Are video games getting good again?
How I spent my April
April seems to have come and gone in the blink of an eye and I barely feel like I got anything done at all. I basically only watched one new movie and finished two books through the whole month. I owe this lack of productivity to the release of two video games that have sucked up most of my free time.
Mickey 17
The only movie I managed to catch this month was Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17. After Bong won the Best Picture Oscar for Parasite, it feels like the whole film world was holding its collective breath waiting for what he would do next. What we ended up with was something very in-line with the rest of his filmography: a sci-fi sociopolitical satire that, despite some excellent moments, comes off as a bit unfocused and overstuffed.
The film follows Mickey Barnes, a man on the run from debtors, looking to escape the planet via any means possible. This leads him to accepting a job as an Expendable, a research test subject thrown into fatal situations only to have his consciousness re-uploaded into a clone of himself. These glimpses of his jobs and subsequent deaths are where the movie really shines for me, by and large due to the central performances by Robert Pattinson. Unfortunately the back half of the movie becomes less concerned with this aspect of the plot and instead focuses more on much less interesting conflicts. Mickey 17 was a movie I was really looking forward to loving but ended up only mildly enjoying.
The Queen by Nick Cutter
One of the books that I finished this month was the newest novel by horror pseudonym Nick Cutter (alter-ego of Canadian author Craig Davidson). Cutter’s work is mostly marked by gruesome body horror and elements of twisted science fiction concepts. His novels The Troop and The Deep rank among some of my favorite books, so I was excited to dig into this one.
Without getting too much into where this one goes, the story follows Margaret, a high school girl whose best friend Charity has been missing for a few weeks. The plot is set in motion when she receives a new iPhone with text messaged instructions, seemingly from Charity. From here Margaret embarks on a journey across town, unraveling the mystery of what exactly is going on with Charity.
In terms of stomach-churning gore and violence, The Queen definitely falls in step with the rest of Cutter’s work. Ultimately I don’t think it really holds together as well as something like The Troop due to a lack of interesting characters and an ending that just kind of fizzles out. The novel also starts in the middle of the climax and then back-pedals to fill out the context, which kind of deflated the last act for me. I did however enjoy the main ‘antagonist’ and his backstory involving the death of a family member that is both gruesome and surprisingly well-written. That chapter could’ve served as its own standalone story.
Nestlings by Nat Cassidy
The second book I finished this month I actually listened to as an audiobook. Nat Cassidy is an author that has been on my radar for a bit, but until now I hadn’t checked out any of his work. Although I wasn’t 100% sold on Nestlings I think there was enough there for me to seek out what else he has to offer.
Nestlings follows Ana and Reid, new parents to a soon-to-be one-year-old daughter Charlie. Ana is also newly wheelchair-bound after a birth-related injury to her spine. The story picks up with the couple winning a lottery to move into The Deptford, a prestigious apartment building in New York City that is home to many powerful and influential characters. Very soon after moving in, strange occurrences involving their daughter begin to unsettle the family as the sinister history of the building and its residents is uncovered.
I’m just going to bury the lede with this one because my lack of enjoyment pretty much boiled down to one thing: I don’t typically enjoy vampire stories and this one doesn’t really do anything new with the subgenre. The reveal is teased out for entirely too long and once all is revealed it basically makes a full sprint for the ending. A big theme with the book seems to be roles to be played in a relationship and the stress it puts on a family but I don’t think the ending really brought any meaningful conclusion to any of that.
Blue Prince
Blue Prince is an adventure/puzzle game with roguelite elements that revolves around you as the inheritor of your uncle’s estate. This is no ordinary manor, however, as each day the rooms need to be built out one-by-one in an effort to reach the final ‘Room 46’ at the back of the house. You need to collect keys to unlock doors, gems to draft unusual rooms with special quirks, and hope that everything will line up in a way that doesn’t leave you in a dead end. And you have to do all of this while managing the number of rooms you enter, for if you run out of ‘steps’ you have to sleep and start the whole process over. Think: Myst meets House of Leaves.
For everything I explain about this game there is at least 10 other hidden mechanics and puzzles to solve lurking just beneath the surface. It only took me about 20 runs to finally reach the ‘end’ of the game, but in doing so a dozen more questions and objectives revealed themselves. This game has basically been my obsession for the last two weeks as I’ve consumed pretty much everything I can about it (while trying not to completely spoil myself).
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
In between runs of Blue Prince I’ve also been checking out the new JRPG from French developer Sandfall Interactive (so does that make this an FRPG?). Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 takes place in a fantasy version of this world where the population is gradually culled by a mysterious being known as The Paintress. She has painted a giant countdown timer and, for the past 67 years, kills everyone that is that many years old. Each year an expedition consisting of those who are destined to die next are sent off to attempt to kill her and put an end to the countdown.
While the premise is intriguing and is honestly done quite well, with enough humor to signify that it doesn’t really take itself too seriously, the real reason I haven’t been able to put this down is the combat system. Expedition 33 hearkens back to the days of my childhood with turn-based combat rather than the ARPG real-time combat that has been increasingly popular lately. On top of that is the quick-time event system that underscores all attacking and defending. If you have good enough reflexes you don’t even have to take damage in this game (that I know of) and that kind of blows my mind.
To make matters even better, each character has their own mechanics that feel wholly distinct from one another. I have a legitimately hard time choosing how to build out my party because each play style is immensely appealing to me.
I’ve just now arrived at “Act II” of the game which presented me with quite the twist in plot development, so I’m more eager than ever to find out what’s going to happen next.
You are such a good writer. You should try and expand your audience!