Out with the new, in with the old!

I am pretty sure that I am not the only one that has noticed this, but it seems with the whole "hipster" day and age right now is affecting more than just the social scene of certain individuals (which has now turned into a cult basically). But with the trend of loving underground, old school stuff that most people don't know about, it has spread like wild fire with a little twist on certain things. The topic that I am speaking of specifically is the oh so beautiful concept of steampunk. Now steampunk has been around for quite some time now. I have known about steam punk since I was kid (8-9) because my older sister was really into it in her teens, but I am sure it has been around for a lot longer than that. The concept of steampunk refers to the apparel of around the 1800's and everything is run off of steam power and gears. The art form of this is absolutely beautiful as shown in the picture below.

Now unlike the hipster scene, I am extremely excited that steampunk has started to reemerge in aspects across the spectrum. When I was a kid there was one game that I absolutely adored, it was called Syberia. It was a simple point and click puzzle game, where you play as a lawyer named Kate Walker. It takes place in a fictional French village and you have to go find the brother of the woman who you were supposed to close a deal with in the village. You must travel across Eastern and Central Europe in order to find him, but you quickly find out that there is more to finding this woman's brother than you first realized. So even if you are not a big point and click, puzzle gamer, I highly recommend just looking at some pictures of the game. It was released in 2002, but even though it came out more than a decade ago, you get immersed in the images and just the entire world as a whole. Quite a few hours of my childhood was spent in that world and I will never forget it because how magical and new it was to my eyes.

 

Trailer for Syberia

Now looking at more recent steampunk creations, one of the bigger ones that comes to mind is a game called "Dishonored" that just came out a little while ago. Now I have never played the game myself, but I have heard nothing but good things about it. You play as a man named Corvo Attano, who is a bodyguard for a legendary Empress. You later get framed for her murder and you have to become an assassin in order to seek revenge against his conspirators. (Definition found on Wikipedia) The one cool feature that is being shown in a lot of modern games today is that you get to choose your fighting styles, whether it is sneaking around unnoticed, hiding in the shadows, or in your face CQC.Choosing one of these approaches also alters the ending of the game. Which will you choose?! 

The steampunk world is vastly growing in popularity and I couldn't be more excited. It is such a beautiful world that can go in ANY direction, whether it is being a medieval assassin, or a now a days lawyer, trying to figure out a murder mystery. It will be interesting seeing what the future has in stock for the genre!