THIS GAME IS NOT GOTY MATERIAL. But it IS good.

This is probably the lowest 9 I'll ever give a game. Insomniac basically improves everything that the first game does. From an almost complete combat overhaul, traversal improvements, faster load times, and larger action set-pieces. In a way, this is just a better version of the first game and not much more.

And yk what? That's ok.
Not every game needs to be some genre defying masterpiece, sometimes you can just build upon the foundations of the orignal, and expand further.

Yes this game has issues. There's some inconstant character motivations with Venom, Miles has nothing to do after beating Li, Kraven kills off all the old villains off-screen, the entire 3rd act feels incredibly rushed, Miles' final suit looks like ass, ect.

No this game isn't perfect and it's pretty short (and yes, it 100% should've launched with NG+). But I'm pretty happy with what I got :D

I do hope they do some Carnage DLC tho, since they did a ton of DLC for the first game

I wanted to love this, but I ended up only liking it.
I felt like the characters were pretty underdeveloped overall, and the sinister 6 encounter was kind of a blue-ball. But I will say the last hour has some of the best acting in the game.

Peter, Aunt May, and Doc Oc really shine near the ending cutscenes because their actors have to do so much emotional heavy lifting, and for me it 100% payed off.

I felt like New York was a pretty shallow and small open world. Sure there's a bunch of collectibles you can get, and the odd side mission, but overall it I felt like it was really lacking personality.

Swinging and combat are easily the most fun aspects of this game, and I totally get the praise for it. It's crazy fun to try and swing as fast as possible or take out a whole camp of prisoners with instant-kill gadgets and finishers.

Overall tho, the game is solid. Just not a masterpiece imo

Man...

What a fucking game.

While I have my small nitpicks with the game's overworld and it's reliance on chance events and lack of freedom or experimentation due to the honor system and scripted missions, (unlike something like TOTK or BOTW) I still ADORE this game.

Red Dead Redemption stands out as one of the greatest games I've ever played, not because of it's overworld, combat, graphics, attention to detail, or realism, but because of it's story. (this game does look AMAZING tho, I played it on a PS5 slim and it looks fucking fantastic)
Sure I loved riding around on my horse, or freeing the random stranger from a bear-trap, but ultimately the story is what kept me going.

And holy SHIT what a story.

Bro this shit is better than some movies, some shows, some books.. God this shit made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me jump out of my seat in panic. This game had me HOOKED. Absolutely all praise to the writers, actors, and directors of this game's narrative. Y'all murdered this.

I won't comment much on the actual story or it's characters as to not spoil anything, and because it's kinda been talked to death from all the youtube video essays, but know that they're telling the truth.

If you haven't played this game yet, then DO IT. It'll ask a lot of your time, and it might take a bit to get invested, but in the end I promise you it WILL be worth it.

You're a good man Arthur Morgan..

I bought the treasure trove collection out of impulse due to it's positive word of mouth, and I wanted to see what all the hype was about, and what I got was an extremely "stiff", side-scrolling platformer that's """""retro""""" aesthetics and difficulty completely failed to win me over.

Lemmie start by saying that I have no nostalgia for old 2D side scrollers such as Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, or Contra. So my expectations for this game are only built off of previous 2D "modern" platformers. And I'm gonna be honest, this is very overhyped.

Easily my biggest gripe with this game is it's movement. It's a little hard to put to words, but I'd say it feel's "stiff". The best way I could describe the game's platforming is like instead of pressing a button to jump, you instead press a button to move up or down on an analog chart. There's no sense of character momentum, or weight, or even balance. The only ways you can feel these qualities are on a select few levels, but that's only due to their environmental design, and not a part of the core movement in gameplay.

Comparing this experience to something like Ori and The Blind Forest and it was like night and day. I'm aware that Ori and Shovel Knight are different games, with one being Metroidvania, and the other a more "traditional" 2D side-scroller, but I wholeheartedly enjoyed Ori's movement MUCH more than Shovel Knight's. It's very hard to be charmed by a game when the simple act of moving feels unpleasant, even if this is due to an artistic choice. Call me bougie, shallow, or pampered by modern games, idc. Shovel Knight is not immune to criticism just because people hold it as an indie darling.

At the moment I have absolutely no motivation to return to this game. Maybe I'll play the other campaigns, maybe not. But for now it's probably staying unfinished.

Beat this game in a few days and I got some thoughts

Ori and the Blind Forest felt like the obligatory indie platforming darling that everyone HAD to play, or else your opinion on platformers get laughed out of the room. And for the most part I kinda felt a disconnect with much of the praise this game was getting.

Don't get me wrong, the graphics and art design of this game are undoubtedly beautiful, and every environment looked stunning, but as for the overall platforming, I wasn't having the best time.
Much of the early-game requires you to execute incredibly precise jumps, but it grew pretty frustrating to execute since Ori is such a floaty lil guy. This would kinda continue up until I finally got the bash and double jump abilities. While I still kinda have some gripes with some platforming sections (Fuck Black Root Burrows), I was having a lot more fun. In fact, I actually really enjoyed the last two areas of the game, (the Valley of the Wind, and Mount Horu go fucking harddd).

I don't wanna harp on the combat too much, most ppl who've played this game say it's bad, and I agree. Having a stupid lil energy ball fight your battles for you gets very annoying veryyy fast. But I mean it wasn't enough to ruin my experience .

But anyways I'm glad i gave this game a shot, and I can't wait to play the sequel, since I heard that was better (just like with RE 2) lmao