We’re now over a decade into downloadable content (DLC) becoming mainstream in gaming. What started off as a poor value with Oblivion’s horse armor has blossomed into a space where developers can take risks and tinker with new ideas within the context of an already successful game. One of my favorite aspects of this is that it gives me an excuse to revisit titles that I’ve enjoyed in the past. This is especially true for RPGs, where I lack the time for another full playthrough but am willing to play a few more hours of content. Since Dragon Age: Inquisition’s DLCs were put on sale recently, I decided to fire up my old save and see what BioWare had done with the game since its release in 2014. With the three DLC packs, BioWare comments on Dragon Age as a whole by examining the franchise’s past, present, and future. Here are my thoughts on them.

The Past: The Descent

In many ways, any new Dragon Age content must grapple with the long shadow cast by Dragon Age: Origins. The first game in the series, Origins not only introduced us to the wonderful fantasy universe that is Thedas, but it also tied the franchise to the long-established framework of 90s PC RPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. From the mage-fighter-rogue paradigm to the menu based dialog trees, Origins did little to advance the Western RPG. When the series went in a more action-oriented, Mass Effect inspired direction in Dragon Age II, the game was summarily dismissed for (among other sins) not feeling enough like its predecessor. Even Inquisition, a game that attempts to right many of Dragon Age II’s perceived wrongs, seems to be missing the specific rhythms and charms of its progenitor.

With The Descent, BioWare has seen fit to finally give us a story module that feels very much like Origins, for all its virtues and faults. The setup involves mysterious earthquakes in the Deep Roads that threatens the supply of lyrium of which the economy of Thedas relies. The Inquisitor intends to stop these earthquakes with the help of Legion of the Dead soldier Renn and Orzammar Shaper Valta. Renn proves to be the more memorable of the companions, as he is voiced with the distinct raspiness of David Hayter. Hearing him tell tales of his previous adventures never got old, even if I didn’t have much interest in the plot itself.

As the Deep Roads are in fact roads, or more accurately winding pathways, The Descent feels more constrained than the open environments typical of Inquisition. There’s typically only one way to proceed, and barring the inane collecting of gears to unlock optional rooms, there isn’t a whole lot of side content to experience. The straightforward structure works well, and makes the game feel much more like Origins than base-Inquisition did. You’ll be focused on getting through some tough combat encounters that necessitate pausing and strategizing, and you’ll be showered with loot when you win. The combat and linearity are great in that they kept me from getting bogged down in the busywork that plagued the main campaign. However, the excess of loot made for annoying inventory management, especially when most of what I had already equipped was far superior than the enemy drops. Inquisition’s lack of a minimap also proved to be an annoyance, as I frequently lost track of the way forward after scrapping with enemies, and pausing every five minutes to consult the map proved to be a momentum killer.

Ultimately, The Descent celebrates Dragon Age: Origins by embracing its strengths and weaknesses. The focus on a singular objective with tight combat encounters along the way gives the DLC a propulsive force that made Origins so beloved. However, by getting bogged down in far too much inventory management with useless loot, it also reminds us how Origins was often beholden to outdated RPG tropes that detracted from its good qualities. Still, it was refreshing to head underground again and pick away at the remnants of an ancient dwarven civilization. With some tweaks to the interface and mechanics, I could certainly see a future Dragon Age game taking on this throwback style to great effect.

The Present: Jaws of Hakkon

Early on in Inquisition’s story, the titular organization is formed with the player character at its helm. It’s made abundantly clear that an inquisition is called upon only in times of crisis to bring the world back in order, with the current incarnation being only the second one ever established. Jaws of Hakkon attempts to lay out the history of the original inquisition, and while it tells a compelling story the DLC feels a little overstuffed by hewing too close to the base game’s design philosophy. The premise begins with a recent discovery in the Frostback Basin shedding light on the previous Inquisitor’s ultimate fate, and sparking the interest of the current inquisition to discover its past. The investigation, however, hits a snag and the player must contend with the local politics of the Avvar tribes in the area before they can achieve their original goal. The eponymous Avvar tribe, the Jaws of Hakkon, in particular proves to be a major nuisance. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the history of the Jaws of Hakkon and their connection to the Avvar gods ties directly into the story of the previous Inquisitor.

Of the three DLCs, Jaws of Hakkon most openly celebrates Inquisition for what it is, and the Frostback Basin is specifically designed to give the player more of the base game. There are fade rifts to close, shards to collect, astrariums to solve, and a ton of fetch quests to complete. Although I didn’t mind doing most of these tasks, they eventually grew repetitive and I began questioning how I ever put in 70 hours into the base game doing much of the same. It all comes down to the fundamental issue of Inquisition; that the really compelling content is diluted by the grind that the game asks you to do. Granted, previous Dragon Age games had some grind in them and were better for it, but there’s a point where it all becomes too much. In Jaws of Hakkon, the underlying story of the old Inquisitor’s final days and how it connects to the Avvar tribes is quite fascinating. But when the fascinating parts only take 2 hours of a 10 hour experience, it ultimately feels less satisfying.

In the leadup to Inquisition’s release, it was clear that BioWare was taking cues from open-ended RPGs like Skyrim to make a more expansive Dragon Age. However, by going this route, BioWare downplayed its core strengths in creating compelling characters and unmatched world-building. Those elements are still present in Inquisition, but to a much lesser extent when compared to Dragon Age II and Origins. Jaws of Hakkon reflects on that, and in doing so shows the strengths and weaknesses of BioWare’s current approach. As it’s been nearly two years since I played Inquisition, Jaws of Hakkon was a welcome return to the base game’s core gameplay. But for anyone who plays this following (or during) the main story, the repetitive grind may be too much.

The Future: Trespasser

The final DLC, Trespasser, is an excellent coda to Inquisition’s story and ends up being the strongest of the trio. Two years after the defeat of Corypheus, an Exalted Council is called to determine the fate of the Inquisition. Ferelden, fearing an army that answers to no one at its borders, wishes that the organization be disbanded. Orlais, still in gratitude of the Inquisition for saving its Empress, hopes to keep it around but under some form of supervision. Finally, there’s the Chantry, now represented by Leliana as the new Divine. Leliana remains sympathetic to her old cause and will follow the lead of the Inquisitor, thereby leaving the ultimate disposition of the Inquisition in the player’s hands. Things become complicated, however, with the appearance of a dead Qunari at the Orlesian Winter Palace where the Council is being held. The Inquisitor begins an investigation that leads them to a planned Qunari invasion plot and the setup for future Dragon Age games.

While Trespasser takes some obvious cues from Mass Effect 3’s well received Citadel DLC by indulging in character interactions and a looser writing style, it pushes forward in some interesting directions. Primary among them is the focus on the geopolitical ramifications of the main game’s events. Unlike Origins where you controlled a band of adventurers, or Dragon Age II where you could only influence the city-state of Kirkwall, by Inquisition’s end you’ve built up formidable influence in the world of Thedas. The story in Trespasser emphasizes the player’s major role in shaping the future and treats the responsibility with the full weight that it deserves. Decisions made here will have ramifications for future Dragon Age games, and so gives the DLC a certain gravitas that is lacking from the other two.

The other part of Trespasser, the Qunari conspiracy investigation, takes cues from Mass Effect 2’s Arrival DLC as it teases Dragon Age’s future. Once again, the central role of the Inquisitor in securing the Southern Continent comes to the fore, and the player must make decisions on how best to deal with the impending threat. The story also delves into the cliffhanger finale of the base game by addressing the motivations behind Solas’s betrayal and what he plans for the future, thereby raising the stakes and making any decisions all the more difficult.

Of the three DLCs, this is the most briskly paced one and demonstrates how compelling a Dragon Age game focused on story and characters can be. In addition to foreshadowing the future of the Dragon Age narrative, I hope that Trespasser also hints at a less-bloated sequel, with more bespoke quest design and less repetitive filler tasks. Trespasser ultimately succeeds in its aim to get the player excited for where the story goes next, but the ultimate payoff for the DLC won’t come until we see what the next project looks like. Considering it on its own, Trespasser is well worth checking out if only be reminded of what makes this series so great.

Final Thoughts

Despite my mixed feelings about Inquisition at its release, I’m glad that I got to revisit it. The three DLCs helped to contextualize the past, present, and future of Dragon Age, and shows that BioWare still understands the underlying principles that make the series so beloved. After playing The Descent, Jaws of Hakkon, and Trespasser I have renewed hope in the franchise and can’t wait to see where it goes next. Rest easy Inquisitor, you had a good run.

I recently got to thinking about what my favorite games were from the previous console generation. The usual suspects went through my mind; Mass Effect Trilogy, The Last of Us, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Super Mario Galaxy, among others. But one game that stood out was Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Unlike those other titles, Human Revolution wasn’t exactly a critical darling or winner of significant game of the year awards. In fact, the first time I played it using OnLive(!), I didn’t much care for it. The graphics looked dated by 2011 standards, the gameplay was taken almost whole cloth from the original Deus Ex, and the story was a convoluted, unmemorable mess. But Human Revolution began to grow on me over time, and really came together once I bought the Director’s Cut edition on Playstation 3 a few years later. The Director’s Cut remains one of the best video game re-releases I have ever experienced, with the excretable boss fights reworked, the addition of an outstanding interstitial chapter, developer commentary, and a New Game Plus mode. In total, I have played through Deus Ex: Human Revolution five times and will likely revisit that flawed cyberpunk gem in years to come.

I mention this preamble to provide some context as to why I irrationally adore Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the recently released series entry that is as flawed as its predecessor in many ways. It’s been five years since Human Revolution, and yet, Mankind Divided feels like an expansion pack. The gameplay remains almost identical to before, the story does little to advance the overarching conspiracy narrative, and the game world feels more enclosed. Despite all this, the core Deus Ex loop shines through and more than makes up for the game’s shortcomings.

Like in previous games, Mankind Divided gives players plenty of options to accomplish their objectives, with a heavy emphasis on stealthy play. Thanks to protagonist Adam Jensen’s body augmentations, he has access to a wealth of abilities, including x-ray vision, enhanced jumping, and invisibility. These augmentations allow him approach any scenario in whatever manner the player wishes. As before, there are terminals to hack and vents to traverse that make the environments feel decidedly non-linear as you move about them. In addition to the suite of abilities he had in Human Revolution, Jensen has been outfitted with additional, experimental augmentations that are presented as powerful upgrades, but are in practice quite extraneous (with the notable exception of remote hacking). This all results in a game that feels almost exactly the same as Human Revolution, barring a few quality of life improvements like remappable controls, smoother gunplay, and a locked framerate. And you know what? The game works fine as is. It’s still fun to mess with brain dead enemy AI and knock out an entire level’s worth of guards without triggering an alarm. It’s still fun to hack into a vault, take the vent inside across the stage, and complete a hour-long mission in 10 minutes. And it’s still fun to defuse tense situations through debates I win by using my augmentations.

The level design compliments the this gameplay quite nicely. Instead of the globe trotting adventure like last time, the majority of Mankind Divided will be spent in Prague. What we lose in setting diversity is offset by the fact that the city feels both large and dense. There are countless hidden pathways and stashed away goodies, and I spent quite a few hours just breaking into every store to steal the valuable contents within. Occasionally, this extra-legal snooping will turn up clues to start side quests where some of the game’s best writing shines. One particular side quest involved hunting down a serial killer targeting augmented people, and it ends on a very memorable twist that trumps anything the main story attempts. Unfortunately, due to story events, the final third of the game has Prague under curfew, and the streets of the once bustling city becomes swamped with patrolling guards who make it very difficult to traverse safely. This really slows down the pace of the game, especially if you’re focused on a stealth or no-kill playthrough, and makes completing side quests a real pain. The best advice is to try and complete as much of the optional content as early as you can to avoid the hurdles imposed by the curfew, but you’ll still be stuck with additional missions that don’t unlock until the last part of the game (including the aforementioned serial killer plotline).

The game’s main plot takes place two years after the end of Human Revolution, where all augmented humans worldwide were hacked to become mindless killing machines. Despite Jensen managing to stop the hack soon after it was enacted, millions of people were killed or wounded by their augmented friends and family. After blowing up the villain's lair, Jensen was found in the ocean and transported to an Alaskan medical facility as a John Doe to recover. Fast forward two years, and our protagonist is working for Interpol out of Prague, where a great many augmented people had congregated over the years due to job opportunities in the Czech Republic. In the wake of the global trauma experienced by what is now known as “The Incident”, discriminatory laws have been passed to segregate “augs” from “naturals”. It’s all an intriguing setup to tell a more intimate cyberpunk story regarding the societal effects of augmentation, but the game as a whole feels like the first act to something bigger. The story ends with Jensen foiling a terrorist attack, but very few of the series’s bigger questions are even addressed by the end. It’s not a huge strike against the game for me, but it does leave me craving more story, be it on DLC form or in a full-on sequel that doesn’t take five years to develop.

In addition to the main story (which does come with New Game Plus if you were wondering) Mankind Divided has two additional modes; Jensen Stories and Breach. Jensen Stories are original standalone story and gameplay segments that fit into the game's plot, with the first involving the investigation of a bombing from the start of the main story. It’s a short little thing, taking me no more than 30 minutes to finish, but it provides additional content to come back to. Additional Jensen Stories are on the way, and hopefully they will help flesh out some of the story beats that the main narrative failed to acknowledge. Breach, on the other hand, are repetitive missions that put you in the role of a hacker trying to extract data from the oligarchical corporations that oversee the world of Deus Ex. The actual hacking is essentially the same moment-to-moment gameplay of the main game, but divorced from the real world and with no narrative driving the experience, the mode just feels hollow.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is for me a game that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Mechanically and narratively it feels like a retread of 2011, and even with the shiny new coat of current-gen paint it still looks pretty rough. But it still has that compelling Deus Ex DNA embedded within it, and for that I adore it so. I originally intended this write-up to be a review, but decided against it when I realized that I couldn’t take a dispassionate look at the game. If you are a reasonable person that can enjoy a flawed game that has a compelling gameplay loop and a great cyberpunk setting, Mankind Divided is worth picking up on sale. If, however, you love everything Deus Ex (including the maligned Invisible War because it gave you more Deus Ex), then Mankind Divided is a must-play. May the machine-god have mercy on your augmented soul.

Since it’s debut last summer, the television show Mr. Robot has been one of the most vital pieces of contemporary art depicting our present society. The show stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, a grey hat hacker who gets caught up in the workings of the Anonymous-esque fsociety as they attempt to stage the largest transfer of wealth in history. Mr. Robot has caught on with audiences and critics for a variety of reasons, including its breathtaking cinematography, the inspired performances of the ensemble cast, and (show creator) Sam Esmail’s storytelling prowess. But beyond that, it also manages to feel very much an authentic reflection of our current reality, or rather the reality of a young, urban cohort. The show deals in mistrust of corporations as fallout from the Great Recession, the startling vulnerability of our current technological infrastructure, and the unfounded faith that we have in our current system, and in doing so holds up a mirror to our uncertain present.

Now that Mr. Robot is in its second season, a companion game has been released for iOS and Android, and keeping with the filename convention of the show’s episode titles, it’s been dubbed 1.51exflitrati0n.ipa. The game, a product of Night School Studio (creators of the outstanding Oxenfree) and Telltale Games, is essentially a text adventure told through a fictional messaging app. The premise is that the player has found a phone on the ground which turns out to be the property of one of Mr. Robot’s main characters, Darlene. There is an important file on the phone that got wiped at the start of the game, and you need to recover it for its previous owner. However, since you are in possession of someone else’s phone, you will receive texts from people trying to contact them. Primary among these people is the show’s protagonist, Elliot, who asks that you help him with a hack. Darlene, not wanting to let Elliot know that she lost her phone, asks that you help him while she looks for a way to recover her prized file. The setup admittedly comes off a bit contrived, and the shoehorning of the player into Mr. Robot’s universe starts out awkward. Why can’t Darlene just own up to her mistake? Why involve an unknown third party in what is a highly illegal endeavor? And why would all my conversations be through text messaging, including the times that I contact corporate human resource and IT departments? However, once you get past these contrivances, the game begins to truly shine.

The hacking in 1.51exflitrati0n.ipa takes the form of social engineering, where hackers attempt to steal the login credentials of a corporation’s employees through conversations and phishing. You will be given the contact information of someone working for a company called AirDream and must get their login information so that Elliot can install malicious software into their system. The actual conversations look like text messages, however the player is only given set responses to answer back with. While the conversations are for the most part linear, the player is given some leeway to achieve their objective. Maybe you said something that made the other person trust you less, but maybe they also accidentally provided the contact information for another person who you can attempt to hack. There doesn’t appear to be a failure state in 1.51exflitrati0n.ipa, but the unpredictable nature of social engineering imparts the conversations with a thrilling tension.

Like the TV show on which it is based, the little details of 1.51exflitrati0n.ipa make a big part of the experience. In addition to references that only fans of the show will catch, the artifice of the messaging app is used to great effect. Texts will come at random times from strangers who mistake you as their friend, from creepy guys on a Tindr analog, and even from an rideshare service as Darlene moves about town. None of these messages have anything to do with the main plot of the game, but it helps in making the scenario feel more lived-in and authentic.

1.51exflitrati0n.ipa follows in the tradition of games such as Her Story and Digital: A Love Story, where a large part of the gameplay is intrinsically tied to a specific computer interface. These games recognize the importance of electronic correspondence in our lives and how it shapes us as social beings, and they use that conceit to make the player feel a heightened connection to the story being presented. Indeed, there’s a certain intimacy that can be achieved through digital communication that is distinct from real life interactions, and video games as a medium are uniquely suited to explore this brave new world of intercourse. In 1.51exflitrati0n.ipa’s case, this examination dovetails nicely with the themes of Mr. Robot, namely how the rise of computing and networking has fundamentally changed our society, and the results of that change have yet to be fully understood. Admittedly, the game is very much designed for fans of the show, and neophytes may not get as much out the experience. But for those us who support fsociety from the shadows, this is one phone that’s worth picking up.

Summer is ending, and with it comes a flimsy excuse to stay inside and play all the hot new games. Starting this week, with the release of Madden NFL 17 and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, we enter a packed autumn set to cap off an already stellar year in video games. But before we get to the main feast, the folks at Respawn were kind enough to provide a satisfying appetizer this past weekend with the Titanfall 2 Tech Test. The Tech Test is essentially a beta showcasing two of the upcoming sequel’s maps, three of its game modes, and plenty of smashmouth titan action. Here are my assorted thoughts of my time with it.

Gameplay is different from before, but still good

The big thing to note is that this game very much feels like the original Titanfall for the most part. The parkour-like movement of the pilots that made the first game so refreshing remains intact, so players will be double jumping, clambering, and wall-running to their hearts’ content. The most prominent new movement feature is the slide ability, which functions similar to Halo 5’s slide but with a jetpack assist. Hitting the crouch button while sprinting will cause your pilot will slide for a satisfyingly long time. It’s a great situational move that can help turn the tables when someone gets the drop on you.

I’d be remiss to mention the revelation that is the grappling hook ability. The hook is a selectable ability that will attach to almost any surface and zip the pilot to the anchor point. It essentially turns the pilot into Spider-Man and feels great. The downside is that the ability feels so integral to Titanfall 2’s movement mechanics that playing a pilot without it makes the gameplay seem incomplete. It’s admittedly too early to judge this, especially considering that the Tech Test does not have the full suite of pilot loadout options that will be present in the final game. Still, I fully expect that I’ll be using the grappling hook extensively come October.

The titans themselves don’t feel all that different in how they move, although that doesn’t mean that their combat capabilities haven’t been tweaked. They seem to have more distinct personalities this time around, with the titan named Scorch having fire attacks while the other titan, Ion, possessing more energy-based abilities. Fighting against these mechs as a pilot has also been adjusted, as now players must choose between a pistol or anti-titan weapon as their secondary armament. Rodeoing titans has also been changed, with pilots now only doing a set animation and jumping off rather than hanging on and unloading clip-after-clip into the robot’s soft spots. This also introduces an interesting new mechanic involving battery packs that can be stolen from enemy titans and used to replenish health and shields on allied mechs. The result of these changes means that titans are more robust and will typically stay in the field for longer periods of time before getting destroyed.

Keeping with the theme of less disposable titans is the fact that they are harder to earn this time around, and each pilot is no longer guaranteed to get one in a given match. Titanfall’s countdown timers have been replaced by a percentage meter that fills up as you kill enemies and achieve objectives. Hit 100% and you can call in a titan, but unlike the previous game’s inevitable march to a titan, the percentage meter can decay from poor performance. Philosophically this feels like a step back from Titanfall’s ethos. The first game appealed because unlike Call of Duty’s punitive kill streak rewards, Respawn gave you the fun stuff even if you weren’t doing well. Sure, doing better meant you got to call in titans more often, but struggling players never felt like they were out of the match as they would get their own mech in due time. The idea that you can play a match of Titanfall 2 without having a titanfall seems to signal a less casual friendly tone this time around, and I’m not sure that it’s for the better.

The new game modes need some adjustments

The tech test comes with three gameplay modes; Bounty, Amped Hardpoint, and Pilot vs. Pilot. I’m going to ignore that last mode because what the hell are you doing if you’re playing Titanfall without freaking titans! Amped Hardpoint is pretty similar to the first game’s Hardpoint mode, a king of the hill style match in which teams compete for control of three points around the map. The twist here is that you can “amp” a point by standing near it for a full minute after it’s been captured. This doubles the score production from that particular point as well as giving your weapons increased damage. However, by leaving the point the “amp” will decay, necessitating someone to sit there for the match’s duration. Unfortunately, I found that this incentivized camping on the point nearest your team’s spawn to maximize your team’s chance of winning. More than a few times I managed to sit in a corner racking up points for my team without firing single shot for the entire match. This is not great for a game that is at it’s best when players are on the move and fighting.

The final mode, Bounty, is a more structured take on the first game’s bread-and-butter mode, Attrition. Like Attrition, each team tries to rack up points by taking out NPC minions as well as enemy pilots and titans. What’s different in Bounty is that the appearance of NPCs are governed by waves similar to Gears of War’s horde mode. As players rack up kills they gain cash instead of points (their “bounty”), with minions giving out set payouts with each kill. By killing other pilots, however, you will gain their bounty while they lose half of the total they were carrying. To prevent losing your accumulated cash, in between each new wave “banks” will open up that allow you to make deposits. Once deposited, the cash is added to your team’s total and cannot be lost, and the bounty on your pilot is reset. This results in some wonderfully tense situations where you are desperately sprinting to the bank after a good run with a big target on your back. Since there are only two banks per map there can be some exciting skirmishes near them where pilots can steal enemy bounties at the last second. For the most part I enjoyed Bounty, but I hope classic Attrition comes back for those times when I want a less punishing way to play.

Playstation 4 and Xbox One versions are both excellent

Because I have too much time (and bandwidth) on my hands, I ended playing the Tech Test on both the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Visually, they look identical, with solid framerates and comparable resolutions. The PS4 lobbies tended to be more chatty owing to the fact that headsets are more prevalent on Sony’s platform, while the Xbox provided stiffer competition due to there being more veterans of the first game in Microsoft’s camp. You really can’t go wrong with either version, although I personally will be going with the Xbox for the full release due to controller preference. Form factor and button placement aside, the Xbox controller’s rumble was the major differentiator for me. Normally I’m not one to notice rumble, but Respawn really makes the titans come alive on Xbox, whereas the louder and less nuanced rumble of the Dualshock 4 feels clunkier by comparison. It’s a small thing that emphasizes why you can’t go wrong with either version. And yes, the PC version will likely be just fine if the first game’s release is any indication.

Final Thoughts

It’s tough to make any sweeping judgments on Titanfall 2 based on this Tech Test, but I can certainly say that I’m optimistic based on what I’ve played. Not all the changes have clicked with me, but for the most part I’m satisfied. Similar to how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had the heavy burden of following up a generation-defining shooter, so too does Titanfall 2 have big shoes to fill. Because of the first Titanfall’s limited exposure due to its exclusivity on Microsoft platforms, I fully expect the sequel to be the series’s coming out party to the mainstream. Here’s hoping that it lives up to the spotlight.

As a child, I was brought up in the Hindu faith. This religion, one of the oldest in the world and still widely practiced, is often misunderstood by outsiders. While Hindu concepts like yoga and the pantheon of gods have penetrated into Western culture, the actual practices and beliefs of Hinduism remain foggy at best. There’s a good reason for this. Given Hinduism’s ancient origins and the lack of a hierarchy, the religion has been interpreted in countless ways by a great many people. Even the so-called central tomes of Hindu belief, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, are rarely read in full by adherents. The result of this history is that Hinduism tends to be a faith that is passed down verbally through the generations, and often you will see individual families or communities practicing their own form of the religion. Such was the case with my upbringing, in which I learned about Hinduism through stories that my mother and grandfather would tell me. But this was not enough to sustain my belief, and I found the certainty of science and civic institutions to be more comforting than old epics about Shiva and Lakshmi. I eventually became an Atheist, which remains my spiritual affiliation to this day.

No Man’s Sky has seemingly set the gaming world on fire with its recent release. The game, a sort of epic survival adventure, has players exploring planets for resources and treasure in order to continue their journey to discover more uncharted worlds. There are goals for players that prefer structure, but there’s just as much joy in staking out unguided and discovering wonders off the beaten path. There’s a breathtaking sense of scale to No Man’s Sky, one where it will take several real world minutes to reach the next planet or star system despite your spaceship travelling at fractions of light speed. Even the smallest planets and moons feel unfathomably massive when you pick a landing spot. What was a pale orb merely minutes ago now feels like the biggest thing ever conceived, of which you will only ever explore an infinitesimally small piece. This scale remains a constant reminder that you are the exact opposite of the hero of this story. Instead, you may as well be a dust mote on an elephant’s back, an insignificant little thing that will make no impact with your actions.

For all the variances in Hindu beliefs, there are a few things that remain constant. Primary among these constants is "Om”. Om is many things; it’s a symbol commonly used to represent Hinduism analogous to Christianity’s Crucifix or Judaism's Star of David, it’s a mantra for focusing in meditative activities, and it’s a concept for what binds and governs the universe. It’s that third usage of Om that’s always spoke the most to me, even as I moved away from Hinduism as a whole. Om is meant to represent the highest plane of reality, of truth, of the universe as it is. Looking at it that way, aren’t the laws of physics merely a scientific description of Om? Of course, there are certain interpretations of Om that ascribe more fantastical elements to it, such as the concepts of souls and reincarnation. But at it’s most basic level, isn’t it just a flowery way of saying that our reality follows certain rules? Doesn’t it simply acknowledge our very human desire for connection and meaning in a cold, vast, and indifferent universe?

There’s been much discussion in the lead-up to the release of No Man’s Sky regarding its development process. In an industry where blockbuster games require hundreds of people working across continents, Hello Games managed to make their opus with about 15 people in a single studio. In an era where blockbuster games can be up to 100 gigabytes in size, No Man’s Sky installs at a paltry 6 gigabytes. In a market that demands dense lore, bespoke set pieces, and ever increasing feature lists, the game barely has a structure. The story of how this was possible has come down to two words: procedural generation. Rather than create an entire galaxy from scratch, the world of No Man’s Sky is created on the fly by programmed rules embedded in its code. In effect, the creation of this artificial galaxy is not all that different from the scientific and mythological explanations for the creation of our own universe. The code is, in essence, the Om of No Man’s Sky.

I can’t but help feel a strong spiritual streak running through No Man’s Sky. The considered pace of the gameplay, the reflective soundtrack, and the bits of story and lore, all emphasize the quiet wonder of creation. Of how between the numbers and science emerges something vast, beautiful, and seemingly unfathomable. Of how by exploring an insignificant part of it can feel like an act of worship. By mining elements, by creating technology, by documenting life, the game pushes us to reckon existence as a concept. We are compelled to think about the hows and whys of our universe on its most basic level, and by extension, to consider the hows and whys of our own spiritual frameworks.

Much has been discussed of whether No Man’s Sky is a “good” or “bad” game. Certainly, on typical rubrics there isn’t much present to call it all that compelling. The gameplay loop is repetitive and the planets aren’t as varied as people like. However, the game succeeds in using interactivity as a language to meditate on the concepts of creation, reality, spirituality, and science. It has encouraged me to consider parts of my spirituality I had not thought about in a long time, and has given me a better understanding of the faith I grew up in. It doesn’t excuse the technical and design shortcomings of No Man’s Sky, but perhaps the game was never concerned with simply being “good”. Maybe it’s focused on something greater.

Genji

How You’re Supposed to Play: The modern-day ninja is practically built to take down Bastion and Torbjörn turrets with his bullet deflection ability. His ultimate ability is also fantastic, allowing you to slice and dice enemies into pink slurry. Pick your spots to attack and Genji can render even the stoutest defenses toothless.

How I Play: "Alright, my ult is ready to go! I’ll just activate it and dash off the edge of the stage. All according to plan..."

McRee

How You’re Supposed to Play: McRee’s cowboy motif may hint that he prefers to duel opponents one-on-one, but it’s more effective for him to take a high vantage point and pick off enemies from medium range. This sets him up perfectly to activate his High Noon ultimate ability, which can eliminate the entire enemy team in one fell swoop.

How I Play: “It’s Hiiiigh Noon. Oh, there’s no one in my field of view? Well pardon me then.”

Pharah

How You’re Supposed to Play: Pharah’s jetpack allows her to launch into the sky and hover while she rains down death with her rocket launcher. She packs quite a punch, but she also has a secondary effect of drawing enemy attention away from her teammates. Proper use of her ultimate ability will just about guarantee a Play of the Game.

How I Play: Pharah’s jetpack allows her to launch into the sky and hover while she rains down death with her rocket launcher. She packs quite a punch, but she also has a secondary effect of getting sniped by being the only thing in the sky worth shooting.

Reaper

How You’re Supposed to Play: His character design being a 12 year old’s fantasy of “badass” notwithstanding, Reaper is an excellent choice for racking up eliminations. His dual shotguns do plenty of damage, and his teleport and wraith abilities allow him to easily escape when outmatched. He can also heal himself by consuming the souls of fallen enemies, which make him the perfect hero for anyone who wants to lone wolf it.

How I Play: For all Reaper’s strengths, the guy has no range. I will conveniently forget this fact when I play as him and uselessly shoot at enemies across the level. I will then get yelled at by teammates and completely deserve it.

Soldier: 76

How You’re Supposed to Play: Soldier is an excellent choice for Overwatch newbies. Between his sprint ability and conventional rifle, anyone who’s played Call of Duty will feel right at home. Add to that his ability to heal himself and others, and you have a hero that is just as effective sneaking behind enemy lines as he is making a frontal push with his team.

How I Play: Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die. Spawn. Run. Die...

Tracer

How You’re Supposed to Play: Cheers love! Tracer’s whole deal is being the red cape in the bullfight. She zooms in, grabs the enemy’s attention, and leads them away from the objective while the rest of her team gets to the business of winning the match.

How I Play: Dual wielding guns means I’m a badass, so obviously I’m going to be all about my K/D. I’ll pop in, fire impotently at the other team’s Winston, die by electrocution, and completely neglect to use rewind to save myself. But it’s not me; the rest of my team sucks.

Bastion

How You’re Supposed to Play: Being one of the earliest heroes that the Overwatch community dubbed “overpowered”, it’s no surprise that Bastion is almost always a great pick. While not as impressive in his mobile form, players that find the right place to set up shop as a stationary turret will be rewarded with a torrent of eliminations.

How I Play: “How about I set up as a turret in the middle of the road as the payload is comi-” DIES

Hanzo

How You’re Supposed to Play: Hanzo puts the “scout” in “scout-sniper”. His sonic arrow ability, which reveals the location of any enemy near the arrow as it lands, can help his team formulate preemptive counter-strategies based on the enemy’s location and hero selection. But he’s also a sniper, which means when shit goes down he’s well equipped to wreck support units, leaving the opposing team with little in the way of reinforcements.

How I Play: I seem to have a special knack for finding the one vantage point where an enemy McRee is camping and proceed to die in humiliating fashion. Every. Single. Time.

Junkrat

How You’re Supposed to Play: Junkrat is most effective when he’s firing indiscriminately onto an objective held by the enemy. At worst, he softens up and drives back the opposing team. At best, he gets a couple of eliminations for almost no effort. Either way, it gets him to his Rip Tire ultimate ability faster, which allows him to eliminate the enemy team en masse.

How I Play: There’s something particularly embarrassing about getting stuck in an enemy Junkrat’s trap as Junkrat, but I manage to do it at least once per round. I also seem to have no understanding of how to arc shots, how to steer the Rip Tire, or how to lay a trap where someone would actually step on it.

Torbjörn

How You’re Supposed to Play: Looking like a World of Warcraft reject, the stout Torbjörn can nevertheless hold a point all by himself thanks to his ability to build a powerful turret. The trick with him is to never just focus on maintaining the turret, but instead supplement the turret’s fire with his surprisingly powerful rivet gun.

How I Play: The toughest thing about Torbjörn is that it’s difficult to get set up after the initial pre-match phase. There’s all too much chaos over the course of a match to get the time to effectively build a turret in an area where it will actually shoot something. So of course my turret gets blown up within the match’s first 10 seconds and I’m stuck running around like an incompetent Gimli.

Mei

How You’re Supposed to Play: Mei is all about disruption. Her ability to instantly generate an ice wall can stop an enemy team dead in their tracks, and her other ability to encase herself in indestructible ice can hold down a point for a precious few seconds while her team rallies. She also becomes Ms. Popular when she deploys her ultimate ability, freezing enemies and leaving them as easy pickings for teammates.

How I Play: The ice wall ability is incredibly effective… when placed properly. If you’re me, however, you’ll place the wall just behind the charging enemy, leaving nothing between Mei and certain death.

Widowmaker

How You’re Supposed to Play: This femme fatale is a pretty straightforward sniper. Her hookshot allows her to get to high up vantage points where she can nail headshots with impunity.

How I Play: I’m a real Rembrandt with Widowmaker, meaning that I can shoot out a perfect silhouette of my enemy without hitting them once. I will then immediately die from a D.Va spraying me from 50 yards away.

D.Va

How You’re Supposed to Play: The latest balance update has made D.Va into one of Overwatch’s best heroes. Her thrusters give her speed and her tweaked shield ability is very effective in protecting herself and allies. Being the only hero whose primary fire never needs reloading, she can also lay down suppressing fire for her teammates to safely move about the map. Her ultimate ability is also one of the best in the game, detonating her mech and creating a large and lethal explosion that only hurts enemies.

How I Play: That ultimate ability is great, if I can ever survive long enough to use it. More typically, I get shredded by the enemy within five seconds of contact, pop out of my mech, and get picked off by a Hanzo who wasn’t even aiming for me. Yeah killcam, I get it, my head is a magnet for arrows.

Reinhardt

How You’re Supposed to Play: If Overwatch was football, Reinhardt would be the linebacker. His massive energy shield can soak up incredible amounts of punishment, which is critical in pushing towards the objective or advancing the payload.

How I Play: “Alright everyone, form up behind me. We’re going to strategically push against the enemy to a well deserved victory. Oh, you’d rather just run ahead, leaving my shield to protect nothing? You’re the boss, Symmetra.”

Winston

How You’re Supposed to Play: Winston’s game is disruption. With an electric gun that has great spray but little damage, he’s able to leap into the fray and grab the attention of opponents while his teammates make short work of them.

How I Play: OOOH WA AH AH AH!

Roadhog

How You’re Supposed to Play: Roadhog is perfect of players who abhor such namby-pamby concepts as “dodging enemy fire” or “taking cover”. This hulking brute can use his chain-hook to lasso entrenched enemies and finish them off with a satisfying shotgun blast.

How I Play: Have you ever missed point blank with a shotgun? Because I have, over and over. It is an art, and I am Picasso.

Zarya

How You’re Supposed to Play: Zarya has the potential to be one of the most effective tanks in the game, as her ability to shield a teammate can essentially give you two damage sponges for the price of one. Her laser rifle can blunt the opposing team’s Reinhardt-led push by damaging the knight through his powerful shield.

How I Play: Shield’s up, I’m invincible! Aaaaand it’s gone two seconds later. Who’s going to kill me now? Lucio? Sure, why not.

Ana

How You’re Supposed to Play: The game’s newest hero, Ana is a long distance healer. Ostensibly a sniper, the goal with her is to shoot healing darts at her teammates from across the map while also picking off low health enemies when the opportunity arises.

How I Play: Missing enemies as sniper is one thing, missing allies in dire need of healing is another altogether soul-crushing experience. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever successfully put an enemy to sleep, seeing as my default response to a nearby opponent is to wildly swing around my aim cursor while screaming in panic. I then get killed by a Mercy.

Mercy

How You’re Supposed to Play: Every team needs to have at least one healer, and since Mercy is the most straightforward of the healers, she tends to get picked a lot. Not that straightforward is bad, mind you. Mercy’s healing staff (that doubles as a damage enhancer!) along with the ability to fly to her teammates makes her indispensable. Just stay alive long enough to pop her Resurrection ultimate ability and you’ll be your teammates’ best friend.

How I Play: Mercy is who I choose when I wish to abdicate responsibility for winning the match. “Of course we lost the point in 30 seconds, none of you jerks could hit a Roadhog to save your life! What’s that, I stuck to just healing our D.Va to charge my Ult? Get outta here with your logic! I’m Mercy, I can do no wrong! Now everyone vote for me in the post-match because I unselfishly played support.”

Lucio

How You’re Supposed to Play: Why a Brazilian character has an North American accent I’ll never understand, but aside from that Lucio is awesome. His ability to heal everyone in the vicinity is great for when you’re holding a point, but don’t sleep on his speed-up ability. In addition to shortening the team’s walk from the spawn room to the action, it can be used in the middle of battle to make his teammates harder to hit.

How I Play: Being a healer with low max health who must stay close to the action makes me target número um? You don’t say!

Symmetra

How You’re Supposed to Play: Symmetra is classified as support, but she feels more like hybrid defense/support character. She can give shields to her teammates, but that’s not why you should be playing her. Her turrets can act as an early warning system against enemies and can net you a few kills, but the real star of the show is her ultimate which allows placement of a teleporter that can drastically cut down the walk from the spawn room.

How I Play: Her primary weapon requires next to no aiming or precision? And it gets stronger the longer I hold it on the enemy? KILL KILL KILL!!!

Zenyatta

How You’re Supposed to Play: Zenyatta is a tough hero to wrap your head around, but a competent player can be a valuable addition to their team. His Orb of Harmony is one of the fastest ways to heal (outside of a health pack), but true mastery is shown by effective use of the Orb of Discord. Throw the Orb on an enemy tank and let your Soldier: 76 carve right through them. Better yet, throw a couple of daggers and finish them off yourself! Above all, make sure both Orbs are on somebody at all times.

How I Play: That line of sight requirement on the Orbs is a killer, and it’s what leaves me standing out in the open looking like a jabroni. If you see me pick Zenyatta, I’m probably drunk and we’re going to lose this match. Sorry.

2014 was remarkable in how thin it was in terms of game quality. Prominent games such as Destiny and Assassin’s Creed: Unity proved that massive budgets could not save repetitive and broken game design, the newly released Xbox One and Playstation 4 were flooded with remasters and indie titles that took little advantage of the bump in processing power, and most game of the year awards went to either the uninspired Dragon Age: Inquisition or the repetitive Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. But even in such a mediocre year there proved to be some gems in the rough, and in my mind no gem shone brighter than MachineGames’s outstanding shooter, Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Before our current collective fascination with Doom, Wolfenstein: The New Order proved that old-school shooter design can still be relevant to modern audiences. But while the former game demonstrated this with slavish devotion to its predecessors, the latter game embraced the evolution of the genre it started. Wolfenstein includes such modern gameplay conventions as pseudo-regenerating health, stealth segments, and reloading weapons, but balances them with health and armor pickups, explorable levels, and dual wielding to make the experience feel enough like a throwback. But outside of the moment-to-moment action, the game’s walking of the old versus new tightrope is best demonstrated by its fantastic narrative.

We’ve come a long way since it was the norm to have shooter protagonists be nothing more than a scornful face, but for the most part storylines in the genre have been middling to bad. In that light it’s quite incredible how good the story of Wolfenstein turned out. This is even more surprising when you consider previous games in the franchise, which amounted to an alternate history take on World War II where the Nazi war machine augmented itself through study of the occult. This results in series protagonist William “BJ” Blazkowicz infiltrating the eponymous castle and killing Adolf Hitler. It’s an insane premise that could only work in a 90s video game, and it’s even more insane that the latest game uses it as a starting point. The New Order begins in 1946, after the events of the previous games, and at first the series seems as ridiculous as ever. In the wake of the Fuhrer’s demise, Germany has been led by Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strasse, who has shifted Nazi research from esoteric magic and demons to concrete science and technology. This has resulted in a distinct technological superiority of the so-called Fourth Reich over the Allied Nations, with monstrosities such as mecha hounds turning the tide of war in Germany’s favor. In a desperate bid to end the war, Blazkowicz takes part in an assault on a stronghold containing Strasse and the rest of the Nazi braintrust. What begins as a fairly ho-hum first mission quickly becomes far more interesting, as BJ and his squad are captured by the Nazis for use in Strasse’s experiments. It’s here that the game brings out its first surprise, as the player is forced to choose which of their comrades they would prefer for Strasse to dissect. Once the choice is made, BJ is forced to helplessly watch as the selected person is methodically taken apart, and the trauma experienced by our hero is plainly evident on his face. After some quick thinking, the remaining person and BJ are able to make a daring escape, although in the process an explosion imbeds shrapnel into BJ’s head, turning him into a vegetable for 14 years.

What’s fascinating about the story is despite the crazy premise, the characters really commit to it. Credit must be given to BJ’s voice actor, Brian Bloom, who turns in one of the best performances ever seen in a video game. He plays the protagonist as a man who is deeply scarred by his experiences in war, but one who can’t help but revel in violence. Blazkowicz is very much the quintessential shooter hero who solves every problem with a gun, but he remains incredibly thoughtful and empathetic throughout. When he finally emerges from his vegetative state in 1960, galvanized by the Nazi slaughter of the Polish asylum he has spent the intervening years in, it makes sense. The player proceeds to kill every Nazi until they locate the asylum’s nurse and only survivor, Anya. The two the make their escape as fugitives to her grandparents’ farmhouse where the game’s central conceit is finally brought to light.

It turns out that after the Allies’ failed attack in 1946, the Nazis stood unopposed. In short order, the free nations of the world bowed down to Nazi hegemony, including an American surrender brought about by the use of an atomic bomb on Manhattan island. This Nazi victory is not mere set dressing, as MachineGames truly confronts the reality of what this all means. Keeping with Nazi ideology which held the superiority of the Aryan race as a central tenet, undesirable groups such as Jews, gypsies, and the mentally and physically handicapped have all been exterminated or put to work in brutal labor camps. The technological prowess of the Fourth Reich is also well thought out, with the Nazis creating massive metropolises out of super concrete, nuclear armed submarines, and even a research base on the moon. The utter defeat of his cause is crushing to BJ, who first reacts to the news with disbelief, but he quickly accepts the situation and moves forward to set things right.

Our protagonist’s response to the current state of affairs is quite telling as to the type of person he is. Already marked as an enemy of the state and on the side of a losing cause, the logical choice would have been to flee underground with Anya and begin a new life. But even with the seemingly impossible odds, Blazkowicz chooses to fight on by liberating his old friends from Nazi captivity to jumpstart a resistance movement. This decision doesn’t appear to be motivated by a sense of heroism, or honor, or duty. Instead, BJ chooses to go down this path because it’s the only one he sees. This man, molded by his many years fighting Nazis, knows only violence and cannot be shaken from that path. There’s no doubt that he finds the Nazi philosophy abhorrent, but he now clings to the goal of defeating them precisely because he has nothing else to cling to. His single-mindedness to put an end to Nazi hegemony finds an unexpected kindred spirit in Anya, and their relationship over the course of the story becomes the game’s most compelling aspect.

With few options available to them, BJ and Anya take a train to Berlin where they hope to infiltrate a prison and liberate resistance members. It is on that train where they consummate their feelings for one another. Anya, having lost her family in the Nazi attack on the asylum, and BJ, having lost his sense of belonging in the world, are brought together by their shared trauma. Their first tryst is framed as two people wanting to feel something good in their lives amidst the fear and paranoia that bears down on them. But from there blossoms a relationship, one that gives both of them something to keep fighting for.

Unlike the common trope in video games of female love interests being the prize for the hero, Anya is written as her own character who has agency. We get glimpses of this in her journal entries which documents her years-long campaign to sabotage and murder Nazis. She shares BJ’s rebellious spirit in the face of evil, and in that she proves herself his equal despite never wielding a gun. Even in the main story, she becomes a central figure in the resistance, and she coordinates some of BJ’s most daring and effective missions. While not necessarily a groundbreaking depiction of women in games, Anya still shows the thought and care that went into writing each character in Wolfenstein.

The layered characterization extends to the game’s supporting cast. Upon liberating the prison, BJ and Anya discover that the resistance is in fact alive and well. This ragtag group that operates under the Nazi stronghold of Berlin is stocked with familiar faces as well as new ones. There’s Caroline, an old war buddy of BJ’s who sustained injuries that left her crippled, but still leads the resistance. There’s Klaus, a former Nazi soldier who switched sides when the regime killed his son because he was born with a clubbed foot. There’s Klaus’s adopted son Max Hass, a mentally disabled young man who would have surely been euthanized by the Nazis. And then there’s the companion that BJ did not choose to be sacrificed in the game’s first mission, either the young American Wyatt or the grizzled Scot Fergus. The interactions between either character and BJ are quite interesting, with both men mourning the passing of the other and working through their trauma in different ways. In addition to determining which of these two characters remain in the story, the decision also can have BJ interacting with one of two other characters. If BJ saves Fergus, then he brings along the ultra-analytical Tekla, who seeks to understand the world through mathematics. If BJ saves Wyatt, then he gets to meet J, a young African-American guitarist who actively questions whether he would be better off under the boot of the Nazi regime or an America still grappling with extreme racial inequality. Both characters bring forth unique and valuable viewpoints, and it shows the confidence that MachineGames had in its vision to block off such good writing for players not willing to play the game twice. In either timeline, BJ and company base their operations in the same hideout, where BJ can explore and interact with others in between missions. This hideout is chock full of little details that help to give the setting depth, not least of which are the numerous newspaper clippings available to read. These clippings act as a conduit to the outside world, providing the resistance with updates on the world at large, and also documenting the resistance’s exploits through a heavily filtered Nazi lens.

With the resistance established, BJ’s campaign against the Nazis can truly begin. After conducting an operation to steal advanced aircraft, the resistance determines that the reason for Germany’s technological advantage is due to an order of Jewish scientists called Da’at Yichud. Through much of recorded history, the Da’at Yichud developed advanced technology as a form of worship, and satisfied by the act of creation, stored their advanced equipment in hidden vaults, though not hidden well enough such that the Nazis don’t find one and alter history. This was the one plot point that didn’t work as well for me, mainly due to the fact that it reduces the horror and senselessness of Jewish persecution during that time. Still, having that act as the single point that diverges this game’s timeline from our own is smart writing and I give it a pass because of it. It also provides a clear path for the resistance to strike back.

Through analysis of Nazi buildings, Anya is able to determine that there is an active saboteur in a labor camp who is tampering with the concrete being made there. This saboteur is discovered to be Set Roth, a Da’at Yichud scientist who may be able to lead the resistance to another cache of useful technology. Faced with no other option to make contact, BJ submits himself as a prisoner in the camp. In what is easily one of the more harrowing sequences in the game, the player is confronted with the horrors of slave labor that serve as a foundation for the Nazi regime. The developers shy away from making the camp on the scale of the all-too-real Auschwitz, and justify this in-fiction by implying that the so-called Final Solution has been completed. Nevertheless, being trapped in the camp remains chilling all the same. Amidst this horror, BJ makes contact with Set Roth, who strikes a deal that he will aid the resistance if BJ first helps liberate the camp by taking over one of the mecha guarding the prisoners. In order to do so, BJ infiltrates the camp’s officers building where unspeakable human experimentation and torture are administered by a senior Nazi officer. From here the level plays out as a revenge fantasy, with BJ exacting lethal justice on the oppressors aboard the mecha that previously stood in the way of his freedom. It is here that Wolfenstein is most true to its core. Killing Nazis is incredibly satisfying, and to do so in their own invention after spending the level’s first half witnessing the reality of their disgusting philosophy is practically a manifesto about what the series is about. Cathartic, intense, and altogether fun, this level is easily the high point of an already stellar campaign.

Once BJ and Set escape the camp and return to headquarters, it is revealed that there is a Da’at Yichud cache located at the bottom of the ocean that will require a submarine to reach. After a relatively brief mission where BJ is stowed aboard a nuclear armed submarine and takes it over for the resistance, they travel to retrieve the contents of the cache. Now armed with advanced technology, the resistance now seeks to cut off the Nazi head by killing Strasse and his leadership located in a stronghold in Berlin. However, one final thing is required; the launch codes to the nuclear missiles located on the submarine.

It turns out the codes are located on the Nazi lunar base, and so BJ impersonates a research scientist to gain access. The level itself is a pretty average run through corridors filled with Nazis with occasional bits of traversing the moon for variety’s sake. Still, it comes at a good time to change up the game’s pacing and style. What was previously a terrestrial shooter with conventional weaponry becomes a sci-fi space adventure with laser guns. It’s a tad silly given the rest of the story, but ends up being a great respite before the final missions go back to being deadly serious.

Upon stealing the codes and returning to Earth, BJ discovers that the resistance’s headquarters has been found by the Nazis. He scrambles back to defend the base, and tries to fight his way back to Anya and the others. This level succeeds in upping the stakes, having the Nazis violate the one safe space that BJ has. Unsurprisingly, despite his best efforts BJ is not able to save most of his friends, who end up in Nazi captivity in the Berlin stronghold. Faced with little choice, BJ takes the submarine to liberate the resistance and end Strasse’s reign.

The game’s finale has BJ infiltrating the Nazi compound to liberate the resistance before launching a nuclear attack. After fighting through the compound and freeing his comrades, BJ then seeks to enact revenge on Strasse for all the he has done. But it is Strasse who has the upper hand, and he activates a mecha powered by the extracted brain of the person who was sacrificed at the game’s beginning. This final insult, the horror of knowing that BJ’s friend has spent the past 14 years conscious but helpless, and now with no free will, is an incredibly affecting sight to behold. The ensuing boss battle against the robot is especially sickening, with either Fergus or Wyatt screaming out in horror while their new body seeks to kill BJ. After a fairly tough battle, BJ is able to finally put his friend to rest, and the final showdown with Strasse can begin.

Admittedly, the battle against Strasse is a bit underwhelming after the previous fight. The Nazi leader pilots a mecha with an impenetrable shield that is taken down by destroying the zeppelins that power it. After that, it’s a fairly simple matter of attacking Strasse will all manner of weapons until he eventually goes down. What follows the boss fight ends up being far more interesting. BJ, blinded by his years of hatred for his nemesis, chooses to end Strasse’s life slowly and painfully. Strasse, using this opportunity to inflict his final wound, detonates a grenade that kills him and maims BJ. It is here that our protagonist sees the logical endpoint of his actions. By not turning away from his path of revenge, by choosing to go beyond his mission of simply liberating his friends, he sacrificed any hope of a future with Anya. BJ, understanding that there are no happy endings for people like him, accepts his fate and orders the firing of the nuclear missile.

What I adore about the game’s finale is how incomplete it is. Sure, the resistance dealt a major blow to the Nazis by blowing up their stronghold and killing their leader, but that alone cannot undo the fact that the Fourth Reich still controls most of the world. BJ, the indomitable hero who seemed to be able to escape any situation, is presumably dead, and it is up to Anya and the others to complete what he has started. Wolfenstein: The New Order, despite being the macho proto-first person shooter that it is, never chooses to take the easy way out. The game’s setting, while ridiculous at first glance, feels as inconclusive as our own. The horrors visited upon the world in those 14 years will never be undone despite the player’s heroics, and similarly the toll it takes on the game’s characters will leave lasting marks. Wolfenstein could have easily been a fun romp through an alternate history with a barebones story, and it probably would still be good based on its solid gameplay. But by really committing to its narrative and supporting it with fantastic writing and great performances, MachineGames has hit on something special. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

In high school I was a bit of a theater geek. Whether I was working backstage or doing a terrible impression of an actor onstage, I adored the artifice that was live performance. As anyone who’s had the thespian bug bite them can tell you, there are a great many rules that govern how a play operates. For actors, these rules include such things as delivering one’s lines as written or agreed upon by the company, avoiding interactions with the audience during a performance, and not saying “good luck” to another member of the production. One of the most sacred rules, however, is to never step on another actor’s lines. Interrupting another actor impedes a performance for a variety of reasons. For one, it makes the dialog harder to follow for the audience, who rely on theater's specific speaking tropes to understand what is being said. For another, it is disrespectful to the person being interrupted, as you are taking away from the time that they are the focus of the show. Finally, it simply looks and sounds unprofessional.

However, rules such as these only make sense in the context of performance. We interrupt each other, mishear words or phrases, and change the subject all the time in real life casual conversations. To converse with our friends otherwise would come across as stilted and weird. For a long time, this wasn’t really an issue, as we’ve come to accept that speech in theater, television, and film is fundamentally different than real life speech. But in video games, using these long established performative rules for speaking may not be as effective in delivering dialog. There’s no guarantee that players will stay in one spot or even pay attention to what is being said, and so we often see Band-Aid solutions such as walk and talk segments that kill pacing, cutscenes that don’t match up with the in-game aesthetic, or stand-in-place RPG style interactions that take agency away from the player. For the most part players and designers have just accepted the status quo; acknowledging the difficulty of putting organically implemented dialog into games and leaving the situation be. Thankfully, the folks at Night School Studio feel that games can do dialog better, and have proven it with the excellent Oxenfree.

The game opens with someone excitedly discussing military bases, ranches, and Henry Fonda. You don’t get to hear the entirety of what he’s been saying, and it feels like your mind has drifted and you’re just now paying attention. The screen then reveals the voice coming from a boat, which appears to have three passengers in addition to the vessel’s skipper. Blank speech bubbles begin to pop up from one of the passengers, indicating that he’s the one who’s been prattling on. Another of the passengers chimes in, complete with his own speech bubble, and asks who Henry Fonda is. The third passenger is then given an opportunity to speak, but instead of saying something, three speech bubbles with text begin to float above her head. The game subtly encourages the player to pick one of the bubbles by pressing the corresponding button. If you’re quick enough with your decision, something interesting happens. The player character cuts off the other speaker to deliver her lines. The game doesn’t miss a beat and continues the trio’s discussion like nothing happened, weaving each character’s lines into the conversation in a seamless manner.

Right then, Oxenfree lays out what it’s all about: dialog. Namely, naturalistic and free flowing dialog that isn’t beholden to specific line readings. The game expands upon this further once the boat docks at its island destination. The characters, introduced as the player character Alex, her best friend Ren, and her new step brother Jonas, are here for a night of drinking and partying to celebrate the end of their junior year of high school. As they head to the island’s beach to meet up with their other friends, Nona and Clarissa, they chat about the goings on in their lives. The player is given ample opportunity to join in on the conversation, or even change the subject by selecting points of interest. Alternatively, Alex can say nothing, and the other characters will either acknowledge her silence or keep the conversation going with one another.

The result is a freewheeling conversation that naturally lays out the exposition for the player. Ren is established as the joker of the group, keeping the discussion lighthearted when tensions between Alex and Clarissa flair up. Jonas starts out shy, being the newcomer, and listens more than he speaks. Nona remains quiet for the most part, but her ears perk up when Alex mentions Ren’s crush on her. The excellent voice work is complimented by the game insisting on a wide angle shot for framing the friends. Whether by artistic choice or budgetary constraints, Oxenfree keeps the player far enough away from the characters that it is tough to discern facial expressions or other forms of subtle body language. While you’d think that this would feel less intimate, it actually does the opposite. Based on the dialog and sparse yet gorgeous art style, the game encourages the player to imagine how the characters are interacting based on their own experiences and emotions, leading to greater identification with them.

These interactions, enabled by the excellent dialog system, really anchor Oxenfree even as it gets into some out-there horror and conspiracy story beats. The game allows for a variety of endings, but unlike most other games based on choice Oxenfree doesn’t telegraph most of its decisions. Being curt to certain characters can damage your relationship with them and alter their actions after the story ends, or playing matchmaker could encourage two characters to couple up. But again, these aren’t binary, single point choices. The consequences arise from the sum of all of Alex’s interactions with her friends, and like those interactions, the results can be surprisingly big and small. As a result, Oxenfree’s narrative feels a lot more real than most video game stories.

To be clear, Oxenfree’s approach to dialog and character interaction isn’t completely true to life. There’s still performative aspects to it. Characters are able to hear one another clearly over large distances or ambient sounds, and the script can at times feel a little too witty for high schoolers. What the game does instead is establish a new performance convention that could serve video game narratives well. Certainly, this doesn’t mean that cut scenes or stand-in-place interactions should be completely done away with, but it does mean that there is a path for video games to implement dialog that feels more natural within the constraints of the medium. Oxenfree may be a small game, but it has some big ideas, and they’re worth checking out.

Video games as a learning tool is a concept that is almost as old as the medium itself. It makes sense, as video games encourage a hands-on method of education that books, music, or film can only hint at. A big reason why games can be so effective in this regard is because of the medium’s strength in encouraging empathy. We might not be able to actually walk a mile in another person’s shoes, but we certainly experience a similar, virtual approximation of their lives. But for all the potential in video games to bridge the divide between people, there remains precious few modern games that actually tap into it. 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is a game that attempts to revive this strain of game development. It does so by crafting a compelling piece of historical fiction that sheds new light on an often misunderstood event in modern history. Despite its flaws, the game mostly succeeds and in doing so provides an intriguing new way to present historical events.

1979 Revolution focuses on the story of Reza Shirazi, a young Iranian photography student who returns home from studying abroad on the eve of the Iranian Revolution. While Reza grew up in Iran, his time away has given him enough distance to not be completely familiar with the current political climate in his homeland. His identity as a photographer allows him to view the game’s events through the lens of his camera and it shows how pictures were integral in shaping the revolution. The game uses his point of view very effectively in describing the state of the world to the player. Reza is neither completely enmeshed in the situation nor is he a total outsider, and so he can have other characters explain the current situation to him without it feeling out of character. Furthermore, the game can indulge in discussing the nuances of Iranian art, music, food and social dynamics in an organic way. For instance, in one scene Reza comes across some old family films of his parents partaking in various Persian holidays and activities, and he’s able to internally narrate the events that serve to educate the player. The game also doesn’t shy away from peppering Persian words and phrases into the dialog and respects the player’s capacity to understand what is said based on context.

It’s the willingness to take the time to learn about the people of Iran that makes the game something special. Through dialog with other characters and investigating the environment, the player learns more about the everyday lives of Iranians going through this tumultuous time. We begin to understand the internal conflict that young Iranians felt, torn between the prosperity and global culture offered by the Western-backed Shah and the traditional teachings and freedom offered by the independent Ayatollah Khomeini. Reza is pulled in different directions by those around him, including his status-quo supporting brother Hossein, his peaceful revolution supporting best friend Babak, and his violent revolution supporting cousin Ali. The dialog can stumble a bit here, as there are times where these characters will simply shout their side’s point of view at one another until Reza makes a choice. These moments feel artificial and took me out of the experience, although thankfully they don’t happen often.

The game clearly takes inspiration from Telltale’s school of design, and one can be forgiven for thinking it came from that studio. From the way branching dialog works to the structure of quick time events, if you’ve played The Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us you’ll know exactly what to expect. But while 1979 Revolution takes from those games’ strengths, it also inherits their weaknesses. The quick time events in particular disrupt the flow of the story as the windows of successful inputs are laughably short. I don’t think I was able to pass a single one of these sequences on the first try as I had to memorize the inputs in order to press them in time. Additionally, the game telegraphs player choice a little too much and offers only the smallest of consequences based on player input.

Some of these shortcomings can be attributed to the game’s small budget. 1979 Revolution does not have the highest production values, and on occasion this shows up on the screen with awkward character animations, occasional blurry textures, and an ending that feels hastily cut. Still, the team at iNK Stories manage to craft a presentation that serves the narrative for the most part. One standout moment has Reza and Babak standing on a rooftop watching hundreds of demonstrators shouting in the streets. Whatever technical wizardry needed to make that scene happen was absolutely worth it, and it got me fully swept up in the revolutionary emotions in the air during that fateful September.

When they have covered past real world events, video games have tended to focus on the bigger picture of history. One can look at franchises like Civilization and Age of Empires to see the emphasis on the national and international factors influencing history, but this is also true for smaller scale games. World War II games like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor, for instance, put you in the role of faceless soldiers who are merely focused on the battles themselves, and not how the horrors of war affect them as individuals. And these games typically say nothing of the civilian experience during these times, outside of window dressing to make the setting feel “real”. Certainly, while games like Valiant Hearts exist to tell more personal stories, they are the exception rather than the norm. But these individual stories are what make history come alive, and video games are uniquely suited to present them effectively. 1979 Revolution is not a perfect game, but it shows the potential for this medium to shed new light on misunderstood historical events through an empathetic lens. It demonstrates what a team can do with a unique perspective, a passion to tell their story, and the resources to bring their vision to life. I only hope that others follow the path iNK Stories has forged to tell their own stories. Until then, I can come away from 1979 Revolution knowing a little more about the politics, the people, and the circumstances that led to such a pivotal 20th century event.

Note: I found out about 1979 Revolution: Black Friday through a recent episode of Extra Credits. The video provides a fantastic breakdown of how and why the game succeeds in educating the player. You can check it out here.

Dingers. Taters. Bombs. Whatever you want to call them, the home run is one of the most exhilarating actions in all of sports. Whether you’re a baseball stats-head or someone that finds the sport to be an overall bore, the excitement of a ball leaving the park cannot be denied. Major League Baseball (MLB) seems to fully understand the intrinsic appeal of the long ball and, since 1985, has doubled down on it with the Home Run Derby. For those unfamiliar, the Derby is a competition involving some of the best hitters in baseball to see who can hit the most home runs. The rules have been tweaked over the years, but up until 2014 the basic structure remained fairly constant. Each player is given a set amount of “outs”, which are recorded if they hit a ball that does not reach the stands, and they must hit as many home runs as possible before recording their final out. It’s a lot of fun to watch, and one look at Derby participants in years past shows a veritable who’s who of baseball greats, including Ken Griffey Jr., Vladimir Guerrero, and Darryl Strawberry.

So why am I writing about the Home Run Derby on a blog dedicated to gaming? Well, aside from it being an excuse to bore you all with baseball, this year’s Derby is set to air tonight (July 11th) at 8 PM Eastern Time. But in addition to timeliness, the Derby has undergone a format change. Since last year, the Derby has eliminated the concept of “outs” and have instead chosen to go with a timer system. Here is a summary of the new rules per Wikipedia:

In 2015, the format was overhauled. A bracket system was implemented, with 8 hitters seeded based on their regular-season home runs totals entering the All-Star break. The players compete in single-elimination, head-to-head matchups, continuing through 3 rounds until there is a winner. With this system, outs were also eliminated in favor of timed rounds, affording players unlimited swings. Five-minute limits had originally been decided upon for each hitter's turn at bat, although weather concerns preceding the 2015 Home Run Derby resulted in MLB reducing it to four minutes. Players who hit at least two home runs measuring at least 420 feet (130 m) are given an extra minute of bonus time. An additional 30 seconds of bonus time is granted if at least one home run measures over 475 feet (145 m).[6] If a tie remains after time runs out on both players (including any bonus time earned), there will be a 90-second swing-off (without bonus time nor timeouts); if still tied, three swing-off rounds; thereafter, sudden-death swing-off rounds apply until one player homers.

You probably glazed over that last part, so let’s see how the new rules work in action. Here’s Todd Frazier’s winning round from last year’s Derby:

See that? The measuring of home run distance, the bonuses awarded based on performance, the concept of beating the other player’s high score? It’s practically a real life video game! MLB has successfully gamified the Home Run Derby and the result is thrilling to watch. Given the time pressure, players are going after every pitch that is offered to them, with a great many of the batted balls not reaching the stands. But those hits aren’t the ones the viewer remembers. Since the contestants are incentivized to hit balls as far as possible to gain additional time, we get to see Frazier hit 400+ foot moon shots that look impressive even on TV. Add to that the overlays showing where the ball landed along with their distance, and the viewer is given instant feedback on how well the player is doing.

The presentation and setup of the new Derby clearly takes inspiration from video games, specifically baseball video games. And that’s pretty crazy if you think about it. The best-selling sports games are typically the ones dedicated to being as accurate to the on-the-field action and TV presentation as possible. Consider the Madden series, which is named after a man mostly known for his work in the commentator’s booth. Those games strive for an accurate simulation that closely mirrors what you see on TV each Sunday. Any pieces of video game artifice, including such things as indicators under players’ feet or ball markers on the field, are seen as necessary evils at best. However, with the rise of sophisticated broadcasting software the real life product is starting to look more and more like what our consoles are pumping out. What started with the first down marker in football broadcasts have now blossomed into such visually striking artifacts such as the arc of a basketball jump shot or the strike zone overlay in baseball.

These artifacts, while incredible when viewed at home, so far hasn’t translated into very many changes in the actual sports themselves. This is what makes the revamped Home Run Derby so intriguing. Sure, it may be an exhibition that has little stakes aside from pride, but the players are actually being compelled to play in a manner that wouldn’t be out of place in an arcade hall. Given the fact that the latest generation of athletes have grown up with a controller in hand like the rest of us, of course they’re going to be more open to these kinds of ideas than their stodgy old counterparts. Will the Derby be a harbinger of things to come, where professional sports leagues are more willing to experiment with format and rules to create a more entertaining product? Of that I’m not sure, but for now I’ll enjoy the thrill of watching some talented athletes smack the leather off some baseballs.