To outsiders who don't pay much attention to the sheer fucking absurdity that is 2026 games journalism™, it might seem like people are overreacting to the Mixtape situation. Listen, I COMPLETELY understand if you feel that way.
But no, listen carefully. We've been saying for YEARS that game journalists are posers who despise this hobby. Mixtape is absolute proof of that.
This is a billionaire nepo project that is 3 hours long and that you don't even really "play." It was immediately astroturfed to fuck and back, called "one of the games of the generation," couldn't even bother to add a fail state or something known as "gameplay systems," includes the most quirk-ass possible millennial-hipster writing and teenagers tonguing, all presented alongside the lie that it's an "indie project."
There has never been a more direct example of everything wrong with games journalism, and that's saying a lot because they gave Veilguard a 9 out of 10 while games like Black Myth Wukong and Crimson Desert are 6's & 7's. "Mixtape" is being hailed as a masterpiece and given 10's across the board while its billionaire publisher lines their pockets with cute lootboxes filled with custom gadgets and CD players.
There is one reason, and one reason alone that they like it... and that's because it didn't "waste their time" by making them do something they loathe: playing a video game.
It truly is annoying to see arguments like this conflating two things due to a single similarity.
Dispatch has an entire game built in between its cutscenes. You can say it’s not the best and I’d agree with you, but there is a game there. Not only that, but narrative input matters.
Mixtape is just a straight line with minimal interactivity that matters. You can make the argument that this doesn’t feel like a video game from that perspective and have a compelling point.
Rather than making shallow, generalized statements like this, wouldn’t it be better to focus in on the actual problem game and have an in depth critique of why it’s an issue for a game to have such little interactivity?
This is needless dilution of a point and only muddles what should be talked about.
I really wish bigger names were aware of this instead of just going for easy off the cuff statements.
Unnecessary ambiguity for the sake of mystery, lack of characterization in the vast majority of the game's key characters, and insufficient development of the tragedies that occur.