Old Titles

I don’t play old games.

And now I probably lost whatever readership I’ve built up so far.

That statement isn’t actually very detailed. When I say old games, I’m talking about really old things, maybe more than a decade ago. The first Doom or Sonic are great retro examples but more ‘recent’ ones would be games like the first Dark Souls or the second Witcher. They’re all great games, well received by everyone and critical accomplishments within the industry that paved the road to what we have right now.

But I still won’t play them. Keep in mind, this argument only works for old titles that I’ve not played and that I’ve been told I should play. Witcher 3 look fan-freaking-tastic and while I’ve been told I can just jump right into it, the advice usually comes with a “But you can just play the first two real quick to catch up on the story, characters and lore”.

I’m no stranger to playing first entries in a series to catch up to current titles. I only went back to the first Uncharted when Uncharted 3 was about to be released. More recently, I started Neptunia Rebirth 1 to prepare for Cyberdimension. But these games aren’t as old as something ten years prior.

*Rebirth 1 is arguably not a great example to give in terms of development cycles but the game itself can be played through really quickly and easily that it doesn’t matter. My example was the fact that I do play first games in a series.*

Let’s take a fantastic example: Mass Effect 1. Yup, the very first Mass Effect. It came out in 2007 (exactly 10 years ago) and I actually dove into that world in January of this year to prepare for Mass Effect Andromeda. I did not complete the game, I did not like the game and I did not buy Andromeda.

People love the Mass Effect series. I know that. I even know what they love and dislike about the series. But there’s a problem when a series newcomer like me dives into that world via the first game. The bland graphics, lame battle system, poor music (or lack thereof), etc. In this case, most people would have suggested starting with Mass Effect 2. But the argument here isn’t whether or not I like the series for the series’ traits. I’m speaking solely in terms of old games.

A friend told me that I should play the original Doom since I said the reboot was good. I don’t think he got it when I told him I didn’t want to and I said it was old. Cue the name calling and ‘lack of taste’ argument.

But really, why would you play the original Doom aside for two reasons: you either are a diehard fan or you like to analyse video games, a video game connoisseur if you will. More power to you if you fall under either one. I like the new Doom because it plays so well for a first person gory shooter. The original? Pixelated, slow, unsatisfying, linear, etc. Why and how can anyone call me anything less than a normal human being if I refuse to play that in this day and age? The argument here is that I should play the original to understand the raw love for the franchise. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Not for Doom at least.

Yeah, because playing this is much better than playing garbage games like Horizon Zero Dawn or Persona 5

I’m stopping things here so as to not turn this post into a rant. It’s merely a piece I wanted to write for the people out there who share my view on this. Looking at it, I can see that I didn’t actually say specifically why I don’t play old games but you get the gist with the Doom example. Newer games aren’t always better and classics are always going to be heralded. I have my own share of classics on my list and I understand the love other people have for theirs. But shoving classics into other people's faces and expecting them to appreciate it does not do justice for anyone