#threshold game

1) NieR (GESTALT)

 Yes, that's a fishing mini game as the gameplay screenshot. This is the only screenshot that didn't have spoilers, or wasn't from Replicant. I couldn't get a screenshot from my own playthrough. I have failed all of you. 

 Before Automata took over the world, there was Gestalt. Or Replicant, if you were Japanese and had a PS3. In the version I was able to play, you play as a man trying to find a cure for his daughter's illness, all while inhabiting a world under the constant threat of Shades.

 I have not yet looked at all the supplementary material that came out with the Replicant Remake, and I do not know how this game fits into its series, since I can't play Automata and I know nothing about it, so I’ve judged it and interacted with it through its own merits, and everything that was presented in the game itself.

 Gameplay wise, I don't think this game is anything special. If you’ve played an action game or a hack and slash, you know what you are getting into. The rest of the game? The spectacle? Breathtaking. Soundtrack? Amazing. The story…

 Man, the story. What can I even say about it that isn't a spoiler? Well, I can say this much: It is good. Yeah, that's it. I do not want to describe it more, I will not talk about the themes it has and how well executed they are. I will not, because I do not want the story to be spoiled for anyone. It is good, more than good even. 

 Characters, however, I will talk a small amount: Kainé and Emil are my favourites, I love them. I already miss them and by the time of writing this, I beat the game yesterday. Nier (what I chose to name the protagonist) is my favourite caveman of all time, and I never got tired of his banter with Weiss as I dragged him along to do any side quest that appeared in front of me, much to his chagrin.

 I almost lost my mind playing the last half of the game (you may know what I mean if you played it. Lets just say I did three certain things all back to back. On the same day. Yeah I don't know why either). I have never felt more like Sisyphus in my entire life, and I am now concerned for who I was twenty four hours ago as of writing this. 

 Don't be like me, please game responsibly. 

2) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

 Listen. I actually beat this game twice. Once on the PS2 when I was like twelve. The other when I was sixteen on the Xbox 360. 

 And now, I’ve beaten it again. “Why, then?” you ask, “Why put it in this list if you’ve already beaten it not once, not twice, but now three times?” Because, my dear poor soul that has chosen to read this list: My Xbox chose to betray me in the most brutal way possible: It ate my save file. That's right: not corrupted, not deleted. ATE. Because such cruelty is not that of an object, but of a beast that breathes and thinks treacherous thoughts.

 So, seeing that show of disrespect, I did what any person of sound mind would have done, and did the entirety of the Career mode. All in one sitting. It hurts to type. 

 And that's why this game is in this list, even if by logic of replays, Bayonetta should be here at least twice in this list, and three times between the other two. Because of WHY I had to replay it. 

(Please game responsibly, I said as this is the next entry. The hypocrisy of it all!)

3) Halo Reach

Listen, I am not a Halo fan. The only Halo game I've played before this one was 3, and I don't think it counts since I played it all in one sitting with my cousin, and we were so sleep deprived it took us a literal hour trying to find the exit of a map. We had to google it. I don't even remember what the game was about. And aside of games, the only contact with anything Halo related I've ever had is Red vs Blue and Guard Duty. So yeah, I hope that makes it clear where I stood when I started playing the game.

I do not have much experience with shooters, at least not any that arent Bioshock, so I cant really say anything about the gameplay that stood out to me. Story wise, I already knew what the game was about and how it ended, that was basically the reason why I even chose to play it in the first place, but knowing how the story would develop didn't take away from the emotional impact of those moments. I think it was a good game, with a good story. I think my main complain is that there were no subtitles, which I found really weird, so I had to have the volume all the way up to be able to listen to anything anyone was saying while the entire chaos was going on. And also, Kat, I love you, but I struggle to understand your accent at times. I am so sorry queen.

4) Contrition

"As a priest, it’s your job to listen to your parishioners’ darkest secrets and absolve their guilt. But when a sinister stranger comes to the confessional one Halloween night, you realize it’s your soul on the line." That is whats stated in the game's description, and I honestly couldn't put it in any other way.

The atmosphere is intense, the build up of tension with every single sentence, every dialogue exchanged between the protagonist and this unknown figure cloaked in anonymity and darkness. It is a fantastic experience, and it accomplished everything it set up to do in such a small amount of time.

5) FNAF: Into The Pit

Listen, I've been into FNAF since the first game came out, I've been in this hellhole long enough to know and remember every theory, every change, and every book release and how they were received. This game is the best adaptation of Into The Pit we could have gotten. And it's good.

This game is about Oswald, a kid that after being left in a pizzeria by his father, chooses to hide inside a decommissioned ball pit, through which he will travel in time to the year 1985, to a location named "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza". You play through five days and nights, constantly shifting between the past and the present, in an effort to save yourself and others. All while avoiding the dangerous creature that followed you home.

I was afraid that the gameplay loop of going back and forth between the present and the past was going to get tiresome, but I am glad to say that it didn't. I think its mostly because you aren't in the present for long, so you don't get a long sense of safety because sooner rather than later you are going back into the pit. And the night sections were perfect in ramping up the tension, having to break out of your own house while trying to escape the thing that took your father's place, and you can never use the same escape plan twice.

The sprite work is some of the best I've ever seen. The level of detail, the fluidity of the animations, both in character sprites and cut-scenes, they are all amazingly done. But what stood out to me the most was the sound design: I need to look at the credits again, because whoever was in charge deserves to be praised from here to eternity. The sounds of ragged breaths and outright animalistic groans coming from the Creature will forever be ingrained in my head! I love it! It really drove home that this thing was not human. Mega Cat Studios really outdid themselves. This was supposed to be a short cartridge game! I'm really glad they went ham with the concept and were able to develop it to this degree.

7) A Date With Death

Well hello there, you handsome reaper. This VN is about the Grim Reaper struggling to claim your soul, and so you both make a bet that if he doesn't manage to do so by the end of the week, you'll claim his soul and keep living. It is your job on these seven days to tease and fluster this man like you are getting paid by the hour. Honestly, the man is after your soul, might as well take his heart!

The dynamic between us the player and the Reaper is really funny, and honestly there are so many moments I could talk about, but I'll let the game speak for itself in that regard if it raises any interest. The writing is gold, the presentation is extremely good, and honestly, I can't wait for that sweet DLC.

UPDATE: I have played the DLC. I need to be put down like a dog.

8) These Heavenly Bodies

On an excavation site, three angel statues are found, and when they are scanned it is revealed that they have preserved bodies within them. The church has decided to investigate further, and you are the priest they assigned this task to.

This is a short yet effective one. The sound design and low resolution visuals affect the atmosphere and tension in a way that I love a lot. Every day that passed, every small change in the hallway leading to the lab, every second scanning those Angel's innards, I could feel a tension inside myself growing, and growing. It really gave the feeling that you were studying something you shouldn't, that that flesh and bone and nerves inside the marble was never supposed to be seen.

Or maybe, it was waiting for one of you to find them. Maybe it was all according to plan.

9) Dialtown: Phone Dating Simulator

Hi, hello there! Have you ever thought that you needed more characters with objects for heads in your life? Me too! Introducing: Dialtown, a phone dating simulator in which you, a green goblin who refuses to integrate into society, needs to find a bachelor/bachelorette to invite to the funfair and experience the most important event of Valentine's Day: laying eggs in a damp, dark hole! Who said romance is dead, huh?

For those who don't know, I love the visuals of putting objects in place of people's heads. I loved it in Clash: Robot Detective, and I loved it here too.

Besides feeling like crack concentrated in the best way possible, the writing is amazing. I absolutely love how you can be giving your narrator an aneurysm about the most absurd of topics, and then have the most moving scene in the entire route. And it doesn't leave me feeling with tonal whiplash! At least of the bad kind! If that makes any sense.

But for real, the writing is phenomenal, and I cant complement it enough. The tone is as balanced at it is erratic, and yet the more heartfelt moments do not feel out of place. I cannot understand how this was done, but I can recognize a talented hand when I see one. Good job, sir Dog! You have mastered an art form that many people *think* they can do, and they fail miserably.

I will also praise the amount of flavour text in the game, the amount of dialogue choices that may not be mandatory to progress the story, but that are there to flesh out the world or just be plain funny. That is something I will always love when its implemented.

I did not manage to get the DLC, but I cant wait to be able to buy it sometime in the future, hopefully.

10) Slay The Princess

You have been tasked to slay the princess, to protect the world from her. You need to slay her, or else.

Now. This is the type of game I love. The ones that cannot exist outside their medium. The ones that look at you dead in the eye and make you feel uncomfortably seen, holding your hand and tearing into your heart as you tear into them. At least, that's how it felt to me.

I don't know how much to talk about it. The game never hides what its going for, and it becomes clear extremely early on, but even so I don't want to spoil people who may want to go into this game completely blind like I managed to do.

What I will say is that there are A LOT of variations for different scenarios, so many I only gave up when I saw how many there were. It is insane. This is a game I would love to gut open and see how it works, it takes so many things into account its unreal. The programming on this must have been such an interesting thing to do.

I actually didn't know the pristine cut was coming out, and I literally found out a month before its release date. But even that wasn't able to take away any enjoyment I felt. Its also something that already happened to me before, when I played Disco Elysium before the Final Cut came out. A real two nickles situation.

Overall, this game is an experience that will grab you and wont let you go even after you finish it. It is intriguing, and captivating. But above all, it is a love story. Never forget that.

11) 3D Workers Island

Made by the creator of Petscop, this simple game tells the story of a screen protector, and how the internet interacts with it. The narrative constructed around this program is filled with thematic elements seen in Tony Domenico's previous works, blurring the line between fiction and reality constantly, to the point where one might struggle to see where one ends and the other begins.

Definitely worth the time, and a second reading too. You may see things you didn't notice before. And watch it all unfold again. That is all you can do.

12) Dead Space (2008)

Man, Issac really became important on his job and it ruined his entire life.

Dead Space is a survival horror game about Issac Clarke, an engineer who suffers from becoming important on his job once he boards the USG Ishimura and finds the crew dead, is split from his coworkers, and twisted abominations crawl through the halls and vents of this sarcophagus, where he'll fight to survive and escape.

I was afraid that the dismembering mechanic was going to be too hard to get used to, but honestly it was the least of my concerns because I was too busy trying to NOT have a heart attack constantly, something this game felt like it set up to do. I did notice once I reached the shooting range minigame that I got way too used to shooting the limbs, so I don't think I should play any other shooter after this one. I might as well just go to the second one straight away before the muscle memory fades. Also, the Plasma Cutter is my best friend of all time and the only weapon I've ever needed in my life.

The USG Ishimura as a setting is unforgettable, and it never had a moment of pure silence, constantly filled with the sound of machinery mixed with the shuffle of the enemies crawling through it. The game did a really good job at communicating how big the ship was, and loved seeing the traces of the people that lived and died there, and not only their corpses, but the recordings, their notes, who was clearly in the known of what was happening and who wasn't, how these conflicts led to their downfall.

The necromorphs are nightmare inducing in design alone, but the way they behave in game is another layer of horror. Their sound design, their movements, hell the way they sometimes blend in with corpses on the floor to get the jump at you! Or when they suddenly pop up from the vents! Or even how they suddenly showed up in the hub areas that I thought were supposed to be safe but apparently not! Because every time I came back to them there was ONE TIME EACH where one of those fuckers was just waiting to attack. I never knew if it was a chance encounter, or a programmed event, but at some point every time I went back to those areas I would be paranoid, because maybe THIS time the enemy would pop up. It did a good job at never letting me feel safe. And don't even get me STARTED on that enemy that refuses to die and I refuse to learn its name out of spite. I thought it was a one chapter thing! But it popped up again once at the end and I honestly think that if I wasn't filled with adrenaline, I would have started sobbing. Literally when it finally died I just had to take a ten minute break because of how hard I was shaking. 10/10, I loved it.

On another note, the level design was outstanding every single time. The spectacle and scale is insane! Every time I was amazed and how bigger each level got in terms of spectacle, but it never sacrificed its horror and suspense, something that I appreciated a lot. Like, you are telling me I get to walk on that asteroid and go to the OUTSIDE of the ship? I think it also helped to make me understand just how massive the ship itself was.

I liked seeing the story unfold, finding out what happened to the crew but most importantly why, and how that develops and affects Issac's struggle for survival. I don't want to say much, and honestly I am STILL processing it, and cant wait to play the second game and seeing how the story continues.

13) Threshold (DEMO)

By the time this list is posted, this game will already be available for purchase. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to play it before then, so the demo is getting included. It is short, but it managed to establish the tone of its setting incredibly well, finishing with a cliffhanger that promises so much more. And I, for one, cant wait to find out where the story will take me.

I am curious of the country based difficulty, and how my country will rank. (I hope its not too hard... oh god, its going to be hard, isn't it?)

14) Mouthwashing

Tragedy struck the Tulpar, and now that is has been crashed into an asteroid, it's crew is trapped inside it with each other, a shipment of mouthwash, and a captain incapable of even providing an answer to a simple question: Why?

Man, what can I say about this game that hasn't been said a thousand times at this point. If you are able to, go through this game blind. Hell, even if you spoil yourself some aspects of the story, you are not ready for the full picture. I sure as hell wasn't.

The artistry in this game is amazing, and even tho I was already familiar with Wrong Organ's previous game, I am happy to see them making a more narrative "clear" project (I do not know how to express this sentiment with other words. If you've played How Fish Is Made, you may understand. Or not). Even if the story takes its own version of obscuring itself, it is incredibly effective.

The amazing cinematography of the scenes, the story unfolding in a non-linear way that is organized in such a way that some questions you didn't know you could have get answered in just the right moment. And the way that it was all always there, you just didn't know where to look. But you'll know they are there on your second playthrough, but that wont change the fact that that's all you can do: look.

(It sure feels like a constant of this year's games, huh)

Just. This is such a good game, I love it.

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So, you may have noticed, that there is no number 6 entry in the above list. Now, this isn't because I suddenly forgot how to count. No. It is because a beast has its claws on my very soul and refuses to let go, no matter how long I've battled it while writing and edition this post.

And that beast is cringe.

So that's why number six is getting added this far down.

Because I am a coward, and ashamed.

So, with that out of the way: Abandon cringe all ye who enter here

6) Swooning Over Stans

First off: The shame I feel is mine and mine alone, because this visual novel was really good. I am the problem.

I love Gravity Falls. I watched it ten years ago, and I can recognize that it awoke three beasts within me: the beast that loves decoding and analyzing and that it shall never be satisfied, the beast that loves doomed sibling relationships, and the beast that loves old men.

Then the Book of Bill came out, and well, all of those beasts awoke at once. And then this VN fed one specific beast. And man, what a meal it was.

This visual novel had everything I wanted. It was funny, and all jokes aside, both routes are really well written. The people behind it had a good grasp on the characters and what makes them so appealing, staying true to their characterization while putting them in this new context.

Also its Alex Hirsch approved, so, what more do you need?