What we’ve been playing – “Asking what the point of playing it is would be like asking why you should bother seasoning a meal”

16th May

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we’ve been playing. This week, Victoria almost sleeps through a foundational child-powered gaming moment; Bertie sounds a bit like a grumpy old man; Chris has a few more thoughts about Mixtape; and Connor plays a game that isn’t RuneScape would you believe it.

What have you been playing this week?

Here’s another question: do you remember what you were playing last week? You don’t have to! The What We’ve Been Playing archive has you covered.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Switch 2

My daughter woke up well before me on Saturday, and instead of getting me up as well, she decided to give her first Zelda game a go. When I then woke up and realised what was going on, well, I was absolutely thrilled. I have been waiting for this moment for years. My daughter sensed the enthusiasm radiating from me and suggested we curl up together to play. We snuggled in bed with our teas on standby and began making our way through Echoes of Wisdom’s Suthorn Ruins; my baby’s first Zelda dungeon, gosh I felt proud.

With her on the controls and me effectively on comms, she negotiated the various passages and locked doors, before finally coming face to face with the dungeon’s boss, Seismic Talus. In a sudden panic, my daughter began frantically flipping through her echoes. The snake-like Rope was deployed. No, that echo was too weak. She tried a Darknut next. No, too slow! Eventually after throwing what felt like everything at it (a bed made its way onto the arena at one point, and as you would expect, was utterly useless in combat), she wore the Seismic Talus down.

“Shall we make some pancakes to celebrate?” I asked. “Yes please mummy,” my daughter replied, somewhat breathlessly, with the pads of her thumbs now indented by the Joy-Con, and a look of absolute triumph on her face. It was well earned: she had conquered her first Zelda dungeon.

-Victoria

Saros, Heroes of Might & Magic: The Olden Era, Slay the Spire 2

I really dislike the opening runs in roguelites and the way they’re stacked against you in order that you fail so as to get you back on their hamster wheel of progression, but if I let myself off on that tangent, I’ll be here forever. Suffice to say I felt this in Saros, but let’s move on.

I’m only slowly acclimatising to Saros – I’m not past the first boss yet. So far I am enjoying the architecture – I’m a huge fan of fantasy renderings of sci-fi such as this – and the more ridiculous kinds of weaponry, especially the guns which have alternate, adaptive firing types. I’m forever fond of a game that lets me dash and super-punch things as well. It’s the simple things.

Also, fluid 60 FPS gameplay (I’m fairly sure) and fast run-speeds. They might be mundane technical things but it’s the craft that helps make a gameplay experience like this pleasurable.

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing Heroes of Might & Magic: The Olden Era with my partner, and we’ve been playing in – wait for it – hotseat multiplayer mode. It’s that bootstrap kind of multiplayer mode we used before online multiplayer was a readily available thing, where you, gasp, take it in turns to play. She has huge nostalgia here – HOMM 3 was a generational touchstone for her growing up in Bulgaria; it’s huge there. It’s not such a strong connection for me. I’m actually finding it a bit slow, but I’m loving the way an old experience has been recreated in a modern way while preserving its essence.

Finally, Slay the Spire 2. Not much to report other than my question to Ascension 10 with The Regent continues. I’m now on Ascension 4 (I haven’t played in a while).

-Bertie

Mixtape, PC & Steam Deck

Thought I’d shove a few afterthoughts here on Mixtape, since it’s lingered with me and also since there’s only so much I can bore you poor lot with updates on TCG Pocket (my Zoroark ex deck is fun!).

The first one for me is its economy. Aside from it pulling a bit of a Return of the King with its endings, Mixtape is incredibly efficient with what it does in its runtime. Not a moment is wasted when there’s a chance for developing a character or cracking a little joke, or just doing something that’s neat even if it doesn’t really have much purpose.

And all this nonsense about how it could have been a film – and good grief is that nonsense – misses the joy of playing it, too. This industry waffled for years about how profound it would be if you could be in a movie, and then a studio effectively does it and the people who lapped that guff up roll their eyes!

But, turns out, it’s great: Mixtape crosses that boundary so elegantly by making its individual mechanics, which change with each scene, a constant surprise. Each of them is either a little joke or a little illustration, a complimentary enhancement to the story itself – really a part of the story itself. Asking what the point of playing it is would be like asking why you should bother seasoning a meal. It is the meal!

-Taps

Directive 8020, PS5

Wake up! I’m not playing RuneScape this week! Well, I am, but nothing interesting enough has happened in a week to warrant another update here. Instead, I’ve sunk some time into Directive 8020, which I’m having a lot of fun with.

Now, I’m not quite the critic that Matt, Dom, or Chris is. My fault, I fear, is a love for games that aren’t amazing. Directive 8020 isn’t exactly my favourite game of the year so far, but it is utterly entertaining, in the same way that watching a cheesy

-Connor