Recent reviews by Mos Moris

Skyrim is one of my favourite games of all time, one I come back to again and again. It's good even vanilla, and with just a few simple mods to fix the God-awful AI, and some unpatched bugs, it becomes great, let alone when modding it heavily. Don't let the low hour count fool you, this is probably the game I've played most in my life, between the regular, the Special Edition, and on console.

That being said, I can't wholeheartedly recommend this game, or at least this version. Despite it being easily modded, and having tens thousands of mods available, the one and true version, as intended by Todd Howard, is the Anniversary Edition. The paid mods integrated in it make it infinitely better than all the free mods, which countless mod authors have poured hard work and passion into. Remember: there are no bugs, only features.

All Hail our Lord and Saviour God D Howard!

Warning: Spoilers.


Even ignoring how the game is little more than a remake of the infamous opening scene from Inglourious Basterds, The Night Fisherman isn't very good. It's a short, pretty, but by no means sweet experience.

The good: The game looks lovely. It's striking and the visuals do add to the story that is being told, adding a surreally calm and ethereal touch to the scene. Whilst not quite minimalist, I like how there's nothing more than necessary in the scenes. The shadows covering the faces of the characters are a nice touch, since they make the simple models seem less stiff and more ominous. I quite enjoyed the music too.

The not so good: pretty much everything else. The dialogue is competent, but the better half of it is lifted from Inglourious Basterds, given a coating of pro-open borders paint, and presented to us through Churchill, the pseudo Hans Landa that lacks both Christoph Waltz's phenomenal acting as well as a real sense of threat or realism. He comes across as more of a parody than anything genuine, a hand puppet delivering lines made for an actual actor. The titular night fisherman, Mr Gardiner, on the other hand, is better fleshed out, or at least he is more believable and less of a shotgun-wielding stereotype.
Also, most of the tension that was built up in the movie by not immediately showing the hidden Jews is lost, given how the migrant boy (?) is visible under the tarp from the very beginning.

Moving on to, the political themes are very ham-fisted. Beyond the comparison of anti open-border groups to nazis, it leaves little space for debate or nuance. It tells a story, sure, but it won't change anyone's minds about border control, nor does it introduce anything meaning that hasn't already been seen before. The way I'll see it if you're for open borders, then you'll enjoy the themes and if you're not then you won't, but either way neither group will have been enriched, especially given how Churchill/ the EPG are little more than strawmen.

Finally, though this is a completely personal gripe, there's very little "game" in this video game. I understand that it's a short and narrative experience, but beyond the endings there's little you can do to explore this world or understand the fisherman better. Hopefully, at least from a lore side, it will be expanded upon in the next games in the series.

I can't recommend this game as there's really nothing to be gained from playing it, but at the same time I'm curious as to what the series holds. Perhaps, as part of a larger whole, it will be worth playing, but by itself The Night Fisherman has too few merits to warrant spending your time on.