Owlboy - Gaming the Pandemic: Re-visited

Between 21st March and 1st of August this year I completed the daily task of playing, and writing about, one game from my vast unplayed backlog.

During this time I was furloughed from work. I started this blog to give my days some structure, to stop my brain turning to mush, and, frankly, to manage the stress of feeling completely out of control of my own life.

Over one hundred and thirty days I played racing games, platform games, shooters, brawlers, and fighters. I played on the ZX Spectrum, the Switch, and almost everything in between. 

I'd usually play a good three hours minimum but occasionally I'd spent a lot longer, and occasionally a lot shorter time on them. To this end it was rare that I completed anything before moving on to the next - and that's what 'GtP: Re-visited' is all about; going back to some of the games I had to leave behind due to the blog format and giving them the time they deserve.

Owlboy was the last game I played for the OG Gaming the Pandemic, and was therefore not something I really 'returned' to, rather I just 'kept playing'.

I named it at number eight in my GtP top ten that I compiled on the final day, saying: "It's clever, it's fun, it packs an emotional punch, and it's one of the very best looking video games I've ever played."

Having now completed the game, nothing of that statement has changed. I perhaps should have mentioned the intelligence and depth on show in the world building, but aside from that my initial feelings were only exacerbated as I got further in to the game.

Everything good about the game only gets better. The incredible score reaches new heights, the gameplay continues to evolve, the artwork of the levels gets ever more creative, and the story, always central but never overbearing or intrusive, only gets more creative, more beautiful, and stays utterly captivating to the end.

For me, story is the very least element of any video game, but I'll concede (happily) that when done properly it can be intrinsic to the success of a product. Imparting a story through gameplay alone is the ideal, but this is incredibly difficult and often ends with compromises to both halves of the whole. However, creating a story that embellishes, contextualises, and even re-frames the players actions is less intrusive to the collective elements, and is usually the structure on which the best story focused games rely.

Goichi Suda is one of my favourite game directors and he has a way of bringing complex, nuanced stories to his games in a way that embellishes and gives structure to the interactive elements. Bioshock is an example of this too, and while I wasn't really a fan, the manipulations and contrivances in the plot do a brilliant job of casting light on the players actions. The flaw of that particular game, for me, was that the revelations come too late, and leave the player with little to do with them but replay with their eyes open.

Owlboy falls into this category in a more subtle way. There's no big reveal or eye-opening moment. The ideas around it's big narrative fulcrum; 'The Loop', are teased and hinted at throughout the game. The finale absolutely seals the deal and ties up some of the ambiguity, but very little of the game's backstory or plot is ever expressly revealed. 

From the books of Stephen King to the films of Christopher Nolan, laying out every aspect of your plot and characters, with no room for interpretation or nuance, is becoming a worrying trend. Owlboy, thankfully, avoids this kind of clunky over-exposition that is not just accepted in modern games culture, but lauded as exceptional in much of narrative media.

Beyond the story, Owlboy brings variation to the gameplay until the very end. These are never sweeping changes or entire genre-swaps, but tweaks on the established formula that nevertheless ask you to rethink how you've been playing up to that point. It's a game that always feels responsive and enjoyable to play, although some of this may be down to the difficulty, or lack thereof, in the game as a whole.

The lack of strong challenge was an accusation levelled more than once in comments on my original post about Owlboy, and while I don't disagree that the struggle is slight, I do disagree that it's an issue.

Challenge is not something that every game needs. I'm completely fine with the idea that a game can be too difficult or too easy - but these are the extremes - in the vast middle ground it's not a pre-requisite for every game to be pushing the upper reaches of toil. Moreover, Owlboy is a game focused on it's story, and if the balance is set too high then too few will ever experience it's entirety.

The existence of, and obsession with, hyper-challenging games doesn't mean that every other game should be pushing to occupy that same space. In fact, it means that, with that end of the spectrum taken care of, other games can excel at other levels of player agency; and Owlboy does exactly this.

As I feel myself writing into the summary I've become aware that I've done this twice already in a very short period. It's difficult not to repeat myself when my feelings after ten hours are the same as they were after two: 

It's an exceptional game, one of the most beautiful looking I've ever played, with a bewitching orchestral soundtrack and compelling, intelligent, expertly crafted story that's set in one of the most completely realised game worlds I've experienced for years. The variety in the gameplay is superb, and the characters are nuanced, flawed even, but ultimately immensely likeable. It's one of a very small number of games that succeeds in bringing a silent protagonist to bear without having an NPC magically articulate their every thought.

Basically, Owlboy is stunning in just about every possible way and you should add it to your collection immediately. In an ecosystem of fewer and fewer physical games this is one that you deserve to actually own.