Days like today are tough on Daily Reaction. Vestiges of news are few and far between, and there isn?t much to ?react? to (Ehrmagerd! DLC in Days Gone?!). But then I caught wind of an ongoing conversation on Twitter, a resurgence of a long held complaint by many gamers that ?walking simulators? are inherently bad games. There?s this flawed notion that a game has to have action or puzzles are something to ?do? in order to be considered good. So what is it about walking simulators that have so many gamers on edge, and how can we change our perspective" First we need to look at what a walking simulator even is.
What is a Walking Simulator"
On the surface, a walking simulator is another genre of game, along the lines of first-person shooter or puzzle game or open-world action adventure. But the curious thing is how the term ?walking simulator? tends to get tossed around as an insult to a game?s experience. Traditionally, people have used walking simulator to describe games devoid of much interaction other than walking for place to place and limited objects that advance the story in some way. Truth is that there?s no hard line on what you might call a walking simulator versus where that same game crosses the line into a different genre, like puzzle game. Some games are easy enough to classify. We?re not about to call The Division 2 a walking simulator, and I highly doubt anyone would give Devil May Cry 5 that designation, but what about games like The Witness or Obduct...