As alluded to in my last post I have some thoughts about the game I have spent most of the last week playing, that game being Paradise Killer, those thoughts being well... these ones.
First up it seems like a minor miracle that I am playing a game like this in 2023 on my PS5 and not on my PS2 in the hallowed year of our lord 2001. it's a game that's quite simple and straightforward in some ways and in others it has a lot going on just beneath the surface. It feels about as removed from the generic high budget videogame as it gets these days without going into the realm of indie low-budget. There's some weird throwback energy going on here is what I am saying and over the next few hundred words I will attempt to put said thoughts in some kind of coherent order. To the commentary...
Feels like a plot summary is in order. I could just link to the Wikipedia page at this point and of course I will but I will also attempt to summarise this fever dream of a plot in my own words as well. See you're on an island that's based in its own pocket dimension. It's populated by god-like beings who are not quite gods but not your standard issue human beings either. They are middlemen and women somewhere inbetween and they call themselves 'The Syndicate'. They are a wild bunch who want to resurrect their gods and to do this they bring regular issue human beings to the island via mass kidnap and make them worship said gods to bring them back. Problem is the worship of these gods opens the door to demonic entities and possession which in turn spells doom for the island. This then prompts a reboot of the island where the whole process starts again.
Following that? Good!
At the outset of this game, the 25th iteration of this island is about to be launched when dastardly deeds occur and the ruling council of 'The Syndicate' find themselves all murdered and stuff. Into this picture steps our heroine, one Lady Love Dies. She's a dedicated investigator exiled as a result of past misadventures in human-god relations and she is brought back into the fold to investigate this minor case of mass murder so the big reboot of the island can go ahead. Basically its a whole situation these guys have got going on here and you're going to clear it all up with some high-calibre detective work.
That's the meat and potatoes of this game really and despite the fantastical premise, the detective work is actually pretty grounded. You mainly talk to suspects, get their stories and cross-check these stories against the testimony provided by other suspects. In doing so you arrive at some approximation of the truth allowing you to point the finger with authority when it comes time for the trial at the end. You track down clues, you collect collectibles, you wander the island that feels like it's been lifted from some TV lifestyle special centred around aloof beach-strolling supermodels. Throughout there are liberal servings of existential angst as these god like entities wonder why bad things happen to good gods. It goes places let me tell you.
Dreamy aesthetics and a vapourwave soundtrack sweeten the deal and really underpin the strong sense of the unreal here. Its a hazy counterpoint to the hard and fast search for the truth that takes up most of your time in this game. What really struck me was just how well it works as a package. Upon loading it up, you get a good hit of quality music but between the menu layout and the font choice I'd swear I was playing a remaster from something way back when. Impressively there is an tone and aesthetic captured here that I feel I have not seen for decades. A sensibility and presentation which has been accurately reproduced for the here and now. The sort of aesthetic I didn't realise I'd missed until I saw it again in front of me.
Naturally we've had a great revival of retro game aesthetics in the last decade or so but these trend to the ancient days before the year we call 2000. That period between ultra high definition and the dusty years of early 3D gaming is a time that is perhaps only just beginning to form into its own genuine aesthetic. I'm thinking about that period around the late PS1 and early PS2 era where game worlds began to feel a bit more fully formed if still somewhat empty at the same time. The tech just wasn't there yet for fully realised world building but we didn't care because get a load of these three dimensions! I think that's what struck me the most about Paradise Killer, that someone has replicated a moment in time that hasn't been done to death already like most other era's of retro gaming.
Sandy beaches, ex-assassin bartender skeletons and pyramids in the sea. There's a lot of otherwordly weirdness going on in this game and they've chosen a game feel that really does it wonders. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it doesn't pack its space to the brim with content. The island feels big but not overwhelming, not a cramped space but not impossibly vast either. It's a rare balancing act where just enough content is there to make it worthwhile but not so much that it becomes a chore to play. It's a good thing I tell you, a good thing indeed!
It also goes off on some of the most impressive tangents I've seen for a while. Meditations on how to prepare the perfect quality of ice for your whisky so it doesn't prematurely dilute the flavour. The finer points of creating custom made reality. Graphics that look right at home on your late 90's website. Talking vending machines and a place of exile that is basically a luxury hotel suite placed in its own box at the top of an hilariously tall pillar that extends upwards into the heavens. A dawning realisation that even when you have all the answers you probably still don't have all the answers. it's all here, it all feels highly erratic but at the same time everything feels like it belongs in this game. It's a quirky idiosyncratic experience that lasts as long as it needs to. Yes I will mention the soundtrack again with its dreamy beats and shimmering melodies. Not since Hotline Miami have I played something where the entire soundtrack was so perfectly in sync with the game.
In the interest of balance, yes its not the most in-depth or mechanically complex experience, yes it does require a certain patience whilst it introduces you to its world and characters, it's not a graphical powerhouse and sometimes the particular threads of the various conspiracies do get a little hard to follow. For me the bad here is easily outweighed by the good. It packs a lot of personality and character into a modest package, more so than games with many times the budget. It's a striking and novel experience in a game market where there is a tendency for everything to start feeling like everything else. It's a recommendation is what I'm saying and a strong one at that.
Four inter-dimensional space taxis out of five!
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