The vibes are all wrong, but maybe that's the point. Max feels decidedly different from the previous entries, dumber and much angrier at the world and himself. The previous Max resigned himself to his noir existence, but maybe this one has been stewing in it too long. A man forced to live in constant noir is gonna become a freak, just look at Bogart. I need to ruminate on this one and 2 for a bit; they both seem to have more going on under the hood. Might replay all 3 once I've finished up Remedy.

Great experience, but fails to bring HL to the next level. At their core these have always been great tech demo games, it's why I'm glad they decided to do this in VR, but the problem is that it fails to innovate. Every great thing that Alyx does for VR I feel that I've seen other places, that's not a mark against it, quite the contrary. It produces a wonderful showing of some amazing tech by aping QoL aspects from other games. This on its own would be fine, but it also apes stuff from the other half life games, notably the ending of 2. It's a project which has absolutely reinvigorated the series while failing to add anything which makes it unique outside of its platform. Utilizing all of these aspects and smashing them together into a spectacle is a great experience, but it's not a great game.

EDIT: I am wrong, so completely wrong. Not only a hugely interesting game, but almost definitely a masterpiece. Imma make a video on this one.

I need to ruminate on the narrative because I think there's a bit more going on there, but gameplay wise this has nothing going on. Continues the trend of Remedy having stylish at best gameplay with some decent narrative to chew on. A shame then that the experimental TV portions have the same quality as a CW tv show and also have basically no bearing on the actual plot. A few of the characters pop up, but once they arrive in the narrative they're either killed off or thrown away pretty quickly with the exception of Beth. Also hate how much the files and diagrams are both necessary to understanding the world and slow the pacing down to a halt. It made sense in Alan Wake because the pages directly foreshadowed events to come, but none of them were needed to understand the plot. The secondary, or maybe major, antagonist's whole motivation can be missed if you overlook one those near the end.

I need to think on it more because it is taking some swings about terrorism, protest, and corporatization, but there's just so much filler between the interesting bits that this left me more confused than anything. Respect that they took alot of risks here, I'm just feeling like this is more refinement in service of better games they have down the line. Having played a good portion of Control at the time of writing, I can say this is a good step towards that, for good and for bad, but thankfully more good.

This one took time to grow on me. If someone played this like a standard rpg, I think they may be bored to tears. The main cast mostly has nothing going on. Like there's enough there to distinguish them, but outside of that they're more like lightly toasted white bread. What makes it for me is the sense of world. It feels like this place has stuff going on. Little rivalries and discussions amongst the towns and cities. The characters acknowledge you when you come back home and they respond to changes in the world. The puzzles seem like they're working towards something more. Feels like they're figuring it out, but I like how psynergy is grounded in interactions with the environment. Like the fact that you can read everyone's mind is fantastic.

Outside of that the combat initially felt very standard rpg, but when the tough battles came the djinn really shined. You need to balance the stat drops it takes to use them while prepping summons, while also making sure you don't take too many that important psynergies drop off. When it works, it really works, but unfortunately it was just for a handful of good bosses. Outside of that it's the general standard rpg encounter affairs. This didn't grate on me though, mostly because I'm playing it the way it was originally intended, while commuting to work and on my lunch breaks. When taken in small chunks, it's a very cozy game. I can't remember, but someone said something similar of DQ11. This is one of those that should be taken piecemeal and casually. I'm very excited to finally give Lost Age a shot. According to everyone that's where this series really shines and if it's anything like this, it should be great.

A game that's stretched thin on too many fronts. It looks and feels great in VR once you're in the cockpit and the control scheme is intuitive, creating interesting tradeoffs. A lack of budget in regards to the set pieces however really drags this one down.
I literally just wanna blow stuff up and the one mission where it just told me to blow a bunch of things up in succession was easily the best. Escort missions and inflated health pools do nothing to vary up the experience for me.
If there had been some on world missions or some elaborate space stations, even a death star run, i'd have been satisfied. It's clear that most of the environments just had to be mostly skybox and debris based on the budget, which is a shame because what is there looks great.
I just want a stupid game where there are particle effects everywhere and I get to smash up ships, there's bits of that here, but entirely too much nothing inbetween.

I went in with low expectations and that was a good thing because it somewhat exceeded them. It's about everything I thought it would be, from the pointless trinkets to the shallow combat. The naval combat in particular is spectacular initially, but it wanes when you realize it's just spam cannons and mortars. It is a good thing then that the world is wonderfully realized, it just feels good to inhabit. Drunkards wander the streets, people talking among each other, workers going on about their day. It feels surly and dirty with rats littering the streets and seedy filth lines the facades. It's then a shame that the story is just kind of fine.
It had been built up as being the pinnacle of the franchise in terms of its story, and I'm sure it is, but it's really just a series of plot contrivances to get Edward into a world he doesn't belong. The assassins and templar stuff is awful, it's boring and it's basic, all this needed was a man dealing with the fallout of his society, but instead it is endless ex-positing and talking. People never shut up, even in the end when you should just be sailing off quietly with your daughter, they talk about nothing, soiling the moment.
I get idea of freedom vs order relating well with assasins:templars and pirates:government, but the execution is bloated and painfully long. There are about a hundred characters whose names you'll forget instantly, and blackbeard, whose whole purpose is just to populate the world. It's hardly a mess, but it does feel like too many cooks in the kitchen, the animus notes is a good indication of that. It was a nice place to inhabit for a while, but not one I think I'll be returning to.