Super disappointing. The way the devs had described the game prerelease had gotten me quite excited. But, in the end, despite the goal of wanting to create a rich, reactive world that rewarded player agency, I found it to be more limiting and far too repetitive for my liking. Cool monster fights and nice graphics aside, there was little to latch onto for me to consider continuing onto the end game. Having to deal with the same batch of reskinned enemies, a bland world, and uninspired, still too hand-holdy, quests just burned me out way too early, which is unfortunate.

After playing the demo I was incredibly psyched to see how "Pepper Grinder's" core mechanic would be explored. But after a few hours, every collectible and outfit nabbed, I can say that, although very exciting at first, "Pepper Grinder" did not live up to its potential by the end. Based on the constant gimmicky levels focusing on not drilling, I could tell the devs didn't know where to take the core mechanic. It just kinda ended before it truly got going. But hey, the stuff that was here was solid, just lacking.

Forbidden West is literally the game of all time. One so adverse to taking any risks that it almost feels aggressive. Instead it mostly just polishes up the original game with prettier graphics, a fuller soundscape, and fleshed-out side quests and activities. This is all fine and good as everything besides the golden path was somewhat investing but only at that exact moment. When I turned off the console after a play session I never thought about playing it more or even pondered at my ventures. It's the definition of a good game, but there are several types of good games in my eyes. Ones where the quality tugs back and forth but ultimately the good outweighs the bad just enough and then the games that flatline at just being decent. HFW lays comfortably in the second camp for better or for worse.