purely from a style standpoint this is, to me, one of the most incredible accomplishments I've ever seen a video game achieve. as far as the actual story and gameplay go? pretty much bog-standard early 2010s third-person shooter with a compelling and shocking, if fairly straightforward, plot. but the lengths the developers went to emulate a documentary shot on video? the constant teasing, fourth-wall breaking implication that there's an actual cameraman shooting from your perspective? all the tiny little minutiae of vhs details are stunning. the soundtrack for the game has to be experienced to be understood (highly recommend doubling the music volume, it was apparently reduced by the publisher later in development). playing through this with a friend, we probably spent a good hour just looking at all the tiny little details in each of the environments in between the shootouts. each setting has hundreds of models and tiny, superfluous details that you'd totally miss normally. so much that would have been passable, would have been completely overlooked without its own unique texture or model. it's a game that begs to be looked at through a microscope. all in all one of the most incredible atmospheric games I think I've ever played, even if the game itself tends a bit towards style rather than substance

Reviewed on Jan 11, 2023


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