We begin Entertainium’s 14th annual Game of the Year Awards with our first award for Best Game Feel. Game Feel is a rather nebulous concept but it’s supposed to encompass what a game feels like to actually play, how well it immerses you into the experience, and how unique that experience is. This year’s winner is a classic example that “best” does not necessarily mean “easiest”!
Winner: Baby Steps
Baby Steps is the sort of game that you wouldn’t put any value in on concept alone. It’s the execution that truly matters and in that, it’s absolutely brilliant. While not something entirely new, given that others like Octodad and any number of other Bennet Foddy releases have also approached the idea of simply suffering through the act of everyday things we don’t give two thoughts about in reality, Baby Steps is quite possibly the most successful of the bunch.
It’s utterly ridiculous, downright frustrating at times, while delivering everything that it promises by having you guide someone through a world that’s noticeably inviting and at the same time totally against what the hapless protagonist is all about. I was in love with the idea of playing a “videogame ass” game among all the self-serious releases this year and it’s why I thought to include it in our Game of the Year proceedings. Baby Steps evokes feelings; not all positive ones, mind you, but all are bound to stick with you for a long time after playing it.
– Eduardo Reboucas
Read our review of Baby Steps.
Runner Up: ROUTINE
ROUTINE is an excellent example of how designing a game to feel deliberately clunky can actually make it more engaging, atmospheric and ultimately frightening (in this example). Set on board a derelict retro-futuristic 1980s space station, your character is always inside a huge, bulky space suit. This constrains your movement, but it also the way you engage with the world. ROUTINE is fastidious that apart from a few tutorial messages at the very start, everything in the game is diegetic. There is no HUD, no waypoints, no map.
Your Cosmonaut Assistance Tool (CAT) can fire an electrical burst to stun robots, but you can only use it when looking down the sight, which blocks all your peripheral vision. Same with the flashlight, forcing you to look at the low-resolution tiny CAT screen as you inch through the dark corridors. ROUTINE puts you into its world in a remarkable way, and keeps the fear factor high in the process.
– Gareth Brading
