Top 50 Favorites: #9 (Complete Edition)
The first big-budgeted PS4-era open world adventure game I really got swept up in, one which I'm also terrified to replay due to this genre veering more and more towards empty, boring, overbloated filler passed off as content as time goes on - I fear that what registered for me all those years ago as new and revitalizing will instead ring as tedious and generic these days. Still, at the time anyway this really felt like a breath of fresh air: vibrant colors (the lighting!!), an interesting story (even the collectible-based narratives I found to be intricate and emotional), breathtaking animations, Lance Fucking Reddick, etc. The thing really felt like games had finally hit the point they'd been aiming for since the inception of the medium. Its melee combat isn't the best but the rest of the fighting here felt unique, engaging, and responsive too. I love it immensely, a beautiful gaming experience - cannot in good conscience agree with this coming back into the discourse of why its genre's luster is waning, especially when the much duller and more overstuffed Fallout 4 had already come out and dominated years before this.
The first big-budgeted PS4-era open world adventure game I really got swept up in, one which I'm also terrified to replay due to this genre veering more and more towards empty, boring, overbloated filler passed off as content as time goes on - I fear that what registered for me all those years ago as new and revitalizing will instead ring as tedious and generic these days. Still, at the time anyway this really felt like a breath of fresh air: vibrant colors (the lighting!!), an interesting story (even the collectible-based narratives I found to be intricate and emotional), breathtaking animations, Lance Fucking Reddick, etc. The thing really felt like games had finally hit the point they'd been aiming for since the inception of the medium. Its melee combat isn't the best but the rest of the fighting here felt unique, engaging, and responsive too. I love it immensely, a beautiful gaming experience - cannot in good conscience agree with this coming back into the discourse of why its genre's luster is waning, especially when the much duller and more overstuffed Fallout 4 had already come out and dominated years before this.