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Desert Island Games is simple. You’re deserted on a lost island, but don’t fret because it’s got every console imaginable, constant electricity and a decent internet connection. The catch? You can only take three games. This week Adam Standing makes his three picks.

Lord of the Rings Online

Choosing an online game to take onto my desert island feels a little bit of a cop-out. But Lord of the Rings Online isn’t one of my Desert Island Games because of its endless online content or the typical tropes that genre has developed over the years, it’s the beautiful and atmospheric portrayal of my favourite work of fiction.

Thanks to Turbine’s delicate touch the world of Middle Earth within this videogame feels believable and immersive. From the striking autumn hues of the Elven woods to the rolling green hills of The Shire, Lord of the Rings Online portrays that ancient land with subtle reverence.

I couldn’t care less about the endgame combat, the loot drops in the Fellowship raids or any of that boring MMO stuff which comes into play outside of the starting areas. In all my years with the game I’ve actually never gone to Angmar or made the long trip to Rivendell. Perhaps I will one day, but for now my fat Hobbit is quite happy frolicking in The Shire and occasionally venturing out to Bree or the Old Forest for his adventuring thrills.
This is what Lord of the Rings Online means to me. Not the MMO mechanics or the main storyline, but the world it reproduces with delicate understanding and a beautiful atmosphere.

Demon’s Souls

Flipping that comfortable and distinctly non-perilous experience for something much more harsh and unforgiving is Demon’s Souls – a game that I shouldn’t, by all rights, enjoy or adore as much as I do. I’m typically very flaky when it comes to challenging games but Demon’s Souls offers a sense of progression and inhabits a dark and grim world that does something to suck me in every time I play.

The sense of achievement after beating each boss was matched only by the feelings of relief and exhaustion at successfully surviving such a threatening experience. It turned the disposable videogame facet of death into a truly meaningful mechanic with any wrong turn or misstep bringing a fatal and soul-crushing blow.

These reasons are enough to take Demon’s Souls with me but it’s not the epic boss battles or the moody environments that keep me going back. It’s the sense of satisfaction of taking new characters through those familiar early levels and breezing past them perfectly.

That’s me giving the harsh mechanics of Demon’s Souls the finger and settling into a rhythmic gaming session which feels more meditative than combat in practice. Believe it or not, playing the game in this fashion is wonderfully soothing, a perfect way to wind down after the unremitting difficulty of its later stages.

Angband

So if Lord of the Rings Online offers me that beautiful and magical environment of The Shire and Demon’s Souls gives me the bizarre meditative state of familiarity then what on earth does the Roguelike of Angband offer? Simply put this is the most challenging, most involving and most rewarding game I have ever played. It doesn’t get more old school, hardcore or unforgiving than Angband with its ASCII visuals.

It also doesn’t get better than this. No seriously, it doesn’t. I’ve been playing Angband for over 20 years and while I’ve toyed with many other Roguelikes the Lord of the Rings flavoured variety is the one I’ve stuck to the most. The reason is twofold. One is the plain old challenge that the game offers. To win at Angband you have to descend 100 levels and defeat Morgoth, the real dark lord that makes Sauron look like Jessica Rabbit in comparison, and then make your way back up again.

Though it might sound simple I’ve only managed to get as far as level 27 after twenty years of play. The degree of challenge is incredible but irresistible, far more brutally unforgiving than Demon’s Souls. Once you die in Angband then that character is dead. There’s no resurrection or lives to fall back on, you just go back to level one with a brand new character and try again.

This challenge has sustained me (and my anger) for decades. I don’t think I’ll ever see the day when I reach the last level but that’s only part of the reason why I play it. Though the visuals are only rendered in ASCII text it encourages your imagination to create the story and the environment of the game. There’s no greater pixel shader than the one inside my head and if any game is going to keep my imagination alive on my desert island then it’s going to Angband and its hundred levels of pure virtual canvas.

Check back next Tuesday for another three picks from another writer… In the meantime tell us what you would take in the comments below or check out previous entries.