Epilogue Gaming: Video Games as Art, Literature and a Storytelling Medium
Ultimately, it feels unfair to compare Origami King to games it seems to have no interest in competing with. Almost everything it delivers feels experimental, even if a lot of its strengths are core to what has made the franchise so popular.
Despite its shortcomings, it was satisfactory enough in the gameplay department to see what the end of the crazy stylish adventure had in store for me.
Psychonauts stands tall as a shining example of ‘playing the narrative’, incorporating gameplay into the narrative of so many unique characters in a way no other game has done before.
Despite the heavy dose of nostalgia, it’s easy to question why this remake even exists.
Overall, my experience with Nier: Automata was a mixture of confusion and frustration. The initial A route was fine until the rest of the game slowly spiraled down afterward, both in terms of gameplay and narrative.
Outer Wilds was an incredible experience that focuses on the adventure while keeping the destination shrouded in secrecy.
Pokemon Sword and Shield quickly became one of my favorite Pokemon games to date. And with the first DLC finally out I am pretty disappointed to say that while Isle of Armor does deliver...
There’s a moment in That Dragon, Cancer (TDC) that nearly stopped me from playing the game. A baby lies in a crib, crying at night. The crying escalates from soft whines to proper sobs...
An imposing mountain looms overhead. A young girl has travelled a long way from home, planning to scale this mountain and reach its peak. She climbs not because she wants to, but because she...
Though streaming can be mentally taxing, it is also one of the most rewarding things that I do in my daily life. Before being shuffled indoors over these past few months due to social...
How do you redevelop a five-hour moment from an original game into a new experience that easily reaches 30 hours without coming off as some bloated malformation of what used to be? The Final...
I have never been terribly raucous about the potential for virtual reality (VR) games to pioneer the medium forward. But as chance would have it, I found myself purchasing a steeply discounted PSVR headset...
Within the Epilogue Gaming community we have a monthly vote between games whose titles we as a whole regard as worthwhile experiences that warrant either initial playthroughs for some as well as replays for...
This year’s LudoNarraCon event – a showcase celebrating narrative games – was jam packed with indie games of all stripes. It’s a remarkable time for games that I’ve previously written about, like Neo Cab...
Kill la Kill is one of the greatest single-run anime series of all time, featuring an exaggerated parodical critique of fashion culture. Naturally, the idea of playing an incarnation of that universe in video...
When I began working on the Ludonarrative Podcast a few years back, one of the first things I did was look around for similar podcasts – shows that produced thoughtful, engaging, critical, and unique...
Beasts run rampant all over the city of Yharnam, terrorizing the populace. The Healing Church, the organization running the town, has recruited some hunters to keep the city safe. Unfortunately for the people of...
It’s often difficult to argue that certain video games are “important” in the same way that knowing how to read and write is important. It’s furthermore difficult to convince a skeptic that some video...
It’s Ben’s recommendation that you listen to the Ori and the Will of the Wisps score, composed by Gareth Coker and published by Microsoft Studios, while reading the review. It’s easy to get lost...
I recently felt like I needed a quick vacation from massive 50+ hour games, and Mutazione was the perfect getaway. Mutazione reinvigorated my spirits, creating a relaxing but compelling narrative adventure through one of...
Ori and the Will of the Wisps has strikingly good world design. In my 15 hours with the game thus far, I’ve worked mercilessly toward seeing each and every corner of what Will of...
Dreams is almost impossible to describe. Media Molecule’s digital sandbox, packaged as a video game, is one of the most unique additions to the gaming sphere in years. Dreams hits that same “weird” spot...
In this spring’s Steam Game Festival – an event featuring dozens of demos mostly from smaller indie games – I found some incredible gems that have a plethora of potential and are worth paying...
Introduction Journey greets us with stunning visuals of a desert landscape. An out of focus dune reaches skyward, silhouetted against the white-wash sun. A bright light streaks through the sky below thin clouds and...
A Plague Tale: Innocence is a harrowing tale of familial love in the face of unimaginable and overwhelming tragedy. It is a story of life and death, of love and loss, of secrets and...
Arriving in a village outside the ancient ruins of La-Mulana, famed archaeologist Lemeza Kosugi is greeted by an elder, warning him of the dangers inside. The rumors say the ruins are the birthplace of...
Though the story of Dragon Ball Z has been told countless times, I never grow tired of experiencing the tale. However, even a story as golden and beloved as Dragon Ball Z cannot carry...
Welcome to Epilogue Gaming’s first video series. We’re calling it “Visualizing the Narrative” because we want to explore how games use interactive visuals to tell their stories. To explore this concept, we will be...
Many competitive games, and even some non-competitive games, give us some sort of disembodied voice to pair with our gameplay and drive the stakes just a little higher Some embrace the environment of the...
When I got hooked by Netflix’s adaptation of the Witcher series, I was initially inclined to skip the first two games and dive into the universally acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Against my...
Welcome to the latest evolution of Epilogue Gaming: The Achievement Club. After a lot of consideration, we’ve decided to shake up the process of our friendly competition. Below, you’ll be able to find the entirety of our small rule set and group of prizes. But to put it simply, Achievement Club lives by a single ideal:
Play Games, Get Points
Every time a Games Done Quick (AGDQ/SGDQ) event comes to a close, I feel a certain kind of melancholic sadness that reminds me of the end of summer break as a schoolkid. The GDQ...
Death Stranding is one of the most important games of this generation. So rarely does a game intentionally and successfully challenge the form to any memorable extent. Death Stranding is a mainstream title that...
Many video games have distinct differences between the narrative and gameplay elements. Each has a purpose, and sometimes they work at odds with one another. In games such as Bioshock and Uncharted, the player’s...
2019 was not an easy year to narrow down Game of the Year picks. When we had a meeting to discuss our Epilogue staff picks for this year, it became clear that many games...
As we wrapped up 2019, our staff members wanted to discuss our favorite games from the year. We agreed on some categories that allowed us all to highlight the treats that 2019 brought our...
With the winter season upon us, I figured that it was a good time to look at some of the best winter levels that video games have brought us throughout the years. Through the...
Music has been a dominating force in my life for as long as I can remember. I picked up my first guitar when I was in 7th grade, and by 9th grade, I was...
Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. So come inside, grab some hot cocoa, and let Santa’s special helper guide you through the 2019 Steam Winter Sale! It is...
It is Ben’s recommendation that you listen to Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab’s score of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order while reading the review Jedi: Fallen Order relishes the opportunity to be a Star...
Life is Strange 2 is an awkwardly paced adventure game developed by Dontnod, a spiritual successor and sequel to the original Life is Strange, which fails to improve on nearly anything that made the...
After a year of traipsing through the uninspiring world of the sequel to Life is Strange, I felt conditioned to expect that “Wolves” would be a flat note to a dull story. At first,...
It seems clear that Reach is one of the biggest launches of the year. Subsequently, it now seems entirely possible to me that Halo just needed a new audience, and perhaps a new home.
Thank you readers, viewers, and community members for making 2019 such a memorable year for us at Epilogue Gaming. To show our gratitude, we have compiled a list of video game things we are...
The Pokemon series is a juggernaut that, after seven generations, holds about as much history within it as it does have unique Pokemon (about 890 with Sword and Shield). With that history comes an...
The Outer Worlds can feel really empty on its surface, but by digging into the characters and each of the words they have to share, it’s one of the deepest experiences the genre has offered in years.
For many people like me, depression is an ongoing involuntary struggle with everyday life. Though most of the time I can course-correct by adjusting my habits, sometimes depression descends like a raincloud that can...
Chests have become so commonplace in video games that they are almost expected to appear in some fashion, especially when games like Fortnite infest the waters with their multitude of generic loot chests, diluting...
Death Stranding has invoked some of the most exciting discourse that the gaming community has to offer this year, with some lifelong Kojima fans prematurely lauding the game as a masterpiece and industry skeptics...
Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds may be this year’s best reminder of how good storytelling can be in video games, but something has become abundantly clear to me a few dozen hours into the game:...
