"The past is like pieces of a broken mirror. You try to pick them up, but you only end up cutting yourself."

I'm not one for neo-noir stuff, but I'm quite surprised by how much I enjoyed Max Payne! The only experience that I had with Sam Lake's writing prior was with Alan Wake and Control, and it's absolutely stellar to see how much of that uniqueness was present much earlier in gaming, finding a way to brilliantly meld together a drug trafficking conspiracy and a revenge for murder with Norse mythology. It's bizarre, themed like a graphic novel, and really unlike anything I've played from this era.

Gameplay is great as well, for the most part. The main feature of "bullet time" is a nice addition to the third-person action genre, but I only ever used it in sequences involving a ton of enemies at once. (I started this game on both PC and Xbox, and the former is a bit tougher to play without the controller's auto-aim features. Perhaps, the "bullet time" mechanic is more beneficial on that platform.) What also quite impressed me here was the interactivity of the world itself. I haven't played many PC games from the late-90s/early-2000s era, but I've noticed that this attention-to-detail is present in most that I've played, notably Half-Life. Not every asset and boundary is interactive or has physics to them, but you can press buttons and break glass and the like to your advantage.
Really, the only part of this game that I think could've used a bit more work is some of the level designs, especially towards the final sections when rooms begin to feel repetitive. The stiff platforming, although obviously not the main selling point of this game, is noticeable when required to walk on thin platforms or maneuver around lasers.

Max Payne really is great, and I can understand its following. An early example of the 3D action genre that manages to tell a unique tale with shooting that feels good and cutscenes that are fueled with adrenaline and campy detective dialogue.

"It is the will of the gods."
"Fuck the gods!"

Replaying this one was an odd experience. I first played this nearly 6 years ago, gave it much high praise, then slowly moved on to forget what exactly I loved about it. All I remember was that it was a great standalone story, until the unexpected announcement of a sequel had me itching to return.

To put it brief, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice holds up, for what it tries to do. I had played this before 2018's God of War and vividly remember enjoying this interpretation of Norse mythology even more... but it's a different interpretation. Hellblade simply nails its narrative; a brief hero's journey and love story, centered around a young warrior who suffers with severe psychosis. The 3D audio is, of course, incredible at immersing the player into Senua's mind while adding a bit more flair to the game's combat and puzzles. It's also often horrific, and with its hyper-realistic art direction and surreal designs (including actual live-action shots), the story ends up becoming fucking awesome and heartpounding. Some of the boss designs genuinely made me uncomfortable, which is a merit to the world crafted here. By the time the player rolls credits, this becomes one of those experiences where they will browse the internet for some video essays analyzing what just occurred. It's not a power fantasy, but a simple story about overcoming your flaws and dealing with loss.
And, most of all, the actor performances, both in voice and motion capture, are some of the best I've seen in the medium. Melina Juergens is absolutely insane, among the rest of the cast.

Where I think Hellblade falls a bit flat though is in its gameplay. As stated, the 3D audio cues of Senua's voices add a neat addition to combat and puzzles, often aiding the player with cryptic hints or warnings. However, the game focuses just a bit too much more on puzzles than combat, and the puzzles that are there mostly consist of the same loop of lining up in-world objects to create runes or pathways. Even the combat, while decent to control, lacks the depth you typically find in action games of this nature, focusing purely on parrying, evading, and attacking. Sequences later on also swarm you with enemies, which can encumber your strategies in combat. As the narrative builds, these moments of gameplay ultimately slow down the process.

Do I recommend Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice to anyone? With its short length and good accessibility, absolutely. Just be aware that this experience shines more in its cinematic narrative and immersion than its gameplay. Maybe drop the difficulty down, if you don't wish to be challenged by its shortcomings.

"Good thing I didn't bet against you!"

There are video games that I consider to be the greatest of all time. Games like Tetris that brilliantly execute a falling puzzle arcade experience simply with 4-block configurations. It is the job of the game designer to craft mechanics and systems as flawlessly as possible, often attempting to evolve upon a formula that came before it.
The standard 52-card deck is no stranger to this; its centuries-old design still being used to this day, with most notably games like Solitaire and Poker, among others. Balatro manages to build upon the latter, in a way that I genuinely was not expecting.

I went into Balatro knowing only what I've heard, not what I've seen. I hear it's like Poker, one of my all-time classics that I'm familiar with, and I'm on board. I hear it's a roguelike and deck-builder, I hesitate because I don't see myself a big fan of those two genres. Now, I can gush all day about the pixel-art/CRT-filtered presentation (as I always do), but that's not even this game's big strength. Games of this type utilizing an RNG system can have a tough time finding difficulty balance for the player, but I think Balatro simply using the standard deck of 52 cards genuinely helps a lot in adapting to the randomness of the boss blinds and shop spawns. You begin with the same cards every time, to which you are then allowed to adjust to your liking, based on the tarots and Joker cards you find in your run, most of which that can either lead to the fired-up chips of a massive win or a simple fumble by a boss blind's "attacks". Finishing your first run will depend on both the RNG and your own strategy of aiming for the Poker hands that will reach you to the blind, and each failure will lead you closer to victory with more cards unlocking as you go.

To its design though, I personally think the only thing a bit lacking with Balatro is the simplicity of its nature. I wasn't going into this expecting some wild meta-narrative like Inscryption or anything, but I do kind of wish there was a bit more here. There are tons of cards to unlock and challenges to check out, but in the end, it's just the single experience with multiple handicaps to try out. Perhaps that adds to its brilliance though; I can easily see a game like this show up in an arcade or even (god forbid) a gambling casino.

Balatro, a modern evolution of Poker, deserves its place among classics like Tetris and Solitaire. It may not be addicting to everybody, especially those unfamiliar with standard Poker hands, but its execution of design absolutely can't be understated.
I write this review, as I've been currently struggling to be hooked by most video games I've played so far this year. (Seriously, check out my Backloggd journal, if you don't believe me.) Clearly, this game did its job for me. I even refused to even look at my playtime clock until I finished my first run, and by that time, I ended up around the 13-hour mark... which is at least twice as long as my experience felt; averaging 26 minutes per day for the single month that I played this. (I only really have time to play these games on my lunch breaks at work, and I felt like I've been playing this for months.)

This is a video game that will, surely, stand the test of time, and it is definitely one that I am willing to buy for all of my devices, just to have it with me whenever and wherever. It's a powerful drug, and in a shocking surprise, I am now the dealer.

Play Balatro.