I've finished the campaign on normal but haven't gotten to the DLC yet. Still, I wanted to jot down my thoughts quickly. Overall, really great! I can understand the praise it's gotten as a revitalisation of the franchise. I came into this having seen the Scary Game Squad playthrough way back in the day, but that was what got me interested in the franchise to begin with. Now I've finally gotten here and I got to revisit this with the experience of the franchise behind me, and I think it was a lot richer for it.

I think this game starts off just okay, with lots of deaths and trial and error. The switch to first person is a part of this, as now it's not just a survival horror where inventory management is rewarded, but also accuracy. I found switching to mouse and keyboard from a controller made the game dramatically easier.

It was also cool to see both the series influence and general horror inspirations in this game. Unlike something like Alan Wake 2, this game is firmly in the realm of B-horror and camp (if moreso in the general plot and homage of the game than direct tone like previous entries). Seeing the mansion exploration component in the first person with the creepy vibes of the bayou was a great blend of new and familiar. Interestingly, the southern murder family tone reminded me a lot of the 2000s gritty horror reboots kicked off by Texas Chainsaw Massacre, similarly taking a once great franchise that had run its course into a totally new direction. Specific parts of the game also make the homage to both the original and rebooted Texas Chainsaw very clear.

I also really enjoyed the atmosphere of the tanker section. RE is no stranger to the setting, and I'm glad that it somehow made a return here. Navigating the space despite a busted elevator was fun, although it really felt totally separated from the main game with an inventory reset. I think the reset was a bit of a crux as RE's formula doesn't work with late game horror, but rather builds towards a late game power fantasy.

I think the plot overall was a bit weak. I understand the want to start fresh with new characters and events that are only loosely tied back to the original, but I think the family (and especially Jack Baker) do the heavy lifting in terms of this game's iconography, and after that the events and people of the story become less memorable. Especially Eveline who feels like the most trope laden character in the series, and that says a lot when we remember it's RE we're talking about. That being said, the plot was serviceable and it facilitated really strong gameplay. I think that's a way better outcome than if plot and gameplay's quality were reversed.

Obviously I have a lot to say about this one. Overall, I really liked it! I'm curious to see how the threads of the ending are tied together in RE8, if they are at all.

Finished this on the Switch version of the Remastered Collection, but I don't feel like logging the whole collection as only one game. I played it with classic graphics, so it counts.

This was really good! I think it really excels at the planned platforming, deciding what jumps work where and executing that plan. The sense of exploration is also something you don't see in modern games anymore, some would say for the better but I disagree. Tomb Raider doesn't hold your hand, and your sense of curiosity can walk you into an instakill trap. Still, that idea of looking at your surroundings and planning your moves in what feels (but ultimately isn't) a very open ended tomb ultimately nails the premise the game is selling.

Where the game falls a bit flat is the combat. It's too simple to really be engaging, and it's not really dependent on your equipment hording skills since you're given oodles of everything even without looking for too many secret areas. When the game tries to push the combat the most is when it's frustrating, although when you get the uzis and begin just mowing things down it does regain some dumb fun. Quick reaction sections can also be a bit frustrating since the inputs can be somewhat complicated, so doing them on a dime can feel a bit unfair when a boulder rolls at you in the middle of a complicated jump section. That being said, it's still a lot of fun and it really rewards mastery of the platforming with shortcuts and being able to survive those quick reaction encounters on the first try.

Overall I can see how it's a classic, but I am definitely worried about how the formula is pushed in the millions of sequels. There's some room for improvement, but I worry that as I play them the devs may mistake tedious segments for challenging ones. The idea of punishing the player with time is interesting, but wore thin by the final third of the game (as seen by my sudden increase in save scumming... of the 220 saves, 120 were in the last third of levels in the game).

The plot is pretty bare-bones, but for what it is it works well. I do like the twist on the theming of the final level quite a bit.

Overall a fun time, although definitely something difficult to recommend to those not as comfortable with the clunkiness or visual presentation of early 3D games.

Played this one both out of curiosity and as a big fan of the original Arkham games curious about what Rocksteady did with the world and setting. I'm reviewing this having finished the game but not having engaged with the endgame.

The game has glimmers of goodness that shine through the goop of the looter shooter system it's designed around. Let's start with the good. I actually really enjoyed the characters and the humour. I think there is some issue with comedic timing where the voice lines are spaced just a little too clear of each other, but overall each character has a unique charm. The story itself is good as a premise, with the idea of taking beloved characters in the Justice League and making you kill them. I feel like it never really gets explored and that the pacing is off somehow though, since it feels like it takes forever to kill anyone and then you're killing them all at once. I feel like stretching out the campaign a bit to having the squad work up to each member of the League would be cool, but what's here is serviceable. I do really like all the characters in the home base, and the chaos of ARGUS working with supervillains. For what it's worth, I do also find the base combat fun. I think it's the most fun when the game has you putting out a million fires in terms of objectives, while cutting through the enemy troopers to get there. The power fantasy but overwhelming odds comes together really well when that happens, but really that's only a fraction of the missions. Hands down the best part of the game was the "Batman Experience" in the beginning of the game wherein Batman uses all his moves from the Arkham games against you. This was a really great subversion that built off of your familiarity with the character, and I think that familiarity with the other Rocksteady versions of the League is sorely missing. Batman does really shine though. While the plot can be a bit lacking, I do think the audio logs do really well to set up Braniac and how the League lost to him. There aren't even that many logs to listen to and they're easy to collect, so I do think this is a common criticism that doesn't have as much merit as others. I can't deny that seeing it rather than hearing it, even for just a scene, would have gone a longer way.

The type of gameplay that sucks is missions where you can only kill enemies in a certain way, like grenades or critical hits, because it feels like it's not necessarily difficult but just tedious. This might be a little more fun if you engage with the weapon system for each mission, but the looter shooter equipment stuff just does not appeal to me at all. Keeping track of a million little stats with incentives to craft even more weapons is just life draining as opposed to something Ratchet & Clank-esque where each each weapon fills a well defined niche. Instead I just found myself using what worked until it didn't, and then picking the next gun without negative effects and decent damage output. And even then, the guns you get near the beginning of the game will last you throughout the game. All of this would be a small deal if it wasn't for the fact that every side quest incentivises you with these rewards. I ended up doing all the support missions just to get the achievements, but it did make me question doing them as they repeated the same gimmicks.

The collectables are also just lame. Riddler trophies make a return, but they are all in obvious spots that you just need to pass to have them highlighted on the radar. Gone are the challenges or weird nooks from the Arkham games, instead making it pretty banal. I think Rocksteady knew this since there are a fraction of them here compared to the Arkham games. The Riddler challenges themselves are movement challenges and the only way to get free cosmetics. These were actually not so bad as they did test your knowledge of the movement mechanics on each character, but they were never an edge of your seat challenge. The cosmetic rewards themselves really sucked. The colour palettes for the default skins were nice, but the only actual cosmetic changes you get are for the "prison uniform" skins which pale in comparison to anything else. I'm guessing this is a purposeful way to get players to buy the cooler cosmetics.

All the League bossfights were also underwhelming. It may have been the difficulty I was on, but they all felt pretty simple and unchallenging. They usually revolved around one mechanic to make the enemy vulnerable, and then just shooting the shit out of them. The entire game has a million mechanics such as the Ivy missions with the affliction spreading plants, and the Gizmo vehicle setpieces. These feel really weirdly separated from the rest of the game. It does come together in the Braniac fight where you use everything against him simultaneously, which you'll need to since he is an upgraded version of the Flash fight with a ton of goons to fight and heal him. These mechanics actually all come together really well in this fight, but it's a shame that 20 hours of stilted side missions really only leads to one moment of true synergy.

Overall, honestly, this game is fine. It will not succeed as a looter shooter but it's perfectly serviceable to kill 20 hours if you get it on sale sometime. The gameplay and plot would both shine a lot more if they weren't in service to the live service seasonal content model since there isn't any finality to the end of the game, and the loot system is over-designed and too tedious to engage with.