The Game Review

When Baba is You first came out, I was hooked on it for weeks. It's a simple top-down puzzle game where the player primarily just pushes blocks to get to the goal at the end of each level, but there's a catch. Blocks of text in the game world make up the rules of each level, and the player is allowed to push this text around to change the rules of the game. For example, if a level has the condition "Flag is Win" but the flag is trapped behind a column of rocks, the player must figure out how to rearrange their available words so that they can win. If there's a "Rock" text available to them, they could change the rules to "Rock is Win" and collide with the rock to win. Or they could set up "Baba is Win" and, as long as "Baba is You" is still true, the player can instantly win. This is a really simplistic premise, but the game does so much with it by gradually introducing new mechanics to the player. Conditions l...

Walking simulators have received tons of backlash from the gaming community ever since Dear Esther set the standard for the genre in 2008. These slow, narrative-driven games where "all the player does is walk" are constantly mocked for lacking gameplay depth and being games that could just as easily be experienced by watching a YouTube playthrough. Is this really true, though? The word "game" is really nebulous, and everyone seems to have their own ideas of what a game is. The most common idea I've heard is that a game is a test of skill for the player; if the player can't potentially win or lose, then it isn't a game. Likewise, the value of gameplay seems to be attributed to the amount of choices the game allows the player to make. I think this is partially why the branching experience of The Stanley Parable is generally more accepted than the fixed experience of Gone Home , even though they're both walking simulators. With the rise of ...