What we’ve been playing – changing perceptions, persevering, and making the familiar feel new

2nd August 2024

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing over the past few days. This week we push through to get better times in a game, which we hope are coming; we change our perception of a game after talking to the people who made it; and we find the familiar in a game that also manages to feel completely new.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, PS5

Let me get this straight: I’ve just finished saving the world having journeyed across the universe to prevent the monstrous effects of depression, while resolving centuries-long conflicts and dealing death and despair and a whole lot more – I am the goddamn Warrior of Light – and now I’m on holiday helping a cat lady on a Pokémon quest to become the best Dawnservant there ever was? Work that involves – checks notes – trading items to tame an alpaca and leading a harvest festival. Sure. OKAY.

Final Fantasy 14’s newest expansion Dawntrail doesn’t make a great first impression (graphical update aside). I can see now why many players were critical at launch. The plot is shallow, the characterization is cartoonish, and there’s a distinct lack of drama to its weak-feeling conflict. But you know what? I don’t mind.

I know there’s better to eat. That’s in part due to encouraging reviews and details shared at Fan Fest events leading up to release, but also I’ve become conditioned to believe in the game’s eventual improvement. A Realm Reborn was slow; I was forever told “it’ll get better once you get to [blank]”, and it did. Dawntrail seems to be doing the same thing. I have every faith the second half will pick up the pace and offer deeper character development and a more meaningful reason to embark on this adventure, beyond making the most out of my monthly Square Enix tax (the subscription). So I’m pushing through.

At least I’m already having a great time as a Pictomancer. There’s a lot of squabbling in the jungle, but I’m sitting back and painting pictures and wiping the floor with enemies there. It’s bliss.

-Ed

Baldur’s Gate 3, PC

Watch on YouTube

My Dark Urge playthrough of the game is nearly at an end now, and inspired by it, I recently spoke to the creators of it. I’m working on that piece now so don’t worry you haven’t missed it; the reason I mention it is in talking to those people, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation of the game.

The people I spoke to were Larian’s writing director Adam Smith, once a writer on Rock Paper Shotgun I’ll have you know, and Beaudelaire Welch, who no longer works at Larian but oversaw the companion storylines and romances in the game. Welch also directly wrote the Dark Urge.

I felt slightly ashamed talking to them, weirdly, because of how I’ve played the Dark Urge. I’ve been an utter douchebag throughout my Let’s Get Evil adventure. I’ve tried to do the most reprehensible thing I can whenever it’s offered to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a great time doing it, but I felt ashamed telling them that because I now realize how superficial I’ve been. They highlighted a level of depth and consideration I have mercilessly ramped by.

For instance, they highlighted the unexpected popularity of the Dark Urge ‘resist’ playthrough, whereby you resist the urge to do bad things. If played that way, they said, it’s not actually an ‘evil’ playthrough at all – that’s something many people mislabel it as. In fact, they said, it’s one of the most heroic playthroughs possible. I didn’t know that! And it fascinates me.

I hope you like the piece when you eventually see it – it’s not far off.

I’m off to go be nasty again.

-Bertie

Dungeons of Hinterberg, Xbox Series

There’s a lot of Zelda in Dungeons of Hinterberg, but a lot of other games too – and the alchemy of its makeup, I think, is where a lot of its magic lies.

Hinterberg’s daily routine of battling monsters and then building up relationships is reminiscent of Persona, or the overlooked Marvel’s Midnight Suns, with a smartly unfolding story that suggests there’s more to the game’s narrative than you might initially believe.

Its daytime dungeoneering, meanwhile, owes its variety to sampling games as diverse as Jet Set Radio and Mario Galaxy. It has 25 caves that are not really caves at all, but in some cases entire regions to explore.

Yet despite its influences, Dungeons of Hinterberg manages to feel like an original thing: an Austrian-made and Austrian-set indie adventure based around the appearance of monsters in the Alps, and the thriving tourism trade set up to take advantage of it. It’s simultaneously like a lot of things I’ve played before but also completely fresh. It’s also on Game Pass now if you want to give it a go.

-Tom