Final Fantasy XV is a conundrum for me and I am struggling to put the right sequence of words together to properly describe my thoughts and feelings about this game. The reason I say this is because the first time I played the game I got bored of it after 5-10 hours and dropped it. The second time I played it I can honestly say that on at least 5 occasions I really didn't want to keep playing it and had to essentially force myself to continue through sheer determination and stubbornness. This sounds like the beginning of a scathing review but on the contrary, after completing the game all the development decisions that while playing through seemed rushed, tacked on, or unpolished now all suddenly came together thematically and form a very emotionally compelling coming of age story told not just with the narrative but with the level design itself.

The most common complaint I hear about FFXV is the pacing of the story and how after brief introduction period you are thrust forth into this massive open world full of possibilities only to have the game totally bottleneck on you for the last third of the runtime finishing up with essentially a series of extremely linear hallways. This complaint is totally valid and I felt the same disjointed feeling when hitting said bottleneck. However once completing the game It all began making sense thematically. At the beginning of the story Noctis is a reluctant hero with big shoes to fill though he is clearly not ready or eager to fill them. This section of the game has really strong road trip vibes, Noctis and the gang hitting the road stopping along the way to hunt down some goblins, go on a few fishing trips, and snap some selfies at all the landmarks. There is no sense of urgency here which is probably what led me to dropping the game on my first attempt. While playing through this section, which took me roughly 20 hours or so, it felt quite aimless and unfocused. Sure some quests involve finding a few ancestral weapon or fighting the Nifs but for the most part this large chunk of the game is delaying the inevitable and essentially shirking your responsibilities or as Joseph Campbell would put it, the refusal of the call to adventure.

Once you finally go to see the Hydrean (the bottleneck) the game tightens up and becomes extremely linear. Again, during my playthrough I really disliked this as it was totally jarring, I kept waiting for another large open area to take a break and go on some hunts. It felt like two separate puzzle pieces that didn't fit together forced into place crudely with duct tape and chewing gum. However after completion I understand that confronting the Hydrean and all the events that transpire during this section is essentially where the rubber meets the road. To quote Campbell again, to me this is the belly of the whale (interesting how this section also involves a large sea creature wink wink), Noctis is now committed to grow up and carry out his duty and the game thematically mirrors this by tightening and becoming linear. No more fishing, no more bumbling around a pretty open world like you are on vacation, peoples lives are at stake and your choices have serious consequences as we have already seen a number of characters pay a heavy price.

The final chapter of the story is without a doubt one of the best few hours of an RPG I've played in recent memory. Everything here is laid out almost perfectly in line with the rest of the standard hero's journey and executed exquisitely. After Noctis reaches the crystal he meets with Bahamut and goes through his metamorphosis, then returns home to see it in ruins overcome by the darkness. Shocked by the state of the world but resolved to do whatever needs to be done to save it he reunites with his friends one last time before the final showdown. During the climax each member of the group goes through their own trial in which they show they are willing to sacrifice their own life in pursuit of Noctis' goal which really cements just how strong their bond is. The final showdown with Ardyn is epic, after fighting through hordes of demons, a Cerberus, and a gauntlet of guardians of old with your group you are suddenly left alone to battle with Ardyn one on one for the fate of the world. Everything about this chapter just works, the cinematics are great, there are tons of genuinely emotionally compelling moments throughout, and the Astrals lending us a hand when in need gives such a sense of scale of the sheer gravity of this showdown... I simply cannot say enough how well this final chapter brings the whole game together.

This isn't to say the game is without it's flaws though, there are definitely quite a few. At times I felt like the world and associated lore was not explained well enough until hours after an event had transpired. This made me feel like I was always on the back foot trying to catch up to the story, though that has been a common problem in pretty much every Final Fantasy game since FFXII to be honest so maybe it's intentional, who knows. I also felt that besides the 4 main characters and Ardyn, pretty much every other character was underdeveloped or not given enough screen time for the player to develop an emotional connection. The chief culprit here is Luna, besides flashbacks of their childhood and knowledge of the fact that her and Noctis are to be wed there is barely any time spent developing their bond. The events during the Hydrean section should have been a flying dragon kick in the feels but it simply didn't live up to it's potential. I logically understand that it is sad, and I empathize with Noctis as he grieves his lost love, but the player doesn't feel what Noctis is feeling, not even close... How could they, literally the first time we see her in person she is killed. To me this is one of the biggest failures of the game and represents a massive missed opportunity to sprinkle the world with weeb tears. Another element that is lacking is the combat. Nothing egregious here, it is just a little simplistic but it seems like that is by design. Not every game has to be Dark Souls and there are plenty of flashy maneuvers and combos you can pull off to break up the monotony of holding down the attack button so not too big of a deal here. I do wish that there was more diversity of gameplay though, maybe by having enemies that required using different tactics because honestly what is the point of having all these cool ancestral weapons, spell crafting system, and ability to switch to other characters when in practice 99% of the time simply charging an enemy with Noctis and then holding the attack button will kill them faster?

Overall Final Fantasy XV is definitely not a perfect game... How could it be? It is designed in a way that feels disjointed and unfocussed until after you finish it. The game is akin to one of those claw machine games where you keep pushing in quarters hoping to eventually get the reward even though your brain is telling you to cut your losses and bail. I can say for certain that the reward is there and you will eventually get it if you keep going, the juice is worth the squeeze! But some people (myself included) didn't like pumping in those quarters on my way to the climax and I imagine many people dropped it before getting to the epic conclusion that brings it all together, though I'm not sure how you would fix this without effecting the level design thematically reflecting Noctis' current state of mind. I guess that's why I don't write games... I just write about them.

Not typically big on racing games and haven't really played one that left a lasting impression on me since Midnight Club 3 and the heyday of the Need for Speed games with Underground and Most Wanted. But I saw Forza Horizon 4 on sale and figured I've give it a try as I've always heard good things about Forza games but never actually played one and wow was I impressed.

The world is gorgeous and is designed amazingly giving room for all different types of tracks. Long straights for your super cars, tight windy hairpins for your tuners, or even offroad tracks for your trucks and ATVs. There's something here for everyone, and it doesn't force you to do any one thing, you can take the game at your own pace and do whatever you feel like when you feel like it. The seasons system is interesting and keeps the map feeling fresh, though winter irrefutably sucks some of the fun out of the game.

The racing is great striking a nice balance between arcade and realism where you can't just go full beans and send it around a corner to gain positions, but you don't feel like you have to be a formula 1 driver to have success. The selection of cars is simply unmatched and you can customize and tune your car to an absurd degree... Or just download the work of someone who has spent the time figuring it out for you if you don't feel like experimenting and working it out for yourself.

The point is, this game is designed in such a way that you will have fun no matter how deep into racing you are. Whether you are simply a guy who as a kid loved the first Fast and the Furious movie and just wants to race a Lancer Evo or Supra with the same paint job as in the movies, or if you want to fully nerd out and fine tune the gear ratios on your Ferrari to make it an unstoppable beast. There's something here for everyone and I don't think I've ever played a more fully realized racing game than this and will probably keep coming back to it every few days to get a race or two in for a while.

After stumbling a bit with the disappointing RE3 Remake Capcom finds it's footing again and reaches, or even possibly surpasses, the heights of the excellent remake of RE2. This new version Resident Evil 4 is about as close to a perfect remake as you can get. By meticulously capturing everything that made the original special yet updating it for modern eyes and adding a few new features that make the gameplay more engaging Capcom made one of, if not the, greatest remake to date. The only reason this isn't 5 stars for me is because it's a remake, and just on principle I feel that I can't give a remake 5 stars.

An awesome little surprise that wasn't on my radar at all and seemingly came out of nowhere. It makes me so happy to see another indie game that feels unique and tries something new and interesting break through and gain popularity. At first glance a game about fishing seems like it wouldn't hold my interest very long but the world is crafted beautifully, steeped in mystery, and has Lovecraftian cosmic horror coursing through it's veins.

The gameplay is comparable to games like Stardew Valley in the sense that at it's core it is a game about efficiency. You start fishing to earn money to reinvest in better fishing gear to earn even more money and on and on. This loop is nothing new as many games are built around this type of progression. However where Dredge establishes itself as a unique experience worthy of a try is that time is not the only thing you have to battle against. As the sun sets all the weird Lovecraftian elements rear their creepy heads. A thick mist fills the ocean and clouds your view, ghostly apparitions stalk you and cause you to lose your sanity, as your sanity begins to slip your chances of getting back to a port safely decreases substantially. There isn't just sea monsters out there trying to kill you, though there are plenty of those as well, there is also some unseen force out there that seems to be slowly sapping the sanity of you and the inhabitants of this world... And this threat is openly hostile and night.

"Why not just only go out during the day then?" you ask, well two things push you towards being out on the ocean at night. One is that your profit margins go up significantly at night as this is when odd mutated fish can be caught which for some reason sell for significantly more than regular fish (The people are really losing it I guess) and two is that traveling pretty much anywhere outside the safety of the central town takes longer than a day. The day night cycle here is quite short so any journey worth taking will usually require at least some night travel.

There are a number of different biomes all with different core threats to deal with and unique fish to catch which usually require specialized gear. The monster design here is pretty awesome, from big fast moving snake like monsters that chase you through tight valleys to a massive tentacled behemoth that will mercilessly attack you if you try grab all the goodies it is guarding. Feeling brave? Try taking your ship out beyond the bounds of the map, just be sure to bring a change of underwear.

ENDING SPOILER ALERT:
The ending(s) were pretty impressive as well. If you have been finding and reading the messages in bottles found scattered around the world and talking to a central NPC's often you will have at least some idea of what is going on in the story. However the twist at the end was really well executed. Reminded me of the film Shutter Island which is high praise for a little Indie game that no one had ever heard of until a few days ago.

I love the art style, the interesting 3D version of a 2D game is so cool and they added this unique depth of field that makes the game feel like you are looking at it almost through a snow globe. The combat is nostalgic yet doesn't feel completely derivative. There are also a few genuinely interesting characters (Olberic and Primrose really stood out to me) and the voice acting is good across the board which was a genuine surprise. Boss fights are challenging and require good team composition and strategy though sometimes border on overly long and tedious instead of difficult but some people like super long boss fights so your mileage may vary.

The problem for me with Octopath Traveler is that every character has their own seemingly isolated questline with relatively small stakes. There is no overarching narrative forcing the characters to team up, rather they just choose to travel together for some reason. This might be perfectly fine for some people but to me it's a real crime to write a JRPG and not include interpersonal conflict and story arcs that challenge and develop teammates bonds with each other - This is what makes stories like FFVII and FFX so memorable and it's just not here at all in this game and I don't really understand why. The archetypes are all there, it had so much potential but I guess going with the modular chapter design where you can pick up any party members story at any time as you see fit made having an overarching plot and interpersonal character development difficult. As I'm sure you can tell, this juice was not worth the squeeze in my opinion and actually hamstrung what could have been an amazing classic JRPG.

The world building and atmosphere are the star of the show in Atomic Heart, almost like a communist Robo-pocalypse version of Bioshock which this game is clearly heavily inspired by. Sadly though, for a game with such AAA scale and scope the gameplay regularly has this uncanny feeling of cheapness almost akin to a Chinese knockoff. It's not bad per se, there's just something about it that is not that good. And this is speaking purely of the gameplay, the story on the other hand is... Well I honestly don't really know as the dialogue was so awful and insufferable that I turned the volume down to the point that I couldn't hear it and listened to podcasts in the background instead. I usually refrain from doing this on games with a story but the dialogue is just so... SO bad.

The main protagonist is the main perpetrator in this regard and feels like he is a 14 year old boys idea of what a cool manly man is like, cursing non stop with a general air of douchery and snark unmatched since Duke Nukem... Only Duke was an intentionally ridiculous character, and this guy isn't. And whoever greenlit the catch phrase "Crispy Critters" should be fired and never work in the industry again... I'm going to lose my mind. I've read some explanations that in Russian culture there is tradition of sorts of using ridiculous amounts of profanity but I can neither confirm nor deny the validity of this, and I'm not Russian so it just comes off as childish and goofy to me.

Large chunks of the game are in open world environments full of enemies to kill and places to explore, and this should be where the game shines. However the developers pulled defeat from the jaws of victory here by implementing a Grand Theft Auto-like wanted system where if you cause too much of a ruckus or get spotted by one of the many cameras strewn about the map you get swarmed by a limitless number of enemies that will eventually overpower you causing you to either run and hide, or die. Ammo is also not plentiful enough to maintain this type of system, you can quickly blow through your ammo supply and be totally boned for the next section (which might be a boss fight btw). This actually happened to me as I went to war with robots for a while having fun in one of these areas, then eventually ran out of ammo, ran and hid to get my wanted level down, then while moving to the next section unknowingly walked right into a boss room with literally 0 ammo and had to fight it armed with only an axe. I will note that this issue eventually gets alleviated somewhat once you get an energy weapon upgraded enough to where it can actually deal some respectable damage. I adapted my playstyle to primarily use the automatically recharging energy weapons and melee weapons while in the overworld allowing me to actually stockpile the finite ammunition for the more linear zones. I still don't think this was a good design decision as the first few hours in the open world will be exceedingly rough as your melee and energy weapons seem to only tickle the stronger enemies at that point and it forces you to adapt and thus limits your playstyle. The sting, however, is dulled eventually after progressing further through the game. I will add that the testing grounds are genuinely fun and were the highlight of the game for me, ironically these are also the parts where the protagonist talks the least... Interesting.

As for the ending, I can't really comment too much as previously mentioned I didn't pay that much attention to most of the story as the dialogue was horrific, but the ending twist seemed very derivative considering the games inspiration. And the "good" ending is essentially just saying "nah screw it" and leaving, you actually avoid the big climax this way and it seems a little bit anti-climactic, though again... I couldn't care less about the story so whatever. Overall pretty decent game if you can stomach the awful dialogue... Maybe wait for a sale.

I loved the atmosphere and the obvious homage to old survival horror games, however Signalis felt to me like little more than a hollow impersonation of the classics... A black bean burger posing as the real deal. While containing similar component parts, Signalis simply lacked that secret sauce that made games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill great. This genuinely upset me as I really wanted to like it but the minute to minute gameplay just didn't hold my interest enough to care about the plot and pretty much every encounter can be easily avoided so most of the tension disappears a little over an hour into the game.

I'm going to start by listing the positives here before I go on a really long rant about the plot because this game has some good things going for it and if you treat it like a marvel movie and don't really think about the story too much you will probably enjoy it quite a bit. First of all the environment in the Peruvian jungle is probably the most interesting in the trilogy, this is subjective I know, but just voicing my opinion. The game frequently lets the leash off for a while and drops you in open-ish world areas and allows you to explore to your hearts content. Exploration is the centerpiece of this game and most of the time is spent exploring or solving puzzles which is a welcome addition to me. Nothing against previous installments but I felt that Rise had way too many sections where you were just mowing down waves of goons over and over again. The combat mechanically is about the same as Rise, maybe a little more refined and used more sparingly. There is still plenty of combat but there seems to be nice balance of feral animals, supernatural creatures, and your typical Trinity henchman mixed in to keep the combat feeling more fresh and interesting than in previous installments. The sound design is sophisticated, immersive, and seriously impressive compared to previous installments. Gunshots are punchy and reverberate throughout the cave you are exploring. Set pieces in which destruction is occurring all around you are fully engrossing with the implementation of three dimensional audio. Really can't say enough about the sound design here, probably the most impressive facet of this game.

Rant Time:

The story however is the weakest of the trilogy due to a bloated meandering middle section of the plot that screams of the writers knowing where they wanted to start and where to finish but not knowing how to tie the two together. The middle section is full of nonsensical story beats, retcons, and events that test even the most generous persons suspension of disbelief. This is made even more egregious by the disclaimer at the beginning of the game telling you how much care and effort they put in to make the world seem realistic and authentic. They even let you know they hired historians and cultural consultants. What they should have done is talk to a person who has been rock climbing maybe once in their life. A little over half way through the game they have Lara climbing overhangs with crampons strapped to some flimsy sandals. I repeat, the woman is free climbing ridiculously difficult rock walls like Alex Honnold... IN SANDALS! I know this is being somewhat nit-picky but little stuff like this is littered all over this game and it adds up to a ridiculously unbelievable experience in a game that is bragging about how hard it's trying to be realistic and authentic but I digress. The sad part is the story has a strong open where you find the dagger triggering the apocalypse, then the flood, then the lost in jungle section. This part of the story was really well done. The end is also pretty strong, obligatory fight with the antagonist hopped up on god juice, leading to a final trial where you are tempted with the option to bring back your deceased family and have to resist in order to save the world then realize the ritual requires you to sacrifice yourself which Lara does bravely. They don't follow through with her actually dying which is fine with me, as the act of willing sacrifice is more important than the actual dying part here in my opinion.

The story really begins to fall apart once you get to Paititi. You quickly find out that the leader of Trinity was born in this tribal village in the middle of the Amazon and now lives a sort of double life of part time Trinity leader and part time Mayan tribal cult leader? How? Why? Why did the writers feel compelled to shoehorn in the Trinity plot when Dominguez would have been an interesting villain without the Trinity tie in. He could have even been like an arm of Trinity, but the leader? Nah, not buying it, his goals don't align with those of Trinity at all... It just doesn't make sense. That and how would you possibly be able to run a worldwide secret organization like Trinity while spending so much time in a tribal village with no electricity, no internet, no cell service, etc. Why would anyone at Trinity be okay with such an absent leader, maybe that's why they are so incompetent idk. Also weren't Trinity supposed to be a centuries old illuminati-like secret society tied to the crusades and heavily implied to be Christian fanatics not tied in any way to Mayan religion/culture? Why is some Mayan tribal villager running Trinity? They try to wallpaper over some of these plot contrivances with a bunch of notes hidden in the main temple in the village but it just seems like damage control added after playtesting to me. My guess as to why this decision was made is that the location was picked first then the story was made to fit and the trilogy is ending so they wanted to have the leader of the big bad secret organization be the main antagonist. But that doesn't mean you have to write this terrible story that makes no sense. It really is a shame because this location had so much potential and some parts of the game (usually the ones not tied to the main plot) were really interesting and fun.

After noticing how little sense the story made, I became maybe a little hyper aware of other shortcomings in the story. Like how lazy it is to have your magical world ending McGuffin be named simply "The Silver Box". This is really the best you could come up with? Really... The Box? Also, Lara kicked off the apocalypse after she took that dagger. This was shown with that engrossing flood scene in the beginning and then after that? Nothing until right at the end of the game, why was this not expanded upon during the middle sections of the game at all? did the writers forget or something? This could have been a serious source of conflict in the game, Lara feeling guilt for causing suffering to innocent people, or the natives blaming her for their lost loved ones, why do nothing with it at all until the last hour or so of the game? Or even the little things like the cliché stuff to isolate Lara. "Oh no the wooden spears blocked our way we will have to find another way around while you do all the hard stuff by yourself". you guys have axes and guns and you're going to let some wooden spears stop you? Or the Paititi chase scene through the village. Why doesn't Lara shoot any of the people chasing her? Why do the jaguar warriors simply block her path like a police blockade in a Need for Speed game making sure to leave one gaping hole open to dodge them instead of closing in on her? Why does everything break when you jump on it? Why 10 seconds after the chase can you run right up to the same jaguar warriors and them suddenly not pay any attention to you like nothing happened? In the section where Lara is sneaking into the main compound dressed as a serpent guard how don't the guards immediately see through her disguise as she is obviously a pasty white girl with a British accent and not of South American descent? why are all these lost ancient structures within a 5 minute jaunt from this village and no one has found them or unlocked their secrets when they are so easy to figure out? And why during the big forced stealth section where you only have a knife can I not pick up any of the guns of all the Trinity members I'm slaughtering who are armed to the teeth? There are countless more examples of this type of stuff and the answer to these questions is obliviously "duh, because it's a video game, quit overthinking it you asshole", and this is correct, but then don't put the stupid little disclaimer bragging about how much you tried to make it realistic and authentic. Ultimately I feel like the developers spent way too much time and effort trying to get the Mayan culture stuff right that they forgot to make sure the rest of the story made any type of sense whatsoever. So essentially in the noble pursuit of trying pay respect to and not offend one group of people, they instead offended the majority of the fanbase with a ridiculously unbelievable story and a pretty terrible swan song to a trilogy that honestly deserved better.

I added Tunic to my backlog after hearing that it was a fun adventure game harkening back to the old Zelda games of my childhood. It took me a while but I finally got around to playing Tunic and holy crap, what an amazing experience this game was.

The awesome thing about Tunic is that instead of unlocking abilities throughout the game, most of your abilities are available to you as soon as the game starts you just don't know any of the mechanics until you find the right in-game manual page. This concept where your knowledge of the game is the only thing holding you back reminded me of Outer Wilds in a way, and any comparison to that game is a good thing in my book.

I found a couple of these hidden mechanics by experimenting and even once by accident in what was one of the most memorable experiences I had in the game. After a number of tries on a tough boss I fight him one final time. Right at the end of this challenging boss fight I had no potions remaining, hardly any stamina, and the boss and I both had a single sliver of health left so the next person to land a blow wins. The boss begins an attack, I misread the type of attack and dodge too early, I realize I have screwed up and am now out of position and about to take a hit. I begin to spam dodge and block in hopes of avoiding damage and in my fit of panicked button mashing I accidentally tapped the block button at the exact right time and based purely on luck performed a perfect parry of the boss allowing me to get the killing blow without even knowing that parry was a mechanic available to me. This was one of those pure gamer moments that sticks with you for a while.

The level design is great and has that Metroidvania feel where you are constantly taking mental notes of blocked pathways and chests just out of reach and will want to revisit them once you get the right piece of equipment or shred of knowledge that lets you know how to progress. Not only this but the art design is beautiful and the map is full of hidden pathways and secrets to find behind every corner. Every time you think you have the game figured out a new twist appears which really keeps you guessing and makes the world feel alive and mysterious. Simply great design.

This game is so astoundingly deep, but cleverly designed to where you only have to dig as deep as you feel comfortable. Some people will be happy with just the main game that has plenty of those "Aha!" puzzle solving moments and challenging boss fights providing plenty of fun for the average gamer. Others wanting to go a layer or two deeper will dive in to the more well hidden secrets that are required to unlock the secret ending. Going this route the game becomes more akin to Jonathan Blow's "The Witness" than a game inspired by old Zelda titles. This is as deep as I felt like going and was perfectly happy to stop there as I had tons of fun figuring out solutions in my little notepad, finally cracking that mountain door puzzle, and getting the secret ending. I knew there were still a number of puzzles I could solve and secret trophies to unlock, however I have never really been a completionist type so I was happy to stop there.

However, after reading about the game online after finishing the normal and secret ending, I find out that not only were there plenty of hidden secrets and trophies still waiting to be solved but all that gibberish that filled up the in-game booklet is actually a functional language that the developers created and you can decipher it and get tons of backstory, lore, and even more secrets! So for all you Cryptologists out there, fill your boots. I find this level of detail simply amazing and while I don't have the dedication or knowledge of how to decipher a made up language, I am simply in awe of the palpable passion and love put into this game. Why is this game so relatively unknown? It clearly deserves to be up there in popularity and prestige with the Indie greats like Hollow Knight, Outer Wilds, and the Ori games.

It's been a while since I've played a game that is a true sandbox like this and boy did I have a good time. Most games nowadays seem to pull you around by the hand telling you where to go and exactly how to accomplish goals. Teardown shatters this mold by giving you seemingly infinite options to experiment and find your own solutions to the problems presented. This design choice gives the player such a feeling of freedom and is so conducive to experimentation and creativity that it reminded me of being a kid just goofing around with friends in a video game finding our own fun while completely ignoring the main objectives of the game.

Most missions fall in to one of two categories:

a. Specific items are scattered around throughout the level, you have to steal them and bring them to the escape point. The catch is that upon picking up the first item an alarm starts that creates a fail state if you don't get all the items to the escape point by the time the clock runs out. This leads to planning out the fastest most efficient route possible by smashing holes in walls and setting up vehicles in the right spots to save time walking, building makeshift stairs, and whatever other ways you can figure out to shave off a few seconds. These are the puzzle levels, they are challenging yet fun and promote experimentation and creativity.

b. I call these the "fuck shit up" levels. In these levels you are tasked with causing some specific form of destruction and are given carte blanche to use whatever tools you have at your disposal to get the job done.

These two types of missions are balanced pretty well though, I would have liked to see more of the category b missions as towards the end the puzzle missions do start to become a little tedious. This issue starts when you begin to collect a massive arsenal of equipment like explosives, guns, boosters, sledgehammers, blowtorches, etc. In order to justify all this equipment the game cranks up the difficulty of the missions and can being to feel like a grind to get through. Towards the back half of part 1 the developers seemingly start to run out of fun ideas and just start making the maps more and more tedious to travel through by adding obstacles like omniscient immortal attack helicopters and flooding a whole area that makes traveling across the map take more time. This subtle change feels hostile and makes you keenly aware of the developers hand trying to hold you back from success compared to the beginning where you felt like you were in a fun sandbox that wanted you to succeed in a way that was uniquely your own by finding ways to bypass locked doors, gated fences, and barred windows to snatch up all the loot in the quickest way possible.

Thankfully after you finish part 1 (which I imagine was all that was available at launch) you get to play part 2 which adds a new island sandbox for missions, a few new interesting ideas for mission objectives, new obstacles like extreme weather and attack robots, and even some new tools to unlock. Part 2 seems to mostly fix the tedium of the back quarter of part 1 and becomes pretty fun again. The game really does peak in the first half of part 1 though. I honestly feel like once you unlock all the explosives, rocket launchers, and such you can just blow holes in everything so a lot of the magic is gone. Where the massive toolbox at your disposal becomes insanely fun however is when you start dabbling with mods.

At one point I downloaded a New York City replica map and caused mayhem with an arsenal of destructive tools. After over an hour of rampaging like a maniac I finally took a moment to look at all the havoc I had wrought and revel in my psychopathy. Something about this experience was magical and will stick with me for a while. No quest giver told me to destroy New York nor did I earn XP for doing it. I simply had C4 in my inventory and saw in my head that scene from the Last of Us with the collapsed skyscraper being held up by the other skyscraper and wanted to recreate it. And recreate it I did. It's this style of "get an idea and do it" type gameplay supported by awesome voxel physics that allows you to destroy stuff in such a creative way that really makes this game stand out. Along with the first half of part 1 of the campaign this is the most fun I had in the game.

Celeste boasts super tight reactive controls that simply feel great. If you are in to challenging 2D platformers in the vein of super meat boy where each level you have to figure out the right series of maneuvers and perform them usually within a pretty tight window with not much room for error then this is one of the best out there. I appreciate and enjoyed the game mechanically speaking but to be honest this game made me pretty irritated at a few points that just seemed overly long and tedious for the high level of difficulty. These games aren't typically my cup of tea so take that with a grain of salt.

The game goes through a sawtooth graph style difficulty curve where most parts are pretty easy to somewhat challenging but there are a few peaks in the game of seriously pinpoint precision, frame-perfect style challenges where you will retry one section dozens of times before completing it and moving on. And some of these sections just seem to go on and on and on with no end in sight. This is either a positive or negative depending on your frame of refence but worth noting.

The art style is simple yet endearing but the dialogue... Oh the dialogue. I'm sure this will get some pushback but the dialogue is twilight fan fiction levels of cringe at times feeling like it was written by an edgy teenager who had a bad week rather than someone actually suffering with anxiety and depression. In it's defense I will admit that I am clearly not the target demographic and imagine the story will probably resonate with teens and early twenty somethings who haven't quite found their footing in life yet.

This isn't to say the story is all bad, it definitely isn't. Looking past cringey Leo and some of the overly simplistic dialogue there is a decent story here. I honestly found Celeste to be more about coming to terms with the things you don't like about yourself and accepting yourself for who you are warts and all than a game "about depression" as some seem to describe it. Though there are certainly parallels that could be made with depression, this didn't seem like the focal point to me. And to be honest, this is a probably a good thing, as actual depression involves your brain not producing the right balance of chemicals and is not something you can just conquer with optimism, determination, and a can-do attitude.

Celeste is an interesting game and somewhat of a contradiction to me. The gameplay is so sophisticated, unapologetic, and challenging yet the story is just milquetoast and inoffensive. It's like the writers were scared to say anything too challenging to the audience so they went with this sunshine and rainbows plot where everything wraps up neatly and perfectly with just a little hard work and dedication. There isn't anything inherently wrong with that type of a story, but to me it is severely at odds with the minute to minute gameplay. I felt like I was playing a Dark Souls game but in the end you save a princess, fall in love, and live happily ever after.

This game is full of beautiful environments brought to life by truly impressive graphics for the time. The world is brimming with little secrets and backstory to uncover that is pretty interesting and adds depth to the characters and locations you are exploring. Where the game truly shines is the optional puzzle tombs where you actually do some tomb raiding and after solving some well designed puzzles, you are rewarded with some upgrades and loot. The combat is decent yet not much has changed from its predecessor but it keeps you engaged for the most part.

The weakness of this game is with it's story which follows the insanely generic story beats of almost every Indiana Jones-esque adventure game where the protagonist finds out about some ancient artifact believed to have magical powers and somehow figures out it's location. In comes evil antagonist backed by an endless army of nameless, faceless goons who finds out the magical McGuffins location either by stealing the research of the protagonist, stealing the map the protagonist found at gunpoint, or by secretly following the protagonist to the secret location. A race against time ensues to see who can find the McGuffin first, and even though you are the one solving all the puzzles and unlocking all the secrets somehow the antagonist gets to it just before you do. Big fight (usually involving QTE of some sort), protagonist wins, roll credits. This formula is so tired I can't even begin to describe how boring it has become to me. Are you telling me there is no other way to format an adventure game than this?

I also found the final act to be a bit ridiculous as well. The big bad that have been hinted at a few times throughout the game finally appear "The Deathless" who's name implies that they can't die... Or at least would be hard to kill. But nope, they die in two or three shots like the regular armored humans, and they don't use guns so they are actually easier to deal with. Even if they were more tanky these encounters are made kindergarten levels of easy due to the comedically large number of explosive pots strewn around the combat areas. Not exaggerating here, there is usually more explosive pots than enemies in each kill room. Also in the final fight Konstantin sneak attacks you and takes your bow and somehow you magically lose all your other guns as well, this was just lazy if you want to disarm me, do it in a way that makes sense. Also during this fight you can literally just run up to Konstantin and spam melee attack over and over and he won't die but is essentially stun locked... just poor design.

Ultimately this is a big step down from the first game of the reboot in my opinion due to a totally generic story and a frankly embarrassingly bad final act full of poorly designed encounters, underwhelming enemies, overly padded content (I'm looking at you trebuchet section), and a terribly designed final boss fight. Hopefully Shadow of the Tomb Raider fixes these issues... On to the next!