GOING SOLO

As much fun as co-op gaming is, most of the great games throughout history are single player.  Zelda, Metroid, Metal Gear, Ico, HalfLife…these are all solo trips.  However, even though you play these games on your own, your buddies play through them too.  I spent many nights escorting Ellie to Salt Lake City without any co-op assistance (well, except Tess) but I could share that experience with other players subsequently.  After that game, everyone knows what you mean when you mention clickers, or that last surgeon, or the giraffes.  Great single player games connect gamers with a common language and shared history better than co-op games do.

BUT then there are the single player games we play through that not everybody is going to play.  Games with a “cult following” or a “passionate fanbase” are not for everybody.  They may have some gameplay flaws or some graphical limitations that not everyone is willing to tolerate.  These are the games in which you truly go solo.  You fight the monsters, enjoy the settings, and witness the plot knowing that virtually nobody you know is going to have that experience, too.  Here’s six games that make that list:

I have always deeply appreciated Tibetan culture and religion.  Cursed Mountain does a great job with these.  In the game, you play as Eric, a climber seeking his brother who vanished high up in the Himalayas.  The game does a great job gradually deepening the experience as you climb higher and higher up the mountain, passing through villages, caverns, temples and base camps which really convey the sense of ever increasing altitude.  You fight ghostly apparitions with magical items (some using the Wii nunchuk) which is fun and actually utilizes the remote well, but the real success of the game is its ability to great a sense of grim inevitability as Eric climbs higher and higher; you get the sense that he is not planning on coming back down the mountain.  With the Tibetan Buddhist spiritualism referenced throughout the game, the impressive graphics (for the Wii), and the great use of the Wii remote, it should be a game everybody tries.

Eric, for all of his climbing, is a bit tank like when he moves around on level ground.  The game itself is very slow, more atmospheric than actually menacing.  For a horror game, I don’t remember any jump scares; you usually see your enemies coming from a ways away.  But good luck if they surround you because Eric the tank is quickly overwhelmed.

For someone who does not usually enjoy RPGs, Ni no Kuni is surprisingly fun.  Created with Studio Ghibli, the game is beautifully animated and graphically impressive (there are even some fun-if-clunky references to Studio Ghibli characters, like when you fight the enormous battletank Porco Grosso).  The music, by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, will stay with you long after you play.  You play as Oliver who has entered a magical world trying to find a way to return his recently deceased mother to life.  Doing so requires becoming an increasingly power wizard through traveling the world, fighting monsters, and restoring “heart” to people who have had their spirits diminished by the evil in the world.  The gameplay itself is a cross between Final Fantasy and Pokemon as you travel around a fantasy world acquiring cute creatures to battle for you (though, unlike Ash Ketchum, you can actually jump into the battle as well) and friends to assist you.  Battling is real time and often requires strategizing, but your comrades (controlled by AI in combat) are usually able to carry their weight.

RPG folks seems to prefer their heroes slightly older these days and the unrelenting cuteness of the game may be a little more saccharin than most are willing to tolerate (see also de Blob and de Blob 2).   The dungeons are a little unimaginative (though pretty!) and I found that grinding is also necessary when playing through (though this can be mitigated with the help of a walkthrough).  The dialogue can also be a bit dopey at times.  In truth, for all the cutscenes of villains scheming, what propels you in the game is wanting to see what beautiful location you’ll be heading to next.

Of all of the unusual premises out there for video games, the idea of taking control of a scorpion and a tarantula as they have their lives interrupted by a pair of loathsome treasure hunters (voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper).  Levels rotate between the two characters, each of whom have their own abilities (which they powerup throughout the game) and their own experiences.  You battle desert insects and critters, including a particularly persistent rattlesnake, and occasionally the two battle each other.  Ultimately, both the heroes and villains leave the desert and wind up inside a gas station for a truly memorable final sequence.  I cannot think of many titles that swap back and forth between protagonists this well (not since Razael and Kain in Legacy of Kane: Defiance) or that commit so whole heartedly to the concept of the protagonists staying creatures and not taking on any human traits.

As everyone knows, this game is hard.  Creatures will emerge from nowhere and kill you instantly.  You will stumble across impossibly powerful monsters who will demolish you with little concern for the precious souls you collected and will now lose.  Random creatures will poison you or curse you which can be a surprisingly difficult condition to repair.  Dark Souls is notoriously fair but relentlessly brutal.  Enjoying the game requires the ability to consider death to be part of the game; you are supposed to die, learn from that death, and try again.  When I play the game and experience one of those deaths, I think of Louis Gossett Jr.’s drill sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman yelling at me to man up and get back at it.  Unfortunately, without the obligation of a enlistment of the navy, it is all too easy to find a less punishing way to spend my time.

Deadly Premonition is a weird, weird game.  You play as Agent York who has been called in to assist the investigation of a graphic murder, and – for those of us of a certain age – this immediately creates a strong Twin Peaks vibe.  York himself is a bit of a contradiction, on the one hand he is highly competent, brave, and devoted to his job (much like Agent Cooper); on the other hand, he appears to have an imaginary friend named Zach with whom he converses frequently, sometimes about the case and sometimes about random horror movies.  The murders continue as the plot progresses and solving the murders involve getting to know the town’s citizens and fighting ghostly apparitions relatively frequently (ghosts apparently are not bullet proof). Oddly, the game also requires you to keep York fed, rested and groomed.  The ability to replay “days” of the game allow you to stock up on items and the fact that the plot does not progress until you go to a particular location means that even when all of the characters insist you need to go directly somewhere, you are often free to travel around, meet citizens, take on side work, collect weapons, and solve minor problems for citizens (and if you miss these chances, you can replay them easily).  The final act of this game is truly insane as the supernatural forces seem to take over the town and the final battle is one of the strangest I’ve ever encountered anywhere.

The graphics are the most obvious reason this is not the game for everyone.  The game looks like one of the myriad of Playstation 2 survival horror games from the early 2000’s and controlling York is as clunky and blocky as controlling Leon in Resident Evil 2.  A good walkthrough can improve the gaming experience a lot (e.g., acquiring the radio early ensures that you never experience running out of gas in the middle of the woods) if a player is willing to seek one out.  The strange dialogue, the odd plot, and the unique sense of humor ensure that not everyone is going to find this game worth the effort, not unlike Twin Peaks.