The 2026 what are we playing thread

[kaiman]

Started playing Zero Parades. It took me a little getting into, as it’s surprisingly opaque as to what your actual task is, and initially you end up following plenty of leads that never amount to much. So imagine how happy I am, that the assignment has finally been revealed, even if the road ahead is still a long one. Step #1, assemble my crew:

Gameplay wise, it’s … intense. For a game that’s pretty much all dialogue-based, the devs came up with a neat mechanic to keep you on your toes. Whenever something upsets your character, one or more of the meters in the bottom left start filling up, and when they reach the end, you loose a skill-point, permanently. So quite the incentive for choosing wisely. On top, there are fairly hard dice rolls (against aforementioned skills) for various important actions, and to improve the odds you can also elect to raise the appropriate meter (by four or five ticks at a time, no less).

Makes progress, and every little success, feel hard earned and rewarding. And now it also starts to get really interesting …

[Paul]

I played Return to Monkey Island again, in my quest to figure out which is the better sequel to MI2… RtMI or CoMI.
The first time I played it I hurtled towards the finish, because I didn’t want to see any spoilers online before I’d seen the secret for myself.
So this time round was a more relaxed playthrough where I was able to focus more on the puzzles/humour/atmosphere and less on the story. Also because I already knew the ending, I went in knowing it wouldn’t be such a gut-punch this time.
Though there is something to be said for having the secret as a motivating factor to keep you plugging away at the game, which wasn’t there this time.

As far as puzzles, it has some of that smooth-flowing puzzle feel of the classic LucasArts games - a nice mix of fetch quests, environmental puzzles, inventory combinations, and dialogue puzzles.
I miss the verbs (or even having a couple more options than just one-click), and the simplified system feels like “classic LucasArts for beginners”. Being able to hover an item over other items and hotspots and immediately see if it’s possible or not takes away some of the freedom and room for additional jokes.
Some puzzles use the same things several times - sometimes this feels ok, sometimes it feels a bit redundant.
But overall, I think RtMI beats CoMI in terms of just puzzles - it just flows better to me and seems better designed.

The humour in this one is a little bit odd and hard to define. I found the most consistently funny parts of the game to be the hover-over descriptions (things like “Try to remember why I’m carrying a frog”), rather than the dialogue.
I remember reading that for MI1, Ron did the writing on the ship, and Tim and Dave did pretty much everything else. Maybe there is a certain Tim-ness that is missing here, as I found Broken Age funnier than RtMI.
The overall humorous vibe is still there and enjoyable, but I think CoMI wins in the humour department. Oddly, the CoMI team seemed to capture the spirit of MI1 and MI2’s humour better than Ron and Dave did in RtMI, for me.

As far as the art and atmosphere of RtMI, while I got used to the art as I played it, nothing feels like it has any real depth or weight, more a simplified sketch of a place rather than an actual place. Because of that, it was hard to really get immersed in the locations. This was especially noticeable in the locations we revisit from MI1 - Melee and Monkey Island itself. Those are so rich and atmospheric in MI1 that the contrast is quite jarring in RtMI.
And while I’m not a massive fan of the CoMI art style, it does feel like Guybrush is in an actual place in CoMI, it’s quite tangible and there is a moodiness to the locations through the art.
With MI1, MI2, and CoMI, after I finished them it was like I had actually visited those locations, while with RtMI I experienced more of a flat, stage-version of a place. I know that’s the idea to some degree, like a story-book, but it wasn’t satisfying on the same level. So CoMI wins on art/atmosphere.

The voice acting in RtMI feels a bit flat and not very characterful in a lot of places.
Some of the choices are just weird - if you speak to the ice queen’s guards, the voice for the big guards sounds like a nervous teenage girl.
Many of them just sound like a regular non-voice actor person doing either their own ordinary voice or an attempt at an accent. It’s not horrible, but it feels uninspired and bland. I much preferred the voice acting in CoMI.

The new characters are a mixed bag - I like LeChuck’s crew, but the new pirate leaders are quite bland and forgettable. So for new characters, I think CoMI wins.

So overall, I think CoMI is the better sequel for me. Even though CoMI is more frustrating in some ways, with the puzzles and some of the grindy parts in the middle, I still really enjoyed visiting that world, even if it wasn’t the same as the MI1 and MI2 worlds. I enjoyed RtMI’s puzzles more, but I feel like I didn’t visit a fully realized world, so I didn’t get the same complete experience.

[bongobrain]

@kaiman

Started playing Zero Parades

Did you play Disco Elysium? If so I wonder how you think it compares so far.

I’ve been playing Subnautica 2 which is incredible and a sweet deal for $30 early access. Feels nearly complete to me, but I know a lot will be added when they increase the price for full release. I couldn’t even get into Subnautica 1 so how much I instantly loved this game shocked me.

Also played The Last Gas Station which I really liked but only for it’s repetitive gameplay loop and art. The story and writing fell completely flat. No real replayability either so I’m not sure I’d recommend it.

[kaiman]

@bongobrain

Did you play Disco Elysium?

Yes.

@bongobrain

If so I wonder how you think it compares so far.

Overall I would say that Zero Parades pretty much replicates what I liked about Disco Elysium, but as the second installment, a bit of the magic is irretrievably lost.

Here some more impressions, after about 20 hours (and probably nowhere near the half-time mark, I hope!)

Gameplay wise I think it compares quite favorable. The world feels a bit bigger and a bit more open, and the way it plays is near identical. The main differences are less, but not less interesting skills, a slightly different take on the Thought Cabinet, and no changing of gear or leveling up mid-dialogue.

World-building is maybe a little less extravagant. Nothing like the Pale, Radio Computers or Cryptids (so far), and it feels more like a slightly anachronistic version of our own world, with different labels applied to (mostly) countries. That’s not to say that there isn’t curious tech or fantastical elements to be found, but it’s a bit less out there than Disco Elysium was, especially with lots of points in Shivers.

I think where I see the largest deviation from Disco Elysium so far is the protagonist:

• With Disco Elysium, you play an amnesiac and part of the joy and brilliance is that what’s new to you is new to him. Some of the more recent memories you can recover are outright hilarious, too. In Zero Parades OTOH, it’s more like the main character doesn’t want to recall the past, not that she couldn’t.
• In Disco, you play as a (more or less) authoritative police officer, so you own the turf and go around in the sure knowledge that nothing bad will befall you, and it mostly won’t (unless it’s self-inflicted). In Zero Parades, you’re a spy in enemy territory. The feeling’s quite different and warrants a more cautionary play-style. (Maybe that’s why, in Disco Elysium, I saw the first death screen before I managed to put on some pants, whereas in Zero Parades I lost exactly one skill point by maxing out my anxiety in the tutorial, and none since. Though I did come close!)

[bongobrain]

thanks for the detailed response. i’m a huge disco elysium guy, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. you may have convinced me to give zero parades a whirl!