At random intervals now with game crit around bigger games, I'll think back at how God of War: Ragnarok started by killing a dog in the opening minutes, just to coerce an emotional response from the audience. To then see outlets everywhere go: "Wow writing so good!!🥺" really felt like a turning point for me. That high school level hack job is not insultingly pandering to you? Okay.

The dadification of games is now complete. People "concerned" about a "new standard" that Baldur's Gate 3 will bring seem equally unaware how bland the barrel of swill usually is that gets consumed.

Simpsons type beat. We're getting this shit forever, baby! Neil Druckmann is on a hot streak! They're gonna have Ellie kneel at the Lincoln memorial with a kente cloth next. You'll love it.

I have the rest of the week off and a TTRPG session to plan tomorrow, so might as well play a very mediocre game at 6am. But I think that despite being clearly Not Good, PiranhaBytes almost consistently hits my brain with some specific gameplay decisions that just make me keep trying their entries.

That's despite the fact that I never finished a single one of their games. Gothic, Risen, Elex, I played almost all of those and their sequels, even enjoyed some, but can't be arsed to complete. And still I keep coming back.

There's 1 specific moment, back when I was a teen and played the very first Gothic, that most likely altered my brain chemistry to this. In Gothic you earn XP to train skills, but they are not your usual "Get stronger" or "Get faster". They tend to feel significantly, distinctively upgrades.

When you start the game, your Blank Slate Male Character is a terrible fighter. He holds swords at a weird angle, swings them wildly, can barely hit the least harmful critters without a lot of effort. That is, until you earn enough to be trained in One-Handed Weapons; the first lesson your character learns is to stop being a dummy and holding those blades with both hands, learn how to balance himself and make precise slashes. And that's what blew my mind at the time: After you learn this skill, he actually literally changes the way he fights. He starts holding the weapons properly with one hand, the attacks are faster, you can aim with much more easy. There's no "+1 Speed, +1 Strength and carry on with your day", he actually learns something.

Although that's very novel - and I can't think of many games that do this kind of progression - there's other stuff that makes me enjoy PiranhaBytes game to a certain extent. When you defeat NPCs you can actually loot their special weapons and items, instead of random junk (Not Armor, as that is a consistently scarce resource in these entries). You often have very little direction of where to go, no waypoints or compass, and have to guess which enemies are going to be at your level and which are going to be a 1-hit kill. The areas you explore don't feel overplanned; Jumping around (Or jetpacking around, in Elex) will often end with you finding random chests, caches, weapons lying around, all at random places. In a couple of hours of Elex 2 I found an absurdly good sword (which equally absurd stats requirements) simply lying in a puddle of mud. Not that these findings are random, but they're not in a Special Named Cave or the reward from killing an Elite Boss. Its just out there in the world.

For a lot of people these are probably grating mechanics and ideas, plus the fact that these games don't look very good or have great voice acting or great writing or...well, a lot of things. But these idiosyncrasies tickle my brain a lot, especially in these times of carefully curated open world adventures. There aren't enough kusoge/eurojank developers out there, so I'm glad PiranhaBytes and Spiders Interactive can still do their thing.

There's no paternalistic morality or hard lessons being taught by tough men. The child just kinda exists there. Jax is kinda of a shitty absent father, but there's no deep secret and both his son and wife are aware of that. Their conversations are a bit stilted and awkward, but they're still enjoyable. Its just a standard game where the main character happens to be a parent.

Also a crucial fact: his wife is still alive. She's not a long lost, idealized waif that they can daydream about and go "Oh, if she were still here, everything would be perfect and she would set us straight. Nothing bad ever happens to a nuclear family and they're always good". Caja is an actual character, with her own goals and principles, and she's flawed! Its obvious she also hasn't been a great mother, though the fact that she has to lead her own faction is a somewhat justifiable reason for the absence. Also she's a party member who will not hesitate to rain fireballs on any random critter who approches, which is a huge plus.