In contrast to my protracted ramblings on prior Geneforge games, my thoughts on Geneforge 4 are quite uncomplicated. It's simply the most imaginative, well paced and most tightly designed Geneforge game. After three games of build up the Great Rebellion is finally here and with it comes an rpg conceptualised as a military campaign rather than just an adventure. Despite time and space ballooning to cover half a continent instead of an island, the pacing is brisk. Conceptualising the Player as a soldier of dubious loyalties rushing to the last Rebel base at their lowest point gives its linearity an affirming forward momentum instead of the typical back and forth meandering endemic to this genre. Accompanying it is a more assymetric and 'unfair' approach to difficulty where obstacles are almost guaranteed to annihilate you if approach conventionally. Neary every region is a distinct macro puzzle that initially seems insurmountable, the many minefields of Ilya Province for instance, until you press every single advantage and play as nasty as the opposition. There was nothing more cathartic than killing the mad leader of the Fens, Monarch, after a long and gruelling advance against his endlessly respawning minions. And despite this being the fourth entry in the series, or maybe because of that, the stage by stage level design is of the highest quality thus far and tightly edited in ways foreign to most rpgs. There are are more creative ideas and encounters packed in Ilya Province than there are in all of Starfield's cosmos. Its crazy how Vogel drew new life out of the same backgrounds and sprites he's been using for a decade but that's Geneforge 4 in a nutshell. Notwithstanding all of its other virtues, its deliciously pulpy and gritty tone, late game twists, it is its mastery over its own withered technology that make it among the best rpgs I've played. Geneforge 4 is the triumph of design over technology.