I need to relax more.
The day job has been absolutely devastating to my free time lately. Travel, customer meetings, playing tag with Jira comments... I've spent more time out of my comfort zone than I care to think about. During these busy times, when I finally get some time to myself, I really want something that switches my brain off.
Games have always been a good outlet for that.
In times gone by, my standard go-to has been games like SnowRunner - spending an evening recovering a logging truck I tipped on its side in a boggy swamp. Other days, I'll fire up Cities: Skylines and fix the transport and traffic problems in a city that isn't real. And if I really have a few hours to kill, then I might dive back into Civilization and try to rewrite history without committing another genocide (narrator: he always fails that one).
This summer though, I've been drawn to games where I have a second job... maybe I don't know how relaxing works.
The first of the three games that drew me in was Deliver Us The Moon - I'd had this sitting in my library for ages and always wanted to give it a go. I eventually saw a YouTube Short of the player frantically flicking switches and dials during a spaceship launch sequence and thought, I can do that!
It's a fairly short game - totally driven by a story where you're sent to the Moon to find out why a lunar colony, and more importantly the energy it was supplying Earth, suddenly went quiet. There's an urgency too, as the world's natural resources have dried up and it's taken eight years to mobilise this mission.
After the aforementioned launch sequence - expedited by an approaching sandstorm that could set the mission back months - you reach the Moon and arrive at a moonbase that's been abandoned for almost a decade. You set about fixing things and, with the help of an AI drone that recreates recorded messages and broadcasts, piece together what the hell happened.
This game wears its inspiration on its sleeve too. There's a lot of Sam Rockwell's Moon in there, a bit of WALL-E, a splash of Gravity and some Ad Astra - although that film came out too late to be a direct inspiration... maybe the writers both read the same books? These are all films I enjoyed, so I was hooked right from the first catastrophic hull failure.
It's not particularly difficult or long. The puzzles make you think without needing a Fandom Wiki sideloaded to get you through the difficult parts. There's a good mystery to unravel and a few moments where it felt like a much bigger game than I expected. Most importantly - it didn't outstay its welcome.
In fact, when I finished it, I was asking "is that it?" and went looking to see what else the developers had made, only to discover there's a sequel, Deliver Us Mars.
Yes... I already bought it.
With the job done, Earth saved and a rescue party on the way, I moved on to become a crime scene cleaner.
Crime Scene Cleaner is an FPS that has you playing a janitor who found there's a lot more money in making dead bodies disappear than there is in emptying school bins. And it's a surprisingly peaceful game.
You arrive after the event and basically tidy everything up. Dispose of the bodies, remove the evidence, clean the blood, hide the weapons and put the furniture back where it belongs.
And these events aren't exactly minor domestic incidents.
There's a gang shootout in a sauna. A murder-suicide in an upmarket home. At one point you walk into a museum where seemingly everyone was trying to murder everyone else.
Then you get your mop out and start slopping away.
Each scene tells its own little story and there's a larger narrative slowly happening in the background. I enjoyed unpacking each little event. Sometimes the motive is obvious - other times, it was simply a party that got very, very out of hand.
There's something deeply satisfying about leaving behind a spotless scene with absolutely no evidence that six people were gutted there hours earlier... I probably shouldn't look into this too closely.
I expected Crime Scene Cleaner to be one of those games I'd play for an evening, think it's a neat distraction and then move on.
Couldn't put the bloody thing down. Pun intended.
Finally, I got to Dredge.
This game has been recommended so many times through gaming channels I follow. It's very highly rated, but I kept putting it off. I'm glad I finally gave it the time and attention it deserved.
You play a fisherman who gets shipwrecked near a tiny settlement and is promptly given a boat so you can start earning your keep.
It's all very wholesome.
Go fish. Sell your catch. Buy an upgrade. Talk to the locals. Explore another island.
And then the sun goes down...
Dredge slowly introduces the fact that something is very wrong with this place. The people are odd. Their stories, the notes you uncover from wrecks, unusual things in the water. There is stuff floating down there that definitely ain't fish.
Meanwhile you're still trying to earn enough for a better engine, stronger nets, lines that can reach into the depths.
That's the hook (wahay!) - every time you improve the boat you can stay out longer, travel further and dredge deeper... which inevitably answers one mystery and gives you another reason to head out again.
So everyone is right about Dredge - it's worth your time. Low PC requirements too, so you can pick this one up on sale without breaking the bank (or breaking your Tech Pause).
So those were my late summer games. Astronaut maintenance, a bloody mop and a fisherman trying to make it back before his catch eats him. Three very different games that all scratched the same itch.
They all entertained without asking too much of me. Just enough to occupy my brain while the rest of me recovered from work.
At least they were enough to tide me over until Star Wars Zero Company arrives.
