Checkpoint 15: I Am Dig
Featuring a game about dying and a game where you die a whole lot. Plus your monthly roundup of interesting bits from the world of video games.
Hey folks! Sorry this one’s a bit past the middle of the month mark, I think both me and Joes kinda let current events get on top of us a bit, and I know I’ve personally been trying to duck my head down and focus on unimportant, easy, comforting stuff. A lot of Minecraft redstone tutorials and messing about in the goofy Destiny 2 halloween event. I am sure most of our readers know how that is, and we appreciate you sticking with us. Hope everyone’s doing alright themselves and whilst I know I bang this drum a lot, please try to put that stupid drilled in “I should be achieving I could be recording a podcast right now” guilt aside for a couple hours a week and properly enjoy something unimportant yourself. You’ve had a fucking year, you deserve to play through Mario Galaxy again.
We’ll kick our news round up off with some totally unsurprising and shitty news from two of the most consistently unsurprising and shitty companies. First, as Cyberpunk 2077 rears it’s uninspiring head, CD Projekt Red orders staff to work an extra day a week after initially committing to avoid mandatory overtime. Less IRL but certainly still very real, Riot Games is currently running a distasteful and emotionally manipulative fake social media account to promote League of Legends newest addition.
Prompted by CD Projekt Red’s frustrating 180, Jessica Howard writes on crunch, criticism and accountability.
Patrick Klepek wades out into the expensive, competitive world of sneaker buying bots for VICE to discover the desperate tactics folks are resorting to to secure new console and graphics card purchases.
In a refreshing example of a games company actually getting stuff right, Ash Parrish is all about Hades and it’s brilliantly diverse take on it’s cast of Greek gods.
A brilliant interview with Allan Cudicio of Twin Drums for the Creative Independent, on the lack of representation in the games industry, setting up his own studio and the inherent racial bias in most works of fantasy.
Abbi Ruggles discovers, and relaxes in, the ununiform creativity and ungame-y gameplay of Oskar Stålberg’s beautiful Townscaper.
The seemingly sleepless Kimimi dons her cool wetsuit and takes us on an extremely deep dive of the second sneaky Snake title, 2001’s brilliant Sons of Liberty.
The mysterious disembodied British voice of PCGamer on the therapeutic power of Eurotruck Simulator 2. (I’ll honk to that! Honk! — S)
Erroll Kerr goes looking for representation of disable bodies in video games and comes up embarrassingly short.
Spelunky 2
Mossmouth
PC / PS4
Spelunky 2, the aptly named sequel to the cult classic Spelunky, is a game about spelunking. Exploring cave systems, traversing deeper and further in an effort to discover items of archaeological worth or geological interest, or, in the case of this game, be punched by a boobytrapped totem pole while carrying an unconscious pug. You begin the game as the daughter of the protagonist from the first title (I think), following after her parents after they.. abandoned her to go spelunking on the.. moon? Then you traverse through different areas, each randomly generated so no “run/dig” is the same (you know the “drill”!!!) It’s pretty story-light honestly, at least up/down to where I’ve managed to get to. Which is not far, at all. This is an outrageously, hilariously unforgiving experience, and one I cannot pull myself away from. No death ever feels unfair; the controls are spot on and utterly blameless and the journal that acts as Game Over screen will tell you exactly what ended your run. This journal is also home to one of the highlights of my experience with this game; a little window centred on your avatars lifeless body. The moments after death in Spelunky 2are slapstick gold. No matter how close you got to a new record or a new exciting secret before that monkey pushed you into those spikes; there is no amount of frustration that can outweigh watching your charming stubby little avatar get flung across the map, inevitably into another enemy or activating another cruelly hidden boobytrap, becoming the unwitting unconscious participant in an endless Rube Goldberg machine made of snakes and cavemen. This game is an absolute blast, and has been such an important source of relief and levity for me the past few weeks. Whoever said folks shouldn’t bury their heads under the sand when things get overwhelming got it right. The moon’s a much better place for that. — S
RIYL — Mining games like Minecraft and Terraria and the general roguelike experience, but also if you wanna cackle like a 13 year old watching skaters fall down stairs on YouTube.
ALSO ... This sweet brilliant new podcast interviewing an IRL spelunking expert and finding out if they’ve ever saved any dogs, found any treasure or had to fight any snakes.
I Am Dead
Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg
PC / macOS / Switch
A whimsical puzzle adventure game from the brilliant minds behind organise-em-up Wilmot's Warehouse. I Am Dead is a soothing and light-hearted experience about exploring the afterlife that feels like turning pages in an interactive storybook. You play as the recently deceased Morris, who used to be the curator of a small museum on the island Shelmerston when he was still alive. Together with your equally dead dog Sparky you must stop a volcano from erupting and save the island from disaster. To do this, you have to uncover the island's many mysteries and delve into the personal history of Shelmerston's eccentric inhabitants. As a ghost you get some special powers to aid you in your quest, Morris has the ability to peer inside objects, revealing things that might be hidden inside intricate cross-sections. Another perk of being dead, is the ability to dive into memories of the people you meet (and the occasional sea bird or glove-stealing fox), triggering scavenger hunts for little knickknacks tied to the history of other ghost you're trying to summon. The writing is very charming and the brightly coloured world is packed with personality. A gentle soundtrack provides the perfect background for some easy-breezy puzzling, with folksy songs that evoke the ocean waves of the Atlantic. As you dig through the stuff left behind by those departed you reveal touching personal stories that are tender but never get too gloomy. I have been playing it in short sessions every night, like you would read bedtime stories, it's honestly a great way to spend the dark winter days under the covers with you Switch. — J
RIYL—The Witness lite, but it’s made by wonderful and nice people.
ALSO ... Full review by Christian Donlan at Eurogamer.
As always, a massive thanks from Sam and me for reading another one of our silly emails. It looks like we're gonna have a long and dark winter ahead so I just wanted to share some more games that are excellent to play with friends (in an appropriately distanced manner). All the kids are playing Among Us, a good time for people that like lying to their friends. Minecraft is the perfect way to pass the darkest days and setting up a server is really easy. October is spooky month so how about a ~scaaarrryyy~ game? An evening with Left for Dead 2 is how I used to spend Halloween with buds. Grab some drinks and scream/laugh your butts off with cheesy horror romp Until Dawn. You should absolutely try to get some folks together for a one-shot "pen and paper" RPG, it's so much fun and super easy to run over Discord; Honey Heist is a Checkpoint favourite and I haven't played Fiasco yet but I really want to (so hit me up). And finally, some changes are coming to Destiny 2 together with a new expansion that should make it a lot more accessible for new players, this might be the perfect time to jump in! It really is perfect for shooting the shit while shooting some shit. So yeah, keep on keeping on, we are gonna get through this together. Catch you on the next Checkpoint! Take care!