I really don't love deckbuilders. They tickle the wrong part of my brain, and I get stressed by how perfect play is generally impossible. Thankfully, as is usual, at some point I stumbled into a semblance of strategy (and a too good Death Card), and that let me enjoy the whole of the experience, which lived up to all the expectations I had, even considering that those expectations were of the very dangerous "I've heard this game does wild stuff, so I don't want to spoil it." Wonderful changes of pace over the course of the experience, and it could have easily gone on for more acts without wearing me out. Though, after one run at the randomized mode, I was content to walk away.

It's stunning that this managed to live up to all the expectations that had time to grow in my brain in the two years between release and playing it. And yet, carrying on much of the spirit of RDR, once again there is a lovingly crafted world that begs you to explore it, while telling a gripping tale of a cowboy who has no choice but to come to terms with the death that surrounds not just their daily adventures, but that which is coming for them and their entire way of life. Despite the surface level similarities, and knowing what happens to so many of the characters, it somehow carries on unweighted, carving its own path through what should feel like well trod wilderness. The characters are drawn in beautiful detail, earning sincere emotion in response to their all too real lives.

I could criticize a little. The challenges are exercises in specificity, rather than interesting goals. The item list is almost untenable. The real world costs of creating this experience is all too real. Seeing the whole of the world is nigh impossible, unless you're the sort to give this game your life.

But, not every game should be built to be seen all of. Knowing that there are animals I'll never see, small farmsteads with hidden cigarette cards or tiny personal stories that will slowly fade into nothing with the march of time, folks who asked a favor and will wait for a bluebird carcass in the mail, forever fruitlessly, it only further sells the beauty of this tiny, huge, fascinating land.

And, apparently there's an online mode, but who would play that?

What was good about the originals is still good here. The soundtrack does a nice job of capturing the spirit of the original while adding modernity to it, and I can't say it's not real pretty. The entire progression system wrapped around the rest of the games is so of the moment, and so unnecessary.

Then again, when playing the originals, I walked away from them the second I fully completed with all objectives and medals of the Skate Tours. The idea of working on high scores for their own merits, or challenging friends, never appealed to me, so I'm judging this on a somewhat limited metric.

I Kickstarted this game quite some time ago, thrilled by the concept, and very easily tempted by anything that apes Shadow of the Colossus.

On that count, it delivers alright. The Gods are intriguingly designed, and the fights have a nice degree of puzzle solving and mechanical challenge.

However, all that surrounds it feels fine at best, and more frequently frustrating and distracting. The survival and crafting mechanics in particular are tedious and take me out of the experience more than adding to it. There was room for the world to be dangerous in a way that these felt necessary, but this execution feels dated and perfunctory.

The world itself is fun to explore, and there are some fun nice traversal challenges, though it could have been served better by less of a focus on the stats granted by clothing and weapons.

The beauty of SotC is found in very large part due to its simplicity of purpose, and discarding what does not serve that, and that feels like a missed lesson here.

There's so much care and craft that goes into making this a vibrant, colorful, fun experience. And then it just goes way too far.

With the previous Crash games, I'd do my best to get every crate my first run through, even if I knew that I'd likely miss a few and have to give it another shot. When the first level had over 100, I got nervous. When I realized how many levels had severely hidden crates on a plane unlike previous games, I got frustrated. As the crate counts continued to increase, both feelings got worse. When a level jumped to over 250, I abandoned that goal, and thank god that I did. It's all just too much, level length, crate count, repetition, I simply don't have the free time to find this sort of thing enjoyable. So I rushed through the rest of the base levels, ignoring well over half the crates, and had a fine time, albeit spoiled by the sour taste of what I knew I was missing.