This is actually an article I stumbled upon, and I wholeheartedly agree with the columnist.
Basically, the author says that she considers only three games or so in the past generation to be masterpieces (Nier: Automata, Firewatch, Hades). Now, I personally can't entirely agree with those picks because obviously, we have different tastes in games, but I get the point.
The point:
It’s ironic how quick gamers are to dish out praise in spite of their own love of toxic criticism. This morning I stumbled on a video about A Plague Tale: Requiem and comments were filled with loving declarations, many labelling it as a masterpiece more than deserving of scooping up all the awards.
The same is said about Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Stray, Bayonetta 3, basically every game to launch with a decent budget in the past few years. Masterpiece has come to mean ‘I enjoy this a bit’.
Some parts from the article:
We are obsessed with replicating film and patting ourselves on the back, praising predictable ideas and throwing aside innovation in fear of potential change. This is where the definition of a masterpiece becomes so warped, filled with the same selection of games that penetrate the mainstream again and again because that’s what we’ve come to settle for. All of it started with The Last of Us - Naughty Dog changed the landscape forever by showing gamers that not only were they capable of feeling emotions, but violence and heartbreak could combine with so many other themes to create something masterful.
Then gamers went on to throw that message out the window after the polarising sequel. Both are considered masterpieces, and to some extent earn that merit, but to see all the others who replicate its formula treated with similar reverence proves that we have a lot of growing up to do.
Days Gone isn’t and will never be a masterpiece, and I will fight anyone to the death who considers it one. I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and all that jazz, but you’re wrong.
Then the author continues to write about A Plague Tale: Requiem:
I reached breaking point with A Plague Tale: Requiem. This game isn’t necessarily bad, and Asobo has done extraordinary work in creating an IP that stands out from the crowd. But by the studio’s own admission, it is actively riding on the coattails of others, and was always intended as a period evolution of The Last of Us.
It adopts similar themes, gameplay, pacing, and goodness knows what else because that was always the intention, an evolution of a masterpiece that never intended to abandon its shadow. You see this in the sequel, which itself is a longer and more subversive take on the original much like The Last of Us Part 2.
It is creatively passionate but ever so cynical, reducing our medium down to a handful of tropes that can be replicated ad-nauseum while knowing all of us will eat it up no matter what. If this is considered a masterpiece, where exactly does the line sit?
What do you guys think?
Log in to comment