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.

I hate to be in the minority of people on this planet who don't absolutely fawn over this game, but it's just not for me. I'm not big on management sims, and the subgenre of "video games that have a lot of minigames packed into them" never interested me. I was really enjoying it for the first 10 or so hours, but it fell off hard for me after that. I wasn't able to finish the main story before becoming bored.

With all that said, this game certainly has a lot of heart and soul, especially in the character design and animations. And I can see why lots of people really like it. So you should probably just ignore me in this sea of thumbs-up reviews. I'm the one out of ten dentists who doesn't recommend your favorite toothpaste.

(I don't usually rate games that I abandon, but considering I put over 20 hours into it and got pretty close to the end, I felt that this was justified.)

Sam Barlow does it again. And by that I mean he presents a very unique, memorable experience that has many excellent aspects to it but is frustratingly held back by a few utterly horrible aspects.

The cardinal sin of this game is that the gameplay starts and ends with you randomly clicking on items and characters in hopes that you get a new scene, along with scrubbing some clips in reverse, forward, reverse again. For the first several hours, it's actually really easy to get new scenes, and this isn't a big deal. But after a certain point, it gets MUCH harder. You have to start going back through footage you've already seen a dozen times and blindly clicking every object you didn't think to click earlier. I can actually forgive the bizarre UI because it does add something of a nice touch to the immersion, but the core "gameplay" becomes severely frustrating the longer you stick with it. Immortality is really all about its story-beneath-the-story, so I would love it if the game actually let me see the damn thing without forcing me to throw ♥♥♥♥ at the wall and hope it sticks.

And yet, for those first several hours...I was really enjoying this! I firmly believe this is Sam Barlow's best game overall. The acting and cinematography are great. The secret clips make the game way more creepy and intriguing as soon as you hit your first one. The game had me sticking to my screen for hours, clicking and scrubbing like a madman just to keep finding more clips! Honestly I'll keep buying and playing Barlow's games because they're always challenging in several ways (some good, some bad). But the important thing is that no one else is making games like these, and that's great for games as art.

My recommended method of playing this interactive movie is to find as many clips as you can, find as many secret clips as you can (the game helps you find at least a few of them quite well), see the ending (which is possible only if you find enough secrets), and then go on YouTube to watch all the other secret clips you missed. That way, you get the meat and potatoes of the experience and also minimize the frustration that comes with the endgame.

(This would have been 3.5 stars were it not for the awful repetition in the last few hours.)

Very addicting and hard to put down. If you're into turn-based tactics, you should play this.
It's also perfect for the Steam Deck; I won't be uninstalling it from mine any time soon.

Update, 80 hours after writing my initial review: this game is phenomenal. Very rarely does it feel like the game's rogue-lite randomization causes me to lose a run or take a lot of grid damage; and even in those cases it's most likely my own fault for not sufficiently planning ahead. The combat puzzle is brilliantly designed and deceptively complex. Allow the game to welcome you into the rules on Easy mode, finish a few runs, then bump up the difficulty to Normal and watch the magic happen - both with the game itself and within your own mind as you gradually reshape the way you play (by necessity).

Marking it as Shelved here, because I definitely plan on returning to it at some point in the future.

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!

Played this on PC with a PS4 controller, which is obviously not what the devs intended but I think even if I had a Steam Deck, it wouldn't have improved the experience all that much.

Honestly I didn't really enjoy this game. Like, at all. It literally is just a tech demo for the Steam Deck, and I was expecting a bit more of an actual game to go with it. Turns out it's just a glorified turret shooter that has about 20% gameplay and 80% cutscenes. Also, the comedic writing and voice acting isn't up to par for this franchise, although JK Simmons still kills it as Cave Johnson 11 years after Portal 2's release.

The ONLY reasons I recommend it are because it gives some new lore for the Portal story, it's free, and it's very short.

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.