I Played Celeste
Celeste is an incredible game on every axis. It’s wieldy as anything, making even the most difficult challenges feel satisfying as you try over and over to get that jump just right. It nails the didactic grace necessary for an effective tutorial-free game, clearly communicating how each new mechanic works without ever explaining with words (except for a few places where the literal physical controls need to be communicated). And its difficulty curve is masterful, pushing the player a little bit further with every room until the post-game levels that seemed so intimidating when first unlocked become entirely doable once the main game is finished. And it has a totally non-stigmatized assist mode for people who aren’t as fluent in the language of twitch platformers as the game would otherwise demand.
But mechanical excellence isn’t even really what sets the game apart fromt he crowd. What I love most about is its soul. It’s a game about living with depression and anxiety, and that theme pervades everything about it. The story is told more as a series of moods than as a verbal narrative, which gives each component—particularly the incredible music and the mechanical representation of story beats—room to shine. The game has a soul to a degree that has to this point felt mutually-exclusive with such tight platformer design, and it’s both impressive and beautiful.
10 Notes/ Hide
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