Dec 27

Dec 27 Video Games' Unique Perspective | Winter Spectacular 2022

Perspective is fundamental to most good things. Whether it be the ability to demonstrate a clear vision in a creative endeavour or to empathise with those facing different experiences, being able to step back and understand the world and others is necessary.

Without going into everything, 2022 has been a real mixed bag personally with some nice highs and some pretty scary lows. I mean, it was good to be employed for a full year and to be appreciated for the work I was doing but between the normal pressures of a new gig, some pretty bad life events, and a mental health state as changeable as the weather the last few months, it's been tricky to catch every game this year. Strangely, my missing out on several notable releases has only been compounded by Xbox Game Pass providing me access to countless wonderful titles I probably won’t have purchased under my own steam. The games I have been able to find the time for though have certainly been excellent and showed that the industry is still full of creatives with unique ideas and fascinating perspectives.

Of course, this is a necessity. More than most mediums, perspective is invaluable in games. Whether it be the position of the camera or the position of characters or even who you play as in the context of a game’s world - perspective is vital to everything in games. Knowing the way the player interacts with the world is imperative in understanding the position these games take as artistic statements. Games, more than any other medium allow us to inhabit a different viewpoint, to portray a different perspective.

It is impossible to talk about 2022 in games without mentioning Elden Ring. FromSoftware yearned throughout to demonstrate the Lands Between as a space filled with new viewpoints. More than ever, it understood the value of that, making characters like chaos-loving Shabriri and mysterious witch Ranni logical and emotional, yet not saying the combination of both is flawed. Both are underpinned by the world's flawed logic, The Golden Order, needing to change and both desire that necessary change to the world order through their questlines immensely. Whilst this theme of unending rigid systems hurting the world isn't new to FromSoftware games, Elden Ring had a challenging breadth of solutions to chase that ask the player to actively involve themselves, and players who don’t get involved and try to blast through the game are likely to hit the Age of Fracture ending where little fundamentally changes. Pursuing these alternative questlines for endings that change the state of the world enormously continues to feel worthwhile, a feeling I rarely have for RPGs. All this from the perspective of a tarnished of no renown. More than most, Elden Ring truly felt like an exploration of how to make change happen. Change is to be pursued and fought for, not something that comes through passive apathy.

It wasn't just large games about world-ending adventures that left a mark on me by putting me in someone else’s shoes. A Memoir Blue from Annapurna showcased gaming's unique ability to force you to thoughtfully interact with new perspectives, not just absorb them for two hours, and then move on like a movie. Cloister Interactives’ four-hour tale of a superstar athlete and her relationship with her mother felt like a game willing to take the time to properly invite the player in, to submerge themselves in its deeply personal narrative without any need for dialogue. This game is a visual journey first and foremost, with serene blues and calm oceans contrasting a character weighed down by a fractured relationship. Perhaps dealing with death for the first time in a while made me fall in love with this game. The way it demonstrated the power of a reconnected relationship and treated every memory as fleeting yet precious and reminded me how necessary and blessed familial love can be. Something that I perhaps need to remember more going forward.

That theme carried over into my current love for what was already my most anticipated game of 2022, A Plague Tale: Requiem. Beyond its obvious themes of familial love, it shines when it slows down, with Amicia guiding her little brother Hugo through gorgeously realised French markets. Where perhaps I found myself surprised was in Amicia herself in these moments. Finding delight in Hugo’s innocent observations about how scary goats are for their screaming, her own moment of zen as they embark on a ship to La Cuna for the end game. All this amidst a story where she finds herself often confronting every pain imaginable, growing increasingly terrified at the Macula infection in Hugo’s blood, and finding a dangerous vengeful side. It helps here that Charlotte McBurney is tremendous in that lead role and expertly captures the full range of Amicia, but Requiem is a game that understood the weight of responsibility more than most, and how moments of joy should be treasured and crucially, are worth enjoying. That’s been difficult this year for me. Finding my joys as something that has to be moved on from, and held only as a memory. Juggling treasuring those moments while also moving on to tackle a problem or solve a fault. Things might be better if we all truly treasured our joys more openly - showcase our memories and embraced the good wholeheartedly. Hell, maybe it's even worth enjoying pointless things when the world is so dark.

Everyone please say thank you to Alex for not sending me any image with rats in them.

Even in writing this, I feel I lack perspective. After all, being employed and being able to pay rent for a roof over my head is a privileged position in 2022, all things considered. However, these games provided the reminders we, and I, need. Reminders of the others, and where they stand, and how they view the world. And as we head into a new year, I can't wait to inhabit new perspectives to remind me of the lessons I need to employ for myself.

Perhaps this is why more than most I found the industry trends this year so disconcerting. Whether it be the mass corporate consolidation, the industry still unable to meaningfully tackle crunch, or the ever-prohibitively expensive price of entry to this hobby in the midst of a cost of living crisis - the industry needs to gain some perspective. Sometimes this industry feels tunnel-visioned, and likely only getting more insular, and that is only ever a bad thing.

At the very least, games have given me some much-needed perspective to close the year. Being able to take the time to inhabit those other perspectives can be hard. However, all of those perspectives are worth pursuing. For me, it was a reminder that accomplishments and quiet beauty are to be enjoyed despite the pain we all face and that relationships are to be nurtured, even in difficult times. For you, it might be something else.

But any medium that can help you change how you view the world, is truly special.