The arrival of spring means that buds are starting to poke out of the ground, temperatures are rising, and the sunlight shining directly through my window as I play through my entire Steam library is now hitting my face and blinding me at different times.
I’m calling this project to play every single game I own in random order FULL STEAM, and you can follow along with my progress here on Headcanon and on this YouTube channel.
Previous Full Steam recaps:
Live by the Sword: Tactics
In which I go thief-huntin'.
I’ve mentioned before that tactics games are my jam, specifically X-COM-likes. I have a fondness for Final Fantasy Tactics-inspired games, too, but they seem to be more prevalent in the marketplace, which unfortunately makes them feel a little same-y. The isometric battle grid, the bright pixel art, the magic-fantasy setting, the shields and bows and arrows – I saw all these things just last week in Vanaris Tactics, and here they are again in Live by the Sword: Tactics. The mechanics are totally sound, with rechargeable abilities and movement+attack turns and elevation/cover modifiers and distinct classes, but it felt pretty generic. Maybe I’d be singing a different tune if I hadn’t just played Vanaris Tactics, but that’s just the way my RNG stacked these games on the calendar.
Crumble
In which I keep my eye on the ball.
I’m dabbling with learning how to use the game engine Godot, and the online classes and YouTube videos I’ve watched all suggest that once I’ve learned the basics of the engine and the coding script, I should just start experimenting with small projects. Make a physics puzzle, make a platformer, make Asteroids, etc. Crumble feels like a game expanding on somebody’s experiment with momentum and physics. Make a character that can move and jump; make a Spider-Man-y swinging mechanic; now GO! With such simple mechanics, it’s cool to see that they’ve built this game with speedrunners in mind, so people who have mastered the movement can zip through levels at breakneck speed.
The Long Dark
In which I pick the wrong cave.
Okay, I swear I was good at this game at one point. I have played The Long Dark for 10 hours on Steam and a whopping 4 DAYS, 18 hours and 51 minutes on console, surviving almost 300 days (287, to be exact) in survival mode - even grabbing the “Centurion” badge for surviving more than 100 consecutive days. It might be one of my most played games of all time. So it’s embarrassing that when it pops up on this project, I can’t survive even a single day in the cold Canadian north. This is a game that rewards planning, caution, and calculated risk-taking, so my blitz on Pleasant Valley – abandoning a safe refuge in order to show off another location, getting lost, wandering out in a storm, and getting mauled by a bear twice – serves as a good reminder and demonstration of how not to survive in The Long Dark.
Highwater
In which I don't need a bigger boat.
Water effects, man. I remember being absolutely blown away by the water in Wave Race 64 back in the early 2000s, and being totally underwhelmed by some of the water effects in modern games (why do splashes look so bad?) I think Highwater, a game that’s all about a flooded world, finds the perfect balance between realistic and more artistic water; a bit of the solid color cartooniness of Wind Waker, along with some of the movement and reflection of a “realistic” AAA game. It’s just a really pretty, pleasant world to steer your raft around! And with the inclusion of actual music with lyrics, it’s what the kids might call #aesthetic. Highwater is a whole vibe, and I really enjoyed my time with it.
Poly Bridge
In which it's finally infrastructure week.
If this week has a theme, maybe it’s physics? There was the physics-based platforming of Crumble, then the water physics of Highwater, and now a physics sim/puzzler in Poly Bridge. I love this polygon-heavy art style which puts a focus on the individual pieces of each level - a perfect choice for a building game. I also appreciate that the game allows you to go over-budget in your bridge-building, a kind of lax approach to objectives and goals that I enjoy as somebody who follows the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” school of design. By the end of these first few levels, the game was pleasantly tickling my brain; the easy, obvious solution didn’t necessarily work, and I had just enough tools and latitude to figure out a way forward (or just enough rope to hang myself, as the case may be).
Euro Truck Simulator 2
In which ain't nothin' gonna get in our way.
There’s a whole category of very popular “blue collar simulator” games that I’ve never really been interested in: Farming Simulator, Train Simulator, Car Mechanic Simulator, Lawn Mowing Simulator, PowerWash Simulator. Essentially, any game where they take a trade and have you do it in real-ish time - without, say, the cave combat and dating of the Stardew Valley farmer, or the thousand other activities of the Red Dead Redemption 2 farmer/hunter/fisherman/gangster/robber/cowboy/gambler. But now, having played Euro Truck Simulator 2, I gotta say: there is something soothing about going through the steps of a job and simply getting it done. I worked as a materials handler in a warehouse after college (thanks, writing degree!) and it was truly satisfying to move boxes from one place to another, and look back at the end of the day and say, “I did something. Those used to be over there, and now they’re over there.” Of course, these sim games hand wave away the drudgery of actual 8 hour shifts, and repetitive motion strain, and back problems, and watching your small paycheck get carved up into rent and food - but as a simulated way to zone out and relax, I kind of dug it.
Stacklands
In which I put berries in poop for society.
When I think about the premise of Stacklands - building and managing resources for a little cartoony woodland society - there’s nothing about it that says, “This should be cards.” But once you start playing the game, it feels like the right pieces fitting into exactly the right places. Of course it’s cards - that means you can stack different elements to combine them. Of course it’s cards - that makes it simple to count how many this-or-thats you have and stay under your resource limit. Of course it’s cards - watching a new card pop out of a house or a pack is adorable. Of course it’s cards - dragging a card or stack of cards to move them is more intuitive than drawing a selection box around them. If you’ve dragged folders around on your desktop, you can understand how to play this game, so you skip over a steep learning curve and get right into its incredibly addictive gameplay loop.
*****
Reading: Hayao Miyazaki Would Hate You Fucking Losers | Jenny G. Zhang | Slate
The truth is, Hayao Miyazaki would hate you fucking losers. Every last one of you using this abomination of technology, whether just for a lark or because you actually hold an ideological commitment to killing artistry, jobs, and the Earth in favor of enriching the most craven, grasping, ruinous people alive.
Watching (related): Two Computer Scientists Debunk A.I. Hype with Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor | Adam Conover
Listening: Final Form | Sampa the Great