theres little reason to be hyperbolic in dismantling this title but chinese rooms school of design back in the day aspired to a subversion of norms and convention. an attempt to shrug off perceived limitations and supposedly counterfeit worlds and supplant them with something more poignant, expressive. unfortunately this approach rather paradoxically furthered the artifice of their game worlds, and if it didn't hold up on release when compared to then-contemporaries like journey, it has most certainly not held up today. cannot regard a game as haunting if at every turn i feel the hand of its masters, if at every moment im confronted with its castration. pageantry