2024-11-15: Obscure Stuff I Pl4yed Recently

I spent a lot of time recently playing Dark Souls 1, but that's not very obscure. Here are five games that are.

Afterplace

Afterplace is one of those very good games that I find hard to talk about without just listing off its good qualities, so that's exactly what I'll do. The worldbuilding is intriguing, there's a remarkable sense of adventure and discovery, the "quests" are very organic rather than a checklist of shit to do, the writing is witty, and, would you believe it, it's a total solo effort! It really is a fantastic experience, and the open world and the narrative interweave in a remarkably flexible, satisfying way - the developer acknowledges that "multiple endings" work best when they actually conclude the narrative you experienced (for better or worse) instead of having one GOOD ENDING and then a bunch of punishments for not being enough of a completionist. The music and visuals are well executed too, lots of clever little touches.

Also, I think I really really like games that involve a lot of hopping between and exploring varied, unique, and somewhat surreal dimensions/locations? Worlds, Anodyne 2, Sally Can't Sleep, now this... Maybe I've finally found my type.

Planet Mort

Planet Mort is an atmospheric and enigmatic 3D exploration platformer which, and you won't hear me say this often, is too undertutorialised for its own good. You're going to be reading the controls off the store page and discovering basic mechanics halfway through the game after finding them on the Steam forums, which can be a bit frustrating at times, but, of course, not frustrating enough to make me not recommend the game. I found it to be very engaging, with a strong pseudo-retro aesthetic and a lot of creativity in the level design and general feel of the game, as well as a good amount of challenge to the gameplay itself. There's something to it that makes it more than just a 3D platformer, but I'll let you discover its weird quirks yourself.

Also, it's free!

The Silent Swan

Every so often I play a game which I know is not necessarily good, but which does something interesting enough that I can't help but respect it anyway. The Silent Swan is one such game, eschewing game design orthodoxy to make a walking simulator all about sheer, mind-boggling scale - long stretches of highway connect sprawling, towering megaliths, structures which loom over the world in a way which conveys a very potent sense of being around an in some truly immense architectural wonders. This comes at an unfortunate cost, of course. The game lacks polish in some areas, interactivity is scarce, and it's outright dull to play a lot of the time, but it evokes a unique feeling that no other game I've ever played hit quite the same way, and that's enough for me to recommend it.

The Doors That Led to Nowhere

No notes, this is one solid metroidvania FPS. The progression is satisfying, the way the movement abilities work in tandem is satisfying, the level of challenge is satisfying, finding the little secrets scattered around is satisfying, it's a good, fun, satisfying game. It also has a very, maybe unintentionally, goofy plot. Perhaps I'm just too irony poisoned to appreciate some earnest dramatic storytelling, but the game's narrative was more entertaining in a The Room sort of way than a Reservoir Dogs sort of way. Not strictly a bad thing, but it stuck out.

And, oh baby, wouldn't you know it - it's free as well!

Human Upgrade Labs

A beautiful, beautiful collection of some of the jankiest, most boring minigames known to man. Buy this game, but treat it as an art gallery with ill-advised interactivity tacked on rather than a compelling gameplay experience, because it is most definitely not the latter. But, honestly, just look at the screenshots on the store page! It's so pretty!


And that's that, see you again next year probably? I dunno, I'm not even going to pretend I have a schedule for this stuff.