20 YEARS OF GAMING PART 10: HALFWAY POINT

Is Red Dead Redemption 2 a perfect game? Absolutely not. It's a 10/10 in the same way the Breath of the Wild duology are. If rating games was just about "things it does good vs things it does bad" then this game, nor those, would be anywhere CLOSE to a 10/10. And just to satiate that curiosity, I'll quickly run by the issues I do have with it so it doesn't look like I have Rockstar's 100 Work Week Bad Security Dick in my mouth.

Several systems are either super easy to take advantage of or not taken far enough in a way that ruins the immersion that the game otherwise dedicates a whole bunch of time to like the Wanted mechanic, NPC behaviors, weather and temperature, and more. There's a shit ton of trailing missions and some of the shooting galleries can get pretty repetitive. And Chapter V just generally kinda blows.

Now, all of that on its own would drag this game down to a 9 or even an 8/10. But what this game also has is some of the best visuals in any game, an incredibly engrossing open world with a ton of different ways to interact and have fun in it, some incredible music, excellent linear mission design, and one of the best stories in any video game. Arthur Morgan in particular is maybe the best protagonist in any video game ever and the story of him and his gang trying to make it in a dying world that's quickly outliving them is incredibly compelling. It's next level on a video, game, and narrative level so even if there are a good amount of issues I have with it when I really dissect it, the experience I had playing the game was so incredible and so engrossing, that I would feel dirty (at least right now) rating it at that 8 score I was considering. Anyway, onto the second half of this marathon!

20 YEARS OF GAMING PART 9

I've seen a lot of people say this game gave them A24 vibes. And now that I've played it, I can finally agree! This IS just like Men (2022)!

This game was mildly interesting at first. It has an excellent concept and the movies themselves are well shot and Manon Gage gives an excellent performance. But it was ultimately dragged down by some realizations I made about its fairly repetitive gameplay and one of the worst plot twists I've ever seen in a game.

On the latter front, it completely derails all of the interesting ideas I thought it was going to capitalize on in its first half and turns it into a FUCKING CREEPYPASTA. I laughed out loud at least 4 times and was not scared by anything except one shot that felt uncomfortable in the same way the OD trailer was. But regardless, this plot derail was so disappointing and poorly executed even for what it was TRYING to do.

The gameplay was also pretty interesting until I realized that the things that were categorized as matches really weren't... that related? So while combing through film footage and memorizing specific details was really cool and novel at first, as soon as the amount of times I said "huh? how does that work" increased to a point, I just gave up on combing through these intentionally. Coincidentally, that was around the time the story was beginning to "pick up." Great.

But yeah, what seemed like a super interesting game slowly became less interesting for me as it went along until my "do I give a shit"-o meter eventually plummeted as the true nature of its narrative came about. It feels like a terrible A24 horror movie and it's super clear after playing this that this goes in the David Cage camp of "people need to watch actual fucking movies."

Holy shit it's almost like faithfully recreating one of the best RPGs ever made in the style of the most visually and sonically appealing game in its series makes an already peak game even more peak or something who could have thunk it?

Yeah, I loved this. I loved the beautiful new visuals, I love (just about) all of the brand-new music, they added a handful of quality-of-life features that improve the game in the few places that it suffered from, and they also added a couple of brand new bosses at the end that are really tough and enjoyable to fight!

The only major thing keeping this from the 10 that it was SO CLOSE to is that while this remake did improve the backtracking issue, it didn't... fix it. Chapters 4-7 are still LADEN with backtracking that gets very tedious and dates this game that otherwise could have passed as a brand new game. That combined with the fact that this remake is a bit slower than the original, running at a consistent but noticeably lower 30fps compared to the original's 60 and having a slower text speed than the original. That latter point isn't a huge deal, and most of it can be fixed with a patch or you can just wait until the next console releases and this thing can run at 60.

Either way, I am so happy this game is finally getting a second chance with what is pretty handily the best way to play it and on modern consoles now too. This is pretty much the only chance we have at Paper Mario going back to being a turn-based RPG series so i hope all of yall put your money where your mouth is.

I previously stated that Duck Detective's VA needed to be everything. Today I learned that they're voiced by Sean Chiplock so it's safe to say they already are.

Good game! Looks good, has charming writing, some fun and interesting puzzles, and some great voice acting. For what it is, there isn't much actually wrong with it. I did kinda hope there was a bit more to this game, though, as it is INCREDIBLY short. And I'm fine with short games, but I was actually quite disappointed that it ended THIS quick. The only thing I can hope for here is that we get a lengthier sequel because I wanted to spend way more time with this Duck than I actually got, but considering everything I've been playing as of late, a super short, small, and purely comedic game is kinda what I needed.

Thank you, duck detective. Truly the greatest creature on earth.

...Well this is awkward. This was such a shoo-in for GOTY for me. It had all the right pieces laid out and a whole bunch of incredible aspects that it seemed like it had in the bag. But.. there is something kind of missing with this game and I think I've finally nailed down what it is.

Obviously, though, let's start with the good. This may appear shorter considering it's an 8/10, but that's because the good things this game has are self-explanatory, even if you haven't played the first. Why yes, this is one of the best-looking games of all time. Why yes, it does have industry-leading sound design and performance capture. Why yes, the story is super intense and emotional and Senua remains one of the best lead characters in video game history. Of course, the soundtrack is really good. A good majority of this game is obviously excellent.

There are even some less obvious things that I honestly like more compared to the average person. For one, I kinda like the fact that it's only around 5-6 hours? For $50? Sure I can understand not thinking it's super worth it. But I honestly like shorter more concise games that don't have that much fluff in it (we'll get to that later). Additionally, the biggest criticism I've seen for the game is its combat. And while I do have some small disappointments for it later, I overall really like it. I like the weightier, more cinematic combat. It makes every sword swing feel deep and heavy in a super satisfying way. I also love the decision to make it only one-on-one fights now as it avoids a problem with the original where sometimes the camera lock-on would be finicky and you'd get stabbed by a random ass guy from offscreen while you're fighting someone else. Here, it's one-on-one with interactions between other enemies being kept to mid-combat events that add a sense of tension to it. These fights are also pretty challenging, especially near the end. There are also a handful of "boss battles", I guess, and these are super cinematic and memorably intense as well.

Overall, this seems like a slam dunk for me. It's the original Hellblade, but bigger, more tense, and with all of the original's strengths turned up to 11. But.. there are 3 things that sort of even it out to where I think I like this game about as much as the original.

First of all, while the combat is excellent, the exploration and puzzles I didn't find all that engaging. I'm not asking for stuff on the level of Viewfinder or Animal Well, but something at least on the level of Inside or Journey, where they're simple but still engaging. This game's puzzles are mostly similar to the ones from the first game which I was getting rather tired of by the time the end of that game rolled around, so I wasn't thrilled that they're back here. They do have torch-lighting puzzles and one particular moment stood out as being kind of interesting, but overall, the adventuring side of the gameplay isn't super strong IMO. Weirdly enough, this is a problem I had with the first hellblade too, I just wish it had been addressed a bit more.

Secondly, while the narrative, overall, remains very strong, I didn't really connect super strongly to most of the new characters introduced for this game. They mostly served as a way to show Senua's growth by having her interact with someone outside of the psychosis voices in her head. And while they do it well, they don't have enough screen time to be all that memorable, and I already forgot the names of some of these characters hours after finishing the game.

And lastly, and this is not something to knock against the game but it's just a personal disappointment, I felt like the game played it a bit.. safe compared to the first game. I was super interested to see what bold new themes it could tackle or how its already-known new themes would translate into gameplay sequences and mechanics similar to the first, but there isn't really much here. It feels like just Senua's Sacrifice but bigger and more, rather than something that could stand alongside its original on its own gameplay-wise. Again, this isn't inherently a bad thing, but considering we were waiting 7 years for this game I do wonder how it will be reflected on. I really hope that Ninja Theory's next game (which apparently was greenlit already) is NOT a new Hellblade game. It's super obviously clear that Ninja Theory is an intensely passionate studio with a whole lot of talent behind it, but I think that we've seen and heard about all we needed to from this story.

Am I glad that we got Hellblade 2? Absolutely. This series is better with this game than without it.

But, if I knew what this game was, would I have asked for a Hellblade 2? I'm not sure.

This feels like punching down because I've been following a good amount of people who worked on this for years AND because this is Geese's first game. But... this is not it.

I will give it that Rambley is a great character so far. He is really cute and funny and well-animated. The voice actor also did a really good job. Apart from that.. textures are blurry and the lighting is either blindingly bright or too dark to even see anything, the frame rate, even on my 3050 TI, is appallingly bad, the gameplay consists of you walking and pressing the interact button on whatever braindead easy puzzle there is, and the chase scene at the end is literally the exact same as the one at the end of Poppy Playtime. This game has some promise narratively, and the music is actually quite good, but yeah this just kinda seems like a generic, poorly optimized indie horror novelty that's occasionally brought up by Rambley and the music and... not much else.

It's clear that there was a lot of passion behind this game and I won't deny that it could get better, but considering the listed inspirations for this game, I'm not gonna hold my breath.

20 YEARS OF GAMING PART 7 BUT I JUMPED BACK AND SHIT

A pretty solid time! Ghibli's influence definitely adds a lot to it both in terms of visuals and music, but the game isn't too much of a slouch outside of that. The story is actually pretty strong and the combat is pretty fun! If it was a bit faster it would honestly be the perfect companion piece to Pokemon's combat for me. If there's anything holding this game back for me, it's the game's overall sluggish pacing. It's one of those RPGs. The ones where the main quest feels less like a main quest and more like a bunch of sidequests stuck together leading you from place to place very slowly. I also really don't like any of the voice acting but it's an old game so I'll give it a pass there. There are also just a lot of little features throughout the game that aren't as smooth as they could be and it could lead to some frustrations (looking it up it seems like these were a sticking point even at the time)

But even if it is kind of rough and not everything gameplay-wise lands, I still had a good time with it and definitely recommend it. I heard there's a sequel, but I heard people liked it less so I don't know when (or if) I'll get to that one. If only Level-5 continued to make video games..........................

It is the closest any game since Hollow Knight has gotten to recapturing that feeling, so you KNOW this game is going to be peak. Considering this was made entirely by one dude including the engine over 7 years, they managed to craft something absolutely extraordinary here. The lack of any direction makes exploring this beautifully dark and atmospheric well so surprising. It's equal parts terrifying and joyful to see how the animals react to everything you do.

This game has maybe the best use of metroidvania upgrades in history??? With each new item having dozens upon dozens of different uses based on the animals it interacts with, how you interact with it, and more. This huge swab of options leads to some of the most cleverly designed puzzles and "boss" sequences I've seen in such a long time.

If there is one issue I have with the game is that I was kind of hoping for more on the music end, but it fits a good amount of areas in the game and the sound design is so amazing that it sticks with me just as hard. It's truly astounding how a game like this can come out from such an unassuming place, a 33MB game developed by one dude and published by a fucking YouTuber ended up quickly becoming my favorite game of the year, and unless my trip to Pharloom is booked this year as I hope for so dearly, I doubt anything will beat it.

I can't think of the last time I played a game where I mulled over its themes like this one. I do this all the time for great movies (I did this for The Zone of Interest a couple of months ago), but I don't think I've seen a story come out of a game that fully utilized its medium and was so artistically unique, quite like this one. It throws a LOT at the wall, and while not all of it sticks gameplay-wise, I still recommend people try this out. It's short (almost too short), cheap, and it'll gnaw at your brain hours after beating it.

Don't mistake me. This is a HIGH 7, and don't be surprised if it's bumped up by the end of the year, as I can only see myself appreciating this game more from here.