I wish I had a more original take, but this is basically the Twin Peaks: The Return of video games. It is so rare for an expensive-looking AAA game to be this thematically dense and creatively unencumbered. Even the faux-open world collection side quests feel remarkably well integrated into the story and overall experience, to the point where I actually (mostly) enjoyed running around and collecting all of the stuff I missed before crossing the point of no return. I'm going to be thinking about this game for a long time, and will probably do the NG+ "Final Draft" mode whenever I get the chance.

I think Alan Wake II and Disco Elysium are probably the two best European video games ever made, and they were developed a 3 hour boat ride away from each other across the Gulf of Finland. What is going on in northeast Europe that makes people geniuses at video game design?

I wish I had a more original take, but this is basically the Twin Peaks: The Return of video games. It is so rare for an expensive-looking AAA game to be this thematically dense and creatively unencumbered. Even the faux-open world collection side quests feel remarkably well integrated into the story and overall experience, to the point where I actually (mostly) enjoyed running around and collecting all of the stuff I missed before crossing the point of no return. I'm going to be thinking about this game for a long time, and will probably do the NG+ "Final Draft" mode whenever I get the chance.

I think Alan Wake II and Disco Elysium are probably the two best European video games ever made, and they were developed a 3 hour boat ride away from each other across the Gulf of Finland. What is going on in northeast Europe that makes people geniuses at video game design?