I won’t bother with any preamble about the influence this series has had on FPS games or the seemingly eternal wait for Half-Life 3, you all know about that by now. But what do I think you might be asking, assuming you didn’t see the star rating already. Well, yeah it’s pretty good.

Ok but in all seriousness this game is absolutely kickass and has almost no right to hold up this well after nearly 20 years since it’s release. Right off the bat the presentation is way more unique than any other game I’ve played thus far. The game doesn’t have cutscenes in the traditional sense as you’re still allowed movement during most important story moments, albeit with limited mobility. On the one hand this does result in a lack of great cinematography for the most part like the Halo series could often achieve, but on the other hand it makes for one of the most immersive experiences I’ve had with any game.

Regular gameplay is also pretty solid, as I’d expect from one of the major innovators for the genre. The gunplay isn’t amazing or anything, but it’s really tight and responsive, which coupled with really solid enemy A.I makes for many tense and fun set pieces. One thing I appreciate over other shooters though are the puzzles, which make a nice way of breaking up the pace of the regular gameplay. What I don’t enjoy quite as much are the vehicle sections, which while not necessarily awful felt way too finicky and sensitive in terms of controls. Admittedly this may be a victim of a PC control scheme being modified to fit with an Xbox controller (I played this through The Orange Box collection) but even still those sections weren’t any less cumbersome.

Another great aspect would definitely be the soundtrack and sound design. Whilst the former is used quite sparingly, it makes every instance of music all that more affective, with Apprehension & Evasion and Triage at Dawn being my personal highlights of the soundtrack. What the game makes up for in its sparse use of music however is the sound design. The heavy emphasis on ambience over music for most of the game once again adds to the immersion, while also making the horror moments a lot more effective.

Of course I’d be remiss without mentioning the story, which also is unsurprisingly excellent. I do find the borderline deification of Gordon Freeman among the freedom fighters to be a bit overplayed at times, but it’s more than made up for by the great cast be it big players like Alyx and Dr Breen, to more minor characters like Father Grigori. The plot treads a fine line between being entirely episodic and a more linear narrative approach really well, yeah you can divide the game up into particular sections with their own little mini stories carrying through, but it all plays a bigger role in building up to the finale which while really intense and fun, can’t help but feel a bit anticlimactic. Of course I get that this is just one part of a (still) ongoing story so I’m willing to excuse that, especially since a certain someone even alludes to the anticlimax during the ending. If you know, you know.

Overall a pretty awesome game, and one I’d consider a new favourite. Yes I’m super original in my takes on most highly revered media, aren’t I? 10/10

To call this a step up from Dark Moon would be a gross understatement, and while I don’t think this quite captures what made the first game stick out in people’s memories it more than makes up for it by being a fantastic game in its own right.

Unlike the current dev team behind Paper Mario since Sticker Star, Next Level Games seemingly took a lot of the gripes people had with Dark Moon to heart, between the return of bosses more akin to the first games portrait ghosts and the complete axing of the mission structure, which overall makes for a better gameplay cycle. The game autosaves quite frequently anyways so the devs still found a work around to accommodate for the Switch’s portability which is a welcome addition.

The few new additions to exploration and combat also help to spice up the gameplay enough that it avoids some of the repetition that Dark Moon and even the first game suffered from at points. I did initially think Gooigi would end up as really gimmicky and little else, but it’s implementation did actually make for some humorous moments during cutscenes, on top of a lot of cool new ways for puzzle solving that the first 2 wouldn’t have been able to achieve.

Speaking of cutscenes, good God is this game a technical marvel. Between the many great lighting and particle effects to the phenomenal character animation it almost puts other big Switch titles like Mario Odyssey to shame in some regards.

While a Luigi’s Mansion sequel more in line with the original in tone and atmosphere would certainly be really nice, I’m more than happy if this’ll set the precedent for any future sequels, which given Nintendo’s recent acquisition of Next Level Games is almost inevitable at this rate. Regardless I excitedly anticipate the next paranormal romp with my favourite Mario brother with great enthusiasm, here’s hoping it’ll be able to top this.

9/10

This game tends to get the short end of the stick more than any of the 3 Luigi’s Mansion titles, and even despite having grown up playing this a fair bit I didn’t have great expectations going in. I played Dream Team a lot growing up and I think that games a load of arse. Fortunately that’s not the case here, as I still consider this to be a solid game despite being a bit lacking as a sequel.

To shoot the elephant in the room right now, yes this takes a decisively more comedic approach compared to the first game in terms of tone, and while I do very much favour the first game in that respect I don’t think this games approach is inherently awful. Despite being released very early in the 3DS’ life, the character animation is really impressive and conveys a lot of emotion, be it from Luigi to the ghosts and Boos. It does seem a bit simple in this regard when compared to the third game, but even still it mostly holds up really well.

As for the other glaring aspect of this game a lot of people take issue with, yes I don’t like the mission based structure compared to the more open ended original. Admittedly it doesn’t hamper the core gameplay as much as people make it out to be, but it is still annoying only having a roughly 20-30 minute gameplay cycle before E Gadd drags you back to his lab.

As for the main gameplay, I’d say in some ways it makes a couple improvements compared to the original. There’s a much greater emphasis on puzzle solving to proceed to the next room, which compared to the first game which used puzzles way more sparsely is a welcome change. Also the Boo hunting has been drastically changed for the better. Not only is it not required to have the majority of them to beat the game, but most of them are only confined to one room and are mostly there for completionists more than anything. I do wish there wasn’t one Boo in almost EVERY level, seeing as how you’ll have to replay earlier levels since you don’t get the equipment required so you can spot them, but since they’re not mandatory to finish the campaign I can look past that.

While I still overall think the first game is superior, I definitely don’t think this game is quite the blasphemous mark on the former that it’s made out to be, and I’d still say this game holds up alright in spite of a few flaws.

7/10