Oh hi, it’s been a while! Hope you are all doing great. Following an extended break I am going to sporadically jump back into some writing. Been very busy with work and shockingly actually playing some games! And what a time to be playing new stuff. Usually I would write an intro for the year in January saying it could be the best year ever for new releases. Every time I have written this it never turns out that way and so the one year I don't do this we are hit with a string of incredible releases.
It’s only April and already we have some of the best games we’ve had in a long while. Last year saw some peaks in Forza Horizon and Halo Infinite but Battlefield 2044, Pokémon Pearl and Diamond remakes and even Call of Duty Vanguard disappointing people to some degree. Juxtapose time of prime game sales in the run up to Christmas and it's no comparison. In a usually quiet period of the year we have had a run of incredible games one after another. I have been playing most of them and here are a few thoughts.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus - 28th January
As an avid Pokémon fan I did not actually have that high hopes for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, so much so that I didn’t even have it on order until the day before release. I put over 400 hours into Shield and enjoyed my time though with Brilliant Diamond I bounced off hard. I mean I completed the game but really felt I was going through the motions to just beat the Elite Four. Substandard visuals didn’t help, I’m not a huge Chibi art fan but I was getting a bit tired of the old formula and I don't think I was alone feeling this way.
Step forward Legends Arceus, an absolute breath of fresh air. Gone are the gyms and elite four, far fewer trainer battles. Set 500 years in the past you are from the future and tasked with researching the Pokémon of the Hisui region (aka Sinnoh). Researching means catching and fighting with the local mons multiple times. There’s now crafting which is used to make everything including Poke balls which can be fired at will. With my spam fire scattergun approach I've basically turned this game into a stealth third person shooter!
It’s not a fully open world game but each area you travel to is damn big with lots to explore. I was genuinely excited each time I encountered a new Pokémon, even if it was a crappy Pidove. The feedback loop is probably the best part of the game, you go in to catch stuff and make money, level up and then go back in again with more balls and better knowledge. It’s obviously not the best looking, Game Freak still struggles with making beautiful worlds but the character and Pokémon models are really good. You will lose hours in this title, it’s so much fun and damn addictive. And that's not even mentioning how good the shiny odds are! If you want something different from this series I can highly recommend Legends Arceus.
Horizon Forbidden West - 18th February
Three weeks later and we finally got the delayed Horizon Forbidden West. The follow up to the rather excellent Horizon Zero Dawn, you play as Aloy, exploring a beautiful world filled with robot dinosaurs trying to figure out what happened to the old world. This game moves West (hence the title) and continues on the journey right after Zero Dawn. The first game I sank 40 hours into within a week last year but for the first 10 hours I was really not feeling this sequel. It’s probably the best looking game I’ve ever played but even with a years gap between the two I couldn't get past thinking it was the same game.
It’s not but it did suffer for me with sequel syndrome. Obviously most of the mechanics carry over but it didn't initially feel fresh enough. In fact, being so underpowered and needing to start from scratch was rubbish. I get they need to do this due to otherwise the game would be too easy but I do really worry about the same feeling for God of War Ragnarök and Breath of the Wild 2. Eventually finding a decent weapon and some old strats the game became much more enjoyable once I could start taking down some of the heftier robots.
The story is not a scratch on the first, in fact it goes completely off the rails but in terms of exploration, the addition of swimming under water and glider means exploration and hunting down dinosaur parts is still a lot of fun. I wandered off on so many side quests due to it being so fun. An easy sell if you liked the first game, just a great world to be in.
Elden Ring - 25th February
Of course I couldn't talk about incredible games this year without mentioning Elden Ring. Probably not only going to be game of the year but game of the decade for a lot of people. I’ve done about 20 hours across a few FromSoftware games so not incredibly experienced or obsessed. Having already raced past that in Elden Ring I can attest it's so bloody good. Yes it’s full of difficult horrible monsters, there’s barely any guidance and you are going to die a lot. It’s the same formula from Dark Souls and yet being set in an open world this is the most accessible Souls game ever. I am merely re-treading what a million people have already said but it's all true!
It’s requires you to be very patient and find your own style but with magic being very viable pretty much anyone can dive in and enjoy this title. The map is full of sites of Grace to fast travel to and save, you unlock a big old horse with a double jump which basically gives you the means to run away from pretty much all enemies relatively unscathed. For the most part you can just fuck off and do your own thing, the linear progression is there but you can choose when you want to go and do it.
It really reminds me of Skyrim. Sure it doesn't have the myriad of gameplay options that make Skyrim so damn good but the ability to go in and do your own thing and go wherever the hell you please is exactly the same. I can see myself coming back to Elden Ring again and again with new ideas of playthroughs and load outs I want to try. Very few games have managed to pull this off and for me this is the modern Skyrim. 12 million sales and counting can't be wrong!
Triangle Strategy - 4th March
How’s this for a shocking game I have actually clicked with, Triangle Strategy? A strategy JRPG telling the war of three nations fighting over Salt… Made with the glorious 2D-HD visuals this is the studios follow up to Octopath Traveller. That was a turn-based JRPG with eight different party members to slog around. Here you have a set team with the usual assortment of roles to fight across different battlefields. It’s never really been my genre but I seem to be holding my own. The main issue for most people is how 'talkie' this game is. The cut scenes and dialog can be very long with an easy 30 minutes between battles.
Usually I would speed through even a minute's worth of dialog but here I’ve found a little patience (maybe from Elden Ring?) and treating this like a very long TV series has actually meant I am enjoying the story. I mean it's no Game of Thrones but got enough about it with some decent voice acting to carry me through. It's really not going to be many people's cup of tea but the battles are a lot of fun, Having the usual mix of Tanks, Mages, healers etc but with so many combinations gives every player a lot of options. Turn based combat with full 360 view of the cool battlefields such as towns, bridges and mines. It's no Into The Breach but what is?
Kirby and the Forgotten Land - 25th March
It sounds like that the stand out game from the last Nintendo Direct of 2021 was Kirby and the Forgotten land, which is amazing considering the series seemed stuck in 2D and being super easy. Hopes were high and you know what? This is probably the second best platformer on Switch! Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze is a fantastic game but it was a port of a Wii U game. This feels fresh and thoroughly endearing. Yes it's not overly difficult, particularly if you are going straight from Elden Ring but this is an absolute utter joy.
You will breeze through most levels, the occasional boss might take you down but it's the challenges within each level that will perplex you. You will not 100% every level the first time round, with everything from finding items to no hit boss battles it will keep you busy! Even outside of the core levels it has lots of mini games in the hub world. Add in drop in and out co-op they really have knocked it out of the park.
What stands this game apart is the discovery is brilliant and the mouthful mode feels more than a gimmick. Its multiple uses in puzzles towards the later levels is great. Remember whatever game as a kid that gave you the most joy and this will come damn close. It is quite a juxtaposition compared to Elden Ring but that actually benefits it, for me a great palate cleanser when wanting to escape that grim, brutal (digital) world. That's all before I have even started the substantial post game content. Kirby I salute you!
Vampire Survivors - 17th December
Ok I am completely cheating on this game but it’s in early access and only blew up after January. So it kind of counts for this brilliant game premise of mine? Vampire Survivors is one of my favourite new games, in early access at the moment on PC but it’s going to be a must buy once on consoles (definitely coming to Switch). With fantastic pixel art and an addictive just one more go its a must play at £2!
You play a Vampire hunter trying to survive through waves and waves of enemies for 30 minutes. And when I say waves I mean a lot. My previous run had me kill 27,000 enemies! You acquire weapons as you level up but core game play is you can only move your character. Weapons fire automatically and so only Up, Down, Left, Right are needed. It sounds basic but has such depth with tonnes of unlocks and characters that can be bought. If you want a nice simple game with deep mechanics to throw yourself into I would dive into this! Literally going to play another run as soon as I publish this article...
The Rest of the Year
Obviously not all of those will be your jam but to see such quality coming out in just two months is damn impressive. Usually it takes the end of year avalanche of titles to achieve this many great games. Even then there’s so much crap in there. These are rock solid 8/10 and above games. I've had an absolute blast and still need to finish a few of them. If you fancy any of the ones I have mentioned but held off, now is the time to jump in. The next couple of months look pretty quiet, with the soon to be smash hit Nintendo Switch Sports coming at the end of April the only stand out. This is basically Wii Sports 3!
Currently the biggest problem is we have to wait until around June to hear what all the big beasts are planning for the end of the year. We know generation 9 is coming in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet (YAY!), there's maybe Bayonetta but the biggest miss is the news that The Sequel to Breath of the Wild will now come out Spring next year. A blow but we should have it hopefully in hand by May. Xbox will be bringing the much anticipated Starfield but we have no fucking clue about how it actually plays and feels. There’s still hope PlayStation will bring God of War Ragnarok in 2022 though who knows anymore with the world?
Beyond those who knows what is coming? I have plenty of time to catch up on my back catalogue as I wait for my Steam Deck by the end of summer. Anyway it’s good to be back! I should probably use all this time to go finally finish Elden Ring…