The GwG Summer Game Roundup, 2024
Summer is here, which means it’s time to sit inside and play video games. Don’t see your shadow; don’t touch a tree. Sit on the couch and bask in the glow of the screen.
Seriously, though, we play games for all kinds of reasons, and if you spend enough time writing and thinking about them, you can forget that it’s totally okay to play games that help you relax, because you are having fun. What a concept! With that in mind, the editors and contributors here at GwG have created the following list of games that might help rescue you from the tyranny of choice. Whether you’re looking for a hidden indie gem or a new way to experience an old classic, there’s something for everybody here.
So, open up the windows and take a deep breath of fresh air, because you’re about to murder zombies, dice your way through dungeons, and blast yourself into space, all while holding a refreshing glass of something with one of those fun little umbrellas in it. Thank you, as always, for reading; we hope you find some rest this summer, because whoever you are, wherever you are, you deserve it.
Gina Stinnett
When I have a lot of work and personal stressors, I find it difficult to focus on longer, more involved games, and instead tend to be drawn to games like The Sims or Stardew Valley, where I can spend shorter bits of time working on low-stress goals. The one constant game I've been fixated on in tandem with these shorter games has been the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy that was released back in January. Ace Attorney is one of my favorite game series of all time, and I was eagerly awaiting this remaster, especially since it would give me the opportunity to finally play Spirit of Justice, a game I missed out on upon its original release. I sped through Spirit of Justice in January and early February, and have since been enjoying a slower replay of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies.
Dual Destinies in particular has been a rewarding and emotional replay experience. I played through the first half of the game in the fall of 2013, but a traumatic experience and a subsequent deep depression made it nearly impossible to focus on gaming. By the time I picked up any games again, it was the summer of 2014, and I was still trying to heal from the previous year. The second half of Dual Destinies, which focuses heavily on the childhood trauma of one of the protagonists and how she moves through false memories, emotional turmoil, and healing was incredibly important to me in a period of my life where I was similarly trying to pick up the pieces. As I play through the game again ten years later, I'm certainly reminded of the turmoil I felt at the time, but also comforted by the growth I've experienced since then.
Kel Martin
The original Resident Evil 4—released on the Nintendo GameCube and later ported to the PlayStation 2—was easily the most critically acclaimed videogame of 2005, an auspicious year in gaming replete with other titles now considered to be some of the greatest videogames of all time (e.g., God of War, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Shadow of the Colossus, etc.). Indeed, 2005 may be said to be a kind of annus mirabilis, a particularly innovative moment in the history of videogames. With such an array of other groundbreaking titles, what made RE4 so noteworthy? For one, this was unlike any other Resident Evil game before it. Diehard fans of the franchise like myself had come to expect (and cherish) certain perhaps “campy” hallmarks of the series: there was a certain quaintness to the cheesy dialogue, clunky aiming mechanics, and unwieldy camera angles that made you feel as if you were in an ‘80s B horror movie. Beyond simply revamping the series formula in virtually every way (no more prerendered backgrounds!), RE4 revolutionized not only the survival horror genre but third-person action games more generally, introducing mechanics (like its dynamic over-the-shoulder view) now considered staples in any action game worth its salt. How could Capcom possibly top such a meteoric accomplishment? In short, they did.
In my experience playing Resident Evil 4: Remake, I can say with gusto this update to what many already considered a “perfect” game uncannily eclipses the 2005 tour de force, offering players a contemporary horror game that, I would argue, rivals some of the most prominent titles of this generation. Naturally, there have been graphical improvements in the almost two-decade span since the original; concerning art direction and narrative structure, RE4 Remake presents players with a truly filmic aesthetic quality, one at once sleek and yet unsettling. Whether players are traversing the iconic village settlement, navigating Salazar’s labyrinthine castle, or encountering Regenerators (these newly designed monsters will strike terror into even the most anesthetized horror fans—A24, take notes), they will find themselves in a veritable nightmarescape.
Where RE4 Remake shines, though, is the gameplay, which, while retaining some elements from the original, offers a fast-paced, modernized horror experience. When I finished the game on Hardcore, I felt as if I had beaten a FromSoftware title: just about every boss had me down to 1HP, a single bullet, and a broken knife before I could bestow the ever-satisfying coup de grace. The updated reticles for weapons, modeled clearly after the HUDs from RE7 and RE Village, were intuitive enough that I found myself not missing the laser sight mechanic, a feature I particularly relished from the original. Further, I found the new parrying system an especially fun close-quarters combat style, the breakable knives adding a harrowing verisimilitude that kept me from getting complacent with my survival tactics. I’m currently playing on Professional (while simultaneously dabbling in the Ada Wong DLC, Separate Ways), and I can say so far the second round is just as enjoyable as the first—perhaps even more so, as Professional requires even more nuanced strategizing to keep yourself alive. I cannot recommend this game highly enough. I would go so far as to say, in TikTok parlance, this game is my Roman Empire.
Luis Aguasvivas
Lunar Lander: Beyond is set in space, the least final frontier in video games. A reimagining—rebirth if you will—of the classic Atari game Lunar Lander, with Colombian studio, Dreams Uncorporated, (the folks behind the RPG Cris Tales) at the helm. Beyond is about maneuvering and dexterity. You control a spaceship, a lander, and try to maneuver it amidst hazards and the like. Dodge everything: asteroids, infrastructure, incoming missiles, your crew’s insanity, interstellar fauna and flora, reason, and pink adorable flying elephants. The series’ original gameplay loop is taken to the outer reaches. Plenty of voiced animated cut scenes are spliced before and after the dozens of game missions. This game made an impression on me when I played it at Pax East 2024. Think a Bennett Foody game with an anime inspired look and it makes sense. I finished the campaign because I picked the easiest ship to steer, the Dragonfly, as soon as it became available. Otherwise, Beyond might have been too intense, too difficult, too much Lunar Lander for me. I understand why stress is a gameplay mechanic here, as I too would be traumatized if I had to fly the landers in real life. Lunar Lander: Beyond will become a sensation when the stream of that guy who plays games with a Dance Dance Revolution pad controller while cosplaying as Slippy Toad goes viral.
Dylan Atkinson
Koudelka; image by the author.
Koudelka (Sacnoth, 1999) reminded me just how easy it is to take certain things for granted when returning to older games. When I started the game I was shocked that this 15 hour game was spread across four discs. I wondered how that was possible when a significantly bigger game like Final Fantasy VII (Squaresoft, 1997) is only on three discs. However, Koudelka quickly proved me wrong and impressed me in ways I wasn’t expecting. Terrible voice acting is somewhat synonymous with PS1 RPGs and I fully anticipated this before playing Koudelka. I was stunned when the voice acting wasn’t only good but extremely believable and full of attitude. Koudelka only continued to surprise me when I realised that the game is almost fully voiced and in-game cutscenes are fully animated with motion capture. The voice acting and physical mannerisms are extremely expressive, almost reminiscent of a theatre production, which results in the main party having excellent chemistry with one another. It might sound hyperbolic to emphasise how different this makes Koudelka, however, when compared to typical in-game cutscenes for PS1 RPGs you’re lucky to get any movement, let alone voice acting. The performances were the main aspect I always looked forward to and made every cutscene feel like a reward on its own. They’re the main reason I would recommend Koudelka too because, although its battle system isn’t bad, it’s incredibly standard. There’s very little Koudelka does to differentiate itself from other RPGs; character levelling, equipment, magic, elemental weaknesses, if you’ve played an RPG before you’ve likely seen what Koudelka does elsewhere and better. The entire game is also painfully slow. All of the animations and menus take far too long to complete which really drags down the experience. Despite that however, I still enjoyed Koudelka and thought it was a very impressive RPG. For its time it has some of the finest performances I’ve heard and the battle system is enjoyable enough to not completely ruin the experience.
Tof Eklund
tann and a3um's Slice & Dice has only been out since late March, but I've been playing it for years. Something drew my eye to the demo on itch.io in 2021, and I've watched it grow from a compelling little timewaster to an expansive and unhinged "coffee break" dice-crawl bit by bit. The obvious point of comparison is Terry Cavanagh's Dicey Dungeons, but while Cavanaugh's game is very meta and clever in a structured "see what I did there" kind of way, Slice & Dice is more emergent and open-ended. It started as a party-based series of combats (there's no actual crawling in these dungeons) where each character's abilities are represented by on a single d6, but those abilities can have a wide range of modifiers applied by equipment, spells, special effects of monster attacks, etc. So, as you play, you "build" your party by leveling your heroes up to have abilities that complement each other and are enhanced by the magic items you've accumulated. Sometimes you can get hoist with your own petard, if you chose a level-up option that breaks a synergy you've created.
Slice & Dice's fundamentals are so solid and so adaptable that the game now has a ton of different modes, each at variable difficulty. There's a whole set of "cursed" game modes where you accumulate game modifiers (blessings and curses) in the course of a standard 20-battle game, but then the game loops on itself: beat a final boss and you loop back to the beginning, but you keep all your blessings and curses, making each time around different and, overall, harder. Then you can mix in things like the randomly-generated character classes, recently-added screwball characters like the Housecat (who never levels up, allowing your other heroes to level up faster/more) and I think I'll be playing Slice & Dice for years to come.
Samantha Trzinski
Lately, I have been playing a lot of farming RPGs, which I feel like is pretty typical for me. I have been revisiting Stardew Valley, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, and Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. I also tried the new Echoes of the Plum Grove game, which is also a farming RPG but with challenges like disease and hunger. It is beautifully designed and delivers an interesting premise. I found myself getting too stressed out by it, though, and returned to Stardew Valley. Although I was overwhelmed by the game, I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a farming RPG with a twist. I’m excited to begin playing A Guidebook of Babel, which is a point-and-click adventure and puzzle game that draws on the butterfly effect.
