Topic: How to Get Back Into Gaming 101

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April 2022. I tried playing Deathloop. I dropped it after three hours. September 2022. I tried playing Life is Strange: True Colors. I dropped it after three hours. May 2023. I tried playing Showgunners. I dropped it after an hour. Rinse and repeat. I'd always referred to myself as a gamer. As a kid, there was nothing I enjoyed more (other than Wizards of Waverly Place) than sitting in my bed endlessly playing whatever Nintendo DS games I'd been able to load onto my totally legal™ SD card. Even younger, I'd spend all my grandma visits playing on her old SNES... and while never being good or particularly understanding of whatever I played, I still enjoyed the heck out of my time with it. Illusion of Gaia is a great example of a game I never understood, but made the most of. I'll never forget the breeze of the harbour as I walk around aimlessly pretending to know what's going on and in doing so, just coming up with my own story. High school hits and I'm playing hundreds upon hundreds of hours worth of multiplayer games. And then one day... it suddenly just stopped. I'd still play the occasional game in co-op, but I never found myself sitting down and committing myself to a game anymore. Everything bored me, I told myself. Nothing was hitting the same ever since I finished the Mass Effect trilogy, I told myself. No game was being given a chance anymore if it didn't instantly hook me in the first hour, and it turned my gaming ''career'' into a rather unproductive one where everything was getting started, but nothing was being continued. It didn't even matter if I had a relatively good time with it or not. They could just never hold my attention. There were a few exceptions, as there always are, but the general rule across all of them is that, seemingly, my gaming habit just died out with age.

I would try to get back into gaming. And when I say I would try, I mean that I would start a game and drop it again within the same time-span you would give to try and teach a cat to fly. Now, I find myself working home office in a job that requires maybe 25% of actual working time each shift and so with that... a boatload of free time. What do people do with their free time? They tell me they game. And so I, as a certified gamer (diploma not provided), tried my hand once more at getting my once beloved hobby back. I knew it would fail, but if I could just try one more time. I told myself it's time to go back to games I started and never finished that I actually enjoyed my short time with, and so I started with Life is Strange: True Colors. I practically forced myself to finish it and could slowly feel the dread creeping into my bones once again. It's time to give up and try again in a few months... or maybe a year... or maybe a few years. This time however, I thought no. It's not the games that are the problem. It's stereotypical and predictable to say it, but it's me. I'd fallen into the same trap I did time and time again. I'd taken the wrong lesson from every exception I finished over the last eight years, and it kept biting me in my derrière. The thing is... because Mass Effect was, and still is, some sort of weird, blue-tentacled religious experience for me, I thought that what I need and exclusively want to play are story games. This quickly devolved into my exclusive interest in Telltale-style games or the inaffectionately named walking simulators. I wouldn't try really anything outside of that unnecessarily limited comfort zone.

Sure, I had this realisation before to some degree. I even made a thread on here years ago about broadening my horizons, but as any self-respecting person does with all advice that doesn't come from themselves, I instantly ignored it. I never put any real thought or effort into taking that realisation further than a passing thought similar to the likes of thinking about Nicole Kidman's workaholism. And if we want to continue comparing my way of thinking being bad to movie stars, my choices in gaming were much like Amy Adams' recent choices in movies. Well-meaning, but uninspired and ultimately bad for my career. Looking back in hindsight though, these people were right. How did I become a gamer again? I set out to venture out of my comfort zone. Narrative is still an important aspect for me, but a game shouldn't have to be in the top 1% best written narratives in media of all-time to qualify nor should it entirely dictate what games I can try and which not. After all, not every narrative can be Seed of Chucky and it's unreasonable to hold anyone to such a lauded standard. So... as soon as I finished Life is Strange: True Colors and washed the distinct stench of disappoint off myself, I started committing truly for what feels like the first time ever to becoming a good gamer again. I needed to find games that would still appeal to me in some ways, but ones that would equally as much push me out of what I've come to resent. This is the story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down.

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1. Resident Evil 2 (2019) - Score: 9/10

This was my first foray into the survival horror genre, and what a foray it was. I'm not telling anyone anything new here when I say this game is just fantastic. I was incredibly worried that this game was going to be very, very hard, because I do not enjoy inventory management or being worried about running out of bullets in general. More generally, I just don't love it when a game is hard. I get easily frustrated if I don't get my way in, let's say, the first three tries. When I didn't get a PlayStation 3 (or as my mother called it, the Nintendo) from my parents the first time I asked, I had a meltdown at our local McDonalds. The last thing I need is for a bunch or raggedy butt zombies to deny me the same satisfaction of getting what I want. Luckily, the news of my pending meltdown was greatly exaggerated and the difficulty balancing of this game was straight-up perfect. The combat encounters were always well-paced, the level design was intuitive and well thought-out and the overall gameplay was just a blast. I'm not someone who likes to replay or rewatch anything either for the most part, but for this game I instantly jumped into the second playthrough to see Leon's side and get the true ending. No regrets!

I was relieved as well to see that the game more so tries to delude you into thinking you're running out of ammo than actually making you suffer without. It's a great gaslight, until I notice you spawning plenty of ammo in front of me any time I'm running low. To be fair, the tension was still there nonetheless, but it felt good to know that I wasn't gonna soft-lock myself by being mindless with my bullet use. It'd feel unfair to punish me for that anyway, as shooting a bunch of zombies in the face is ridiculously fun. The second playthrough, sure, was a bit more of a pain in the butt when it came to managing my bullets. I did have to run through a few swamp monsters and pray with zero ammo occasionally, but the game let me do it and for that I applaud thee. A really fun story as well with memorable characters. I was under the impression the Leon or Claire runs wouldn't differ much, but I was surprised by how different they felt. People are really underselling this aspect when they say it's just a bit of a different route with different weapons. All in all, it was a great first choice in trying something new.

2. Showgunners - Score: 8/10

Like I mentioned earlier, this was one of the games I had previously tried to play only to quit not too long later. I continued my tradition I started with True Colors before to continue games I had previously not given the chance they deserved, and this time it was to much more success. I'd always been passively interested in X-Com's gameplay of shooting and missing. After all, chance calculations were my best and only well-scoring part of maths. Before, I'd decided X-Com was not narratively focused enough for me to bless it with my money, so imagine my surprise when I end up being in this situation of trying to find new kinds of games that appeal to me and finding one that's X-Com but simultaneously has a narrative that really appealed to me. A shooting arena in the form of a battle royale TV show where I'm gonna be the badass? Kaching, in the library it went. It's a really fun set-up that I think is incredibly well presented within the game with tons of fun moments, characters and some beautiful art direction. The whole aesthetic of the game is just fantastic.

I ended up loving my time with the gameplay as well. The tactics kept me invested, the death animations kept me feeling strong ooga booga and the story kept me wanting to see what'll happen in the next episode. Spoiler: I'm gonna step in about ten different traps and will have to run back every two minutes to a health station. Riveting television for all viewers, I'm sure. The weapons were all fun and I loved exploring the levels despite these many, many, many near-death encounters. It's adrenaline-inducing (until it's blood pressure-ending)! My only major issue was the pacing towards the end of the game, which was an issue introduced just because they added extra free DLC content months after release which includes six or seven extra combat arenas playable only right before the final mission of the game. On one hand, it's hard to complain about having more of already good gameplay, but when it completely interrupts the whole flow of the narrative, I wonder if they could've placed it better.

3. Vampire - The Masquerade: Swansong - Score: 5/10

This, more than any of the other games, was somewhat of a return to form to what I would've usually given the time of night. Except, I did actually try this one before... and also dropped it after roughly an hour. In my defense, this one wasn't entirely on me as this game made the ridiculous choice that when entering the menu, if you choose to press ''Replay Scene'', it actually starts you at the very start of the chapter again instead of just replaying your most recent conversation. And that's how I lost over an hour of gameplay the first time I tried to sink my teeth into this game. Having recovered from my blood-lust by now, I decided to give it a second shot and am glad(?) I did. I don't know. This game is all over the place. I really liked The Council when it first came out to the point it was one of the exceptions I mentioned earlier as games I finished within the time of my hibernation. It's the only reason I decided to still give it a shot despite the middling reviews, as I do think the way Big Bad Wolf Studio (terrible name) approaches conversations and tongue-twisting skill checks is interesting. That said, the game makes a terrible first impression with this as it puts you against opponents who are just objectively better at socialising than you are and put you in your place with ease. It's like putting a Redditor in the outside world. Completely unbalanced.

I do think the story and lore of the game were often very interesting, and it's what kept pushing me through towards the end. The characters all have their own moments of good stuff, but each of them also can be as boring as eternal life. Some of the chapters just feel endless and mind-numbing with the amount of uninspired busywork or poor level design. The voice acting is... a lot of people doing their best impression of what a person should sound like, except they were raised by wolves. What holds this game together in the end? The choices and consequences do feel meaningful, and if you're into that sort of thing, the game's narrative will definitely satisfy you often enough that you will continue to be at least motivationally intrigued by its drip-feed of blood. I don't think the game ended particularly well however, which I suppose is a remnant of what they previously did with their other game. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this one i you're not either into the Masquerade lore, are a die-hard fan of choice games or enjoy bad pacing.

4. Marvel's Midnight Suns - Score: 7/10

I was never big into card games. I thought people who were exchanging Pokémon cards on the playground were losers. I tried playing Hearthstone (is that game even still alive?) when it first came out, but I soon realised I hate putting together good decks and prefer to suffer than use my brain logically. All of this did not in fact change when I played this, except I realised it's all not a barrier to enjoying my time here! I don't have to make good decks in this game. I can just brute force my way through every encounter and add whatever new card I like to my hero's deck as soon as I get it. Did that make my decks balanced? No. Did it make my move sets fun? Yes. The fact that the game lets you get away with it too also just shows this one was not made for the losers on the playground. It was made for me. There was another slight hiccup to my trying to get invested into this game, which is the fact that I have notoriously not really liked any Marvel movies except for the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. A fact I make sure to bring up whenever anyone is trying to have fun with anything Marvel (hi, mom!) Then add to that the fact that I was mostly interested in the whole social hub element of the game, only to realise that this game will take up about an hour of my time each in-game day with yapping. A true testament to be able to even test the most stubborn of narrative-focosed people's patience.

And yet, I finished the entire game, because I found the core gameplay to just be so, so fun. I was having a blast every combat encounter planning out my moves, failing miserably as I realised my plan did not follow the laws of physics only to come out on top. I did also found the gameplay loop of going to the social hub, talking, collecting stuff and exploring the Abbey before jumping back into a mission addictive despite my previous misgivings. Time flew by even when I wasn't particularly interested into what a character had to say to me. Like, seriously, if we could get Agatha Harkness a spiritual xanax to help shut her up, I would be eternally grateful. The story did have good moments and I was particularly fond of the ending. I enjoyed the conversations with my Hunter and thought the dialogue was largely inoffensive, even if occasionally cringy. I don't understand people who hate the dialogue in this game, yet will praise the Marvel movies as I found them to be... rather similar. And I assume intentionally so. It did take me a while to get through this one, not helped by having the Season Pass installed, but I do not regret investing my time here. It's not a game without very noticeable flaws, but I had a good time with it.

(Disclaimer: Contrary to popular belief, I do not hate Pokémon or Marvel fans, nor will I be held liable for any claims that my previous self has made. I cannot be Pokémon-phobic, my little brother loves Pokémon.)

5. The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me - Score: 3/10

Speaking of xanax, this might just be the video game equivalent of that medication. I'm sure the researchers doing sleep tests will be delighted by the existence of this game for the aid of their trials. Seed of Chucky was seen celebrating after its movie rating raised from 4,9 on IMDb to 8,7 when people played this and realised what truly bad horror looks like. The people behind the Until Dawn movie could not have been more delighted knowing that whatever they did with it, they couldn't have screwed it up more than Supermassive already does their own follow-ups. Yeah, it's really not good. The narrative, the game's one ''selling point'', is atrocious. I say this as someone who was actually really excited for the game's concept as the H.H. Holmes stuff in real life fascinates me. They had Jessie Buckley and managed to get a worse performance out of her than they got out of Ashley Tisdale in the last one. The characters are tankier and more uncontrollable than ever thanks to now almost exclusively exploring identical looking hallways, even despite the introduction of a free camera. Or well, whenever it decided to not do its own thing anyway.

The ending is weirdly sudden like they ran out of development budget about 80% of the way through, but I couldn't even be mad about it as I was just glad it was finally over. The only redeeming factor of this game was not anything to do with the game itself, but just my friend who I played it with. This game was infinitely more entertaining being able to make fun of it in real-time and bask in its poorness. I've never been more unaffected getting a character killed than I did in this game. In fact, I was delighted as it meant I had to deal with less of these people. It's an achievement in and of itself to not only make bad horror, but bad horror that isn't even remotely fun to experience. I didn't think they could top my disappointment with Little Hope, which in itself was only held up by my love for the best character in the franchise: Angela. Yes, that's the one I meant. Yes, I know it's controversial. Yes, I do like being an obnoxious old woman to the rest of the party of characters. Any further questions? And yet, despite my utter disinterest in anything in this game, I find myself somewhat optimistic about the future with the next one. It has a good concept! They can't screw up a good concept twice... right?

6. Bayonetta - Score: 9/10

Peak gaming. It's the most campy fun I've had with a game... ever. It's over the top, it's absolutely ridiculous, the story is the silliest dramatic stuff I've seen in ages and Bayonetta herself is just a legend. What a fantastic voice performance with some genius character design to accompany it. It's an incredibly horny game without it feeling weirdly exploitative or unnecessary, because it's all just a part of the fun. You could complain, but it's clearly what you signed up for with this. It's got an incredible soundtrack to make the action feel all the more intense while you're booty-spanking angels to death or drop-kicking your enemies before you shove them into a guillotine. I did think this game was going to be too hard for me at first, because I was bad. Like, restarting a regular encounter maybe five times each level bad. However, I didn't let it stop me from trying to let myself get good and enjoy the gloriousness of whatever twisted mind made this stuff up. I feel like me and him are on the same wavelength in terms of more is not enough when it comes to writing proper camp. Before I even finished this first entry, I had bought the sequel. I don't think I've done that with a game since I played Mass Effect all the way back in 2015.

I have nothing but good things to say about this game. Ha, if only that were true. I did have an arch nemesis in this game that was not in fact any particular enemy. It was the level named shivers Isla del Sol, also known as Chapter Screw Off. What a horrible, horrible chapter in a game filled with great combat encounters. Whoever thought adding this to the game was fun or somehow improved the experience needs to be booty-spanked and then put into said guillotine. I can't remember the last time I hated a level as of any game as much as I hated this, and it even has a magnificent boss fight at the end of it unable to actually make everything that came before bearable. It's that much of a nuisance. I'm just glad I got through it, and one day I'll be ready to talk about it in therapy, but I hope that until then neither of the following games include levels who intend to traumatise me to this degree. I will be suing for the medical bills.

Side Quest: Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course DLC - Score: 9/10

This one I played on the side as a return to Cuphead. I had played the original game a few years ago, which marked one of possibly the only times I really ventured out of my usual zone before this. The only reason this happened at the time is because one of my friends literally bought the game for me to force me to play it with him. A little emotional manipulation goes a long way, because in the end I loved the base game and doing it in co-op. Finally, a few years later we came back to the world of Cuphead.... Mugman.... and Chalice make a dealll. Might I say, one of the best musical hooks in the world of gaming. It was a delight. It may have taken a very long time for this DLC to see the light of day, but it was worth all the effort and time put in. It doesn't skit a beat and is just as fun, just as tantalisingly hard and just as satisfying as any of the original bosses. I was sad that it was over when it was, because I would've loved to see even more. I know the studio isn't working on a sequel so far, but I'll happily play whatever they plan to bring out next. All the little details I've been able to scoop up about it so far make it sound right up my alley.

***

And that's it, four months in since I tried to restart my gaming habit again with Life is Strange: True Colors, and for the first time in many years I can say: too much success. I'm glad I finally decided to listen to both other people and myself and act on the fact that I was purposefully stagnating myself and my ability to love video games. It's been a grand return to it so far with some fantastic games, and I hope there will be many more to come. I've got a very large backlog of patient games to get through and I never will, but that's the fun of it. You pick and choose and hopefully, you choose correctly. Maybe clearing out the backlog could be a pitch for a future Dark Pictures game, which, undoubtedly, would be be better than whatever the heck that was.

Currently, I am about 25 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition and another 10 into Deathloop. Yup, unaccidentally, another two games I had previously tried to get into and failed. It delights me to say that this time, history is not repeating itself. I am greatly enjoying them both, and for the first time in almost a decade I can say without a doubt: I think I've got my mojo back.