Yes, this is a review of a game that has been inoperable for the last 44 months. I never got to play it far past the tutorial, but its concept is amazing and has taken a permanent spot in my mind. Here's an attempt at understanding why, as a series of unexpected good decisions.
1) It's a mobile MMO that takes itself seriously. It rarely if ever uses Leaning on the Fourth Wall, it doesn't glorify the player, it just wants to show a world and tell a story. There isn't much Pv P (player clans are mostly for building stuff together). The effect of this on the player base is amazing, the whole experience is more creative than destructive and the community is friendly. Instead of monsters or zombies, Durango has dinosaurs. Since dinosaurs are cool, the point is not to become the best dinosaur killing machine around. They are an obstacle, but also a marvel.
2) The concept is simple: Durango is a parallel world that people and things get thrown into through one-way Warps from Earth. It's a world made of constantly shifting islands, inhabited by eclectic fauna and flora, a world roamed by shadowy organizations, primitive clans, and all kinds of eccentric individuals. It's full of rumours and theories and indisputable facts (such as a hungry Allosaur chasing you).
3) The lore is first wide and only then deep. Lots of tiny self-contained stories are scattered, "Rashomon"-Style, all over the game, in loading screens, found memos, long-term organisation communications... Heck, even the trailers and ads had very little gameplay, instead showing stories of Durango citizens (like a 15-second spot of a guy burning banknotes to stay warm at night). All of it adds up to a sense of what life in Durango is actually *like*. It's also generally well-written, gripping, with a sense of humor and fun to read.
4) There is no single style or mood, black comedy mixes with horror mixes with silly moments mixes with philosophical musings. You see Durango through the eyes of numerous one-off characters, and that includes big quest lines, because...
5) The plot is at once archetypal and specific. There are five quest-giving organizations representing various interactions between humans, society, and the world (roughly: industry, environmentalism, libertarianism, authoritarianism, science). But they also have members who have their own ideas about how things should be run. Because of the chaotic nature of Durango, those on top only have limited oversight over how plans are actually executed, and ordinary people are left on the ground to make the decisions. The world is kitchen-sink by design, it's a patchwork where big ideas constantly collide with ugly reality.
6) The setting poses a fascinating problem. Modern humans are thrown into a young world and try to build it into a new home while learning from the old one, Earth. Durango reminds the player of the appeal of the wilderness, the drawbacks of civilisation, but also of its benefits. Academic issues like the connection between the agricultural revolution and slavery become practical problems for the newly forming clans. The question is whether it's possible to be a good person in an uncertain and dangerous world, and what doing good even looks like. Every major character has a partial answer. There are at least five or six distinct perspectives the story offers, all of them believable yet incompatible. I think that throwing your mind into uncertainty, taking something you take for granted and making it weird, is perhaps the biggest way a story can enrich your life.
These days, we're left with a singleplayer version downloadable for PC which has most of the lore. As a final example of the powerful yet concise storytelling, I give you the farewell video from the game's end.
VideoGame Unexpected, vast, genius, lost
Yes, this is a review of a game that has been inoperable for the last 44 months. I never got to play it far past the tutorial, but its concept is amazing and has taken a permanent spot in my mind. Here's an attempt at understanding why, as a series of unexpected good decisions.
1) It's a mobile MMO that takes itself seriously. It rarely if ever uses Leaning on the Fourth Wall, it doesn't glorify the player, it just wants to show a world and tell a story. There isn't much Pv P (player clans are mostly for building stuff together). The effect of this on the player base is amazing, the whole experience is more creative than destructive and the community is friendly. Instead of monsters or zombies, Durango has dinosaurs. Since dinosaurs are cool, the point is not to become the best dinosaur killing machine around. They are an obstacle, but also a marvel.
2) The concept is simple: Durango is a parallel world that people and things get thrown into through one-way Warps from Earth. It's a world made of constantly shifting islands, inhabited by eclectic fauna and flora, a world roamed by shadowy organizations, primitive clans, and all kinds of eccentric individuals. It's full of rumours and theories and indisputable facts (such as a hungry Allosaur chasing you).
3) The lore is first wide and only then deep. Lots of tiny self-contained stories are scattered, "Rashomon"-Style, all over the game, in loading screens, found memos, long-term organisation communications... Heck, even the trailers and ads had very little gameplay, instead showing stories of Durango citizens (like a 15-second spot of a guy burning banknotes to stay warm at night). All of it adds up to a sense of what life in Durango is actually *like*. It's also generally well-written, gripping, with a sense of humor and fun to read.
4) There is no single style or mood, black comedy mixes with horror mixes with silly moments mixes with philosophical musings. You see Durango through the eyes of numerous one-off characters, and that includes big quest lines, because...
5) The plot is at once archetypal and specific. There are five quest-giving organizations representing various interactions between humans, society, and the world (roughly: industry, environmentalism, libertarianism, authoritarianism, science). But they also have members who have their own ideas about how things should be run. Because of the chaotic nature of Durango, those on top only have limited oversight over how plans are actually executed, and ordinary people are left on the ground to make the decisions. The world is kitchen-sink by design, it's a patchwork where big ideas constantly collide with ugly reality.
6) The setting poses a fascinating problem. Modern humans are thrown into a young world and try to build it into a new home while learning from the old one, Earth. Durango reminds the player of the appeal of the wilderness, the drawbacks of civilisation, but also of its benefits. Academic issues like the connection between the agricultural revolution and slavery become practical problems for the newly forming clans. The question is whether it's possible to be a good person in an uncertain and dangerous world, and what doing good even looks like. Every major character has a partial answer. There are at least five or six distinct perspectives the story offers, all of them believable yet incompatible. I think that throwing your mind into uncertainty, taking something you take for granted and making it weird, is perhaps the biggest way a story can enrich your life.
These days, we're left with a singleplayer version downloadable for PC which has most of the lore. As a final example of the powerful yet concise storytelling, I give you the farewell video from the game's end.