It feels sad to have this game grow away from me so much, but after playing Bloodborne and Elden Ring back to back, this really just has nothing unique to offer me. If I wanted this style of combat done better, I'd play BB (or even Sekiro), and if I wanted this style of combat with better bosses, I'd play ER. The base game bosses aren't nearly as good as I remember; though there are some exceptions like the final boss and Nameless King. The DLCs do help pack a bit more punch, but I find that it still doesn't save the game from having monotonous combat, overly linear map design, and an all but washed out and overly bright color palette. Plus, the constant fanservice really just wore on my nerves, though there were some moments I did like, specifically Smouldering Lake.

However, at the end of the day, it's still a Souls game, so it's still absolutely worth playing. It's just my personal least favorite and one I don't see myself coming back to nearly as much as its brethren. Credit where its due: easily the best ending of the entire lineage. The final boss itself, the leadup, and the thematic weight and darkness (heh) really make it something special.

Not going to rate this until Act III is out, but god damn if this isn't one of the most enjoyable times I've had in a game. It's very clear Hakita is someone who loves video games very much, and he crafts that love into as great of an experience as you can have, extracting only the best parts from his influences resulting in a mish-mash of Quake, Devil May Cry, and Dark Souls, with hints of other influences like Evangelion and 40K peppered throughout that absolutely should not work but soars higher than you could imagine. Everything you've heard about this game is true, and if you even mildly enjoy FPS games, this will be one of the best you ever play.

This game sucks ass and I don't recommend it unless you're willing to put up with a lot of bullshit, but I'm still gonna keep playing it. Once I find another game where I can play as Nemesis fighting against Bill Overbeck, Ash Williams, Laurie Strode, and Steve Harrington in Midwich Elementary School, then yeah, I'll stop playing this. I can't think of a better example of a monopoly in gaming than this, though. There won't be another asymmetrical horror game that comes even close to scratching this one's popularity just by nature of all the licenses this one grabbed onto first.

Seriously though. Even if you're a huge fan of horror like I am, I really don't recommend this. Flawed game at its core with an insane amount of nickel-and-diming and a horribly incompetent dev team, and a frightfully toxic playerbase to boot.

This rocked, I dunno why so many people say it's the worst of the original three. It feels like the full realization of the action focus that they shifted to with 2, and it plays a lot smoother because of it. Sure, you're loaded up with ammo and health to an exuberant degree, but that makes it fun, man. If you want to make a game where I play as a one-woman army blowing up monsters and running from a terrifying pursuer, then let me not have to worry about ammo management as much as the previous games, let me focus on being badass and having fun. I think this game soars in that regard, and it leads to a very enjoyable experience.

The level design is much larger in scope this time around, and that's also something I really appreciated. I love how you're not confined to one localized place anymore, you're roaming the streets of the entirety of Raccoon City, going in and out of various buildings rather than just going deeper underground like you did in games prior. Does it lead to a higher level of backtracking than the previous two? Sure, especially if you're me and you forget important items in the storage box, but it never felt like a frustratingly high amount, just a result of the larger set. Not only does the setting impact the gameplay, but it also has a pretty heavy impact on the story, too. This is, in my opinion, the best story of the first three, solely because of how much it focuses on the people who aren't the main characters. So many documents are found that are looks into the lives of Raccoon City's civilians; those much less fortunate against Umbrella than our protagonists, and it genuinely did up the stakes for me and make me want to avenge them. You're not just fighting Umbrella because they're evil now, you're fighting them because you see the damage they've done to everyone and everything around you. It's surprisingly quite gripping for these games.

Yeah, I don't know what else to say, this was just a really fun action-horror game. Mostly action, sure, but good lord if those Nemesis chases didn't have me screaming. This was also the game that made me realize why Jill is such a beloved character, as I thought her portrayal in RE1 wasn't great, and RE3make didn't give me enough time with her. "You want S.T.A.R.S? I'll give you S.T.A.R.S." is easily the hardest line of this original trilogy, hands down.

Undoubtedly a good game on its own, but playing it right after REmake, I only had one thought going through my head: "Wow, I'd rather be playing either REmake or RE2make than this." Yes, I know it's iconic, and helped cement the series' fame. It introduced multiple fan favorite characters, it has the setting that a lot of people think of when they think RE, it added some new terrifying enemies, but... I don't know. At the end of the day, it didn't feel like it was trying to do anything more than just be "more Resident Evil." It didn't feel nearly as tense as 1 due to the more action-oriented focus of the development, which hinders the game in numerous ways. Fixed camera angles and tank controls worked perfectly in RE1 to create tension and dread, but in this, they feel like a nuisance that heavily impacts combat for the worse. In fact, when you're equipped to the nines with weaponry, it robs the experience of a lot of its scariness. Zombies and Lickers aren't threats to me anymore, they're just annoyingly tanky targets.

The story is never really the focal point in an RE game, but a lot of people cite RE2 as having the best story in the series, so I paid closer attention for this one, and... it's just RE1. Like, almost exactly. The RPD is a cover for Umbrella, just like the mansion. Someone who the main character trusts turns out to be the villain, just like before. The game ends with the Umbrella labs self-destruc- well, okay, fine, every RE game ends that way. But still, it didn't really feel like the plot was all that different from RE1's. Sure, having the two main characters bump into each other a few times is definitely pretty cool and creates a more cohesive through line, but at its core, it feels samey.

I should note that these are my thoughts after only completing Leon's A campaign, just like how I did my RE2make review. Once I do Claire B, I'll come back and give any final thoughts; see I warm up to this any more.

Alright, so I just finished Claire B, and my feelings are pretty enforced now. The early game is still more irritating than it is tense, but the action focus really works later on in the game. It just feels cool to run through Umbrella Labs, blasting away everything you see with electricity guns and acid grenades. I gotta say, though, I was expecting a lot more from the way the game's perspective changes on a B scenario. It's still 85% the same game, with the same items, and same rooms, with only some minor changes in how you get from room 1 to room 2. Mr. X was a huge letdown, he really just felt shoehorned in than a natural addition. Also, Sherry is incredibly annoying as a companion and made it hard for me to really feel her and Claire's friendship like I did in the remake.

In the end, this is a good game that, while I'm grateful it exists for making the RE series the mainstay that it is today, I feel hasn't aged as good as its peers in the series. Between both the RE1 and RE2 remakes, I don't find much reason to go back to this one. I can imagine it being mind-blowing back in '98, but now, it just feels outmoded.

I completed Chris' playthrough this time around, and while it definitely gave me a new perspective on the game and a lot of added tension, it reinforced my feelings for it as a whole. Every design choice in this works perfectly for the experience, even if it starts to get stale towards the end. The fixed camera angles, the strict inventory, the restricted movement, the limited saves, it makes everything you do a razor-sharp decision that you may or may not pay the consequences for later, but it's that ambiguity and uncertainty that makes your actions so tense, which makes the horror more impactful. A spooky zombie crawling at me isn't that scary on its own, but a spooky zombie crawling at me when I have no ammo and I'm out of kerosene and I'm backed against a wall? That's where things get real scary. Unfortunately, I find that the more open spaces once you leave the mansion to be much less gripping, both visually and gameplay-wise. They're not bad, mind, but it just doesn't compare to the perfection that is the mansion. No matter what qualms I may have with how this game progresses, I will still respect the absolute hell out of it and regard it as one of, if not the finest experience that horror games can offer.

Bethesda's "Fallout 4" is a foolish, depressing, overproduced video game that mixes post-apocalypse with science fiction to make something that is fun as neither one thing or the other.

Yeah, I finished it out of spite. I don't care anymore. I couldn't live with myself giving a game 0.5 and having so much resentment towards it without actually seeing how bad it gets. After a while of playing, I did become numb to all the awful decisions and was mostly just bored or mildly irritated, but whenever I took a step back and looked at the game as a whole, everything came flooding back to me. Grinding out all the role-playing aspects from a series known for its role-playing, a story that feels like the most generic sci-fi plot ever told with twists that only exist for the writers' masturbatory indulgences, gunplay that feels like the clunkiness of Fallout's past with a much too thick layer of wax over it, just shit all around. It is actually mind-boggling how awful Father is as a character from every single angle, but I don't want to get into spoilers here, I just had to get that out. I don't even know what more to say. The Flanderization of Fallout, full stop.

I can't. I'm sorry, but I can't. Every time I try to play this game, I'm immediately reminded why I uninstall it every single time. There's not a game I've played that fills me with this much vitriolic dislike towards every aspect. The voice acting is just as stiff and emotionless as to be expected from a Bethesda Fallout, but made even worse by having your playable character be particularly wooden, and made even worse by the devs making them talk at any possible instance. Skipping dialogue becomes irritating just because of the model/face glitches and the "uh huh yep soooo hmm"s from your character. It's not enough for the game to let you know that you don't have bobby pins, your character has to mention it, too! This may seem nitpicky, I know, but it's just a constant reminder of Bethesda's consistent ability to absolutely obliterate any possible immersion I can experience in the game. I have to be reminded that I'm playing a character that doesn't sound (nor emote) like I do, that my stat selection and point allocation don't matter, that the world of Fallout is nothing more than a big playground with cool armor, that story takes a backseat to being a cool badass wanderer, that nothing that ever happens matters. It's the same sin as Fallout 3, but unlike 3, this game doesn't even get the half-excuse of "well it gave us New Vegas and was an impressive transition to 3D!" Speaking of 3 and New Vegas, I'm kinda shocked at how many people say that this game has good gunplay, when... it doesn't? At all? It feels like an uncanny valley between a smooth AAA shooter and the clunky days of 3/NV, and it just makes every combat encounter feel sluggish and weak. There are some interesting concepts (i've always liked the idea of power armor making you a literal walking tank), but they're always executed in the worst possible ways that makes me not even want to give them credit for the initial idea. Everything in this game is wrong to me, and it marks the final nail in the coffin for Fallout as a series, 76 just lowered the casket.

If you like this game, great. If this is your favorite game, great. I'm glad you can enjoy something that I loathe so much. But, unless I eventually bite the bullet and pump this game full of QoL mods that make it even mildly tolerable, it will remain as my least favorite game that I've played, for reasons both inside and outside of itself.

I will grit my teeth and do everything I can to not draw comparisons to New Vegas, a game that is better than this on literally every front, and instead look at it as its own experience and as a sequel to Fallout 1 and 2.

Nothing you do in this game matters. Nothing. There's no choice that you make that ever has an impact on the story, you just walk a straight line to the end while the writers beat you over the head with their ideas and themes that they want to develop but never spend any time doing so. Bethesda is so terrified that you might not enjoy their story and world, so they trip over their own feet at every turn to make you connected, despite it being completely counterintuitive. A 20-minute long intro that takes you through the first 19 years of your life! Wow, don't you feel connected with your character and the places you see? Don't you love your good ol' dad? Oh no, the Vault is melting down (or something)! Aren't you sad about this? After all, this is where you grew up! I won't go into spoiler territory, even though the "twists" in the story really do not matter, but the examples I gave are just the tip of the iceberg of how much Bethesda grabs you by the back of the head and bashes your face into its story.

So, a lot of people who defend this game would respond to all of my complaints about the main story with a reasonable rebuttal: sure, it's not a good story, but the side quests and world design are pretty great. Alright, that's understandable, and I kept that in mind while I played, but I find that this isn't true at all. Side quests are more than the surface objectives, it's what they mean, to you and to the world around you. Fallout 2 had a quest that was nothing more than going across the street and buying a plow for a Vault City slave, and that had more impact on me than anything this game had to offer. Now, that isn't me being snarky and cynical for no reason, I'm offering it up to make a point; as much as FO3 tries, and it tries very hard, there is never a real connection with the player and the world around them because of how shoddily it's put together. Things exist and happen for no reason, characters are all completely flat, motives make no sense (when they're not blatantly aping the previous 2 entries), nothing in the game feels impactful to you at all. What's the point in me doing side quests if my reward is learning more about this poorly written world from poorly written characters with poorly directed voice actors? There's no sense of satisfaction, because my actions don't mean anything. My dialogue options are nothing more than "kind response", "neutral response", and "mean response". It's almost funny how the other games in the series have been critiqued for having Karma systems that mean practically nothing, when this game goes out of its way to flaunt its Karma system that has even less impact and feels even more phoned-in than the other games. I also want to mention, with regards to the side quests, that you have to find a great deal of them organically, via digging through the world for settlements. On the surface, this isn't a bad idea, but the problem is how segmented the world design is, on both micro and macro scales. Areas are unnecessarily broken up and labyrinthian just to make you have to find byzantine routes around, and said areas are thrown about randomly throughout the wasteland, with very rare instructions pointing you in any real direction. Not only that, but everything blends in visually to the point that you might glaze right over a possible area and side quests just because it didn't grab your eye. I never felt any drive to explore the wasteland because, outside of the quests having no meaning to me, it just never made me feel like the trek to find things would be worth it.

This shouldn't come as a shock, but all nuance and subtext in this is practically non-existent. Again, discounting New Vegas, compared solely to 1 and 2, it is genuinely impressive how much this game fumbles any and all meaning in its text. The Bible verse that is bludgeoned into your head relentlessly throughout the game is the perfect example of this; taking symbolism from the Bible, an incredibly symbolic and metaphor-ridden text, and playing it completely straight. The verse mentions water, and you're bringing water to the wastelands! Do you get it yet? Do you understand that whenever we bring up the water, we want you to think about how clever we are for choosing that Bible verse? Everything else in the game is the exact same way, absolutely zero subtlety and everything that could have even the slightest nuance being played completely straight and blunt. Wow, the guy who traps people in a simulation of the 50s is obsessed with the past and doesn't want things to change! It's so tiring. It is so, so tiring.

With as much as I rip this game to shreds, and believe me, it deserves every ounce, I have to reluctantly give it one compliment. Bethesda did a pretty good job at adapting the Fallout visual and gameplay style to a 3D world, with little details thrown in like Vault layouts, certain weapon and world models faithfully recreated, even the dialogue you tell your companions being similar to the games previous. But, I don't know how genuine of a compliment "you managed to follow the exact footsteps your predecessors laid out" is.

To wrap things up, I want to make my points as clear and concise as they can get, because I know I can get wordy. Bethesda is so terrified at the player not interacting with the story and world "correctly", that they strip away all impact that the player's choices have. This leads to interactions being flat, emotional moments feeling forced, and a general feeling of unimportance. To borrow a line from my friend who I played this game with, you are not the main character of the story; your dad and Doctor Li are, you are on the sidelines spectating the entire time. Your choices have already been made for you, you only get to decide what words will be used. This is the core issue with this game, and what leads to the world being inherently uninteresting and as a result, everything that happens to, and because of, the player feeling like they lack any influence.

"It's like... Bethesda is a bakery, and the visual designers do the frosting, while the writers make the cake. And the writers can't bake a cake to save their fucking lives, so the only thing the visual designers can do is make it look really nice on the outside and hope you don't notice how bad the inside is. It's not their fault that the end result is unenjoyable, they did the best they can." - aforementioned friend

So, the fact that it took me this long to play this is kind of a cardinal sin for someone who has New Vegas in their top 5. I can't even use the excuse of "well, I don't like the older games", because I love Fallout 1! For a lot of reasons, some that were still retained in this playthrough, I just never could finish this. I tried maybe 5 or 6 times, and I'd always get to The Den and just peter out. This time through, I put my foot down and made myself beat it, and... I certainly went through an arc.

As previously mentioned, I really do love Fallout 1, even with its flaws. I know the combat is a bit boring, and there are some glaring QOL issues, but I always considered it to be a marvelously tight experience that mastered the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic America. There's no real major factions, there's essentially just tribes with differing ideas that still find a way to war with each other. It felt desolate, bleak, hopeless, but those all complimented the game's tone perfectly. Now, the reason I bring all this up is because I don't think Fallout 2 succeeds in that capacity at all, really.


This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I think it makes sense to see the wasteland grow and evolve, but I feel it leads to an extreme tonal dissonance at times. The political aspects, such as anything Enclave related or the three-way battle for power between the NCR, Vault City, and New Reno, are all done really well, and show that the writing can still be top-notch when it needs to be. I also really loved the expanded-upon themes from Fallout 1; whereas that game focused on the cyclical nature of humanity by looking at small groups still warring over ideology, here the focus is shifted more to the downfalls of the layman, like illicit drug trading, gambling, brothels, and government corruption. It makes it feel like a real sequel, developing the concepts that would grow to be a through line for the rest of the series. The comedic moments, while definitely hilarious at times, tended to stick out to me, and made the game feel a bit less serious, despite trying to be with the aforementioned themes and conflicts. It felt like it was constantly flip-flopping between both sides, and I can't say I loved the feeling. The pop culture references, even if some did get a chuckle out of me, were way too on the nose and often just resulted in me rolling my eyes, I can't stress how much better New Vegas handled them than this. I definitely think that the feel of the game improves drastically as you continue, because the first few areas feel completely flat to me, neither politically nor comedically intriguing, just fodder for you to milk information from. Fallout 1 did this, too, but I find that the early areas in that are much, much more interesting and diverse.

As for the gameplay, little has changed, outside of a few QOL features and having companions that aren't mostly useless cardboard cutouts, which is nice. The flow of weaponry is mostly the same; early game pistol, middle game SMG or shotgun, late game energy weapon, but they definitely give you enough wiggle room to use what you're comfortable with, including a much higher focus to melee and unarmed. This somewhat backfires in the beginning, as having to use melee leads to some very drawn-out and unfun combat moments, but as soon as you get your first real gun, things start going a lot smoother. I do want to mention one aspect of "gameplay" that is definitely a step down from 1; there's barely any talking heads! Seriously, this game has maybe triple the amount of characters to talk to, and yet half the number of talking heads. Sure, it made the NPCs that do have them really stick out (Frank Horrigan...), but it led to a lot of quests feeling kind of dull when you're not really seeing the person you're talking to.

Regardless of my complaints, this is still a Black Isle Fallout game, and they really are the masters of RPG progression. Sure, at the end of the day, it's still point-and-click and turn-based combat, but they know how to make you feel like what you're doing is important, and that's what really matters. I've heard a lot of people say that this is just "Fallout 1 but more", and I think it's an apt way to put it, but it has to be noted that that includes both the pros and cons of Fallout 1. As a result, you'll have a lot of fun with the quests, character creation, and different factions, at the cost of it feeling like a looser (meandering, at worst) experience. But hey, it's set around Reno and San Fran, you can't expect things to be too uptight, yeah?

Conceptually perfect with a great base to build off of, but nearly everything good about this game is heavily weighed down by a clunky and finnicky engine. When a game is supposed to have really fluid and dynamic combat, having to stand still to activate it makes things feel herky-jerky and unsatisfying. Most of the gunfights in this I had to savescum my way through, despite hitting my marks most of the time. It's a serious shame, because this is a really great game at its core. The noir mood is superb, the way the story just keeps evolving and growing into something more is perfectly done, and the idea of bullet time in combat is so brilliant, even with the sloppy execution. There's a reason this game is as important as it is, and I definitely felt that while playing, even if I had my frustrations with the gameplay. I'm not one to endorse remakes (though I will gladly partake in them), but I definitely feel like this game could really shine from having some better tuning. Until then, my feelings on it will most likely remain the same.

There's so much I want to say about this game that I struggle to find the words for. If my critical mind can tell the truth, this isn't a 5/5. Its flaws are much too glaring to swipe under the rug in its worst moments, and its gameplay cycle is quite repetitive at the end of the day. However, if a game this shoddily put together has the sheer confidence to grab me by the shoulders, look me in the eye, and tell me to play through it 3 times, and I find myself obeying without a single doubt in my mind? I believe that's worthy of the score I've given. Impossibly rich with its themes and writing, and meticulously crafted in regards to its world, all in stark contrast to the deceivingly low quality of its gameplay and graphics. A miracle of a game, no questions asked. Will I find myself replaying it in favor of its requel? I'll be truthful and say no, but I'm alright with having experienced everything this has to offer me in the 70+ hours I've sank into it. I feel like I've just closed one of the greatest books I'll ever read, and that feeling alone nets this game my praise. This game will live with me forever, I feel, and I welcome it.

It's mind-blowingly racist to the point of 1920s-style caricature.

But it's RE4 with co-op.

The pacing is all over the place, leading to sections that feel overly dramatic for no reason and a short length that you really notice.

But it's RE4 with co-op.

The plot has too many infodumps that, while interesting to the worldbuilding, lead to even more pacing issues to have you stop in your tracks and read a file on a computer somewhere.

But it's RE4 with co-op.

Sheva is a terribly underutilized character with a lot of squandered potential, and in her finished state, really only heightens the accusations of stereotyping.

But it's RE4 with co-op.

The inventory system is a massive stepdown from the previous iterations in every way, feeling overly strict a la the classic games without having the tension of said strictness, nor the satisfaction of creating an arsenal of weapons by rearranging your inventory spaces.

But it's RE4 with co-op.

The bosses range from boring to actively infuriating with their lengths, most being conceptually great but suffering from being overly long and tedious, with some being so mechanically strict that you'll find yourself getting hit through no real fault of your own.

But it's RE4 with co-op.

Also, there's Wesker.