It is often apparent within a few minutes of booting up a game if that game truly had any love or care put into it. The menus, the sound, the initial presentation. How much thought was put into and even more importantly, are the people who made the game in control of their vision? Is the game communicating to the player what the developers want it to? This is more important than anything else when it comes to how a game plays. Fun is tied to this communication. Engagement, too. How well is the story conveyed? What are the menus like? Do the sound effects the graphics the mechanics all mesh in a way that builds upon itself to make something that is stronger together than the individual pieces?
When you play a game that is well made there is also often a feeling. A sense of deja vu. That the game already existed. It plays like some of your favorites without simply being a retread. The menus are so intuitive after but a few minutes you find yourself clicking with the deeper mechanics of the game. You are delighted to see that the narrative is developing in a way that while it may not be surprising, it almost always endearing and entertaining. A game that does not only feel comfortable, but that it is strange to think that it did not always exist.
Unlike any other popular medium video games are a conversation. They are not static and the give and take between the player and the game is what creates that ethereal bubble of imagination that creates what we often call immersion or verisimilitude or whatever other buzz word that just means 'feels gud ta play, man. I lost track of time,' we've decided to use today.
All of this is just a description of the elements that often go into describing a 'good' piece of media. "Was it good?" Asks your friend. "Oh, yes It was..." And then phrases like 'fine' 'ehhh' 'It was ok' 'fine...?' floating up. More offensive things for those that felt like something stole your time. Praise, and excitement for those that left a lasting emotional impression on your soft gamer brain.
Then there are games like Haque... See, it can be very hard to recommend some things to people. The product feels odd. Niche, even. Personal and lovingly crafted and yet still jagged and odd with the sharp weird corners of someone trying out experimental things or exploring some fun ideas from this or that. "I put 400 hours into this game, but I'm not sure I can recommend it." Things that feel like they might only resonate with you and you personally and thus you don't want to waste someone else's time.
Thankfully, your time is worthless. I think these are the kind of things we should spread, we need to spread, and are most splinderferous when spread. Something with a clear voice and an interesting take that pushes and pulls at what exists and tries to squeeze it into odd little new shapes.
I am going to recommend Haque to you now. I just wanted you to have full context before I did. You're caught up. Okay. Let's go!
Haque is a fairly classic 'Simplified' Rogue-Like. Rogue (If you've somehow missed the memo that has been passed around any time anyone talks about the Rogue-Like genre) was a top down turn based dungeon crawling adventure game in which death was permanent and character progression very Dungeons and Dragons style with levels, equipment, magic and HP. On top of this there were also survival and sim elements, such as hunger management, non combat equipment uses, and a surprising amount of interactions.
Haque is part of the Rogue-Like school that decides to throw out a lot of the more complex elements. There are no sim elements in rogue. No level ups based on xp earned. No hunger or thirst to manage. You don't build your character or spend stat points. You pick one of three randomly generated characters, each with a pet (The pets are adorable) and you move around and use your abilities to kill monsters while trying to find better gear and use that better gear to kill monsters better.
None of this is new. Rogue-Likes have been doing this dance since before games had graphics and the player was jut a @ sign. Games out of japan especially always seemed very eager to use some of the 'rogue like' ideas while always trying to make things more narrative driven or slightly more progression and player friendly. Haque follows along with this style of thinking. It does it with a colorful panache. While the characters you choose are random, the assortment of abilities, pets, equipment, and spells, you might start out with, get, earn, steal, buy, or find are surprisingly plentiful and unique.
You might play anything from a Cactus (Yes, as in... just a cactus. Adventuring cactus, cactusing it up) to a Werewolf or a Wizard or a Wizard Cactus. You get abilities from backgrounds, races, equipment, and every time you beat a level you get to pick a new trait to add to your character to grow their power and abilities. You bash, smash, fireball, ninja vanish, and such, your enemies in turn based combat. Raise corpses from the grave as zombie slaves. Throw pocket sand into a demon's eyes. Eat the corpses of your enemies, feed the corpses of your enemies to your pet, pet the ghost pet of your pet after it dies. There's a lot to do in the game despite it being 'simplified'. The interactions are not on the level of a classic TDTOET (The Devs Think Of Every Thing) style rogue-lite, rather than a sandbox it's a chess board. Each combat is a small puzzle with randomized abilities you're witting down to an ever more effective point.
For this kind of game, it actually starts out fairly easy, however it continues to push itself and the player. Forcing the player to learn how to play the simple yet oddly complex series of mechanics at play, or die over and over. There is some level of progression protection, in that you can reach certain boxes where you can store gear that can be picked up by future characters (A classic example of sideways/strength growth in rogue likes) and there are ways to take two pieces of equipment you don't like and either turn them into something better, or something random.
This is all working on exactly the level it should be. Boss creatures are powerful tests of the player's ability to adapt. Monsters continue to push and hound the player in varied ways never allowing them to get comfortable. Each run is an exploration of nuance that give the player valuable experience for the next one.
The look, is also, as well crafted. As classic. With the that large pixel, low pallet, it feels like some version of this game could run on DOS with VGA graphics. The greens are green, the blacks are grey, and the scan lines (at least in the default settings, there are many so you can adjust the overall look to be less fuzzy if you don't have nostalgia for that era) vibrantly obscuring. There is a comfy familiarity to the look of the game for those who have played computer games for the last 30 years. It does not perfectly replicate any one era but it lovingly hugs a few of them close. It pays homage to older styles of games, but it does not play favorites either. Mouse, keyboard, controller, it plays smoothly on all of them.
The narrative pulls this all together. It starts out meta, and it never looks back. There's no massive twist, no mind bending surprise. The game shows you its cards in the opening screen and asks you to play along. It acknowledges that everything going on is a charade, a dance, a conversation with the player. It isn't trying to change the way the player thinks about gaming. It is trying to use the medium of gaming to tell its own story to the best of its ability. It does this well. Weaving the plot into the gameplay, difficulty, and even graphic together into a s cohesive whole that works. Each element is so solid, that together what it builds is one of the best the Rogue-Like genre has to offer.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, yaknow, if you are feeling like a pretty okay sorta game, you should try Haque out.
