some of the best games ive played fully utilise the interactive medium to immerse the player into it's world, characters, and get across meaning, with fear and hunger being probably one of, if not the best example ive ever seen in a game doing this and absolutely perfecting this, the ludonarrative harmony created by the completely unfair dominating world filled with a dark and oppressive atmosphere, with every mistake you do booting you to the title screen with scarce saving, always keeping you on edge and a constant stream of anxiety for the next possible failure lying in wait, making it clear to the player that this is not a world built for them, and yet, the player has the ability and want to keep pushing further and harder, gaining more and more knowledge every attempt until finally reaching the (actual) end goal. this approach aids the developer into creating a commentary on human nature, that despite the fragility of the human body (through the mental torment endured by the player and possible lost limbs along the way) the human spirit is capable of persevering, with the player by the end of the game having felt and experienced this fact of life, a rather bright conclusion found from the desolate world of fear and hunger.

the vibes are maybe a teensy bit better in the original but aside from the controls being weird (not a big problem since they can be remapped) and the depth perception sometimes feeling off, this game is so peak it's crazy - maybe it's just the autism speaking but playing the game at all just made me feel so happy in a way that's so hard to describe. everything about this bleeds insane amounts of charm, from the ways enemies dance around in battle to the random 2d platformer sections to whatever the fuck happened in the ending and it all just culminates to an experience that means so much to me in spite how little meaning anything in it actually has. play hylics 2!

(one personal little knock; the music has gone from directionless neo-psychedelic post-rock strumming in the first game to direction-ful neo-psychedelic psych rock strumming in this, which although this soundtrack 100% has some great stuff to offer i do prefer what the first was doing. i especially miss how noise rock-y the first game's ost got on tracks like Messy Song - hearing that song for the first time in-game changed me as a human being - but oh well i can live with what this game does)

some of the best writing in video games, insanely witty, unique moral dilemmas (far more so than the usual bethesda “do you want to kill everyone for no reason or help them i guess”) awesome level up/perk system and character creation - none being just a complete damage bonus, always fun to play around with a new skill, really unique setting and worldbuilding - whoever came up with caesar’s legion should get a million trillion dosh in a briefcase. the shooting gameplay can feel a little dated at times, but its not so bad its unplayable. theres nothing id rather do than listen to the mojave music radio whilst hoping for a nuclear winter