Crosswhen
This review contains spoilers
Qualifications up front. I have 1145 hours in Destiny 2 at time of writing. I have completed every raid and dungeon available to a player in the last 2 years of content. I have earned my GM title across multiple seasons and outside of some master raid clears I have not missed much content in this game over the last few years. I am also writing this as the season/episode content that will follow the conclusion of TFS begins so perhaps my opinion will change although I doubt it.
Final Shape is abysmally bad. I've never seen a poorer example of how to construct a compelling story and frankly the people who are widely praising this are so fervent that I am beginning to doubt whether or not every bit of praise for prior expansions is an extension of this Stockholm Syndrome style relationship Bungie has cultivated with the fanbase for D2. It's become my theory over the last few weeks that Destiny fans, myself included all recall the game fondly in a version of it that has not existed ever. Red War was terrible, every currently available expansion runs the gambit from terrible to just ok, and the one piece of content anyone ever talks about as good is Forsaken which is a piece of content that has not existed in the game for almost two and a half years. Frankly I'm beginning to doubt any of this was ever good and that we all just live in our nostalgia for a time when the game was good
Final Shape is abysmally bad. I've never seen a poorer example of how to construct a compelling story and frankly the people who are widely praising this are so fervent that I am beginning to doubt whether or not every bit of praise for prior expansions is an extension of this Stockholm Syndrome style relationship Bungie has cultivated with the fanbase for D2. It's become my theory over the last few weeks that Destiny fans, myself included all recall the game fondly in a version of it that has not existed ever. Red War was terrible, every currently available expansion runs the gambit from terrible to just ok, and the one piece of content anyone ever talks about as good is Forsaken which is a piece of content that has not existed in the game for almost two and a half years. Frankly I'm beginning to doubt any of this was ever good and that we all just live in our nostalgia for a time when the game was good
I never thought I wanted to fistfight mold creatures in the bayou in RE7 but this DLC gave it to me and let me hit a boss with a powerbomb, truly incredible stuff. I wanted Joe's Eastern European vacation in RE8 so bad.
2017
A game I plan to return to in the future to experience again. Just an incredible recreation of 1950s LA by the developers at Team Bondi that deserves all the praise in the world. It's only fair to also mention that this game is a product of extreme crunch that unfortunately seems to have adversely impacted many of the devs at Bondi as they made it. I feel so conflicted praising the game but I still believe it is a must-play. One of the most non-traditional open world experiences where I feel like the map and details of 1950s LA serve as their own character, something that speaks to the film noir inspirations this game takes from.
2012
Don't use items on anything but the final boss. This is not an easy game but if you can get into the rhythm and flow of the combat you can really perform some very satisfying combos. Maybe not to the level of later DMC entries but as the game that started it all, its something special and unique worth seeing.
2010
The soundtrack and story elements of this game linger in my mind all these years later after playing it for the first time. The worldbuilding includes some of my favorite tropes that I won't dive into here because it is pretty late game spoilers. I'm uncertain if I would call this a must play given the rough edges when it comes to gameplay and requirements for seeing all endings being quite tedious at times. The primary difference between this version of NieR and the remake (Called Replicant ver.1.22474487139...) is the protagonist. While this version you play as a father attempting to save his daughter, the remake features brother Nier trying to save his sister. I find the former more compelling but do believe that Replicant is probably the version to seek out for a modern audience who may be coming to this game off the heels of a Nier Automata playthrough.
2007
A classic to end all classics, just an extremely special game. I don't know why this game's comedy holds up for me while other games that try very hard to be funny don't. One thing that is funny is that after all these years the game is kind of a cakewalk, I beat it in one sitting in just over an hour. If you haven't played this, do yourself a favor and seek this and its sequel out.
Genuinely an incredible mod for Terraria with so much additional content that even on a full completion I feel like I haven't scratched the surface. If I had to point out some downsides it'd be how dependent this mod feels on wiki diving or having some external source to help with your gear and weapon progression. As someone playing completely blind initially the amount of use certain items had in future crafting recipes meant that I was spending a good chunk of my time double checking what I could do with crap weapons I had already moved on from hours earlier. For me that led to a lot of clutter but that's not a major issue. My other issue with the game comes from coop where the bullet hell elements of the game become far more difficult and hard to dodge as hundred more projectiles from different classes and weapons clutter the screen. I'll have to do a proper replay solo to experience certain bosses as I feel they were intended to be seen. Fantastic mod though, anyone looking for more Terraria should look here.
Good DLC but I don't really care for the microwavable ghosts. Cool mechanic but I hate having a single solution for enemies. The encounters are great here but I do think the challenge here makes me feel a lot more pigeonholed into finding the correct solution to each individual enemy rather than expressing myself more freely. Not a downside but just a vibe I got while playing.
Banger DLC unfortunately priced way too highly. Playable Kaito is fantastic and its a real treat to see the return of two styles from Yakuza 0 allowed to shine in the Dragon engine.
Hard carried by the coop experience. The level design is fun stuff from Arkane but heavily brought down by the repetition.
2020
Incredibly fun game. Just hits right sometimes when I want to jump into some rally racing. An absolute vibe with a strong art style and surprisingly deep control over your difficulty and realism. One of my favorite racing games although part of me really wishes there was more potential to see or maybe even race against actual vehicles on these tracks rather than just racing against the clock.
2022
A game that teaches you how to speedrun through its entire soul and core design. Genuinely something special that is worth playing for anyone who has any interest in why people enjoy speedrunning. I was completely captivated by this game for weeks after I first beat it chasing faster times and better medals. The dialogue is incredibly cringe though. All I'll say is the voice actors are real professionals who did their job well, the writing just wasn't it in some scenes.
2013
Incredibly funny game to play after playing Outlast Trials. The complete lack of the quality of life features from future Outlast entries made this a pretty clunky experience but playing Trials also helped me completely exploit the AI and just break the game wide open. I was completely unbothered by anything in this game as I ran through and beat it and Whistleblower in under 4 and a half hours.
Incredibly mid expansion that is so strange off the back of Opposing Force which introduced new weapons, mechanics, and other fun stuff. This expansion just does not match that same energy and is kind of a let down by comparison.
2017
A fascinating and short experience with an extremely deep and customizable combat system based on learning new moves and including them in your ever growing catalog of moves. While I'm sure there is a "solved" or meta way to play the game at the highest levels I believe the best thing you can do is let yourself experiment and play around with moves until you find a way to express yourself through your tailored and designed move list. While my time with the game was brief this is something to come back to and praise for its seemless pvp/coop experience and its interesting combat system that is unlike anything else I have ever played.