This game is the black hole in your mind that forms after a decade or so of woe, woeful existence where you feel every atom exist at the same time.

To play this drunk and tired at 2 in the morning with dealing with a little abyss of my own was not such a bad idea, never probably never finding out what the harpoon does sadly, spend around 30 minutes just going around the desert trying to see if there was some secret or ending to it.

Just the most impeccable atmosphere, it swallows you in and doesn't let go until you exit the game. I honestly believe there is beauty to something so hazy and dark, deranged brutalist arquitecture and a main character that looks like your first attempt at making a knight with play-doh, absolutely love it.

Final boss could do with not pushing you away every 2 seconds, really dragged out a scene that's otherwise great like the rest of the experience.

Almost perfect.

Probably my favorite turn-based combat system. So genuinely captivating to navigate, learn, and master that it by itself made history in the genre.

But what surrounds it is not so up there. Base management adapts to the main gameplay pretty well, but the sky combat is so nothing, a nuisance that I forgot was even there half the time and the other half it's just frustrating due to how much it depends on the money you spend on it out of pure guess work. Money that's more rewarding to spend on ground units and base upgrades.

The world panic system also feels like it punishes you for progressing more than lacking in focus or skill.

Despite that, Xcom is what I will always look up to in pure strategy terms. A classic.

Probably the best use of real time dialogue out there. It makes you consider each word and truly listen to what you're being told.

A problem is the sheer amount of back tracking and the fact said backtracking is weirdly paced, if you want to see a conversation in full you can't move too much so you end up walking in silence to the next part of the map.

The characters didn't quite click, this kind of white teen group that you see get plastered in a slasher film is a bit much sometimes, but there is genuine care put to them, something more to them that can drive you to engage in the dialogue, just wish it worked more often than not for me.

The ending is great, I myself am coming from a tragedy a couple years ago, it still itches, but at least games like this let you scratch it.

Sunshine in a bottle.

Rarely you spot a game that looks really different, a real-time rendered visual novel, each dialogue made into its own scene, a little diorama for each moment, it really sticks with you and makes reading it a joy.

I would say that some times the way the anime style is adapted into 3D can make the faces seem too long, Ashley's being the most obvious. Despite that it manages to create amazing and beautiful scenes with its tools.

The writting is generally excellent, you feel a voice here, these characters breathe more than you expect them to. Biggest issue is probably all the "quirky" moments, I have no issue with pop culture references or a small derail in the tone, I would say these "cringey" moments don't feel enough like part of the characters themselves but the writter getting bored.

But it doesn't happen often, and the rest of the experience is something that sticks with you, I know it will stick with me.

"It might not be good enough for heaven, but it's good enought for me".

Do not put points into Treat Injury, worst mistake of my life.

Overall it's a very odd game, lots of half-assed ideas while keeping itself very ambitious, 3 different minigames, 8 planets to explore with their own cultures both original and from the films, a real time combat system with a certain degree of freedom of approach, 9 different companions with their own storylines and exclusive missions...

And it's too much, going by the first thing Taris is probably the best of all the planets, it features the most characters, factions, interesting choices, depht, variety in activities; it's also the most challenging gameplay wise since you don't have any exploitative force powers. After that though, Manaan and Tatooine are close in terms of the main quest and side activities; Kashyyk (except for Jolee), Korriban, Dantooine, Yavin, and the last planet are less inspired in their design and main quest, even if Korriban is probably better for an evil character.

The ship minigame and swoop races are an afterthought and nothing would change if they didn't exist; pazaak though, I've probably sunk 10 hours into that, even if it's unfairly designed, frustrating and incentivises savescumming, it's so engaging, I hope they flesh it out in the sequels.

Combat is probably the biggest miss, you barely have to mix your strategy besides the buffs you'll apply to yourself, which makes each encounter very repetitive and one-note. At times it's interesting, being able to first enter rooms in stealth and set up traps adds an extra layers that's barely used (not to mention stealth is rather useless most of the time since the big encounters are scripted) and the force powers are a good addition, but they also make things too easy, infinite healing, 4 different ways to stun enemies, force speed, etc... It conveys how powerful jedi are supposed to be, but doesn't favor combat variety specially since they really diminish the use for non-force allies.

On the companions most of them are fine, Jolee and HK-47 being the stand-outs, I love them, Mission is close but her quest is dull, Carth, Bastila, Juhani, and Canderous are fine but too standart even if the game tries to flesh them out. Zaalbar is boring even if it's funny when you first find him since you realize how much of a gentleman a wookie is, T3-M4 could perfectly not exist, did the mandatory mission with it and never touched it again.

The main narrative is interesting, twists a lot of the narrative of the movies on their heads, actually playing with the elements unlike everything that's being done with Star Wars nowadays; the structure is still a chase of McGuffins but it lends itself well to a videogame. It makes the universe be intriguing again, expandind the history of the world so much, the game understands what made those movies captivating the first place.

In terms of side quests there's a lot of your average fetching and killing akin to RPGs, it does manage to give a lot of them variety though, some very unique like the mysterious box and Jolee's personal quest.

Overall, a good experience, but tries too many things, the last act is such a slow crawl to the ending, you just want it to end already.

Put the game on 1920x1080 and after being done for the day it started crashing if I tried to open it. But got pretty far into it, about 3 levels into what I assume is the final chapter.

And there's a lot to mention, for one the game is clearly going for a comickbook feel, down to the enemy sprites being conciously 2D in how little animations for hits and movement they have, but this affects the general feel of combat in a way that never hits right.

The difficulty and leveling system are also things that never seem to work with one and other, giving you this feeling of something being wrong.

But when it does work, mixing up the spells, constantly changing guns according to each enemy and feeling the madness built up is really nice, but it doesn't happen often.

Star Of Torment my beloved....

I really appreciate a shooter so dedicated to no or almost no hitscans, also constant enemy variety, each chapter having something completely different.

But suffers from being too long, and the insistence on superfluous platforming sections, which seem to be a way so you have to time better the soul mode, a very good mechanic that makes combat really frantic, but that's limited by all the time-sinkers.

Maybe if there was a way to use the soul mode that allows you to go faster, like you can do underwater with the axe, it would make a good skill ceiling where smart use of the soul mode is essential on a high difficulty, like Devil Trigger on DMC, but it's only worked as a get-out-of-jail card on slightly difficult encounters.

I'm a fan of old shooters, they make my brain cells fire in every direction and I find aspects of their design that could be learned from modern games.

Hence why this game feels so odd to me, it shows itself as embodying everything that made the Build Engine era of games great while rejecting their most unique aspects. The compact and experimental level design, enemy variety, freedom to get lost, difficulty, etc...

And I understand these are flaws for many people, but at least for me and many that enjoy these games for what they are and not the memory of them, this sands down the edges too much.

A final note, even if the general gunplay is good, the reloading mechanic is uncalled for, I can see it had the purpose of making fights more tense by not being able to always shoot (you deal a ton of damage even on hard difficulties) but you can ignore that obstacle by simply spamming the dedicated reload button, making it more of a nuisance.

Though, it's still enjoyable, I will be going through it in depth to really understand it, something it does share with old school shooters is that the true experience comes after you are familiar with its secrets and maps.

Edit: About a month later I've done about everything in the game, went through all the secrets and explored every level, I did not get 100% as a trophy because the game asks you to kill every enemy in a level, even if high difficulties increase the amount of them to the point where they bug out and you can't kill them.

I've come to really appreciate the game's level design, at the same time that the combat becomes so simple due to the lack of enemy variety and the fact all your guns deal so much damage and get so much ammo that the only reason to constantly change is to spice things up yourself.

Still a good time, can't wait for Aftershock.

Terry Cavanagh does it again.

On the vein of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon; this game is brilliant on almost every aspect while being charming, a warmth you don't find often and he captures here just like in VVVVVV.

The progression, better than most Roguelikes, manages to not frustrate by sepparating what other designers would make a single tiring run for each character a series of rather small segments you can practice or even skip if you only aim to complete the main story, it never tries to pressure you, what a game by turns does best.

And the combat, what a genius and effective system, so many variations with just the right amount of depth, if you thought card games already did it all and you haven't tried Dicey Dungeons, you'll be shocked.

Sometimes a game could do better as an animated film.

Not to say Virginia never puts emphasis on interaction or does something with the environment, but it's so little, a couple branching paths and different cinematics that never feel like enough.

It reminds me of this other game Rainswept, which is also inspired on Twin Peaks, but actually manages to inmerse you in the case and consider both the characters and town as a whole, something that Virginia is way too closed and linear to really convey.

On the technical side I don't know if this is exclusive to the PS4 version but not being able to turn off that motion blur makes playing this daunting; specially since what you're going to be doing the most is look around and search for something to interact with.

That said, the music is wonderful, it really gets you through the game, if anything it's not present enough, it has the potential to lift the samey environments and stiff animations. It probably does for a lot of people.

Very of its time but also always to the point, almost arcade-y.

Something to point out about this game is the level and enemy design; the levels are not only good at making you go forward but posess a level of verticality you don't see often in retro fps' almost reminds me of Spyro on the PS1 with how open it remains. To this helps the enemies, that have a chance of respawning after you kill them, something like this could ruin the pacing but the way its done manage to always keep you moving and search for the next path, making it very dynamic, again, unless many other fps.

A real charming one.

Might get repetitive at times, the structure usually goes advance section→ obstacle→ press buttons; and a lot of mechanics come off as under-utilized or not put under enough pressure. But it's a whole feeling it manages to capture. The machine is genius in design, a whole character in itself that becomes an extention of you by the end, this game manages to really convey the appeal of clunky machinery.

Art direction and sound also go above and beyond, music greately adding to each moment with environmental storytelling that really has you intrigued.

At the end the solitude is palpable, but a sound in the distance.

Goofy ahh game.

In honesty it's one of the better comedy games out there, it actually manages to implement the gameplay into the bits and (most) last exactly what they need to.

It is tiring though, that style of rapid fire jokes, based on films like Naked Gun, Airplane, or its most obvious inspiration, Austin Powers; doesn't fit so well a format where you control the pacing, so you can either stumble upon 3 sepparate gags that land, or spend 10 minutes trying to find a punchline due to the point n' click design of the game. By the end I was waiting for it to be done.

Can't forget the aesthetic, I adore the style, walls, menus, maps, assets; it's all drenched in a love for 60's pop art and vintage technology that I vibe with.

Outstanding puzzle game, a bit pretentious with the use of common philosophy, trying to say something about... life?

Nonetheless, one of the best uses of first person shooter conventions out there, somehow requiring a certain amound of precision and reflexes while having geniusly designed progression and mechanics. Your head is always in motion, taking full consideration of your surroundings in a way few games achieve.

And the artstyle, completely monochrome and still managing to have a flavour of its own, almost ethereal, inmersing you in that world of visual plays on perspective. Intelligent.