Critical Hits: Writers on Gaming and the Alternate Worlds They Inhabit - Book Review ( and some thoughts)

I was intrigued by the premise of Critical Hits because, unlike the typical gaming publications, this collection was showcasing writers who, while not professional game critics, possess a genuine love for the medium. These 18 essays, born from personal experience, promised to offer a welcome departure from the 'gaming bubble,' and reveal the powerful influence of individual games on a diverse range of lives. I've long held the belief that videogames are unique in media as you don't just consume them as passive observers but you act within them and that sense of agency is key. The effect this can have on individuals can be profound and that's what I found within these 18 essays.

Elissa Washuta- I Struggled a Long Time with Surviving

Elissa recounts her time playing The Last of Us during the first lockdown in America whilst suffering from an illness that was not Covid. She discusses the apprehension and fear of the changing real-world with the events mirrored in Naughty Dog's videogame world after a cordycep virus spreads, making zombie like creatures.

Elissa discusses her diagnosis of an autoimmune disease and recounts her road to recovery via the timeline of The Last of Us, going through the various chapters within the game to process her feelings.

I felt this was a very powerful and personal chapter that discusses the resilience of the human condition. Videogames can offer us a way to process our own emotions by proxy and, for Elissa, this seems to be the case.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - This Kind of Animal

Nana discusses how Disco Elysium made him consider the choices we have during the course of our life and the reflections we have as we approach death. Entropy means we are dying from the moment we are born.

Nana has a beautiful way with words and the '... our (dead) bodies are not us. They are an echo of an echo' really struck me about the legacy and memories we leave behind. We all try to avoid thinking about death but Nana argues that Disco Elysium makes us embrace our choices and looks deep within our inferiority to show our true self.

Max Delsohn- Thinking Like a Knight

Max discusses the body dysphoria they suffered and how Undertale represented a wonderful lesbian love story for two of its characters. They talk about how Hollow Knight offered them a way to focus and redouble their efforts to conquer the challenge.

Max is very honest about their mental health struggles and discusses the importance of being seen in media. The Outsider (which they describes as a feeling of 'Outside-ness') is often excluding but they state that there are ways to feel a part of something bigger and, for Max, Hollow Knight does that by its carefully crafted lore.

I liked the self-reflection of Max in this essay but it didn't chime with me as the outsider and Hollow Knight connection wasn't clearly explained but for others this might be just the ticket.

Keith S. Wilson- Mule Milk

The essay starts in an unusual way with the author contemplating the genealogy of mules and whether they occur naturally in the wild. He then looks at nature and wonders about what is classified as nature. It seems a bit random but then he reveals that he is a 'mulatto' and it all suddenly comes together what is considered natural and unnatural. He discusses his love for Final Fantasy VI and Terra, the half-human, half esper being who is seen as a commidity in this colonial realm. For an 11 year old Keith, it blew his mind that a videogame was talking about slavery and the commodification of peoples, colonialism and the fight for equality.

I really liked this essay as I love Final Fantasy VI for precisely this reason; the critique of the military industrial complex and the social hierarchy of races to justify bigoted world views is one I could relate to post Operation Desert Storm and the dehumanisation of certain Middle Eastern people.

Octavia Bright - Staying With the Trouble

The essay looks back at the author's childhood spent trying to crack the 5 question test to allow her to enter an illicit adult game. She fails but later finds out from Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow author Gabrielle Zavin that the game she sought was Leisure Suit Larry. Bright plays the game and sees a sad story about a man on the verge of suicide as he can't get 'laid'. She reflects on sociatal expectations of men and how the media landscape in the 80s and 90s was very incel-ly, it was all about getting laid. She then pivots to Stray, a videogame where you play as a cat in a dystopian world and discusses the power of staying curious.

Bright captures the mood of playing something you know you are not supposed to, wishing you could grow up quicker to explore the adult world before realising that adulting is a trap. Back in the day, there was a version of Samantha Fox's Strip Poker for the ZX Spectrum but I never knew of it until years later reading Retro Gamer. For my brother and I, the most illicit game we played was Barbarian on our green monochrome Amstrad CPC 464 where you could chop off the heads of your enemies with the signature roundhouse sword move. Pre-Mortal Kombat this was as violent as videogames got for me. Bright touched upon the feeling of wonder we all felt when realising that there were digital worlds, which we could interact with, possible within this screen. Her sense of wonder at Stray is infectious and even though I finished the game to completion and didn't really enjoy it as much as she obviously did, I enjoyed her message of hope and wonder when all seems grimy and seedy.

Charlie Jane Anders- Narnia Made of Pixels

This is a bit of a quirky essay as Anders looks at videogame portal stories, where a character enters a videogame world. Using this premise she covers quite a few titles including TRON, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Free Guy. They discuss how often the story is about IP and brand recognition and how the 'badguy' is the nefarious corporations.

Obviously, this book was written in 2023 so pre- The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Minecraft, but I'd like to hear her take on the isekai genre as they both cover people entering new digital worlds.

Jamil Jan Kochai- Cathartic Warfare

The author discusses the social and collegiate atmosphere of playing Call of Duty with his friends and then his discomfort then the enemy began to look more and more like him, an Afghan American immigrant. He mentions how the various atrocities like the torture of Dilawar, the Uruzgan wedding bombing and the Shinwar Massacre left a bitter taste in his mouth ans recontentualised the game series for him, showing jingoistic American Imperialism tones. The author Frantz Fanon's book Black Skin, White Mask is mentioned and the principle of collective catharsis, where a focus of aggression is aimed at a 'common enemy' is the norm usually from the colonising to the colonised.

I enjoyed reading this essay as I got it, but I've not really played many 'realistic' GPS games as it seems too realistic to me. It's the reason the only games I do play in the genre are more fantastical like Doom or part of a wider genre like Metroid or Bioshock.

Ander Monson - The Cocoon

Ander discusses how Alien vs. Predator blew his mind as a youth. The Atari Jaguar was much unloved yet this game (as well as Jeff Minter's Tempest 2000) were the breakouts that have stood the test of time. Ander then discusses his time with other games within the Alien and Predator world.

I enjoyed this essay as it captures the idea that the right game at the right game can be transformational. It doesn't have to be the best but if it drops and hits you in the feels then it matters.

Marinaomi - Video Game Boss

This is a comic strip about how the author fell in and out of the videogame industry, working her way from tester to localiser. She discusses the misogyny she experienced and how she moves away to the comic scene. 

The issues raised in this comic are apparently still prevalent within the industry from the creators I follow but there is more awareness now so that's something. 

Vanessa Villarreal- In the Shadow of the Wolf

This is quite a powerful essay about the racial purity often projected onto Vikings and Scandinavians in videogames, films and TV shows. Villarreal discusses how this theory, linked to eugenics, seems to have thrived and grown stronger in recent times even though it is based on untruths. 

She discusses how Dragon Age: Inquisition and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla both consolidate the myth of racial purity although that is not their intention as Ragnarok is a racial purity war. It's an intriguing essay but I've played neither game so cannot comment about the content or context. 

Tony Tulathimutte- Clash Rules Everything Around Me 

The author discusses the addictive and demanding nature of Clash of Clans, a monkey on their back they cannot get rid of. The time sink and cash demands to make the game flow quicker are an indictment of late state capitalism and, when there are people sploodging lots of dollaridoos, other is no way you can compete on the same level. 

Even though he acknowledges that the game is a waste of time, many still find it intoxicating enough to have a sunk cost fallacy and cognitive dissonance mentality. 

Eleanor Henderson - The Great Indoorsman

This essay is about how Eleanor, a mother of two children, who is trying to raise well-rounded boys. She shows how she is trying unsuccessfully to balance her children playing videogames with outdoor pursuits. She discusses her live of gaming and the great outdoors whilst her children are into videogames and indoor pursuits like stop motion, Lego etc. 

What she realises is that the videogames they play are teaching them a lot about the world as well as other life skills so she's pretty chill about it. The story of her son working with her to finally complete Super Mario Bros. from the NES is sweet as was her hunt for a PS5 during lockdown. 

Nat Steele - I Was a Teenage Transgender Supersoldier

This was an insightful essay as the author discusses how they related to Halo's Master Chief, a cybernetically modified super soldier. As a trans person unaware of their complex emotions and feelings, Nat discusses how important the game was in raising awareness about their own complexities. 

Alexander Chee - Ninjas and Foxes

The author looks at Asian representation in videogames and remembers his time with Ninja Gaiden Black and Jade Empire. He feels Ninja Gaiden was more a Western cosplay of ninjas, even though the game was made by a Japanese studio whilst Jade Empire was more authentically Asian representative, even though it was made in the West. The author was looking for authenticity and affirmation as the Asian representations were often stereotypes in gaming, something they felt that didn't represent them well

This is a heartfelt essay about queer identity and how gamed can distract us from our true selves. 

Stephen Sexton - No Traces

The writer discusses the 'magical circle' attitude to play, how it is out of time and place and is formative. The game that bonded him to his best friends S? Metal Gear Solid! He discusses how videogames are a visual culture and they can imprint themselves onto some youth, almost creating an outer-body experience, which Peter Bude called the 'Circuit of Specularity.'

I liked this essay a lot as I can relate to this. One of my most treasured memories is of playing Resident Evil 7 in VR with my friends, taking life or levels when we became too scared. Sexton's take rang true for me and I'm guessing will for many others. 

Larissa Pham - Status Effect

Larissa discusses losing months at a time to depression. She shares how Genshin Impact was a wonderful game for her as she played it with friends and it was her comfort during Covid and the after times. 

This is a refreshingly honest tale on how gaming can help when life is getting to be too much. I liked it and hope the author is doing well. 

J. Robert Lennon - Ruined Ground

The author discusses how Fallout 76 was the antidote they needed whilst Covid and their anxiety about their susceptibility to illness kept them worried about the pandemic. Their avatar online could adapt their body and cope with the hostilities of the world whilst their terrestrial body was much less able to do so. 

Lennon talks about the anxieties of the real world pandemic and how the online game offered solace and freedom, with its virtual world free from plague (for a while at least until it was patched in as a quest) and allowing people to meet and interact online. 

Hanif Abdurraqib - We're More Ghosts Than People 

The author is a Muslim and discusses the concept of Heaven and Hell through the aspect of Red Dead Redemption 2's honour system. He discusses playing a paragon playthrough of Arthur to ensure he had a high honour grade to ensure he had a good ending but, as the old saying goes, you can't always save the ones you love, and Arthur dies horribly. 

Out of all the essays, this in the one that hit the hardest. I am a Muslim and I have been researching, analysing and reading a lot about the faith I was born into and the idea that you may not be able to save those you love is a hard concept for me to accept. This essay just hit at the right time and dang, Abdurraqib just gets it y'know. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the book as it gave a diverse range of authors a chance to talk about the games and matters that most appealed to them. The styles were varied so, even if they were not for you, like a good anthology series, another would be waiting just around the corner.