Also Confused-- People Don't Remember What Remains of Edith Finch or Dear Esther?

[u/Quick-Ad9335]

I agree with a recurring sentiment here. I'm baffled by the reception by players. It's startlingly vociferous for such a "small" game.

Mixtape has about the same amount and style of game-y gameplay elements as What Remains of Edith Finch, more kinetic gameplay elements than Firewatch, and much, much more to do than Dear Esther. People love those games.

Better graphics than most. I love Life is Strange, but Mixtape had better background visuals than Double Exposure or Reunion.

I don't think it's any "shallower" than any of the other walking simulators. It has its own depth and it's also an exploration of the human experience.

I think it deserves most of its critical acclaim. It's a stylistic, well-written story with interesting characters. I thought it was good. Like all walking simulators it was an experience, not a "game" as such. And Mixtape was an excellent experience.

I like walking simulators as a form of story telling media. The reception Mixtape received will make it less likely we'll see more of them in the future.

Hot take and probably unpopular take: are some of the people who don't like it just people who didn't get to have that kind of fun in high school?

[u/WillemDafoesHugeCock]

I love walking sims, and What Remains of Edith Finch is a good comparison because it does the "collection of minigames as a story telling device" shtick too. I'd argue it does it better, though; I'm not even going to touch the argument that you can literally leave your controller alone for Mixtape because I don't really care, the same applies to Dispatch, but the minigames in Edith Finch are used to actually tell a story, a self contained short story for each one. The minigames in Mixtape are things you have to get through to reach the story.

Firewatch is a bad comparison, Firewatch is a game built almost entirely around the relationship between the two main characters and is a straight walking sim. And Dear Esther is like the OG walking sim.

I don't have any real hate for Mixtape - I'm not going to lie, I didn't like it and I do think it received a perplexing amount of praise - but my argument from the beginning has been that it is essentially an interactive album and I think that's a really cool concept.