I can't believe it. I finally played through this legendary game, and it is more than deserving of its status as a touching, gorgeous exploration of guilt, trauma, and wrongdoing.

I loved how the dialogue performances, while much better acted than the first game in the series, seem subtly self-aware of tropey and strange voice acting in games enough to lean into the oddness of the medium to emphasise erratic, nonsensical behaviour in all of its characters - but very, very effectively in James in particular.

Maria is also, while a sort of surface level, cringe female character, also a pretty interesting note on gender and how men see women. A hollow ghost of male visions of womanhood made alive, pathetic, desperate, and ultimately, discarded and disgusting to her own creator.

The Historical Society sequence is my favourite part of the game. It's unbelievably well-designed. A gorgeous, disorientating, hellish environment. The holes are iconic. And I would, most certainly, dive in.