‘Father and Son’: Bringing Closure to the Past
Growing up without a dad, you start to imagine all the possibilities of what he’d be like. Is he heroic or cowardly? Is he a man of great accomplishment or a miserable alcoholic? This...
Category: Features
Participation vs. Witnessing: An Examination of Video Games
I was at work, dealing with the banality that entails, and fell into a conversation with Art, a co-worker of mine, about film and video games’ similarities and differences concerning audience engagement. Him and...
‘Orchids to Dusk’: An Allegory for Beauty, Death, and Meaning
“…c’est peut-être ça la vie: beaucoup de désespoir mais aussi quelques moments de beauté où le temps n’est plus le même. C’est comme si les notes de musique faisaient un genre de parenthèses dans...
The Fountain of Wisdom: How ‘Thomas Was Alone’ Represents Disability in Video Games
Video games still largely marginalize the identities of people with disabilities, leaving the conversation about disability and ludonarrative rather silent. This deep-seated sociocultural callousness toward disability has been demonstrated to be uprooted by exposure...
How ‘Inside’ Manifests the Literary Uncanny in Video Games
Playdead’s Inside is often considered in terms of its role as a puzzle-platformer, as art, and for its minimalist storytelling. These three laudable elements of the game intertwine themselves into a unique and unforgettable...
Short Stories and Scrambled Chronologies in ‘Beyond: Two Souls’
People condemn Beyond: Two Souls for superficial reasons that take the storytelling for granted and focus on the controls. Sure, the controls don’t demand much from the player, and cutscenes – rather than player...
Disintegration in ‘Doki Doki Literature Club’
The adorable dating sim Doki Doki Literature Club might be the perfect embodiment of what we here at Epilogue try to highlight and analyze: video games as art, literature, and a storytelling medium. It’s...
A Survival Economy: ‘Odyssey to the West’
Titles in games usually speak to a main theme. But what if the characters and certain game subplots undermine that main theme in the game? In Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, the game is...
Demoing ‘Detroit: Become Human’
Quantic Dream unveiled a demo of the long-awaited Detroit: Become Human this week. And it is fantastic. August 15th, 2038. Detroit. The game’s aesthetic heavily borrows from the developing company’s previous title, Heavy Rain....
Games You Forgot About – ‘Spider-Man’ (2000)
This month’s edition of the “Games You Forgot About” series breaks the mold. Most of the games in this series are old, dusty, lost games that deserve a fresh pair of eyes. But, with...
Collaboration, Cooperation, and Contention in ‘A Way Out’
Split screen gameplay is nothing new, but it doesn’t take a reinvention of the wheel to innovate in the realm of video games. Josef Fares’ second game, A Way Out, blends a compelling narrative...
Mega Man Masters Monotony
It took me four different Mega Man games, all of which I played in order, to realize that they’re pretty much identical to one another. In an era where consumers rip franchises like Call...
Spray & Pray: The Ludonarrative Significance of First-Person Shooters
Video games have taken repeated beatings by the news media for ostensibly causing violence and morbid psychological behavior. The easiest target in this (misled) conversation is the presumably mindless genre of first-person shooters. As...
Three and Out: Mega Man 3
Mega Man 3’s combat systems serve as a puzzle that can have its pieces either a) jammed and squished together through defiance or impetuosity or b) fit snugly into their place if you’re patient...
Where Things Grow: Failure and Frustration as Game Mechanics in ‘Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy’
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy is an idiosyncratic video game – almost to a fault. This genre bending game knows exactly what it is: a trial in patience, suspense, and frustration. Frustration is...
Video Games as Art: Visualizing the Narrative
Imagine an image of a cocoon. Spring green plant life fills the background and the sun is rising, with light filtering in through the leaves. The photograph is stagnant and there are no words,...
Three and Out: ‘Kingdom Hearts 2’
Kingdom Hearts II is a fusion of components smashed together to make something charming, intuitive and comprehensive. At various times, I found myself flying through the air on an anti-gravity motorcycle, participating in musicals...
Games You Forgot About: ‘Kinetica’ (2001)
Kinetica is a racing game that was forgotten about nearly as soon as it was released in 2001. It was buried in the market by giant industry racers like Gran Turismo 3: A Spec...
A Guide to the ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ (2018)
Video games have a way of sticking with people for years at a time, sometimes decades. The 2005 Team ICO Shadow of the Colossus release is one of those games that just never disappears...
Three and Out: ‘Demon’s Souls’
Demon’s Souls wastes little time getting to the point: Boletaria, the imagined kingdom the game takes place, is a brutal place to spend time in. It goes without saying that the trailblazer for the...
The Dismantled Book of ‘Kentucky Route Zero’
When I opened Kentucky Route Zero I had no expectations or understanding for what it was going to get me to think about. After playing, I was inundated with thoughts surrounding how character dialogue...
“Life is Tumblr”: A Refutation
As established in my previous essay for Epilogue, most of the critical discussion surrounding Life is Strange (2015) severely misses the point. I articulated a ludonarrative defense of the game, arguing that Life is...
Epilogue’s Best Level Design of 2017
Level design rarely gets enough credit, but something to consider is that even a game with fantastic mechanics won’t get to show them off unless the level allows for it. When choosing our favorite...
‘Life is Strange’: A Ludonarrative Lighthouse in the Darkness
A common critique of the choice-based, point-and-click, episodic genre of games that Telltale Games have popularized is that choices don’t matter and gameplay is tedious. Life is Strange, though adhering to this genre, defies...
Epilogue’s Best Art Styles of 2017
Before we get into an in-depth conversation over the various nominees, it’s worth pointing out that this year has been a phenomenal one for unique art design. There was a lot of feedback that...
Epilogue’s Game of January: Demon’s Souls
Every month, Epilogue Gaming will be selecting a new game to analyze, anatomize and explore. These games are chosen by our golden tier Patreon members, who select the titles from a list of games...
Epilogue Gaming’s Best of 2017
2017 has rightfully been championed as one of the best years for games ever. We had a variety of titles, ranging from things like the wonderfully somber Hollow Knight to the contemporary and flashy...
Ludonarrative Podcast – “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons”
Welcome to the Ludonarrative Podcast, hosted by Blake Andrea and Preston Johnson. This week, they take us through the sobering “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons”, carefully dissecting the dual-stick mechanic and how it...
Review: Super Mario Odyssey
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Super Mario Odyssey serves as the conclusion to 25 years of Mario. Our mustached protagonist has never felt so alive and district, contrasted by the...
Video Games and What We’re Thankful For
It has been a wonderful year for video games, and here at Epilogue, we’re plenty thankful for it. From myself and the rest of the Epilogue Gaming staff, we wish you, your families and...
Drake’s Fortune: Naughty Dog’s Pilot [Part Three]
Owning The Cinematic Style “It’s like watching a movie” is still sometimes used as a pejorative phrase within gaming circles. I imagine that’s because some folks still have a certain level of misplaced...
Retro Review – Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
There are moments in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night where, simultaneously, you’ll feel vulnerable and all powerful. It’s a rare balance in video games that is struck multiple times over the course of Castlevania’s...
Drake’s Fortune: Naughty Dog’s Pilot [Part Two]
This Game Still Does Bad Stuff Beauty and spectacle aside, it really is fun to watch this game battle against sins of gaming’s past, only to then fall into the old trappings at points....
Drake’s Fortune: Naughty Dog’s Pilot [Part One]
Looking back to November 2007 and trying to remember what was happening in my life when Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune came out has been an empty venture. I was a sophomore in college, but I...
Ludonarrative in SOMA
SOMA has spent an awful lot of time rattling around in my head since I finished it. Various moments in the narratively driven horror title were created to stick with the player, whether its...
Review: Cuphead
Written by Ben Vollmer Run, jump, shoot. In Cuphead, that’s all you’ll ever need. In a game that can be deconstructed into a trial of perseverance, Cuphead doesn’t deviate from what makes it click....
Retro Review – Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Written by Ben Vollmer When we’re first introduced to Paper Mario, the most notable difference is the shift from platforming to turn-based combat. Mario has never moved at Sonic speeds, but he’s always been...
What Pokemon On The Switch Will Look Like
Written by Ben Vollmer When Nintendo announced that Pokemon would eventually be making its way over to the Nintendo Switch, the mind’s of many went wild. Why wouldn’t they? After the recent successes of The Legend...
Review: Crash Bandicoot (N. Sane Trilogy)
Written by Ben Vollmer This is a review of the first game in the “N. Sane Trilogy” and is not indicative of the package as a whole. On a mechanical level, Crash Bandicoot is broken. This...
Review: Super Meat Boy
Written by Ben Vollmer Super Meat Boy is hard. The kind of difficult that will shake your faith, more than once, in what kind of gamer you really are. Difficulty is Super Meat Boy’s most...
Review: Yooka-Laylee
Written by Ben Vollmer Yooka-Laylee is a return to form for the “3D Collectathon” genre. The tight movement, compelling worlds and off-kilter writing all serve an homage to a genre that has long lost...
Review: Little Nightmares
Written by Ben Vollmer Atmospheric horror has an obligation to walk a thin line. Simultaneously, a game must ensnare a player’s interest enough for them to enjoy their stay, but frighten them enough...
Review: Outlast 2
Written by Ben Vollmer About halfway through my play through of Outlast 2, I realized that a video game had never terrified me so much. Not because Outlast 2 is in the master class of the genre,...
Retro Review – The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Written by Ben Vollmer The Legend of Zelda is largely a tale of time and space. The most recent entry, Breath of the Wild, in large part, is a commentary on this. Zelda disappears and Link...
Review: Ori and the Blind Forest
Written by Ben Vollmer Ori and the Blind Forest is beautiful. It’s pretty rare that a game is so jaw-droppingly gorgeous that it’s the appearance, rather than the mechanics that lay beneath, that takes...
Review: Kingdom Hearts 1.5
Written by Ben Vollmer Kingdom Hearts is a lot like picking through a bowl of fruit. For every bit that you enjoy, there’s something else that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Only, in...
Review: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Written by Ben Vollmer There will come a moment in Breath of the Wild where you will figure out that you can’t do everything that comes to mind. For me, that moment game about...
Review: Resident Evil 7
Written by Ben Vollmer It takes about ten minutes. That’s how long you have in Resident Evil 7 until it flips humanity on its back and shows off its grotesque underside. Perhaps that’s what makes the...
Review: Life is Strange
Warning: This review contains spoilers of the entire game. Due to the episodic nature of the title, it would be impossible to review the game without speaking to its content. Written by Ben Vollmer...
Review: Doom
Written by Ben Vollmer There’s something about the incredibly rampant pace of the Doom reboot that lights your hair on fire. It’s hard to say whether it’s the music, the brutal melee system that has...
