I’ll kick us off with a game I genuinely love, Virginia.
Virginia has this insanely smooth art and presentation style that I just can’t get enough of. Each scene oozes style, and each filmic cut makes me think I’m playing through some stylish detective film.
The game has zero dialogue, so the entire plot hinges on the games ability to tell it’s story through relatively limited animation and a brilliant use of both music and direction.
It bounced off for a lot of people, but for me it’s one of my favourite entries in the ‘walking sim’ genre.
What about you, what games do you think deserve more love than they originally got?
Greedfall was a decidedly eurojanky AA game that came out in 2019, but I will always have a soft spot for it. Perhaps Spiders bit off a little more than they could chew (and yes the English lip-sync animations are atrocious) but the game has a lot of charm and clearly a lot of heart.
Set on a newly discovered mysterious island in a fictionalized world reminiscent of early 18th century, the world building they did was great and in particular the fictional language they invented stood out to me. Clearly having consulted with linguists, they managed to not only create a distinct language but also make sure all the various VAs for the indigenous people spoke with the same (invented) accent. Very impressive and immersive, and was a stark contrast to the Witcher 3 Blood & Wine DLC I played where everybody in Beauclaire uses their own different “vaguely foreign” accent.
The gameplay is fun enough though not groundbreaking or that challenging and there definitely could be more enemy variety, but there is enough there that (combined with the charming characters and interesting enough story) I think you’ll have a good time. Especially since you can probably pick it up at a cut rate price - it was just a £50 title at launch if I remember right.
The sequel is supposed to come out this year and I’m excited to see what Spiders has learned the past 5 years.