this is it, Remedy's best title, Alan Wake 2 screams originality and inventiveness during it's 20 or so hours of campaign, the story manages to engage the player in an way that is almost unbelievable, one of the best mystery/horror stories I ever seen in a long while, it's also beautifully voice acted and perfomed, everyone did an wonderful job.

the gameplay takes on an survival horror approach unlike the first game which was action centered, movement is more deliberate and slower this time around but they didn't sacrificed the tightness of the controls, Saga and Alan move around very smoothly, dodge mechanics works better, the gunplay feels punchy and satisfying (although there is not too much combat through the whole game especially compared to the first Alan Wake), it takes a lot of juice on the modern Resident Evil games so they couldn't go wrong with it.

inventory management is there, exploration is an must if you want to survive, enemies are very cautious and unpredictable, the classic survival horror experience that this game manages to get it right most of the time.

this game's presentation is absolutely stellar, the visuals were carefully crafted, the forests are very dense and atmospheric, the rainy NY City, the dark subway, it's absolutely incredible, animation work, FMV sequences and sound-design also deserve some heads, an unique and eccentric artistic presentation that only Remedy can do.

speaking about the issues I had with it are most directly towards on some of the polish in certain areas of the game, the UI is one of them, it's not bad per say but I think they should have done a better work of polish on it, the inventory screen comes to mind, dragging and drop items feels clunky, it's not as lightning fast or particularly smooth as like the Resident Evil 2 or 4 remakes for example, the investigation board during Saga's campaign is also very weird to navigate, some weird pauses whenever I wanted to switch between case files or placing clues, not an big deal but it was apparent.

had some glitches here and there as well, clipping through cellings when getting through doors or being unable to pick up certain items.

overall this is an fantastic game, it's by far Remedy's best title and it's miles above the first game that is not even funny, the carefully crafted visuals to the gripping narrative, Alan Wake 2 delivers one of the most creative and engrossing experiences that you can have this year, an absolute must-play for anyone who enjoys survival horror games or story-driven games, it's really that special.

solid third person/action adventure title, the gunplay takes a little while to be interesting but nonetheless it felt solid and satisfying all the way through, the powers are very fun to use and I enjoyed the Metroidvania inspired level-design, the visuals also look great and the art direction is very interesting.

the lore/universe is really cool but the actual story is a bit abrupt and requires a lot of reading through the game's files to understand, the characters are okay at best, the in game map screen is absolutely atrocious, there is not an way to swap between floors to see where you are currently, I got lost a lot because of this not to mention on how claustrophobic everything is to navigate.

nonetheless Control was an great time, one of the better titles that Remedy has, onward to Alan Wake 2!

good expansion, the gameplay saw some much needed improvements, bursting out enemy's shields is more faster, flashlight auto recharges faster, Alan sprints for much longer now, more weapon and enemy variety, the speed of the action is more exciting in general, it genuinely feels a lot better to play than the base game by a ton.

the storyline and atmopshere are both entertaining but it's definitely not as good as in the base Alan Wake, still an good time though, looking forward to Control and onward to Alan Wake 2 after that.

played through it before getting to Alan Wake 2 in the future, the atmosphere and narrative are very unique, these are easily the best things about this whole game.

the combat design is also good on paper but it misses the mark on some points, the guns feel satisfying to shoot, Alan controls well and I like the flashlight mechanic with the battery management standing out the most but taking down enemies's darkness shields takes an good while which in my view kinda ruins the flow of combat, the dodge mechanic is also very clumsy, the timing to avoid attacks doens't feel tight enough and if you mess up enemies will start to combo you to death, enemy attacks are also hard to telegraph and some of them even come out off-screen without an warning.

the dull enviroments are also an issue, you will often walk around in forests or abandoned mills/ghost towns.

overall Alan Wake is an very unique game that stands out thanks to it's great atmosphere and engaging narrative, the action elements are tight but the lack of polish on them in some areas often brings out boredom and unfairness whenever you are engaging into combat, the enviroments are often dull and lacks any variety, I would say to play one chapter per playing session and come back later for an more refreshing experience if you are planning to blast through this game.

nonetheless I enjoy it enough to keep going, looking forward to the DLCs and Control!

basically RE4 original but with some worse mechanics and even more absurdity in the action elements, it takes RE4's combat and fleshes out a bit more, it's still very satisfying like that game, bursting out heads and hearing those sounds is still the reason I play these games and I enjoy the increased variety of melee attacks especially when you manage to connect attacks with your partner.

speaking of which the co-op is genuinely the best part of this, solo play is very boring and in some parts very unfair in comparison, especially on those final chapters in the lab/tanker.

the presentation aged well in my opinion, the green tinted filter can feel nauseating but I thinks it fits the setting and tone that this is going for, the visual work also holds up well, character models are well detailed and I really enjoy the animation work, those cutscenes and the way monsters animate/move clearly had a ton of effort to them.

this also have tons of content as expected for an RE title, Mercenaries mode is an blast with all those different characters and maps, 2 solid story DLCs and more.

RE5 is not without it's bad points, while the combat system is more fleshed out than RE4 I do think some stuff got changed for the worse, the 9 slot inventory system doens't work well considering the game's fast pace, messing around with an real time inventory whenever you are full is not fun for an game like this, economy system is less satisfying, replacing an possible merchant character with the boring post-chapter shop is lame, I also don't like that they made specific animations for picking up loot, doing it like RE4 would have been better in my view.

overall RE5 is fine, I would say to play this only in co-op for an better and more fun experience, it's clear the game was made to be played this way, I think that this game will benefit a lot of the REmake treatment like RE4 received but keep the cooperative play and expand/change from there, they have the chance to redeem it quite completely.

an classic, the 2000s Newgrounds humor and art definitely creates an distinct charm to it that I absolutely adore, the soundtrack is awesome, fun boss battles, the controls feel good and is fun to play when things come together especially in co-op.

outside of that the rest kinda already aged especially compared to other contemporary beat'n ups, pretty much all the characters share the same moveset, weapons doesn't feel too different from one another, the levels don't have enough variety to them, enemies are messy damage sponges later on and some of the difficulty spikes essentially feels like an botched attempt to extend the game's overall playtime which already lasts for too long considering the repetitive combat.

I would love an sequel to this, I just hope I am still alive to see one considering that this game already has 14 years.

serviciable spin-off, the gameplay works fine enough for an quick classic third person Resident Evil playthrough, enemy design is mostly interesting, good atmosphere, story and themes are really good, definitely one of the better ones in the series in this department.

the rest is quite undercooked likely because of budget constraints, the gameplay felt dry in some aspects, combat has the special recipe that you can expect from most of the third person Resident Evil games such as melee attacks and staggering mechanics but most of the guns didn't felt satisfying enough to shoot, the weapon part system felt basic, the two playable characters didn't felt much different expect from the animations, weapons that they have/can found and melee attack, the other two sidekicks don't do anything special either, Natalia's ability is very interesting and some of the encounter design in Barry's chapters put them to use very well but that's about it.

the visuals aren't much better either, enviroments often look drab outside of the cool effects, there is lots of re-used assets and animations from RE6 even straight enemies from that game actually.

the Switch version runs fine, the framerate is acceptable and it has most of the DLC content is already available but my god are the loading times terrible, this game takes ages to load, even RE5 on the same console loads way faster.

at least there is the Raid Mode minigame which is an total blast, it's an shame that Capcom never made an follow-up or an separate game based on this game mode.

overall an fine effort by Capcom at the time, I think it would be very interesting to see an Remake of this in the future but with an actual budget and better gameplay with the same development team, the team behind this later worked on RE2 and RE4 Remakes so seeing this getting their intended vision plus the RE Engine, and with the experience that they have gained these past few years would be fantastic in my view.

great Remake, incredible visuals that push the Source Engine to it's limit, good gameplay and attention to detail, the stakes during the Black Mesa incident was never been higher as it is here.

Xen is an mixed bag, it's definitely better than in the original game and it looks gorgeous, it feels like an alien planet this time around but I felt it relied heavily on boring plug puzzles and some of the chapters lasted for too long notably Interloper.

the gunplay could have felt more tighter, enemies are either frustating to fight or were too easy, some of the weapons such as the shotgun don't feel satisfying enough to shoot, definitely still fun to play but HL2 and even the original game's combat are more satisfying and tighter to engage with.

overall an lovingly made Remake by passionate fans, must-play to anyone who enjoys the HL series.

solid side-campaign, fills out unresolved questions of the main story while featuring new areas and boss fights, like the base game the combat and pacing is utterly impecabble, Ada's grapple hook can be used to engage with enemies something that was not possible in the original version while also expanding the overall mobility, she really feels an different character to control than Leon unlike the original whereas the two characters are pretty much the same just changing the animations and skins, the two new weapons are fun and many of the setpieces that was removed in Leon's campaign are back with new twists which is by far RE4 Remake's greatest strength, it's willing to feature the same old areas but with new stuff to spice it up.

the storyline is about as good as the base campaign, Ada is an great character as usual and Luis/Wesker gets more screen time which is always an plus, it may feel a bit simplistic in some places especially compared to the original version's overall lore bits with Krauser, Wesker and The Organization but overall great, most of these lore aspects were quickly abandoned in the series after 4 anyways.

overall this is an fantastic expansion pack, it lasts enough time and you can come back to it very frequently thanks to the awesome replayability, there is weapons to upgrade and new unlockables for each playthrough, the price tag of 10 dollars is an steal considering the amount of stuff and quality that come with this, I would say that this is an must buy if you already own the base game and wants more of RE4 Remake's greatness, one of the best story DLCs ever made for sure and makes me miss how much prevelent these were before.

I still prefer Asylum's atmosphere, presentation and overall structure in terms of game design but this is an undeniable improvement over the previous game in most of the other fronts, combat, stealth, movement, boss fights, enemy variety, soundtrack, expansion of the overall universe with even more characters and storylines.

the narrative, voice acting and the pacing are still killer.

one of the best if not the best superhero game ever made and an must-play for anyone who enjoys the character.

now this is how you make an sequel, take account of every misstep of the predecessor and improve it in every concivable way, the combat-system is a lot more expansive and smoother and every addition is great, the Drive form and reaction command mechanics especially are really fun to engage with, it's just an blast to play through and through.

the Gummi Ship sections also saw some substantial improvements, it's faster and more exciting although the actual building mechanic is somewhat useless now since the game gives you better ships after each segment.

presentation-wise is still mostly the same, slightly better visuals, great art-style and fantastic soundtrack, you can't go wrong with Yoko Shimomura.

the storyline is once again compelling but overly convoluted, the game pretty much expects that you already played the two previous games (358/2 Days and especially Chain of Memories) to fully understand it to it's fullest, I didn't played any of these two so it was indeed pretty confusing and difficult to follow but nonetheless solid.

overall this is one of the best action RPGs I ever played, the improvements on the combat system are an blast, good storyline and fantastic music, absolute must play.

the best action game ever made, combat is so insanely deep and cathers to both veterans and newcomers, fantastic presentation, there is nothing that beats what this game does to the genre in terms of polish and mechanics.

this Special Edition is probably the weakest in the series, Turbo Mode, enhanced visuals, all the released DLC available, 120 FPS cap and new difficulty levels are solid additions but the lack of additional costumes (which was an already an issue in the original 2019 version), lack of an PC version, new characters outside of Vergil and features are really lame, Capcom didn't even tried to give the game some more sauce to justify the release of an new version like an online co-op function or being able to freely select any character in each level in the main campaign.

because of this I wouldn't call this the definitive version especially if we compare to DMC3, 4 and DmC's Special Editions, the PC version on Steam with mods seems to be the right choice if you want features, costumes and other stuff, I would say to grab this only if you have an next-gen console and nothing else.

it's okay, the visuals are fantastic, some of the most crisp animation, character models, texture work and lighting you will see on the console, it's an impressive technical work considering the hardware, the shooting felt great and some of the weapon and character designs are really cool, decent writing and voice-acting but that's about it.

the actual "gameplay" outside of the shooting is mediocre since there is barely of it, intrusive QTEs, inspecting objects, walking segments and full-on cutscenes with some of them lasting entire chapters brings this game down in terms of pacing and overall enjoyment, the replay-value is pretty much non-existent, there is no reason to get back and play the game one more time after completing the story.

I can definitely see the potential on it and it's an shame it never received an sequel and probably never will considering that Ready at Dawn is with Meta now working with VR technology but this was an neat attempt on an new IP and incredibly ambitious in an technical standpoint, I would say to grab this if one is looking for an easy and short platinum trophy, it goes on sale a lot and you can do it in one playthrough very easily.