Skip to content

VILLAGE ARCADE: How gaming got me through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

From Animal Crossing to Final Fantasy, these are the games that got me through an especially challenging year.
animalcrossing-screenshot
Animal Crossing gave me the opportunity to social distance while still connecting with friends and family.

It’s been about a year since the COVID-19 pandemic upended the lives of Canadians across the country. As we embark on another year of this pandemic, I can’t help but reflect on what has got  me through the past 12 months.

Some of the things I’ve been thankful for are obvious—a small group of family and friends; or the people I work with—but this is a gaming column. I figured I’d use this space today to talk about how video games helped me navigate through the pandemic and even connect with those that matter most.

My pandemic gaming journey started with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This game came out at the perfect time. The world was going through a toilet paper shortage, grocery store shelves were barren and nobody knew if it was safe to go to work or hug family members.

For me, Animal Crossing was a space that I could have some semblance of normal. I could hang out with friends, have a (not super filling) picnic or relax on the beach. It was a space where I could have a digital vacation and maybe even pick up a new hobby or two by collecting fish or bugs.

Animal Crossing is best described as a social simulation game, and although I’ve always thought it was a cute game, I’ve never had a huge interest in playing it. This is mostly because simulation games can’t really keep my attention for a long period of time, but because of New Horizons’ release, I didn’t really have a lot else to do.

I quickly fell in love with New Horizons as I discovered a new way to feel emotionally connected with my friends. We could go on picnics, catch bugs together and even hang out after work by a fire.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was an easy way to enjoy the comforts of social activities from the safety of my home. I celebrated holidays like Thanksgiving, Halloween and Easter with friends outside of my cohort in Animal Crossing and I don’t know how else I would have experienced that connection without the game.

From holidays to parties

But while Animal Crossing allowed me to experience intimate social settings, life isn’t just a series of holidays and beach picnics. There’s also regular parties or spending time with friends on weekends.

That’s where Among Us—one of the most talked about games of the year—shines.

It was challenging to spend any time on the internet this summer without hearing even a little bit about Among Us. The indie social game is similar to the types of games I would play with friends at board game cafes. 

Among Us is most similar to games like Werewolf or Secret Hitler, where one or more players are secretly eliminating other players while trying to convince everybody else they’re just a regular part of the crew.

I would gather with up to 10 friends almost every weekend—and still quite often months later—and we’d play hours of games. We usually started with Among Us, but as our group got smaller we might play other party games. Games like Jackbox Party Pack or Fall Guys are great party games to keep the fun going, without having to keep tabs on a large group of people. 

Fall Guys especially,  because even though you only need two other friends to play, you’ll always get grouped with up to 60 other players from around the world, all competing to defeat a wacky obstacle course.

While Animal Crossing kept me smiling, party games like Among Us kept me laughing and testing how much I knew about my friends.

A beautiful escape

But my COVID-19 gaming journey doesn’t end with multiplayer games. The pandemic has been unbearably isolating at times, but sometimes I find the best way to escape is to experience a breathtaking story or world alone.

Last week I talked about this a bit with Final Fantasy VII Remake, but that wasn’t the only game I got lost in for hours. I’ve also been moved by other stories and found myself diving deep into worlds I might not have experienced if I didn’t have so much time on my hands.

The pandemic allowed me to dive into the Assassin’s Creed series again. Leading up to the release of Valhalla, I replayed Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a game that I sunk at least 120 hours this fall. 

I also got to experience Assassin’s Creed Origins for the first time. I initially overlooked Origins, but free time gave me a chance to dive deeper into the lore of Assassin’s Creed and Origins was a game that provided even more content so I could understand the story going into Valhalla.

And the pandemic also allowed me to reconnect with my backlog of games. I played through more than a dozen games I had picked up on Xbox 360 or even older generations of games that I might have missed because of school or lack of attention.

The COVID-19 pandemic might have taken a lot away from us, but one thing I’m thankful for is the way I was able to reconnect with gaming.