Immaculate 3D platforming with a moveset so nuanced and satisfying that it's only rivaled by Mario 64 and Odyssey. A mysterious world with some of the most attractive low-poly artwork I've seen in a throwback indie. Music that brings out true childlike wonder. Everything in Pseudoregalia comes together so perfectly that it's heartbreaking as you start to recognize the one element so non-functional that it tears everything else down: navigation.

I took 3 times as long as everyone else on this one because it is utterly brutal if you have a poor sense of direction. I entered rooms again and again and there's nothing to stop you or indicate that you've been somewhere before or if you're moving backwards through something. This goes on and on and on and even after cheating and looking up maps online I still ended up having the same problems again and again. Unlocking shortcuts is a punishment as it just adds more paths you might accidentally walk down. I feel so defeated by this aspect of the game, and it's not like I can't handle other metroidvanias that don't have maps when they take care to make the flow of the gameworld direct you around and have numerous landmarks. Beyond the blue ivy which often shows platforms which you can get to, there's very little doing that job. I honestly wanted to cry. If you have a bad sense of direction and/or memory, use a map or wait for one to be patched in like the developer has mentioned they'll do.

I'll probably add another star or so if they add a well-implemented map system or otherwise make finding your way around not a massive chore. There's so much to love here and I truly hope to see this polished into something incredible.

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if this game came out in 1998 Sybil would have more pieces of pornographic art of them on mid 2000s deviantart than there are grains of sand on the earth. All humans alive today would be furries.

Wants to handle Blade Runner / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep style questioning, while also drawing parallels to The Queer Experience. Everyone wants to know what it's like to be you, because you're not normal. Has queer characters in spades. Substitutes jaded Eastern European leftism for youthful, cautious optimism.

Suffers from the limitations of the scope, it can feel like the Big Defining Moments for culture on the station just kind of... don't have anything change. The struggle part quickly fades past a certain point, and it turns into a more regular-feeling VN after that point. Doesn't inter-weave as much as it feels like it should.

I'm too old to be part of this game's demographic, but I can imagine it's a damn good time for kids in class and if it came out at the right time in my life, I probably would've obsessed over it. Krunker is fast and twitchy and has loads of custom content to constantly recontextualize and add variety to what is, at its base, a solid and skillful set of mechanics which feel fantastic from the moment you figure out how to bhop.

Unfortunately, I stopped playing soon after starting. The moment it started trying to sell me on NFT nonsense, I was out. As much fun as this is, it's not worth the moral hit of adding to the playerbase of a game pushing something that evil. I'm not sure how to give a score to something where my only negative thoughts come from the monetization scheme and not the bare experience of playing the game, so I'll leave this unrated.

I had a whole review written out and it accidentally got deleted. At first that just took the wind out of my sails, but I think if I want to be true to the game I need to get up and go back out there again. Push bouldy back up, yknow?

One thing that keeps popping back up in my mind is that Hades fills a similar role as something like 12 Angry Men, where much of the appeal lies in the player's awe at the sheer perfectionism on display. Every single element is placed exactly where it needs to be to accomplish what the game set out to do. Hades is a game of masters joining together to prove their mastery together by creating a game which displays such prowess in every element of game development that you can't help but love it. It will continue to top GOAT lists for a very long time not from innovation or historical importance, but because of a sort of generalized high quality which seeps into each and every piece of this experience.

That's not to say that Hades is a dry vehicle for showcasing technical skill, though. No, the game is built with so much love and care for the really touchy thematic territory it explores. Abuse, and the politics and emotions of forgiveness, endless cycles and finding joy within them (is there any wonder you befriend Sisyphus so quickly?) are the bigger ones, but that's far from all there is. Supergiant's work here is just oozing with things to say and delicate issues to explore. I chose to write this review at the credits, and I know that there is quite a bit left to do, so I won't make any statements too concrete about these since there's a good chance I haven't seen large amounts of the relevant material. I do find myself wondering if its views on forgiveness and moving on suggest an outlook which is too dismissive of those who cut off toxic and abusive family, but I find so much textual evidence going in very different directions that I'm not fully sure how to sort that out. Needless to say, I believe that the hearts of the writers are in the right place, I only wonder if they stumble here.

Other than that, it echoes Dark Souls, Gurren Lagann, and even "The Myth of Sisyphus" with probably the most important principle I've taken from art and used in my own life. This thought is the secret thread that connects nearly everything that resonates with me, so I just want to end lingering on it:

Life is found in hot blooded defiance against the inevitable.

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Played on Linux using Proton.