Little Misfortune
A very, very sad story about a very nice little girl.
Reminder for reviews: I'm only really going to talk about what stood out to me, so anything I don't bring up is most likely just fine.
If an issue isn't bad enough to detract from the experience, then that's a good thing - just like something not standing out as being noteworthy doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing.
It's perfectly fine for a thing to serve its purpose and nothing more.
Welcome to the new format! This week, I have played and watched the following...
MOVIES
These aren't the droids you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along... move along.
GAMES
Little Misfortune
Game summary: Led by her new friend, Mr. Voice, Misfortune ventures into the woods, where mysteries are unraveled and a little bad luck unfolds. (Steam)
I don't have kids and neither do I really want any, but seeing children suffer from abusive/negligent parents still angers the living shit out of me and this game really knew how to push those buttons, although my main feeling was complete and utter sadness for the relentlessly positive, imaginative and downright adorable Misfortune (voiced by Natalia Figueroa, who also directed and co-wrote the game).
The art style is great, the performances by Figueroa and Henrik Norman as Mr. Voice are both excellent and I really enjoyed the story despite constantly feeling sad for Misfortune. That said, this is more of an interactive story than a game, so don't expect any kind of challenge at all, but that does mean that pretty much anyone can get through it quite easily.
It's also very short, taking me just under 3 hours to complete and that was really taking my time - if you want to just see the central story and pass up the optional interactions, you could probably knock an hour off that, but you'll be missing out on a lot of great material. This game might be very sad, but there's also a lot of humour thanks to how Misfortune reacts to things that made me a laugh a lot.
Little Misfortune is short and sweet, much like the titular character, and not challenging in the slightest, but there's still a lot to be gained from taking your time going through the story and experiencing everything it has to offer, even if the ending re-contextualising everything to make it all somehow even sadder means I'll most likely never play it again. [7/10]
I've abandoned my playthrough and started yet another, this time planning to play a truly evil Dark Urge who wants to conquer the world. I will return to my previous playthrough at some point, but I've already seen the 'good' ending before and want to see what being bad looks like.
I've finished off yet another playthrough and was pleasantly surprised at finding even more moments and dialogue I hadn't seen in my many, many previous playthroughs. This trilogy remains my favourite gaming experience of all time.
I'd already played this through PC Game Pass, but ended up owning it due to being part of a bundle and zipped through it again, with it remaining the only game that can reliably make me hungry whenever I play it.
TV
Fallout, Season 1
Season summary: In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits. (IMDb)
Episode 1, "The End"
A pretty decent opening, setting up multiple characters to follow in a manner that flowed pretty well, rather than feeling forced. Lucy's section also felt very much like the opening of a Fallout game, including giving her a personal reason to leave the safety of her home in Vault 33, which I appreciated as a fan of the games (albeit more Fallout 1 & 2 rather than anything Bethesda has made).
Episode 2, "The Target"
While still good, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first episode and definitely felt like more of a set-up for the rest of the season than anything substantive. I did like the gory action though, although this has very quickly joined Star Wars in making bounty hunters the most powerful entities in their settings for some reason. Oh, and "I don't want to set the world on fire" over the end credits? Awesome.
I was planning on getting through more of the season than this in a week, but I'm currently in the process of buying my first property, which has taken up a lot of time and will continue to do so for a while longer yet. I should still finish it well before my Prime membership runs out later this month.
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