Basically a perfect horror game; such a laser-focused experience that didn't let up once in my entire playthrough - I don't really get scared by much any more but this routinely made me shit myself in a way I haven't experienced since I played Alien Isolation as a kid back in 2015. It's kind of a miracle that this balances itself as well as it does - each of the mechanics introduced in this walk a perfect tightrope of being intentionally arduous and stressful without crossing over into annoying territory and it brings a certain weight to literally every action you take; each time I shut a door too loudly I think my soul left my body. Speaking of scares; I love how almost every scare I experienced in this game (besides like, 3?) are all unscripted moments - I think it's so fucking cool that I didn't even get a glimpse of the monster, feeling him as a all encompassing presence until the prison section, where I spotted him lurking in the dark. It's one of the most genuinely frightening moments I've experienced in recent memory and it's insane to think that it was born completely organically.

don't even know what else to say about this thing, it's perfect! Adored this so much, excited to go back and play it more soon.