When it comes to card games I enjoy the deck building and collection aspect of it and this game has plenty of that. The seasons keep the game engaging and the tone of this matches the tone the witcher is known for in a natural sense. The customization options are everywhere from the back of your cards to the location the playing field is known for to whether or not you want your cards to be static or animated. As a heads up Gwent in here is a little different, has different rules, and cards with the same name have different effects to that of the Witcher card game(I'm just going to assume that they decided this to make the game more for a multiplayer platform). The only thing that I didn't like is that they don't have more stories or options like Thronebreaker (if they had that I'd be down and ok with putting in money) and in general I don't like season passes. Overall if you enjoy card games or the Witcher this is a perfect game for you. A lot goes on every season so this keeps the game interesting and gives you several goal to reach.

Flawed in so many ways and filled with irritating AAA bloat, but I have literally been physically unable to get it out of my head for nearly a year.

One day I'll write something more substantive about this strange, stupid, smart, weird game. For now, I'll just say that I was 110% convinced I would hate this and it ended up being a game that sometimes, a year on, I'll just sit and think about for an hour. It's magical when that happens.

I truly miss that steel sky.

Alright the Hollow Knight community has gotten far too toxic, so I'll lay down some negatives to the game to show that it isn't as perfect as people make it out to be.

- For every great boss, there are 2 'filler' bosses.
- Difficulty progression is dumb. Hornet is the second boss you fight while flukemarm is technically an 'endgame' boss.
- Nothing in this game is original. Abilities are things you'll see in every other metroidvania. Hell even the charm system is from Paper Mario. Having said that, lack of originality isn't always a bad thing.
- You should expect a lot of backtracking + getting lost. Way more than any other metroidvania.
- Many of the areas have similar aesthetics. 4 of which share a dull grey colour.
- DLCs are good but again, they each have way too much filler.

This is still my favourite metroidvania, however almost every other one I've played focuses on quality over quantity. They are fun 90% of the time while hollow knight struggles to even come close to that number.

96

Hellblade is a game about loss, defeat and recovery. I think Ninja Theory made one that people are going to remember for a very long time. Or at least I will.

Senua is a pretty fantastic protagonist whose history is really well shaded in throughout the game, and we get a pretty extraordinary portrayal of her schizophrenia that not only uses incredible visuals (sometimes gorgeous and sometimes terrifying and discomforting) and great sound design to carry this along, but also portrays it well in a culture and time in history where you couldn't diagnose these things as purely mental, as the game overtakes the player along with Senua in this pit of confusion, darkness and fog.

I've seen a lot of people criticize the combat and, yes, it is simple, it doesn't need to be much else. It is a game that doesn't focus on its gameplay nor its style, but balances the two. And for the time with it, I found the combat fun, and almost all of the bosses I thought were fantastic.

Does this game have its problems? Absolutely. I think the FMV elements, while they sound good on paper, didn't really carry the vibe of hallucinations as they should have. And even though I'm not excusing it, I think it's okay. It's gonna be impossible for a video game in this medium to exactly and precisely simulate any kind of psychosis. It's a video game, above all else, not a schizophrenia simulator, but it's a game that is going for a deafeningly bleak and unsettling atmosphere, and the FMV stuff just really distracted from that. Besides, I think FMV stuff is really hard to pull off in the first place. On the other side of the game's balance, some of the puzzles can just be dumb.

I just hope the sequel can step up to this game's level, because it's one of the best efforts of the 2010s.