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.

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.

The perfect game for those who like scouring the entire map for secrets and collectibles, and with fun platforming and items to boot. When I accidentally figured out you could do that with the frisbee, I was hooked. Billy Basso packed so much creative energy into this project and it shows all the way through. My biggest complaint is that most of the puzzles are pretty easy, but the few remaining in the endgame are extremely cryptic or hidden in niche places that I totally forgot about. Animal Well demands that you take notes along the way. Or use a walkthrough, like I did. (No shame!)

(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.

This game had been on my wishlist ever since it was released, and I only just got around to playing it in 2022. I knew it was supposed to be good, but...I'm shocked at just how much I enjoyed this.

Set your expectations accordingly - it's basically a movie with the odd bit of combat here and there, as well as some walking sim sections that rely on solving basic puzzles. The gameplay isn't anything outstanding, but the storytelling definitely is. The sound design and visual presentation of this game are genuinely incredible. I was absolutely blown away at many points throughout the game, often just having to sit back for a bit after a cutscene ended to collect my thoughts and say "...that was so good." The ending is also very powerful. It isn't a perfect story, but it's phenomenal at depicting a deeply troubled person's introspective journey and for that reason I was easily able to overlook the flaws. Also, there's the fact that there are so many aspects to this experience that were downright necessary to get correct such as the sound design, the main character's performance, the visuals, and the informed/careful examination of what it's like to have psychosis. I believe Ninja Theory nailed all of those things.

It's easy to tell that the devs put all of their creative energy and imagination into this. I almost wish it were a movie so that certain friends and family members of mine who don't play games would be able to experience it. It's definitely not for everyone, but it deserves a chance in my opinion. Go into it as blind as you can, sit back, and enjoy the experience.

This one will stick with me for a long 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.

Like the base game, if you are even somewhat intrigued by Outer Wilds and/or its DLC, STOP READING and just buy it. I can almost guarantee you will love it. I would also recommend playing through the entire base game before purchasing/installing Echoes of the Eye. This DLC is clearly intended to be played near the end of your time with the base game, after you have learned about all the major plot points and uncovered nearly all of the mysteries. If you install the DLC, there is a chance you might accidentally stumble upon it before the devs intended.

Echoes of the Eye introduces a singular new major area in the solar system to explore, and it's genuinely mind blowing how cleverly designed the entire thing is. You could say the same about the base game, but consider the fact that the DLC took me about 12 hours to complete (compared to the base game's 22 hours) - that speaks volumes about the level of challenge and the content that is packed in here. The story is a wonderful expansion on the lore and progresses amazingly, capped off with an ending that is sure to tug at your heartstrings. As is the case with the ending of the base game, the ending of the DLC doesn't have a traditionally satisfying conclusion, but if you really give it some thought and time to ponder over, I think you'll find that it couldn't have been more fitting of a conclusion.

Now, I would be remiss to avoid addressing the 2 major elephants in the room about Echoes of the Eye. The game explicitly warns you about scary moments and gives you the option to tone them down if you wish. There is absolutely no shame in doing this. The scariness certainly enhanced the experience for me, but I also experimented with the "fewer frights" setting enabled and it really won't make that much of a difference to your overall enjoyment of the DLC.

The second elephant is a certain shift in gameplay that comes alongside these scarier moments. I know they frustrated me after a while, as they did with many players out there. I would simply suggest to you to think outside the box. I was shocked when I discovered from online guides the easy ways I could have simply bypassed the more difficult and frustrating parts. Just keep this general rule in mind: if you feel like you're banging your head against a wall and not making progress even when it feels like you should be able to, maybe you just need to explore elsewhere and do something else first.

I'll leave it at that, but don't be too ashamed if you need a guide or a hint to nudge you in the right direction. This is a challenging game at times, and the DLC only ramps up the challenge. Regardless of its arguable shortcomings, I still think Echoes of the Eye is mandatory to experience if you enjoyed Outer Wilds. Highly recommended.

- Bracketeering is just okay. It only really works if you have more than 4 players in total. It seems like the point of the game is to try to make people argue with each other for votes but none of the prompts are intense or controversial enough to elicit such responses.

- Survive the Internet is fantastic. It provides so many opportunities to take your friends' words out of context and twist them in hilarious ways.

- Monster Seeking Monster is only fun if the players you're with are all decently close friends. Otherwise I'm sure it would just get awkward...

- Civic Doodle is decent fun. I like the concept of players adding on to each other's drawings and eventually getting something abhorrently funny.

- Fibbage 3 is the best version of the game so far. Not that this is a very important factor but the visuals are 10/10. The gameplay itself is the same Fibbage you know and love, but there is another mode called Enough About You where the players make the questions and answer them about themselves. It provides a hugely entertaining twist on an already great formula.

Overall, I would say this is my second favorite Jackbox Party Pack (behind the 3rd one). Definitely worth buying.

- Guesspionage is decent fun. It's just about guessing percentages but some of the results are pretty surprising. Honestly I think the population of people that Jackbox surveyed wasn't a good sample size, though. Some of the results are downright unbelievable.

- Tee K.O. is hit or miss. It can be very fun if you are playing with people who can think quickly and draw somewhat creatively on the spot. That's the problem with it - for drawing the pictures and thinking of captions, you are given absolutely no guidance. The game literally just tells you to draw fun pictures and think of random slogans. But the real magic happens when you get to pair a slogan with a picture. It can result in some pretty hilarious moments.

- Trivia Murder Party is fantastic. A relatively straightforward trivia game with a twist that's not as confusing as You Don't Know Jack (for noobs and the elderly - this is from my experience anyway).

- Faking It is very good. As long as your players understand how the game works and you all agree to not say anything out loud until the secret prompt is revealed on the TV screen. It's especially fun if you're a good liar.

- Quiplash 2 is my personal favorite game and is really what sells this pack for me. It provides so much room for creativity and humor with just the right amount of guidance with regards to the prompts it gives you. Not to mention the alternate mode where players can submit their own prompts!

Overall, I would say this is my favorite Jackbox Party Pack. 3 of the games are downright great (Faking It, Trivia Murder Party, and Quiplash 2). The other 2 are pretty good and definitely far from bad (Guesspionage and Tee K.O.).

As a newcomer to this style of isometric, turn-based RPGs, I was a huge fan of D:OS1. I am an even bigger fan of this sequel.

The story, characters, side quests, personal quests - all of these come together in an absolutely beautiful way from start to finish. The overarching plot is phenomenal with so many twists and turns that it would be very difficult for any individual player to predict all of them. (You don't need to have played the previous game to understand what's going on, but it will certainly boost your experience to notice all the fun callbacks. It's humorously ironic that in the first game, the main characters were Source hunters, and in this one they are Sourcerors!)

But what sets this game apart from all other RPGs is its tactical combat. I played through the whole game on Classic (the second highest difficulty) and for me, someone who had played the first game twice, I found it incredibly challenging in certain points, especially in the final act. It honestly drove me to frustration at several enemy encounters. I unashamedly used cheesing guides and walkthroughs to know what I had to do to succeed and you will probably need to do this as well. This is basically part of the Larian experience! If this sounds like a turnoff to you, consider playing on the second lowest difficulty (Explorer). In my opinion, this is the ideal way to experience the game for the first time as it still requires you to use a certain degree of tactical thinking but it will never feel overwhelmingly difficult for the most part. Despite my personal frustrations, I found the entire game to be a deeply rewarding experience.

Basically every other aspect is flawless, from the writing, voice acting, and general polish. Ultimately this game is not for everyone, but to anyone who is seeking a great story with a decent challenge that will never hold your hand, this game is exactly what you're looking for. Just play it and back Original Sin 3 when it inevitably goes on Kickstarter!