During these uncertain times, many have clung to the new Animal Crossing for comfort. It offers players a world with enough structure to help make sense of existence, but not so much that you ever feel trapped or otherwise punished. It's less an attempt to recreate real life in a video game world, and more an effort to recreate it as something easier, safer, and kinder.
It also starts to feel like a hamster wheel after a while. Mind you, it's a pleasant one. The music is sweet, and everything is cute and/or beautiful, but to the point where it sometimes feels like an effort to pacify you. If they had hooked Neo and the rest of the gang from The Matrix up to this game, they probably never would have wanted to wake up.
Sometimes Always Monsters, the sequel to Always Sometimes Monsters, can be similarly relaxing. It's far more attractive than the original, with silky-smooth animations and more realistic – but still attractive – characters. It also lets you do whatever you want, and be whomever you like.
The main difference is, it doesn't go out of its way to give you carrots to chase. Like real adult life, you can't just sit around and wait for it to shower you with meaning and happiness. There are no signposts to tell you what you should and shouldn't do. You have to make it up as you go along, and sooner or later, the mistakes you made are bound to catch up to you, if they don't make you rich and famous first.
