Darian J. Shump

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Another weird six months, but with quite a bit of positive momentum: I landed my first job in the games industry!

Although recruiting isn’t exactly the end goal, it’s a toehold at a time when layoffs, shutdowns, and game cancellations are continuing at an unprecedented pace. Meanwhile, it feels like our studio’s been expanding at an unprecedented pace, and my free time has become increasingly limited. I’m reminded at least in part of my time teaching — but I’m finding that I enjoy the hectic nature of things more than I’d have ever expected.

Of course, it also means that I’ve once again had much less time to actually focus on games outside of work.

In terms of stats:

My only other excuse here is that I’ve continued to focus on longer, open-world rpgs, mostly because I’m still stubbornly working my way through the Assassin’s Creed series. I did try to find a handful of shorter indie games to dig into between things, but only one ever ended up really sticking.

With this in mind, it feels a little weird to try to piece together a Top Five and Worst Three; I’d only end up leaving out one of the nine games I actually finished this cycle. Instead, I want to switch it up and take a brief look at an eclectic Top Four, as well as two cases that exemplify my ongoing struggles with 3D Puzzle-Platformers.

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Top Four

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
[24h]

Easily the most enjoyable game I played this cycle. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 captures the best elements of the previous two entries, but it never feels stale — not least because it also manages to expand upon them in meaningful ways at the same time. Perhaps the best example is the map itself: Although the explorable world is larger, traversal is arguably more engaging than ever with the addition of the classic web wings and conveniently placed wind tunnels. Meanwhile, the combat is snappy, the narrative is poignant (plus original enough to not bore longtime fans), and that one sequence with Venom just feels right.

20 Minutes Till Dawn
[16h 24m]

One of the first games I played on the Steam Deck. The overall design and gameplay here isn’t all too different from other games I’ve seen (and I think briefly played) on mobile, but the art direction really caught my attention in the first place and the weapon variety / character abilities kept hold of it for longer than I’d expected. In the end, it doesn’t pretend to be anything that it’s not and I think that’s to be commended.

Crusader Kings III
[507h 30m]

I have a problem and it’s this game. I first picked it up back at the height of the pandemic and I couldn’t put it down, despite the fact that it’s nothing like anything else I play regularly. Maybe it’s the historian in me, but I’ve got a weakness for its approach to emergent gameplay — and the sheer number of options available when it comes to choosing a ruler, growing a realm, and cultivating a dynasty. Even so, it wasn’t until this year that I finally finished a run without mods and I think that means I can officially lay it to rest… Or so I keep telling myself, at least.

Assassin’s Creed Origins / Odyssey
[49h 40m / 110h 32m]

I challenged myself back when I was on Twitter to finish the Assassin’s Creed series by the end of 2024; I’m not sure I’m going to make it now, but at least playing these two takes a pair of the beefier entries off of the list. This was also my first playthrough of Origins after sinking dozens of hours into Odyssey back during the pandemic — and I have to admit that as much as I still prefer Odyssey, Origins wins in terms of the relative depth and cohesiveness of its narrative. That being said, playing these back to back only deepened my biggest gripe with the series: I wish the default sprint and climb controls would actually stay the same for once!

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Interlude:
3D Puzzle-Platformers

Portal 2
[6h 50m]

This is a weird one to try to explain. Portal 2 is an outstanding game and I didn’t hate playing it, but it’s also not something I’d have ever picked up or continued if it weren’t for the batch of friends who insisted upon watching my stream on Discord. In that regard, it’s one of the few 3D puzzle-platformers I’ve been able to finish, even though I was really more drawn to the narrative and voice acting than the level design or gameplay itself.

As a result, and coupled with my attempt to play Jedi: Fallen Order last year and picking up Spyro Reignited this year, I finally realized something: My trouble with this genre almost always boils down to perspective.

It doesn’t matter if it’s first- or third-person; whether it’s the field of view or the positioning of the camera behind the character model, it almost always feels “restrictive,” or maybe just “limited,” in comparison to two-dimensional platformers. I still hesitate to say this is a problem with the games themselves, but I do think it makes it tricky to make them feel “right” in the modern world of gaming.

Enter Spyro…

Spyro Reignited Trilogy
[3hrs, abandoned]

Which is another series that I shouldn’t have had any problem finishing — after all, I loved and lived for the original Spyro entries as a kid.

But somewhere between then and now, I found myself fighting more with camera angles than actually playing the game. Although the Spyro remakes are masterfully done and do retain the original option to switch between Passive and Active camera modes, I’m not convinced that their relationship between character movement and player perspective stands up to the test of time. Put differently, I’m always keenly aware that I’m the one controlling Spyro, rather than feeling like I’ve become Spyro.

Nobody is to blame here, of course, but it’s an interesting phenomenon. Over the last twenty years, players (i.e., me) have increasingly been conditioned to expect a certain smoothness of gameplay, despite the fact that it’s a subjective quality with ever-shifting goalposts. (There’s a reason so many players disagree about the fixed camera angles in the early Resident Evil games, for example!) To need to fight a camera to solve a puzzle, advance, or otherwise survive in a modern game is an anachronism, or so I’ve convinced myself at this point.

I admit there’s definitely more to this thought process, but I’ll leave it there for now and keep trying to force my way through 3D puzzle-platformers in the meantime. With luck, maybe I’ll eventually be able to revisit Jersey Devil on PS1 to test my luck with another cartoonish, purple, horned creature…