Emotional Variety

Playing Total Overdose, Stranglehold, and Wet, shouldn't be that difficult as a reviewer. They're 4-6 hour third-person shooters that's all about centering your screen and pulling the trigger. I've played these games for years, and I've done so much faster for bigger projects.

So why do I have to force myself through them?

It's especially weird as Stranglehold in particular is a game that I'm enjoying, far, far more than when I initially tried it years ago on 360. I adore the Max Payne games, which themselves are the inspiration for this video, style of game, and very simple. Walk, shoot, jump, use, slow-mo… there you go! The entirety of Max Payne!

Except it's not.

Playing these three games that are all so similar to Max Payne really highlighted this for me.

Each of these games expand its features beyond Remedy's inspired game. Total Overdose has an open-world, character progression, secrets to find unlocking upgrades, side-missions, vehicles, and a scoring system. Stranglehold has bullet-dodging mini-games, cinematic 3D cutscenes, and bonus abilities. Wet's got ludicrous quick time events, and a similar batch of extra modes.

And ALL of it impacts the games less than Max Payne's nightmares, Mona's funhouse, or captain baseball bat boy comic strips. Max Payne's a game that would make you feel catharsis, amusement, sadness, fear, remorse, tension, and longing all within a couple hours, sometimes, just a few minutes.

It was an emotional rollercoaster.

These games, just aren't.

It's not just that I couldn't give a damn about the lead characters or anybody else in the cast, it's the level-design. There's no alteration in atmosphere. Nothing to make the player unnerved, surprised, or eager.

They're just a collection of arenas whose entire purpose is to challenge the player's ability, not their mental state.

Even games like DOOM do this. While we may collectively picture that franchise as nothing but a Metal Concert, you only need to listen to the soundtrack in full to feel how much the game's atmosphere seamlessly transitions between melancholy, and aggression.

The original game wasn't just made to satisfy people's bloodlust, but their fear too. 

These textures were considered horrifying upon release. John Carmack talked about players jumping from their chairs, and even Gabe Newell when talking to G4 about Half Life's inspirations, cited DOOM, and it's frightening atmosphere, which you can see in Half Life, another game that gives players an emotional journey.

It's very intentional on the designers part to give you the relief of reaching Black Mesa's surface, only to be forced back down into the underground facility with the promise of getting back.

This is the beauty of linear games, they can perfectly a pace a journey to most effectively move a player.

These games just don't do that for me.

It's a collection of shooting galleries.

Which is fine…

But I'm not going to remember them.

You know what I do remember?