As with any year, there were a ton of games I started but stopped. There's many reasons why, but one of the rules I have for this blog is that in order to write a review on something, I have to finish it (with few exceptions here and there). Unfortunately, this leaves a lot of games I want to talk about, but simply can't in the right conscious. I wanted to write one of these last year, but couldn't bring myself to do it, in part because these intros always feel so canned and insincere. This year is not really an exception in that regard, but with the pandemic and a 6-month lay off earlier in this year, there are plenty of games I'd love to talk about but don't necessarily see myself finishing anytime soon. It isn't that I don't want to finish the games below - quite a few of them I am still playing on occasion - it is that, for posterity's sake, I'd like to run through them, what I liked or didn't like, and why I didn't manage to finish them this year. I want to remember, and finished or no there is still a lot to say. The games below are not in any particular order, but they are the top ten unfinished games that left the most impression on me, good or bad.
Final Fantasy VII REMAKE
The long awaited remake to one of gaming's most cherished entries was finally released this year, and mostly to a mixed reception. People generally liked the game, some loved it, and plenty of people didn't like it much at all. Final Fantasy VII REMAKE is a frustrating game. It takes place over the first third or so of the original, elaborating on roughly 10 hours of gameplay into a 40 hour RPG. With that comes a lot of filler. REMAKE had a lot of things I really liked - voice acting, great graphics, a revamped and far more fun combat system, a greater focus on the parts of the plot that felt a little quickly run over in the original - but it still stands as a stretched game. Too often the game sends you to a place full of time-waisting side quests or long, unnecessary hallways full of enemies to stretch out its playtime. The changes to the original game's plot, as well, allude to something potentially interesting, but somewhat muddled in this entry. A lot of discourse about this game is about the ending, something I've gleaned a lot about but do not know outright, so a review is simply unacceptable. That said, I have difficulty convincing myself to return to a pretty, fun, but bloated game that amounts to 1/3 of an experience I've already had. I'm in the middle on this one.
Infinifactory
Zachtronics' followup (in a sense) to his cult classic Infiniminer, Infinifactory has you placing blocks a la Minecraft in order to build a conveyor belt system that constructs odd looking mechanical parts. Some of you may be grinding your teeth at that description, as Minecraft was heavily influenced by Infiniminer. True, Infinifactory is not a rip-off of some Minecraft mod, but neither is Zachtronics simply returning to an obviously profitable design. Infinifactory is simultaneously simple and complex, allowing for some real creativity in how you get these components to lock in with one another to answer the puzzle's riddle. Infinifactory is a blast, and is probably the most palatable of Zachtronics' infamously esoteric puzzle games. Just about anyone can get into Infinifactory if they give it some time, and the block-placing mechanics make it the most immediately fun of all of his games. Infinifactory is a game I will finish in the future, a game I loved my time with, but life happens (and friends), and I didn't have much time to invest in its mechanical brilliance, choosing instead to play The Forest with a friend. Expect a review on this game in the future sometime, whenever I finally return to it.
Devil May Cry
I will be eternally frustrated I didn't stick with Devil May Cry until the day comes when I finish it. Truth is, I tried Devil May Cry three times, and each time I couldn't stick with it past the first handful of levels. I tried on PS2 twice, and once (the farthest I ever got) on PC. There were several things that got in my way, but one in particular made playing and learning the game a chore. The yellow stone system, where spawning from a checkpoint uses up an item (otherwise forcing you to start the level all over again) was beyond frustrating for a player trying to learn. Granted, the game is rather short, so you are meant to play this game more than once. But when you need to spend your currency to upgrade Dante, and some of that currency is spent also stocking up on orbs to make the game more manageable for a learning player, what we get is a game that is harder for newcomers and easier for veterans. Systematically, Devil May Cry is pretty severely flawed. But as far as gameplay goes, Devil May Cry is an absolute blast. Combos and quick dodges are a lot of fun, and ever since Dark Souls I have desperately wanted to get into the spectacle fighter genre, but, though Devil May Cry was the start, I can't help but feel it is not made to be your first game in the genre. As much as I don't want to write about Bayonetta before finishing this game, it may just be the best choice.
Divinity: Original Sin II
Hells bells do I want to finish this game. Across platforms, I have roughly 100 hours in Divinity: Original Sin II, but I've yet to finish it. My first 50 hours or so never had me leave the starting "tutorial island", because I couldn't help but go back to the start, messing around with different class builds. Original Sin II has one of the most expressive class RPG mechanics I've ever played with. On the last playthrough I did with a friend, we managed to hybrid every class once or twice over, but managing that amount of creativity comes with a strong sense of how the internal mechanics work. It is easy to build your characters out of being able to progress through the game. I've yet to meet anyone who has either beat Divinity: Original Sin II or played without having to, at some point, start over. Original Sin II is an absolutely fantastic game, but one that seems hellbent on making you really work to finish it. I've managed to get halfway through the game, but without ample amount of time to dedicate to it for a month or so, finishing it is a veritable impossibility. I'm not sure I will ever finish it, but contradictorily I think it might be one of the best RPGs I've ever played.
Assassin's Creed
Before Cyberpunk 2077 came out, I was a good third through Assassin's Creed. I may return to it one of these days, or I may just skip it in favor of the sequel, the game I've historically liked. The first Assassin's Creed game is probably best known now for simply starting the famous Ubisoft series, paling in comparison to its followup games and feeling generally clumsy. This isn't entirely wrong, but I was surprised playing it recently that it is a lot more fun than I remembered it being. Sure, it is still hella repetitive, sure it has a relatively simple plot, and sure it is sincerely dated, but it still captures that core aspect of climbing shit is fun. It is a heavily imperfect game, a game that had a lot of ideas but didn't quite develop them for whatever reason. I'd like to look at more games in the series, as I have traditionally not liked them. I feel a new appreciation for them now, but time will tell if that holds up far into the series.
Europa Universalis IV
Europa Universalis IV isn't really a game you beat. Despite over 120 hours in the game, I still don't feel qualified to talk about it. EUIV isn't just a strategy game, as you've probably heard. It is a history simulator, and that is key to getting what this game is about. EUIV can be incredibly difficult to get into if you aren't used to this type of game, or you simply don't really know what it is. EUIV has a monstrous amount of multi-hour tutorial videos, some by the Paradox Studios and some by the fandom, but even watching 100 hours of these won't properly prepare you for actually playing the thing. The best way to learn, unfortunately, is to play with a friend who already knows how to play. The game is little more than a map and a thousand menus, and your understanding how to play this game - not even playing the game well - is reliant on your ability to anticipate what actions you want to make, and where to find the menu for those actions. It is a pretty specific group this game is aiming at, but if you are one of those people you may never need another game ever again (except, perhaps, one of Paradox's other grande strategy games). I love EUIV to death, but going in depth as to what makes it great is a daunting task. Maybe sometime in the future, but I couldn't manage that now, even as I played it a ton early into the pandemic. If It sounds interesting however, I strongly recommend bashing your head against it for a hundred hours.
Into The Breach
Rogue-likes are pretty much made to be on a list like this. I hardly ever finish any of them, but I usually like them. It has, admittedly, taken a lot of effort to filter them out of this list, but Into the Breach is the exception because, despite starting this game sometime in 2019, I still find myself firing it up and playing it for a week. The game is dressed up as a Pacific Rim style kaiju game, but in reality it is simple tactics. Into the Breach takes the tactics style RPG of Final Fantasy Tactics and X-Com and turns it into a rogue-like, perhaps the perfect genre for it. It acts as a sort of "reactive chess", where the opponents moves are telegraphed ahead of time, and you have to create a response. A time travel macguffin is wrapped within to explain away the rogue-like necessity is happening, and that does actually serve the game's immersion, but all of that would not be anything if the game weren't any good. It is pure strategy, with randomness more or less about weighing loss in a particular situation, not necessarily to screw you out of a win through chance. Into the Breach isn't a perfect rogue-like, but it fulfills my itch towards strategy games without the daunting task of having to play hundreds of hours in order to properly beat them. Well, in the end I suppose it did, but that has more to do with my lack of skill than anything. I still play this to this day, so it is likely I will beat it eventually, and can give it the proper focus it deserves.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I still don't know what to make of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I got some 10 hours in before I dropped it in favor of . . . Batman: Arkham Asylum? It is hard to remember totally when I first played this game, but I recall it being sometime before The Witcher III. Regardless, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is just fucking weird. It is anime as hell (downright campy in how it plays to anime norms, such as overt sexism - a literally objectified busty woman is a main character, acting as the spirit of a sword - and embarrassing, virgin-esque references to sex), and it plays like an MMO but single player. The game is game-y to the point of annoyance. There were aspects I liked about the game, such as the world they built where all land is simply the back of giant monsters, but I couldn't make heads or tails of this game. Combos could be fun at times, but it all boiled down to "button mashing" the game. I'd like to return to the series - perhaps from the first Xenoblade game or Xenogears - but probably not for a long time.
Her Story
Her Story was simply a game I didn't spend enough time with. Her Story is more a database of videos than it is a game, but in simply being a collection of videos it creates the game in the player's head. I don't know if anything external ever happens to validate your understanding of what is going on with these interview tapes, but what I saw made the story sound incredibly interesting. It is a game I desperately want to play, but just don't know how or when to go about doing it. It is yet another example of a game I wish I had the free time I had over the summer to really dig into. I imagine this is an inevitable play at some point, but I cannot dedicate much time to it now, even with its short gameplay. The concept, of delving into a library of information and piecing together what is there, is precisely the kind of game I would love. Hopefully I will return to this one soon.
The Room (1-3)
The Room's first three games are very different from the other games on this list because I actually beat them. The Room is essentially those flash "open the box" or "escape the room" games, but on a touch screen device. Played on a phone or a tablet, The Room showcases why games such as Myst could be built for the platform, if someone with the proper chops would. The Room isn't a bad series of games, but it is often times obvious, and that can be frustrating. There are clever puzzles here and there, but generally your go-to reaction of pinch, push, or pull (as the touch screen allows) on any given tactile surface is pretty much what you do. Puzzles usually act in parts, firstly finding the puzzle "board" and then finding the key as to how to finish it. But the key is almost always found on accident by simply interacting with the game the way you would expect to. When I play a puzzle game, I generally want it to be puzzling. As a near contradictory point, sometimes the games can be too obscure. Many surfaces look interactible, but end up requiring a very specific way of approaching them, or not being interactive at all. It is the modern day "pixel hunt" of past point and click games. The Room is all concept, little follow through, but that doesn't mean they aren't fun. They just aren't that fun. Largely why I didn't end up reviewing them during the year was a lack of things to say. For the most part, I've said everything in this one paragraph, making for a rather anemic write-up if this was a post on its own. The games pass the time, but aren't going to truly challenge you.
Some of these games I will likely return to (or continue playing), but for now, this is them, and I have left my record. I really don't like writing these things, but hopefully I will appreciate it sometime later, when I'm curious as to what I played in 2020. At the very least, I may have created a reference point for a future write up. Until then though, I'll just keep playing.
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