I love playing video games. I especially love playing video games with my siblings. It is a nice way for me to connect with them, even though they live five hours away. Unfortunately, life is very busy, and I haven’t been able to play as many games with them recently as I would like to. But here’s a few that I’ve been enjoying so far. Not all of them are multiplayer games, but some of them are.
PEAK
You’ve probably heard something about this game recently. It’s gotten a pretty big following. I love this game, even without multiplayer. There’s something soothing about mindlessly climbing a mountain while listening to Spotify. It’s nice. Well…nice until a tornado rips you from the ground in the Mesa biome and deposits you directly into a cactus patch. Still, it’s a game that I don’t have to worry too much about. I will say, it is definitely better to play with friends. Sometimes, your friends can save you if you begin to fall down the mountain…or wind up in a cactus patch. If you fall down the mountain when you are playing by yourself, you’re basically screwed. Sadly, my siblings have started growing out of this game. I asked my brother to play it the other day so that we could explore something that we hadn’t explored before and he said that he would rather relax and play a different game. Regardless, I had a good time playing this game over the summer, even if my siblings didn’t enjoy it as much as I did.
Stardew Valley
I’ve had Stardew Valley for a while, and I enjoyed it immensely for the first couple of years. I have a terrible habit, though, of abandoning life sim games after playing them nonstop for a week or two. It’s happened with Minecraft, Sims, Animal Crossing, and even larger open-world RPGs like Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. I guess I find it harder to stay engaged with a game if there is no clear goal to reach. As far as open-world RPGs go, I tend to grind for a week or two, beat the “official” storyline, and then try and complete as many side quests as possible. The side quests do not give me as much satisfaction as the main quest, so I get de-motivated and drop the game. So, recently I decided to figure out how to mod Stardew Valley. I figured that the mods would make the game feel new and unique and would help keep my attention, at least for a little bit. I’m sure that I will soon grow bored with the game, as it is rather repetitive, but for now, I am satisfied. Also, I helped my little brother mod his game, and we play together frequently. I didn’t want to go too overboard with the mods at first, so I only downloaded Stardew Valley: Expanded, which adds a bunch of new crops, NPCs, and a ton of new spaces to explore. I’ve been enjoying it so far, so that’s good. It’s also a very relaxing game, so that’s good.
Hades 2
I have been waiting for this game for years at this point. Supergiant Games first announced the game back in 2022, and I’ve been waiting since then. I bought the early access as soon as it was released, way back in spring of sophomore year. I got it a week or two before I went to Greece, actually, which is pretty funny now that I think about it. Regardless, this game has been in early access for over a year and I could not be more happy to know that version 1.0 has finally been released! I remember back when I first started playing, the overworld was limited to only two regions. Now, it’s a total of four (if I’m remembering correctly). I also distinctly (but fondly) recall the placeholder artwork for Echo, Narcissus, and Charon. They all looked like the same veiled Shade lol. It was super fun to play the game after every update and see what they fixed, what they changed, and, most importantly, what they added. I’m very pleased that I can finally experience the true ending of the game. It’s also nice that the game doesn’t kill you immediately after defeating Chronos or Typhon anymore. That was a little frustrating. I never thought I would like third person roguelike games, but somehow the original Hades snuck its way into my heart. The sequel is probably the largest roguelike game I’ve ever played. It is such a good game and I highly recommend it. However, it is nowhere near as soothing as the previous two games on this list. In fact, this game can be extremely frustrating at points (this is why I play with godmode on lol). I can’t even tell you how many times I died to Chronos before finally beating him. It was tough. Eris also killed me in the overworld plenty of times. It got to the point where I was concerned that when they added the Olympus update, I wouldn’t be able to scale the mountain and fight Prometheus because Eris would kill me first. Luckily that didn’t happen. Also, the new artworks for all the gods and characters look SO GOOD. Except Dionysus. He freaks me out a bit.
Date Everything
Have you ever wanted to date your front door? Me neither. Still, this game is super unique and fun, even for people who don’t generally play dating sims. The entire premise is that you have magic glasses that can show you the “soul” of inanimate objects around your house. It’s silly, I know. Still, the concept is unique, and the characters (100 of them) are mostly loveable. There are notable exceptions, but overall they’re fine. The game is also unique in that it has a “Content Aware” mode, which allows you to get warnings when a character’s story involves potentially triggering subjects. That was nice. I ended up skipping a few character’s routes because I didn’t like something that was brought up in the warning. A surprising fact is that my little brother really enjoyed this game as well. I guess I didn’t expect him to appreciate a game that has a heavy romantic aspect. The games he usually plays are ones that involve killing. But everyone must take a break from mindless slaughter at some point, right? Over the summer, we would talk about which characters we had found around the house and which storylines we liked the best. I haven’t played this game as recently as the other ones on the list, but I’m planning to pick it back up soon.
Tower Unite
This is definitely a multiplayer game. I can’t see myself having fun in this game without my siblings. It’s essentially an online lobby with a variety of fun activities for you and your friends to do. There’s a fully-functioning casino (where you bet virtual money), arcade, bowling alley, “nightclub,” and other fun things. There are also game lobbies. These lobbies are for minigames, like mini golf, ball race, a tag-like game called “Little Crusaders,” and go-karts. Usually, I have fun with my siblings when we decide to play this game, but it can get pretty old pretty quickly. If my siblings plan to play Tower Unite for hours on end, I try and convince them to play something else, like Minecraft or PEAK, first. Like I said, there isn’t much to do in the game if you’re not playing with friends. Well, I guess you could decorate your virtual condo or play at the casino, but I wouldn’t consider that “fun.” Overall, this is a game I tolerate for the benefit of my siblings. If I don’t have to play this game, I won’t.