It aims too high.

I started this without any experience on Resident Evil 4, Dead Space or any other similar game, and at that I found this a very refreshing shooter, smartly designed and with the right lenght.
I would be lying if what's otherwise a great pacing is wore down by a grainny aesthetic so full of visual effects that it's distracting and noisy (art direction and enemy design are great though); also that early 2010's need to have some big expectacle set piece with little to no challenge that's either too linear or is ruined the first time you die (not to count the myriad of parts where you just walk).

There are some places where I appreciate the abition, most cutsecenes happen in-game, an staggering amount of original assets that are used once or twice in the whole game, plenty of guns and an approach to level design that's mostly quite open and works for engaging exploration.
Most enemy encounters are incredibly diegetic, not only being perfectly fit for the level but also feeling like they "inhabit" them, going as far as having visual changes depending on the part of the game they're in.

Some mechanics are also not as refined as they could, matchsticks on fallent enemies are a gamble depending on if they choose an animation or another with enemies nearby either getting lit or not (it's also tied to the same button to holster your weapon which can be very frustrating).

The ending is probably the most dissapointing part, linear, easy and focusing too much on an story that's too vague for me to care with characters that are not interesting, maybe the DLC will have a better taste but I'm not looking forward to a replay even if there are good incentives like new guns and hard mode.

Very honest (if obnoxious at times) reflection on death as a whole.

In Night In The Woods (which would be better called Possum Springs) everything has an end and it never shies away from it, the normalist, drawn out approach to every day being its own little aventure hammers the point that life is not stopping for you and you must value every second.

Structure wise I would say it loses strenght around the 4th chapter, where everything it was doing before gets dropped for a more linear narrative that's not as compelling as the ussual day to day in the game.

[v0.1.218]

So far it's promising to be a great homage and evolution of the first Thief games, slowly moving away from their formula of tight, minimalistic gameplay and expand on something closer to stealth games like Metal Gear 5, full of option that all sort of go back to stealth.

And the grips (which most are probably getting fixed in the future) would be, lots of bugs related to the briefcase menu, weird coallision when climbing on certain places, no quick way to open the map (would be very useful on the smaller locations), no way to see your loot besides gems.

There is also a certain lack of charm in most places, since yes the huntsmen are appropiately evil but unlike the guards in the Thief games they barely show any emotions and are also the only characters that seem to have a presence in the world besides a select few occacions around the end of the early access.

Thief is one of those games that changes the very way you perceive space, there is so many little things that make it one of the most real experiences you can have in games even with polygonal graphics and low resolution textures.

Thief 2 is the same game but with vital differences in the aproach to levels and mechanics, to the point where it justifies itself as a sequel.

Even then, despite the undeniable quality of most of its levels, more consistent and bigger, I still find Thief 1 to have more charm.

There is a point where some of that weird, amateur approach really benefits Thief and it's not there in Thief 2.

Also some of the additions don't stand out enough, like vine arrows, that on paper are a step up from rope arrows but it's so vague about where you can place them that it ends up being more of a hassle than rope arrows.

I think it was pretty enjoyable on the early game, but after you kill the second boss each run just becomes longer and longer if you want to get decent money.

It also messes the heritage mechanic since you'll always get better results off avoiding knights with no visual impairements, and the game puts too much emphasis on the ones with dwarfism even though you barely get those and even then they are no better than the regular knight.

And since the combat is based on Castlevania it's very reliant on level design that doesn't fit the randomized rogue-like room design.

I'm looking forward to play Rogue Legacy 2 since I heard it fixes many problems.

It's curious how one of the most unique takes on the GTA formula is achieved by taking cues from the Yakuza franchize.

Sleeping Dogs is this very tight, approachable sandbox game with an story you can get invested in and many good ideas like its progression system, incentivizing you to play in a specific way that puts you in the skin of an undercover cop by making you avoid unnecessary destruction while needing to perform well in combat, showing off Wei Shen's conflict.

At the same time there are a lot of aspects that feel like filler or are not well thought out, probably due to the publisher's insistence that the game needed to be this big, bombastic event that sells like bread.

For example the shooting, while it has the slow motion that prevents it from being totally monotonous it still feels stiff and too easy compared to the melee combat, which in itself has the issue of getting clunky whenever you try to chain combos-counters-grabs, specially when try to lock on an enemy and hit the ones arround.

Also the issue with the DLC's, that worsen the main experience save for the 2 optional expantions; the other either negatively affect the game's balancing (like with the police missions, that make it too easy to level with the HKPD) or are just more activities for the map checklist that muddy a game that already feels like it should have less content. Not to mention that due to the progress structure you end up having a sense of repetitiveness around the hallfway point.

Despite all this I still consider it a passionate, charming experience with great music and atmosphere that just doesn't hold you for long but has a lot of confidence that feels lacking in most open world games today.

What is pretty much a mix between Minecraft and System Shock. Where the world never revolves around you, food doesn't stay still and predators don't attack you on behalf of eating other smaller fish.

Exploration is always fresh and captivating, having no map or mission marker you are always in the world, coupled with almost every HUD element being diegetic.

It also has one of my favorites glosary and voice recordings; it's not thrown at you to so you don't miss the narrative, instead they are a central part of the game, with its own depth and engagement that couples with the game's intention of showing violence to be innefective, most creatures on the planet can kill you but you're not made to fight but to understand them and find workarounds.

A truer depiction of living in nature than the vast majority of AAA games.

(PS4 port is pretty unfortunate, consistent crashes with the use of portals and the minuscule render distance makes it so the cyclops is the only vehicle that doesn't tank performance since its so slow)

After doing the 100% this is probably, to this day, the best rendition to arcade shooters that still uses the advantages its gen allows it to.

It's surprisingly good at merging narrative and gameplay, taking down time when there would be in Silas' story and having unique gameplay sections that are straight up free exp; none lasting more than necessary even on repeat playthroughs.

It also has those slide show-type cutscenes between levels that just look great.

Issues though mostly come from the way it approaches variety outside of gameplay and, COD, mainly blurring the screen when you receive damage, specially with a mechanic like the reflexes, that incentivises taking hits on purpose to easily fill the concentration gauge when you're at odds since otherwise you couldn't get out of a tricky situation by yourself since the screen is so blurry.

It also suffers from useless upgrades on the skilltree, most of them are % but significant enough, then there's stuff like a sound when you're near a secret or more concentration when you hit an enemy up close, which is supposed to help people that lean on the shotgun skills early but it's not better than headshots since the risk is higher (you don't get to dodge if an enemy shoots you too close) and you can hardly chain them.

Not to mention some guns that're rendered useless after a while, like the short rifle never gets changed and the single revolver is less useful if you have the rifle or the dual revolvers skill.

Despite it all its still a great experience, Techland's best story and a must if you even lightly like westerns.