The Games That Have Stuck With Me In Recent Years

 Now halfway through September, we're getting into spooky season. I'll be honest - I've always had a love of Halloween that makes it feel a little disappointing that we so swiftly move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas (and other winter holidays - while I'm half-Jewish, the fact that we also celebrated Christmas always allowed us to treat Hannukah as the minor holiday that it actually is).

And as often happens, my thoughts turn back to Bloodborne.

Bloodborne wasn't my first Soulsborne game - I'd gotten Dark Souls for the Xbox 360 prior to playing it, but between getting stuck on Ornstein & Smough and getting frustrated by the fact that you lost both Souls and Humanity (also, getting cursed multiple times when trying to explore the depths of the Great Tree and having to go through the whole pain of getting back to the New Londo Ruins to cleanse it) left me sort of done with that one (given how many Souls games I have under my belt now, especially with like six or seven full clears of Elden Ring, I wonder if I should go back to it). But Bloodborne, which was not really any easier at least in terms of moment-to-moment combat challenges, but there were little things, like the fact that Insight (the rough equivalent to Humanity) could only be lost if a specific kind of enemy landed its insight-draining attack on you, that helped with quality of life (also, the stat system was far simpler, which made it easier to figure out where to spend your levels - though after Elden Ring I really wonder if I'd have been better off investing more in HP in those games).

While Bloodborne is seen these days as among the best, if not the very peak of FromSoft's achievements, there were some complaints when it was new. First, there were the Chalice Dungeons, which I actually agree were too repetitive and dull, and so I've never plumbed their depths and defeated Queen Yharnam herself. Next, there were complaints that the lore and NPCs were not as complex as that of Dark Souls. Truthfully, that also might be fair. I think at this stage Elden Ring has maybe surpassed the sheer volume of lore that was found in the original Dark Souls if only because it has such a larger world in which to present that lore.

To be clear, Elden Ring is probably also going to be one of these games totally sticking in my mind, but I've played it recently enough that it still feels pretty "current," and only came out a year and a half ago.

Another game, this one being one that I came to years after it was first released, but that's utterly stuck with me, is Control.

Control is not as grand in scope, though interestingly it does incorporate some Souls-like mechanics. But I think it really spoke to my aesthetic tastes in a way that few pieces of media had done previously. For example, back in 2015 when I first got into D&D, I came up with my first character, a Warlock with a Great Old One patron, and the look and feel of the patron I came up with was far closer to the bizarre upside-down pyramid in the Astral Plane that is Control's "The Board" (or at least that is The Board's means of communicating with humanity) than any of the squishy, slimy alien beings of Lovecraft's fiction.

I have an obsession with stories that blend science-fiction and fantasy, and Control's portrayal of scientists investigating "paranatural" phenomena that would simply be magic if it were not approached in the rigorous and methodical way the FBC researchers do (invoking the corollary to Clarke's third law: "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology) is 100% my kind of thing.

It didn't hurt that Control has really satisfying gameplay. I remain, however, utterly infuriated that the game doesn't allow you to simply create a new save file without overwriting the old one, or letting you replay chapters of it without losing the progress you've made (I unlocked a lot of things after beating the primary story, and my understanding is that if I go back to the "Endgame" chapter, it simply puts you back at the point you were when you beat the main story).

Control actually sent me down the rabbit-hole of the Remedy game universe, and I went back to play Alan Wake - a game I'd been intrigued by when it came out in 2010 but didn't get around to until much later. While Alan Wake is also cool, it didn't quite grab me as effectively as Control. There was something refreshing about the fact that Alan Wake had no "progression system," some of which weighed down Control, but it also left the game feeling very on-rails. You went through the story and situation and levels as dictated by the game's designers to see the story as they wanted to tell it. I think it was just a product of its era - today's games tend to really value giving players a more open world, while this was a bit more like Uncharted (the first of which came out three years prior) in that it kept you on rails to guarantee the cinematic moments and set-pieces it wanted to show you.

I guess one thing that Bloodborne and Control have in common is their rewarding of attempts to peel back the layers of lore. Bloodborne, for example, has an option (and somewhat hidden) area called Castle Cainhurst, which ties in its strange version of vampires to the plot. In typical FromSoft fashion, recognizing certain styles of dress and certain weapons will allow you to suss out that two NPCs - one of which is a boss in the DLC - have a hereditary connection to this castle.

Similarly, in Control, if you're diligent about reading the memos found around the Oldest House and listening to the various recordings, you can discover an entire conspiracy by the "Blessed" organization that seems to be waging some kind of secret war against the FBC, while having nothing to do with the current crisis with The Hiss.

I do adore this kind of deep lore-building. Even if I largely come by the lore thanks to the greater online community, mostly via YouTube channels like VattiVidya, it really enhances my enjoyment of the game as a perfect complement to the satisfying combat.