Had been anticipating this game for a long time and it did not disappoint. The main game is already a really thoughtfully designed Metroidvania, but the post game elevates the experience of Animal Well to another level. I managed to get 60 if the eggs without a guide but looked up the last couple which were hidden behind an item mechanic I had not yet figured out. I also managed to stumble upon 5 of the bunnies throughout my search of all the eggs. While I'm sure this game has more to offer if I want to keep going digging for secrets, I feel satisfied with what I was able to achieve on my own. This will definitely be one of my favorite games of the year.

As somebody who strongly dislikes the first game, Hellblade 2 really surprised me. I feel like my problem with the the first game is that they really wanted to present this highly cinematic story, but the combat and the puzzles were constantly disconnecting you from that. This game feels like what they were trying to achieve the first time with Hellblade 1. The combat in particular is much improved even if it is more simplistic. In the original none of the combat encounters felt particularly memorable, but rather they seemed like filler content to pad the length of the game. Here, each combat encounter feels much more memorable with an increased focus in the weight of your attacks and unique animations throughout the fights. Every chapter has at least one fight that sticks out to me compared to the first game where I can hardly differentiate between any encounters. The puzzles are still pretty bad in this game but they are at least significantly reduced in quantity and length. It felt like so much of the length of the original game was spent solving mind numbingly easy puzzles that added little to the story, so it is refreshing to see this game move away from that a bit. The story is also much improved in my opinion. Kind of an unpopular opinion, but the first game had a pretty underwhelming story that I feel was not really saying a lot of interesting things. This games story is much more thematically rich and just overall more engaging chapter to chapter. The additional characters also made some of the longer "hold forward" sections much more interesting to listen to. I remember feeling exhausted by those longer walking sim moments in the original because Senuas internal dialogue began to feel so repetitive, but I think it was handled much better in this game. It feels weird to have disliked the first game so much and then really enjoy this one when so many people have had the inverse reaction, but I really think Hellblade 2 improved on the original in every way possible.

Wow! Wanted to play this game for a long time but decided to wait for it to become a PlayStation plus game. Absolutely adored my time with this and am planning to get the platinum trophy pretty soon. Loved the gameplay loop of going through the levels over and over to learn the intricacies of the enemies and beat the boss in fewer deaths. The gameplay is intricate and deeply rewarding to master. All of the levels are memorable and contain fantastic multi-staged boss fights. Am excited to try out the arenas mode and will for sure be keeping an eye on future releases from Sloclap.

This game really blew me away. I was kind of mainlining the whole thing as I wanted to finish it before Rebirth came out. I also wanted to leave some of the side content as a surprise if it still exists in Rebirth. Was consistently blown away with how gorgeous this game is. Obviously the graphics are dated but the art direction really holds up. The combat was also really good. I think I missed out on a lot of the intricacies by going through the game so quickly, but it was still fun regardless. I'm just so glad I got to play this before Rebirth as I think it will allow me to appreciate that game even more.

Takes everything from the base game and improves upon it. The story has a great hook and is consistently engaging. Love the new characters they introduced in this game. One huge improvement is the 9 new gigs with this dlc. Each one has its own set of characters and actually puts you in situations where you have to thoroughly think about the decisions you are making. They end up being considerably more memorable than any of the gigs in the base game and were a highlight of this dlc. It would be incredible if the cyberpunk sequel kept the same quality of writing present in these and still had as many as were in the base game. The side missions were mostly great as well. I only played through one of the endings but I really enjoyed how it played out narratively and in gameplay. It seems like the final act of this story can go in two completely different directions so it would be interesting to return to this and see the other set of final missions. This dlc offers a new ending to the base game as well and I personally found it to be my favorite ending available. Overall I feel like this is truly what CD Projekt Red wanted Cyberpunk to feel like and I hope Project Orion is able to take this and apply it to a full game.

Told myself I'd come back to this once all the updates were finally out and over 3 years later, I finally decided to give the game another shot. In the last 2 and a half weeks I put 89 hours into the game and got the platinum trophy. Absolutely loved my time playing. I don't know if I've ever felt more immersed playing a game. I just wanted to learn everything about night city and the world at large. Unfortunately I found the different endings to be a bit underwhelming in both gameplay and narrative. Besides the endings though, I feel like the main missions and side missions were fantastic. I was also really impressed with the progression in this game. The way your attribute points tied into your skills and perks was satisfying and really made it feel like I was creating a unique build for my character. Another minor gripe with the game is that the gigs and ncpd missions felt a bit like padding in a game that already had enough content as it is. I don't mind the structure of the gigs, I just wish there was a bit more to them because they got extremely repetitive. Overall though this is a really special game and I can't wait to see how they expand upon it in the sequel.