How do you lead people? With understanding? With sympathy? With practicality? With distance? Even the so-called 'practical' choices you can make have overtones of evil to them, like deceiving the Krogan into thinking you've cured the engineered disease that's been keeping their populations in check so you can have their support and the support of their enemies, the Salarians. I also find these hard-choice-simulations to be fascinating, no matter how great their quality ultimately is, because they all implicitly create several thematic conversations that occur in the background of whatever game you're playing.įor example, Mass Effect is about how far you're willing to go to save the world. It's an exquisite kind of torture, upping my anxiety and curiosity, making me want to replay games and see how the branches of every decision play out.

Anyone who knows my gaming habits knows that last feature is my kryptonite. It's a game that seems to have everything I want: great dialogue, an enthralling world, interesting and non-violent gameplay, a pleasing acoustic soundtrack, and a requirement for players to make hard moral choices. I started the game with the intent of playing maybe an hour before hopping off to something else or doing some work, but Pyre's pull is powerful. Whatever the reason, I finally made time for Pyre this past week and, wow, this game.įrom the get-go, Pyre had my number, its long branches wrapping around my limbs and keeping me strapped in place. Maybe it was the sporty-looking gameplay or the mere fact that it arrived in the wake of the Fall release onslaught. But something about Pyre made it get bumped down my priority list. I was colder on Transistor but I appreciated its beautiful worldbuilding and pleasing soundtrack. I don't know why I put off playing Pyre, Supergiant's latest, for so long.

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