Let's talk about video games.
I've played quite a bit of games since Dark Souls. I say "since Dark Souls," but I still pick it up with some considerable purpose now and then. NG6+ won't beat itself.
Anyways, I played two diametrically opposed games in that time in-between, and I think both deserve more press than they get. They aren't *super* indie, but people don't talk about them enough.
The first is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I used to think of myself as a huge elder scrolls fan, but looking back I think literally every Elder Scrolls title could stand to learn from Morrowind. Go backwards in time to Arena and Daggerfall, and you find a hopelessly retarded UI, broken code, and worlds largely made of copy-pasted cells and towns with the sole intent of being mind-numbingly massive. Everywhere in Elder Scrolls I and II looks the same, because it's all very poorly procedurally generated. I suppose that was considered amazing in the 90s, but then again so were pogs.
The later titles, Oblivion and Skyrim, bear their own faults. Oblivion is easily the worst elder scrolls game--I say the worst because I like to pretend Elder Scrolls Online doesn't exist. I played the beta and made dry-heaving noises the entire time--Oblivion, for all its production value and attempt to suck you into the game, simply doesn't have the balls that Morrowind did. The world is bland, boring fantasy land number a billion--the world feels like a Renaissance festival with exceptionally bad cosplayers--the character models are, amazingly, even uglier than Morrowind's, the grass is way too manicured, and the small inventions they eventually turned into Skyrim don't save the game from ultimate mediocrity.
Skyrim itself seems like they were simultaneously trying to please the "mainstream" audience and snivelling fanboys who were incensed at the lack of werewolves in (vanilla) Morrowind, the lack of dual-wielding, and so on. (I personally find dual-wielding absurd, unless you're dual-wielding rocket launchers. See Advent Rising) The combat system, while a vast improvement over its predecessors, still sucks indescribable amounts of ass, and it's usually easier and more rewarding to sneak around and shoot stuff from a distance. Of course, once your sneak skill becomes absurd and you have chameleon enchanted on every possible wearable item, that stops being the case too.
So what did Morrowind have that neither its predecessors nor its descendants did?
I already gave the answer away--balls.
Morrowind was a highly experimental game. I can't say it didn't fail in a lot of respects--the combat is boring, slow, and requires no real strategy. The core gameplay could be described as "walking a lot." It's not brave or amazing because of any of its core gameplay values, but because it immerses you in a unique, beautiful world, and damn well expects you to get interested.
Characters in the main story expect you to read about the history of the world. It's immensely slow-paced, and it's perfectly fine with that. I played a character who, rather than fighting, tended to bribe or smooth-talk her way to her goal. This was not only extremely lucrative, but also gave me an excuse to delve into the rich world Bethesda built around this particular masterwork.
I can't recommend Morrowind to people who got into Elder Scrolls at Skyrim. You'll curse at the fact you aren't shooting lightning out of your fingers within 3 minutes. It's a game for people who prefer books, Curl up, relax, and enjoy the scenery. You'll go through swamps, roads made by lava, mushroom towers, craggy islands, an entire city section built inside of a crab shell, and chat with a couple gods along the way.
Now let's talk about Morrowind's complete logical opposite, which also happens to be amazing.
I speak, of course, of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
MGR was originally called Metal Gear Solid: Rising. The idea was that it would contain fast-paced stealth that required you to use acrobatic manuevers to stay hidden. You'd also be able to strategically cut off limbs or pieces of a machine by aiming your sword in "Blade Mode." Kojima had trouble designing the game and turned it over to Platinum Games, famed at the time for their work on Devil May Cry and Bayonetta.
Platinum scrapped (most of) the stealth and instead focused on the action. And I mean *really* focused. The combat is fast paced, requires a great deal of timing and patience despite that there's usually more than one dismembered limb in the air at any given time.
And, well, you can do this:
That's the first boss fight, by the way.
As demonstrated in the above video, well thought out quick-time events sprinkle the action with intense short videos of acrobatic robot murder. The best part is MGR still feels like a Metal Gear game: there's plenty of codec calls that offer context to the world around you, lots of Kojima's natural story-telling weirdness that combines seemingly rational ideas with completely insane ones (strangely enough, I'd say this story is a little more sensible than some of the MGS titles, especially 2.), and of course, lots of insanely long cutscenes.
I wound up playing Morrowind after MGR, perhaps to get a breather. It didn't last too long, because I was stupid and killed a vital NPC. At some point I'll get off my lazy, dumb ass and get her back with a console command. Until then, I'm playing Warframe, which I'll review when I stop sucking at it.
My overall message is you should be open to games of various paces. A slow paced game has just as much to offer as a fast-paced one, and vice versa--if done properly, the pace won't inhibit the designer's ability to communicate through their medium. If you're more into slow-paced games, give yourself a chance to delve into some action with MGR. If you prefer adrenaline pumping games, try out something a little slower with Morrowind.
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