It's hard for me to talk about this one because on the one hand I honestly don't personally vibe with this style of RPG (but that's not the game's fault and I feel like it does it fairly well) and also it made me feel weird and anxious and uncomfortable (which speaks to the quality of the game and its art direction but does mean that I did not Like It in the traditional sense). BUT. ALSO. It looks so fucking cool, the claymation thing kicks ass, it's like 3 hours long which is great, Somsnosa please call me. I love the existence of any art that can make me feel weird and nauseous and annoyed even if I don't Like It. Can't wait to play the second one and want to die the whole time.

The MTX is stupid as hell (and the fact that so many people on the internet are just straight up lying about what’s actually being offered is worse). The PC port at launch was inexcusably bad. It shouldn’t have come with Denuvo. Capcom sucks in a myriad of different ways. And yet. AND YET!!!

The thing about me is that I think that the most irritating thing about the games industry right now, aside from the heinous abuse of employees, is the refusal to let anything be spikey. Every game is trying so fucking hard to shave off its own harsh edges, narratively and re: gameplay, lest they invite the rage of GamersTM who think the only reason a game should possibly exist is to make them feel good and powerful and godlike. Sometimes they continue to shave off harsh edges POST-RELEASE (and ooooh boy do I have thoughts about how Bioware softening ME3’s ending because of fan backlash to anything that challenges them or makes them feel less important starts the domino effect that we now see with Larian making Lae’zel nicer on the game’s 80th patch because of fan backlash to anything that challenges them or makes them feel less important, but we’d be here all day). I just want a game that MAKES CHOICES, particularly ones that DON’T center the player or put them on a pedestal, and I want games that commit to those choices! Even if those choices annoy me I just love that they MADE THEM. I believe that games are art, and sometimes art is going to exist to make you angry or annoyed or helpless or uncomfortable!

I played on a beefy rig and have the technical know-how to circumvent most of the performance issues other PC gamers experienced, so my gameplay was smooth like butter. Neither of these things should be required for the game to run well at launch, and it’s awful that it was. But at the same time, good fucking LORD I haven’t had this much fun with a game world in ages. All the vocations feel fun to play, it’s a genuine joy to wander through the world and see what deranged bullshit the game is going to heap on me (a dragon and a griffon at once while I go on a stroll with my girlfriend’s dad! Sure, why not!). The pawns’ and NPCs’ AIs are custom built for Looney Tunes level physical comedy. It’s so fucking great. And most of all, a glorious return to real intentional friction that isn’t just Souls-style “it’s really hard!”

I want MORE games that are this punishing about deaths! I want MORE games that limit fast travel like this! I want MORE games that fight super hard to prevent save scumming and which force you to commit to the consequences of your actions! I want MORE games that allow literally anyone to die! I want MORE games that can break in major ways if I fuck off or don’t read or care about mechanics properly! ABANDON ALL DELUSIONS OF CONTROL, GAMERS! Not EVERY game should be like this, obviously, but right now the ONLY kind of game that feels like it’s allowed to exist (particularly from major publishers) is one that has as much friction removed as possible, that are smooth and shiny and boring. It’s genuinely mind-blowing that a game that is THIS unconcerned with the player was published at all, let alone that a significant number of people are buying and playing it. That tells me that there’s a genuine hunger for this sort of experience. That makes me SO EXCITED!

The world and setting and lore are all fascinating and its commentary on the fourth wall is so fun. The plot’s thin and most of the characters are barely there, but it SO succeeds at what it sets out to do, which is create a world that it’s fun and insane to explore and suffer through. I have my squabbles, obviously (give me more enemy types!) but by and large it’s exactly what I want out of an open world game. I desperately hope that the deranged discourse (and the way so much of the discourse revolves around the idea that friction shouldn’t exist and that a game should, above all, cater to the player, make everything easy for the player, adore the player) doesn’t prevent more stuff like this getting made. A game that so fully nails the “exploring an unforgiving world with your gang of idiots” niche that DD2 has with more character and plot focus would be, genuinely, the perfect game. Please lord let me have this. PLEASE!!