It started when I couldn't finish Fallout: London, despite loving it. Then my exploration of Enderal was cut short after reaching Ark, when I didn't want to go back out into the world that wanted to kill me. I purchased Syndicate and never finished it; I then bought a ton of great games on GOG and Steam during sales, playing introductory bits of all of them just to get an idea of where I stood with them... and I barely felt a spark beyond that initial intrigue. I wasn't quite sure if it was a problem with my tastes, or my health, or my time. But then I played Tyranny for the first time, having never played Pillars of Eternity, and I powered through 25 hours of gameplay without skipping a beat.
Tyranny managed to grab my attention quickly, and maintain it throughout a relatively short (but deep) gameplay experience. I don't have any plans for an actual review of it, but it kept me going for a while and I appreciate it for not wasting my time. The sheer excitement and fun I had playing this game tempted me into downloading Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 on PC, and as I near the end of the first game, I have to say that my time feels significantly less valuable here. There is a lot to experience in the game, and not all of it is fun, but the quests each feel like a cohesive part of the game's narrative and for that I feel obliged to complete as much as I can. So, maybe that is the crux of my drained enthusiasm partway through or beginning with these games: I do not have enough time to care about too much stuff. If I don't like what a game has to offer by hour five, then I doubt I will like what it has to offer by hour twenty-five. And for a few months there, that didn't quite click with me.
I never bought more than one game at a time until 2024, when I moved into my own place and discovered the gift that GOG has provided to humankind. My thought was that if I bought cheaper, smaller games, I would be able to invest time into more of them and expand my first-hand knowledge of the games that inspired my favorites. That did not happen at all; instead, I experienced choice paralysis every time I opened the library, unsure of which game I would rather try my hand at, eventually picking my usual fare or something else to do with my time altogether. This sucked. I came into it with my mind ready to be blown by these games that I had heard so many great things about, only to realize that after a few hours of trying each, I actually didn't like them all that much.
The journey of playing Tyranny and then Pillars of Eternity really helped solidify the idea for me that my taste in games is far from what I thought it was. I learned that I value simplicity in controls, to the point where a control scheme that I can't fall in line with quickly results in me dropping a game, and I also learned that I value clear-cut goals for my character to accomplish during the game. A mystery is interesting, but it does not tell me much about what exactly I am doing in the story beyond the guise of solving said mystery. Knowing that I have a solid objective with room for personal expression is nice, as it lets me play how I want without aimlessly hoping that the story goes somewhere soon.
I aim to be more selective with the games I buy, download and play going forward. Of course, not every game I put time into will give me the same effect as Tyranny, but filtering out the games that I know are not for me might be a good step in the right direction. Here's to loving at least a few more games in 2025.
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