Initially, I though this was a pretty neat stealth survival game, albeit a bit limited in its gameplay. The longer this went on, however, the restrictive stealth sections they give you become increasingly frustrating and dull, and the intriguing premise becomes bogged down by bizarre contrivances and a genuinely ridiculous (and not even in a fun way) final chapter.

This game is just too long for its limited structure. You repeat each puzzle or stealth scenario one too many times and it grates. The longer these sections get, the more prone they are to trial and error until you execute the linear, successful, path that was intended. If I felt that I had more freedom with my toolkit, that learning process wouldn’t be nearly as enervating. This restrictiveness is even evident in the ways they limit your movement as Amecia. You are frequently unable move beyond a brisk walking pace, your are often not allowed to even take out specific items or your sling if they are not exactly what you need to progress in a given moment, and when you are allowed to run freely it is in the guise of these monotonous chase sections that are employed throughout the game.

I mostly enjoyed with my time with this, and found the characters to be endearing and wanted to see their story through, but my frustrations with this game on a systemic level made this experience to be disheartening. I genuinely hope requiem is a more varied experience, or at very least more open to experimentation beyond the rigid, linear pathing that encompasses this game.

This game is pretty special! Going into this game completely cold, I found the rabbit hole-esque gameplay loop, combing through hours of footage, to be enrapturing. There is a genuine mystery and sense of awe to the first hour of the game as you discover more and more details within each frame and what potential secrets may be lying underneath them.

The ways in which you engage with all of this this lost footage, scrubbing back and forth through scenes, looking for details frame by frame, encouraged me to analyze each film thoroughly and look for connections between each prop, character, actor, or even the themes of each film.

The nonlinear path through which you untangle each films narrative and their production leads to moments of genuinely satisfying discoveries. I found that it was hard not to want to keep notes on scenes for future reference or to mull over the vast amount of information that the game presents, even when I wasn't playing it.

However, I found myself losing interest in the overarching narrative as the game progresses as it never quite fully coheres. A narrative does not have to be conclusive to be satisfying necessarily, but it just loses some of its initial momentum.

Beyond the mystery of Marissa Marcel's disappearance, what I truly found the most engaging and rich part of this game, narratively speaking, is in exploring the production of the films themselves, their dissolutions as the film sets and personnel gradually untangle. A key part of this game is even in examining how film styles have changed so drastically over the past 30 years.

It helps that the look of each film is genuinely impressive, from the gorgeous matte paintings in Ambrosio to the frequent use of split diopter shots in Minsky, the films feel stylistically authentic. Perhaps the films look a bit too clean and digital at the times, especially the footage from Two of Everything, but it doesn't ultimately get in the way.

I loved amassing this collection of fragmented films, behind-the-scenes footage, and interactions between everyone both in front of and behind the camera, just don't expect it all to cohere (and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way!).

Kinda disappointing, it’s a game that desperately wants you think of it in the same esteem as hotline Miami but it’s just not there.

For all of the fair criticisms towards Hotline Miami, a game I love, it had a defined style, a fast and rewarding game loop, and a memorable and well-implemented soundtrack.

In Midnight Fight Express, the style doesn’t impress and the music feels mostly superfluous; it’s competent, it thumps like it should, but it’s hard to remember. The combat is fun, and very Arkham-like, but it feels like the weapons and your basic combo are all you really need. The other abilities are fine, but not as viable.

And As mentioned in other reviews, the dialogue is lame as hell, and it breaks up the flow of the game CONSTANTLY.

Ugh. It’s fine, and reasonably fun, but not much more.