Video games: Overboard! and two other story-driven gems
Overboard!
The art of storytelling is not dead yet, said Keith Stuart in TheGuardian.com. Consider Overboard!, a new game that, when played on a smartphone or Switch, “feels like carrying a little detective paperback around with you, except here you are the lead character, author, and reader.” You play as a fading movie star who, while crossing the Atlantic on a 1930s passenger liner, throws her unlovable husband overboard, intending to claim his life insurance. Though Cambridge, U.K.’s Inkle Studios developed the game in just two months and its two-dimensional graphics are primitive, the smart premise and “sparklingly witty” dialogue ensure that you’re “completely transported into the fiction.” The aftermath of the murder plays out differently each time you play, said Alice Bell in RockPaperShotgun.com. Your aim is to pin the crime on another passenger before the ship reaches shore, and that proves a challenge “complex enough that you’ll screw it up.” Each I time I play, “it’s thrilling just to see what I can get away with,” said Cass Marshall in Polygon.com. “And the more I discover about everyone else on the ship, the more justified I feel in my cartoonish villainy. Drugging an old lady? Sure, if it gets the job done.” PC, iOS, or Nintendo Switch
Scarlet Hollow
This “deeply engrossing” new visual novel from Black Tabby Games rivals Overboard! in its branching narrative possibilities, said John Walker in Kotaku.com. Every choice you make in this “delightful, spooky, and funny” horror story ripples through the rest of the game, which “I cannot recommend enough.” Your character’s aunt has died, and you’re staying in a decrepit South Carolina mansion where mysterious noises come from the woods. The work that graphic novelist Abby Howard put into Scarlet Hollow is evident at every turn, and players have only seen two chapters. Five additional hand-drawn, crowd-funded episodes are due by 2023. PC or macOS
Wildermyth
This fantasy adventure “loves stories so much that it builds its entire structure around its characters becoming legends,” said Rowan Kaiser in IGN.com. Inspired by classic tabletop role-playing games, Wildermyth randomly generates campaign storylines for your diverse cast of heroes to navigate. Along the way, characters form rivalries, fall in love, battle Gorgons, have kids, and make terrible decisions. But their stories live on as new generations take over and a mythology grows around your panoply of folk heroes. The game’s papercraft art style and turn-based combat system “may not look like much at a glance, but anyone interested in good stories should look deeper.” PC or macOS