This is the perfect exmaple of what the videogame industry needs more of. Games made with smaller scopes, and budgets, but that still deliver the quality of a AAA game. It's one of the only sustainable paths forward for the games industry.

From art design, to story telling, to sound. It fires on all cylinders to deliver such a specifically crafted work of art. A creative masterpiece that I recommend to everybody. (And try to play it through within a reasonable amount of time lol, do not spread it acorss years like I did. This game deserves every bit of your attention, and it rewards you for it with a wonderfully cohesive tale)

Finally got to finishing this game in my preparation to play Alan Wake 2. The end of the year is coming up and I had noticed I had barely played any of the big games this year, and seeing as I had some free time and some extra money, I bought Alan Wake 2 and played through this game over the course of two days. I will say the story is very interesting, but the game still feels very "of its time" even with the remaster. Just the way some things are written, the way some things are shown, it gave me a lot of Life is Strange and Until Dawn vibes, even though obviously this game came out years prior and was definitely influential in its method of story telling. But I don't like some of the very dramatic (in a dated way) framing of things. Of course the whole point is that Alan is a fiction writer but they could've done something more mind bending, more weird. I loved all the references to classic horror. All the Stephen King references, and the whole thing with the birds as a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was great. Having only recently started watching more movies, especially horror classics specifically, this game felt very rewarding to play. Also, surprisingly the actual gameplay was very good in my opinon. I don't know why but for some reason the gunplay and the driving mechanics felt really good. Some of the enemies were definitely annoying and the loop itself became repitive but I would definitely classify the game as a third person shooter, and a relatively good one at that for being more story focused. The story itself was engaging, though again long winded, writerly, and dramatic. It probably could've been shortened but still it was fun to play through.

I was very excited for this game as potentially another darling indie to add onto the list of those I love. I do really appreciate this game but I did find myself being more frustrated than I thought I would be while playing. This game looks amazing, but that is mostly due to its art direction and simple style, so I have no idea why the game is so poorly optimized and runs at a relatively mediocre fps. The switch to UE5 most definitely accounts for a bit of both points, the incredible graphics along with the mediocre performance. Along with the problem of fps, the game can be surprisingly buggy/scuffed. They aren't major bugs, but many times my player got stuck on certain objects, clipped through certain objects, or just wouldn't reach for some holds. They are very minor but common which really took away from the game for me. I thought the gameplay itself was fun when it was working, I just wish it didn't unimmerse me so often. The soundtrack was pleasant but I wish I heard it more. And the story is also one area where I feel as if Jusant missed the mark. They had the opportunity to tell the story in a much more interesting way than they did. But instead we could the very generic and gamey idea of reading through tons of letters. I really like the idea of Jusant as a whole, but I feel as if it missed the mark just a little bit in many areas. I would still recommend as the game is beautiful and since the play time is so short.