Yesterday I played the demo of the new game Dispatch and it is all beautifully written, but at some point, while presenting the team in-game, there was a casual funny line, pronounced by a voice off-screen, so without graphical support and I just burst out laughing (I was alone at home, so not pressed by social influence of any kind).
When I stopped, I realized how uncommon this has become lately. As a kid, I found LucasArts games extremely funny and I laughed more than occasionally, but this aspect of video game entertainment has been dying out.
When was the last time you actually laughed out loud while playing a game for something that was actually designed as funny (no Fortnite or CoD shenanigans stories please)?
I mean, I don’t know if you can call it ‘designed’ or not, but multiplayer experiences with chained together are always hilarious. The ironic ‘we own you’ or ‘casually dismissing how unimportant you are’ messages in satisfactory get a chuckle. Boneraiser minions is humorous as well, as the minions range from ‘normal skeleton’ to ‘pumpkin headed horrors’ and are definitely designed around silliness. Ship of fools has the multiplayer shenanigans, but ALSO some really funny, dry humored lines about the state of your boat/character. All the cat quest games… if you’re not rolling your eyes at all the cat puns, there’s something wrong with you. Ooooohh, I almost forgot! Another multiplayer one, but entirely designed around laughing as you put a bomb in front of your friend’s favorite path to the goal: ultimate chicken horse.