After finishing the recent Fallout series on Amazon, I was left itching to jump back into Fallout 4, and with Bethesda’s announcement of a free next-gen update for the game shortly on the horizon, I started to wonder whether I’d love it as much as I did back in 2015.
Given the hundreds of hours I’ve poured into the game already, is another playthrough gonna leave me adoring the Fallout universe again… or dissatisfied that it just doesn’t hit the same anymore?
It’s something I’ve often felt with a lot of franchises – Call of Duty in particular. No matter what, every time that Activision releases a new entry, I seem to try and find that same feeling I got from past titles like Modern Warfare II and Black Ops II, but just never find it.
Sometimes, I think the love and nostalgia I have for these games might be connected to specific moments in my life – rather than the games themselves. So, I decided to have a bit of a blast through some of my old favourites, to see if they still hold-up in 2024.
I started with what really birthed my love for gaming: American McGee’s Alice. I’ll begin with giving the game it’s well-deserved praises; its aesthetic is immaculate, and that eerie feeling you get from loading it up and seeing the creepypasta-esque boot screen is haunting. The unforgiving, souls-like difficulty, creativity in boss encounters, and the level design (while dated) is incredible.
Everything about this game just oozes passion, which is something I wouldn’t tend to associate with a game published by EA. But amidst all the janky controls and combat, there’s STILL a game that proves to be worth anyone’s time, 24 years after its release… even if the Tweedle brothers’ encounter does make you want to throw your controller at the wall.
After finally defeating the Tweedles once – I still had the urge to beat them to a pulp again for good measure. This violent urge led me to play a game that has one of the best narratives I’ve ever experienced… The Wolf Among Us.
Much like Alice, this game benefits heavily from its fairy tale-esque aesthetic and art-style, which is only elevated by the game’s mature story, and superbly-developed protagonist, Bigby. Bigby’s Wolverine-inspired persona complements the narrative of the rugged, drunken detective so perfectly, and every other performance from the game’s cast makes the game a pleasure to sit down and complete – and even after a decade – it truly is, a timeless masterpiece.
Finally, to bring satisfaction to my enjoyment of playing as a rugged, drunken mess, I decided to hop on Rockstar’s Max Payne 3. Admittedly, the game did feel quite difficult to jump back into at first, as you really do notice, controls-wise, that the game is from the clunky 360 era.
But the game redeems itself in its quality narrative that expertly crafts the feeling of being a boozy-badass, and with slow-mo action sequences that Zack Snyder WISHES he could replicate. What’s there not to love in this stylish piece of gaming greatness? Nothing. A real 10 outta 10.
I must admit, I was apprehensive about conducting my little experiment in nostalgia, mainly due to the possibility of tainting my adoration for these games, but also about how dead my legs would feel after sitting through all these games in such a short space of time. But, I can confirm: it was worth it, and I’d recommend anyone to have a go at these old faves of mine, to see for themselves how brilliant they all are.