it is heavily flawed as hell, but jesus i had a great time with it. something about the setting of the oldest house makes this stand out from other video game settings. the brutalist architecture mixed with 50's aesthetics and technologies worked for me immensely. the story and lore surrounding the fbc brought me in as well. i love remedy's use of live action footage and how they blend it in seamlessly into the game world and in this it's incredible, for example when seeing trench talk over the hotline and actually seeing him in the world.

that ashtray maze sequence man holy shit.

i do wholeheartedly criticise cd project red for releasing the game originally in its state back in 2020, it was clearly unfinished but because of corporate greed and the need to release something for the community after nearly a decade of waiting. i was one of those poor souls who got the game day 1 (on ps4 no less) experiencing a buggy unfinished mess. but after nearly 3 years, and a dedication from the developers to stick with the game to make it what it was truly meant to be, i can only admire the progress that has been made. it feels brand new.

i'm not a big open world or RPG fan, i give these sorts of games a try but never end up finishing them due to a lack of engagement either cause of the in-depth mechanics or the amount of time needed in order to experience everything. but something about cyberpunk stuck with me. and i don't know what it is. was it the story? the characters? the gameplay? because i felt engaged with it, i was immersed, it felt like i was really in night city. it was alive, breathing.

my completion of the game has been in the waiting for 3 years now, i had got it on launch, played a decent amount, tried it again a few times over the years but never returned to it much. but after hearing about the 2.0 update, how the game was new again, and a friend convincing me to get back into it, i gave in. i redownloaded the game, booted up an old save and immediately felt like i had returned to a familiar place. it felt like a home, with people and places i knew. it's not perfect, that's for sure, but i honestly think it's become one of my new favourites.

in the middle of my second (first hardcore) play through.

what i have to say is that i think that this is a phenomenal game and spectacular remake of an already fantastic game to begin with. everything’s been giving a more horror inspired atmosphere which leads to great segments that leave you tense and unaware of what’s around the corner. the gunplay is fantastic and all the weapons feel amazing to use and all have amazing response. leon pulls out the one liners but doesn’t spit them out every second cause this makes more sense as a follow up to re2 than the original did.

this game is severely overrated. while i did overall enjoy my time playing it, it really isn't the 10/10 goty everyone was shaping it to be. i thought the game looked and sounded stunning, being probably one of the best looking games i've ever played, and the combat (while simple and generic) felt good to do with the axe being especially satisfying with throwing it and calling it back. i thought the ending to the story was also satisfying and the final boss fight with baldur was engaging and really fun.

ok, the camera was pretty bad. i appreciate that they were going for this "one-shot" seamless go for the entire game, but that made the combat encounters even more infuriating, and even impacted the cutscenes. with it being over the shoulder, that leads to combat encounters where you can't see what's behind you, leading to you either being backed up against a wall with no room to dodge, or having an enemy swarm you from the back and take a good chunk of health. it impacts the cutscenes too as the nature of rhythmic editing can really impact and shape a story's purpose, and having that taken away just for the sake of the continuous shot hurt my investment in the story.

the story i felt was not that engaging besides the continuous shot, i didn't feel what the characters were feeling, i didn't connect. atreus sees kratos as this absent father who only seems to look down on him and scoff, and how his mother was a better parental figure. but then when i play the game, kratos is teaching him how to survive, teaching him valuable lessons, saving him from danger, putting him first. if anything, kratos is a great dad! i don't believe atreus because the gameplay is telling me otherwise.

the open world suffers from genericness as it just feels like a world full of nothing, empty space and long sections of doing nothing, the ubisoft effect. the RPG mechanics felt lifeless and had little effect on any actual gameplay, as i was barely leveling up to higher levels and taking down level's 5 and 6 enemies on level 3 hardware.

the dialogue is what got me sometimes, i'm really sick of games nowadays having the protagonists talk to themselves basically explaining to the player what they should or where they should go, when the player doesn't even have any interest in it. atreus being my main issue with this, he never stops talking, in combat encounters he shouts out things i already know are happening, in the open world, he tries to point me in the way of sidequests that i do not care about. let the player explore for their own and let them develop the interest.

i really wanted to love this game, i really did but i came away from this wishing for better, for more, pursuing innovation in storytelling in gaming. but as it is, it feels like it thinks it's better than it actually is.

while obviously shorter than the original game, miles morales at its core is still the same game with tweaks and other details added to make it it's own. i wouldn't say the story is as engaging as peter's, the characters do have a lot to show and they make it worthwhile. the combat (in my opinion) is way more fun as miles since they added the venom powers and invisibility to spice things up and i really loved that, combat encounters are more spontaneous and have you using way more of your moveset on the fly like it's second nature. the graphics are amazing, and with the game taking place during the christmas season, that brings with it cool particle effects with the snow and cool weather changes throughout the story. overall i'd say this is cool bridge between spider-man 1 & 2, and allows miles' character grow in his own game, without trying to fit in his whole training throughout spider-man 2, we now know a lot more about miles and it'll help us connect further with him in 2.