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It is once again time for me to compile a list of video games that the peeps here at Zatu have been indulging in. It seems like only days ago I was writing these features in an ice house, and now I am sitting in shorts sweating my bum off in the heat. Days certainly do get quicker the older you get. I never did believe the old people who would warn me about the passage of time getting quicker. And now I am speeding down life, approaching the point where I am becoming said old person myself. Queue the mid-life crisis music.
But you aren’t here to witness the first signs of a mid-life crisis. You are here to scope out what other fellow gamers have been knee-deep in. So here we go…
Subnautica – Pat Buckler
In Subnautica, you start as a space explorer, but your spaceship crashes into the ocean of an alien planet and now you’re a scuba diver. It’s a survival and crafting game like Minecraft, Ark and Stranded Deep, except you spend most of the time underwater. You have to rely on what can be found in the depths to craft what you need to get by.
I love the movie Cast Away so always wanted to play a game that replicates that. I’ve played a couple but found them too stressful. You’re thrown into hostile worlds where it changes from day to night every 5 minutes, and you’re constantly starving to death or being attacked.
I understand that the challenge is part of the appeal, and obviously being stranded alone on a desert island wouldn’t be much fun. But in stories like Robinson Crusoe, there’s something appealing about being in a situation where you only need to focus on meeting your basic needs. It provides an escape from the relentless pace of modern civilization.
With Subnautica, I’ve finally found one where I’ve been able to get past the first couple of hours. Thankfully there’s a setting where you can turn off the hunger and thirst meters. It was boring having to constantly hunt for munch, and it’s not easy to find fresh water in the sea. So this helped me ease into the game.
It didn’t take long before I crafted decent diving equipment and other tools for finding resources. I’ve built a small base and a submarine, to help store my stuff and explore. There’s more of a story than some survival games, where you’re finding clues about potential fellow survivors from your crash.
There are also horror elements, as there are some terrifying sea monsters out there! But most of the time I’ve been splashing about in the detailed and colourful marine environments, having a lovely old time.
The Dark Pictures Anthology – Paul Blyth
So this month I’ve been greedy and chosen three games for my game of the month. But it’s with good reason! The highly anticipated The Quarry by Supermassive Games has just come out and I wanted to prepare myself. So I’ve been playing the first three games of Supermassive’s Dark Pictures Anthology to make sure my nerves are truly shredded.
For those who aren’t familiar, each game in the Dark Pictures Anthology tells a different story where your decisions affect the outcome. This isn’t like the Telltale games where your choices hardly impacted the story and the endings were largely the same. No, in the Dark Pictures Anthology choices are the difference between life and death. They’ll steer the narrative in different directions locking you out of entire sections. Each title requires multiple playthroughs to see everything. Luckily each game comes with a chapter select option which makes things much quicker.
The first in the series - Man of Medan - sees five friends set sail on a holiday diving trip that soon turns into something much more sinister. The second, Little Hope, features four college students and their teacher who become trapped in the titular town by a mysterious fog. The third title - House of Ashes - moves away from the classic horror trope of teens getting murdered and focuses on a military unit. Who, while searching for chemical weapons, find something far deadlier.
Supermassive Games have become masters of their art. If you’re looking for great horror stories with plenty of spine-chilling moments you need to play the Dark Pictures Anthology. You should also check out Supermassive's first game, which came before the anthology - Until Dawn - which, once again, is amazing.
Sniper Elite 5 – Nick Welford
Some of my fondest video game memories are playing Sniper Elite online back on the original Xbox. There was a small regular group of us who would regularly jump on and play online together making up custom modes and just generally having a good old time. Since then I have followed the series enjoying the different feelings of the online modes and the growing scope of the campaign modes.
Sniper Elite 5 loses some of my nostalgia but is still a bloody good time. Especially with the X-ray kill cam that gives you graphic visuals of the impact of your bullets and other sneaky ways to kill. Rather than lots of new content, Sniper Elite 5 builds on everything prior with one major addition - invader mode. This is a new online mode that is similar to modes from the Dark Souls series. When you start a campaign you can choose to be online with Invader mode enabled. If you do another player can jump in as a German sniper who joins the team against you. Or if you prefer you can invade other players' games.
Alongside this are all the usual online modes, free for all, team deathmatch and my favourite - no cross. No cross divides a map into two halves and puts a team on each side with an area in the middle that is, well, uncrossable. This means it’s down to pure sniping action with no short-range game at all. Instead, you must locate the opponents through their scope flashes, or your binoculars and take them out or tag them for teammates before they do too much damage. A kill cam reveals your position if you are successful so the game encourages you to snipe and move.
The campaign presents you will large open maps that act as playgrounds for your sniping and sneaking needs. They present a number of objectives that you can discover and complete with a great amount of freedom. It’s a brilliant package and well worth your time!
Subnautica Below Zero – Sophie Jones
I’ve never enjoyed survival games. I’ve always found them rather dull. Mainly because you are plonked in a huge world with no direction or story to drive you. Picking up Subnautica Below Zero was a gamble for me. I shouldn’t have liked it based on its description. But Subnautica Below Zero has a plot! Because of that, I was hooked.
You play as Robin who has come to planet 4546B to investigate her sister's death. Her sister mysteriously died and the evil corporation she worked with was all hush-hush. Wanting to find the truth, Robin embarks on an adventure. This initial plot kept me engaged and I loved visiting empty bases and listening to logs. This method of storytelling unravelled the mystery at a nice pace. The lack of humans to talk to also kept the game's atmosphere intact. That atmosphere being complete isolation. Most things you see in this game are trying to eat you or steal from you. Yes, I am looking at you mischievous Sea Monkey!
Aside from a compelling plot, this game is just gorgeous! The underwater locations are well designed, and you can distinguish between them. As you progress you are rewarded for exploring by finding blueprints to gear and discovering new materials. Subnautica Below Zero also has a base-building tool which is fun to mess around with. My base currently has a 3-story aquarium in it. I love placing random eggs I have found in there and seeing what hatches. I’m still waiting for a giant evil shrimp to hatch or in other words a Chelicerate Leviathan.
Subnautica Below Zero is one of those games which you keep coming back to as you want to explore its depths. It's also nice to look at. When it's over 25 degrees outside, is there a better game to play?
Returnal – Dan Hilton
I was so happy to finally get my hands on Returnal. We all have those games on our bucket list that we never seem to get around to. And Returnal was a game that had been on mine since its release. There just always seemed to be a different game that I wanted to play first. Boy, did I have my priorities wrong. Now that I have played Returnal, I would easily take it over most of the games I have played during the last year. Or even this gaming generation.
The game -if you didn’t know- is a roguelike that has you trapped in a perpetual loop of death and rebirth. With every return from death, you will go head-to-head against the planet’s mysterious fauna in a shifting world that never stays the same. The bizarre, tentacle-ridden fauna seem to be responsible for the demise of the original inhabitants. It is a delightfully curious world, with an interesting story to unwrap as you edge further and further with every run.
As with any roguelike, the game opens up the more you play it. The further you proceed, the more weapons you will unlock, the larger variation of enemies you will fight, the more of the world you will uncover, and the more fun you will have. I have played many roguelikes in my gaming career. Returnal is easily one of my favourites. The more you play it the more you want to play it. And that is the feeling that every game tries to achieve.
Credit Roll
And there we have it, another video game of the month round-up. 5 more games for you to consider getting your teeth into. I was particularly happy with this month’s offerings. Seeing both Subnautica and its sequel on the same list was a joy. They have both been on my own list of games to dive into at some point. Huh, dive, see what I did there? No?
Whatever games you have your eyes on at the moment, make sure you enjoy them. Happy gaming!