easily the best narrative i've experienced in a shooter to date; i acknowledge that's not exactly the highest bar, but if this were the benchmark we'd perceive the genre very differently

i'd say durandal marks two steps forward and one fairly meaty step back from its predecessor. story's the most obvious improvement thanks in no small part to the titular AI narcissist (who naturally happens to be about 100x more interesting than the marathon's leela ever could've hoped to be) as well as a plentiful amount of intriguing infodumps, which are now usually accompanied with some pretty cool 90s era pixel art to boot

gunplay sees significant improvements too, as every weapon (barring the alien blaster) looks nicer and feels way punchier. not to mention that the shotgun(s) here may be the best of any retro fps i've played; doom 2, eat your fuckin' heart out. it's nice having more aliens to shoot at too - almost every new enemy type is a welcome edition (fuck those giant missile-eating drones tho)

where things fall flatter for me, however, is level design. your mileage may vary, but as much as i love being showered with ammo (especially on total carnage, where it's a necessity to have 5835230952 grenades stockpiled) at all times, i can't say i'm half as enthused by running back and forth through such open and large mazes

it's not as if the original didn't have its share of backtracking, but there's just too much of it here. "begging for mercy makes me angry" is the most frustrating and obvious example; a long gauntlet stage that revolves around constantly returning to a central hub and covering obnoxious distances to revisit save points and health stations. where marathon exuded confidence in its placements of those things, often forcing players to abandon them and actively take risks, durandal just doesn't have the same sense of activeness or urgency in most cases. there's also far less in the way of puzzles - maybe a blessing to some, but a curse to me. oh well - at least there's plenty more terminals to make up for it

ultimately, the improvements and downgrades kinda cancel each other out. either way, you should absolutely play both games. expect strong storytelling and shooting here, but don't anticipate the same consistent quality in terms of level design

When I heard that this thing ended on a cliffhanger, I expected that to mean the central mystery wouldn't be fully resolved, not that the credits would roll with our hero seconds away from being punched in the face. Of course, "our hero" here being David Young, a bubblegum-chewing, bad fake Boston accent-having, amnesiac PI who time-travels to the past via his bathroom mirror using objects called "mementos," and his assailant being Phillip Cheney, a British (?) airline steward hopped up on Real Blood, a drug that may or may not give its users superpowers and also may or may not have caused the death of the late Mrs. Young (jury's still out, and will never be back in.) If that all sounds stupid, that's because it is, endearingly so. In fact, my interest in these wacky characters- essentially suspects from Ace Attorney but with the cartoonishness dialed up to eleven- far eclipsed my interest in the actual Case of the Dead Wife. Not that my preference here matters, as neither has the chance to shine- or, really, even get started- before the game is cut short. Likewise, the mechanics had potential but never reach their stride, as it attempts to gamify the investigation sections from, again, Ace Attorney, with the inclusion of a stamina meter. The idea is that you have to logically strategize about which elements of the environment you're going to search for clues with your reward being more pieces of the puzzle at hand. It doesn't work, as the important stuff is supremely obvious and every other bit of info just ends up giving you in-game currency that you can use to buy maid and nurse outfits for the female characters, but the vision is there. Though, a mere vision, tied to these two-and-a-half-episodes of an unfinished season, is all that will ever remain, and, unless you're perversely curious about a solid demo of a game that will never fully release, it's impossible to recommend. But, on the other hand, the

Kingdom Hearts is a fun game with little things that hold it back personally, but I 100% see why people would give it 5 stars. I know some seem to write off the plot, and while simple, it's still very enjoyable and heartfelt, definitely not bad by any means. A misconception that I had and others might have is in regards to the Disney and Final Fantasy characters. While it could drive some away, I think it should be known that they could have easily replaced any of them with original characters, and the story would play out the same. They're fun cameos, and it's entertaining seeing them react in these new scenarios, and even the characters from movies I haven't seen were still great.

Combat is very fun and is more than just mash X; it can give you plenty of challenges. A complaint I do have though is the camera being a bit close, which can cause things to become disorientating, and you can feel like you're getting hit by things not on screen, but it's something you can easily work past. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but with the Final Mix release, they actually removed the feature to go through your menu with the right analog, and I feel that should have been at the very least an optional control scheme, as using a claw grip when needing to use the menu is really uncomfortable and has messed me up at times. I feel that how fast you unlock abilities / combo strings is a bit slow and that the game could have benefited from giving the player more power faster. 


Overall, it's a great game, making it a must-play. Those who return to this game will be greatly rewarded, as you will have plenty to do and plenty of challenges.