The Game of Now: Embracing the Present Moment
30th November
Hello! Welcome back to our beloved segment where we discuss a few of the games we’ve been enjoying over the past few days. This week, we take a look ahead to what could be one of this year’s most significant sequel releases, spotlight a fantastic nostalgia-drenched horror game, and, oh, birds – lots of birds.
Catch up with previous installments of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.
Path of Exile, PC
I’ve been putting some time into Path of Exile in anticipation of the upcoming early access launch of its sequel, Path of Exile 2, and it’s astonishing how outdated the original game feels. I don’t mention this to undermine it: POE1 has excelled in the action RPG genre, evolving from a small project into something much larger – it didn’t launch with the hype or production values that POE2 boasts. However, playing it after experiencing something like Diablo 4, which showcases exceptional production quality, truly emphasizes how much time has elapsed. POE1 feels so clunky in comparison.
For instance, you can’t effortlessly transition between mouse and keyboard controls and a gamepad; a feature nearly every modern game has. You must revert to the main menu and then choose which control scheme you want to utilize. You cannot independently move a character around with the WASD keys while using the mouse to click and attack, which comes off as quite limiting and awkward. I get it; these are minor details that fade into the background as you immerse yourself for dozens of hours, but they still contribute to the impression of how timely a sequel feels.
It’s an intriguing prospect, POE2, with everything in its favor—a developer in prime form and a supportive player base. Plus, it features exciting concepts like having POE1 and POE2 co-existing and sharing a cosmetics store, so one doesn’t overshadow or cannibalize the other. Will this mean POE2 will feel more distinct, or will it still adhere closely to POE1?
Perhaps more crucially, will a new Path of Exile game do a better job at welcoming a 2024 audience than Path of Exile 1 currently does? It has to, right – how could it not? And if it does, what does that imply for the millions of Diablo 4 players looking for something new to engage with? POE has been nipping at Diablo’s heels for years; will POE2 be the moment it finally surpasses?
-Bertie
Tormenture, PC
I adore nostalgia. If possible, I would transform nostalgia into a fine powder and sprinkle it from the top of my ZX Spectrum +3’s disk drive. Unfortunately, nostalgia lacks a tangible form so I can’t actually do that. Instead, I indulge in my nostalgia like many others do, by reading things like Retro Gamer or watching episodes of Bad Influence on YouTube.
Or. Or, I’ll get my fix by playing games like Tormenture, an often-overlooked treasure from Spanish developers Croxel Studios, which merges retro gaming memories with ’80s nostalgia and injects them with a fresh and exhilarating twist on the horror genre.
In simple terms, Tormenture is a game within a game. When you load it up, you’re greeted with gameplay that’s a direct homage to Adventure on the Atari 2600 – a yellow castle, a small square to control, and little to no guidance on how to progress. This is all overlaid with a charming layer of simulated CRT scanlines because, when you figure out the initial few puzzles presented to you, the camera pulls back from the TV to reveal you’re actually playing (from a first-person perspective) as a child sitting cross-legged on the floor, in a small ’80s bedroom.
That bedroom is filled with nostalgia as well. There’s a Speak and Spell, a Guess Who, a tape player, and all these elements play into the game in unexpectedly chilling ways. To elaborate further on the events that unfold would risk spoiling the experience for you but, to give you a vibe, think Stranger Things meets Zelda, with a generous sprinkle of Tunic-style “oh wow! I get it now!” realization on top.
What I truly appreciate about Tormenture is how its puzzles and their resolutions remain engaging throughout the roughly six hours it takes to complete. It’s genuinely unsettling at times, harnessing the dual-layers of game-within-a-game and game-outside-a-game to create an atmosphere that perfectly captures the feeling of being up past your bedtime and playing a creepy game, fully aware that your parents might walk in at any moment and give you a stern talking-to – even though in the world of Tormenture, your parents might be the least of your worries…