Quarantine was a strange, confusing time for everyone. It felt like one big blur that we all endured together. Finding something to do when everyday felt the same was a struggle. Here’s how I survived the spring break that never ended:
When spring break was “extended” I was initially excited because not having school seemed awesome at the time. When spring break turned into summer break, however, I was tremendously less excited. While everyone else was doing little to no school work I was fortunate enough to have taken entrepreneurship through DMACC, so it was required of me to finish the rest of the course online. When I wasn’t pouring my heart and soul into my business plan (on which I got an A+), I was playing video games.
If it weren’t for video games, I don’t think I would have made it through quarantine. I spent a good chunk of my quarantine life losing games of “Fortnite.” You’d think playing everyday for like a month would make you better at the game, but it seems I got worse.
One fateful day, I decided to dust off my PlayStation 2 and play some classics. The first game I played was “Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.” It was very nostalgic because I hadn’t played it in so long. It also helped me escape the real world and relieve some stress. I spent a lot of time searching every inch of the map to find every collectible, and I ended up completing the game 100%. After I played “Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy,” I played its sequel “Jak II.”
There was a major change in difficulty of the games; the first one was far easier than the second one. On many occasions I found myself gripping the controller hard and nearly rage-quitting the game. The game’s lack of checkpoints did little to ease my rage. After “Jak II,” it was time for the final installment of the trilogy: “Jak 3.” It was far easier than “Jak II,” but it still had its rage-inducing moments. Once I was done with the trilogy, I moved on to something a bit more adult-like: “Tomb Raider.”
When I talk about “Tomb Raider,” I’m not talking about the original 1990´s games; I’m talking about the 2013 reboot trilogy. The first game in the trilogy is probably my favorite because it is a masterpiece. The gameplay and graphics were ahead of their time, and they still hold up today. It was a blast to play through, and its sequels “Rise of the Tomb Raider” and “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” are also solid games.
Quarantine or not, video games are a great escape from reality that we all need every once in a while. Even though video games stressed me out, I couldn’t imagine how much worse quarantine would have been without them.