very competent, but not much else. on one hand i appreciate the high-tension, almost dungeon-crawl nature of the levels. you're trained very early on to understand that every corner, item pickup, hell - even secret room is liable to be a deathtrap. kinda reminds me more of a 2000s shooter than a boomer one with its slower pace, which i'm not opposed to

on the other hand... every enemy being a sponge gets pretty fucking tiring at points and resultantly your weapons tend to feel like peashooters (especially against anything running on all fours). there's limb dismemberment, which sells the overwhelming strength that some monsters clearly hold over you - and it can be used to literally disarm the especially tanky ones - but also feels a little undercooked as it's usually a better idea to just shoot someone's head off anyway

level design's a mixed bag. i'm not a fan of the whole "take a wild guess and shoot a hole in the wall" philosophy, but none of the 'puzzles' are too out there to figure out. environments kinda suck though. i found myself enjoying the quake knockoff-y industrial areas the most and really, really was not too fond of episode 2's bland egypt theme (or its shitty platforming). definitely not much of a looker overall

it's pretty clear why some people love this game and some hate it. the generic setup is made a hell of a lot more standout by its relentlessly troll-heavy design, but if you're not a fan of that then there's probably nothing here for you

if chasm: the rift were a person it'd be this scandinavian guy i knew when i was 13 who frequented 4chan and constantly veiled himself in irony as a substitute for personality