Most significant cons:
- The game has WAY too many logical problems, primarily due to the player-character's abillity to turn back time. For example, it works perfectly during most of the mundane encounters you have, but it inconveniently stops working in crucial moments to increase the dramatic flair of the story. Generally, it's just used to solve boring puzzles or lazily move the story forward.
- Don't be fooled by the "choices" you get to make to influence the story. The entire game comes down to one binary choice, so none of the countless other decisions you make actually matter.
- The voice acting is subpar at best and cringeworthy at worst. A lot of the dialogue is clearly written from out-of-touch adults trying to sound like kids.
- There's not a lot of gameplay aside from walking around and clicking, but that's just not really my cup of tea, so it may not be a con for you.

Most significant pros:
- The best thing about the game is the murder/kidnapping mystery subplot. That's the biggest thing that kept me playing all the way through. Unfortunately, I don't think it's enough for me to recommend the game.
- The first episode is pretty good, and starts the series off in a promising way.
- Some moments and surprising plot points are very interesting.

All in all, I'd say you'd be better off watching a playthrough if you're really curious about the story.

I was expecting to enjoy this game for a bit of fun, but it ended up being one of my favorites of all time.

Pros:
- Puzzles are fun and challenging.
- Graphics are good and the worlds are very pretty to look at.
- Philosophical elements of the narrative are very well-integrated to the rest of the game and the story.
- Voice acting (where it exists) is solid.
- Story is very unique and unforgettable.
- Soundtrack is beautiful and relaxing.

Cons:
- Some of the puzzles are a little too challenging. But that's all part of the fun!

If you like puzzle games, particularly those similar to Portal and Portal 2, this game is an absolute must-play.

Pros:
- In terms of gameplay, it's very smooth (the trusty Source engine never fails) and easy to learn while also being fun. The game can also run perfectly even on low-end machines.
- Obviously, the game is primarily based around its puzzles. They are always fun to solve and the progression of difficulty is perfect. The puzzles and the various gameplay mechanics (portal gun, reflection cubes, light bridges, etc.) are extremely simple concepts to grasp, yet the puzzles can still be challenging enough for the game to avoid being too easy. (It's never too difficult, either.)
- The dialogue is fantastically written. It's hilarious and at times, touching. This is probably one of the best-written games ever. It's near the top of the list, at least.
- The voice acting is one of my favorite parts about the game. Seriously, it's spot-on. There aren't many characters that have a speaking voice in the game (right now, only 4 or 5 come to my mind), but every single voice role in the game is perfectly cast. GlaDOS' voice actress gets a lot of deserved praise, but I feel that the real star is Wheatley (voiced by the impeccable Stephen Merchant). The speech/personalities/voices of the characters make them ALL extremely likable.
- The plot progression perfectly balances exposition through the characters' speech and through exploring/observing the environments on your own, which gives the game's setting a much more realistic (and ominous) vibe.
- The cooperative multiplayer is very creative and requires participation and communication between you and your partner. It's certainly not just a lazy re-hashing of the single player campaign. (ahem Call of Duty spec ops missions ahem)
- The story seems rather simplistic at first, but deepens over time at a reasonable pace. The ending is also satisfying (which I feel is abnormal for a lot of story-driven games these days).

Cons:
- Nothing negative immediately stands out to me, but if I HAD to pick something I don't like about the game, I'd say that the loading times are too frequent. There's a loading screen almost every time you progress from puzzle to puzzle, but the good news is that they're not too lengthy, so this complaint is very minor.
- It feels like it's over too soon. (The length of the game is perfectly fine, but you'll never want it to end.)

Overall, I definitely recommend this game to ANYONE who plays games. I'd even go so far as to call it a must-play. (If you never played the first one, that's fine. You don't need to, and if you want to catch up with the story, a Wiki plot summary does the job just fine.) Portal 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, so just buy it already!

A sequel that exceeds its first game by so much in every single aspect that it feels weird to even consider this a sequel in anything other than name. It has so much to say about artists, artistry, and many other themes that I won't spoil here. In every other Remedy game I've played, there are so many signs of great potential, but equally potent fumbles holding them back from true greatness. This game feels like the dev team has finally figured out how to focus on what they are experts at while leaving the rest behind, and the results speak for themselves. It may not be flawless, but the overall experience is unlike any other game I've played. This is one of those games that still lives rent-free in my mind months after completing it, and I imagine it will stay there for a very long time.

This is pretty much the textbook definition of a 6/10 game, but I wouldn't be surprised to see many lower scores from other players. The gameplay is incredibly basic for a third-person shooter with a few extra abilities added in for some spice, and it's clear that Remedy was more focused on the story and cinematics. Four episodes of a live action TV show that tell part of the story may have been a novel idea, and I applaud them for being so bold as to do that in the first place, but...well, I'll just say this: thank goodness they decided not to do that again in their later games. I know Microsoft approached them to make this one, so maybe it was their idea? It would fit with the philosophy of the marketing for the Xbox One at the time ("it's not just for games").

At the end of the day, I found this to be a satisfying experience, albeit the ending feels really anticlimactic. It's interesting to see the various aspects that the devs would expound upon for Control and Alan Wake 2, as well.

What can I say that hasn't been said many times before? The writing is top tier. The voice acting is great. The choices you make have surprisingly big effects on how the plot plays out. The entire middle act of the game is totally different if you side with Roche instead of Iorveth or vice versa. The art style is interesting even if the graphics haven't aged all that well. The gameplay is passable. Just buy it and play it, ideally before The Witcher 3. But even if you've already played TW3, this game is still definitely worth your time.

This game is definitely worth checking out. The dated gameplay makes it a little difficult to wholeheartedly recommend, but the story is interesting. Although I would argue even that aspect is dated to some degree for reasons that would spoil the experience. It's better to view this game in the context of when it was released - 2012, at an enormous high point for other shooters such as CoD and Battlefield in their skyrocketing popularity, when it was still tons of fun to shoot through hordes of mindless NPCs in service of progressing the "help the good guys, stop the bad guys" plotlines. You do the exact same thing in this game, but this time the game makes it clear that your comrades really don't want to be doing it, which gives the story a layer of self-awareness that was sorely lacking in the AAA shooters of its time.

I understand this game has a somewhat small yet very dedicated fanbase who love this game for what it is, and that's great, but I do believe it was a tad overhyped for me as a result. As I said, it's still worth playing even if only because it won't demand much of your time. (On the lowest difficulty, it took me only 4.7 hours.) Overall, despite its dated factors, it is still an interesting case of a mid-budget game with some creative and risky choices in an oversaturated genre. I wish we got more like it.

(Played on both PS5 and PC.)

Pros:
- Amazing soundtrack. Mick Gordon gets a ton of well-deserved credit for his compositions, but don't downplay David Levy and Andrew Hulshult's tracks for the DLCs, either. They did a stellar job.
- The level design is solid and the environments are beautifully designed. They enhance the scale of the game by a huge margin.
- The combat loop is demanding to learn, but addicting to master. It gives the entire game a level of replayability that few games have these days. The skill ceiling is insanely high - just check out any montage on YouTube. This point alone makes the game worth the asking price.
- Basically every aspect is highly polished. You can tell the devs put a huge amount of care and effort into everything. There are bugs, but the devs pay attention to community feedback and communicate a lot about what they're working on and the reasoning behind it. (Shout out to Hugo Martin.)

Cons:
- Multiplayer (Battlemode) is....kind of weird. I don't really know how to feel about it. Sometimes it's a ton of fun but sometimes it's frustrating. Maybe I'm just bad.
- No snapmap, but that was never really my speed anyway. Feels like I should point it out for those who liked it in Doom 2016.
- Storytelling and presentation aren't as memorable or special as they were in Doom 2016. I still think Eternal is the vastly superior game, though.

Four more points in conclusion:

1. This game is insanely fun if you actively pay attention to what it tries to teach you. Many people were turned off by it because, unlike Doom 2016, you can't just spam the super shotgun at everything and win. You have to think about the best approach for every combat encounter.

2. The DLCs (The Ancient Gods Part 1 and 2) are mandatory to play if you want the best content the game has to offer, and if you want the conclusion of the story. This could be considered a con for some, but the content is so dope that I don't care about spending more money for it.

3. This game is way better than The Last of Us Part 2.

4. Come join us and enter the fun zone.

This could easily be a 5/5 if you view the base game and both DLCs as a whole cohesive package.

Pentiment is a fantastic interactive visual novel. Everything about it oozes passion and creativity. The story is extremely page-turning.

One of my favorite aspects about it is that there are a lot of "persuasion checks" in the game that aren't blatantly shown to you, and you'll probably see "THIS WILL BE REMEMBERED" a lot of times when you won't expect it. The game essentially demands that you think carefully about the characters you speak with - consider their motivations, personalities, beliefs, and so on. From what I understand, the differing pathways don't have a large effect on where the story ultimately leads, but it still made the game feel like a much more interactive, organic experience than most narrative driven games.

If you're a fan of this type of thing, you will not want to miss this game!

Disclaimer: I have only played this game on easy, so that may have affected my enjoyment of the game slightly.

I feel like this game is overrated by a lot of reviewers, but it is a pretty decent game to scratch that Uncharted-type itch. If you're a fan of third person action/adventure games with mild puzzles and a lot of enemies to shoot, this game is for you. I wish there weren't as many enemies spammed at you, though.

Plus the voice acting is pretty mediocre overall. None of the performances stood out to me as being particularly awful or great.