The Video Game Literate

Diablo is a franchise of action RPGs, well-known for their characteristic atmosphere, environments, and real-time gameplay. The first Diablo video game, Diablo (1997), was developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Diablo video games have been praised for their real-time action RPG gameplay, storyline, atmosphere, and overall innovative gameplay with inventory management and character progression. Considering the popularity of Diablo video games, as well as the surge of action roguelike video games, as well as the many similarities between Diablo video games and action roguelikes, players may wonder whether Diablo video games are roguelikes, and whether Diablo is a roguelike video game. Diablo is not a traditional roguelike, but an action RPG. Most Diablo video games are isometric action RPGs, featuring classic RPG elements, not traditional roguelike elements. Diablo - The Action RPG Subgenre While much is written about the original Diablo video game, Diablo (...

Outlast is a franchise of survival horror video games. In Outlast video games, players assume the role of a survivor or witness of various horror situations, and must overcome a variety of challenges, through stealth and puzzle-solving, in order to survive and escape these situations. The first Outlast video game, Outlast (2013), was developed and published by Red Barrels. Outlast video games have been praised for their atmosphere, innovative gameplay, stealth, enemy patterns, puzzles and storyline. In general, Outlast video games are played in a first-person camera perspective, and the player character is not able to directly fight and defeat enemies. Instead, players must often rely on stealth gameplay, puzzle-solving, and analysing enemy behaviour patterns, to be able to overcome the various challenges and progress in the video game. Considering that Outlast are described as horror video games, and that these video games feature survival elements, and many atmospheric elements meant...

Dead Space is a franchise of survival horror video games set in science fiction environments, including spaceships and space stations. Dead Space video games have been praised for their atmosphere, unique enemies, and story. The original Dead Space video game, Dead Space (2008), was developed by EA Redwood Shores (later Visceral Games) and published by Electronic Arts. Dead Space video games are well-known for their horror video game atmosphere, and also for their action elements, especially the third-person shooter gameplay and the variety of weapons available. In Dead Space video games, combat is a prominent feature, and the player character must often fight enemies in order to progress. Considering that Dead Space video games feature action gameplay, players and horror video game fans may wonder whether Dead Space is a horror video game, or if it is an action video game with horror elements. Dead Space is a horror game because the gameplay is mostly directed at scarying and frighten...

Role-playing games (RPGs) are video games in which the player is able control one or more game characters, develop these game characters, and immerse themselves in a game world through world-building and lore. There is a variety of different RPG subgenres, and there are many different RPG video games available, providing different and unique experiences to players. The open world aspect of video games is often one aspect that causes debate among players, and there is not often a single definition of what open world game means to all players. Some players consider large environments to be open world, other players consider boundless environments to be open world, some players consider overworld to be open world. Are All RPG Video Games Open World? Not all RPG video games are open world, and most of them are not open world. Some video games, like Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout, Gothic, Risen, The Elder Scrolls, feature open game worlds because the player character is able to seamlessly travel i...

The Popularity of RPG Video Games in the Recent History of Video Games The role-playing game (RPG) genre is one of the oldest genres of video games, and also one of the most famous, with many different video games available to play belonging to this genre. In the past, the RPG genre was considered a niche interest. Indeed, during the 1980s, if you went to play arcade video games, you would most often find beat 'em up games and other action games, and not so often would you find RPG video games in these machines. At the same time, during that time period, there were groups of people who would meet to play tabletop role-playing games (not video games), often using pen and paper. In this sense, the genre of role-playing game, especially tabletop RPGs, was quite popular, although it was not as present in arcade machines. Moreover, during the 1980s, multiple RPG video games were released, including franchises such as Dungeons & Dragons, Might and Magic, The Legend of Zelda, Ultima, ...

The role-playing game (RPG) is one of the oldest genres of video games, and one the most popular, with many different video games and franchises belonging to this genre. Over time, the RPG video game genre has vastly expanded, and it spawned several subgenres of RPG video game, that focus on different aspects of the gameplay and provide different and unique experiences. Players that are new to the RPG video game genre, or who wish to learn more about this genre in order to discover their own preferences and find more games that they enjoy, often wonder about the extent and differences of each RPG video game subgenre. In these article, this will be discussed. What Are RPG Video Games? RPG video games are video games in which the player controls one or more game characters, in which these characters can be developed in numerically-relevant ways (even if the numbers are not shown) and in which the player is immersed in the game world through world-building and lore. The immersion in the g...

Alien: Isolation is a first-person sci-fi horror video game, featuring the titular alien, often referred to as xenomorph. Alien: Isolation, a video game released in 2014, was inspired by the film Alien (1979), and takes place some years after the events of the film. Alien: Isolation has been praised by video games industry experts as well as by players around the world for its immersive horror game experience. Alien: Isolation is a go-to standard for horror game fans, as well as science fiction horror game fans who want a survival horror experience set in the universe of the Alien films. Alien: Isolation has not only become a standard for sci-fi horror games and horror games in general, it has also been praised for its well-done storytelling and world-building, providing a story-rich experience for players in a horror game environment. Through the dialogues, voice logs and text logs, which are generally acessible through computer terminals in the environment, players are able to immers...

Darkest Dungeon is a well-known video game, played by thousands of gamers around the world. Darkestt Dungeon is known for and easily recognized due to its challenging and unforgiving difficulty, as well as horror elements, such as monsters and environments, inspired by the works of the author H. P. Lovecraft. Due to the uniqueness of this video game, Darkest Dungeon has become a fan-favorite of many different players, who praise the unique experience that this game provides. While Darkest Dungeon is a favorite of many players and fans and a game that draws interest, there is often debate about to what genre Darkest Dungeon belongs. Indeed, this video game blends many elements of different video game genres, and at the same time is also a unique experience. For these reasons, the exact genre of the video game Darkest Dungeon is sometimes a cause of debate, and in some instances, there are players who seek to know its genre description in order to be able to find games that may have simi...

With the development of the video games industry, with more powerful hardware and ever more complex video games, the size of digital game worlds we adventure in are ever increasing. Decades ago, it was possible to traverse the whole game world of certain open world video games in less than an hour. Now, there are games that take days, weeks and even years to be fully traversed. Developers and publishers strive to fill their game worlds with interesting locations and characters, either friendly or hostile, to be met and interacted with, so that players can always feel a sense of adventure while traversing these video game worlds. With the ever increasing size and complexity of video game worlds, there are more and more things to do in these game worlds. In my opinion, this is good, as it adds variation to the gameplay loop and fits different gameplay styles of different players. On the other hand, with larger amounts of content in these game worlds, it takes an increasing amount of time...