A Tragic Odyssey
On 26 October 2018, Rockstar Games released Red Dead Redemption II, a sprawling elegy to the Wild West. Representing the zenith of what was possible in gaming at the time, critical acclaim promptly followed. However, industry experts, and Rockstar themselves, have been left confounded at the utter commercial failure of their product.
The answer, I believe, lies here. Everyone was busy playing Recollection.
This game is a rollercoaster. Narrative is minimalist, but profound. The fundamentals of the storyline are established immediately. You, known as "The Character", awaken after a night of heavy drinking. You are lost inside your mind and must piece together the past. I first expected some humorous little story about being drunk or something, but NO. This game does not want to make you laugh. It wants to make you feel more sophisticated emotions, beyond human comprehension, and succeeds emphatically, aided by a subtle, yet beautiful soundtrack. You must help The Character piece together the events that led to him becoming a miserable alcoholic. Not gonna spoil anything, but there will be tears by the end.
The gameplay is pretty phenomenal. There's some environmental manipulation, platforming and even a recurring rhythm minigame. While in a lesser game, this may be a jarring assortment of gameplay gimmicks, the tight narrative keeps everything cohesive, to the point that it actually makes you FEEL like you are a hungover drunk stuck in his own mind.
I wouldn't bet on anything like this game ever being made again, it's kind of a perfect storm. Everything has come together to create the ultimate gaming experience, that will surely go down as the best of 2018, and one of the all-time greatest.