This game has really clear production value with how great it looks and the film's cast delivering excellent performances. Unfortunately, outside of that it's kinda just...there. The gameplay is an adequate mix of platformers, brawlers and stealth games (namely Splinter Cell) of the time with plenty of cool, proto-Arkham ideas, but they're never really utilized in any interesting ways. The level design is very linear, almost formulaic after a certain point, but never offensive. The combat is pretty loose, with a camera that's too zoomed in that makes fighting multiple enemies really difficult. You don't have any real combos and your attacks get blocked all the fucking time, and the only way to break an enemy's defense is a context sensitive action that takes a little too long to charge up (if it even decides to allow you to do it) and can easily get canceled by another enemy. Despite all that, I never found myself that frustrated with it. Then again, I never really felt many emotions playing the game in general. Like I said, it's just kinda there.

For 2001, this could look a lot worse, and having the cast of the animated series helps it a lot, but the game itself is not good at all.

The controls are way too loose, especially when it comes to aiming: there were so many times that I missed an opportunity to damage a boss because the crosshair just wasn't cooperating.

The platforming is very wonky, worsened by the occasional odd collision on certain platforms. Your glide is incredibly unreliable, its speed and height seemingly random. I think if you do it immediately after a jump you go faster and higher, which makes no goddamn sense. There was a particular jump where logic denoted waiting until the peak of the jump then gliding, but I'd miss every single time. For whatever reason, doing it as soon as I jumped got me to where I needed to be.

Combat is flat-out broken. When you engage in it, you're locked into it and can only exit by pressing Y, but if an enemy hits you when you do, you're immediately locked back in again. If an enemy grabs you, you have to wiggle the analog stick to escape, and as soon as you do, the game exits the combat stance and costs you the chance to punish every time. When it's semi-functional, it's really stiff, your attacks are very delayed and enemies can start attacking while you're mid-combo, completely snapping the balance in half. By the end, I just started blocking everything, getting potshots in to fill my special meter, and spamming the special moves that deal a shitload of damage.

There are a lot of really poorly designed setpieces throughout with very little conveyance as to what it expects of the player or if they're even performing it correctly. There are some fundamental design decisions that are questionable as well, like having finite ammo and Batcuffs. There are always conveniently respawning pickups for them when they're needed, so they're already practically infinite. Why waste the player's time with having to keep picking them up?

I wanted to give this game a chance because I knew it had its fans, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.

I don't really need to say much about this game. One of its antagonists said exactly what I was thinking the whole time.

"This is unreal! He's like the little engine that could!"

Rogue City does to RoboCop what Ghostbusters 2010 and Alien: Isolation did to their respective franchises, astonishingly translating the film's world to a video game. Certainly rough around the edges, but I have to assume most of its budget went to licensing and Peter Weller, so it's amazing what Teyon were able to accomplish with what was left over. Now that, between this and their Terminator game, they've got a proven track record with games based on '80s action movies, I just gotta ask...

Teyon, Escape From New York when?

I love Alan Wake. I love Remedy. I should be sucking this game off like everybody else is, but I just can't. The story's great, if even more indulgent than standard Remedy fare. The art design is outstanding. There are some fun setpieces. Those are about the only exceptional things. The gameplay is generally fine with a number of interesting ideas, but a few odd design choices and basic missteps make it feel even clunkier than the original at times. Worst of all, it's absolutely steeped in technical issues and bugs that have an inherent impact on the experience, from missing audio and visual queues to clipping out of bounds and softlocks. Did I play a different game than everyone else? Unless I'm in the Dark Place too, this game was not ready for launch. I'm sure it'll end up like Control, where in a few months all of the kinks will be worked out and it'll be more polished, but as of now, I feel pretty underwhelmed by one of the few games my jaded ass was genuinely excited for in years. I fucking hate video games.

Though the gameplay is fine, the graphics are great and the sound design is excellent, I have to echo the common sentiment that the story starts out engaging and completely disintegrates toward the end. It abandons an interesting cyberpunk murder mystery to poorly explore themes other stories (specifically a certain other, more famous horror walking sim) have done better. Regardless, I'd still actually recommend Observer because the first three quarters or so are done really well, especially considering this is by the same guys that made that absolute snoozefest The Medium. I'm a huge Blade Runner and Rutger Hauer mark so maybe that factors into it, but even so I can't pretend I didn't enjoy it. Does that mean I have faith in Bloober's Silent Hill 2 remake?
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FUCK NO LMAO

I've been meaning to replay this for the longest time because I remembered very little about it other than that I really enjoyed it. I wish I had done so earlier, because it reminded me just how fucking great it is. It's the total package: awesome mechanics, great level design, phenomenal graphics, killer soundtrack.

I remember griping about the Tactical Soul system on my first playthrough, not looking much further past the drop rates. While some of them are a little ridiculous, especially if you're trying to get all of them, you can still amass a hefty collection by the end of the game. I feel like the low drop rates even help in some regard, because the exhilaration of getting a rare soul while just casually strolling through a room is almost intoxicating. Add to that just how awesome some of the abilities are and it makes for an addictive and varied experience. I think I finally understand gacha games now.