I’ve been playing the game The Light Brigade recently - though narratively barebones, it has an inspired and fascinating premise which I’ll want to talk more about at some point. “These are the nightmares which Tolkien grappled with in the course of writing The Lord of the Rings”, is how you'll hear me describe it. For reference as to (intended?) tone, you’ll see me namedrop Joanna Newsom’s album Divers, Comus’ album First Utterance, perhaps Mamoru Oshii’s film Avalon…?
Amidst the ruins of this cosmologically shattered world you’ll come across grand statues of its (objectively blessed) paladins triumphantly displaying their Kar98Ks. I just love being able to type that sentence.
If you go into The Light Brigade expecting it to do a lot with its premise, you'll be let down, but I'll also tell you that the physical, kinetic presence which a VR game entails really does make clearly appreciable storytelling magic out of what might be called the most understated text. Half-Life 2: VR, to bang on my accustomed drum, is the exact same kind of magical. (“I’m standing within one of Chief Bromden’s nightmares,” you would have heard me say.)