It comes so close to being the franchise best. The style has been juiced up to maximum overdrive. The music is funky as hell. The main villain is probably the best of the series even if the other aliens don't reach the same heights as the assassins from the first game. Gameplay is great. Fuckin' Rocky 3 is referenced. This should be a five star for me. I should love this as much as the original. But it falls short. The narrative feels oddly disjointed at some parts, par the course for the series, but still. The open world is too big with loads of bloat. Things get repetitive fast, and not in the intentional way that the first game was going for. I dunno, certain things feel off. It looks great though, even if it makes my Switch wanna die.

I went from a Suda fan to a Suda admirer after playing this game. The gameplay isn't anything to write home about and normally I'd dock more stars because of that, but the writing here elevates the game to four stars. I can't think of many games, or hell, any pieces of art that is this humanly self reflective. It doesn't come off as masturbatory in the slightest for me. Suda is simply reflecting on his career. Celebrating his highs and lamenting his failures. If there's any takeaway from TSA, it's get out there and do what you want to. Celebrate your success' and learn from your failures. You've got one life. Aim true and fire away.

It's a very generous 2 stars. The amount of ego to stand and say that they put all of what they've learned into this game is enough to piss me off. The gameplay is both a step up and a step down. Leveling up is a fucking chore. The UI is a mess. Stealth is great in concept but severely lacking on top of not being worth the trouble due to lack of XP it gives out. The music is not it, man. Customization is atrocious compared to 2. Locking the game to always online back fired so badly that I can't help but laugh and say that Overkill deserves the massive vibe check this game got them. They learned nothing from the Walking Dead. The saddest part is, I could forgive this game for its problems if it wasn't so god damn boring. I stuck with Payday 2 through it's controversies because it was still fun. Payday 3 has the look of 2, but none of the soul. And I sadly dunno if they'll be able to fix this mess.

I am a very prideful animal who doesn't like to be proven wrong very often, but am I glad that this game did. RE4 remake isn't ashamed of its originator, it loves it with all of its heart. It's a testament to how far 3rd person action shooters have come in the last 20 years. It takes everything the industry has worked with since the OG RE4 and ramps it up to 11 with surprisingly tech heavy combat. It's no DMC mind you, but once you master this game, you feel like John Wick. RE4 remake remembered the face of its father and can stand alongside it as a pillar in the gaming industry.