Some real art house type stuff. Asks a lot of the player, but it willing to give a lot in return.

The player's place in gameplay versus the player's place in the narrative contrast really well. High-fidelity glass-cannon gunplay helps cut through the really obtuse and abrasive aesthetic, which is both a really intelligent narrative choice and a lovely affordance for actually playing the game.

Also a really timely game, which is something you don't get to see very often. Being so blatant about modern-day anxieties about work and money and apathetic people and whatnot while still being balls-to-the-wall insane really makes the depression go down smooth.

Has some technical, under-the-hood issues (weapon switching sometimes takes your weapons, the first time you do any action the game will lag, etc.), but this is a Godot game so the fact that it runs at all is a miracle.

The world's first visual novel with actual gameplay.

Seriously, I mean it. It's super obvious that the game's internal plot, external plot, meta plot, and supermeta plot all have preference over the actual card game. That's why the game pauses at such regular intervals to give a break from the cards. That's why speaking with everyone (and everything) yields such great rewards. That's why the game literally nerfs itself to move the plot forward.

It doesn't matter how much system mastery you actually have. Bonelord, Super Vessels, and Infinite Bees will make the gameplay arbitrary to make sure that the game itself paces at a realistic rate. And, personally, I think that's a totally valid creative choice. Yes, the gameplay suffers as a result, but when your focus is the plot, setting up the system to serve it as directly as possible is the wisest choice to make.

Also, Mullins better thank his lucky stars that he nerfed Archivist Phase 2 (you know what I mean) or I would have personally tied that man into a pretzel.