At first look, the trio of MLB The Present 23, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Murderer’s Creed Mirage share little or no in widespread. Certain, all three video games launched in 2023, and each Spider-Man 2 and Murderer’s Creed Mirage characteristic dense open worlds, however apart from what you would possibly name broad similarities, they’re virtually fully disparate from each other. That’s, apart from one stunning commonality: All of them taught me one thing new in regards to the previous.
From a packed ballpark in Nineteen Twenties Kansas to the comic-book streets of New York Metropolis and a bustling ninth-century Baghdad, every recreation adopts a distinct strategy towards educating its gamers on particular individuals, moments, and locations from human historical past. After I look again on 2023–a yr stacked with distinctive video games–this unlikely trio of AAA video games stands out due to the assorted methods during which they use the artwork kind to shine a light-weight on underrepresented cultures and the pivotal influence that they had on our history–doing so in a manner solely an interactive medium like video video games can.
In MLB The Present 23, this takes the form of a brand new mode referred to as Storylines. Many sports activities video games have ventured into the previous earlier than, however none have accomplished so in such a lovingly crafted manner as San Diego Studio’s ode to the Negro Leagues. Storylines is basically a collection of playable documentaries, with every one combining archival footage, eye-catching hand-drawn artwork, and the spellbinding narration of Bob Kendrick–president of the Negro League Baseball Museum–to discover the lives and careers of eight legendary baseball gamers from an period earlier than Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier. It is inconceivable to be a fan of baseball with out understanding the story of Robinson and his iconic 42, however MLB The Present 23 taught me about different unbelievable gamers I knew subsequent to nothing about, together with Satchel Web page, Hilton Smith, and Hank Thompson.
