The main gimmick of two enemy health bars was a good idea, now enough to make an entire game over, I'm not sure. It's a short experience that has drab visuals throughout, making it surprising that it overall holds itself together. With gameplay, I loved fucking around with plague weapons, and here's one of the few instances where a skill tree led to varied playstyles and satisfying progression without being annoying. The short playtime's a blessing though, since once you've ventured through most avenues of the combat, it begins to feel like an awful postgame before even ending. An addition to the souls slop conga line.

Personally I think it's a 7/10, presentation has been improved but not as replayable as 1. I heard in the next game we get a heckin wholesome pupper companion, I'll unleash the hellhound on all the Mans that will cause me pain.

Very fun experience. I loved the freedom I had here because it encouraged me to use tactics and think outside the box. Still, it lives up to its janky reputation, and I feel exhausted after finishing it, but that's because it tested my abilities and I put restrictions on myself. Overall, enjoyed vidya and a history lesson to boot.

This game starts out really fun, like I rarely get highs like I did when I first got to the (first) final boss. I loved methodically creeping through these biomes and taking in all the detailed environments, and the fact that it was procedurally generated was amazing. Dead Cells is a blast until you start interacting with its mechanics that incentivize fast play as much as possible. There are challenges for beating levels in certain time limits, enemies get stunned frequently--and just long enough to be easily killed, enemies almost never leave their platforms, and finally, the biggest offender, speed boosts. It's crazy how much of the game is trivialized once you start mindlessly spamming attacks, and what went from a cool game quickly turned into any old basic dopamine receptor hitter.

As of now, everything blurs into this lifelss haze for me with every run... (with some variation based on what weapon I'm using). Speeding through whatever bright or dark level you're in and dodge the enemy when he's highlighted red. Secrets don't even get to be fun anymore since they just kill the pace and remove your speed boost. It's this loop until you get ganked and die all of a sudden, in a situation you could have otherwise come out on top of with preparation and methodical play.

Overall, I don't think that everything I listed here is inherently bad or this game is beyond saving. There's fun to be had in smoking low-level enemies, plus you're naturally just going to speed through early-game areas, but I wish it wasn't so across the board like this. I know my complaints reek of Old Man Yells at Cloud because it sounds like I just stubbornly picked a playstyle that I don't like, idk, that's probably true, but I really liked this game at a point and then it stopped being fun. Maybe a hard mode would be nice, like one without speed boosts in combat or staggers being so common. I don't have 60 hours in this game, so someone should tell me if I'm complaining about nothing. But because this game has like a thousand items to unlock, it just rushes you through so much of it and becomes pointless.

Although I didn't grow up with a gameboy, I did spend a lousy summer playing Link's Awakening while wondering where my friends were. Anodyne explores the hangups from not doing enough, being stuck and having negative emotions infiltrate our cozy spaces like games. Very dreamlike and a fun Zelda clone to boot.

So much FUN! but stagger can kiss my ass

Made the overly edgy high-school textbook aesthetic cool and downright creepy at times. Excited to play Teocida

One December, the world was shut down and my homeostasis was barely keeping up due to covid. DS2 provided me pure escapist fantasy when I needed it most, bless this game.

Good fucking luck if you type sub-80 words per min

A character study that exists in tandem with its unique historical context. The pain and despair from the setting feeds directly into the horror, where the story leaves lot up to the player's interpretation. The game remembers to eat its cake too by not leaving its threads completely unresolved, achieves a lot in its short run time.

Personally had the most fun in the series here with the sandbox at the beginning. Nothing else of note though.

canon event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5ApXKXOJ0s


Now for my opinion -


The issue with Neil is that he never definitively says anything with his games. The man writes action plots and great characters, but when it comes to taking an actual stance on bigger topic the man just folds. What we get here is a violence simulator stripped of any real world context, becoming meaningless, save for some weird IDF imagery later on. All in all, sides fight because they have to, and I got nothing from this stupid exercise in futility. Enjoyable but some plot holes were too much for me, I'm truly Synthetic-Man-Skill-Up-4chan-Pilled, there needed to be other writers on Ellie's Blood Trial than Westworld, yada yada.

I like Davey Wreden, he's a good egg. The og game for me was like a trojan horse where I was drawn in by the humor but the spiral into derealization and defeatist attitudes of life stayed the most sticky in my head. Well the ip is back, and it doesn't even attempt to ignore the awkwardness of returning, kind of to obnoxious levels. Still, can't deny how excited I was to play this, and if it just functions as an awkward text from an old friend that's ok too. There's effort put in and that's good enough.
PS: Weirdly buggy when I played it

Idk, I liked the levels and loved the bosses, but all my enthusiasm would leave when having to go through the astral plane area

Good dogs should know when to lie down. How many fucking rereleases or reiterations can a single piece of media get. You're not Shakespeare or Steamed Hams, you represent Sony marketing.

Did the impossible and made me feel worthy for being Pennsylvanian, a first for any piece of media--now only if I had friends though. Zoe Quinn Zoe Quinn

Spoilers**
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First RE, I love it, but labs were very boring. How does it go from the dirtiest US sewer to the most spotless, blindingly white area that could possibly exist.

A game whose sole purpose is to provide simple fun and booba, it's the fucking little things in life.