CHENNAI: Have you come across those illusion images where, once you figure it out, you cannot go back to what it was before? Once I discovered GTA’s misogyny, as much as I love the game, I cannot go back to playing it. The bigger reason for stopping playing it is also a gamer’s block over a mission that I refuse to skip.
But it is not the first and only Rockstar game to have put me in this Kobayashi Maru (no-win) hold. I also left Red Dead Redemption 2 halfway after exhausting my supply of food and getting tired of my horse trudging along a riverbank. Sometimes you get knocked down one time too many.
I am sufficiently confident in my gaming skills to know that I am not alone — so here is some advice. The ultimate reset to a gamer’s block, is to start playing a short and hilariously annoying game. Most of them are free on Steam or the Epic games store for the PC. This week, the Sludge Life was the chosen one.
Step 1 – Embrace the Low-Res: The game must have graphics that strictly do not resemble the real world. SL for example, reminds me of the Windows 98 Maze Screensaver. Unrealistic, makes you a little dizzy, but fun. You wander around what looks like a slimy construction town, to graffiti the walls with your signature image.
Step 2 – Appreciate the Physics: The controls must be incomprehensible and difficult to understand.
Consider it a bitter pill — a forced training experience to make you appreciate the game that you left hanging a little better. Sludge Life hardly gave me any directions about the game’s goal — it completely embraces an artistic, urban, modern vibe. I didn’t realise that I was walking around in circles in the absence of a slimy track (or a map for that matter).
Step 3 – Envelope yourself in the bubble of confusion: With little to no dialogues, the storyline is open to interpretation — like modern art. The game is cranking open your brain, forcing you into this surrealistic adventure. Perhaps the only plot is exploration — we do not know, and we never will.
I rate the game a 3/5 for its disconnected and confusing entertainment value.
Anusha Ganapathi @quaffle_waffle (This economics graduate spends her leisure time preparing for the zombie apocalypse)