"Do not look away. You witness a king's revival, and the birth of his new world."

Allow me to introduce myself, to the uninitiated. I've been a fan of the Zelda series since Ocarina Of Time, and I was in the minority of people in 2017 who didn't enjoy Breath Of The Wild. (I was in the argument that Horizon Zero Dawn was a better game, at the time.) Coming off of Skyward Sword, my personal favorite 3D Zelda game, you couldn't even imagine my shock to the overhaul in traditional Zelda game design. Temples are non-existent, story is totally lacking, and the overall non-linear approach, in favor of exploration, is one that I wouldn't consider a good move. I'd even question why Aonuma didn't just brand this "reboot" as a new IP, because its lore refresh and sandbox nature doesn't feel like Zelda. I shrugged it all off, finished it and the DLC, and moved on with my life.

So what did I do here? At its initial announcement, I groaned at the sight of a direct sequel to Breath Of The Wild, although I ultimately decided to give this one my fair shot. Nintendo had an opportunity to redeem themselves in my eyes. And with the first game's necessity on player discovery, I decided to go on media blackout entirely, and blindly spend $70 on a sequel to a game I wasn't too impressed by.
After 40+ hours, with a good chunk of shrines solved and the main quest finished, my thoughts:
Tears Of The Kingdom is not only a huge leap of improvement from its predecessor, but one of the finest, most impressive sandbox adventure games I've ever experienced. HOWEVER, I still don't think it's the "10/10 masterpiece" that everyone claims it to be. Here's my take.

The open-world sandbox nature of it all: immaculate! From the opening moments when I earned the tools to build and fuse, I immediately knew this sequel would smash the first one right into the ground. Along with that, the Recall ability that allows you to reverse the time flow of objects (reminding me a whole lot of the recent indie The Entropy Centre), as well as the Ascend ability to shoot yourself upward through pretty much any surface in range, which I admittedly forgot I even had until later parts of the game required it. In Nintendo's toy-like design approach, the toolset handed to the player here is absolutely incredible, and it opens up the world to WAY more possibilities than Breath Of The Wild's "here are two bombs that are different shapes". Every puzzle I solved with a solution that didn't feel as intended, and every crevice of the map explored with my abilities, I can't even imagine all of the playtesting that was required for every little variable to work as intended.
Exploration in Tears Of The Kingdom is simply engaging and flawless. Before approaching the four main quests of the story, I found myself distracted for a clocked 20+ hours just by clearing towers, each one shooting me skyward and enticing me to see what I can find on the floating islands above. And don't even get me started on the Depths area, a whole third map underneath the overworld. (Seriously, don't. I was too stressed to even explore half of it.) Some other things I really enjoyed were small additions, such as cool boss designs and neat overall tone of the world. The iconography on Link's arm alone is refreshing, as well as the Zonai themselves.

For things that I was a bit mixed on, let's start with the attempts at improving what I didn't enjoy from Breath Of The Wild. Firstly, I do appreciate that the team found a way to mitigate the annoying weapon degradation a bit... but this combat just still sucks. Even more-so now with the enemy difficulties adjusted to encourage fusion, which ultimately takes too many button presses than it should, everything I attack feels like a sponge. And even in some of the later boss fights, the time window needed to perfectly dodge and counter-attack is slim, causing you to lose your shield and temper quite quickly.
Secondly, while I'm absolutely hooked by the dark, mysterious feel in tone this time around, especially with the cold opening and excellent soundtrack, this is still one of the more lacking narratives in the franchise. Definitely a step-up from its predecessor, the Asian-inspired revival of this lore is unfortunately pulled back until the very last quest or so, due to the game's non-linear approach. The four main missions feel like one-off character episodes, and the return of the "memory" cutscenes, while are fortunately easier to find this time, tell a side story that ends up being more bizarre than memorable. And because of this non-linear storytelling, there are memories that you can discover early on that somewhat spoil the main quest itself, which ultimately puts it at fault. (I was also pissed that there were so many hints and nods to Skyward Sword, and yet nothing resulted from them, but that's beside the point. I'm sure Nintendo is trying to just rid of that canon entirely.)
Lastly, just the controls in general weren't to my liking. As mentioned earlier, for a game that makes it necessary to constantly fuse weapons together, it can be quite annoying to go through several button prompts just to get what you want. That's not just present in fusion either, but with building as well, which can be even more cumbersome when the framerate noticeably drops each time. And later through the main quest, when having your companions summoned on the field, I found myself frustrated trying to approach a specific character to trigger their command. Some quality-of-life features could've gone a long way, in these cases.

As for what I didn't like at all, there's only one major thing: the dungeons.
They're just poorly designed that I actually prefer Breath Of The Wild's Divine Beasts over them, as at least those were more refreshing in concept. The approach to unlocking these traditional Zelda dungeons, simply "temples", almost always involves 15-20 minutes of just trekking, whether it be through an empty desert or a stormy sky of floating blocks. I would say only about two of these sequences do something unique and interesting, but that's an unfortunate number in contrast to the other repetitive level designs. The journey may be satisfying sure, but it almost always leads to some small temple that requires you to essentially unlock multiple locks. That's the design... done several times... with the Water Temple particularly being just a boring set of floating islands. Little to no differentiation between dungeon designs, which is incredibly disappointing for me personally, as someone who wished for traditional dungeons to make a return. Most of the shrines I discovered were more satisfying than these temples. Like, come on, man.

Tears Of The Kingdom is impressive as hell, but with its continued shift away from traditional lore and familiarity of the 3D approach, it's just difficult for me to call this a "Zelda" game. The non-linearity still makes this reboot less engaging for me personally, although I can totally understand how many will get lost in experimentation and exploration. With its brilliant set of tools and exploration design, as well as smaller things like the soundtrack, the pros here definitely outweigh the cons. Honestly, the best comparisons I can make this game to are Death Stranding and Minecraft, both games that give you the tools to create your own solutions. This is ultimately not my favorite game in the series, nor my personal favorite game of 2023. Yet, it's still undoubtedly a swan song for the Nintendo Switch hardware, and one that makes me even more curious what they're gonna do with this series next. Just be grateful I didn't go off and give this one another 4/5 rating like the first game.

I really wanted to like this one. After playing through Super Mario 64 for the first time, I was a bit shocked by how many people claim that the game still holds up, even though I ignored its primitive controls to notice more of its flaws in its overall structure and design. So I went into Super Mario Sunshine hearing mixed opinions on it from all sides of gamers, while also hoping it would be at least a slight improvement from Super Mario 64.
Unfortunately, it's tough for me to see that.

I get it. This was 2002, a time where Nintendo experimented a lot and tried doing new things with their popular IP, hence the introduction to F.L.U.D.D. as the main gimmick. In execution, this design screws up the traditional 3D platforming physics that were being established slowly with the previous 3D Mario entry, as it relies more on the fluidity of everything than the accuracy. This is extremely apparent in the secret levels, some of which remove the F.L.U.D.D. mechanic entirely and are required to progress through the game, where one slight angle in the wrong direction or timing of the jump button can cause you to a lose a life, making it an annoyance with the main checkpoint system of everything. And even when you can use F.L.U.D.D., the game for some reason limits most of your movement mid-air. For example, trying to hover in basic directions often leads to missing platforms, and even getting damaged by enemies or lava will result in you just hopping towards a falling death without the ability to prevent it. Everything just feels either slippery or stiff, which is unacceptable for a 3D platformer in this era. This isn't a "get good" mentality, because if I know exactly what to do but can't execute on it in a way that feels right, then that's a detriment to the game design, not the player.

Another thing frustrating about all of this, matching the constant deaths due to the game's own physics, is how checkpoints are handled. It's the same issue I had with Super Mario 64, so you would think and hope Nintendo would try to tweak it a bit after 6 years, right? Nope... it's the same crappy system; every death kicks you out of the world, and every "Game Over" takes you all the way back to the beginning of the hub world. This just makes the experience a drag, because you're essentially wasting time trying to get BACK to where you were, again after dying because of a slight miscalculation, and becomes more irritating with later worlds that require you to pick up different nozzles to reach them.
And speaking of worlds, I'm actually quite underwhelmed by the selection here. I understand that they wanted to go for a completely tropical theme here, with each world representing different parts of a large island, but I think that hurts it in comparison to previous games in the series. There's barely any variety in unique design here, with a few worlds feeling nearly the same just with different layouts. The only two worlds that I found to be ever slightly different were Sirena Beach and Pianta Village, which offer more compact experiences than open ones, although they're the last two worlds you'll probably reach in the set. The variety lacks, and is a far cry from Super Mario 64's range of fire, ice, cavernous, desert, clock worlds.

I don't think Super Mario Sunshine is an awful game by any means. Of course, I adore the vibrant GameCube-era art direction and overall tropical setting of it all, but that's really about it. This game takes one step forward and two steps back from Super Mario 64, due to its execution on something a bit different. While it feels slightly better to play, it ultimately lacks the variety that what makes the series great in the first place. It's another point to the argument that both this and the previous game absolutely need remakes, if they want to truly thrive in the modern age. And I would even argue that, for its time, this is in a rough state.

Another case of nostalgia blinding the gaming community, I guess.

Does Animal Crossing: Wild World hold up today, in comparison to the first Animal Crossing? Absolutely not. But from both a technical and design standpoint, for a 2005 Nintendo DS game, this may very well be the most impressive leap to a handheld device I've ever seen.

In comparison to its predecessor, this truly feels like a full execution of the original's odd "prototype" state. The top-down segmented map has been replaced by a modernized seamless rolling map, and there is nearly double the amount of content here this time around, all fitting on a single 32MB cartridge. The game of course pushes the hardware to its limit, with the framerate itself seemingly capped 20fps; a significant drop from the original's 60fps (through the GameCube port). At the end of the day though, its limitations still emit the game's charm, whether through the polygonal furniture or the wacky sound design. And that soundtrack, of course? Immaculate as ever.
Really the only disappointing thing I found in this game was the removal of national holidays, due to localization/release decisions, as far as I'm aware. However, the events in their place are still nice, with one of my favorites being the Flea Market event, where villagers will enter your home and purchase furniture from you.

The pick-up-and-play nature of this series is perfectly at home on a handheld device, and Animal Crossing: Wild World proves that. It's definitely not the one I would recommend new players check out nowadays, but you can't help but admire how remarkable this experience was translated to Nintendo DS like this, especially with the advent of online multiplayer.

Truly wild.

New Super Mario Bros. is better than what many had told me prior, but it's definitely one of the weaker 2D entries.

I'm more fascinated with the culmination of ideas brought forward here after nearly a decade without a 2D Mario game, because it seems to pull from a variety of the previous titles, including the 3D ones. I was quite surprised to see ground-pounding and wall-jumping in a platformer like this, and they both work well enough to craft a new set of physics that helps differentiate it from the others. The new abilities including the Mega Mushroom are awesome and refreshing, as well as the return of the non-linear world map from both Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, which makes two whole worlds optional entirely. Some levels, although not all that memorable, do a good job at throwing in little gimmicks here and there that alter the levels entirely.

Fun revitalization! Just not as groundbreaking, especially on a handheld that specialized in 2D platformers.

I've always preferred Nintendo's more niche IPs over their mainstream titles. Mario and Zelda are great games sure, but their creativity feels a bit more tame, in comparison to games like Chibi-Robo, Rhythm Heaven, and of course Pikmin. Nintendo's continued trend this generation to revitalize these niche games brings us to Pikmin 4, the long-rumored-in-development follow-up to 2013's sequel, which was also a surprise to see after such a long wait from its previous entry (despite it being on one of Nintendo's poorest-selling hardware). Admittedly, I was skeptical after hearing this game was finally arriving, while also doing my usual thing of avoiding as much information on a game before launch, because Nintendo has been 3-1 on delivering incredible games in this series.

Pikmin 4 is not only an absolutely brilliant revival, but arguably the best entry in the series, and I wholeheartdly say this as someone thinks Pikmin 2 was peak for the franchise's game design. The Pikmin series as a whole is an easy recommendation from me, because it's one of those where each game is different in its own nature. The first game was about time management and strategy, the second was about dungeon-crawling, and the third was about commanding a trio of characters. Pikmin 4 feels like the culmination of all three of these, mostly taking cues from Pikmin 2, but also cranks its scale and mechanics beyond the previous games with more strategy, more gameplay challenges (including a welcome tower-defense mode), and more objectives overall. In an surprising way, this feels like the jump from God Of War III to 2018's soft reboot, right down to the freedom of the camera alone.

As mentioned however, each entry in this series feels different, and Pikmin 4 is no exception. While most of the changes are great, from the improved AI and more friendly checkpoint system, some are quite odd... but again, I can't really call them flaws when the series has been like this for years. Limiting the pikmin types that you can bring overworld adds a bit more thinking and planning, the lock-on can be a bit too sticky at times, and the lack of any kind of photo mode is truly disappointing when Pikmin 3 had it. One personal issue I had was the commanding of your companion Oatchi, although it seems to be more of a skill issue for me. This dog is clearly supposed to be your second character to command alongside the player, but I found myself confused as to how to match the seamless switching similar to that in Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 3, making the Dandori Challenges especially tricky because of the complexity to multitask.
The only other thing that confused a long-time fan like me are the story retcons that are seemingly at play here. I obviously won't go into details, but it is a tad bit confusing to pinpoint where and when the whole narrative takes place, as it has comparisons to previous stories but with differing factors. I get it if Nintendo wants to simply use this to tell the story differently than what was told 20 years ago (because they did that for the recent Zelda games too), but then what was the whole point of releasing Pikmin 1+2 on Switch prior? Just seems like an odd move for veterans and newcomers who are invested in the world.

Pikmin 4 is a simply brilliant sequel that surprised the hell out of me, and it is definitely a good entry point for newcomers and revitalization for fans looking for more challenge. It improves on what came before it in top-notch ways, maintaining Nintendo's more niche creativity in a higher budget. Treasure-hunting is just as fun as it was in Pikmin 2, and now with all the improvements made to strategy and AI, it's a lot less frustrating. Among all of this, content galore, solid puzzle designs, and some awesome surprises along the way. And with its length being nearly twice as long as any from the original trilogy, it is another Nintendo Switch exclusive worth your time and money. Another fantastic product from Nintendo EPD.

Embrace Dandori.

"It takes crazy to know crazy."

Removing all my biases and knowledge from 2019's Control aside (which was my first Remedy game and I really enjoyed), I think Alan Wake is yet another confirmation for me that this team is pretty remarkable.

Firstly, I wasn't expecting this one to be episodic, although it kinda makes sense for a product of its era. Naturally with this, I enjoyed playing through Alan Wake one episode per day, as its overarching narrative really was intriguing enough to keep me anticipating more. And secondly, some of the designs in gameplay here are pretty ingenious, and it works especially well for a story-heavy horror experience. Not just the focus on enemies being harmed by pure light sources, with objects like street lights acting as your safe haven, but even the manuscript collectibles that both recap what's happened and foretell what's to come; a great little detail that fits narratively. There are some mechanics later on that also put a cool refresh on the combat and puzzles, although they're unfortunately put at the forefront in the two special DLC episodes. (I won't spoil it for anyone.)

My only real gripe with Alan Wake, however, is in its voice acting. This is probably just a personal complaint though, as I'm certain the laughably bad acting from Matthew Porretta is a direction choice to pay homage to Stephen King and The Twilight Zone; clear influences seen throughout the game. It all did grow on me a bit overtime though, as the story itself became less straight-forward and more psychological and metaphorical. Barry Wheeler is a funny comic relief character, nonetheless.

I was pleasantly surprised by my time with this one! In a somewhat cheeky comparison, Alan Wake feels like what would be if we had an action game in the Life Is Strange universe (which is obviously also inspired by the likes of Twin Peaks), and even more so with the team's focus on an inevitable sequel and a seemingly-connected universe of events. Remedy has their pieces set for the future, and I am absolutely excited to see what's next.

"Let's heal the world."

2018's Spider-Man was really my first big introduction to the universe, shortly before thoroughly digesting the Sony Animation and MCU endeavors. Maybe it was my expectations staying low going in, mostly because of the lack of info we had leading up to this sequel, but I gotta say that I was pretty damn impressed with Marvel's Spider-Man 2. For a Sony first-party sequel, I was more worried it would lean towards a direction similar to The Last of Us Part II and God of War Ragnarok, both of which seemingly focused more on their runtime and fluff than their overall gameplay experience. That's why I'm glad Insomniac took this sequel with the best approach possible; fix (mostly) what was broken, add fun additions, and keep it the same length as the first one.

The gameplay here is actually quite a surprise to me. It builds upon certain additions introduced in both The City That Never Sleeps and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, including AI companions, special abilities, and finding missions through the FNSM app, by doubling up with two playable protagonists. Combat is much more fluid with the new hotkey-style UI that I was initially turned off by it being away from the sides, but it centers well on the player's eyes to make abilities and gear way easier to use. Encounters also focus heavily on blocking and parrying, which helps build up these abilities and meters more quickly. And when a companion AI shows up to help you out, the world feels more alive. The only adjustment that I wasn't a big fan of conversely was how the focus bar works this time, where you can only heal yourself once the bar is filled up, making boss encounters in the later half of the game a bit more challenging. Even the new MJ sections (yes, they brought them back) are improved to account for some of these changes.
Other than combat, traversal is improved a lot as well, with the most notable addition being the wing suit that I found myself instinctively using a lot. Slingshots and wind currents allow you to get to your destination in a near instant, almost like the devs implemented these to flex on the powerful internal SSD. On the other side however, fast travel has also been changed to account for the selection of traveling at any point on the map; the ability is unlocked by stopping crimes and doing activities within the vicinity, rather than finding some satellite dish to fix. This sure does incentivize doing more activities (which there are a lot of), but story missions are typically triggered to start a bit quicker than in the first game. It all just feels like a different, yet improved game.

I really enjoyed the narrative here too, although I can see arguments against it being the best in the series thus far. This is ultimately what you'd expect from a sequel; a direct continuation of events and character arcs established from the previous main entry and its interlude. The main story focuses heavily this time on loss and vengeance, with Peter's childhood relationships conflicting with his abilities to be a hero. Every character here feels significant, and I feel for them through their toughest moments. Setpieces don't get as high as they did in the first game (which I won't spoil), but the villains at play here, namely Kraven The Hunter, make for a darker turn that I really appreciated. Side stories are also implemented much better here, with certain optional missions acting as their own arcs as if they're their own small piece of DLC. Whether or not you choose to experience every narrative piece here, there are certainly a lot of surprises set up that make me really excited for the inevitable DLC and sequel(s).
The only issue I had with this narrative is not with its pacing, but its structuring. Transitioning from the second to third act feels like you're shifting into a continuation of the first act, rather than feeling like a culmination of everything that came before it. Also, the second half of this game has an odd abundance of boss fights and nothing else, with pretty much every other later mission being just 5 minutes of cutscenes. Not a bad choice, but just wish it was laid out a bit better; maybe sticking to a boss fight at the end of every few missions or so.

I've recently been describing these new PlayStation Studios titles as "popcorn games", focusing heavily on the cinematic quality from visuals to soundtrack of which this game truly does have. ("The Great Hunter" is a badass theme for Kraven that plays often.) But Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is on the side of a popcorn game that I was constantly entertained by, from its human-focused themes to the fun and surprising action setpieces. On one side of Sony, you have the deep, complex narratives found in something like Horizon or The Last of Us. On the other, a game so accessible that you can shut off your brain for a bit and just enjoy yourself. What a ride.

Twisted Metal is a cool idea, but its execution hasn't aged too well. In a way, this would work very well, if it were a demolition arcade game cabinet from the 90s, especially with the controls here feeling either too stiff or too slippery, depending on the character you pick.

It's a really tough game, but worth checking out for its weird and wacky premise. Going through each character and seeing their endings with Calypso (who has a really eerie design) is a pretty unique take on adding multiple endings to a game of this nature. Nothing too special, but there's potential here for improvement.

"It's not death. It's a homecoming."

In storytelling, the second act of a trilogy often brings high expectations. They are intended to build upon what's been introduced prior, leading to a climax that sets the main plot towards its finale. But with 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake setting off an unexpected chain of events by Tetsuya Nomura, one that sees a convergence between the familiar and the unknown of a timeline branched from the fated, it brings much ambition and risk for the remainder of the project. (Yes I know Nomura didn't fully direct this one, but his elements introduced in the previous entry do follow-up here.)
Many were going into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expecting an "Empire Strikes Back", grandiose and beyond evolving its predecessor, and I can surely see many leaving with that impression as well. But what I see here is more of "The Last Jedi", a second act so important that it can leave a massive impact on what's to come, and yet may leave tons of the audience conflicted. Needless to say, this is a headshaking work of art on a scale that we rarely see in the AAA space; a next step through one of the greatest remakes ever presented to us in the history of video games.

To start off with the good and often great: scale and scope. This is what I'd imagine a Xenoblade game would look like on actual current-generation hardware, sharing familiar designs in both its length and its transition to open-world segments, from the relationships you can build with party members, down to collecting materials that randomly spawn within these maps. And while I still personally enjoyed the linear nature of Remake's world, I still found the jump in parallel to the original's second act is incredibly impressive. Sections and locations recalled from that 1997 PS1 game look absolutely stunning in Rebirth, while also being filled with an abundance of content for the player to discover. It all overwhelmed me at first for sure, shortly before deciding to just mainline through the story about halfway through, but I can't help but be in awe at everything this team managed to throw in here within just 4 years of development. And of course, to no surprise after the previous entry, the overall audio-visual production here is simply phenomenal. One such section that really stood out to me was the Junon parade, which presented itself as a news broadcast throughout the whole QTE game, really immersing itself with incredible cinematic flair. (We'll talk more about the mini-games later, though.)
Another thing that I was actually really surprised by was how combat evolved as well. The lack of fluidity that I wanted out of Remake is definitely here now, and with full force, granting much more customization with how your party is controlled in combat. I also appreciate the game's encouragement to play as every single character, whether through forced story sections or use of synergy abilities. I had a much more enjoyable combat experience, this time around.

Now, for what I believe this game isn't too good at: pacing and narrative. Clearly, with the open nature and grand scope of the second act, I expected to mainline Rebirth in a much lengthier time than Remake, and I'm glad the content is there. However, much like how I felt with something like God of War Ragnarök, there's just too much unnecessary fluff here, which can break the pacing even more-so than certain sections of the previous game did. The thing about the original Final Fantasy VII is that I recall way more of the locations than I do of the story beats, so with Rebirth, whether it be same or different plot points, most of it felt more like the typical filler you'd find in anime that's meant to attach you to the characters as they develop. Hell, in a few months time, I'll probably remember more moments from Remake than I do from Rebirth, just because of the pure lack of importance these elements felt prior to the culmination of everything. Certain moments further establish pieces of convoluted lore than the original game ever did sure, but those are few and far between. I want to know more about this side-story with Zack, but we only ever see that progress after every 6-8 hours of the main story. There's just a lot here that could've been gutted, or at the very least been optional. It's such a damn shame too, because these characters are entertainingly-written, specifically the Turks, and there certainly are moments in the story that had me leaning forward in my seat, but the flow of it can often be fluctuating.
And speaking of pacing, part of that should be blamed on the inclusion of mini-games and side content. I can tolerate the open-world markers and tasks that Chadley assigns to you when exploring, as they allow you to unlock more challenges and materia. What really irked me were the mini-games though, some of which felt necessary to throw in during even the most action-packed chapters of the game. Yes, I know the original Final Fantasy VII was filled with mini-games, especially at the Gold Saucer (which, mind you, is executed beautifully in Rebirth), but like... why am I throwing boxes when navigating through a facility? Who thought it was a good idea to have a dolphin racing segment to get an elevator moving? It's just a little too much at times, and it's part of why I think the mainline quest can drag on for as long as it does.
Shoutout to Queen's Blood, though. What a game.

I don't think Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is necessarily downgraded by all my critiques of it, but I personally still found Remake to be a more enjoyable experience than this. But then again, I find myself to be somewhat sensitive to video games that are longer than they need to be, so I'm sure in the minority here. To its credit though, keeping the comparison I previously stated, I enjoyed my 40 hours of time with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth more than I enjoyed by 50+ hours of time with Xenoblade Chronicles, which gives it even more merit to the overall production. In true Tetsuya Nomura fashion though, it's an fun, dark, heartfelt adventure that may leave the audience either crying from character moments, cheering when plot theories begin to reveal their intentions, or confused by the bait of its bizarre director. And as I said, it's just a one-in-a-lifetime event to get to experience a project of this caliber unfolding; a massive retelling of arguably one of the most important stories ever crafted in video games. (God only knows the chaos that Kingdom Hearts IV will bring after this.)

Let us embrace whatever it brings.

"It is the will of the gods."
"Fuck the gods!"

Replaying this one was an odd experience. I first played this nearly 6 years ago, gave it much high praise, then slowly moved on to forget what exactly I loved about it. All I remember was that it was a great standalone story, until the unexpected announcement of a sequel had me itching to return.

To put it brief, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice holds up, for what it tries to do. I had played this before 2018's God of War and vividly remember enjoying this interpretation of Norse mythology even more... but it's a different interpretation. Hellblade simply nails its narrative; a brief hero's journey and love story, centered around a young warrior who suffers with severe psychosis. The 3D audio is, of course, incredible at immersing the player into Senua's mind while adding a bit more flair to the game's combat and puzzles. It's also often horrific, and with its hyper-realistic art direction and surreal designs (including actual live-action shots), the story ends up becoming fucking awesome and heartpounding. Some of the boss designs genuinely made me uncomfortable, which is a merit to the world crafted here. By the time the player rolls credits, this becomes one of those experiences where they will browse the internet for some video essays analyzing what just occurred. It's not a power fantasy, but a simple story about overcoming your flaws and dealing with loss.
And, most of all, the actor performances, both in voice and motion capture, are some of the best I've seen in the medium. Melina Juergens is absolutely insane, among the rest of the cast.

Where I think Hellblade falls a bit flat though is in its gameplay. As stated, the 3D audio cues of Senua's voices add a neat addition to combat and puzzles, often aiding the player with cryptic hints or warnings. However, the game focuses just a bit too much more on puzzles than combat, and the puzzles that are there mostly consist of the same loop of lining up in-world objects to create runes or pathways. Even the combat, while decent to control, lacks the depth you typically find in action games of this nature, focusing purely on parrying, evading, and attacking. Sequences later on also swarm you with enemies, which can encumber your strategies in combat. As the narrative builds, these moments of gameplay ultimately slow down the process.

Do I recommend Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice to anyone? With its short length and good accessibility, absolutely. Just be aware that this experience shines more in its cinematic narrative and immersion than its gameplay. Maybe drop the difficulty down, if you don't wish to be challenged by its shortcomings.

"The past is like pieces of a broken mirror. You try to pick them up, but you only end up cutting yourself."

I'm not one for neo-noir stuff, but I'm quite surprised by how much I enjoyed Max Payne! The only experience that I had with Sam Lake's writing prior was with Alan Wake and Control, and it's absolutely stellar to see how much of that uniqueness was present much earlier in gaming, finding a way to brilliantly meld together a drug trafficking conspiracy and a revenge for murder with Norse mythology. It's bizarre, themed like a graphic novel, and really unlike anything I've played from this era.

Gameplay is great as well, for the most part. The main feature of "bullet time" is a nice addition to the third-person action genre, but I only ever used it in sequences involving a ton of enemies at once. (I started this game on both PC and Xbox, and the former is a bit tougher to play without the controller's auto-aim features. Perhaps, the "bullet time" mechanic is more beneficial on that platform.) What also quite impressed me here was the interactivity of the world itself. I haven't played many PC games from the late-90s/early-2000s era, but I've noticed that this attention-to-detail is present in most that I've played, notably Half-Life. Not every asset and boundary is interactive or has physics to them, but you can press buttons and break glass and the like to your advantage.
Really, the only part of this game that I think could've used a bit more work is some of the level designs, especially towards the final sections when rooms begin to feel repetitive. The stiff platforming, although obviously not the main selling point of this game, is noticeable when required to walk on thin platforms or maneuver around lasers.

Max Payne really is great, and I can understand its following. An early example of the 3D action genre that manages to tell a unique tale with shooting that feels good and cutscenes that are fueled with adrenaline and campy detective dialogue.