I finished Plague Tale: Innocence today (12-21-19). No spoilers, but I've got a few thoughts on an issue that I thought also affected Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and in a less direct way, The Last of Us. This is long. No one is going to read this. It's fine, I just felt like writing it out.

I'll just talk about Plague and come back around to the other two. First, I really enjoyed this game. The one issue I had was that they added in too many gamey elements that I feel took away from the immersiveness of the story. I get why they have to do it. This game was story first, but they have to give you things to find and enemies to kill because it's a video game, right?

But did they? Early on, I felt searching every corner for collectibles and crafting materials didn't fit with the story, which was of two kids trying to escape murderous soldiers who were searching for them. I crawled over dead bodies, dragging my brother behind me, because I wanted to see if I could find some string or fabric in that back corner. I braved the previously mentioned soldiers to sneak around and break into someone's house to see if I could rob them of their rocks and leather scraps. Hell, maybe I'd find a flower!

I can't help but poke around for that stuff. About half way through, I realized I didn't need a single upgrade and there was always more than enough crafting material in an area to do what I needed to do and still get the few upgrades I did want, so there was no reason to search. I still did it, though.

The thing is, I'm there for the story and I want to be immersed in it. I feel like the more gamey elements took away from that and were also not very fun. Especially towards the end of the game there were several somewhat frustrating sections that I had to repeat multiple times.

I'm not sure adding in these gamey elements adds any value to the game for people looking for a "fun" game. People who are gameplay-first gamers will probably not like this game much at all anyway. The stealth is simplistic. The few boss fights are literally do a thing three times. I found myself very frustrated with the final encounter. It wasn't hard, I just managed to bork it up several times in a row and kinda ended up hating it. Visually it was awesome, though. If I had managed to do it all in one go, it would have been a fun ride. Instead I found myself annoyed and just glad it was over.

I plan on replaying Hellblade this week (in VR this time). It is another game that I really loved when I played it the first time. Again, though, I felt like the gamier elements detracted from the overall experience. The puzzles were fine, but not too interesting overall. I would have liked to have seen more there, personally. The combat, though... I could have done without that altogether. At least Senua is a warrior, though. I was really put off by how many dudes I had to kill as Amicia in Plague Tale. In Hellblade (and it's been a long time since I played it last), I remember the combat feeling bad and tacked on. Visually, it was cool, but I'd have liked to see it just be a quicktime event or something simpler so I could get back to the story.

But then it wouldn't be a video game, would it?

So, I mentioned The Last of Us. I doubt anyone has read this far but I'm going to keep typing anyway. TLOU is one of my favorite games of all time. I actually DID enjoy the gameplay here. I played multiple times over, including a run on Grounded difficulty. I played the whole thing as stealthily as I could, rarely shooting and almost never using a shiv to kill (except a few spots where it's forced on you to do so). I know a lot of people hated the gameplay, this is one story focused game where I really enjoyed the gameplay elements. I was fully immersed in the stealthy, tense situations. The amazing soundwork in that game goes a long way, especially with a good set of Dolby headphones.

However, there is one thing that I felt they could have done without. I'm sure there are a lot of folks who would disagree. These are the folks whose chief complaints were that they ran out of ammo all the time, etc. There were too many guns and too much ammo. Even on the hardest difficulty. By the end of that game, Joel is loaded down with a bunch of guns, throwable, shivs, etc. By the end you even have a (minor spoilers) flamethrower and assault rifle. In all of my playthroughs, I only used the flamethrower at the very end and then just because I had it and may as well use it up at the end. It takes away from the realism of this apocalyptic wasteland where there are very few resources that somehow this dude is packing all of these weapons on his person. A bow, pistol, long gun, and maybe a handful of throwables would have been plenty.

My one worry for TLOU2 is that they will double down on this and give into those who want the game to be more shootery. I'm a bit put off by the addition of the dogs in TLOU2 because, first I don't want to kill dogs in games, and second they are there to break up the stealth gameplay, which is what I loved about the first one. Taking my time, watching. Learning the AI patterns in each area.

The point of all of this is that sometimes less is more with gameplay. If you have a good story and an immersive world, I don't feel like you need to force in all of the gimmicks that come to be expected in video games. Just like we no longer have to collect coins or have a score in the corner, we don't always need collectibles. We also don't always need to be able to kill everyone, especially in a case like Plague Tale where it kind of made no sense that this teenage girl was murdering her way through the Inquisition with a sling.

I'm not knocking these games, as I'm a big fan of all three and heartily recommend them all. I just kind of wish they would have let the story be the thing that kept you playing rather than trying to add challenge for challenge's sake. I'm not suggesting that they should have been "walking simulators", but maybe more of a focus on puzzles and light stealth (with less room for failure and repetition) would have served the experience better for the audience that would appreciate the stories the most.