South Park: The Stick of Truth

Obsidian/South Park Digital Studios - 2014 - PC/PS3/PS4/Xbox360/XboxOne

I think the best thing I could tell anyone about this game is not to play it unless you have at least some idea of what South Park is. South Park's patented "did they really just say that?" sense of humor is on display here - only dialed up to 11 because I assume the censorship guidelines for video games are much less strict than network television. So if you're easily offended by, well, anything really, you probably shouldn't play this game. However if you're a fan of South Park and know what you're getting yourself into, you're in for a treat

South Park: The Stick of Truth (TSOT), just like any episode of the television show, is a parody. Whereas the TV show picks a current topic or event or celebrity to parody, The Stick of Truth is a parody of video games while also obviously being one. Specifically, TSOT invokes The Elder Scolls: Skyrim quite a lot between making fart jokes out of dragonshouts and also emulating Skyrim's soundtrack surprisingly well. A few of the characters in the game, especially Cartman, are quite aware of the fact that they are characters in a video game and break the fourth wall frequently to point out that fact to humorous effect. There are several call outs to South Park's most popular episodes and reoccurring characters that will resonate for the fans of the TV show. Without spoiling anything, this game contains some of the most outrageous scenes I've ever played in a video game that may even surprise hardcore fans of the show.

The closest touchstone for the battle system is the Paper Mario series which requires you to perform short mini game-like quick time events to boost your attack power or partially block damage from an enemy. Just as in Paper Mario, I find this type of battle system compliments traditional turn based RPG combat very well as it keeps players a little more engaged since you have to play a little timing mini game while also making strategic decisions on which enemies to target with which attacks at the same time. Even if the mini games are mostly easy and trivial, it's one extra layer of interaction with the combat system that keeps the player engaged and creates the illusion of player skill. In addition to this, you still need to keep track of what enemies are weak to what attacks in the glorified game of rock paper scissors that is the same RPG combat tropes in TSOT as the games it's parodying. 

Summary

TSOT is fairly standard RPG faire with a pretty solid battle system. But the reason you'll play this game is for South Park's patented outrageous and irreverant sense of humor which is executed in TSOT just as good as any episode of the TV show. It's a must play for South Park fans. If you're not a South Park follower, I'd reccommend watching a few episodes of the show before playing TSOT to see if the game is your sort of thing

Inside

Playdead - 2016 - XboxOne/PC/PS4

Inside is the follow up to Playdead studio's 2010 critical success Limbo. Playing Inside will feel very familiar if you've played Limbo previously. Even though their gameplay is nearly identical, the two game's universes are not related in any way that is expressed explicitly by the game and you don't need to have played Limbo before Inside or anything like that. Inside begins, like its predecessor, with no narrative or explanation as you control a boy in a highly stylized world who runs to the right and tries to avoid the many dangers along the path of right-running. Inside never really deviates from the formula laid out by Limbo. Instead, Inside seems more interested in being the most highly polished version of what Limbo was.

Immediately noticeable is Inside's distinct art style. It's not strictly the same style as Limbo's, but I had the same response to gorgeous and striking visuals as I did when playing Playdead's first title. Not only is the art style highly polished, but the animations are noticeably very smooth. Every animation seamlessly flows into the next in a way that is both very impressive and also makes me wonder exactly how much time it took the animators and programmers to accomplish what they did.

If you haven't played Limbo, Inside is a puzzle platformer at its core. Most puzzles involve manipulating background physics objects or buttons or switches in such a way that will open a blocked path and allow you to progress. There is death in the game, but your character immediately respawns in nearly the same location you were before, except maybe the puzzle room is reset. Dying is included in the game for the most part to just serve the functional purpose of informing the player that they got the solution to the puzzle wrong. It's more about puzzles than platforming and I'd even say, especially in the case of Inside, it's more about experiencing the strange game world and the story than it is about solving puzzles

It's a little difficult to talk about the story and themes of Inside without spoiling anything, but there is absolutely no dialogue and no cutscenes. All of the story is communicated through the gameplay, the background elements and artwork and also through environmental storytelling. This is something I really appreciate since it's so much more difficult to tell an interesting story in a non-traditional fashion such as this one.

Summary

Just like Limbo, Inside is a short-ish puzzle platformer in a visually striking world. Your opinion of Inside will likely be the same as Limbo, but if you've never experienced a Playdead game before, I'd recommend giving Inside a shot. It's a dark and beautiful game world that's worth checking out