I owned this and the sequel on PS2, it's..... something.

The History Channel's idea of presenting the Civil War is to shove you into a milquetoast FPS, but with muskets, sabers, and gatling guns in place of assault rifles, pistols, etc, you know the standard FPS arsenal. I believe this also has stealth sections, something the sequel makes its whole shtick out of. It's not interesting in saying anything, it's barely interested in being historically accurate with regard to exact people involved in the specific campaigns. Absurd concept, horrific execution, but not for the reason you'd initially expect.

Ambitious, missed potential, confused, anti-nationalist. Yeah. Emotionally aware, dramatic, pays attention to its individual characters while tripping over itself for what it actually stands for.

They had a great opportunity with the anti-war stuff, not that it's terrible, but it's like... well, it eventually resolves itself into nationalism being bad, which is true, but to get there it also felt like it had to give up another thing it got close to: something along the lines of "war is manufactured by the ones who don't have to experience it." but that gets dashed aside for couple of twists that I won't detail because I don't want to give this a full spoiler tag.

Lovely cast of characters, albeit somewhat scatter-brained usage of them. The method of feeding you cutscenes that are mostly from a non-military non-player perspective is always something I liked, and the aesthetic of shooting it through a camera for journalism that also exists in some places is nice... There's a lot going on in this, it gets very direct with shit like the military silencing journalists (temporarily, in this case) so they don't report on things that should be known, the citizens of your originating country don't fucking care about the war and think it's pointless... It has ambition, like I said before.

It plays nice. It has horrid team-AI, with a caveat: they are decent at damaging enemy planes, they are godawful at finishing them off. It's very scripted, which okay, fine, it's way more focused on making you engage with the narrative and the spectacle (stuff like the ICBM lighting up the entire sky), I don't think it's a huge issue. It's not very difficult outside of a couple of obtuse occasions. It has lots of hectic radio chatter, for me it helps prop up some of the border-line snoozefest levels, but if you think it isn't convincing enough, yeah, there's nothing helping some of these missions. Lots of infinitely respawning pairs of jets and whatnot to keep you occupied. It's whatever.

It's not bad, but it's very... fantastical. It doesn't have the balls to commit to the grand vision that it felt like it was capable of, it hit some really weird twists and story beats in the later bits, and is generally kind of strange.

Emulated via PCSX2 on Linux.

It's very anti-war, it wants to make sure you know it's anti-war, but not in the same way that Ace Combat 5 hits you over the head with it like a blunt instrument. It has more interest in showing the (unfortunately mostly faceless) individual personal conclusions to being faced with fascism and war atrocity. PJ's naive belief that the government cares about the average person, alongside desperate right-wing fascism turned into manipulation of trauma-addled war veterans. It's trying to say a lot, it REALLY comes close to fucking this up, but I think you can read it in a way that isn't too misguided.

This game really gets into the hypocrisy and morality of war, the idea that there is a such thing as a "gentleman's war", the validity of buying into war for "noble reasons", the inherent bloodthirst and dehumanization caused by borders - your side is all evil, even the civilians, so get fucked, etc. It doesn't matter anyway, to participate willingly in a war is buying into it, regardless of whether you're a supposed "knight" or an indiscriminate slaughterer.

Mission 11: The Inferno -> Mission 12: The Stage of Apocalypse is eternal.

Emulated via PCSX2 on Linux.

Fun, silly, cute. It's a delight, running around Mafia Town as Hat Kid is relaxing. There's a lot of love put into this game, it shows in stuff like the Mafia guy you can play patty-cake with, the chapter intro screens, Hat Kid's minor voice work, the silly INTRUDER sections, Hat Kid's little animations for jumping on bouncy surfaces or the funny overly-exaggerated slow walk she does. It plays well, looks lovely, and it's not very difficult at all.

Other notes:
It has an aggressively uncooperative camera (in tight spaces mostly. It's annoying, but not the end of the world)
Long load times relative to size of levels & general object count/game size.


Play it if you want a reason to smile :)

Played with Proton 6.15-GE-2 on Linux, with E_SYNC disabled (seemed to stop stuttering).

Feverish rejection of imperialism. To become jaded to the higher powers. Ulysses is a man taken his breaking point and left unchecked for so long that he reaches past the answer he was looking for and becomes convinced that tearing down a nation also means killing people who were merely born under it.

The flag Ulysses carries isn't a show of allegiance to the Old World, in the end. He clings onto it because to him, it symbolizes a nation created out of common interest, something that isn't the product of strong-arming, steamrolling, or massacring everyone in the way of how far you want to expand your borders. To Ulysses, the Old World symbol isn't an allegiance to the Old World, it's an allegiance what The Divide could have become. A place in the wasteland that was surrounded by the Old World banner, but unlike the Legion or the NCR, didn't model itself after an already failed set of values from the Old World.

The Divide is fucked, and it's the best set piece you'll get in this game. It's haunting, and beautiful.

Played on Linux through Proton 6.16-GE-1. Mods in Use: NVSE, NVAC, NV Stutter Remover, 4GB Patch, MTUI.

Deck Nine's philosophy with game mechanics is, "change the rules as needed for whatever you're trying to do". It's fine, because it's not a game about having consistent emotion-reading mechanics. It's a game about things like understanding your own emotions, knowing when you're pushing someone else too hard about theirs, and forgiving yourself for things you had no control over.

Made for the indie, chic, nostalgia-seekers that also don't understand the complexity of emotions. Be kind to yourself and other people.

Played on Linux via Proton 6.3