Editor’s Note: I want to start engaging more actively with the media I consume and consume more literature and art in general, so I’m going to try to make these “reflections”. They aren’t reviews or critics, because I don’t want to be a critic. Just some reflections <3

The Story: A different take on the “Retired Assassin” trope

The premise is pretty clear from the trailers, and I don’t think it’s any kind of bait and switch. It’s definitely different from what you might expect, in way that is I think a hallmark of it’s studio-Strange Scaffold-and the creative director/head Xalavier Nelson Jr.

The studio is small, and very intentional about the scale and scope if their games. (Hell, the game itself is only like 2 GB!) It’s small, but it’s tight. Every piece polished, because there aren’t many pieces to begin with. The story is like that: just a hand-full of characters with about 30 minutes over 20 or so audio only (kinda) cut scenes. But even the style of cut scenes (mostly over-radio conversations) is suited to the visuals, and the way the colors change to represent the person and mood…ugh it’s all just a fantastically well thought out package.

The story itself is also small in scope. It feels very personal, and even intimate in a way. And I think that plays into one of the themes of the game itself, which is this sort of push back against the removal of humanity. The antagonist, General Burkin in the “covert operatives initiatives” (lol) sees the main character, Alphonse Hardin essentially as a weapon to point. There’s only one or two more named characters introduced, and I really don’t want to talk about them yet because it’s pretty much the main conceit of the story and you should find that out for yourself (or wait for the spoiler-y bit at the end after you’ve played the game.)

In short, this story is about agency and humanity, and one man’s revolt against someone trying to take his again.

Gameplay: Fast, juicy, and unbelievably satisfying

Strange Scaffold is really good at polish, and game play is where they shine. It feels AMAZING, and dips deep into our (or at least my) speedrunning urges. This game is really a speedrunner’s dream. It’s incredibly fast pasted without being too confusing or over whelming, and the pacing of progression, with more difficult levels and new gameplay elements introduced in a way that’s really well balanced.

Each level is fantastically designed to give you many lines and options for runs, and all of the controls and feel is designed to get you into a flow of fast-paced action that delivers on that John-Wick feeling of being a badass who points the gun in just the right way at just the right time because you’ve run the level over and over again rehearsing each movement into a ballet. A very violent…flying-limb-filled ballet…

The Gameplay IS The Story

One thing you’ll hear Xalavier talk about a lot on his social media (which you should definitely follow, because he’s got some great stuff and thoughts) is how the gameplay can impact the emotions and even be in tension with the story itself.

The main theme of the game is agency and humanity, and the removal of both. In the game, The General Burkin is using all of the might of the military industrial complex to try to take away the Hardin’s agency, and the entire gameplay is the violent resistance of that. At the same time, Hardin has been trained to strip the humanity of his targets, and almost every aspect of the game reflects this deeply.

All of the solders are faceless—basically have the same model—and the game is to mow through them. In between mowing through them you get glimpses of actual people through wonderful little snippets of dialog, and the cutscenes are separate from the levels. The “story” happens in between the “game” as well, completely separate.

Then the game starts. And once the game starts, the objective is to mow through them as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the game enforces this by giving you a plethera of choices through level design for paths and strategies and lines, only giving you all of the objectives after you’ve already completed the level. You’re measured on your time, and restarting is highly encouraged by being both only a few button presses away and happens very quickly.

And it feels good. Every reward the game has is given in service of the violence, until the game has trained you like the COI trained Harding to completely ignore the humanity of every person and see them as objects to either blow past, blow through, or blow up.

Almost every character is completely faceless. Harding and Burkin don’t have face or models, and Burkin doesn’t have a first name. There’s only one character who is at all identifiable. Who has any trace of humanity given by the game play. And you meeting this character is the climax of the story. It’s the only level that has a cutscene, where the story and gameplay come CRASHING together and the only time the game removes every bit of agency you’ve had, and you’re only left with one choice and you don’t get to know what that choice actually means until after you’ve pressed the button…

The story IS the gameplay, the gameplay IS the story. The the medium IS the art. And strange scaffold has shown to be a master of the craft of making games.