Friday, June 26, 2020

Eric Vs. 365 - Day 362 - The Deer God

The Deer God, originally released on the Xbox One as a Games With Gold title in September 2015, is one of the first games I can remember where my opinion on it was wildly and drastically different from the general consensus. I freaking loved it. Everyone else thought it was terrible. In the almost 5-years since then it has happened a lot more often, but you always remember your first. Read more and watch The Deer God gameplay here.

The Deer God is a 2D platformer where you start out as a little baby deer and run around (literally around since it's a big loop) a world gaining new powers, fighting enemies and bosses, and making new little baby deer. It has gorgeous pixel art graphics and amazing music and I just loved the feeling of being a deer. I loved it. I still love it. It feels so good to play and is incredibly charming. Everyone else freaking hated it, though, and I've never understood why. 

That was back when I was a real actual professional game reivewer, too. Maybe I got canned at just the right time because in the years since then I have increasingly found that my opinions and the general consensus on tons of games are wildly different. I never feel more disconnected from the industry I spent 15+ years in than when some new (usually Sony ...) game comes out to critical acclaim and commercial success and I think it looks terrible. It's AAA games in general, really, but it's always Sony games that get the effusive praise that I just don't understand anymore. 

Am I wrong and the industry has passed me by, or is everyone else dumb and wrong and stupid? It's definitely everyone else.