Playlist (November 2021) (Patreon)

Hello! It's time for the penultimate Playlist video for 2021. Next month, it's Game of the Year time. As ever, you can watch this as a video by clicking above, or read it as an article by scrolling down. Whatever you prefer.

Before Your Eyes

Hoo boy. Okay, Before Your Eyes is a beautiful, heartfelt story game. It's about a soul who is about to meet the gatekeeper to the afterlife, and so needs to fast-forward through his life to tell the story of his existence.

I don't want to say anything more about the plot - you've got to see that for yourself. Plus, there are some options here and there to make the narrative your own, so my story might be different to yours.

Instead, I'll talk about the game's inventive input method: blinking. You'll need a webcam to play and now you can look around with the mouse and interact by blinking your eyes.

This can be used to interact with things, like drawing a picture, answering a phone call, or speaking to someone. But it also takes you forward in time to the next vignette: sometimes a few minutes later, sometimes years later.

And this creates the game's most compelling challenge: in many moments, you want to hang around for as long as possible. Take things in, and be in the moment. But as soon as you blink it cuts to the next scene. And because blinking is an automatic human process and hard to stop for any length of time - it's going to happen.

It can be heartbreaking, causing your eyes to strain and water. And it really doesn't help when the story gets sad and you start to cry and you want to hang on but your eyes are wobbling and… well, I said I wouldn't talk about the story.

This is a lovely game, and I really recommend it. Before Your Eyes is well worth a look. And a blink.

Unsighted

Unsighted is a Zelda-inspired game about a world of robots who are quickly running out of time.

In true Zelda fashion, you’ve got an open world to explore - and dungeons to dive into. Each one gives you new abilities that will help you get through the dungeon - and then explore more of the overworld. And I mean, this one is really inspired by Zelda - I just got a power-up that is straight up pinched from Twilight Princess.

But I’m not too worried about that. In a world of endless Metroidvanias, it’s nice to have something closer to Link to the Past. The level design is mostly very good, with unique challenges in each dungeon and mini puzzles that make you stop and think. You’ll be bringing up the map, hunting for keys, backtracking - all that good stuff.

It’s also a tricky combat game, with hints of Hyper Light Drifter as you bounce between close-up brawls and hang-back blasts with your weapon. This one doesn’t mess around: if you’re not being clever with your dodge or parry move, you’re gonna die. Quick.

Which leads to another part of the game, and perhaps its most unique. The whole game is on a timer, and as the clock ticks down - the game’s cast of characters get closer and closer to death. And when they’re gone, they’re gone. That could mean a friendly face is missing from the story, or a helpful shopkeeper is no longer around to sell you weapons. You can extend their life with a collectible item, but they’re rare and hard to find.

Which is all… okay. But it does feel a bit grafted on. Most of the time, if a game has a time-sensitive system, it’s front and centre in the game’s design. I’m thinking Dead Rising, Majora’s Mask, or Outer Wilds. Here, it’s more like you’re playing a normal Zelda but every now and again you need to warp back to Kakariko Village to top up everyone’s life - and then warp back to the game you were actually playing.

I’m quite far into the game - maybe half way - and so far this system hasn’t really affected my experience too much. I don’t have enough interest in these characters to care too much about their survival, and going back to slow their demise feels a bit more like busywork than anything. I’m almost tempted to turn the whole feature off in the settings and just ignore it.

Because outside of this system, Unsighted is simply a very enjoyable, creative, and varied Zelda-like game with good dungeons, crunchy combat, and gorgeous graphics.

The Forgotten City

Okay, so this is a bizarre one. The Forgotten City is like a cross between the time loop shenanigans of Outer Wilds, and the free-form investigation of Paradise Killer - and yet it predates both of those games because its actually a Skyrim mod, that has been completely remade in Unreal Engine. If that intrigues you and you don’t want to hear a single other word, you can leave this video here - see you next month! Otherwise, keep going.

So here’s the synopsis. You are transported to an ancient Roman city where all the citizens live under “the golden rule”. Which is essentially: if one single person commits a sin, everyone dies. You can test this for yourself by stealing some money or killing someone - everyone dies and you go back to the start. But! With new info… and some money in your pocket.

Essentially you need to figure out who is going to break the golden rule - though, things soon spiral out beyond that simple premise. There’s an election you can rig, there’s characters to blackmail, there are murder plots, lies, suicides, and more. Each one is part of a twisty web of lies and deceit that you can carefully unpick as you loop around and around.

It’s quite a trip! It’s clever and involving. It’s one of those games you should play with a pad of paper by your side, taking notes and writing lists of things to try in subsequent loops. Though, there’s also a quest log - I personally avoided using it too much as I wanted to be more engrossed in the world.

I also found the narrative quite interesting. The game references a lot of Greek myths - but the whole thing feels like its own myth. A moralistic fable that asks you to think about what constitutes a sin, what are laws, who decides what’s right and wrong.

Ultimately, like Paradise Killer and Outer Wilds, this was one of those games that I just couldn’t put down. I played the whole thing in a single sitting one day, as I strived to unlock the best ending. Which was… a little corny but well worth the effort. A very good game, highly recommended.