i thought it would be interesting to revisit this game after dropping it a week after launch, maybe i'd find something to like. i didn't. this is the most disappointing game i have ever played.

i still can't believe they chose this tone for the story, its an 80s sunday morning cartoon where every 30 second map is a new episode that is tangentially related to the previous one. this COULD work, but they also managed to forget to include a shred of charm that makes those 80s cartoons enjoyable to watch. there are no stakes, no threat to fear, nothing to overcome. its just a schizophrenic romp through the countryside, until you bump into diablo and he falls over dead.

the combat would be fine, but it was an enormous mistake to allow the player to constantly change difficulty levels at will. either you are brain dead cutting down monsters with one hit, or you are spending 45 seconds on each one. either way it never really feels great. never really feels like your character is becoming more powerful.

all i did was complete the campaign. didn't experience the infinite paragon grind myself, but jesus what an awful idea to never give players the satisfaction of beating the game. having gotten into path of exile over the last few months, the biggest difference between the two of them imo is how poe allows the player to feel like they have won, to have beaten the game. hell, poe allows the player, through perfectly manipulating the dozens and dozens of character creation systems, to bend the game over onto itself, to the point where it feels like the game and servers can barely handle it.

all in all, this is a game that does not feel like it respects you. it feels like the game openly considers you to be the rat in the skinner box. no thoughts, just press button get reward. diablo 3 just seems to be an infinite, never changing, grind.

still does not stand up to the part time job sort of playstyle bungie can sometimes ask of the player, but the environments and art style in this are still some of the most extravagant in any sort of modern visual medium.

due to sunsetting, you now have to play the mind numbingly tedious DLC drops in order to have the gear to be ready for day 1 raids. i no longer have the time and patience for engaging with the parts of the game i don't enjoy, so deep stone crypt was probably my last day 1 raid. while experiencing this previously entirely unknown activity with 5 other players is one of the greatest gaming experiences you could ever have, its questionable if its worth all of the work throughout the year to make sure you are ready for it.

its fine. the game itself is in the best state its been in in years, and there are no major pain points so far that tend to flare up with games that ask so much of the player. however, it just feels fine. by far the most excitement i have felt so far is the expansion launch ritual of seeing all the old clan again after a couple years.

in all likelihood, i'm going to follow the same pattern of playing this for a couple months and then wandering away again like i have for the last 3-4 expansions. that being said, unlike the last expansion, i'm not going to be walking away out of frustration.

"he's strong"
"yeah, so what? screw him"



spoilers--
various thoughts, to be continued:

-i dont think it needed so much extravagant visuals. it was impressive, but like the last two chapters i would have just been happy to see my friends being friends.

-rapidly fluctuated from enfuriated by the combat to kinda loving it. felt significantly better when i stopped trying to play it like bayonetta or something and more tried to play it like a classic turn based JRPG. i am guessing a second playthrough would make it feel pretty great though.


-i still dont understand what sephiroth's motivations are. i never played the original.
-i absolutely love this game, but it doesn't seem like a GREAT game. its a fine game, that i love a lot.

thoughts:

-interesting playing this the same day i finished ff7 remake. a lot of the charm and soul, the alien atmosphere seem to have been sucked out of the original game. see: sound design in tower of latria, the flamelurker arena looking like its straight out of doom 2016, the tower knight soundtrack being a very generic orchestral soundtrack instead of "HUH HUH HUH HUH",
-basically it can often feel like the original demon's souls, filtered through Lord of the Rings.

-it is indeed beautiful.

-its wild going back to these bosses again after like a decade or whatever. most of them REALLY don't hold up. only one i've enjoyed so far is flamelurker.

30 minutes prior to credits rolling i would have given it a 2, but ... i dont know. i've never played a game where my opinion has swung so drastically from minute to minute. probably an unnecessary amount of misery in here to really drive the point home, but it did contrast with the humanity really well.

going through and finally playing all the big budget sony exclusive games throughout the PS4 lifespan, and i think this one is my favorite.

the sound design is unbelievable. the gameplay is unbelievable. the animations are some of the most polished and refined i have ever seen (minus the jumping one).

its disappointing to me the general reception this game got from the vocal pop culture nerd crowd.

just finished it. up until i got to the red forest, i was ready to mark this down in my all time favorites. the atmosphere is pretty much unmatched, i loved every second of trudging through the countryside getting into skirmishes with bandits and dogs. i loved the horror atmosphere of the bunkers as well, incredibly done.

really did not enjoy the final three maps though. the hardest difficulty setting felt good up until the red forest, where suddenly nearly every piece of cover is radiated, you can be fighting a dozen enemies at once coming from all angles, and any bed / vendor is a good 15 minute walk away. the final two maps, while still having a relatively wide arena, turn the game into one long hallway packed with too many human enemies and too many invisible enviornmental hazards. i played through the final two maps at night as well, where there was basically no visibility whatsoever. this is probably my fault, but a twenty minute walk to find a bed to sleep in to pass the time just did not seem fun to me at all.

that being said, i think this is a fantastic game that is worth a playthrough. i've made at least 4 attempts to get into this game over the years, and i'm glad that i found the patience to appreciate the jank. can't wait to check out the rest of the series.