guides to get through the game as quickly as possible. I would do no such thing with Obra Dinn, however. My brain was going to be practically bursting out of my skull once I was done determining the destinies of all those aboard the ship.
Unfortunately, I failed. Right at the last hurdle as well. With only a handful of unaccounted-for people, there were two that I just could not figure out. I pretty much replayed the entire game and still only had hunches. Although I was still happy with what I had deduced myself. Unlike The Witness, Obra Dinn was a pleasure to play, and is a truly unique experience that I’m glad I was finally able to play and kick my 2020 off with.
*record scratch*
You might be wondering how I got here. Let’s take it back.
It also made me realise how great indie games have gotten overall. I still don’t play enough of them, but from the ones I’ve played this year thanks to a wider prevalence of console ports, I’ve managed to clear many off my backlog. I’ve realised that seeing what a small team can do when creating a simple and focused experience is excellent. Obra Dinn is mechanically very simple but its genius is in its very literal environmental storytelling.
Other honourable mentions include Observation, which received an Xbox port and a Game Pass release this year, for its incredible voice acting, sound design, and music which culminated in one of the most interesting and atmospheric games I’ve played in a long time. While Lair of the Clockwork God seems to be driven by its gameplay switching from platforming to point-and-click. Even though both these elements are definitely executed well, I think the game really comes together through Dan Marshall and Ben Ward’s brilliantly hilarious writing.
Obviously, it’s not easy or always possible for every indie developer to create a version of their game for each platform. Also, I should probably just upgrade my PC at this point. However, with some of the great ports I’ve played this year, I hope that indie devs are able to continue spreading some of the industry’s best games to a wider audience.
