This game has a truly brilliant narrative! The story itself is compelling, gritty, and has very high stakes. Action sequences blend smoothly into cutscenes in a way that makes you feel like you're in the protagonist's shoes the entire way. And a series of camcorder flashbacks add tremendous character depth throughout the adventure in a way that touchingly brings out the humanity in Laura's unfortunate shipmates. I loved this games' atmosphere, general vibe, and gameplay, and I anticipate numerous replays in the years to come!

Shadow's story was the weakest of the trilogy. It attempted to portray Laura as a villain for doing basically the same thing she did in the previous two games, resulting in a ham-fisted morality lesson that collapsed under its own ineptness. The gameplay was slightly worse than Rise, largely due to its inclusion of far more scripted action sequences (returning predators, teamwork with an NPC, etc). The worldbuilding was easily the best part of the game, and any future replays will be solely focused on revisiting the game's beautiful Mayan architecture and reinterpreted myths.
In summary: It's a weak ending to an otherwise solid trilogy, but it has enough of its predecessors' spark to merit at least one playthrough.

A massive, complicated, and utterly breathtaking imperial galaxy simulator. The gameplay is best enjoyed with friends, but I spent hours by myself completely immersed in the minutia of defending my struggling hegemony. The learning curve is steep, and I am far from an expert, but I am an enthusiastic Stellaris player. My only note of warning is that this game is like Civilization, in that it's highly addictive and takes hours to finish a single game.
That said, this game did an amazing job presenting numerous alien races and conveying the wonder associated with the scifi exploration genre as a whole. Consequently, this is another game that filled me with AWE!

The industrial-medieval design of Dunwall was extremely well done, and the longer I played the game the more immersed I became in Dishonored's grim and grimy setting. The foes were challenging enough to make each direct fight a struggle, but quite fragile when taken by surprise (similar to the original Assassin's Creed). While frustrating, the Officers' skill at dodging and blocking most of my sword attacks was a brilliant design choice that contributed greatly to the opponents' overall difficulty. It took me 23.33 hours to finish the main campaign, but a more skilled gamer than I could easily finish in far less time.
I concluded the story feeling satisfied with my overall experience but left with quite a few lingering questions about the world, its characters, its politics, and the powers at work. In all honesty, I really like how this game left me wanting more, and I plan on playing through the two narrative DLC and the sequel in the near future.