Primarily, this is a game about delivering packages. On the surface, that sounds pretty boring. At least, you may think, there are also some combat encounters that bring some spice into an otherwise bland gameplay loop.
But what if I told you, that those encounters are literally the worst parts of the game? Not awful, but also certainly not great.

So what is it about this game then, that makes so many people hold it in such high regard? It's literally walking from point A to point B with some cargo strapped to your back! Are people stupid?

No. You're the problem. You just don't get it. But that's fine, you haven't played the game yet! And I'm here to hopefully give you an idea about what makes this game so great, even though it has one of the lamest core gameplay ideas ever.

First of all, this game is completely absurd. It has the most original post-apocalyptic setting I've ever seen coupled with a lot of 'immersive' mechanics, that combine to give you truly unique and memorable moments. I'll give you an example which includes minor spoilers:
First of all, in this game, you need to pee. And you also have a stamina bar. Now, if your stamina bar is low enough, due to exhaustion or something (I don't know I'm not a doctor) you will get hematuria, meaning you'll pee blood. Now there are also the so called BT's. Souls of the dead that have failed to move on from the world of the living and are now stuck there. Because the protagonist Sam is a repatriate, meaning he'll get revived once he dies, the BT's react adversely to his blood. You probably see where I'm going with this.
Instead of pulling out your good old blood guns and blood grenades, you can simply whip out your willy and let loose! The BT's will run away in horror! Kojima truly is a genius...

Moments like these are pretty cool, but on their own they are not enough to make a great game. That is achieved by it's core gameplay. I know it sounds stupid, but travelling from point A to point B in this game actually kind of rocks.
In part, this is due to the immaculate atmosphere of the game world.
It looks beautiful, it sounds great, and sometimes, to top it all off, an amazing song kicks in. Being on the home stretch to your destination after a long and tiring journey, with a wonderful song carrying you to safety, nothing like it...
The other part is the online cooperation aspect of this game. Essentially, signs and structures built by other players can show up in other worlds to aid you on your journey. Likewise, the things you build can help other players. You and other players can also share ressources either by outright putting them into public lockers, or donating them to structures, which then can be upgraded. No one delivery man can gather enough resources to build the gadgets, roads and structures necessary for successfully traversing the post-apocalyptic wasteland, but together, everyone can help everyone else make their journies a lot easier. It gives a nice sense of community to an otherwise pretty lonely game.

These two things together make the on the surface pretty boring task of delivering cargo actually enjoyable.

I also think the story is pretty cool and the diverse range of tools, structures and vehicles at your disposal to make deliveries make for engaging gameplay.

Indiana Jones but if it was a videogame and also all the antagonists are braindead bullet sponges and the protagonist is the most athletically undynamic oaf the world has ever seen. Also, the higher the difficulty, the more unbearable these issues become. It is still mostly fine though.

The story is quite fun and the characters are very charming.

Fundamentally, this game has the same structure that every subsequent Naughty Dog game until today would have, meaning linear level design with combat encounters, puzzles, varying companions and cutscenes. Unfortunately, it is not able to realize that structure's full potential.
It is interesting however, to see this lackluster version of the game design philosophy, which would go on to lay the foundation of one of the greatest runs of video game releases a developer studio ever managed pulled off.

i had my doubts about this game when it was announced. i felt that the last of us aged reasonably well, so remaking it just seemed like a waste of resources.
but after playing through the last of us part 1 i can confidently say that this is the 3rd best experience i ever had with any video game, only surpassed by the last of us pt 2 and the original last of us.
yeah i know i wish i wasn't such an absolutely insane sucker for naughty dog either, but i just cant help it. last of us games simply always get me emotionally invested into them in a way which no other game seems to be able to replicate.

apart from graphics, there are two major ways in which this game improves upon the original last of us:

the first is gameplay. it's pretty much just the gameplay from tlou p2, meaning way better ai, weapons that feel amazing to use and somewhat unsettling yet satisfying gore effects. it is incredibly intense and gratifying.
the original tlou had pretty good gameplay too, but this really took it up a notch.

the second area is facial animations. now this seems like a minor thing, but i was really surprised by how much these new animations enhanced every cutscene.
for example, the opening of the game never really got me that emotional. but this time, with the new facial animations? that shit broke my heart man... the characters emotions are simply so much more real and intense.

all in all, this game, with its vast improvements upon the original, gave me an experience i never thought to be possible:
it felt like i was playing my favorite game of all time for the first time again.

10/10

for the most part, this game is just your standard run of the mill sony open world game. there is nothing bad about it, but there is also nothing in which the game uniquely excels. almost.
because this game is just insanely beautiful. most of my favorite moments from playing this game are just me standing on a cliff with an incredible view and slowly panning the camera around! and then in the last act of the game you even unlock an ability which enables you to appreciate the beauty of the world in an entirely new way! i don't even want to spoil it because its so amazing!
apart from that i just want to add that i found the story in this game to be quite disappointing. the story of the first horizon was surprisingly good, so i expected a little more. because while this game's story starts off really interesting, it kind of loses its intrigue towards the end. also why is aloy so bland? she has incredibly sick hair ill give her that, but maybe she could also try growing some character.

this game has a beautiful open world, a 10/10 story featuring a 10/10 cast of characters (most games don't even manage to write one intriguing character, this game has like 10 of them), and the absolutely most boring gameplay i have ever had the displeasure of sitting through. it's insultingly plain and expects pretty much no thinking from the player. press l2 aim on head press r2 enemy dead ok now do that for the next 50 hours with absolutely no variety, just dreadful.

an amazing open world that is an unforgettable blast to explore, filled with amazing side activities - until you realize that you'll be doing the same activites with meagre changes in every single area. they're still better than the industry standard tho, and the world the side activities find themselves in is still breathtaking.
the legacy dungeons, so the areas that are like previous soulsborne games with elevator shortcuts and stuff like that, are easily among the best fromsoft has ever come up with.
the bosses are kinda dissappointing. they are deliberately designed in a way where it's borderline impossible to dodge some attacks, sometimes due to the attack itself, but more often due to the boss having zero recovery time after finishing their combo, meaning you dodge their whole combo, go for an attack, and they immediately start up their next attack, catching you in your assault. if i made a top 10 soulsborne bosses list before and after elden ring, i wouldn't need to change anything about it. also like half the boss roster appears like a dozen times in different settings throughout the game, which just takes away from their "main" boss fight. there are still some pretty great boss fights here though.
all in all, some parts, especially while exploring the world, felt like 11/10 the greatest game of all time, and some parts, especially late game bosses, left a lasting bitter taste in my mouth. still 10/10 because amazing experience but there is not a single soulsborne game i'd want to replay less than elden ring

glorious, ridiculous over the top action coupled with a soundtrack that doesn't just slap, but a soundtrack that fucking kills. story and characters are really cheesy sometimes but in a endearing and humorous manner, and despite that the story's themes are still somewhat interesting to think about. really good game!!

new vegas has hideous visuals that look absolutely awful even for a 7th generation videogame and atrocious gameplay which is a drag on the whole experience everytime you play it, and despite all of that, it is still a great game.
this game features multiple amazingly written characters, so much that i actually enjoyed clicking through every last option of the dialogue tree, it also has an interesting and engaging plot as well as some very enjoyable sidequests. my favorite part about it is the freedom of choice you have, because you can really do pretty much everything you set your mind to. from sadistic psychopath to boring ass bureaucrat, the game has appropriate reactions for every path you choose to go down, and depending on what that path may be, the world of new vegas and your own story can spin off into lots of vastly different directions. if you can look past clicking on one enemy for way too long until he finally falls over with your body not even producing a tiny bit of dopamine in the process for 50% of the time you play this game, go ahead and give it a try.

an absolute slapper of a game: creative idea, great execution. being an inspector for a tyrannical government might not be noble or healthy, but it sure is memorable

This game doesn't have an insanely detailed open world, it doesn't have complex or satisfying gameplay mechanics, it has one of those stories that you'll only understand after watching youtube videos about it, but it's still incredibly memorable. Shadow of the Colossus uses the few things it actually has so effectively, that it still managed to surprise and mesmerize me for most of its runtime. If you're fine with rather abstract games, and still haven't played it up until now, go for it.

Dark Souls is the most unique game i've ever played, because it can be a masterpiece just as well as it can be exruciatingly awful. This is why i'd recommend this game to anyone, because it is an experience unlike anything else.

Gameplay which improves and expands upon its predecessor. A story which keeps the same major theme of the first game, that of people being led by their strongest emotions in a world where they have nothing else left, but shifting the focus from love to hate, aswell as elegantly tying the loose ends from the first game together. Although it has quite apparent flaws, they weren't bad enough to bring down the experience as a whole for me.

I know that for most people this game is more of a meme than anything else, because it's community is full of children, or because every game is riddled with bugs and extremely clunky to play, and all of that is true! This game is pretty stupid, but it's stupid in a good way. Literally everytime I have ever played this game I had a good time, and all of that for the low low price of exactly nothing. i can't really give it less than a 10/10 for that.

Hollow Knight doesn't necessarily reinvent the wheel in any of it's major aspects like gameplay, level design and story, but it still manages to retain such an exceptionally high level of quality across all of them, that i'd still recommend it to anyone who is comfortable enough with challenging videogames.