Completed on Emperor's Mercy (second hardest) difficulty.

Mostly good! Very polished, didn't notice a single bug. What drew me to this game was The Boltgun, it looked very satisfying to shoot, and it really is. Every gun is varying degrees of fun to shoot, so it's already in the upper echelon of shooters for me based solely on that. Movement feels really good, running and jumping feels great, and the rare instances of platforming aren't that terrible by non-platformer standards. The chainsword dash is cool, and probably the only "original" idea this game has going for it, but I rarely used it. Would have been cool to see it used to access secret areas or something, but nope. The charge attack is useless, I kept forgetting it existed until I fat fingered the F key.

The art is awesome, I really wanted to roll around in those pixelated piles of blood and guts like a dog. The earlier Tzeentch stages were my favorite, but most environments end up being some variant of otherworldly industrial cathedrals. All of the enemies are flat and constantly rotate to face you, which means the only way to sneak up on anyone is from above or really far away.

Circle strafing will dodge most forms of projectiles (except the stupid fucking Plague Toads, who's attacks track like you're playing Dark Souls 2), but you'll never get behind enemies that way. I'm pretty sure they all see through walls as well, so they'll often prime their attacks if you try to sneak damage with corner peeking. They're smart enough to do that shit, but not smart enough to walk away from your grenades or avoid walking next to exploding barrels (I practically oneshot the first Lord of Change on accident with a barrel), or move slightly to the side when you're sniping with the Plasma Gun from across the map.

Like many others have pointed out, the level design is often very bad, and a LOT of its badness could have been muted by a map, a compass, glowing objectives, an objective list, more landmark variety, ANYTHING. I'm not that bothered by getting lost occasionally, but the absence of these features is so confusing, and the design philosophy remains highly suspect with or without them.

Despite those complaints, this was really enjoyable, and I was always excited to play just one more level. Certainly MUCH better than Space Marine by virtue of belonging to a better genre and having an art director with a voice.

Played this before Opposing Force because it's very short. A lot of odd changes to the original like being able to shoot every gun underwater and getting blocked by corpses. There's also shades of Half-Life 2 here, like a greater emphasis on listening to NPCs, and solving puzzles by pushing around barrels to use as platforms. The combat scenarios are much easier since they don't demand any creative thinking at all, I skated through the whole game on really high health and full ammo by just shooting everything I saw.

Back in 2010, the games included in Valve's The Orange Box were the first non-toddler PC games I played on my own. All three of them are masterpieces, and I've been a Valve/Source engine fanboy ever since. Don't ask me why it took someone with that self-description 13 years to play Half-Life 1, I don't know, and it hurts my brain trying to come up with an explanation. I guess 21st century Valve games were just so dominant in the culture that Half-Life 1 totally escaped my peripheral view, hiding in plain sight.

It's good! I feel like an idiot saying that. I don't usually say this sort of thing, but everything I could possibly contribute to the conversation has likely been said a million times by people who've spent 15x more time with multiple versions of the game than I have, and understand the plot better than I do. It's good. Xen sucks. I like being Gordon Freeman, he's funny.

Hasn't aged that well. The combo of MMO-tier slowly walking around and Skyrim-tier trying to climb mountains with a Half-Life 2-tier vehicle is just weak. Your squadmates are mostly bland tropes, and most of their dialog is just explaining their species' lore (including the humans). Paragon Shepard has the most compelling dialog options, but they don't have much to compete with; Neutral Shepard is just inconsistent nonsense who's good at nothing, and Renegade Shepard doesn't do anything uniquely badass, so there's no reason to be anything but nice and helpful, which is the only sensible personality of someone who delays a manhunt for weeks to help random strangers.

Makes me appreciate all of Mass Effect 2's improvements even more.

I really enjoyed my brief time with this game, it fulfills one of my greatest fantasies of being a sad but helpful guy on a big mysterious ocean with no motion sickness. The aesthetic of foggy coastal towns populated by equal parts honest folk and silly cultists is something I've always sought out in fiction, and despite Lovecraft's omnipresence in the nerdosphere, there are only a handful of games worth mentioning that scratch the itch. Though not quite fully fleshed out, Dredge has earned the right to be mentioned in the very first breath.

A huge return to form after Galaxy's strict linearity, now with more fun collectibles than ever before. Odyssey has the best 3D platforming controls on the market that arguably surpass 64 in terms of skill expression, but they're a bit spoiled by some mandatory motion controls and vibration minigames (especially bad for Switch Lite owners).

Possessing enemies and objects is a fun spin on the Kirby formula that turns the game into a great big toy chest where every level has unique controls to compliment the incredible environment and soundtrack. The two vocal tracks in particular are some of the best and catchiest songs Nintendo has ever produced, and the orchestral arrangements are top tier as always.

The iconic 100 coin challenge is gone, as are 1-ups and lives, all replaced with an overhauled coin system that makes regular collecting actually important! 10 gold coins = 1 life, and they're also the main currency for bonus moons and costumes. Purple coins are even more valuable and limited, unlocking world-specific cosmetics, some of which are mandatory to access certain rooms. Here's where Odyssey runs into a common Metroidvania pet peeve: the map doesn't track which purple coins you've already found, so using a guide to complete a level still means checking every location. The map also doesn't have any marker system, but fast travelling to well-placed checkpoints is very fast. It's very good overall, but could use some fine tuning.

Lake Kingdom and Snow Kingdom are simultaneously the least fun and least interesting stages in the game, though the racing minigame in Snow Kingdom is really fun. Every other regular stage is excellent, and although Metro has the AMAZING festival section that's bursting with joy and love, I think Lost Kingdom is my favorite. The low gravity of Moon Kingdom and the endgame victory lap of Mushroom Kingdom are a treat as well. The boss fights in general are a slight downgrade from Galaxy, though not without their charm, but it's the post-Bowser final dash that really killed the buzz for me.

The game really opens up after the credits roll, giving tons of incentives to revisit old levels and collect all the moons. I haven't spent any serious time with the online challenge mode, but I've been in love with the concept of Luigi's balloon hunt ever since I watched Dunkey's videos covering them years ago. Nintendo found the perfect way to translate Mario Maker's culture of inviting other players around the world to beat your challenges, and it's just too cool.

A must-play for every Switch owner. Hard to believe it's 6 years old :\

Game starts out good and just gets worse over time. Parrying and wall-climbing are both fun, discovering secrets is satisfying, and the more challenging boss fights are mostly fun. I like most of the decisions when it comes to menus and equipping stuff, especially that reloading your save takes you straight to the last Prie Dieu. Finally, the sword feels great to swing, which is really important.

Biggest problem is aiming up, sometimes it just doesn't work. I thought it was because of the analog stick, but I had the same problem with a d-pad. Most of the abilities are useless; the dash attack is the only important special move, and the first spell you find outclasses most others. The only upgrades that matter are ones that allow you to backtrack for several hours to get collectibles that mostly don't improve the game in any way. There's also a LOT of animations that will lock you in place and make you get hit, which feels out of place in such a quick action game in my opinion. Some of the animations that fade in and out, such as the lightning orbs, don't make it very clear as to when it's safe to move through them.

I couldn't get too excited about the setting after the first few hours, mostly because the whole thing is very one-note. The art is nice, the soundtrack is okay, the story is repetitive.