Feels more prideful than celebratory.
I don’t like being rude to fangames, especially for a game like BM in which it’s one of the more polished and scaled ones.
I get that people disliked Xen, here it’s definitely more polished..just in a very traditional sense.
Xen feels now like a cop out for game design bros, as it feels more designed and thought out. What I implied by traditional is how Valve-esque it feels, plug in a cable, move something etc. etc., but now you have to play through a section as long as 60% of pre-Xen, as much as delightful as it looks, it’s still exhausting and tiring and a big pace breaker for the remake.
OST was pretty unremarkable throughout the game except when I’ve reached Xen where I’ve heard a soundtrack that with proper budget could be featured in a big high profile release. Art direction doesn’t look weird since this is still Source and really works for the game’s calmer brooding horror tone, but I still prefer how the original looked in comparison.
Overall its a fine game, but still a demonstration of why going bigger in scale doesn’t match the brilliance of the subtler design decision.