Games that aren’t Elden Ring
Because its really fucking long — Lithium City, Umurangi Generation, House of the Dying Sun
Elden Ring is here and 100+ hours later, the end won’t be in sight for a while.
This game is big, and I’ve luxuriated in its space. Many nights I slow Torrent to a trot and savor the sunset in this gold-kissed land. The impulse of a wanderer carries me in a slow crawl outwards across the Lands Between. But just as often, perhaps more commonly than I’d like to admit, there are nights where I don’t “progress” at all. Instead, I retread familiar ground, set up camp, and invade.
The sensation is like shivering into old skin worn out in the years passed since Dark Souls III. The underground stars of the Siofra River shimmer overhead. The thrum and shatter of loosed arrows arc around my being. Except instead of being the target of the Ancestrals’ ire, I am at the head of the pack. Just for tonight: I’ve become embedded in the forest and joined the hunt; we will resist intrusion.
But I have to stop myself. I’m not here to talk about Elden Ring. At least, not yet, as much as I want to.
Because while Elden Ring has occupied so much of my time; like on any journey outwards; sometimes a quiet morning by the river, a peaceful day lounging in the grass, or an evening settling into the familiar, is needed.
So instead, I want to talk about smaller games that aren’t Elden Ring. Ones I’ve played that are nowhere close in scale, in fidelity, or in spectacle, and yet have found their way into the repetitions of my everyday, filling in the cracks of my life. While they don’t individually occupy the same kind of space (measured in time), they instead occupy a different kind of place in my head that I can’t shake.
Because the reality is you’ve either been consumed with this monolith of an adventure, or too busy with all the other things in life to journey across the Lands Between for 100+ hours.
And there are meaningful experiences that can fit into those kinds of spaces as well.
Lithium City
A frenetic, neon-drenched, two hour fever dream, Lithium City is elegantly minimalistic and honed in its execution. From the jump, its either fight or flight, and then instinct takes over.
While relatively brief, there is an unrelenting intensity sustained throughout the entire runtime here. Lithium City has no fat: it is all fun, no filler; every level introduces and explores new mechanics and twists to the experience but never overstays its welcome.
But in opposition to this precision in design, Lithium City was everything but concise to make. In a retrospective blog post, Nico detailed his ten-year journey working in games: initially as a humble flash developer, and then as he transitioned to the tortured development of Lithium City full-time. And while the years spent necessitated a reduced runtime and a merciless approach to cutting bloat, what is left feels so good to play.
And for it to have seemingly not found an audience, shatters my heart.
Because what he’s made is beautiful.
Lithium City by Nico Tuason @ lithiumcitygame.com
Umurangi Generation
I hate taking pictures. Written words have always suited me better.
When the approximately four hour Umurangi Generation released in the midst of the reverberating COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, I felt extremely ill-equipped to talk about its place in these contexts. A photography game set amidst the collapse and hubris of institutions in the face of existential catastrophe was so unintentionally and yet perfectly timely that I was stopped in my tracks. The words never came.
But in the months and years since, the pictures that I tried to take there haunt me still.
In that “pointless” pursuit of capturing something just out of reach; in doing enough to get to the next day; in framing those moments of peace, of levity, of kindness, of hope; while still confined in an environment that felt inescapable.
In the countless cynical and hopeless moments that have existed between then and now, I needed this practice as a kindling reminder:
To persist.
Umurangi Generation by Origame Digital @ umurangigeneration.com
House of the Dying Sun
Single-mindedly focused on vengeance and mutually assured destruction, House of the Dying Sun is straightforward in its precision.
As the Emperor’s Dragon, you warp in, sink the fleets of the traitor lords, and move on to the next.
There is an efficient elegance, a minimalistic approach here that is entirely engrossing across its five hour runtime. Your unerring, unfaltering loyalty is the perfect container for the tragedy of revenge.
There is never a moment for backstory; for lore; for morality; for questioning; for context. These are only hinted at tangentially, and for me, in retrospect, hidden in diary-like logs and excerpts searched through afterwards to make sense of the things you’ve done.
Because its one thing to sow violence and pain upon those who’ve wronged you. It’s another thing to come to terms with the consequences.
House of the Dying Sun by Marauder Interactive @ dyingsungame.com
So here are three games for now, with at least(?) three more games to come…
By the time this goes out I’m nearing ever closer to that 200 hour mark in Elden Ring…This might be a while.
Lithium City by Nico Tuason @ lithiumcitygame.com
Umurangi Generation by Origame Digital @ umurangigeneration.com
House of the Dying Sun by Marauder Interactive @ dyingsungame.comCheck em out
Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed what I wrote, feel free to leave some claps or follow
