Perfectly Peculiar Pixels [#21]

If you have even a passing interest in sci-fi, you will have at least heard of “I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream”, by multiple award winning writer, Harlan Ellison. Wikipedia states the game by the same name, and done with the author on-board, as the first to deal with subconsciousness. I was surprised, given the very colourful history of video game themes, that it took until 1995 for someone to make one that delves back into the mind.

“It was all a dream”, or “It was all in their head” is a well worn out trope in movies, but it offers numerous avenues of exploration when it comes to our favourite interactive medium. It is generally, sadly, confined to a very limited depiction in modern games. It’s usually floating platforms and levels in an otherwise grounded, realistic game, set against some hazy or cloudy background. Think Scarecrow levels of Batman: Arkham Asylum (extremely well executed as that was), or Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 of all unexpected places. Although there are certainly floaty platforms in most of the following titles, they might represent the most varied depictions of tormented inner minds.

In 1997, Lucas Arts published what is in my opinion the best of the Monkey Island series, The Curse of the Monkey Island. A whimsical, colourful story of pirates that sword fight by spouting insults that rhyme. DreamForge Intertainment on the other hand, had entirely different ideas about what a point and click adventure game should be like. The result was a for-the-time impressive pre-rendered 3D isometric overview of some of the most deranged imagery in video games to date. Unlike Lucas Arts games, the gameplay relied a lot more on logic, more reasonable puzzles, than the moon-logic of say Day of the Tentacle. The settings are colourful in their variety, but muted in their tones. This wasn’t the developer’s final work, but it was definitely both their own peak in terms of expression and presentation, but also the extreme to which games could go to, at the time.

In the 3rd person platformer genre, Psychonauts might be one of the most creative titles ever made. The critical component is the ability to delve into the minds of certain NPC characters the player encounters in the game, which allows for unique takes on the gameplay. The mind of a conspiracy theorist guard puts you into a visually mesmerizing world of paranoid sneaking around in a trench coat and hat, while the mind of a fish monster places you in a level where you wreak havoc on a fish city, as a Godzilla sized monster. The characters are profoundly expressive for something out of 2005, which is a testament to both the original artists, but also a reminder that you don’t need photo realism to create effectively emoting characters.

I’ll be up front, I don’t like Gris. More specifically, I don’t like the indie-darling hype around it as being a brilliant depiction of grief and loss. It feels to me that even the evocation of a game having to do with mental illness, condition or otherwise certain largely shared emotional cues, has the same effect as creating a physically or mentally disabled character in a movie is to the Oscars - bait. I wouldn’t say that if I enjoyed that it is a platformer with mechanics we’ve seen a million times before, but now “it’s about grief”. What it is however, is beautiful. The watercolour art style, the sound track, character design and what is apparently hand drawn animations could absolutely stand on their own, as one of the more memorable audio-visual experiences of the last decade. It’s also 3€ on GoG at the time of writing, and that beautiful experience will last you longer than the coffee you can buy for that money these days.

Epic’s free game of the week (alongside Backpack Hero) could have made its way onto a theme in many ways, not the least which being a cozy, narratively driven isometric adventure, much like Bastion. Whereas Bastion’s story can be left to a lot more interpretation, Figment has no such pretensions. I met Jonas, one of the creators at a gaming competition when this came out, and having played it, it was obvious how the enthusiasm, attention to detail, and as reported by Jonas - very good iteration and extensive testing from the dev team lead to this very enjoyable title. It’s currently free on Epic, and it’s sequel will be next week! Bedtime Digital Games, has very distinctive visuals, and are a case study in creating well - scoped games for their size, with great attention to details.

“Which philosopher should our game be based on”