A Small Victory

In the hopes of getting more people to read my blog posts I have been uploading them on my IGN account as well.  On my most recent article I talked about how slavery has not been explored to greatest possible extent within gaming.  I received a comment on IGN from a man named Brian Mayer.  He wrote:

I currently have a game I designed about the Abolitionist Movement called Freedom: The Underground Railroad that is coming out early fall from Academy Games. While not from the perspective of the slaves themselves, it looks at the the story of the Abolition, the men and women and the legislature and events that surrounded their efforts. It is a challenging cooperative game that immerses the players in the history and struggles of bringing about change as players work together to help bring down the institution of slavery in the United States.

It is currently up on Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/617871702/freedom-the-underground-railroad-by-academy-games

 

Freedom: The Underground Railroad casts the players as abolitionists.  As the game progresses, players must work together in order to help fugitive slaves travel from the plantations deep in the south to their freedom in Canada. However, it isn't as easy as drawing the orange card and frolicking through the Gumdrop Mountains.  The game fights back against the players in the form of Slave Catchers that randomly move around the board at the start of each player’s turn.  Runaways that are captured get resold into slavery.  But the players do have some advantages in the form of support, conductor, and fundraising tokens each with their own benefits.  The game is over after eight rounds and the players win or lose on the basis of how many fugitive slaves they helped escape to freedom and whether all of the support tokens have been purchased.  

This board game looks intriguing for two reasons:  One, it fits very well with my assertion that there needs to be a game that addresses this topic.  Secondly I’m a huge sucker for cooperative board games; Forbidden Island by Matt Leacock being a personal favorite.  I highly recommend checking out the Kickstarter page and possibly backing it as well.  The game is already doing very well on the crowd-funding website, having met the first two stretch goals.  There is still room to donate as the page is open until August 18^th.  I know I will be donating, as I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the game to see if it can satiate my desire for an Underground Railroad video game.  

A Game that Needs to be Made

Sometimes when I look at what games I will be playing in the future, I get a little bummed out. Video game developers have found a few themes and settings that work well within the confines of an interactive experience, and they’ve clung to them for dear life. I have played one too many games set within a zombie apocalypse. Too many times have I stormed the beach at Normandy or laid siege to a village in the Middle East. And if I have to gather the four elemental McGuffin’s to save the world one more time somebody is going to hear about it.

From my perspective game producers are trying to take themselves more seriously every day. I am happy to say that each year more and more games are released from AAA studios that transcend mediocrity in storytelling. Nevertheless, I believe that there is still a long way to go. That’s where I come in. Every now and then I find myself deep in thought, and when I finally snap out of it sometimes I’ll be left with a brilliant idea.

Recently I had one of those moments.

It happened shortly after I finished my review for Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us (Link here). I was going through my usual routine of internet time wasting when I found myself on imdb.com. I noticed a new trailer that piqued my interest. 12 Years a Slave looks like a great piece of Oscar bait if I do say so myself. Being a sucker for anything that has or will receive critical acclaim, it immediately shot to the top of my list of must-see cinema. The film is a historical drama based on the true story of Solomon Northup; a free black man who was wrongfully sold into slavery in 1841. He managed to win back his freedom in 1853. Later, he recounted his story in a memoir which is the basis for the film.

If the film industry can base some of its entertainment on dark moments in our nation’s history what is keeping game developers from doing the same? The only historical games that have been created by major studios either focus on wars i.e. Call of Duty 1-3, Brothers in Arms, etc., or are some form of revisionist history like Assassin’s Creed 3. I believe that it is important for a maturing industry to begin tackling these topics. I think it is time for a triple A game set on the Underground Railroad.

Slavery is a stain on the United States’ history, but don’t go busting out the bleach just yet. It is important that we understand what has occurred in the past so that we can learn from it. In today’s society there is such a disconnection to the past that some people are of the mind that racism and racial inequality have disappeared. That is not the case. Racism is just as alive today as shown by recent events in the news.

One of the greatest aspects of playing a video game is the sense of escapism from the real world. When gaming, I become the character on the screen. Up until this point I have had the thrill of becoming hero after hero after hero; however, the medium of games is not limited to that paradigm. Imagine a game that puts the gamer in the shoes of a slave. In the beginning the player would find him or herself working on a plantation in the south. There wouldn't be a cotton picking mini-game to detract from the gravity of the situation. Instead the player would be forced to arduously pick cotton all day long and if they chose to walk away from their work, the foremen would see to it that he or she got back to work; resorting to violence if necessary. Afterwards the player’s character would somehow get in trouble with the master of the plantation and choose to escape. The rest of the game would comprise of the player trying to make it north and all of the unfortunate encounters along the way. Run-ins with slave traders, bounty hunters, and opportunistic civilians could account for drama and action throughout the story.

I mentioned that I had this thought shortly after I had played The Last of Us. This is important because the gameplay elements in that game would translate beautifully to this new adventure. Naughty Dog’s masterpiece relied heavily on stealth gameplay due to limited resources and weapons. In my proposed game, even though it wouldn't be a post-apocalyptic world, resources would be equally difficult to acquire. Therefore stealth would be a necessity. There is a possibility that the protagonist could acquire weaponry during his journey, but it would only be able to be used as a last resort.

Having a younger young companion join the protagonist on this journey would also lend itself to great story arcs and set-piece moments. The child could be captured necessitating in a rescue mission, or the hero itself could become sick or wounded requiring the player to take control of the child. I know that both of these examples are virtually pulled note for note from The Last of Us, but that is the point I’m trying to make. The gameplay and scenarios for that game are a Cinderella fit for this an Underground Railroad story-line.

Most importantly, a game with this setting would give the gamer an experience unlike anything else. If done well, it could instill in the player the sense of loneliness and fear that fugitive slaves most likely felt. It’s survival horror without monsters, unless human beings fit the description. There is no game like that accomplishes this.

To be fair, there are two games I found that are already set within this era.

The main hub for Freedom!

Freedom!, released in 1993, is a game by MECC the same company that created The Oregon Trail. In it the player controls a slave who decides to run away from a plantation which is very reminiscent of the game I described above. However, that’s where the similarities end. This edutainment game features gameplay very reminiscent of MECC’s other game, The Oregon Trail. Players must monitor their nutrition, health, stamina, and whether they are currently injured throughout the course of the game. These four factors influence the success of their escape. A lot of time is spent hiking through woods, and swimming in rivers in order to stay out of the eyes of bounty hunters. The game is won when the player successfully escapes to the North and it can be lost either by dying due to exhaustion or malnutrition, or by being recaptured.

An example of the "phonetic" dialogue

At the time of its release the game was not well received. It was quickly removed from schools because it was considered racially insensitive. An article from the

New York Times published on August 28, 1995 tells the story of an eleven year old African American student who was bullied by his white peers due to the game. In an interview the parents said, “He was hurt that people were making fun of the characters in the game…He was upset that he was being thought of as a slave.”

It isn't hard to see where the parents were coming from in this case. Much of the dialogue is very derivative as it is written phonetically; an attempt to recreate an insensitive view of the slave’s vernacular. Nevertheless, I feel that judgment was passed too quickly. In an article for Compute! published in September of 1993, a school librarian named Helen Cartier defended the title saying it was “an exciting vehicle that enabled students to understand some of the challenges that African-Americans faced when fleeing captivity.” This is the same sentiment that I believe the game I have proposed could express.

Sarah, the daughter of the master of the house,
scolds Lucy for showing up late.

The second game is another edutainment title, this time produced by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. MissionUS is a dialogue and choice driven game set within different periods of United States history. The first mission casts the player as a printmaker’s apprentice during the Revolutionary War, while the second mission is set within the south immediately following the fugitive slave act. The player controls Lucy, a young girl who decides to run away from her master and make a new life for herself in the North.

Lucy remembering the family
she left behind.

What makes this game unique is the level of choice within it. The opening screen states, “These are some of the decisions you will face as you guide Lucy through the game. Remember there is no ‘right’ answer, but some of the choices you make will have lasting consequences. As you make choices, you unlock Journey Badges you will use to determine Lucy’s ultimate journey in the game’s epilogue. At the end of each part you will see which badges you unlocked…and which you did not.” As I played through the game, I often chose to play it safe, more often keeping a low profile. For instance I was given the option to burn down my master’s smoke house after he yelled at me and gave me twice as much work to do. Instead I chose to do the work he gave me, just not to the best of my abilities. These choices I made helped me create my own story for Lucy. In the end, my Lucy became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, managing to bring many people safely into the north. Her last mission took her deep into the south to rescue her father. I highly recommend playing through this free game because even though it does not have the production values I believe a game of this nature deserves, it handles the sensitivity of the subject very well. (Link here)

While the setting I’ve may not be the most original, I still stand behind my decision. There still has not been a non-educational game that allows players to live through that kind of adversity. The games that we do have are more akin to a documentary on slavery, not a film like 12 Years a Slave. Video games have the power to draw you into the experience, allowing the player to feel what the protagonist is feeling unlike any other medium. By allowing me to feel even a fraction of the emotional toll runaways on the Underground Railroad felt, I believe this game needs to be made.

Additional Resources:

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue156/82_What_cost_freedom.php

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/28/us/school-s-computer-game-on-slavery-prompts-suit.html?scp=1&sq=School's%20Computer%20Game%20on%20Slavery%20Prompts%20Suit&st=cse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdqgIoOQcfw

The Last of Us - A Review

Wow….

It is hard to know how to begin discussing this game because it is entirely unique. Throughout the course of my 15 hour play-through I felt equal parts fear, hope, distress, with just a twinge of frustration (I’ll explain that last part in a bit.) The Last of Us, directed by Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, is an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish. It continually pushes back the boundary of how far you the gamer think it will go. This is not a cheery, pulp adventure like Naughty Dog’s previous series Uncharted, even though many of the game mechanics are pulled directly from that series. No, this is a dark and gritty game set in a post-apocalyptic United States in which a fungus named cordyceps has evolved to the point where it can infect humans. It is a game that needs to be played with as little prior knowledge about the story as possible. The Last of Us is nearly perfect; the acting is superb, the gameplay is visceral, and of course the story could not be more haunting.

Joel and Ellie, the two protagonists, go on a journey that is both expertly written and phenomenally acted. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson give the highest-caliber of performances as Joel and Ellie respectively. This is actually Mr. Baker’s second game this year in which he plays an older gentleman who is forced to escort a young girl through a treacherous world. However, his performance here is magnified by the third person gameplay; both Joel and Ellie’s are. Never have I felt such a distinct connection with two characters in a video game. I would also like to laud Nolan North for his portrayal of David. This is a voice actor that I have heard in many, many games, yet when the credits rolled I was utterly surprised that he had voiced this character. It was a completely different type of role from what I would associate with him, yet he nailed the delivery.

While it is true that the actor’s had a huge part in this by creating two very empathetic characters, I believe the art direction went a long way to creating two real people. They did this by creating an art style that I struggle to explain properly but would almost call a cartoonish reality. Still, at first glance of any screen of this game no one would call this game cartoonish. It is very realistic, but it is not realism. The character’s faces are much more animated. On both heroes, their eyes appear larger and are much more expressive. In this digital medium this actually makes the characters feel more real. It is similar to the early days of cinema when image quality was worse. Actors during that time would use copious amounts of makeup to make their features larger so they would stand out on camera making their expressions easier to read on the grainy film. Video game characters need a similar sort of help. As a counter example, a game like Heavy Rain by David Cage tried and to a certain extent failed to create realism in a video game. Something about the animation in that game seemed lifeless.

In regards to gameplay, this is the first Naughty Dog game I have played in which stealth is a viable option in encounters. When playing as Nathan Drake in Uncharted, I would often attempt to sneak quietly through an area, taking out soldiers one by one. However, it never seemed as though the game designers wanted me to be stealthy because it often seemed I would clear out a room entirely of enemies except for one final guy which there was no way to get behind, so I would take him out with my weapon. As soon as I fired by gun, 10+ other soldiers would appear in places that I had just cleared of enemies requiring me to take them out in a fire fight as well. For the most part The Last of Us avoided that problem. The majority of the encounters had a set number of hunters or infected placed within the “arena”. If the player managed to clear out all of the enemies save one by stealth, no others would appear.  That being said, the gunplay was also fun when I had to resort to it.

Before I discuss the story elements that I found so exhilarating, I want to briefly touch on what I found mildly frustrating about the game itself. When I first started the game, I was asked what difficulty level I wanted to set the game at. There were four options: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Survivor which was grayed out. Having done a little research online, I had read that survivor mode was the optimal way to experience the game. However, I couldn’t choose it, so I instead decided to play it on hard mode thinking that after completing the game, it would be unlocked. I believe that this was a mistake.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the challenge that hard mode provided; nevertheless, I feel that playing through a narrative heavy game on a mode that causes you to die over and over again detracts from the experience. There were a fair amount of moments throughout my play through that went like this: I would be completely immersed in the world and the story, then I would enter an area where the challenge suddenly skyrocketed causing me to repeat the encounter, and then repeat the encounter, and then repeat the encounter, and then repeat the encounter… You get the idea. One or two continues does not necessarily remove me from the world of the game. However, when I had to start looking at these battles more like a puzzle in a video game, and less like a life or death scenario for Joel, and Ellie I was immediately taken out of the world of the game and placed firmly back on my behind in my room. Of course I could have dropped down the difficulty at any point throughout the game, but I didn’t want to because I as keen on unlocking survivor mode. Unfortunately even after finishing the game the mode still eludes me.

So, in a small way the game’s story falters because it is a game and not a movie, but don’t quote me out of context in saying that because the benefits of this being an interactive piece of art far outweigh this one negative. I’m going to begin to discuss the story now, so skip to the final paragraph if you don’t want to read any SPOILERS. When the game starts, the player gets a glimpse at life before the world goes to hell. The opening shot is a close up of a young blond girl sleeping. At first thought one might assume this is Ellie, but a quick glance at the box art would prove otherwise. This girl is Sarah, our main character Joel’s daughter. It’s Joel’s birthday and Sarah was waiting up for him to give him his present: A watch that she had been saving up for. As this all happens in a cinematic, the viewer can see that the relationship between these two is incredibly strong. Shortly after, Joel carries his daughter to bed. When the game becomes playable, the gamer is in control of Sarah after she was awoken by the phone ringing. This blew my mind. Having watched a zombie movie or two in my time, and knowing that this was a prologue, I had already surmised that this character was not going to last the night. Knowing this made it hard to go forward with the game. Also, by not allowing me to control Joel until he is forced to carry his wounded daughter through streets filled with infected people, I felt the helplessness Joel was feeling all the stronger. There was nothing that could have been done to prevent what happens to his/my daughter. It’s inevitable.

A few other times throughout the game the player finds himself in control of a different character. One of my favorite such moments, and to be honest my favorite moment of the game, comes at the start of winter.  It begins with a cut-scene of Ellie hunting a rabbit. Now prior to this the last thing the gamer saw was a mortally wounded Joel fall off of a horse. Seeing Ellie alone and with the same horse makes the player wonder if that truly was the end of Joel. The gameplay helps to support this because now the player is in control of the previously non-playable Ellie. It’s one of the few quiet moments in the game. There are no infected, and no humans trying to kill the player. Ellie is stalking a deer. There’s no music playing, it’s just the girl and the deer in the snow-covered woods. This silence and loneliness drove home the doubts in my mind that, “Yes, Joel is gone. The rest of this game will just be me and Ellie.” It was unnerving. Shortly after felling the deer, Ellie runs into two men. What follows is a cinematic that establishes two important details for upcoming events: These two men come from a settlement with many other people, and Ellie is willing to trade the food for medicine hinting Joel is indeed still alive. Still, as short-lived as it may have been, that moment when I became that young girl all alone in that repulsive and terrifying world stands as a pinnacle of interactive story-telling.

I could continue to gush about the quality of this game for pages and pages, but what I have to say about it isn’t important right now. What is important is that you find a way to play this game. People have been clamoring for a game that truly represents why games are a truly unique and worthwhile type of art. This is that game. It is a game in which the violence is neither justified nor criminalized; it just is. Characters are neither heroic nor evil; they just survive. There is no black and white in the The Last of Us; everything is grey. The ending perfectly sums up that sentiment. I will not spoil that here, but I want to finish this with one question. At the very end of the game, do you feel that what the man does is justified? Please let me know as I’m extremely curious to find out other people’s opinions. One last time, I entreat you to remain as ignorant of the game as possible, find a PlayStation 3, and play this game.

The Last of Us

Gameplay – 4.5/5 The gameplay is fun and the progression of Joel and his weapons feels great, however, the constant restarting at continues removed me from the story and the game slightly.

Visuals – 5/5 Beautiful vistas and characters that feel real.

Sound – 5/5 Sound design that makes you cringe every time you have to bash someone’s skull in or strangle them but also includes beautifully captured sounds of nature that greets the player in the quieter moments.

Music – 5/5 Gustavo Santaolalla’s score blends twangy guitar with some of the most disturbing string music to perfectly fit this apocalyptic frontier.

Story – 5/5 Dark and brooding. An amazing compliment to Naughty Dog’s previous games.

Overall – 5/5 

Life on Repeat

                Gaming is a huge hobby of mine and I do it virtually every day given the opportunity; however, many of the games I play don’t always resonate in an emotional way with me.  Oh, they can be exciting, terrifying, heart-warming, or even thought provoking but a game that draws on the player’s pathos is unfortunately not easily found.  Luckily for me, James Portnow, a video game design consultant in the industry and one of the members of the superb web-series Extra Credits, created a list of 5 “games about the human experience” and posted them on his “Games for Good” Rockethub.  (Side note:  The “Games for Good” goal is to be proactive and open up a positive discussion with United States politicians about the good games can do instead of always just defended games when they get lambasted by said politicians in the wake of some tragedy.  I definitely recommend reading more about it here.)

                The first game on the list was titled Every Day the Same Dream designed by Paolo Pedercini, and after briefly scanning the rest of the titles, I decided to play this game first, with every intention of going on to play the subsequent games as well.  As the saying goes, even the best laid plans often go awry...

                As the game begins the player meets their avatar, a middle aged man standing in his underwear in a two-dimensional world.  The only instructions given to the player where the simple words, “arrows+space to play”, so as is the case with most video games, I pressed the right arrow key and began to walk forward.  However I was also told that the spacebar was utilized in the game, so anytime I would step in front of something of interest, I pressed the only other button I could.  Sure enough, as I stepped in front of my wardrobe and pressed space, my character got dressed.  In the next room a woman, whom I took to be my wife, greeted me.  I pressed space by her for additional conversation and she warned me that I am already running late. So I hurried along, and stepped into an elevator with an old lady who cryptically told me, “5 more steps and you will be a new person.”  Unsure of what that meant I continued on, always to the right.  After making my commute to work I was chastised by my boss for being late before making the long, arduous journey to my personal cubicle in a sea of similarly dressed men in cubicles.  After sitting down the screen faded to black, and for a second I thought, “Was that it?” A moment later I got my answer.  The game appeared to have restarted.  Once again I was in my room in my underwear.  Confused, I went back through the motions.  Got dressed, talked to my wife, took the elevator down (the woman said the same thing), drove to work, was late again, and sat down to work.  Once more the game faded to black, and once more it restarted.   I didn't know what to make of it.  The title of the game suggests a repeating loop, but I still felt like there was something more to it than that.  So on this third day, I vowed to see if there was anything I could do to break out of the cycle.

                When I made it to work and to my cubicle, I realized at the end of the room that there was an exit sign.  I followed it and on the next screen I appeared to be standing on the roof of my office building.  Continuing to the left, I made it to the edge of the roof and a single word flashed along the bottom of the screen:  Jump.  I stopped for a second. Was it worth it? I took a few steps back to the left.  Was my character’s life really that bad? 
                In that moment I experienced something that I never had before in my 22 years of life.  For the first time in my life I contemplated suicide.  It hit me like a ton of bricks that after playing through this short little game and repeating this “man’s” dreary existence only three times that I was seriously considering ending it all for my little avatar.  What surprised me even more was that I did jump.  Not necessarily because I figured that would be the end of the game, but because I imagined that is what my character would have wanted.  I watched my character climb up on the rail and then fall to his death. 

                As the moment sunk in, and the screen went black once more I felt that I had experienced a video game that truly had something real to say.  Before I could even gather my thoughts, I realized that I was once again staring at my character standing in his room in his underwear.  What?!?  Nothing had changed!  I literally killed myself, yet here I am stuck in this groundhog’s day loop.  I did everything the same, clothes, wife, elevator, but at that moment I realized something had indeed changed.  The old lady in the elevator had changed her story, “4 more steps and you will be a new person.”
                My mind immediately switched gears at that point. From that point on I realized that in order to get out of the cycle I had to do things out of the ordinary, change up the routine if you will.  The gamer in me came out and I began experimenting within the world of the game.  “4 more steps” quickly became “3”, which in turn soon became “1”. One more change in my life would allow me to break from the monotony.  What could it be?  I’d already gone to work naked and played hooky from work, and stopped to enjoy the beauty of nature, what else was there to do?  I must have tried a half dozen times in order to finally discover that last thing that I could do to change my life, yet it constantly eluded me. 

                Some of you may have already realized what I was about to learn about the game, but I was playing this late at night and I was a little bit slow on the uptake.  No matter what I did, there was no way I could escape having to once again wake up in the morning and suffer through yet another day of the same, boring life that had become my normal day. It was at this point that I understood, and I immediately stopped playing the game.  

                Now, I don’t know whether or not my experience with this game was the intention by the designer.  For all I know there may actually be a way to discover the fifth and final way to change your life within the game, but honestly I don’t care.  This game made me realize something that no after school program could ever teach me; That I need to find a job that is fulfilling, to do work that feels like anything but a chore, and to live each day to the fullest and not fall into any routine that cannot be broken. Because if I don't I will find myself living in a world that is grey, boring, and soul-sucking.  

                This is the power of games at their best.  Within one ten minute experience I had two deep emotional moments.  I learned what it felt like to seriously consider suicide, and also that it is important to fill your life with work and hobbies that are fulfilling.  The protagonist’s face is left blank in order to allow the gamer to project their own image onto the character; I encourage you to take the time out of your life and live within the world of Every Day the Same Dream.  

Legend of Gomez

                I was born in the year 1991 so by the time I had developed the fine motor skills necessary to manipulate a video game controller I had missed most of the golden age of video games.  By 1996, the world was well into the 5^th generation of console gaming and I was just starting kindergarten.  Not only did my parents fail me on accounts of their poor timing, but also by refusing to let my brother, my sister and I rot our brains on a regular occasion.  For the longest time we did not own a gaming console.  No, our limited time gaming was relegated to the weeks surrounding our birthdays and our half-birthdays when my Mom would take us to Blockbuster Video to get a five day system rental.  See, my parents weren’t against video games entirely; they just didn’t want them to be the be all and end all in regards to our entertainment.  Honestly, I’m grateful for that but that isn’t what I want to talk about today. 

                Unfortunately for my parents around 1998 the local video rental stores stopped carrying consoles.  So, two years into the life of the Nintendo 64, my parents broke down and bought us a Super Nintendo.  It was the best day of my life.  Finally, I was able to play video games all year long!  Provided I walked the dog, took out the garbage, and ate my Brussels sprouts; but by golly I did, and it was glorious. 

                Nevertheless, showing up to the party late has its disadvantages.  The most notable among these was entirely missing the NES era of gaming.  I played the original Super Mario Brothers on Super Mario All-Stars and it wasn’t until a little later in my life that I realized that that was a re-release.  However, that is but a small price to pay when compared to this:  I never got to play the Legend of Zelda before the internet.  In fact I never even got to see the game in action until I received my copy of The Legend of Zelda Collector’s Edition.  But at that point in my life I quickly got frustrated with the game because I couldn’t figure out what to do.  So I did what anyone would have done in the year 2003; I went to gamefaqs.com and found a walkthrough.  I spent some time playing through the game following the walk through, but I got bored pretty quickly and quit playing.  By following a walk through I had removed the aspect of the game that made it such a memorable experience:  The sense of exploration and discovery.  I had destroyed the aesthetics of the game and with that gone there was little keeping me playing, especially when I had prettier games to play on my GameCube. 

                I had not realized what I had been missing until yesterday when I booted up my copy of Fez.  This was a game that I had been eagerly been anticipating ever since I watched Indie Game: The Movie.  As a Nintendo/Sony kind of guy, I was heartbroken that I was unable to play Fez when it first released last year on Xbox 360.  Patiently I waited.  Finally I learned that the game would be released on PC.  Unfortunately, life got in the way and even though it was released on May 1^st I wasn’t actually able to begin playing it until now.  That being said, I beat the game in one play session. 

                There was something about the game that made me unable to put it down.  There were a couple of times that the game actually crashed during my play through at which point I thought, “Now would be a good time to get on with my-“ but before I could finish the thought I was already starting the game back up again.  Why was that?  What was it about this game that I could not for the life of my quit playing?  Phil Fish, the creator of Fez, said one time in an interview, "There are no enemies in FEZ. No bosses, no combat. In fact, no conflict of any kind. You can die, but there is no penalty for doing so. FEZ aims to create a non-threatening world rich with ambiance, a pleasant place to spend time in."  In a world in which Call of Duty is the best-selling franchise every year, it is so refreshing to find a game designer willing to take a risk on non-combat game design.  Instead of getting my thrills from stomping on heads or blowing out brains I instead found myself compelled by the desire to see what else this world had to offer.  I was an explorer.  Every room you enter is completely unique from the last and they are all absolutely gorgeous.  There were many occasions when I realized that Gomez, the main character of Fez, had fallen asleep while I was too busy watching the pixelated wildlife frolic about. 

Some of my notes while playing.

                This was what was lacking when I tried to play the original Legend of Zelda.  Being older and hopefully more mature, I was able to fight the urge to glance at a walkthrough when the going got tough this time around and I believe that I have had a richer experience for it.  There is lore within the world Mr. Fish created; the game world is filled with ancient looking hieroglyphics and Tetris blocks carved into the virtual rock.  Things that I glanced at briefly upon the first time entering a room and thought nothing of it.  However, that all changed when I stumbled upon my first “anti-cube”.  Now every mark was subject to scrutiny.  I found myself taking photos suspect markings and jotting down copious amounts of notes in order to decipher what I could.  There was a whole ancient civilization to unearth and only I was able to do it.  In a word, it was exhilarating. 

                Currently my save file for Fez sits at 134.4% completion.  I still have a lot of work to do in order to discover all of the secrets Phil Fish and his partner Renaud Bédard have hidden away inside their code.  However, the legend of Gomez and his magical hat is one that I intend to see through to completion.