It is so fucking cool. Like every element just melts together to create such a consistent experience. As everyone has said before, the gunplay is fun and frenetic, and the enemy AI makes every encounter never feel the same. It is so sad and pathetic that the AI from this nearly 20-year-old game is running laps around AAA companies like EA and Ubisoft.

The tone and horror elements were a very pleasant surprise and enhanced the often lonely atmosphere the game sets. The NPC are cute and give the player moments of levity from the scary world that surrounds you. Also, the sound design is super crisp, from chair squeaks to bullets whizzing past your ears it's all sensational.

The pacing is also super good. Although the campaign is on the shorter side they still do a good job drawing out those lonely moments with sudden spooks and scares all of which lead to the fantastic gunfights. The level design is also super well done both aesthetically and mechanically. The only small gripes I had were the turret and flying drone enemies, they throw off the pacing and the only counter to them is super slow and boring compared to the much more thought-provoking AI of the replica soldiers.

Besides that though, there was a consistent flow of unique ideas in each level making every new encounter a puzzle you have to solve using as few resources as possible. In a way, this game kinda feels like a spiritual successor to the original half-life with amazing enemy AI, environmental storytelling, and an emphasis on player freedom with each firefight. Everything is just very concise with no fluff and it feels like Monolith set out to make a solid game and they did just that.

An all-time classic in the FPS genre that I'm glad I was finally able to complete.

i know people love raging but i think this game is genuinely in a decent state in terms of balance right now. there are still problems like the way they monetize chapters being really hard on new players. maps are still kinda all over the place, but most are okay and are an actual manageable size(there are outliers though like rpd and hawkins). balance among killers is really sad especially with some of the lower end ones who dont stand a chance if they dont use the proper build. however, for the most part this game is alright and people are little babies looking to nitpick at this point.

i do wish someone else would make an asymmetrical game to rival this because there are like no other options if i wanna play anything else in this genre.

This game is great.

After dropping this one for no apparent reason, I have finally come back and finished this one for good. The game is great but everyone already knows that, but like many others have said it really only works on that first go around. A lot of the magic is lost after knowing the ins and outs but still that first playthrough was magical. The wonder that this game's exploration gives is immaculate and nothing like I've seen before. It's one of the games that truly feels its earned the title of open world. This truly is an open world that is fully realized and if can you see it, chances are, you can actually visit it. The grand fairy tale setting while kind of bland for my taste still gives the game a larger than life aesthetic that works in its favor. After 100%ing this one with all the endings if I was to do it again I would've kept it to just one playthrough. A masterpiece to be sure but just one I won't be revisiting for a long long time.

This game is really special.

I still can't place whether or not Dark Souls or this is my favorite FromSoft game but this has quickly captured my heart. FromSoft's gameplay tweaks to their usual formula are genuinely brilliant and its such a shame that they don't appear in any of their games after. The atmosphere is amazing and the storytelling and themes are juicy. I never thought throwing the souls genre into an eldritch horror world would work this well but FromSoft was able to pull it off with ease. The trick weapons are a blast to play around with, creating a new layer to every encounter depending on your spacing and the enemies placement around you. While there are less weapons total I feel like it gave them the opportunity to make every one feel nothing like the weapons of the past. The removal of shields is also great(even though I never found a use for them besides the grasscrest for the stamina boost)because it opened the way for gun parries. At first, the vials pissed me off in the beginning and I do think it does make the early hours unnecessarily frustrating but in the middle to end game I felt like it was more than easy enough to get vials to make it to the end. The rally system is also a great addition to the formula that really worked for me as it made me work hard to get into those prime positions to maximize damage on enemies.

I do feel like the game does have its faults as the chalice dungeons were easily the most frustrating part of my playthrough. The first couple were great, giving the player a little variety when you want a break from the overworld levels. However, the Defiled chalice is one of the worst designed challenges in a FromSoft game period. They half your health pool and throw you to the wolves against the earlier chalice bosses with amped up damage numbers. The amount of damage their basic attacks do basically make it that any and all attacks are a one shot. This is not how you balance difficulty and it felt like the game was trying to stretch out the dungeons for every bit of juice they had and it left a sour taste in my mouth for a while. In its defense this is all just side optional content but I feel like it was a difficulty spike that was not earned. Another element that was not as strong was the mid game bosses which often felt gimmicky and not really a real challenge. Thematically they still have the FromSoft charm, but it did leave more to be desired.

The side content was not all bad however haha far from it. This games world is like a complicated mystery box and only when you put in the work to find its secrets do you find the real gold of the game. There are several secret levels that could be entirely missed on a first playthrough and its stuff like this that really made me fall in love with the world of this game. It really makes Yharnam feel like a real and twisted place that actually exists but it will only give you its secrets if you work to find them yourself.

If you haven't played this yet do yourself the favor and pick it up now. $20 for such a masterpiece is highway robbery.

severely misses the mark.

just play cs2. probably gonna be plagued by power creep like many of riot's other games. characters like reyna and neon are a little too fast for what is meant to be a precise gunplay experience. counter strike has achieved a greater level of depth with each ultility compared to the abilities found in valorant and cs is literally just a bunch of smokes and nades. through valve's use of source's physics engine you are able to be extremely creative with such limited tools. valorant has only a few agents with that much depth. if you want a slower paced fps just try siege or counter strike.

This game feels bittersweet to me.

This is the most mixed ive felt on game in a while. I'll first start with the bad. The general combat when it works can feel amazing but, when it doesn't and the enemies experience no hitstun while they stun lock you into oblivion it can start to feel extremely unfair. The abilities are very hit or miss in terms of synergy with the blades of chaos. Moves like Poseidon's rage and Hade's army are great to finish off a combo or open a fight with. But, the lightning bolts and Medusa's head are simply too slow and jank to use without dropping a combo or getting punished. The glory kill system can be extremely hit or miss. The ones with just button presses or nothing are great and service the gameplay well but, those fucking horned dog whatever the fuck's QTEs are horrible. They require a strict button mash that need impossibly tight timing to perform, destroying your fingers whenever you face more than one. There are also way too many fucking times they want to "mix up" the gameplay by having you fight on random terrain like walls or ropes, and they all feel horrible depending on your luck. Sometimes you will breeze through feeling badass and other times you get into a constant cycle of getting grabbed, waggling your joystick to get free, thus leaving you open to be jumped on again. There is also a heavy dose of archaic ps2 action game bs in here too. Many instant death pits, spikes, walls and shitty camera angles that move in all the wrong places.

While it does sound like this game is unredeemable there is still plenty of good here. The story is great with a nice dose of power fantasies and cool implementations of the greek mythos. The cutscenes have a really fun presentation and you can feel the passion behind this games creators. Like i mentioned earlier there are still times where the combat feels great and everything just clicks. After finally finishing the game and its story, I finally started to understand the combat. Given the bumpy pacing and interesting experience I had, I am left skeptically optimistic for what the rest of the series has in store.