In this game you're a "good" (white) colonizer, the only one that can protect the poor natives of this unexplored (by the whites) island from the "evil" colonizers, even though you're also colonizing their land and often the game makes you side with the "evil" colonizers in killing all these savages that have no right to live in the land that is theirs, as if that's such a Normal and Right decision that why would the game present you with an option to not do that?
In the end, after killing the natives' leader that was trying too hard to defend his people, because you wanted to manipulate their election and put someone more amenable to your requests in his place, you learn he was actually right to defend them but obviously the game never makes you reflect on your evil actions.

Everything from the gameplay mechanics and what actions measure your progress to the narrative is racist, disgusting and rancid.

It doesn't escape me that due to the ending ruining the colonizers' plans to this land the upcoming sequel will be set 3 years in the past, the devs (who are europeans, to really put the cherry on top) had to figure out some other reason to let you continue living your happy little colonialism fantasy.

It's games like this that I find difficult to rate or even talk about. I can't say that I enjoyed myself - it's too upsetting for that - or even really understood it. It seems incredibly personal to the game's creator and, without knowing them personally, it was difficult to get a grip on all of the details that this game's filled with. I didn't get a lot out of this game but that's not because it's bad; it is because it's not for me. Ideas of good and bad are largely irrelevant because my enjoyment of the game isn’t what matters. The game was clearly made for its maker and if it was helpful to them, that’s what matters. I just hope they’re doing okay and this helped them, at least in some small way.

(Replay) The fact that I reeeally feel like I missed a lot in this story and I still definitely think it's better than OoT and WW says a lot. A beautifully written, thematically complex story. Light and shadow, the corruptive and tempting nature of power, lingering regrets. Hyrule, despite being the world of light, is a fading shadow of its former self that has not moved on from the past like it has in WW. Ganondorf parallels himself across alternate timelines, Midna's arc is wonderfully fitting, Zant is just all around great. The Hero of Time wanders the earth, only one regret left that he wishes to ease before finally moving on. Zelda dungeons have never had more of a focus on lore and in-universe purpose, and the game has an insane amount of beautiful shots and cinematography. TP, in all of its thematic explorations, is the culmination of the Zelda series, and especially the Hero of Time saga (OoT, MM, WW, TP). I know that every replay after this I will find even more to analyze.

After 10 years stuck in development limbo, Dead Island 2 is a truly delightful turnaround. Not just from its lengthy, tumultuous development, but from Dambuster Studio's previous work, Homefront: The Revolution, a game that can charitably be described as 'one of the games of all time'.

Dead Island 2 could perhaps also be given the same label, though. But not for any lack of identity or originality, but because this is a video game-ass video game, and it's not afraid to own that distinction as a badge of honor.

DI2 feels like a game from the Xbox 360 era of its predecessor in all the best ways. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, because it doesn't really have to. It's a nice fucking wheel. Instead, it takes the largely bland yet mostly fun Dead Island 1 and gives it a fresh, honed-in take, complete with tons of QoL additions and callbacks.

It's also unexpectedly gorgeous and runs incredibly smoothly on every platform it's available on. I didn't even realize games were still capable of such feats in today's market, yet here we are.

Also, the soundtrack slaps.

The story and characters are fun, delightfully cheesy B-movie goodness packed with surprisingly funny one-liners here and there. I went into it not expecting much from the story, particularly after how generic DI1 and Riptide's narratives were, but came away wanting to know what happened next and where the series could go from here. I've seen many online label the dialogue as 'cringe', which is either a dash of hyperbole or completely dependent on the character you choose from the beginning. I picked Ryan for the record, and I found him to be a charming, sardonic, archetypal straight-man who was easy to root for throughout.

The world and particularly the level design are sublime and stand tall as the perfect case for why every worthy game doesn't have to be a sprawling open world filled with checkmarks. There is plenty to find in DI2's levels, and lots of opportunities to go off the beaten path, should you choose to. I'd even go as far as to say that it's on par with most Arkane games in terms of the experimentation at play in its environments.

Dead Island 2 also has, at times, some great biting (pun intended) satire scattered throughout these levels. It employs an "eat the rich" mentality to settle any moral quandaries that zombie fiction usually brings by getting stuck on who they used to be before they turned. From crypto billionaires to nepo babies and self-aggrandizing influencers who live in 'content houses,' there are plenty of Hollywood elites to slice and dice without a care in the world.

Speaking of slicing and dicing, combat gets a gigantic upgrade, not just from Dead Island 1 but from both Dying Light games, by introducing the FLESH system. Realistic damage and physics reactions from your weapons make for some truly grisly and satisfying kills from start to finish. Throw in the dodge and counter abilities, and you've got Techland sweating to compete for Dying Light 3.

DI2 is not without its flaws, though. The zombie spawn system seems to be currently broken. You can take down an area full of zombies, turn the corner, quickly come back and find the same area repopulated. When sprinting, you'll often see several zombies materialize in front of you due to the game not being able to keep up.

It's surprising to see this in a wide-linear game such as this, but it's no doubt something that can be addressed with patches down the line.

You also cannot manually close doors behind you, so good luck if you want to reliably put some distance between you and a horde that's hot on your heels.

The ending, while not as egregiously bad as Dying Light 2's, is still one that leaves multiple cliffhangers. While I acknowledge that this is likely to conclude in the two upcoming expansions, it's a shame that the base game couldn't have a complete book-ended story with some lingering hints of the future.

There are also some very interesting lore implications for the series that help it stand out from other zombie fiction. However, these aren't explored nearly enough, or rather, when they are elaborated upon, it's within the final two or so hours of the game, so it ultimately feels pointless. Again, perhaps this is something that will be saved for DLC, but it's a shame that that's become the de facto answer to lingering narrative threads for so many studios these days.

Regardless of my problems, however, Dead Island 2 is a GREAT game, and certainly one that was a lot better than I was expecting given the lukewarm reception I gave the previous game. Dambuster Studio should truly be proud of what they have delivered here, and they've more than earned the keys to the franchise moving forward.

8/10

Bitter Companion

It's surprisingly less perverted than the title would lead you to believe. Basically its a short story about a cisgirl falling for a stealth transgirl on the bus after finding out shes a huge fan of her NSFW social media drawings. Eventually she is led back to her home and lewdness ensues. There's a lot of games that play into this more simple queer sexual romance, for instance Demon Dash (2022), Housewarming Gift (2018) both by Nadia Nova. Along with a lot of the releases by Aria such as Ignored and Humiliated by Gamer Girls (2022). The fundamental interaction here is where desire meets respect of the other.

I like to think of these types of games as fairly wholesome LGBT power fantasies, because everything is simplified down to just the erotic desire. Power fantasies are fine and compelling, and I think there can be a bit too much moralizing when it comes to this stuff. If it's not appealing to you specifically or making some shortcuts to keep the story simple and focused, suddenly its wildly offensive, perverted, or otherwise needlessly fetishistic. I condemn this way of thinking and would draw a direct line between this criticism and the conservatives that try to outlaw library books. We need wholesome desire for our bodies out in the world, and I don't think taking undue scrutiny to already obscure texts is that fair. Imagine if you went and wrote some smutty fanfiction, uploaded it, and then found out a lot of people were poking fun at it one day. In a lot of these cases people are not being mindful that teams dont make art like this, but a single person does. At some point so called constructive criticism runs closer to bullying than it does to being anything helpful. I think the difference here is that I've actually had some of the people's works I criticized reach out and thank me or give feedback to what I said and it grounded me to realizing that at the end of the day I'm paroling somebodies creative drive. Like sure, death of the author and all, but it's only fair that people are going to feel hurt. I've had some of my posts on here get reposted to twitter before by big accounts to be mocked (particularly the Vampire Suvivor post) and I have to be honest it kind of stings to just see a bunch of people tell you you're wasting your time and doing nothing.

With that all said though, this doesn't mean I or you have to force ourselves to enjoy these works. Whether it be because the prose isnt effective or it cut a corner you're not fond of (in this case talking smut on the bus is not something im into as I like to keep my bus travel quiet, and the power fantasy of the 1 date girlfriend is something thats a little too fast for my tastes). You can even express that if you want. You can say a work is a bit too fetishistic or plain etc, but at the end of the day its just a preference. You don't get any points for gloating over how bad it is and in general doing so for works this small makes one come off meanspirited and demotivating people from making games you might enjoy in the future. This is a pervasive way of speaking about works that I've seen on RYM and is slowly creeping its way onto here. Almost none of these games were constructed to sustain this kind of mockery. It's likely you could be contributing quite directly to somebodies despair.

There's one other sentiment I want to demystify because it frustrates me deeply. Many people that are trans and most that aren't are way too open with their use of the word chaser to describe something or someones behavior. Again, we trans people like to be desired, and this relegation of everyone wanting for us or writing about our bodies as chasers is harmful. A chaser is somebody who usually wants to meet us on the downlow away from a crowd, that see us mainly as a porn fetish (a ladyboy or a shemale), that are only interested in hitting and quitting. Chasers tend to have no interests in our kinks or getting to know us or seeing us as people. Alex Jones, who was found to be looking at trans porn is a chaser. The person who wrote this story is almost definitively not a chaser. On top of that, while trans people can be uncomfortably perverted they can't be chasers. Chasers are only a term that apply (for the most part) only to cis people, and so saying that a trans person for one reason or another is being a chaser is transphobic rhetoric and should not be done so wantonly. We have other terms to describe perverted behaviour we dont like: Leering, objectifying, etc. Accusing everyone and everything of being a chaser robs that notion of its actual meaning and function. Which if you don't know, is to keep us personally safe since chasers don't respect us and thus can't be trusted to have good motivations.

There's lots of art like this running around, and every time people crowd together to make fun of it, it creates a quicksand pit of resentment and discontent. Every time people do that for art like this, it makes the people that even brought it to attention not want to anymore. It hits our morale a bit. God forbid the people just want to make games to practice and have fun with their desires in the process. It's exactly this attitude why I have my comments turned off. I don't want to argue with the types of prudes that would've tried to hang DeSade.

Usually very relaxing but I found it weirdly frustrating at points, likely due to using a controller to play - there is a 'snap-to' function using the shoulder buttons but the cursor itself can be a bit haphazard.

Some of the puzzles can also feel a bit off as well, either due to the solution leaning too hard into trial and error or because they fall a bit too far into the nebulous idea of tidying - does adding stars to a constellation really work thematically for what is in reality a game about tidying a house up and your cat getting in the way?

During the first minutes of playing this game I was very excited, delighting in the idea of exploring an infinite maze and learning about the people who once travelled through it, knowing that I enjoyed this concept in other works like Borges' The Library of Babel or even the Submachine game series. And by showcasing real works of art in all of its rooms it could also almost serve as a virtual musem tour.

But in the process of learning the labyrinth's rules I quickly started seeing how this idea was limited by its own tech. There are invisible ticking clocks that will limit your exploration, cutting off access to previous rooms or stopping you from visiting new ones, and by this alone the dream of wandering endless halls and wondering about who created and nurtured them is shattered; you are only there because you have a purpose, and you are not allowed to consider your surroundings very much.

And the random nature with which the same objects or backgrounds are found in different rooms, making them feel like copies of each other even though you only visit a few amount of them in each run, takes some charm away from it too.
In the end, while exploring some minor leads and very deliberately ignoring the Main One, regardless I was thrown onto the ending with no way of going back (as you can't really tell what the consequences of your actions will be), and while I could restart the game and explore more I chose to leave it there.

i've written this review multiple times and each time I've somehow lost my writing... it has been a few months spent enamored with baldurs gate three and audio dramas, but let's try a third time!!

a very cute little game with unexpectedly emotional moments! i quickly came to love (and worry for) its unique and entertaining characters. plus it was all wonderfully queer! it was fun to vibe with.

seeing the slight differences in the loops also felt satisfying. the effectiveness of timeloop repetition surprised me - while at times it felt a bit boring or frustrating, it puts you directly into sif's experience... so i think it still did what it set out to do. it's a cool way to emulate lived experience and there's an understanding of mental health that i didn't anticipate. it was well worth the four hour playthrough.

i don't know if i will pick up the full game, however. the short playtime felt perfectly suited to its message and i think repeating dungeons and dialogue for much longer would eventually lose my attention. ...i do have adhd, though. others might really enjoy it!