Playing a game on launch is a rare journey that Saints Row (2022) made me wish I had never started.

There are few times in my life when I'll pick up a game at launch and play through it because I'm curious to see what the game will entail. Saints Row (2022) officially ended any chance I'll do this for another series in the future with how much of a disaster its launch was and then to be abandoned by Volition immediately afterward. The countless bugs plaguing this game is enough of a turnoff that even Bethesda fans uncharacteristically feel repulsed. To say that this is a disaster of a game is an understatement, and that only scratches the surface.

The story in Saints Row (2022) has to be the most alienating experience I've ever felt from a video game. When being introduced to the 'relatable' main characters that were specifically targeting my age group, I felt like they were specifically talking to a small minority based in California. When doing missions, I felt beyond bored and decided to rush through every little thing just so it could be over. I felt ECSTATIC when a mission actually interested me because I had spent HOURS miserably going from mission to mission talking to characters with garbage personalities. Just thinking back on how much time I spent playing this game makes me depressed when I could have spent it doing something else entirely like finishing college coursework or practicing tying knots.

Don't buy this game. Don't look at this game. Try not to even remember it exists. It won't be hard after too long since Volition is officially dead anyhow.

There are few games I've finished and just sat back and stared at the screen processing what I'd just experienced. Soma however, at the time of writing this is the first game that comes to mind that simply left that kind of incredible impact on me. It's been six years since I played this and I still occasionally think about it.

Equally though thanks to that, Soma is also an incredibly hard game to write about as it's honestly a game best going into blind. It plays like a walking simulator in a science fiction story is the barest of descriptions I am willing to give. The premise to this game as well as the cast of characters you run into are absolutely brilliant and I would say it's implementation is near perfect. The atmosphere of the locales you explore using elements of forms of horror and science fiction intermixed are incredibly detailed and just add to the feeling of dread the game imposes in ways more chilling than a simple jump scare some horror games rely on a little too liberally.

Gameplay wise Soma has your character Simon exploring different areas in a fairly linear fashion solving the odd very basic puzzle as it progresses. Where Soma's downfall that stops it being perfect is the enemy encounters. Whilst some are genuinely scary or tense in a lot of ways, some are more annoying to progress through their design and simply feel like an impediment of what makes Soma such a fantastic experience. This is only amplified by the developers themselves who released a no enemy mode as a free patch after the games release.

These encounters are not why you play Soma though, they aren't what makes the game scary, it's not what makes the game great. The story, characters and atmosphere together are what make Soma such an unforgettable experience and I urge anyone who likes science fiction or horror to give this game a try, preferably knowing as little before hand before going in.

+ Amazing story premise.
+ Fantastic atmosphere.
+ Detailed environments.
+ Great characters and voice acting.

- Enemy encounters are...not great at times.

"If we lived forever, maybe we'd have time to understand things. But as it is, I think the best we can do is try to open our eyes, and appreciate how strange and brief all of this is."

A great game visually and narratively. Insanely unique and heartfelt. Juggles suspense and tension with coziness and sadness extremely well.

I really want to live in that house though.

"If somehow, the Lord gave me a second chance at that moment... I would do it all over again."

Thought I might as well definitively review this game given it's my favourite of all time and I think I should tackle a lot of the "criticisms" I think are purely rooted in anger and the disability to think.

A lot of narrative choices are dragged without an inclining of understanding of why they exist. This game doesn't really hold your hand as the first did, it doesn't glaringly present to you these complex ideas and choices the characters and it's creators make. It's subtle in what it does and requires the player to read between the lines which so many who either have not played it or just hate played it seem to lack the capacity to be able to do.

The ending itself can be interpreted in so many different ways and it has. I think my favourite interpretation is the recognition of Ellie's survivor guilt coupled with her PTSD of the past events of the game, almost forcing her to go after Abby. I always emphasize on the wording used where Ellie tells Abby that she "can't" let her leave, not that she "won't" let her leave. It's simply something that she has to do to confront her demons and hopefully rid herself of them, but then she remembers Joel and what they used to be... she's taken this thing too far and she has to stop the cycle, so she lets Abby take her. It's such a good ending that I think deserves appreciation and hopefully in years to come it will.

There are a lot of other instances that are just misunderstood that I would like to tackle, but I'd be writing a 10 paragraph long review all day, but I would also like to tackle this "ludonarrative dissonance" bullshit, because it's not true. Yes, you kill NPCs... no, it doesn't fumble the narrative or render it useless.

The game literally PUNISHES YOU FOR KILLING NPCS. You realise later on in Abby's half just how impactful Ellie's rampage was and even she starts to doubt herself. I'm convinced people just didn't read Ellie's journal entries or either skipped literal cutscenes where Ellie starts to experience the effects of PTSD and questions her own morals. She gives up her hunt because of what she's done to characters like Mel and Owen and in many instances Dina is taken aback by the rampage Ellie unleashes on Seattle.

The effect of what Ellie has done, as aforementioned, is felt when you make the jump to Abby, even down to an innocent patrol dog being name dropped. One which Ellie inevitably kills. It really puts it into perspective and connects those rampages to the narrative and I wish people would stop acting as if it doesn't.

This game I feel is severely misunderstood, evidently, and I'm glad at least that it's starting to become what it deserves. We're past hating on this game, it's 2023. It's time to start appreciating this game and giving it the status it deserves. It's very much a case of the Metal Gear Solid 2 deja vu. In years, I feel like this will be as praised as MGS2 was.

It's such a perfect game in every definition of the word and I'll die on this hill.