Insanely good looking game, in 2017 and even today. Absolutely beautiful sound design too, and cutscene direction, and performances, every aspect of the presentation is stellar! 20 people made this and it stands right alongside God of War or Half Life: Alyx, it's fucking ridiculous.
I really hope the sequel does some more interesting stuff on the gameplay side to keep it interesting though. There's some flashes of fun design sprinkled throughout this (the fire maze! the beast!) but it's mostly just combat followed by puzzle followed by combat followed by puzzle. Understandable given the minuscule team size (AGAIN, 20 PEOPLE!), but I really hope that Microsoft budget gives them the juice to make the next one super fucking gorgeous AND super fucking fun.
I really hope the sequel does some more interesting stuff on the gameplay side to keep it interesting though. There's some flashes of fun design sprinkled throughout this (the fire maze! the beast!) but it's mostly just combat followed by puzzle followed by combat followed by puzzle. Understandable given the minuscule team size (AGAIN, 20 PEOPLE!), but I really hope that Microsoft budget gives them the juice to make the next one super fucking gorgeous AND super fucking fun.