Factorio

Factorio is one of those engineering games that is purely meant for people with a lot of time and patience. At the time of writing, it is the second highest rate game on Steam of all time, right behind Portal 2. This is a landmark achievement for a small indie dev company, but it goes to show what a game can look like if the developers work tirelessly to make it as good as it can possibly be.

Gameplay

In essence, Factorio is about building a rocket from scratch to escape an alien planet with hostile natives. However, the rocket has a long list of prerequisite materials that you will have to accumulate and assemble first. What starts out as a basing mining operation develops into a work station, then a full production factory, then a factory that makes other factories and facilities and deposits them around the infinitely generated planet. This is the main idea of Factorio: use basic production structures in order to make more complicated structures, and eventually automate everything so you can kick back 60 hours later and count your rockets produced per minute.

spaghetti factory — *Sometimes, it’s hard to figure out what is producing what.*

Content

The team behind Factorio has not slouched when it comes to amassing playable content. Even though the game is largely a sandbox, the devs keep adding new toys to play with. In its current state, there are loads of technologies you can try out that either help you make a certain item, improve the logistics of your factories, or help you slaughter the alien menace that plagues your work.

Why bother?

Factorio is a shining beacon of light for indie games. It is ridiculously in-depth, satisfying, and challenging. If it didn’t eat up entire weekends at a time, I’d try to play it more. Unfortunately, it is so addicting that I need to set aside time before starting another serious session from the beginning.

The Last of Us

If you or anyone you know owns a Playstation, chances are you’ve heard of this one. The Last of Us was immensely popular when it released at the end of the Playstation 3’s life cycle despite it being exclusive to that console. For a while, the remastered version on PS4 was one of the main selling points of Playstation’s new console.

Gameplay

The Last of Us is a third-person over-the-shoulder style shooter and stealth game. The characters you play as are on a trek across a post-mushroom apocalypse United States to save what’s left of humanity. This is played out through a combination of stealth sections, inevitable shootouts, boring puzzles, and cutscenes. The multiplayer mode, Factions features team-based tactical shootouts similar to certain storyline sections. It is unfortunately underdeveloped, as the developers were likely not expecting Factions MP to blow up so much. The multiplayer gameplay is arguably far more interesting than the gameplay provided in the storyline, but both gamemodes are not without their flaws.

Hats — *TLOU Multiplayer has no shortage of cosmetic items.*

Appeal

The storyline is worth playing at least once, for anyone. The characters are very humanized, and react to things in a way that is very believable. Because of this, the events that happen are a lot more emotional for the player. The multiplayer, on the other hand, is a remarkable test of skill, patience and strategy in a genre defined by sprinting around mindlessly and killing everyone. It rewards proactive players and punishes complacent players, despite being a slow-paced cover shooter. Matches often come down to the wire due to the limited amount of bullets that each player has. This means every shot has to count.

Why bother?

If you haven’t played what is regarded as one of the most emotional video games ever, you owe it to yourself. The multiplayer was decent as well, and with a sequel coming in 2019, it might be time to brush up on strategies.

Killing Floor 2

Killing Floor 2 is marred with repetitive gameplay, slow development progress, and lackluster content updates. So why is it still played by thousands of people daily? Because despite its flaws, it is one of the best zombie shoot-em-ups out there.

Firebug at work — *Often, the best solution to battling hordes of monsters is a wall of fire.*

Gameplay

The concept of KF2 is simple enough: Join a game with some friends, fight waves of monsters of various sizes and shapes, and slay a boss at the end. You are given a choice to play as one of several fairly unique roles called ‘perks,’ and each perk has its own abilities that can aid the team in some way depending on which of the two given upgrades you choose at each tier. Several classes are completely unviable if you deviate from the generally recommended upgrade path though, meaning that you are objectively playing the game ‘wrongly’ if you ignore everyone’s advice. Despite this, it is very fun to get a full 6-man team and battle Zeds with a proper team build.

Style

The real draw of Killing Floor 2 lies in the style aspect. Hiding in a cabin with a baseball bat while zombies gnaw on the door is for weaklings and people who play TellTale Games (Rest in Peace). Real badasses in a zombie apocalypse face their eventual death with sheer arrogance, carrying things like akimbo Desert Eagles, or quad-barreled shotguns. Combine this attitude with a pounding metal soundtrack, and impressive gore physics, and you might understand why KF2 feels so cool to play.

Bloody Walls Screenshot — *An M79 grenade launcher can make repainting an entire hallway a breeze.*

Why bother?

It’s honestly a shame that the game’s content is updated so slowly. Many people’s complaints about the game lie in things like fighting the same bosses over and over, despite the wide variety of maps available. While this is a legitimate concern, there’s just enough content trickling in to keep me playing. There is just something about the feeling of turning the head of a bio-engineered, chainsaw-wielding Scrake into pasta sauce with an Anti-Material Rifle that really gets me going. If you can get past the mindlessness of doing the same thing over again in different ways, then this game is worth a try.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I think everyone and their aunt has played Skyrim at some point. It’s been re-released on so many consoles now that even the creators joked about releasing Skyrim: Alexa Edition. Skyrim has sort of been a running joke about how old and crusty a game can get before the publisher has milked it dry. But the truth is, most people have fond memories of this game that beat out any negative sentiment towards Bethesda Game Studios.

*The Ebony Warrior, the most overpowered enemy in the game, isn’t much for small talk.*

Gameplay

Much like its predecessor, Oblivion, Skyrim involves getting in fights, carrying conversations, trading goods, and improving various skills in a Dungeons-and-Dragons-esque way. Despite the wonky melee mechanics, there is immense satisfaction to be had from cleaving a bandit in the face with your greatsword. The only other major options you have as a class other than ‘generic melee damage dealer’ are ‘sneaky bow/stabby guy,’ and ‘so-many-spells-at-once-that-your-game-freezes mage guy.’ Everything in the game tends to cater towards one of these 3 archetypes, but they are all pretty fun for awhile. You probably won’t get very far trying anything less aggressive, as you’ll find that many of the encounters in the game will force you to resolve a conflict by massacring half a dozen goons.

Visuals

The world of Skyrim has a lot to look at. It can be very fun to mindlessly explore in one direction and see what sort of things you encounter. Most of the landscape is gray and white due to the region’s climate, but there are some very green and lush areas to explore too when you’re tired of snow. The vanilla base game has not aged too well, but a few mods added to your game can give it the fresh coat of paint that it needs. Fortunately, the community is extremely active in producing all sorts of mods, especially in the graphics department. The PC version is extremely mod-friendly, and it is usually as simple as copying and pasting a file into your game folder.

Dragon Encounter at night — *Lighting mods can really improve the ambiance when a dragon ambushes you.*

Why bother?

The real reason Skyrim has been released on every modern console (other than profits) is because the developers see a lot of replayability in their game. It is possible to sink 200 hours in the game and still not have done every quest. The world is rich and compact, meaning there is always something to do within 50 feet of you. You don’t have to buy a new console to appreciate this game, but it’s worth playing again if you haven’t in awhile.