I have, for the past several weeks, been playing Baldur’s Gate 3, the RPG equivalent of paying for ex-special forces lads to kidnap you at an unappointed day when you’re walking your labradoodle, and put you through a rigorous (pretend) interrogation schedule. Will you learn something? Will it occupy your waking thoughts until it’s over? Is the commitment of everyone involved assured? Yes. But would describe the experience as restful? Extremely debatable.
Hammerwatch 2 is out today, and it’s kind of an isometric RPG that you can play in multiplayer, and which is at base kind of hacky-and-slashy, but has stacking complexity the more you play. It’s like paying for ex-special forces lads to read a choose your own adventure book to you, but they get really into doing the voices. I feel comfortable describing the pixel art as “adorable”, and it makes everything seem like it’s a cute little miniature you can hold in your hand. Hence Mighty Max, which was a key part of my childhood. I don’t want to say that Hammerwatch 2 is easy, because that isn’t quite right and there’s some jank lurking in there. But what it is, is easy to get a handle on. It has also functioned as a way of reintegrating my diseased Faerûined mind back into normal society.