wtf is this fucking rope section in the jungle it's been like 1 hour I'm not trying that for the 50th time. Platforming is so clunky it's horrible and combat is completely mid. The story seems interesting enough but the game just won't let me see it so fuck off. I'm not usually this salty but I was actually starting to enjoy it before this very specific moment, I found it frustrating but manageable for 3 hours but then it throws out this kind of shit ? yeah no maybe I'll watch a video abt the story on yt yhen move on to the 2nd game bc I hear great things about it. Eh I'm frustrated it seemed really fun

A f*cking masterclass. Is roughly about the same length as Hotel Dusk at around 14 hours (in my playthrough) but it just leaves the impression of being a million times more grander in scope and cinematic than that game that it feels much longer. Rest assured, in a good way, because it has the same turns-and-twists as your average mystery novel, only with extremely poignant writing that will make you shed tears. So it's runtime will likely feel bittersweet, with you feeling some pain as you have to part with the game. This is because the characters are so true-to-life in their struggles that, while probably not matching actual humans come the closest I think I've ever seen in the video game medium, no exaggeration. So it feels like saying goodbye to friends as you leave this game, just like Hotel Dusk.

You'll likely feel the same spatial memory navigating the apartments in this game you would have going to a place you know well (you may actually memorize where each of the tenants live) - I think a testament to how well the atmosphere at play here "settles you in".

It has the same comforting noir ambience, just, with like I said a much less "hardboiled" (in the sense of superficially tough) approach. It's softboiled crime fiction lets say, with its very sentimental take on how far we carry our burdens, how far we try to escape from the past, how we even have a sentimental attachment to the past that keeps us anchored even with the painful shit we had to go through. In a way, some of us stubbornly hold onto even painful memories- no, especially painful memories. We have a Stockholm syndrome towards the past. I myself fall into this sometimes - because isn't the past all we have to define ourselves on? Maybe or maybe not this is a wrong way of thinking. I'll spare you my soapbox for now lol.

It keeps the same pleasure of exploring your surroundings in a cozy, slice-of-life feel, but it merges with feelings of mystery and suspense as you progress through seeming to unravel the entire world in this one mundane place.

I won't spoil anything, hopefully I didn't give anything away. Give this a shot, maybe try Hotel Dusk first however, I found this game to be somewhat more unforgiving in it's interrogation segments, and I think Hotel Dusk will give you a good foundation of how the duology plays out. However, you really can't go wrong starting with either of these games.

BioShock is a good first person shooter that is made into something truly great by its incredibly unique atmosphere and story. The gameplay system would be a bit dull if it wasn’t for a mechanic called “plasmids.” These are a variety of customizable abilities that range from firing elements such as lighting and flame, to placing target dummies or hypnotizing your enemies. Plasmids are always mapped to your left triggers, while your gun controls are mapped to your right triggers. It makes an otherwise fairly standard shooter feel a lot more unique and personalized to each player. The one big gameplay issue this game has is its atrocious map. Even after beating the game I still don't really understand how I'm supposed to interpret it. For some reason different levels and floors are shown on the map beside each other rather than on top and underneath each other. Often they are placed with little rhyme or reason. This game also sometimes has a bit of a lighting problem. Many environments contain a lot of grey colors and are very darkly lit, making it often hard to tell where to go and what is going on. Even still, I still think the gameplay is decently good overall; not amazing, but not at all bad either.

Where BioShock really shines is in its story and atmosphere, though I did have some issues with it so I'll get those out of the way first. Despite liking the story a lot, I noticed it often felt a little disconnected from the levels you actually play in the game. Nearly all communication with other characters takes place through a radio, and you almost never see their faces unless they're already dead. While rapture is a very cool location and does have its fair share of environmental storytelling, this games equivalent to cutscenes often consists of a character talking to you on the radio, a bunch of enemies getting dumped in the level your on, you defeating the enemies, and then a character calling you on the radio again to either curse you or congratulate you. There are very few moments where you actually get to see another character face to face or have an event happen before your eyes, though I suppose this does make the moments such as this actually contained within the game even more impactful. I won’t spoil the story but I also found the ending and final boss to be fairly disappointing.

Moving on to the good, Rapture is an absolutely incredible setting and one of the coolest and most thought out places I’ve had the privilege of exploring in a game. It's filled with this dark, moody, and creepy atmosphere combined with this sort of 1940’s - 50’s styled music and looks. It makes for something truly different than anything else I’ve ever seen, and it's really incredible. The history of Rapture as well as the character diaries that can be found within it are very well made to showcase the failures of unregulated capitalism and how disastrous it is to depend on it. The city has a complete lack of regulations under the guise of freedom (sound familiar?). This leads to record breaking progress, but decisions are made without morals or conscience. Everything in the city, dangerous or not, comes to exist for the sole purpose of driving profit, which leads rapture to its eventual downfall. I did just complain about how you are almost never face to face with any characters, but even with just their voices the game does an amazing job teaching you each and every one of their politics and ideals, and why it either brought them success or (In most cases) failed them. Among these characters is the game's main villain Andrew Ryan. Even alongside the many interesting characters this game already contains he stands out and is extremely compelling to root against. I particularly enjoyed how despite him being such a terrible person, you can tell how principled he is, and how he truly believes what he says to be the truth. It makes him feel much more threatening and is a large part of what compelled me to continue playing the game and push past some of its more creepy moments. I suppose I should mention that the game does have a sort of morality system to it, with you being able to harvest or save genetically modified children known as “little sisters.” As far as I can tell however it doesn't affect much of the game aside from the ending which is one of its weaker aspects anyways.

I think BioShock really does earn its status as such an iconic and influential game, and is something I won’t be soon forgetting. I usually don't even like first person shooters that much but I think against all odds this game has somehow broken into my top 20 list. Definitely check this game out if you’ve ever got the chance.

(Completed meaning I watched a full playthrough, am working through the game itself rn though)

I make it my business to play strange games, yet Discipline, a Japan-exclusive WiiWare game that's a mix between a pet simulator and a stealth game stands above the rest in it's unabashed strangeness and even braveness tackling a less than pretty thematic.

It's a game by Kazutoshi Iida (Doshin the Giant, Aquanaut's Holiday, Tail of the Sun), all pretty strange, surreal and somewhat unnerving games. While not strictly a horror game, Discipline has you going through a medical operation, where you are eaten by a giant shark-like beast and whisked off to an experimental prison in order to save your ill sister (according to this article you're doing it to rake up the fund for her surgery) That's at least what I can make out of the setup of the game. You are put in prison with a bunch of weirdos, and you have to use an uhh interestingly shaped living device that takes water from your body, mixes it around, and by some literal alchemy turns it into something you shoot at objects in your prison cell to fulfill your cellmates wants and needs (it opens stuff like toilets or pulls down beds, opens up food trays). I couldn't make this up if I tried. Eventually if you fulfill a bunch of their needs they (literally) break, and the device takes up their karma. That's the setup.

Now the game, like I've hinted at, is somewhat of a pet simulator; you have to keep an eye on the gauges of each of your inmates desires (stuff like hunger, tiredness, etc.) because if one of them goes into the red, then they could very well do something crazy that will land you in solitary confinement (luckily, it's not really game over, it's just annoying). Add on top of this that there is guards patrolling, and if they see you using your device you will get a mark, 3 marks and you are in solitary confinement. That's the stealth part of the game.

This game is sadly, as Wiiware (and on top of that as a Japan-exclusive) lost to obscurity a little bit. I actually don't mind it's obscure status, because it's a very niche game by it's nature. Vinny from Vinesauce played it though, which is one of the few english speaking videos I could find on it, and it's main claim to fame. One win for surreal and honest videogames with prison, and maybe subliminal healthcare system messages. Sadly it's also one loss for preservation, but I speculate it's a bit of a personal work for Iida so I don't know if he would really want it to be for sale again, so we will have to respect that if it is the case (such is pure speculation though). Anyway, it's become an extremely personal work for me.

gnosia! i had a fantastic time with this game. while admittedly wary of the gameplay loop at first, i found it to be engaging and exciting. learning everyone's personalities was fun (although i could do without some of the creepier comments from one character, but at least that was acknowledged) and getting significantly better at the game with each new loop was satisfying.

i did look up a guide to not spend too much time looping, so a heads up for that. that didn't detract from my experience, necessarily, as i was pretty stoked for each new part of the story to be revealed as things went along. it's also worth looking up how to get the true ending.

additionally, gnosia's nonbinary representation largely strayed from stereotypes - a breath of fresh air in media, especially as a nonbinary person. setsu, the main character aside from the player, unexpectedly really resonated with me. the dreamy art and music on top of it all? definitely a treat.

lastly, it was wonderful to experience a story landing in my lap at just the right time. this visual novel's ending aligned perfectly with both a beloved text-based roleplay game i just wrapped up with some online friends (my OC's epilogue was released today...) as well as another writing/roleplaying project i just started working on. with that in mind, gnosia nudged me further into my emotions in just the way i needed. so. this review is probably rather biased from that alone... but gnosia has indeed earned a place in my heart!