System Shock 2 is bullshit. It has bad design, too little resources for the player to survive and a story that the player is discouraged to learn about. System Shock 2 is a masterpiece. It has some of the most revolutionary in a game I've ever seen, terrifying moments that feel like you're bearly getting by with what you have an atmosphere and monster design that's genuinely terrifying and makes the player want to learn more about the story and world. This game is so weird, so counterintuitive that I think it's THE BEST horror game ever made.

I didn't know this game was a horror game going in. I thought it would be more like the first Bioshock where there are horror elements and does have a lot of dark subject matter but doesn't try to scare the player with it. I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong. When you're in that one section on the cargo bay and those robot things start running up to you and chasing you I was genuinely scared shitless, it then hit me that this game was a straight up horror game. This moment was topped by others like when I was being chased down by a few creatures and I turned to my left and there was a rumbler colliding right into me that came out of nowhere. That genuinely made me pause the game and go "yeah I think I had enough for tonight". Or the second last chapter of the game, that part is disgusting and gross and I fucking adore it. The horror in this game is so good, which is helped by the monster design. To the lifeless pounds of flesh of the rumbler to the soulless eyes of the midwife's nearly all the designs are unsettling and scared me shitless while playing. This is helped by the absolutely phenomenal environment design. Literally since the second I started my playthrough all the way to the end it felt like I was in the abandoned and eire halls of the Von Braun. It's genuinely the most immersed I've felt in a game, which is crazy because this game looks like an N64 game. I'm not one that thinks graphics can determine a games quality or are that important, but I did think before playing this game that realistic graphics are required to make a game immersive. I was wrong, and I'm so happy I was. I love that this game looks like an N64 game, it give is so much charm and actually helps with the horror. I personally don't like this wave of horror games with N64/PS1 graphics that's been going on as I think that just mixing nostalgia with horror isn't scary, but this game proved that you can just make a game that will scare you shitless via good enemy design and other clever game design elements that also looks like (well in this case more or less is) a N64/PS1 game 21 years before that whole craze went off, I just wish more game developers went back and played this game to understand that.

This immersion and horror is helped in part by the game design. There is no pausing in System Shock 2, everything your character does is in-game, and that's terrifying. You ALWAYS have your guard up whether that's to heal, research something or to listen to audio logs. Enemy spawning is often unpredictable. I remember I was in the engineering deck and out of nowhere a cyborg midwife spawned it and it genuinely made me jump, but on the other hand the enemy spawning can be unfair, sometimes the game just goes "you know what fuck you were spawning in 10 rumblers and if you don't like that you can suck my dick". Having the game spawn in hoards of enemies like this is scary but ultimately unfair and sometimes left me more disheartened than scared. Another thing that left me this way is with resources. Resources are scarce in System Shock 2, but too scarce. It's hard to find stuff to heal with and ammo and nanites is limited. I remember once I got bit by a spider and I had to run back two decks just so I could kill some hybrid so I could die to get revived without a toxin level because I had no detox patch. This lack of resources led to me cheating during the final 3 ish parts of the game by using the console, by the time I was done the phrase "summon_obj medical kit" was practically muscle memory lol.

Remember earlier I said that you had to listen to the audio logs in game and you could pause the game to listen to them? Well I think that's a MASSIVE flaw. Since this game is a survival horror game you have to keep alert at all times, so by having the audio logs only being listenable in game it does keep the immersion but at the cost of actually listening to them. Usually when I try to I get caught up either fighting off an enemy of there's some really loud thing going on that makes me have to read the thing instead of listen to it. Don't get me wrong, I love the story of this game, it's disturbing and disgusting and all that jazz, but I think the game trades off having a story that's easy to get into for immersive design, which is a shame because whenever I could actually listen to what's happening I felt more immersed in the story.

The music of this game is weird. It starts with this breakcore cyberpunk esque sound before halfway through the game they must've ran out of money or something and decided to stop making music. I guess it could be to help with the immersion but honestly why have music in the first place? The music that's in the game goes hard though.

The ending is a masterpiece. 'Nah" has to be the funniest line I've seen in a game, and the goofy ahh Photoshop edits they had on shodan made me loose my shit. Aged like a fine wine. Also the credits are adorable and should've played after the final cutscene instead of just booting you back to the main menu.

Overall, System Shock 2 is a masterpiece held back by some questionable design decisions. If this game got a remake like the first one that tweaked or changed some design elements I think people would rediscover it and say "Damn, this game is a masterpiece."

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a fine game. It looks good, plays well and has no glitches but it's overrated as hell.

[Also note I haven't played the original game so this review is from the perspective of someone who had only played remake and knows nothing else about the ff7 lore or whatever.]

Combat is fine, it's very simplistic and
you can usually get by by spamming square and ATB moves. There were a few instances where I had to strategize what to do and character placement to win but that was few a far between.

Midgar is probably one of the most distinct cities I've ever seen in a game though. I love the blue and cyan/green look of the city and how the city is designed. The city and its world building are pretty well done and concepts like mako and the running of Shinra are done really well. The only game I've seen out do it is probably the Bioshocks and System Shock 2, but i am irrational games biggest meat rider so that's to be expected lol. They should just make a game where you can drive around midgar and interact with things.

The characters are fine. None of them are written as real people and instead feel like tropes. Cloud is written to act like an emo teenage boy, Barret is written as a hothead turned dumbass, Wedge is written as the obligatory fat guy that loves food. This way of writing characters technically works (although some of the dialogue made me cringe for lack of a better word), but I much prefer when characters are written as real people that act realistically.

The character design is weird. The main and secondary characters have distinct outfits and are highly detailed, but the NPC's just wear normal clothes which creates a weird whiplash between the culture of midgar. Don't get me wrong some of them work and feel natural, but others (COUGH COUGH TIFA COUGH COUGH) just look like eye sores.

The story is also fine. It has its moments and I'd say 95% of the things that happen aren't filler but there's little to no impact on the characters which is weird. Sure, a few of them die but that doesn't move any of them or make them grieve. The closest there is is when sector 7 gets RKO'd but after that's all said and done the destruction of Seventh Heaven is mostly forgotten. I think the story's at it's best when it embraces the absurdity of its writing (that one part where you're on a motorbike with Jessie and that guy on the motorbike comes in was fucking stupid and probably the best thing in the whole game) or slows down to reveal things about it's characters and so you can take in the environment of midgar. I also think certain elements of it are clever like having Areith being able to communicate with the spirits in mako.

Overall Final Fantasy 7 remake is a fine game, I like it's worldbuilding and it was entertaining, but it's not anything that special outside of that.