The Gaming Desk Again

The other desks are getting impatient with the Gaming Desk for taking so long to catch us up on all the video games completed this year.  So far, it's taken three posts over two months to tell us that we've completed A Plague Tale: Innocence and A Plague Tale: Requiem, Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider, and God of War. 

So let's wrap this up.  We've also completed Borderlands 3, Dying Light, and Watch Dogs.   

Borderlands 3 was an okay experience, not as good as Borderlands 2 but far better than Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. The gameplay and action of 3 were very similar to that of 2, which is a good thing, and many characters from 2 reappeared in 3. But those reappearances were more like cameos to remind you of the earlier game, and their quests were generally not related to the main story. I've played better sequels to other games and I've also played worse.  If you liked Borderlands 2 you won't dislike Borderlands 3, but there's nothing in 3 to change your mind if you didn't like 2, and there's nothing in 3 to make you like the franchise more.

Dying Light is a zombie game set in a fictional Middle East city (I got strong Beirut vibes).  The game was more than adequate, and the story line and the gameplay were both okay.  But what I really liked about the game was the map.  The detail in the city was outstanding, and the city was complex and busy enough that it never felt familiar - you were never quite sure of exactly where you were and the city never seemed overly familiar, even after hours and hours of gameplay.  Plus, unlike most other games in urban settings, most of the buildings weren't simply empty facades that you couldn't enter, but almost every building, house, store and business had an explorable interior. Maybe the entrance wasn't a ground-level door - in the zombie apocalypse, many owners boarded up street-level windows and doors - but you could find terraces, rooftop doors, and upper-level windows which allowed access to almost every building. And once inside, you could find tools, supplies, and weapons, as well as hungry zombies ready to kill you.  What's more, well into the game, well past the half-way mark and after a quest that has you battling through the maze of a subterranean sewer, a whole new area of the city opens to you, the New City, much more affluent (and challenging) than the slums of the first half of the game. I liked the game, not because of the story or characters, but because of the parkour-style rooftop travel and the exploration of a richly detailed city. I haven't played the sequel (Dying Light 2: Stay Human) yet, but it's just a matter of time.   

Watch Dogs can be summarized as a cyberpunk version of Grand Theft Auto.  Like Dying Light, the best aspect of the game was the setting - an expansive and detailed simulation of the City of Chicago. Exploration of the city and detailed info about Chicago landmarks and history made the game interesting, much more so than the mostly unlikable characters and pedestrian storyline. The side quests - which are scattered all over the city - are completely ignorable mini-games that look and feel like 1990s arcade games, totally out of sync visually and ludically with the rest of the game.  Unfortunately, it must be mentioned that the worst aspect of the game, a major deterrent to enjoyment of the game, was the car-driving mechanics.  Cars were simply unmanageable - the simplest turn would cause a car to spin wildly out of control, to crash into buildings or other cars, or fall apart in a wreck to the point where they couldn't be used. Worse yet, police cars and enemies would work just fine, cutting you off with hairpin turns at high speeds, appearing out of nowhere, and pinning your car to a complete stop with PIT maneuvers. And in a Grand Theft Auto-style game, car chases and escapes were unavoidable and integral parts of a lot of the main quests. There was no avoiding them, and they simply ruined the game for me. I managed to complete the game, including the near-impossible chases and escapes, but I wouldn't have even bothered if it weren't for the great Chicago setting and my love of in-game exploration.

So that's it - I'm all caught up now.  Currently, I'm replaying the Far Cry series, from Far Cry 3 to Far Cry 6.  I've completed 3 (my favorite in the series) and am about three-quarters through 4. If I stick with my plans, I will also play Far Cry Primal and Far Cry New Dawn, two off-shoots of the main series of games.    

After that - who knows? The completionist in me makes me think I may play Dying Light 2 and even Watch Dogs 2 next, but it remains to be seen.