For the Love of a Loop
Only recently have I come to accept my obsession with loop-style video games (whether in singular form or styles such as roguelike or immersive sim). Perhaps this is due to the increased volume of available titles, maybe my video game arc has evolved (Portal is a long time favorite), or perchance it may have something to do with being stuck in an endless loop of anxiety. Regardless, I am emphatically consuming content.
The story arc of Time Loops has been around for a long time. We know it all too well in television shows and movies. Examples include The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1967+), Mirror for a Hero (1988), 12:01 PM (1990), Star Trek TNG episode "Cause And Effect" (1992), Groundhog Day (1993), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and, well, nearly the entirety of the Marvel Universe.
A time loop is ultimately a problem-solving process, and in the case of a video game, it is an interactive puzzle. This specific style of video games allows the character (and therefore the player) to learn more about their environment with each passing loop. The loop ends with complete mastery of the environment, no secrets left to uncover, and ultimately freed from the loop.
One set of games, in particular, left a mark on me and many other fans, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and, subsequently, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. But it is safe to say that time loop games are having a real moment right now (and movies and television shows are also ramping up in this category). However, there seems to be something that has changed; the time loop gained, depth - not always ending on a perfectly crafted happy ending.
If you love to dig into the cause-and-effect of trends in media, with most of your research centering on consuming said media, have a gander at the following games. You may then understand Jenna Stoeber's take on the genre, time loops: a weird genre for an anxious time (no, really, watch it and then play some of these games, listed in no particular order).
See you again soon!
12 Minutes (2021)
#12Minutes is an #adventuregame developed by #LuísAntónio and published by #AnnapurnaInteractive. The game takes place almost completely in a small apartment and plays through events in a 10-minute cycle to try to solve a mystery.
Windows | Playstation | Xbox | Switch
Minit (2018)
#Minit is an adventure video game developed by #JanWillemNijman, #KittyCalis, #JukioKallio, and #DominikJohann and published by #DevolverDigital. The game's premise is that each player's life results in a peculiar little adventure played sixty seconds at a time.
Windows | MacOs | Linux | Playstation | Xbox | Switch | Apple | Android
Deathloop (2021)
#Deathloop is an #fps game developed by #ArkaneLyon and published by #BethesdaSoftworks. The player controls Colt, an assassin stuck in a time loop that has been tasked to take out eight targets across the island before midnight, as leaving even one alive will cause the time to loop.
Windows | Playstation
Outer Wilds (2019)
#OuterWilds is an #actionadventure game developed by #MobiusDigital and published by #AnnapurnaInteractive. The game explores a solar system stuck in a 22-minute time loop resetting as the sun goes supernova.
Windows | Playstation | Xbox | Switch
Returnal (2021)
#Returnal is a #thirdperson #fps roguelike video game developed by #Housemarque and published by #SonyInteractiveEntertainment. Selene Vassos, an astronaut who lands on the planet Atropos finds herself trapped in a time loop.
Playstation
Hades (2020)
#Hades is a #roguelike action #dungeoncrawler video game developed and published by #SupergiantGames. #Zagreus, the son of Hades, attempts to escape from the Underworld to reach Mount Olympus, death is an essential part of the process looping through a random series of rooms populated with enemies and rewards.
Windows | MacOs | Linux | Playstation | Xbox | Switch
The Sexy Brutale (2017)
#TheSexyBrutale is an #adventurepuzzle game developed by #CavalierGameStudios and #TequilaWorks. Explore a mansion that is stuck in a time loop as its inhabitants are being killed off.
Windows | Playstation | Xbox | Switch
The Forgotten City (2021)
#TheForgottenCity is a #mystery #adventure role-playing game developed by #ModernStoryteller and published by #DearVillagers with additional support from #FilmVictoria, and initially released in 2015 as a #mod (#TheElderScrolls V: #Skyrim mod). The Forgotten City explores the existential relationship between humanity and its laws.
Windows | Playstation | Xbox | Switch
Loop Hero (2021)
#LoopHero is an endless #RPG developed by #FourQuarters and published by #DeveloperDigital. The game takes place in a randomly generated world where the player changes the world by placing cards instead of directly controlling a character.
Windows | MacOs | Linux | Switch
Lemis Gate (2021)
#LemnisGate is a time-warping, turn-based combat strategy #FPS developed by #RatloopGamesCanada and published by #FrontierFoundry. Over five alternating turns taking place in a 25 second time-loop, you must master the unique abilities in four-dimensional battles.
Windows | Playstation | Xbox
Undertale (2015)
#Undertale is a 2015 #2D #roleplayinggame created by indie developer #TobyFox. A child has fallen into a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical barrier.
Windows | MacOs | Linux | Playstation | Xbox | Switch
Randal's Monday (2014)
#RandalsMonday is a #darkcomedy adventure game by #indiedeveloper #NexusGameStudio published by #DaedalicEntertainment. Randal, a sociopath and kleptomaniac becomes stuck in a Groundhog Day-esque loop. The game relies on a series of 'guesswork' #puzzles (and is filled with references to #popculture media).
Windows | MacOs | Playstation | Switch | Apple | Android
GrimGrimoire (2007 & 2022)
#GrimGrimoire is a #realtimestrategy video game developed by #Vanillaware and published by #NipponIchiSoftware and #Koei (Europe). A remaster is set for release in July 2022 in Japan. Lillet Blan is a trainee witch who is sent into a repeating cycle of five days after her school is attacked by an evil wizard seeking the hidden Philosopher's Stone.
Playstation | Switch
Elsinore (2019)
#Elsinore is a #pointandclick #adventuregame developed and published by #GoldenGlitch. The game follows the character of #Ophelia from #WilliamShakespeare's #Hamlet. Ophelia has a vision of the deaths of everyone in the Castle. She relives the same four days again and again as she works to prevent the tragedy.
Windows | MacOs | Linux
BioShock Infinite
#BioShockInfinite is a #firstpersonshooter #videogame developed by #IrrationalGames and published by #2KGames. Booker DeWitt is sent to Columbia to retrieve a young woman held captive, Elizabeth, who can manipulate space-time.
Windows | MacOs | Playstation | Xbox
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
The #LegendofZelda: #OcarinaofTime is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the #Nintendo64. Link explores the fantasy land of Hyrule on a quest to stop the evil king Ganondorf by traveling through time and navigating dungeons and an overworld.
Switch | Nintendo 64 | Wii
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000)
The Legend of #Zelda: #MajorasMask is an action-adventure game developed and published by #Nintendo. Link learns that the world is endangered as the moon will fall into the world in three days.
Switch | Nintendo 64 | Wii
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