February 2024 thoughts:

I 100%/platinum’d this game within the month of release, so you could say I got my money’s worth out of it. I spent hours upon hours playing it. But the thing is, the further I get from it, the more ambivalent I’ve become towards it.

I didn’t care much for the story. I'm not a fan of Venom. I think the popular perception of Venom exemplifies a lame “edgy” ‘90s comic book attitude. Some seem to think of him as the web-head’s greatest adversary, Spider-Man’s Joker. Yeah, he’s Spider-Man’s Joker alright, but only in the sense that his loudest fans are annoying and seem to largely love how tWiStEd he is (no offence to Joker, who actually stands up much better as an antagonist, and is a genuinely great character when used well).

I’m also not in love with the “Kraven’s Last Hunt” comic story arc, like many Spidey fans are. It also is an ending of sorts, and I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to introduce Kraven for the sake of one game. They would’ve been better off setting him up here, so they could dedicate a whole game to him as an antagonist later.

Web-swinging still looks good but the skill ceiling for it is entirely too low. It’s easy to learn and easy to master. I feel like I’m going through the motions with it and the fun factor drops off every time I realise I’m being hand-held by the developers.

New Game Plus was nonexistent at launch. It’s supposed to be releasing in March. That’s fine, I wasn’t dying for NG+, but its months-long delay contributes to a feeling I have about this game. With the late post-game dlc and the loose, messy, feeling of the main narrative, I think the development of Spider-Man 2 was troubled. The first game feels like a complete package, a statement of intent. It was a confident game, with a strong story, and it felt tight. Spider-Man 2 is a little limp in comparison, for me.

I miss game expansions. I’ve really missed them. There was potential for great story DLC for a single player game, once upon a time. We really had it all, didn’t we? Well, Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways takes us back to those good ol' expansion days.

I think this is a terrific new slice of Resident Evil 4. It provides the kind of experience people were looking for but didn’t quite get in Resident Evil 2 remake’s Leon and Claire first run/second run scenarios. Separate Ways covers the full length of RE4’s events from a different perspective, and really feels like it’s properly running parallel to the main campaign. There are overlaps with Leon's side of things throughout Ada’s story and nice touches where you’re playing through the flip side of moments you’ll remember from the main game. Sometimes that’s you being on a comms call, and other times you’re running an objective during the final boss fight, where you’re given a bigger perspective on the event, and it makes the whole RE4 picture fuller.

A cool thing the devs did with Separate Ways is that, with Ada, they’ve remade and remixed some sections from the original RE4 that were omitted in the remake. Minor gameplay spoilers follow: The cavern where you have to drain the water is here, the U-3 boss fight has been reintroduced (minus the second phase cage sequence, unfortunately), the lift makes a welcome return, and the laser hallway makes a grand reappearance.

Full Ada Wong game in the RE remake timeline when? I really loved this.