my favorite of the trilogy by far. It has some 'dull' gameplay sections of walking around and doing nothing but the atmosphere is so great I don't really mind it. It nailed the theme of addiction, depression, anxiety and overcoming it while not having any weak pretensions of morality. Loved it.

I also really like the arcade mode even if the scoring system might be a little too simple to make it deep.

mp3 > mp1 > mp2 (they are all great)

Great story, a bit better than the first one (although they were going for something different to be fair) but the story of MP2 does appeal more to my sensibilities. If it was just for the story, I would probably give this game a 5. Not because it's super complex or anything. Just reinforces my belief that men will do the dumbest shit in the world for a woman (but is it dumb in that case?). Besides that and some minor QoL improvements that are expected from a sequel I enjoyed the first game more although the runtime of this one makes it a little more replayable. I do like the conspiracy theme of the first one though.

The 3D spaces you traverse in the first one are way more memorable and some of the assets are very charming (Max Payne's face for one) - the atmosphere in other words. It's also harder which is a plus for me.

The setting of New Jersey has been a little too overdone in media and I think a lot of the atmosphere and charm these games have come from the assets and graphics so I'm not optimistic about the upcoming remakes.

got to chapter 19 blind, might continue playing this later.

(yes, I recruited Xavier)