It does quite a few things right, but gets a bit lost in the tropes you'd expect. Robots doing human things and giving them convolutes names, everything's post-apocalyptic and authoritarian, lots of digital puzzles, and sometimes the human element is 'good' because it's 'aesthetic'. It's still well implemented and got a driving section as an interesting break and the ending does manage to build up some tension. I just wish it didn't have to be split into multiple games, because in this one, barely anything gets resolved. Maybe I'll play the sequel...

The quintessential philosophical puzzle adventure. For once, the gameplay has made a proper connection to the narrative, in a way that could rival Portal. It is very on-the-nose, but actually supported by its setting for once. And the puzzle-to-story ratio is also good - there's the obvious final indie game choice though. While it came out later than I remembered, I think it is a very good template for puzzle adventures - just the right balance and nothing overly flashy, standing right between involved non-standard adventures like Outer Wilds and very rigid games like most of The Talos Principle.

It's kinda sweet. This might be the first game that actually manages to tell a cohesive story using no words but only archaic geometric drawings, which has been a gripe for me for a long time. Gameplay-wise, it lacks a bit of depth and is the climbing version of a walking simulator. I'm not sure what could've been done to alleviate this, as a Tomb Raider style dramatization non-stop would be exhausting (and too expensive to make), while platformer gameplay with the possibility of failure wouldn't fit in the setting if you die three hundred times.

It does raise interest in its sequel though, as you can do a lot more things with this setting. And it doesn't have a stereotypical sad indie game ending, which I also appreciate - it would've been very easy to implement.

Possibly the best game ever made. An unbelievable triumph, perfection from every perspective. This is the best example of fitting all pieces together while still being experimental. The subversion of classic futuristic aesthetics is astounding. The chamber play aesthetics of the cast with depressing voices telling a grandeur story is also my favorite game narrative to date. The aesthetics, the aesthetics, the aesthetics are what makes it so great. And Red. You wouldn't believe how big of an effect the simple humming feature has.

All of this is done within the framework of a fairly normal game - if you're looking for something this good in a more avant-garde form, NaissanceE is what you're looking for.

On a more personal level, I love its themes of a city, its inhabitants and change. I love this game to death.

I still like it a lot, both on its own and for starting the new trilogy. It's not revolutionary by any means, but a superb example of carrying older games into modern times.

Also looking back, it's kinda funny how everyone focused on the very obvious dissociation between narrative and gameplay, namely Lara shooting everyone three seconds after getting a gun while still being distraught because of it in the cutscenes. I never really understood why it was such a big thing, but probably because it can be funny and it's easy to pile onto it. Even ten years after, it's rare to find a shooter that questions its own mechanic. At most, a wishy-washy excuse like 'the enemies aren't real people' would be used (Control, Hellblade, Echo, Singularity) or the moral responsibility is laid upon the player (any game where killing is semi-optional: Deus Ex, Hitman, Postal, Metro) or it's the ~aesthetic~ (Borderlands, Severed Steel, Hotline Miami, Sniper Elite, Superhot). The only other example where it's been called out more recently is BioShock Infinite which isn't that strong a case anyway, as the mechanic is the same as in its predecessors, but you're not shooting splicers anymore. Any other games are just ignored because they're dumb anyway (Far Cry, Battlefield). It's a random instance of lack of suspension of disbelief being turned into quippy criticism.

It's still cool, fighting against an absurd amount of enemies on a random island.

This was a bit too late to fit in with the last wave of quintessential dumb and disinterested games. The entire story is military blah blah and informs its mostly uninteresting scenes. It really comes down to its gameplay, which does work well, but also contains big question marks about modern stealth gameplay.

The urge of offering the player multiple gameplay styles results in the rather obvious distinction between stealth and 'kill everything as loudly as possible because that's why you play Splinter Cell I guess'. While the levels start out well, they get worse with fewer opportunities to flank while dumping more and more enemies on you. What I do appreciate is the one break in its narrative structure, transforming a previously safe location. But in the meantime, you could play any other stealth game.