Christopher Nolan's Dowhill Jam. Hate to be all "Cons: - Too much water" but lol. Has so few levels that feel like they make any satisfying use of the Zineth gravity-shifting mechanic and the cloying story insists on butting in to fuck up the vibes. I just KNOW the dev crew watched Interstellar while feverishly taking notes and none of them related to anything I wanted out of a game like this, very sad. Exo One is screaming from the diaphragm for some kind of Steam Workshop implementation so people can make School II or Hangar or even Bob-omb Battlefield.

manages to integrate sekiro into soulsborne combat in a way that fromsoft either hasn't figured out or wanted to. the game gives the player so many tools for comebacks that most of my boss fights were just barely won by the end of the game.

there are typical smaller-studio complaints like some rough difficulty spikes or enemy re-use by the end of the game, but the fact that this game feels as good as it does while telling a self-contained, thoughtful story in the pinocchio universe is way more important than any of the game's issues. genuinely excited for the dlc/sequel, and i hope fromsoft is taking notes

has some neat modern ideas, like the effects of constant art discourse on self-worth, but doesn't do anything more than state an issue when it's brought up. there was an opportunity here to discuss the overlap of old-school silent hill issues (eg. generational trauma) with what it seems the decision-makers are more familiar with, but the issues the game tackles are entirely isolated from one another - that's the bullying room, this is the 'i-hate-my-art' room, etc.

as for whether it's a "Silent Hill" game - sure it is. the franchise of 25 years ago doesn't exist anymore. AAA media today is designed by committee to capture the public's attention with nostalgia, UHD graphics, and streamlined gameplay loops. that's not inherently bad, but it's not really conducive to slow-burning meditative stories like the original games. you'll have to look beyond konami (hint: indies) to find anything resembling classic silent hill

a huge improvement over the original game in just about every way. the five campaigns add tons of new context for the already interesting world in a way that seems completely novel (individual characters experiencing changes in the world as they exist in their own slices of the timeline). however, like the original, rain world feels at odds with itself, never knowing whether it wants to be a lush ecosystem in a unique landscape or a masocore platformer designed to frustrate players. this does not enhance the experience of being a vulnerable slugcat as many fans of the game will jump to explain, and instead feels more like a conflict of goals in the game's core creative direction. despite this issue, the DLC's new focus on narrative and worldbuilding is so well-done that the game is easy to recommend - just use the new accessibility/cheats menu if things get frustrating and skip the 5-minute corpse walking.