This article originally ran under a different banner/website in January of 2019 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
Greetings everyone, please come inside. With the new year on the horizon, I have opened the Indie Game Bar anticipating the crowd of people out celebrating the new year. What better way to celebrate with a couple of stand-out indie games from 2018? Let’s take a look at what we have on tap this time…
The Hex
First up on the list is another game about a bar. This time, you are not managing the bar or designing drinks for patrons. The Hex is a story about the six patrons in Six Pint Inn and their own unique stories. Each patron is a video game character from a different genre of gaming. You have your washed-up mascot platform character, a cooking character that got thrown into a fighting game, the heroine of an RPG that doesn’t want her franchise to continue, and few others. You end up playing through these genres as you venture through each character’s tale. For example, you’ll race through the various iterations of the mascot platformer’s game, watching as each game tries something new and disappoints the fans.
I see you raising your eyebrow. How is a made up platformer, within a game, conveying fans’ disappointment for each iteration of the game series? That’s the beauty of The Hex. Let’s first say that The Hex is by Daniel Mullins, the developer behind Pony Island. That already is giving away too much if you played Pony Island. If you haven’t, I recommend going into The Hex blind, because it is basically the Deadpool of video games. Much like Deadpool’s jokes about superheroes and their movies, The Hex mocks everything about video games. It takes the piss out of Steam reviews, patch notes, license agreements, Twitch chat, corporations milking sequels, you name it, The Hex is probably making a joke at its expense. While some areas can drag on, looking at you, turned-based tactics section, The Hex takes a nose dive into Stanley Parable and The Beginning territory exploring how games not only affect people but how people affect games. If you are looking to go on a wild ride, this New Year, The Hex is similar to having six jello shots: where each shot is a different and wild flavor that will take you on a ride you won’t forget.
The Missing: J.J. MacField and the Island of Memories
As many of you know, I found 2018, disappointing when it came to horror games. Thankfully director Swery, the mind behind Deadly Premonition, has come to save us from a year of lackluster horror with The Missing: J.J. MacField and the Island of Memories. While vacationing on a strange island with her girlfriend Emily, J.J. MacField is struck by lightning. She gains the power to lose limbs and regenerated them back. She must use her newfound powers to find where Emily ran off to. She is faced with puzzles requiring her to tear off limbs to use on a seesaw or throw at objects to knock them down. Think Limbo mixed with the game Neverdead. Neverdead was an action game where the main character could lose limbs and keep fighting. Not exactly the best idea for an action game, but The Missing proves that it is a concept better suited for a puzzle platformer. Frequently, you’re asked to set J.J. on fire to burn vine blocking the path, break J.J.’s neck to flip the world upside down, or disassemble into a head to roll into a small corridor.
While I did find a lot of these puzzles cleverly designed, some of them became chores due to the game’s animations. Many of the animations to regenerate yourself are just too long. Every time J.J. breaks her neck you will have to witness this overlong animation of her snapping her spine back into place while listening to eerie bone snapping sounds. I would be fine witnessing this a couple of times, but some puzzles requiring you to do this multiple times and this animation get old fast. While I did say most puzzles are well designed, you might run into one or two that aren’t as clear as the others. With J.J. taking ages just to regenerate, these puzzles double in frustration. If you are willing to deal with these gripes, you will find some of the tensest moments I have had in 2018. Between the cryptic messages that Emily leaves to the nerve-wrenching chase scenes with the game’s monster, the Hairshrieker, I found myself clenching my teeth harder than any moments in Infliction or Bendy and the Ink Machine. Think of The Missing like a Fireball Pumpkin Spiced Coffee, it’s going to burn on the way down, but that aftertaste is ripe for anyone still wishing it was October.
Gris
If you were hoping to spend the last few moments of 2018, doing some water coloring while sipping on some blueberry wine as the light piano tunes caress your ears, well, I have the perfect indie platformer for you: Gris. From the minds of rookie studio Nomada Studio with the guiding hand of publisher Devlover Digital, Gris is about a young girl venturing through a watercolored world. As we witness our protagonist fall from a crumbling mother-shaped status into various worlds themed around colors; I get the sense we are witnessing our protagonist venture through the many stages of grief. Each stage is categorized by color. As you play through Gris, each stage will incorporate the color of the last level, almost like someone is painting the world as you venture through.
Some might say that the platforming isn’t challenging enough for them and while I will agree Gris isn’t a challenging game, I argue it doesn’t need to be. Even when you’re equipped with a double jump and a ground pound move, the platforming never kills the character. Most platforming is designed to just have you start over if you mess up. With the focus being on the emotional impact from the colors and the music, challenging or punishing platforming would only get in the way and muddy the experience. So even if you’re someone who prefers platformers like Super Meat Boy or Cuphead, I would still urge you to give Gris a try. Much like doing a wine painting, Gris allows you to relax and experience some other emotions besides rage and frustration.
Ah, the beauty of gaming, in times of strife or joy, it can always bring people together. Whether you prefer jumping into Fortnite or sitting down with a small indie title like myself, I hope you found some good games you enjoyed in 2018. The new year looks like it will be bringing some good titles with it. I for one, can’t wait to talk about them. Happy New Year everyone.