Fun fact: Spec Ops: The Line features you in the opening credits as a "special guest". Also, turns out, there is an ending or two that involves briefly addressing the player in The Stanley Parable. It doesn't change the overall point as most endings don't operate in that way, but I'm annoying that I didn't find this while researching.
Good video. Good script Good editing ! I would just say talk 10% faster and with 10% more energy. I get this video doesn't need energy but you sound more bored than dramatic and serious to me. Great job though !
I feel stupid, but I don’t really understand it. Could you please explain it to me? I’ve tried multiple times to interpret what it means but i just can’t.
@@Atellas The best way I can explain it is that the house is treating you like the human body would treat a parasite, bacteria, or other outside threat. A human's white blood cells will attack or "consume" the intruding disease. The house has marked you as a threat from the outside, which means it is "awake" (wanting to get rid of this disease,) and therefore you are about to be "consumed" by it. Every room that had once been the brain, or the subconscious, suddenly becomes hostile ("hungry") and is therefore a "mouth" capable of "eating" you (or getting rid of you in some way) just like how white blood cells can attack something anywhere in the body.
One great detail about Spec Ops, is how the game constantly berates you for your "choices" with things like the tooltips on loading screens being replaced with quotes like "Do you feel like a hero yet?" or "If you were a better person, you wouldn't be here" the further you get into the game. Or how during the phosphorus scene, you can see Walkers face subtly reflected in the screen as you burn everyone alive. God, I love that game.
The "You are making the characters suffer by playing" thing is also in hotline miami 2: When you finish the game all the characters die but when you choose to replay the game they are seen all sitting in a room with jacket, jacket is like an embodiment of death. Jacket speaks to the characters about their actions and kills them then turning on the projector, starting the game and their torment once again
If you restart Undertale after a happy ending it guilt trips you for using the characters like toys Tip of the iceberg for that game’s guilt tripping btw
7:30 "The only thing left to do is glaringly obvious." *Sets up chair like he's going to hang himself *Cuts to him grabbing his trench coat and hat saying "is to go and see what's outside..."
This is exactly why I love the Genocide Route in UNDERTALE. You only do it because you want to see what happens, and then you get punished for it. Stuff like this is great and I'm amazed other games have similar punishments if you do something the game doesn't want you to.
I was gonna include a section on the Genocide run but I've already talked about it in two different videos already and I figured that I had to change things up
Yeah imo undertale did the whole punishing the player for their choices thing better than spec ops did, in spec ops you get railroaded down a single story path where bad stuff happens and you get chewed out for the bad stuff happening even though there's LITERALLY no other alternate routes or nothing else you can do outside of well not playing the game to begin with like the video said, but it just so happens "buy our game but don't actually play it" isn't a particularly good marketing strategy (at least I wouldn't think so, then again it might peak some people's curiosity and get them to buy the game anyway just to see what happens in it so 🤷♂️) so they have to slap that on you at the very end, imo it's just kind of contrived and disrespectful to the player, there are ways they could have gone about it while still achieving their goals but like I said they just chose the most obnoxious contrived option instead... Meanwhile undertale does it really well in my opinion, you know for a fact that when you do the genocide route it's 100% your fault and no one else's, unlike in spec ops you can actually *CHOOSE* whether or not you want to do good or bad stuff and the game goes out of its way to try to convince you to not kill things so when you do that's 100% on you and when you get to sans and have to fight him you can totally see it coming and it's not just the game pulling a fast one on you out of nowhere for something you didn't even initially know was going to happen and that you literally had no way around regardless of whether you wanted to get around it or not... Basically what I'm saying is to me undertale actually "earns" being able to call you out for your actions whereas spec ops doesn't, if there was a way that was actually within the bounds of the game (as in, that didn't involve just straight up not playing it) to get around doing the bad stuff in it then I would say it earned it as.well, but it doesn't so it didn't, it's basically like if in undertale there was only one route and there were 0 alternate paths or endings or anything like that and at first you were able to avoid killing stuff but then halfways through the game you *had* to start killing stuff out of nowhere for some reason and the events form that point onward play out like on the genocide route, imo that be just as contrived as spec ops
When I played Spec Ops: The Line, I really didn't want to shoot the white phosphorus and even tried to see if there were any other options. But it was clear that it was the only way forward, even if you knew it was the wrong choice, and personally that made it feel like there was a disconnect between what the character would do and what I would do. Some people make the argument that the character is being forced to do what the player chooses, but this is one instance where the player is forced to do what the character chooses, because the only alternative is to turn the game off or stay at that spot forever.
Yeah like I said in another comment, in my opinion it honestly kind of partially undermines what the game is trying to go for thematically, there should have been some secret way to avoid doing it even if it means you don't get the "proper" ending, like the game ends prematurely or something because that's not what's "supposed" to happen, it would still be better than just railroading the player down a singular path where bad stuff happens then chewing the player out for doing the bad stuff later on even though you literally had no say in whether or not you wanted to do it or not and especially if you didn't want to do it to begin with and you already knew it might end badly but you still wanted to play the game to completion... It would also reward the player for thinking critically about what they're doing which was literally the whole point of the game
Yeah, that is kinda silly from a thematic standpoint. There actually is a much better showcase of the concept later in the game, so they clearly knew how to do it correctly. Basically, there is the point where a group of civilians show up as enemies who punch you and you are supposed to gun them down, crossing the moral horizon and finally becoming a monster for real. However, you can also just..not do that and scare them away instead. The story does not change because the whole thing is less about morals and more about wanting to be something you aren't to the point of turning rogue and skirting responsibility for your actions, but it is nice that the choice is in the game in the first place.
@jlewwis1995 Some of what you said made me remember the narrative strategy of the original Prince of Persia, where it turns out the first 95% of the game is a retelling of events. Because of this, anytime you die, the main character will say, "wait, that's not how it went..."
Originally, you were supposed to have multiple parts were just doing the right thing would give you a "Good Ending", but end the game right there. Beta Testers complained that this made the game too short, as too many of them just picked to obey the "Return to base" order at the begining of the game thinking that was how it was meant to progress... If only they clued the Beta Testers into what was going on, because I'm pretty sure the average gamer would say "If doing that causes the game to come to a halt, and I have the option, not to.... Let's see what doing the other thing does." Because the game really would have been more effective if it had been an inverse of many other games "Bad endings that end the game early, but one good ending if you persevere", this could have been "Good endings that get progressively worse, with the worst outcome being playing the whole way through." The message would have been a lot better, but as it stands Spec Ops: The Line fails in my book, because having things turn out this awful becomes more "The developer is an edgelord" than "The player is a monster" , when you have no say in the matter beyond just shutting the game off.
@@1Hol1Tiger As another comment mentioned in this thread, the game would have been improved quite a bit if it gave you the option of leaving Dubai around the beginning... but only after you already beat the game at least once, because by then, you've already seen just how disastrous the consequences of trying to play the hero can be and would now be able to show that you learned from it.
I've read that in the beta build of Spec Ops: The Line, you can actually obey the order to return to base, which just causes the game to roll credits. This was removed because Beta Testers kept doing that, thinking it was what they were supposed to do, then complained the game was insultingly short. A shame, I wish they kept it, because it actually would make the game more effective imo, if a choice existed in-game beyond just shutting it off... to have never done this in the first place.
Spec Ops: The Line is the kind of game that recontextualizes all the other games. It unfortunately did not do well in sales, because for its purpose it had to look just like a normal shooter. But it is the one game which made me really consider it "art" as cheesy as it sounds. It made me reflect, think, and learn about myself. For one, "in a time of crisis, no one put me in power" is a takeaway I have :D Thank you for covering it, I can always go for more SO:TL content! :D
It takes a mature person to recognize their own flaws. Games have taught me that in the moment of max pressure, when everything is on the line I will crumble like an incompetent child.
Honestly, it's a big reason why I ignored it until people kept telling me it was this "Subversive Psychological Horrror Master Piece", and even then I thought it was people trolling me... I kept going "You're kidding right? It's a Call of Duty clone..." Even when I played it I didn't get past the intro, because it was so grounded and generic that I figured the people who told me that were either kidding or just "REALLY into Military Shooters" When I found out about the "twists", there was no longer any reason to play as any shock or effect they'd have was gone. It just really isn't an effective premise for a military shooter, because the kind of Hardcore Gamers who'd play it and respect the message... Wouldn't play a generic military shooter, if anything, we were complaining about the oversaturation of the genre, and how Call of Duty and its clones had overtaken the market. If it had a more unique "fake premise" or took place in a fantasy setting, it may have worked a lot better.
@@1Hol1Tiger the choice of it being a generic military shooter is a deliberate one as well it's supposed to be familiar to anyone who has ever touched a mil shooter game before. Almost like a satirical version of it, to mock and ridicule just how cookie cutter these games are. The ultimate point is to lure people into a false sense of security. After all, for someone who doesn't know anything about it, they'd just turn their brains off and play it. Until the game start to divert and the cracks start showing, that's when the game really hook you and make you think and rethink about the choices and what you've been doing mindlessly for the past couple hours. You giving up playing it is ironically what the game was trying to achieve with its design decision, albeit not the giving up part but the "generic mil shooter" part. So if they had given it a more "fantasy setting," it wouldn't work as well at all.
3:16 Star Wars Republic Commando does exactly this. I remember when I was a kid I got curious to see what would happen if I shot my own teammates, they basically turn on you immediately and even have dialogue to go with it. Literally never experienced anything like that at the time and it gave me chills. It felt like I was being watched lol. Didn't help that I was alone in the room.
@@dont_jinx_meboth of their content gets very philosophical, which is nice to see. i do feel like they do suffer from videos being oversaturated with depressing topics though.
@@josewilkins2517 yeah I agree with that, but I also feel that's where there content shines the best, they really show how good the content on Yt can be, just some people don't want to put the time in, I also hate when people get annoyed at their upload schedule, cause i feel like the more time between videos the better the next one is.
I would like to point out that the narrator in the Stanley Parable will absolutely acknowledge the player, at least in the broom closet ending. Probably a few other times too.
The 'not-so-Stanley' ending (or whatever you call the ending where you pull the plug of the telephone) is also a great example for that. The Narrator actually makes the difference between Stanley and the player. And we see how when we- the player- exits the body of Stanley's model, the story doesn't continue, the choices don't get made and the game doesn't exists as a whole really.
I think Delta Rune would be another good example. The game literally tells you that your choices don't matter because the end result is always the same.
I completely trust The Cursed Judge to make an amazing analysis of Deltarune but I'd rather he waits until the full game is released just so he has more to discuss and the game can say everything it wants to say
You are such a genius when it comes to video essays, the intro of the video talking about Spyro Year of the Dragon and revealing the topic of the video, transitioning to a collage of games that perfectly define and explain the topic further, just to come back to Spyro, showing that it is practically eating away at itself because you the player are playing the game. Absolute goosebumps, this moment alone in the video is so amazing that I cant help but applaud you with this comment. - Truly amazing work, keep it up!!!
If you haven't played Spec Ops: The Line and are a fan of shooters, play it and then come back and watch this video. Don't have it spoiled for you it's a very unique experience that will stick with you and only takes about 5 hours of your time
> that will stick with you Alright, that verrrrrry much depends on your buy in to it, same with genocide route in Undertale. If you don't like the "Just quit the game lol" messaging, i'll admit, esp at that fucking price point, it doesn't land.
bought it because of everyone praising it and the ending, played about 2 hours before dropping it and refunding it because I got bored with the gameplay. It felt like a generic cover shooter and I wasn't willing to waste more time on a mediocre game with some profound message
I love the games that aren’t horror, but make you acutely aware that something isn’t right. One of the most unsettling things I remember from a game is a loading tip from Spec Ops: The Line, that reads “Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously.” I saw that on my second playthrough of the game and the pit it put in my stomach is one of the most unique ways a game has unnerved me. I need more PTSD, trauma inducing war games please. Edit: Forgot to mention how much I enjoyed the video! You did an awesome job here dude
I think Deltarune would've been a perfect example of this, since its a game where it makes it clear that you, the player, and Kris, the protagonist, are two very different entities, and Kris is very much aware, and also absolutely hates, the fact that you are controlling them.
i think the most interesting part is that you don't play as "just the player" in deltarune, but neither do you play as kris, directly. you're the SOUL. in undertale they were just the core essence of humans and monsters, but in deltarune it's shown they're completely seperate entities. and ironically, the times where you're put in your place, as the player, the SOUL and by that the direct tormentor of kris, they're the most eerie and just straight up terrifying moments in the game. kris is free, and they do as they please, just for it all to lead to more entertainment for your sick and twisted joy. Deltarune is god damn scary the more you think about it.
@@bredoffender I REALLY hate the "the player is evil" thing. The player didn't intend to use Kris as a puppet- rather, the vessel your create is immediately tossed away by whoever the voice at the start is, before we are essentially forced into playing Kris. The player can't be considered sick or twisted unless they explicitly choose to torment Kris (like deliberately getting hurt), even if they do hate us, we haven't actually intended to harm them. The real sick person is the one that forced a random entity (the player) into controlling an innocent person- neither the player nor Kris is really "in the wrong."
@@headphonesaxolotl have you considered that there is a point trying to be made here? Trying to force yourself as a literal blank slate of your own creation, meaning nothing in a pre existing world? That is to say, spawning from nothing. That just does not work. So, the game, in its attempt to begrudgingly comply with what you want to do, are converted into being a soul. And put into a character who has their own autonomy and life. One that we will never get to see.
Depression Quest seems shockingly accurate. I've been struggling with depression for years now. Sometimes it's worse, sometimes better. At the worst times it really does feel like my life is almost on autopilot, that I don't have any decisions. I just sit in my room feeling like complete shit while I waste my life away online. I can afford a therapist, but I don't go. I have friends I could text, but I don't. I just feel trapped a lot of the time. I've been getting better, but very slowly.
If you feel like you should see a therapist and you can easily afford it or you Healthcare covers it, go see one. Even if it's just once, it's better for you to see one once than never seeing one
@@inaneinacheve some symptoms of depression COULD just be a lack of sleep/serotonin. i have had a conversation with someone knowledgeable in the field about my situation and it turns out i just had to go outside more, maybe drive my bicycle and be inside less. maybe it works for you too **but i don't know you** **you should probably ask a therapist how you're feeling, they probably know better** i hope you feel happier soon!
Spec Ops: The Line is still, after many years after it released, my favorite video game for just how memorable the story is. I've never played a game like it since that's been as memorable that's stuck with me over a decade later. I almost wish that in a second playthrough (and only on the second) they'd actually let you do as your mission stated; as in after the first altercation turn around and leave. To show just how far "trying to be the hero" in a misguided attempt harms more than helps.
The first game that comes to mind with the “players are designed to be blamed for the wrongs of the characters” format with the map Mob of the Dead from CoD Black Ops 2 Zombies. 4 characters to play as, 3 of them have some vague memory of doing things “before” (over and over again) and 1 remembers everything that happens to the group, where to find specific objects, what happens next etc. and that was a really enjoyable experience
You're very quickly becoming my favourite videoessayist on youtube. It seems like a very accessible format so there's a lot of them out there, but yours always build towards a very satisfying and interesting "point" and engage me so well. The effort you put into the writing and pacing of these doesn't go unnoticed, excellent stuff!
I personally always thought that at the end Walker is aware of the fact that he's the bad guy here, as shown by the epilogue, and who gets shot is just whether he decides to live on with it, or takes the easy way out. Also, I didn't expect this video to mention a game that IIRC was basically a catalyst for GamerGate.
I have my own experience with a choice that has always stuck wit me. In Ender Lillies, your goal of clearing the infection is put into question, where the knight that's been following you says that you don't have to finish, you can leave and no one would be there to judge you. Once I reached the first ending, I stopped playing for about thirty minutes because, I wanted her suffering to end. It's the only game I've played where I wanted to stop early and not finish.
Such a good game, I did all the endings and really enjoyed it. Definitely helps that the music throughout the game is so beautiful and melancholy (besides the very last area, then it's really unsettling).
I want to say something about you and your videos, something that I, in my broken English, find kind of hard to do, but I'll try my best. Your videos take me back to when TH-cam and I were young-not because of low quality or something like that, not at all. But because I feel like, despite having watched a lot of spec ops videos, this made me feel like the first few I watched, I felt like you were speaking from a place of genuine passion or interest, and I also felt like my attention span wasn't destroyed like it is. I didn't feel distracted, and I felt interested in the video, just as I did when I was 14 and watched my first text-to-speech loquendo analysis on stuff. Today I turn 27, and despite everything, I feel like content creators such as yourself can still make me owe in amazement, just like the very first time. For that, I've got to thank you.
at exactly 12:20 my headphones turned off for no reason, pausing the video on this screen with the red text, but instead of the narration i just heard ”power: off” coming from my headphones. scared the shit out of me because i was so immersed that for a second i was almost convinced that a game meta enough to crash for narrative purposes could then somehow also reach out of this youtube video and disconnect me from my own device in a last ditch effort to keep me from the basement and secrects of the house
Solitude reminds me of how i feel when I'm suffering from existential depression, not like you want to disappear, but that you never existed at all, that the bed you're lying in would just swallow you whole, and the lights would just gently fade away, as the darkness becomes all you see.
XCOM *handshake* Fire Emblem *handshake* Darkest Dungeon Bullshit misses on enemies that returns with an immediate death of your favorite character/unit
dude that last game sounds so good holy crap i got shivers from just your description of the events in the game. 10/10 video makes me want to play that game so bad
People say it's preachy, but I think that just means that people who came to that conclusion have already internalized the message that it's trying to communicate. I still think that the best approach is playing through the ENTIRE game and deciding for yourself. Definitely get it while it's on sale at least, it's dirt cheap even when not on sale, and at its very core is a very mindless and solid third person shooter which was kind of its initial intention anyways.
an that's not a bad thing Omari has been popping off an the whole opening to that game is playing on a playground before childhood self-harm disorder an more hapens
"Do not ask the white boy for Steam sale recommendations. They'll just start telling you to play an indie RPG Earthbound-inspired platformer that's actually about being depressed."
There is actually an ending in the Stanley parable, that includes the narrator very directly stating that you are a player. When you make some wrong choices and are put in a room with a phone, the narrator says the following: "No, that wasn't supposed to be a choice. How did you do that? You actually chose incorrectly? I didn't even know that was possible. Let me double-check. [papers rustling] No, it's definitely here, clear as day. Stanley picks up the phone. He's taken to his apartment where he finds his wife and the two pledge themselves to one another. Music comes in, fade to white, roll credits. Not picking up the phone is actually somehow an incorrect course of action. how is that even possible? None of these decisions were supposed to mean anything. I don't understand. How on earth are you making meaningful choices? What did you- Wait a second. Did I just see- No, that's not possible, I can't believe it. How had I not noticed it sooner? You're not Stanley. You're a real person. *sigh* I can't believe I was so mistaken. This is why you've been able to make correct and incorrect choices. And to think I've been letting you run around in this game for so long. If you've made any more wrong choices, you might have negated it entirely."
When you said, "the protagonist is controlled by you, the PLAYER" in the intro, I remembered a line from Shipwrecked 64, where Bucky Beaver break the forth wall and said, "Whatever happens, that's on you!"
My favorite part of Spec Ops' finale is that after everything you and Walker push through, the final (and in many ways the first) true choice you get is deciding his fate, casting judgment on him, and the best part is that every option feels equally valid. Regardless of what you decide should happen they all feel satisfying as a path to choose for yourself.
I thought The Line was a really good story, but that phosphorus launcher scene really forced the disconnect for me. It was presented as if there WAS a choice, and I spent a considerable amount of time on what are apparently endless waves before realising the story wouldn't move on unless I used it. Honestly, taking the choice out of my hands would have been better as I felt no guilt for being forced to do something.
@@youmukonpaku916 that would be the simile of leaving them where they were trapped, because in your meta universe we got them to that launcher but if I never take them back out of that situation I am just leaving them there forever, you know meta and shit
Lugo: “There’s always a choice.” Walker: “No. There’s really not.” The game never gave you a choice there. Everything was telling you that you had to use the willy pete
@@varietygaming33 As if the other typical shooter games gave you a choice. In the old "CoD 4 MW": Hundreds of people in the middle east could have survived, instead of getting shot by you (and your mates), while defending their homes. Even the nuke would not have been fallen - if you just did not go on the mission after the training. Every player who is not completele new, knows how a shooter works and that terrible things (at least terrible for many npcs) will very likely happen in the chain of story events. There are also a lot of games with shooting gallery sequences, in many cases you are somewhere the intruder and kill everyone showing up. Spec Ops:TL tries to make us question the heroic progression loop of most shooters and our gloryfied mass murdering "for the greater cause". I personally like many story shooter games but i don't need to be the hero in every game. Games can be very immersive ways to tell a story and there are more than enough patriotic hero story games on my record and many more out there. Also a villain, who wants to save everybody, feels much more human, just like the progress of choosing the dark side in Star Wars: KotoR 2. Most story games dont leave you with real choices but frame the choice of going on as not questionable Spec Ops:TL tries different. After realizing the phosphor was inevidable, i paused the game to play out some thoughts - of armed men in foreign countrys, with the imperative of defending themselves.
There's an interesting contrast between Black Ops and Spec Ops I haven't thought about until your videos. Both games have totally non-sensical plots, it's just that one is about fulfilling the player's fantasy and the other one is about breaking the player emotionally. Neat
>Black Ops and Spec Ops I haven't thought about until your videos. Both games have totally non-sensical plots, it's just that one is about fulfilling the player's fantasy and the other one is about breaking the player emotionally Someone didn't play BO3, I see.
One of the best parts of video games is that they have been branching out into playable experiences rather than just trying to be fun. Movies aren't always meant to make you laugh, or cry, or cheer for joy, sometimes they are meant to say something. The best literature has always been the kind that has something to critique or expound upon. Now, games are increasingly becoming vehicles for more than just "fun" or entertainment. Granted, it's almost solely tiny indie games that go this route, it's still fantastic to go through an experience that isn't about having fun, because the subversion of your expectations makes the message hit that much harder
I always feel conflicted about "Games that dont want to be played" like Spec Ops The Line or Undertale's Genocide Route. On one hand, it has an incredibly interesting message, that the only way to "win" the game is to leave it be, to put the controller down and walk away. But on the other it feels so hostile. The player is being punished for being a player, and wanting to see what happens next. I'm not quite sure on my feelings towards these types if stories, but treating the player as a foreign entity that shouldn't be there is fascinating.
I clicked on your unsatisfying endings video and have been binging your video essays for a few hours now. I have to say these are incredibly well written. Fascinating topics, well paced, somehow manages to leave me feeling all sorts of emotions. Incredible.
The stars alligned and you came back with a sick subject on my birthday! Can't wait to get home and watch this video!!! I'll let you know what I think when I get done! So happy to have you back, hope you're doing better
@@TheCursedJudgethank you! I really liked the video! I was expecting the title to be much less interpreted than it was and was really pleasantly surprised to see how you applied it to not only indie games but some major titles as well. Really good job man!
Great video, man. Love your content. I love the discussions around spec ops, so many different takes on the same story, so much to talk about and so many theories, and i never actually disagree with any of them. One of the topics you could maybe do a video about is player avatars, and the dying of the silent protagonist? Idk that also is a very interesting topic to me and i would love to hear your opinion about it.
I know barely anyone but me remembers it, but Starlancer (2000) for PC had you pilot a starfighter in open space arenas where you fought an enemy team of pilots alongside a few friendly pilot bots on your team. There are sometimes larger ships like freighters and cruisers. Your objective can vary between missions and areas, but usually it's to overcome a batch of enemies, destroy a certain objective or survive a gauntlet. One day I was just fucking around for fun, and deliberately chased down one of my friendly bots and chipped away at his health with my gatling guns until his fighter exploded. I killed my squadmate. And the devs accounted for that - there's special audio lines of dialogue from your friendlies, and a disturbing prerendered cutscene where your pilot is coldly blindfolded and executed via firing squad. I was 7 years old and the inclusion of this "ending" rocked me to my core.
I found you out of nowhere and i must say that this is one of the best video essays i've seen in a long time. you've earned my sub and i look forward to exploring some more of your content.
I think its also really important to note that Spec Ops takes heavy inspiration from Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now with even the main enemy being Conrad, the same name as author for Heart of Darkness. I think they did this to solidify the helplessness in these situations as in both the characters are subjected to horrors that they can only sit by and watch such as Willard only being able to stand back in scenes of destruction such as the Air Cav's charge, watching the destruction unfold around him. But a very important note is that Willard's only major choice in Apocalypse Now, and the only time he fires his gun is the mercy kill a Vietnamese woman who was gunned down by his squad in front of him. I think that Spec Op's uses itself as a modern day telling of this story which is one rooted in helplessness and horror.
About "solitude": While watching you're video, i thought: What if the character can't leave the room on its own, but with us, The Player, taking control over movement, can break thru this imaginary for the character wall and live happily after, like "Don't be afraid to accept help from other people". Sounds cool imho
I've always been captivated by the element of the camera in movies, television, books and so on - the observer, the witness, the one for whom most stories are sort of blindly performed, and I wanted stories that deal with that in some way. This shows some such. Good video
Depression quest really hit me hard… I have depression, recently went through a breakup, and I’ve already been obsessing over all those choices I could’ve made but didn’t… 🥺😭
I played it before finishing the video and It hit me hard as well, I got a good ending but it made me realize that even though I know what to do when I'm severely depressed I don't and god that hit harder than I thought it would
It's tough my friend. I was just reflecting on that too. Lost a relationship two years ago now due to in part my depression. I thought if I just ignored it I could just keep going. But ultimately it brought things to an end. Sure it feels like you could've done something (and we could) but you really can't. Like in the game those options you are aware, but you can't really choose them in the moment. Their not real options. They are only options in hindsight. And it's not you're fault. It was always going to happen. After we broke up (me and my gf of years) I went through a period of deep sadness and nothingness, and alot of self reflection and discovery. And a year later I came out the healthiest and happiest I've ever been in the last 10 years. I needed to go through and change to break me out of my cycle of depression. Because I was trapped by it and wasn't going to break myself out. She was my best friend and my first real love, but I thank her for everything she did and regret nothing. But everything serves a purpose, even break ups. I know it hurts and saddens you (I still does to me too) but just know you're on a brighter path with many good things to come. It's ok to feel sad once and while, but keep your head up and keep on marching forward. You're a trooper. It's always better to hurt than not feel anything at all. Wishing you well, and you're crushing it. From- a stranger over the internet
@@chloroform2982 It's like they always say, the actual "cure" for depression is simple - Social interaction, exercise, and sunlight. The keyword being simple - because it's not at all easy to get out of bed in the morning when you're in the depths.
@@YOUTY209 I do not think that really works, at least not always. A lot of people's depression is from a lack of enjoyment of such as things. It is not just that it is hard to do anything, it is that doing things is unrewarding. One of the reasons it becomes so hard to do anything is because of a lack of motivation as you know you are not in a state to enjoy things. Even something like watching a favourite movie or playing a favourite game, you still may like them but it can be hard to actually enjoy them in the current mental state. You can't just randomly do something and expect it to actually feel as good as you think it should. Attempting to engage with something in a "bad" mental state can just lead to even more avoidance of such things as you build up new bad experiences with such activities. I have found that it is good to try to get back into engaging with stuff that you love, it just takes preparation and care. Throwing yourself into situations can sometimes work but it is inconsistent and hard to maintain. Being told to "Just do something" is very unhelpful and ignores depression altogether, it is advice for someone that is not depressed. I think people often just fail to understand how depression results in a general lack of enjoyment in everything. Depression is not a state of desire, you can't just do the thing and be satisfied, it is more of a state where everything that is feasible is undesirable.
Tried out depression quest immediately and not gonna lie, it's pretty accurate. You what the right choice is, but often times you just can't make it. You won't yourself make it. It's very frustrating, but in the end you always feel the only one to blame is yourself.
I’m going to stop at Spec Ops because I’ve always wanted to play it myself, but I’ve got to say that I really love this video. What these games are doing is so intriguing; I love self-aware horror that involves its audience (with or against their will) and deconstructs its medium, and you’ve tied these examples together very nicely.
Very good choice. Play through the game and report back here. People say it's preachy and all that, but I think it's best to play through the ENTIRE game and decide for yourself.
Good video. Zone of the Enders has a neat "you are playing it wrong" moment halfway through the game - if you go out of your way to kill all the civilians up to that point, you are told that a vital story character was in one of the buildings and the game ends with you being scolded for not taking it seriously. The player character even says "but I was just playing the game..." - classic Kojima moment. Oh and you might like a game called Producer 2021. I'll say nothing about it but your choice of indie games would fit alongside it very well.
Spec Ops The Line made me feel horrible and stare at a wall after playing it (happened a lot) And made me have continuous nightmares till this day I played it when I was 12 and I still play it today. Truly a masterpiece
There's still an "option" not to use phosphorus: you Can try to take down all soldiers with usual guns. But in such case the game decides to endlessly respawn shooters on roofs, who aren't even there if you decide to annihilate the place.
You'd just die and was forced to fight a losing battle over and over again until you shoot it. It's not exactly a choice to begin with, it's just the game putting a failsafe incase someone actually tried fighting through the base.
While I watch nearly every video games essayist's videos here on youtube, I find that yours are the most thoughtful of them in a sense. I sincerely would pick your videos over the likes of for example Jacob Geller's or NeverKnowsBest's in pretty much every instance. Keep doing this please
Why do you have to put down other creators to praise this one? Jacob especially started just as small as Judge and built up on raw merit. Judge is absolutely fantastic, but it's quite cruel of you to only recognize that in the context of lessening somebody else's value.
God this concept reminds me of Generation Loss. (genloss is made by Ranboolive if you want to check it out, and of courses spoiler warning for the streams.) It was streamed on twitch I believe and the fans as chat got to make decisions. It started with comedy. It ends with us choosing to kill Ranboo, not really as a different character, but as the streamer. Now of course Ranboo is alive irl but this other Ranboo seems to be more of a clone or alternate version than some rando. I can’t really explain it well but we do realize at some point that the only reason Ranboo gets put through this torture is because we as viewers choose to go to the streams and keep playing. It was a really cool experience if you where there live (still is one now) I didn’t get to be there live, but the pain of seeing them yell and beg to just be killed still kinda haunts me. I love this because it feels like (at least for me) that the show is actively telling you “you did this! You watched. You kept going. You got him tortured and you got them killed!” It’s very cool and I like the idea of a show halting and really just speaking to you saying that the blame can’t just be on the big bad evil guy, but also you since your the ones watching it and fueling anyway. That was just a mindless ramble and a bit of a tangent but eh. Really cool video from you cursed judge, I like this concept a lot so thanks for the video. I doubt anyone will get into Genloss just from this comment but again, eh whatever.
I'm just glad I stumbled upon your channel while trying to find a video to fall asleep to. Turns out, besides your soothing voice, you also make great-ass contents! Always great points, the way you construct them into a video and the topics you choose are 😚👌 . More power to you, and I hope your channel blows up because you damn well deserve it
Honestly, I feel like "games that hate the player" are the single most common category of games that excel past "art" with a lowercase "a" and make themselves known as "Art" with a capital "A".
9:00 as someone with pretty bad agoraphobia. i do leave the house, but only absolutely when i have to. i dash back inside from the walk to the trash. picking up meds, getting groceries, going to appointments, are all agonizing. i want so deeply to just even go on a walk but i just. can't. it's hard to explain, but i think this game gets close
When you mentioned the Stanley parable, you forgot two endings in which the players in directly talked to. On where Stanley is going to be crushed, and the other where you unplug the phone after you went on the lift in the warehouse. In the first, you are begged to quit to free Stanley and the narrator from their eternal torment. In the second one, the narrator finds out you're a "real person" and just asks to follow his orders in fear of breaking everything. So yeah, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but you did forget to mention these. Great video by the way.
I adore the way your videos are structured. The games you cover are fascinating and the way you loop back to ideas is masterful. Thank you for the great content
Well done mate. Not only does this video resonate, but it'd probably be a good video to show non-gamers to help them "get it" without trying to force them to play themselves.
4:20 technically in the “broom closet ending” where you sit in a broom closet and do nothing, the narrator does address the player and says you must be a monkey pushing buttons at random and asks anyone else around the computer to remove the monkey and start playing normally
Damn these videos are great. Video games are a legitimate art form, and although some people do abuse their time with them, there is still some very valuable lessons to take away from a lot of these games that might otherwise go unlearned for some. Spec Ops: The Line taught me a valuable lesson, and that was to not play video games for the false reward of feeling better than you actually are. If you want to feel like a hero, feel like you can do good in the world, feel like you can help or save others, feel brave and strong… work on doing it in the game you’ve already been playing: the game of life. Gay, I know.
Ironically enough, shooting Konrad is a valid action here - game wants to be meta and blame me for actions of a character in a linear video game claiming I could have stopped, but I can be meta too, claiming that since game is linear it's a movie with interactive combat and not a fully interactive project that can require me to take even partial responsibility for what is happening on the screen. Sorry game, you don't get to take my money, tell me I could've stopped and never played what I paid for and blaming me for what you created, Konrad eats the bullet.
Those kind of twists like "The player is ultimate villain, you should've stop playing" doesn't do anything for me unless you offer me a refund along the way. In fact on Spec Ops I think everyone focus on the white phosphorus scene that the player doesn't have a choice and must use it to progress, but nobody talks about the part where the crowd starts trying to lynch you. The majority of players shoots straight at the mob killing civilians, but a single shoot in the air does the same thing and progress the game without a single drop of blood shed.
No. Ironically you proved the game's point. You're even worse than what the game is telling, cause you already knew what the game was about and you still decided to buy it so you can kill civilians and satisfy your curiosity. You're a monster, exactly like Walker. And even knowing what you did, you prefer to blame something or someone else. Just like Walker. This game is a masterpiece and haters like you only makes it better, cause you just keep proving right it's entire message
@@Ireee702 Why the fuck would I spoil the story of a game that everyone was praising for it before I bought it if I was planning in doing so? It was the gaming version of spoiling myself the ending of the Sixth Sense before going to see the movie. Mate, your opinion is anachronistic as fuck. The WHOLE marketing material and even the demo that was available focused ONLY on finding what happened to the 33rd, relying heavily on the common military shooter tropes popular at the times and hiding the twists at all cost. Everyone what got the game at launch or soon after (like myself) didn't have a clue that it wasn't just another third person cover shooter. When people started playing and reached the meat of the story, everyone talked about how it was good, but didn't talk openly to not spoil it to everyone. The game now is 11 years old and is analyzed openly, but at the time it wasn't. If you buy it today you know exactly what you are getting, but at the time you couldn't.
I often feel a strange sense of betrayal, with me being the betrayer, when upon replaying a game I don't simply stop playing at a peaceful and/or happy moment. I have the chance, the ability to let these characters stay in a happy life, and I take it away for the sake of a game I've already played.. for a narrative that I already know the end to.
It's funny because some people actively hate on gams like this, Spec Ops specifically I saw a whole thread about people complaining about "a shooting game trying to make me feel bad for shooting- glad the stupid game flopped"
@@TheCursedJudge Really? Then I'm sorry about that XD I mean I guess in a perspective they're not "wrong" but I wouldn't say they're correct either- you're video does good justice for the sake of people who do like things like this in games, 10/10 on your part
Fun fact: Spec Ops: The Line features you in the opening credits as a "special guest".
Also, turns out, there is an ending or two that involves briefly addressing the player in The Stanley Parable. It doesn't change the overall point as most endings don't operate in that way, but I'm annoying that I didn't find this while researching.
Good video. Good script Good editing ! I would just say talk 10% faster and with 10% more energy. I get this video doesn't need energy but you sound more bored than dramatic and serious to me. Great job though !
@@keepcoolgames5896 he doesn’t need to talk faster bro
@@keepcoolgames5896 I don't think they asked bruh
@@keepcoolgames5896 This is kinda just how I talk lol
@@keepcoolgames5896I think hes fine
"when a house is both hungry and awake... every room becomes a mouth" is one of the scariest/hardest things I've ever heard
LOVE IT
I feel stupid, but I don’t really understand it. Could you please explain it to me? I’ve tried multiple times to interpret what it means but i just can’t.
@@Atellas The best way I can explain it is that the house is treating you like the human body would treat a parasite, bacteria, or other outside threat. A human's white blood cells will attack or "consume" the intruding disease. The house has marked you as a threat from the outside, which means it is "awake" (wanting to get rid of this disease,) and therefore you are about to be "consumed" by it. Every room that had once been the brain, or the subconscious, suddenly becomes hostile ("hungry") and is therefore a "mouth" capable of "eating" you (or getting rid of you in some way) just like how white blood cells can attack something anywhere in the body.
@@dez9084 this makes a lot of sense. That seriously clears it up really good, thank you so much!
@@Atellas Glad it helped! :)
Literally shook me cant belive what it would be like playing that
One great detail about Spec Ops, is how the game constantly berates you for your "choices" with things like the tooltips on loading screens being replaced with quotes like "Do you feel like a hero yet?" or "If you were a better person, you wouldn't be here" the further you get into the game. Or how during the phosphorus scene, you can see Walkers face subtly reflected in the screen as you burn everyone alive. God, I love that game.
Man those screens were trippy bro
God I hate that there's no actual choice for most of what heppens in the gamr
@@Johnnyupside When I first played it, my friend said there were choices, and I thought I fucked everything up lol
@@G7ue Most of the choices are there to gaslight you
@@JohnnyupsideThe only choice to stop all those bad things from happening is to stop playing the game
The "You are making the characters suffer by playing" thing is also in hotline miami 2:
When you finish the game all the characters die but when you choose to replay the game they are seen all sitting in a room with jacket, jacket is like an embodiment of death. Jacket speaks to the characters about their actions and kills them then turning on the projector, starting the game and their torment once again
Man, that game is nostalgic.
And had banger music too.
Finally someone talks about how incredible the hm series is.
Thats not Jacket, its Richard
If you restart Undertale after a happy ending it guilt trips you for using the characters like toys
Tip of the iceberg for that game’s guilt tripping btw
Jacket is just one more guy,richard is the death,there is actually a lot of interesting theories about how he impersonate death so yeah
Any game that has microtransactions automatically hate you and treat your wallet like their golden child.
OW2
Not really
there are exceptions, but truths be told, exceptions dont break the norm
genshin impact
@@jacobjenkins7362 terrible argument
7:30 "The only thing left to do is glaringly obvious."
*Sets up chair like he's going to hang himself
*Cuts to him grabbing his trench coat and hat saying "is to go and see what's outside..."
subtle humor
dude i thought i was trippin but it's actually that way
What i thought was that you just sit there, never leaving the room, just like the character said they would
This is exactly why I love the Genocide Route in UNDERTALE. You only do it because you want to see what happens, and then you get punished for it. Stuff like this is great and I'm amazed other games have similar punishments if you do something the game doesn't want you to.
I was gonna include a section on the Genocide run but I've already talked about it in two different videos already and I figured that I had to change things up
@@TheCursedJudge Fair enough then. The games you did talk about here are pretty cool.
Great point. The game makes you feel so bad for your actions
@@itsmejinxfromleagueolegendsrea Not to mention what happens at the end of the Genocide Route ties into the theme of this video too.
Yeah imo undertale did the whole punishing the player for their choices thing better than spec ops did, in spec ops you get railroaded down a single story path where bad stuff happens and you get chewed out for the bad stuff happening even though there's LITERALLY no other alternate routes or nothing else you can do outside of well not playing the game to begin with like the video said, but it just so happens "buy our game but don't actually play it" isn't a particularly good marketing strategy (at least I wouldn't think so, then again it might peak some people's curiosity and get them to buy the game anyway just to see what happens in it so 🤷♂️) so they have to slap that on you at the very end, imo it's just kind of contrived and disrespectful to the player, there are ways they could have gone about it while still achieving their goals but like I said they just chose the most obnoxious contrived option instead... Meanwhile undertale does it really well in my opinion, you know for a fact that when you do the genocide route it's 100% your fault and no one else's, unlike in spec ops you can actually *CHOOSE* whether or not you want to do good or bad stuff and the game goes out of its way to try to convince you to not kill things so when you do that's 100% on you and when you get to sans and have to fight him you can totally see it coming and it's not just the game pulling a fast one on you out of nowhere for something you didn't even initially know was going to happen and that you literally had no way around regardless of whether you wanted to get around it or not... Basically what I'm saying is to me undertale actually "earns" being able to call you out for your actions whereas spec ops doesn't, if there was a way that was actually within the bounds of the game (as in, that didn't involve just straight up not playing it) to get around doing the bad stuff in it then I would say it earned it as.well, but it doesn't so it didn't, it's basically like if in undertale there was only one route and there were 0 alternate paths or endings or anything like that and at first you were able to avoid killing stuff but then halfways through the game you *had* to start killing stuff out of nowhere for some reason and the events form that point onward play out like on the genocide route, imo that be just as contrived as spec ops
When I played Spec Ops: The Line, I really didn't want to shoot the white phosphorus and even tried to see if there were any other options. But it was clear that it was the only way forward, even if you knew it was the wrong choice, and personally that made it feel like there was a disconnect between what the character would do and what I would do.
Some people make the argument that the character is being forced to do what the player chooses, but this is one instance where the player is forced to do what the character chooses, because the only alternative is to turn the game off or stay at that spot forever.
Yeah like I said in another comment, in my opinion it honestly kind of partially undermines what the game is trying to go for thematically, there should have been some secret way to avoid doing it even if it means you don't get the "proper" ending, like the game ends prematurely or something because that's not what's "supposed" to happen, it would still be better than just railroading the player down a singular path where bad stuff happens then chewing the player out for doing the bad stuff later on even though you literally had no say in whether or not you wanted to do it or not and especially if you didn't want to do it to begin with and you already knew it might end badly but you still wanted to play the game to completion... It would also reward the player for thinking critically about what they're doing which was literally the whole point of the game
Yeah, that is kinda silly from a thematic standpoint. There actually is a much better showcase of the concept later in the game, so they clearly knew how to do it correctly. Basically, there is the point where a group of civilians show up as enemies who punch you and you are supposed to gun them down, crossing the moral horizon and finally becoming a monster for real. However, you can also just..not do that and scare them away instead.
The story does not change because the whole thing is less about morals and more about wanting to be something you aren't to the point of turning rogue and skirting responsibility for your actions, but it is nice that the choice is in the game in the first place.
@jlewwis1995 Some of what you said made me remember the narrative strategy of the original Prince of Persia, where it turns out the first 95% of the game is a retelling of events. Because of this, anytime you die, the main character will say, "wait, that's not how it went..."
Originally, you were supposed to have multiple parts were just doing the right thing would give you a "Good Ending", but end the game right there.
Beta Testers complained that this made the game too short, as too many of them just picked to obey the "Return to base" order at the begining of the game thinking that was how it was meant to progress...
If only they clued the Beta Testers into what was going on, because I'm pretty sure the average gamer would say "If doing that causes the game to come to a halt, and I have the option, not to.... Let's see what doing the other thing does."
Because the game really would have been more effective if it had been an inverse of many other games "Bad endings that end the game early, but one good ending if you persevere", this could have been "Good endings that get progressively worse, with the worst outcome being playing the whole way through."
The message would have been a lot better, but as it stands Spec Ops: The Line fails in my book, because having things turn out this awful becomes more "The developer is an edgelord" than "The player is a monster" , when you have no say in the matter beyond just shutting the game off.
@@1Hol1Tiger As another comment mentioned in this thread, the game would have been improved quite a bit if it gave you the option of leaving Dubai around the beginning... but only after you already beat the game at least once, because by then, you've already seen just how disastrous the consequences of trying to play the hero can be and would now be able to show that you learned from it.
I've read that in the beta build of Spec Ops: The Line, you can actually obey the order to return to base, which just causes the game to roll credits.
This was removed because Beta Testers kept doing that, thinking it was what they were supposed to do, then complained the game was insultingly short.
A shame, I wish they kept it, because it actually would make the game more effective imo, if a choice existed in-game beyond just shutting it off... to have never done this in the first place.
as always play testers are unbelievably retarded and unimaginative
Where did you read it? I could not find that info, could you link it please?
Damn, they shouldnt hire monkeys to test their game
They could've done that in a similar way to Far Cry 4.
Disagree here. You even simply BUYING and opening the game is the part of the "issue" game shows
Spec Ops: The Line is the kind of game that recontextualizes all the other games. It unfortunately did not do well in sales, because for its purpose it had to look just like a normal shooter. But it is the one game which made me really consider it "art" as cheesy as it sounds. It made me reflect, think, and learn about myself. For one, "in a time of crisis, no one put me in power" is a takeaway I have :D
Thank you for covering it, I can always go for more SO:TL content! :D
It takes a mature person to recognize their own flaws. Games have taught me that in the moment of max pressure, when everything is on the line I will crumble like an incompetent child.
I'm so glad I tried out the beta, and then subsequently bought the full game because I thought it was a cool 3rd person shooter set in Dubai
Honestly, it's a big reason why I ignored it until people kept telling me it was this "Subversive Psychological Horrror Master Piece", and even then I thought it was people trolling me... I kept going "You're kidding right? It's a Call of Duty clone..."
Even when I played it I didn't get past the intro, because it was so grounded and generic that I figured the people who told me that were either kidding or just "REALLY into Military Shooters"
When I found out about the "twists", there was no longer any reason to play as any shock or effect they'd have was gone.
It just really isn't an effective premise for a military shooter, because the kind of Hardcore Gamers who'd play it and respect the message... Wouldn't play a generic military shooter, if anything, we were complaining about the oversaturation of the genre, and how Call of Duty and its clones had overtaken the market.
If it had a more unique "fake premise" or took place in a fantasy setting, it may have worked a lot better.
@@1Hol1Tiger the choice of it being a generic military shooter is a deliberate one as well
it's supposed to be familiar to anyone who has ever touched a mil shooter game before. Almost like a satirical version of it, to mock and ridicule just how cookie cutter these games are.
The ultimate point is to lure people into a false sense of security. After all, for someone who doesn't know anything about it, they'd just turn their brains off and play it. Until the game start to divert and the cracks start showing, that's when the game really hook you and make you think and rethink about the choices and what you've been doing mindlessly for the past couple hours.
You giving up playing it is ironically what the game was trying to achieve with its design decision, albeit not the giving up part but the "generic mil shooter" part.
So if they had given it a more "fantasy setting," it wouldn't work as well at all.
I feel like this is asking way too much of the player@@Codex_0613
3:16 Star Wars Republic Commando does exactly this. I remember when I was a kid I got curious to see what would happen if I shot my own teammates, they basically turn on you immediately and even have dialogue to go with it. Literally never experienced anything like that at the time and it gave me chills. It felt like I was being watched lol. Didn't help that I was alone in the room.
*EVERY ROOM BECOMES A MOUTH* gives me chills every time i hear it oh my god
I have no other ways to describe the cursed judge other than he is probably the most talented video essay youtuber on the platform.
Jacob geller is on par in my opinion, both amazing video essay youtubers, and they both have some of the best content on here
@@dont_jinx_meboth of their content gets very philosophical, which is nice to see. i do feel like they do suffer from videos being oversaturated with depressing topics though.
add super eyepatch wolf and in praise of shadows to this list @@dont_jinx_me
@@dont_jinx_me I came here to mention Jacob aswell. He's REALLY good. It's definitely a tie here.
@@josewilkins2517 yeah I agree with that, but I also feel that's where there content shines the best, they really show how good the content on Yt can be, just some people don't want to put the time in, I also hate when people get annoyed at their upload schedule, cause i feel like the more time between videos the better the next one is.
I would like to point out that the narrator in the Stanley Parable will absolutely acknowledge the player, at least in the broom closet ending. Probably a few other times too.
The 'not-so-Stanley' ending (or whatever you call the ending where you pull the plug of the telephone) is also a great example for that.
The Narrator actually makes the difference between Stanley and the player. And we see how when we- the player- exits the body of Stanley's model, the story doesn't continue, the choices don't get made and the game doesn't exists as a whole really.
@@yoshiandpoochieland the broom closet ending is fun because the narrator will assume you dead and ask for a second player to take your place
@@RinLovesYou And believes he got another braindead idiot for a player when you return to the broom closet
I think Delta Rune would be another good example. The game literally tells you that your choices don't matter because the end result is always the same.
And kris hates you too. Almost everyone who knows you in the game either hates you or is scared of you
I completely trust The Cursed Judge to make an amazing analysis of Deltarune but I'd rather he waits until the full game is released just so he has more to discuss and the game can say everything it wants to say
@@pencilvoid yes
@@eyeless_person Tbh, almost no one knows about you outside of weird route where they should 100% be cautious and/or negative about you.
Hey, that sounds exactly like mass effect 3!
(*sobs loudly in a corner*)
You are such a genius when it comes to video essays, the intro of the video talking about Spyro Year of the Dragon and revealing the topic of the video, transitioning to a collage of games that perfectly define and explain the topic further, just to come back to Spyro, showing that it is practically eating away at itself because you the player are playing the game.
Absolute goosebumps, this moment alone in the video is so amazing that I cant help but applaud you with this comment. - Truly amazing work, keep it up!!!
If you haven't played Spec Ops: The Line and are a fan of shooters, play it and then come back and watch this video. Don't have it spoiled for you it's a very unique experience that will stick with you and only takes about 5 hours of your time
> that will stick with you
Alright, that verrrrrry much depends on your buy in to it, same with genocide route in Undertale.
If you don't like the "Just quit the game lol" messaging, i'll admit, esp at that fucking price point, it doesn't land.
@@horserage I'd say having a bad experience is still an experience that sticks with you.
@@tysonchambliss1584 But now i'm down 20 quid with nothing to show for it.
bought it because of everyone praising it and the ending, played about 2 hours before dropping it and refunding it because I got bored with the gameplay. It felt like a generic cover shooter and I wasn't willing to waste more time on a mediocre game with some profound message
@@tysonchambliss1584 I'd rather have the bad experience for free than get charged 60 dollars.
I love the games that aren’t horror, but make you acutely aware that something isn’t right.
One of the most unsettling things I remember from a game is a loading tip from Spec Ops: The Line, that reads “Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously.”
I saw that on my second playthrough of the game and the pit it put in my stomach is one of the most unique ways a game has unnerved me.
I need more PTSD, trauma inducing war games please.
Edit: Forgot to mention how much I enjoyed the video! You did an awesome job here dude
I think Deltarune would've been a perfect example of this, since its a game where it makes it clear that you, the player, and Kris, the protagonist, are two very different entities, and Kris is very much aware, and also absolutely hates, the fact that you are controlling them.
Maybe is a few years……
i think the most interesting part is that you don't play as "just the player" in deltarune, but neither do you play as kris, directly. you're the SOUL. in undertale they were just the core essence of humans and monsters, but in deltarune it's shown they're completely seperate entities. and ironically, the times where you're put in your place, as the player, the SOUL and by that the direct tormentor of kris, they're the most eerie and just straight up terrifying moments in the game. kris is free, and they do as they please, just for it all to lead to more entertainment for your sick and twisted joy.
Deltarune is god damn scary the more you think about it.
Love that game cus it also deals with topics of escapism using video games as that pathway to escaping your real life. (you can also tell by my pfp)
@@bredoffender I REALLY hate the "the player is evil" thing. The player didn't intend to use Kris as a puppet- rather, the vessel your create is immediately tossed away by whoever the voice at the start is, before we are essentially forced into playing Kris. The player can't be considered sick or twisted unless they explicitly choose to torment Kris (like deliberately getting hurt), even if they do hate us, we haven't actually intended to harm them. The real sick person is the one that forced a random entity (the player) into controlling an innocent person- neither the player nor Kris is really "in the wrong."
@@headphonesaxolotl have you considered that there is a point trying to be made here? Trying to force yourself as a literal blank slate of your own creation, meaning nothing in a pre existing world? That is to say, spawning from nothing.
That just does not work. So, the game, in its attempt to begrudgingly comply with what you want to do, are converted into being a soul. And put into a character who has their own autonomy and life. One that we will never get to see.
Depression Quest seems shockingly accurate. I've been struggling with depression for years now. Sometimes it's worse, sometimes better. At the worst times it really does feel like my life is almost on autopilot, that I don't have any decisions. I just sit in my room feeling like complete shit while I waste my life away online. I can afford a therapist, but I don't go. I have friends I could text, but I don't. I just feel trapped a lot of the time. I've been getting better, but very slowly.
Hey, I'm feeling like that recently
I should be worried and should go see a therapist ?
If you feel like you should see a therapist and you can easily afford it or you Healthcare covers it, go see one. Even if it's just once, it's better for you to see one once than never seeing one
@@inaneinacheve some symptoms of depression COULD just be a lack of sleep/serotonin.
i have had a conversation with someone knowledgeable in the field about my situation and it turns out i just had to go outside more, maybe drive my bicycle and be inside less.
maybe it works for you too
**but i don't know you**
**you should probably ask a therapist how you're feeling, they probably know better**
i hope you feel happier soon!
@@taureon_ Thanks my man :D !
@@VictoriousJia what's funny here? i wanna know
Spec Ops: The Line is still, after many years after it released, my favorite video game for just how memorable the story is. I've never played a game like it since that's been as memorable that's stuck with me over a decade later. I almost wish that in a second playthrough (and only on the second) they'd actually let you do as your mission stated; as in after the first altercation turn around and leave. To show just how far "trying to be the hero" in a misguided attempt harms more than helps.
The first game that comes to mind with the “players are designed to be blamed for the wrongs of the characters” format with the map Mob of the Dead from CoD Black Ops 2 Zombies. 4 characters to play as, 3 of them have some vague memory of doing things “before” (over and over again) and 1 remembers everything that happens to the group, where to find specific objects, what happens next etc. and that was a really enjoyable experience
You're very quickly becoming my favourite videoessayist on youtube. It seems like a very accessible format so there's a lot of them out there, but yours always build towards a very satisfying and interesting "point" and engage me so well. The effort you put into the writing and pacing of these doesn't go unnoticed, excellent stuff!
True talent never goes unnoticed
Oh look, it’s the jump goblin
I personally always thought that at the end Walker is aware of the fact that he's the bad guy here, as shown by the epilogue, and who gets shot is just whether he decides to live on with it, or takes the easy way out. Also, I didn't expect this video to mention a game that IIRC was basically a catalyst for GamerGate.
DQ wasn't a catalyst, that would be, "other" actions.
I have my own experience with a choice that has always stuck wit me. In Ender Lillies, your goal of clearing the infection is put into question, where the knight that's been following you says that you don't have to finish, you can leave and no one would be there to judge you. Once I reached the first ending, I stopped playing for about thirty minutes because, I wanted her suffering to end. It's the only game I've played where I wanted to stop early and not finish.
Such a good game, I did all the endings and really enjoyed it. Definitely helps that the music throughout the game is so beautiful and melancholy (besides the very last area, then it's really unsettling).
I want to say something about you and your videos, something that I, in my broken English, find kind of hard to do, but I'll try my best. Your videos take me back to when TH-cam and I were young-not because of low quality or something like that, not at all. But because I feel like, despite having watched a lot of spec ops videos, this made me feel like the first few I watched, I felt like you were speaking from a place of genuine passion or interest, and I also felt like my attention span wasn't destroyed like it is. I didn't feel distracted, and I felt interested in the video, just as I did when I was 14 and watched my first text-to-speech loquendo analysis on stuff. Today I turn 27, and despite everything, I feel like content creators such as yourself can still make me owe in amazement, just like the very first time.
For that, I've got to thank you.
at exactly 12:20 my headphones turned off for no reason, pausing the video on this screen with the red text, but instead of the narration i just heard ”power: off” coming from my headphones. scared the shit out of me because i was so immersed that for a second i was almost convinced that a game meta enough to crash for narrative purposes could then somehow also reach out of this youtube video and disconnect me from my own device in a last ditch effort to keep me from the basement and secrects of the house
No game company hates their players more than Nintendo
Ha! Ha ha! Hahahaha… *sobs*
...EA?
Blizzard?
I dunnnoooo, rockstar is slowly moving up that list
I mean yeah, but other replies above me work too
Solitude reminds me of how i feel when I'm suffering from existential depression, not like you want to disappear, but that you never existed at all, that the bed you're lying in would just swallow you whole, and the lights would just gently fade away, as the darkness becomes all you see.
Look up the White Room torture method its exactly this in a form
all your senses can fade as if your hardly alive but just somewhere
Devs, don't hate the player, hate the game.
clever clever
The mantra of DBD
What...?
Thats how you end up with gollum
Yea, this is about the GAME hating the player
Xcom really hates the players. What else can explain me missing a 95 percent shot and then the enemy returning fire with 30 percent and it hits me.
XCOM *handshake* Fire Emblem *handshake* Darkest Dungeon
Bullshit misses on enemies that returns with an immediate death of your favorite character/unit
dude that last game sounds so good holy crap i got shivers from just your description of the events in the game. 10/10 video makes me want to play that game so bad
You should. Spec Ops: The Line is a masterpiece.
People say it's preachy, but I think that just means that people who came to that conclusion have already internalized the message that it's trying to communicate. I still think that the best approach is playing through the ENTIRE game and deciding for yourself. Definitely get it while it's on sale at least, it's dirt cheap even when not on sale, and at its very core is a very mindless and solid third person shooter which was kind of its initial intention anyways.
@ratchet2007 no? It's literally underrated
Please play it dude. It's one of the best storylines of All time
@ratchet2007Sounds like you didn't understand it
No One:
Not a Single Soul:
Every Indie Dev: This bright and cheery game is actually a metaphor for depression.
an that's not a bad thing Omari has been popping off an the whole opening to that game is playing on a playground before childhood self-harm disorder an more hapens
"Do not ask the white boy for Steam sale recommendations. They'll just start telling you to play an indie RPG Earthbound-inspired platformer that's actually about being depressed."
@@Baronnax Lisa goes hard and no one can pretend it doesn't despite fitting this exact criteria. It's all about execution.
There is actually an ending in the Stanley parable, that includes the narrator very directly stating that you are a player. When you make some wrong choices and are put in a room with a phone, the narrator says the following:
"No, that wasn't supposed to be a choice. How did you do that? You actually chose incorrectly? I didn't even know that was possible.
Let me double-check. [papers rustling]
No, it's definitely here, clear as day.
Stanley picks up the phone. He's taken to his apartment where he finds his wife and the two pledge themselves to one another. Music comes in, fade to white, roll credits.
Not picking up the phone is actually somehow an incorrect course of action. how is that even possible? None of these decisions were supposed to mean anything.
I don't understand. How on earth are you making meaningful choices? What did you-
Wait a second. Did I just see- No, that's not possible, I can't believe it. How had I not noticed it sooner?
You're not Stanley. You're a real person. *sigh* I can't believe I was so mistaken. This is why you've been able to make correct and incorrect choices.
And to think I've been letting you run around in this game for so long. If you've made any more wrong choices, you might have negated it entirely."
Cursed Judge casually returning after a month with quality milk puts a smile on my face
You can not be real bro
are u from braking bad
I only just found his channel a few hours ago so it's great timing for me
quality... milk?
On.. your face?
When you said, "the protagonist is controlled by you, the PLAYER" in the intro, I remembered a line from Shipwrecked 64, where Bucky Beaver break the forth wall and said, "Whatever happens, that's on you!"
My favorite part of Spec Ops' finale is that after everything you and Walker push through, the final (and in many ways the first) true choice you get is deciding his fate, casting judgment on him, and the best part is that every option feels equally valid. Regardless of what you decide should happen they all feel satisfying as a path to choose for yourself.
I thought The Line was a really good story, but that phosphorus launcher scene really forced the disconnect for me. It was presented as if there WAS a choice, and I spent a considerable amount of time on what are apparently endless waves before realising the story wouldn't move on unless I used it.
Honestly, taking the choice out of my hands would have been better as I felt no guilt for being forced to do something.
I mean. I know this might sound crazy but...
You could've turned the game off. That would be the simile to leaving Dubai. The choice was meta.
@@youmukonpaku916 that would be the simile of leaving them where they were trapped, because in your meta universe we got them to that launcher but if I never take them back out of that situation I am just leaving them there forever, you know meta and shit
@@youmukonpaku916 "You could've turned the game off."
And the devs could've given me back the money I gave them.
Lugo: “There’s always a choice.”
Walker: “No. There’s really not.”
The game never gave you a choice there. Everything was telling you that you had to use the willy pete
@@varietygaming33 As if the other typical shooter games gave you a choice.
In the old "CoD 4 MW": Hundreds of people in the middle east could have survived, instead of getting shot by you (and your mates), while defending their homes. Even the nuke would not have been fallen - if you just did not go on the mission after the training. Every player who is not completele new, knows how a shooter works and that terrible things (at least terrible for many npcs) will very likely happen in the chain of story events. There are also a lot of games with shooting gallery sequences, in many cases you are somewhere the intruder and kill everyone showing up. Spec Ops:TL tries to make us question the heroic progression loop of most shooters and our gloryfied mass murdering "for the greater cause".
I personally like many story shooter games but i don't need to be the hero in every game. Games can be very immersive ways to tell a story and there are more than enough patriotic hero story games on my record and many more out there. Also a villain, who wants to save everybody, feels much more human, just like the progress of choosing the dark side in Star Wars: KotoR 2.
Most story games dont leave you with real choices but frame the choice of going on as not questionable Spec Ops:TL tries different. After realizing the phosphor was inevidable, i paused the game to play out some thoughts - of armed men in foreign countrys, with the imperative of defending themselves.
There's an interesting contrast between Black Ops and Spec Ops I haven't thought about until your videos. Both games have totally non-sensical plots, it's just that one is about fulfilling the player's fantasy and the other one is about breaking the player emotionally. Neat
>Black Ops and Spec Ops I haven't thought about until your videos. Both games have totally non-sensical plots, it's just that one is about fulfilling the player's fantasy and the other one is about breaking the player emotionally
Someone didn't play BO3, I see.
@@caav56train go boom?
@@AI_KyunNotAnEgg More of "Why do you fight?" man myself.
Damn do I miss Corvus.
One of the best parts of video games is that they have been branching out into playable experiences rather than just trying to be fun. Movies aren't always meant to make you laugh, or cry, or cheer for joy, sometimes they are meant to say something. The best literature has always been the kind that has something to critique or expound upon. Now, games are increasingly becoming vehicles for more than just "fun" or entertainment. Granted, it's almost solely tiny indie games that go this route, it's still fantastic to go through an experience that isn't about having fun, because the subversion of your expectations makes the message hit that much harder
Films not being happy but being a statement is indeed an experience
I always feel conflicted about "Games that dont want to be played" like Spec Ops The Line or Undertale's Genocide Route.
On one hand, it has an incredibly interesting message, that the only way to "win" the game is to leave it be, to put the controller down and walk away.
But on the other it feels so hostile. The player is being punished for being a player, and wanting to see what happens next.
I'm not quite sure on my feelings towards these types if stories, but treating the player as a foreign entity that shouldn't be there is fascinating.
Lmaoo I fucking lost it when Zoey said spyro was playing a hacked game. Super unexpected. Great video.
I clicked on your unsatisfying endings video and have been binging your video essays for a few hours now. I have to say these are incredibly well written. Fascinating topics, well paced, somehow manages to leave me feeling all sorts of emotions. Incredible.
The stars alligned and you came back with a sick subject on my birthday! Can't wait to get home and watch this video!!! I'll let you know what I think when I get done! So happy to have you back, hope you're doing better
Happy birthday!!
Happy Birthday dude!
Happy Birthday!
happy birthday!!!!!!
@@TheCursedJudgethank you! I really liked the video! I was expecting the title to be much less interpreted than it was and was really pleasantly surprised to see how you applied it to not only indie games but some major titles as well. Really good job man!
Great video, man. Love your content. I love the discussions around spec ops, so many different takes on the same story, so much to talk about and so many theories, and i never actually disagree with any of them.
One of the topics you could maybe do a video about is player avatars, and the dying of the silent protagonist? Idk that also is a very interesting topic to me and i would love to hear your opinion about it.
Bro had to play the cursed music in the background, my heart froze
I know barely anyone but me remembers it, but Starlancer (2000) for PC had you pilot a starfighter in open space arenas where you fought an enemy team of pilots alongside a few friendly pilot bots on your team. There are sometimes larger ships like freighters and cruisers. Your objective can vary between missions and areas, but usually it's to overcome a batch of enemies, destroy a certain objective or survive a gauntlet.
One day I was just fucking around for fun, and deliberately chased down one of my friendly bots and chipped away at his health with my gatling guns until his fighter exploded.
I killed my squadmate.
And the devs accounted for that - there's special audio lines of dialogue from your friendlies, and a disturbing prerendered cutscene where your pilot is coldly blindfolded and executed via firing squad.
I was 7 years old and the inclusion of this "ending" rocked me to my core.
I found you out of nowhere and i must say that this is one of the best video essays i've seen in a long time. you've earned my sub and i look forward to exploring some more of your content.
I think its also really important to note that Spec Ops takes heavy inspiration from Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now with even the main enemy being Conrad, the same name as author for Heart of Darkness. I think they did this to solidify the helplessness in these situations as in both the characters are subjected to horrors that they can only sit by and watch such as Willard only being able to stand back in scenes of destruction such as the Air Cav's charge, watching the destruction unfold around him. But a very important note is that Willard's only major choice in Apocalypse Now, and the only time he fires his gun is the mercy kill a Vietnamese woman who was gunned down by his squad in front of him. I think that Spec Op's uses itself as a modern day telling of this story which is one rooted in helplessness and horror.
About "solitude":
While watching you're video, i thought: What if the character can't leave the room on its own, but with us, The Player, taking control over movement, can break thru this imaginary for the character wall and live happily after, like "Don't be afraid to accept help from other people". Sounds cool imho
I've always been captivated by the element of the camera in movies, television, books and so on - the observer, the witness, the one for whom most stories are sort of blindly performed, and I wanted stories that deal with that in some way. This shows some such. Good video
Depression quest really hit me hard…
I have depression, recently went through a breakup, and I’ve already been obsessing over all those choices I could’ve made but didn’t… 🥺😭
I played it before finishing the video and It hit me hard as well, I got a good ending but it made me realize that even though I know what to do when I'm severely depressed I don't and god that hit harder than I thought it would
It's tough my friend. I was just reflecting on that too. Lost a relationship two years ago now due to in part my depression. I thought if I just ignored it I could just keep going. But ultimately it brought things to an end.
Sure it feels like you could've done something (and we could) but you really can't. Like in the game those options you are aware, but you can't really choose them in the moment. Their not real options. They are only options in hindsight. And it's not you're fault. It was always going to happen.
After we broke up (me and my gf of years) I went through a period of deep sadness and nothingness, and alot of self reflection and discovery. And a year later I came out the healthiest and happiest I've ever been in the last 10 years. I needed to go through and change to break me out of my cycle of depression. Because I was trapped by it and wasn't going to break myself out. She was my best friend and my first real love, but I thank her for everything she did and regret nothing. But everything serves a purpose, even break ups.
I know it hurts and saddens you (I still does to me too) but just know you're on a brighter path with many good things to come. It's ok to feel sad once and while, but keep your head up and keep on marching forward. You're a trooper. It's always better to hurt than not feel anything at all.
Wishing you well, and you're crushing it.
From- a stranger over the internet
@@lennylikesmusic ❤
@@chloroform2982 It's like they always say, the actual "cure" for depression is simple - Social interaction, exercise, and sunlight. The keyword being simple - because it's not at all easy to get out of bed in the morning when you're in the depths.
@@YOUTY209 I do not think that really works, at least not always. A lot of people's depression is from a lack of enjoyment of such as things. It is not just that it is hard to do anything, it is that doing things is unrewarding. One of the reasons it becomes so hard to do anything is because of a lack of motivation as you know you are not in a state to enjoy things. Even something like watching a favourite movie or playing a favourite game, you still may like them but it can be hard to actually enjoy them in the current mental state. You can't just randomly do something and expect it to actually feel as good as you think it should. Attempting to engage with something in a "bad" mental state can just lead to even more avoidance of such things as you build up new bad experiences with such activities. I have found that it is good to try to get back into engaging with stuff that you love, it just takes preparation and care. Throwing yourself into situations can sometimes work but it is inconsistent and hard to maintain. Being told to "Just do something" is very unhelpful and ignores depression altogether, it is advice for someone that is not depressed. I think people often just fail to understand how depression results in a general lack of enjoyment in everything. Depression is not a state of desire, you can't just do the thing and be satisfied, it is more of a state where everything that is feasible is undesirable.
A cool thing about Spec Ops the Line is that the flag and song in the main menu will change to represent his mental state
it's funny how even through that brief mention of depression quest it hit harder than anything else
Niko pfp, automatically like
Tried out depression quest immediately and not gonna lie, it's pretty accurate. You what the right choice is, but often times you just can't make it. You won't yourself make it. It's very frustrating, but in the end you always feel the only one to blame is yourself.
"Well done Walker. You've done what the storn could not; destroy the damned 33rd. Do you feel like a hero yet?"
I’m going to stop at Spec Ops because I’ve always wanted to play it myself, but I’ve got to say that I really love this video. What these games are doing is so intriguing; I love self-aware horror that involves its audience (with or against their will) and deconstructs its medium, and you’ve tied these examples together very nicely.
Very good choice. Play through the game and report back here. People say it's preachy and all that, but I think it's best to play through the ENTIRE game and decide for yourself.
did you play it yet? if so whats your thoughts on it
Enjoy it
4:33 "It's silly and lighthearted-"
Immediately shows a bunch of creepy, haunting bodies reaching towards a floating statue
No.1 video essay creator. I'm No.1 video essay creator enjoyer. You sharing your mind with others is a blessing
My AirPod died immediately after Walker said “this isn’t right!” lol
Good video. Zone of the Enders has a neat "you are playing it wrong" moment halfway through the game - if you go out of your way to kill all the civilians up to that point, you are told that a vital story character was in one of the buildings and the game ends with you being scolded for not taking it seriously. The player character even says "but I was just playing the game..." - classic Kojima moment.
Oh and you might like a game called Producer 2021. I'll say nothing about it but your choice of indie games would fit alongside it very well.
Spec Ops The Line made me feel horrible and stare at a wall after playing it (happened a lot) And made me have continuous nightmares till this day I played it when I was 12 and I still play it today. Truly a masterpiece
how can it be masterpiece when you had nightmare 😮💀
You clowns need therapy if you can't dissociate from a fuckin video game
@@monitor_zirnevisOnly a real masterpiece can give you nightmares
Cursed judge really does make the best video essays. The topics chosen are always extremely interesting
This feels like a creepypast video.
There's still an "option" not to use phosphorus: you Can try to take down all soldiers with usual guns. But in such case the game decides to endlessly respawn shooters on roofs, who aren't even there if you decide to annihilate the place.
You'd just die and was forced to fight a losing battle over and over again until you shoot it. It's not exactly a choice to begin with, it's just the game putting a failsafe incase someone actually tried fighting through the base.
@@RenShinomiya121 Yeah, that's exactly why word option was in air quotes, and that's exactly that I've said in the second sentence...
@@leshiy_nd oh i didn't notice that at first
@@RenShinomiya121what if you download and use a cheat that gives you invincibility?
@@warmike The swarm of enemies never ends and the game never progresses until you shoot the willy pete
I finally subscribed. Sorry I didn't sooner. Glad that we're both explorers of "this kind of stuff"
(A Toothed Wheel Intensifies)
While I watch nearly every video games essayist's videos here on youtube, I find that yours are the most thoughtful of them in a sense. I sincerely would pick your videos over the likes of for example Jacob Geller's or NeverKnowsBest's in pretty much every instance.
Keep doing this please
Why do you have to put down other creators to praise this one?
Jacob especially started just as small as Judge and built up on raw merit.
Judge is absolutely fantastic, but it's quite cruel of you to only recognize that in the context of lessening somebody else's value.
@@pleasegoawaydudebecause let's face it, most if not all video game essayists or video essayists in general have no point. But his is different
Super Meat Boy!: *Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power!*
God this concept reminds me of Generation Loss. (genloss is made by Ranboolive if you want to check it out, and of courses spoiler warning for the streams.) It was streamed on twitch I believe and the fans as chat got to make decisions. It started with comedy. It ends with us choosing to kill Ranboo, not really as a different character, but as the streamer. Now of course Ranboo is alive irl but this other Ranboo seems to be more of a clone or alternate version than some rando. I can’t really explain it well but we do realize at some point that the only reason Ranboo gets put through this torture is because we as viewers choose to go to the streams and keep playing. It was a really cool experience if you where there live (still is one now) I didn’t get to be there live, but the pain of seeing them yell and beg to just be killed still kinda haunts me.
I love this because it feels like (at least for me) that the show is actively telling you “you did this! You watched. You kept going. You got him tortured and you got them killed!” It’s very cool and I like the idea of a show halting and really just speaking to you saying that the blame can’t just be on the big bad evil guy, but also you since your the ones watching it and fueling anyway.
That was just a mindless ramble and a bit of a tangent but eh. Really cool video from you cursed judge, I like this concept a lot so thanks for the video. I doubt anyone will get into Genloss just from this comment but again, eh whatever.
I'm a simple man. I see philosophical bideo about video games eith spec ops: the line, I cilck.
And am I delighted by that. Awesome video
Just wanna say, your content is really really good and nice to watch, hope everything’s doing okay and nice work!
Spec Ops was the first game that came to mind when I read the title of this video, thank you for including that masterpiece.
Damn depression quest sounds just like me. (Getting better though, slowly)
Praying on your upward spiral and hope your depression goes away 🙏
Bro made a spec ops the line video and then decided he could extend the run time. Quality content
I'm just glad I stumbled upon your channel while trying to find a video to fall asleep to. Turns out, besides your soothing voice, you also make great-ass contents! Always great points, the way you construct them into a video and the topics you choose are 😚👌 . More power to you, and I hope your channel blows up because you damn well deserve it
Bro just put me in an existantial crisis then told me to have a nice day
love your stuff anyway
Thanks for bringing Spec ops up in your content. Loved it
I love your videos man, a whole new twist on video game essays
It takes a strong man to deny what's in front of him. And if the truth is undeniable, he creates his own.
the fact spyro goes from a normal children’s game to an absolute horror movie depending on the copy is insane
Honestly, I feel like "games that hate the player" are the single most common category of games that excel past "art" with a lowercase "a" and make themselves known as "Art" with a capital "A".
9:00 as someone with pretty bad agoraphobia. i do leave the house, but only absolutely when i have to. i dash back inside from the walk to the trash. picking up meds, getting groceries, going to appointments, are all agonizing. i want so deeply to just even go on a walk but i just. can't. it's hard to explain, but i think this game gets close
I love how similar you are to Jacob Geller. I love his content so of course I love yours too. Keep up the great work!
You know Spec Ops is an amazing game for discussions when it takes up nearly half the video's run time. Love this game.
When you mentioned the Stanley parable, you forgot two endings in which the players in directly talked to. On where Stanley is going to be crushed, and the other where you unplug the phone after you went on the lift in the warehouse.
In the first, you are begged to quit to free Stanley and the narrator from their eternal torment.
In the second one, the narrator finds out you're a "real person" and just asks to follow his orders in fear of breaking everything.
So yeah, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but you did forget to mention these.
Great video by the way.
I adore the way your videos are structured. The games you cover are fascinating and the way you loop back to ideas is masterful. Thank you for the great content
Well done mate. Not only does this video resonate, but it'd probably be a good video to show non-gamers to help them "get it" without trying to force them to play themselves.
Video essays like no other. Love you judge
are you a real american man?
4:20 technically in the “broom closet ending” where you sit in a broom closet and do nothing, the narrator does address the player and says you must be a monkey pushing buttons at random and asks anyone else around the computer to remove the monkey and start playing normally
Damn these videos are great. Video games are a legitimate art form, and although some people do abuse their time with them, there is still some very valuable lessons to take away from a lot of these games that might otherwise go unlearned for some.
Spec Ops: The Line taught me a valuable lesson, and that was to not play video games for the false reward of feeling better than you actually are. If you want to feel like a hero, feel like you can do good in the world, feel like you can help or save others, feel brave and strong… work on doing it in the game you’ve already been playing: the game of life.
Gay, I know.
I refuse to be gas lit by spec ops the line
Look man... Don't feel bad about being right.
“The knowledge that a videogame knows you’re there, and that sometimes, it really doesn’t want you to be.”
Ad: “KINDER BUENO-“
Freaking Zineth at 1:26. Nice.
You have no clue how long i’ve been trying to find this game
I do like that in The Stanley Parable you end the mind control by obeying perfectly, it's so ironic.
Ironically enough, shooting Konrad is a valid action here - game wants to be meta and blame me for actions of a character in a linear video game claiming I could have stopped, but I can be meta too, claiming that since game is linear it's a movie with interactive combat and not a fully interactive project that can require me to take even partial responsibility for what is happening on the screen.
Sorry game, you don't get to take my money, tell me I could've stopped and never played what I paid for and blaming me for what you created, Konrad eats the bullet.
Those kind of twists like "The player is ultimate villain, you should've stop playing" doesn't do anything for me unless you offer me a refund along the way. In fact on Spec Ops I think everyone focus on the white phosphorus scene that the player doesn't have a choice and must use it to progress, but nobody talks about the part where the crowd starts trying to lynch you. The majority of players shoots straight at the mob killing civilians, but a single shoot in the air does the same thing and progress the game without a single drop of blood shed.
No. Ironically you proved the game's point. You're even worse than what the game is telling, cause you already knew what the game was about and you still decided to buy it so you can kill civilians and satisfy your curiosity.
You're a monster, exactly like Walker.
And even knowing what you did, you prefer to blame something or someone else. Just like Walker.
This game is a masterpiece and haters like you only makes it better, cause you just keep proving right it's entire message
@@elbolovo4721What about not buying it in the first place? lol
@@Ireee702
Why the fuck would I spoil the story of a game that everyone was praising for it before I bought it if I was planning in doing so? It was the gaming version of spoiling myself the ending of the Sixth Sense before going to see the movie.
Mate, your opinion is anachronistic as fuck. The WHOLE marketing material and even the demo that was available focused ONLY on finding what happened to the 33rd, relying heavily on the common military shooter tropes popular at the times and hiding the twists at all cost.
Everyone what got the game at launch or soon after (like myself) didn't have a clue that it wasn't just another third person cover shooter. When people started playing and reached the meat of the story, everyone talked about how it was good, but didn't talk openly to not spoil it to everyone.
The game now is 11 years old and is analyzed openly, but at the time it wasn't. If you buy it today you know exactly what you are getting, but at the time you couldn't.
@@Ireee702 Nah, I'll just play a good game instead.
I often feel a strange sense of betrayal, with me being the betrayer, when upon replaying a game I don't simply stop playing at a peaceful and/or happy moment. I have the chance, the ability to let these characters stay in a happy life, and I take it away for the sake of a game I've already played.. for a narrative that I already know the end to.
Everything you create is just fantastic, and it genuinely adds so much to the games you cover. Thank you for making these!
Man, your channel is brilliant! Maerry Christmas btw!
Merry Christmas!
It's funny because some people actively hate on gams like this, Spec Ops specifically I saw a whole thread about people complaining about "a shooting game trying to make me feel bad for shooting- glad the stupid game flopped"
Oh there have been plenty in the comments too
@@TheCursedJudge Really? Then I'm sorry about that XD I mean I guess in a perspective they're not "wrong" but I wouldn't say they're correct either- you're video does good justice for the sake of people who do like things like this in games, 10/10 on your part
WHEN A HOUSE IS BOTH HUNGRY AND AWAKE EVERY ROOM BECOMES A MOUTH
Cursed Judge, please just know that I fucking love your videos so much and that I'm hoping for more.
And now we await the sequel: Games That Love The Player (uhhhh DDLC? technically? Maybe Minecraft, if you read the End Poem? Uhhhh...)