I feel like I played this game at an incredibly fortunate time in my life. Struggling to commit to any game for more than a few hours I was burned out on most modern game genres such as shooters, platformers and RPGs. When I first saw this recommended to me on steam during a sale I was intrigued by the art-style and main gameplay mechanic. I didn't have particularly high hopes I just knew it was highly rated and had a unique aesthetic. If you had told me I was going to play through the game in one long 8 hour session whilst losing track of the time I'd have been shocked. This game is good. REALLY good.

Mechanically the game is fairly simple. You walk up to a corpse, use your stopwatch on it and you get several pieces of information. It starts with fully voiced dialogue of the moments leading up to the death. Then once that finishes you get the big picture, the actual moment of death in frozen tableau. One of the most impressive things about this game for me is the way it sets your expectations for what the game will throw at you and then continually makes you re-assess what in the actual fuck is happening.

Once having viewed the scene you are asked to fill in notebook and describe who died and what killed them, and later what happened to the passengers who went missing off screen. Did they die? Did they escape? You don't have the answer spelled out for you and have to make a lot of educated inferences to finish the game. While some games are easy and use puzzles to make you "feel" smart, this game feels both challenging and rewarding. I never got stuck and had to use a guide. Meticulous checking off of names and revisiting scenes with newfound context is the name of the game here. Really great stuff.

This game and Outer Wilds are two games that completely changed how I viewed what games could be. I can easily say I have never played anything quite like it. A must play.

Okay, actual review time.

If you've been following the excellent saga that is 'random Irish guy writes shitty one-liners about video games' the beloved spinoff to 'random Irish guy writes shitty webnovels inspired mostly by video game plots as well as whatever was in the Spotify playlist that day' you'll know I wrote an actual review of Portal , and thought it was just okay. A decent demo of new tech with a fun enough plot even if the momentum based puzzles were a bit jank in areas. But everyone said Portal 2 was the great one and god damn they were right.

Right from the beginning when Wheatley wakes you up and the world starts crumbling around you as Glados notices your presence, in psychics showcases that to this day are extremely impressive looking, with dialogue that's genuinely funny as you talk to two parties who absolutely hate each other, going through more fun puzzles that feel more tightly designed than in one.

Then the big halfway twist happens.

I'm not gonna go too in detail on how you end up in the abandoned part of aperture, because I knew what the twist was and was still shocked at it. But the second half leads to the game's greatest strength.

atmosphere.

Every part of this game oozes atmosphere thanks to the more varied settings, getting to traverse with portals outside of the first games testing environments for longer periods of time. The prerecorded messages as funny as they are deeply unsettling. I do have a personal phobia of both abandoned places and the whole 'upload your brain into a machine' concept so maybe this whole thing spoke to me on a deeper level, but god damn if I wasn't creeped out the whole time. This has scared me more than basically any horror movie I've ever watched, and the plot and premise probably wouldn't be that hard to rewrite into a dreamworks film, which adds to the game's artistic qualities.

So in general, it's a masterpiece. You didn't need me to say that. Only flaw is some of the later puzzles last a tad too long, and the orange gel kept sliding me just besides my portal instead of into them (or maybe that's just me getting filtered by first person gaming again)

"HIgher beings, these words are for you alone..."

I've had one hell of a journey with Hollow Knight, dropping it after a first few hours because I just didn't feel it, only to give it another try years later and finally click with it. Despite my praise and my rating, I don't think I love it as much as everyone else does but it's a special experience nonetheless.

What I love most about Hollow Knight are not the bosses, its combat, lore or its level design: it's simply the atmosphere. Many of the game's areas provoke such a striking feeling - sometimes serene, sometimes somber and other times just unsettling. It's magnificent, and the soundtrack is ironed into my brain.

Hollow Knight also feels super refreshing in its pacing. The progression is slow but every step, every item, every ability feels meaningful. It's a chunky game with plenty of content but despite the relatively slow pacing, it's not bloated at all. I also felt that my playthrough ended just when it could have started to drag.

So now here I sit, the experience still marinating inside my head, and I want to urge anyone who dropped this game on a first attempt to pick it back up - it's worth it.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time holds up astoundingly well. The platforming and accompanying level design is honestly still some of the best in the business, all these years later.

I was surprised how light the game is on storytelling; it's mostly just the beginning and end that double down on it. What's there is simple but really good - especially the ending.

Another thing I love is the music, which elevates an already enthralling atmosphere and makes even the most annoying fights feel epic.
Annoying is indeed sadly how I would describe the combat. There is some cool stuff you can do but the camera is an absolute pain to deal with and the game actually bombards you with enemies - who also delight in stun-locking you.
The camera issues extend to the platforming, though to a slightly lesser degree.

I won't lie, I got quite frustrated by these things but I could barely stop playing this game regardless. The vibe is immaculate, the platforming timeless (pun intended) and little things like drinking water from basins and streams to heal just cool.

Just some spectacular fun in the most greasy way possible. The MS paint pizzeria aesthetic really sells its identity well as this oily cheesy run and jump fun that you can really feel with the slippery yet responsive controls. Despite being a 2D platformer, I would definitely recommend using an analog stick to perform more precise inputs. Every stage in this game is so distinct in its level design, theme and gimmicks, yet they're all so wondrously huge that you’re really getting your $10 worth out of these 28 stages. Then there are the bosses, possibly the most exciting and exhilarating boss battles I’ve ever played for a 2D platformer where they perfectly ride the balance between challenge and fun. Seeing they’re goofy expressions while I pummel each unique boss is such a high, and this high is brought to its absolute height with the amazing final boss which is essentially the greatest boss rush ever conceived. Issa mastepees.