The fact Miyamoto thought that this would be the new Mario will never cease to amaze me. Don't get me wrong, pikmin are adorable, and Pikmin is an amazing game, but an RTS does not have the broad appeal of a 2D platformer !

On the game itself, it's amazing. The time limit isn't all that strict (a rythm of one part a day is easily attainable, and when you get good at managing your time you can even fit two parts into each day pretty easily) but it's simple presence makes everything have impact and meaning. If you lose Pikmin, you don't just feel horrible guilt because their adorable little faces are no longer there because of your incompetence, you now need to think about devoting time to bringing new pikmin to life. I had a few days were I took heavy losses in the early game, before you get enemies that give you 20ish pikmins at once, and those blows were tough and really hampered my progress. It's not as much of a problem in the endgame, but that final trial does make it necessary to have a solid number of Pikmin before tackling.

The difficulty doesn't just stem from the fights and losses though, it also comes from the puzzles. Some of the srequired progression will actually get the old grey matter going, my favorite example being how you move the cardboard box during the final trial. Every zone is harder than the last and will make you think about how you want to tackle every challenge, there is a real sense of progression in your master of the game thanks to its insistance on not treating you like a baby and actually believing that you can think for yourself. Pikmin 3, as good as that game is for other reasons, never really challenged me in this way and that's a shame because that game's gameplay really is deeper than the original's. In summary, Pikmin 1 is simpler in its core mechanics than Pikmin 3, but uses them to their fullest potential to make it a fairly challenging time (although don't be discouraged, I made it through the game in 23 days on my first playthrough) while Pikmin 3 has all the potential in the world but plays it too safe and, because of this, remains with untapped potential. Pikmin 1 on the other hand, is the best game it could've been with the tools given to the player.

The only real problem with the game is the pikmin's AI which is just so dumb. I lost so many pikmin to drowning because they just felt the urge to learn how to swim and rushed into water. Quality of life is not the best either, not being able to select a pikmin type to throw without holding A is a bit annoying, especially in the middle of a fight, same goes with having to individually send all of your Pikmin at one objective when future games just allow you to send all of them at once. But these are minor complaints really.

Overall, this is a great time that you can rush through on a long summer's day, to relax all while feeling productive.

The day I realised that Persona 5 was one of the greatest games I’d ever played is the day I realised that I couldn’t write a satisfactory review for it, as talking about one system necessarily implied talking about another. The review got really messy, and I abandoned it in favor of a review of the “Royal” part of Persona 5 Royal, by what I mean I only reviewed the new elements added to the game. Writing a review for The Last of Us Part II was incredibly hard, as, just like many great games, Naughty Dog’s latest (and, in my opinion, greatest) is a marriage of so many different interweaving elements. Just like the first game, which relied on moment-to-moment gameplay to build the connexion between Ellie, Joel and the player, the sequel uses its shockingly realistic gameplay to tackle the interesting themes of love, grief, violence, vengeance, and cycles which are at the center of the game’s plot. Furthermore, the game cashes in on the relationship it took a whole game to build 7 years earlier, by emotionally involving the player into the plot and using Ellie’s character as a projection screen for the player’s own emotions and desires, with whom the player slowly disconnects from while he realises the horror of her ways and starts to hope that she’ll save her last bit of humanity in time. It relies so much on the players’ love for Joel and Ellie, initially using the former to motivate the cycle of vengeance and then using the latter to make every painful step of Ellie’s descent hurt the player, in such a way that, by the end of the game, the player is left emotionally drained. I do believe that, because of this reliance on the relationship between Ellie, Joel and player, the game could only work as a sequel. I also do understand the backlash. Perhaps Naughty Dog underestimated the community’s love for Joel, leading many to not disconnect with Ellie’s motivations in time and completely turn on the game when you take control of Abby, and then getting even more annoyed at the end.
However, I would encourage a second playthrough. Going into the game for the first time, I had heard of the backlash and I knew basically the whole plot. I didn’t care for The Last of Us when Part II came out, so I just wanted to know what the controversy was about. Then I played the original, and was interested in Part II, expecting to hate it because of the noise… and I loved it. Knowing Joel’s death in advance help me take my knee-jerk reaction out of it and really look at the story Naughty Dog was trying to tell, and I loved it so much. I was never trying to avenge Joel, because I had already accepted his death by the time I started playing, I was terrified for Ellie. When that shift in perspective hits, the game just clicks (infected-related pun fully intended). This was my second time with the game, and I was probably more attached to Joel this time around as I have now played the original twice and have even done a video essay about it, so I was more affected by his death this time around. I was starting to believe that I too wouldn’t want to spare Abby by the end, that maybe my first playthrough was one of a contrarian who just wanted to think differently than the Internet noise. But then, again, the game managed to change my mind by showing me the toll that vengeance took on Ellie. In simple words: it didn’t matter if I had forgiven Abby or not, I didn’t want to spare her because of forgiveness (even though I do like Abby’s character): I wanted to spare Abby because that was the only way to save Ellie’s humanity. In this sense, the game reminds me of the following saying:

“Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace” - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I could’ve hated Abby with all my guts, and I still wouldn’t have wanted Ellie to go to Santa Barbara, and I think that is a pretty powerful statement about how love is stronger than hate. Ellie leaves the one she loves behind, because she wants to pursue hate and vengeance, and who could possibly agree with that. I cried when Ellie left Dina, because she was pursuing ridiculous, inconsequential vengeance. It wasn’t going to bring Joel back, it wouldn’t stop the nightmares (as shown by the fact that Abby still has nightmares of her dad’s death even after killing Joel), it wouldn’t bring her any relief, and yet she still abandoned her loved ones. I felt bad for her.
People tend to say that this game is about perspective, and that it tries to deliver the incredibly shallow message that “there are two sides to every story, so don’t be too quick to go on a murder spree :(“ but I couldn’t disagree more. Even though some clues could make you believe this (the numerous, on the nose parallels between Ellie and Abby that include but do not limit themselves to: dead father figures, living in a very organised community, starting our time with them by hearing of an affair the previous night and by being offered the possibility to pet a dog…), I dont’t think Naughty Dog wants you to say that both Ellie and Abby are good people, that they both had their reasons for doing what they did. If you go back to the reveal trailer for the game, Ellie sings “But I can’t walk on the path of the right because I’m wrong,” which is no coincidence. Make no mistake about it: Ellie is a horrible person in this game (though I wouldn’t call her a villain, as the game doesn’t reason in the classic hero/villain dichotomy, preferring to present good and bad acts rather than good and bad people), and she is presented this way to show the toll of vengeance. Even if her original motivations are justice and present a direct link to the love she felt for Joel, the kind soul that is Ellie completely loses herself and becomes a monster, with the underlying objective being to make the player feel like a monster when he takes a step back and realises that, sure, the game forced him to do these things, but at some point, he was fully on board with it and wanted revenge as much as Ellie. I whole-heartedly believe that Neil Druckman’s intention was to present Ellie as a psychopath, and Abby as her victim (even though I wouldn’t say Abby’s a good person, rather that she is repenting by helping Lev and Yara and by sparing Dina and Ellie). The former continuously goes after the latter, even after Abby spares her not once, but twice, saying that Abby “f’ed up” by showing her mercy when interrogated about it by Dina. She puts her pregnant lover in danger, refuses to leave as soon as she learns of the pregnancy, menaces an innocent child to force her foe to fight her… And of course, she kills everyone in her path to get there.

I have to admit that, of all the critiques I have heard of The Last of Us Part II, the one that I have never understood is one that consists of saying that the game is hypocritical, as it forces you to partake in incredibly gruesome (and fun) killing gameplay all while telling you that killing is bad (for example, NakeyJakey’s excellent video about this game, with which I do not agree but have to say it makes interesting points and is very well made like all of his videos, please check him out !). I honestly do not see the hypo-criticism in that. Had we been on the PS2, with graphics and engines unable to show deaths this brutal and realistic, I would’ve understood. But, this game’s combat physics are the most terrifying part of the game (even though the rat king is a close second). Enemies scream out fallen brethren names, said dying brethren make traumatizing dying sounds, you can see the blood spurt out of their throats, using certain weapons ends in limbs getting torn off, guts being exposed, blood being splashed across the room… In a world full of fungi infected people with mushrooms breaking through their skull and covering their body, the most horrifying sight is one of a blood soaked floor with what vaguely ressembles a discombobulated human body in the center of it, with its organs lying around. In a world where you hear inhumane noises and clicks that inspire fear in everyone, the most memorable sound is one of a human’s last breath being used to scream out in horror at the realisation that he is missing a limb and that he’s already dead.
The presentation of the combat makes every encounter tense and gives them terrible weight. The arsenal you use is enough to compose the orchestra of pain that you’ll be dishing out. Explosives, shotguns, smoke bombs, riffles, revolvers, flame-throwers, melee weapons are all equally fun to use and efficient. It also varies between characters, making it hard to tire of each’s arsenal as they really mix up the gameplay style. Abby is clearly more about offense than subtle stealth, having no traps but having pipe-bombs and the ability to chain an insta-kill melee attack to an anterior deadly blow, while Ellie can have a more subtle approach with smoke bombs and explosive mines. Maybe it could’ve been a bit more vast, with one or two more traps, but all that is here is already enough to make you feel like Death itself. All this unhinged, gory violence really has an effect on the player, who will definitely end up feeling like something isn’t right with what they’re doing. The psychological price for using certain weapons is brutal. I only used explosives when necessary or against infected, because seeing its consequences on my victims was always shocking. All this violence sells the themes and plot of the game, and you can see that Ellie herself has doubts about her actions, with Ashley Johnson’s amazing performance really selling that idea masterfully, especially at then end of day 2. Seeing Ellie in this state, combined with the player’s own doubts, will push him to want for this mad quest for revenge to end, to see Ellie’s soul saved, but she refuses to let it go, sinking deeper and deeper into despair as the player continues to commit these atrocities, wishing he didn’t have to.
As for the pacing of fights, this game is closer to Uncharted 4 than one may originally think, as it relies on the same principle of going in and out of stealth, except this time the stealth is way more developed and the gunplay isn’t as viable because of limited ressources. You are going to get seen, the question is not if but when, and you need to try and reveal yourself in a strategical location, where you may lure ennemies into a trap (wether that be an explosive or a room with a single entrance where you can wait for them) or get back into stealth. This makes for a great encounter flow between tense stealth where you’re hoping that there is no enemy suddenly appearing while killing someone, and intense combat, where you’re looking everyone to make sure no one is flanking you and where you’re trying to make every bullet count.
As for the level design of the encounters, it’s generally really good, with large levels offering many ways to tackle them. Ellie’s entrance into the hospital is a great example of this. It also offers the possibility to pit different factions against one another a few times, for example letting some infected loose or trying to lure clickers to ennemies with bricks and bottles shattering (on a side note, it’s really cool to see Tommy use this same strategy against you during his sniping confrontation with Abby) All this contributes to the game feeling open and full of choices for you to make, which also applies to the world outside of encounters.

If the original focused on the corridor-type linear design Naughty Dog excelled at during the seventh generation, Part II quickly throws you into a seemingly non-linear world during Seattle Day 1. You have a map, and a devastated city to explore. I wouldn’t have enjoyed the game being open-world, as I do believe that Naughty Dog is the best studio when it comes to linear level design and that because of this they should never stray too far away from it, but in this small, contained environment, it rules. It’s actually a masterpiece in hidden linearity, with one discovery in one local leading you to another local in which you make another discovery which leads you to another local and so on and so forth. It’s way more linear than first meets the eye, making it hard to miss the actual cool stuff there is to do in the area and directly pointing you at it, making sure you get straight to it. The whole game is more open than previous games from Naughty Dog, being filled with this false sense of non-linearity, giving you a lot of changes to wander off and explore on your own, giving you an illusion of freedom and immersing you into the game, but in reality, if you look close enough, you’ll realise that the game is designed in a way to point you towards these “secrets.”
That’s a good thing though, as what you find during these exploration sessions are worth it. Whole new skill trees (which are unequal in how interesting they are) and weapons are “hidden” in these parts, which make exploration really rewarding and give you the feeling that you found this, and that the game didn’t give it to you. The lore you can find here is also really good, providing quality world building, as you’ll read about neighborhoods turning on each other, the rise of the WLF, people losing hope they’ll make it, context as to why a certain place is filled with infected. My favorite example of the latter is one of WLF soldiers being bit, one of which shoots himself and the other turns, a note explaining that they got drunk on patrol and got caught by surprise. It’s a great piece of tone-setting, reminding you that in this world, even in these new forms of society that are the Jackson community and the WLF’s stadium, nothing will ever truly be normal again, and that that sense of security that the survivors have built themselves is only a feeling, not reality. The world-building also relies on the places you visit during your adventure: the hospital that served as ground zero for the infection in Seattle or a cruise boat that carried infected on board and where a passenger started killing everyone that was sick out of precaution are stand-outs.
The world is also sold by the state-of-the art graphics, animation and engine. I have to mention the great rope physics and the glass shattering, two prime examples of the care the developers put into this game (the best puzzle in the long list of great puzzles in the game being one that combines glass shattering and rope physics). The graphics are just insane, just look at the way blood drips on the faces of characters, the lighting is amazing (especially at the twilight of Abby Day 1). The animations are realistic and perfectly flow into one another: when a guy convulses, I believe it, especially when coupled to the excellent sound design, making you listen to the sound of someone dying and the screams of terror of his friends over and over again. The engine is so good that everything reacts the way you’d imagine it would every single time, without fail, you expect to find splashes of blood where they actually are, you’ll be terrified when you make someone blow up for the first time. Everything feels real, including the characters in how they look, and how they’re written, which I do believe are written as well as they were in the first game. I’ve seen people say that the characters in this game pale in comparison, that they aren’t memorable, but I disagree. I think that the lack of memorability comes from the number of characters more than their writing. Dina is a perfect partner for Ellie, Manny is great fun, Mel is detestable but understandable, Owen is the only lucid character in this whole story, Tommy’s writing in this game is great, Jesse is a protector of people he loves, Lev is pretty funny (asking Abby about her relationship with Owen while she’s scared out of her boots on top of a crane made me cackle) and you don’t really spend enough time with Yara for her to shine. This feeling of realness, wether it come from the writing, the world building, the graphics or the physics of the game really help the game sell its message and themes.

As it did in the first game, the gameplay sells the story. This time instead of projecting yourself on Joel because you have been through Sarah’s death with him, because you’ve felt how much of a pain in the ass it is to get anywhere in this world, you project yourself on Ellie because you have done the atrocities she has done, you have felt the guilt and shock she shows at the end of day 2, but you have kept going on because the game masterfully reminds you why you’re doing this.
The flashbacks are absolutely key to keeping Ellie and the player aligned, especially the first one. Ellie’s birthday visit to the museum is one of the best moments in video games as a whole. It’s expertly written, recapturing Joel and Ellie’s relationship from the first game and presenting in a lighter moment that you never really get in the first game, where you’re under constant pressure of an infected suddenly appearing. Suddenly, all feels normal again, like re-reading an old text from a loved one where, for a moment, it feels like they’re still around. Joel and Ellie clearly love each other, they finally have a life worth living, where they can allow themselves a lighter moment. This reminder of the love and affection that Ellie and Joel had for each other, and that you had for them, motivates you for Day 2, which is by far the most gruesome and will make you question why you’re even still doing this. Dina is sick, the WLF are everywhere, you run into seraphites, you then go out to search for Nora, where you violently torture her to learn the information you want. I’ve evoked this earlier, but at the end of the day there’s this great scene where Ellie takes of her shirt to reveal bruises all over her back, all while crying because of what she’s done. You’ve probably started to doubt the morality of your quest by now, you’ve inflicted death and pain countless times already, but seeing Ellie in this state will make you start to worry for her wellbeing. The game knows the player cares about Ellie, and it plays off of this to make sure that if you didn’t want for this quest for blood to stop because you doubted its morality, you’d want it to end because of what it’s doing to Ellie. And then the second and third flashback hits.
Showing the growing distrust between Joel and Ellie and their eventual fight, you realise that for Ellie, this isn’t as much about avenging Joel as it is forgiving herself for wasting her last few years with him still around, further reinforcing that feeling that Ellie should not be doing this,. Ellie and Jesse seem to agree that they should cut their losses: Dina is sick and pregnant, every time they put a foot outside of that theater they are at risk of dying, all of this is too dangerous. So they decide to go out, find Tommy and get out, or at least that’s what Ellie says. She actually wants to kill Abby more than save Tommy, and is using the latter to justify continuing her quest for the former. Presented with a choice between going to the aquarium, which seems to be Abby’s hideout, or following a lead about a “trespasser” which seems to be Tommy, she argues in bad faith that the trespasser could be someone completely different and goes for the aquarium, which Jesse calls out as being selfish and her not caring for Dina or Tommy, and he’s completely right. This isn’t the first time a companion character has called out Ellie for her dubious morality, Dina did it as early as Day 1, when Ellie tells her that she doesn’t want anyone else to kill Abby, that she wants to kill her herself, to which Dina responds “she’d still be dead.” If the original left it up to the player’s personal appreciation if Joel was a villain, Part II clearly deems Ellie to be wrong.

Then, the switch to Abby. What a bold choice. You may not like this game’s story, but you can’t argue that it had balls killing off Joel and making you play as his killer, all while trying to convince you that she’s not worse than Ellie. Does it succeed though ? Well, as said in the intro, the parallels are a bit on the nose, and Abby’s dad death doesn’t really make us connect to Abby immediately like Sarah’s death did with Joel. He seems like a great guy and all, saving zebras, cracking jokes, and even hesitating about doing the surgery on Ellie, but we aren’t shocked or surprised by his death. We know it’s coming, so we don’t empathise with Abby as we did with Joel, because Sarah’s death was unfair and shocking in its suddenness, we didn’t have 7 years of asking ourselves if the doctor’s (and all of the other fireflies’) death was justified.
But Naughty Dog knows this, and makes us align with Abby gradually, by showcasing her relationships that are so relatable. Manny’s friendship, the complicated love story with Owen are great examples of this. Those two characters are standouts in this game (alongside Dina), especially Owen who’s an idealist who’s self-aware, which is a great contrast to Abby’s self-focused thoughts and Ellie’s cruel lack of self-awareness. You can see his impact on Abby when she decides to go save Lev, as Owen had previously questioned the rightfulness of deeming Seraphites to be fanatics rather than just people of a differing opinion.
I also really love the use of Abby to show the uselessness of vengeance. She still has nightmares of her dad’s death, she pushes Owen away because she doesn’t have any place in her heart for love as hate is already filling it. Naughty Dog, by making Ellie do the same with Dina at the end of the game, because she’s had a nightmare of Joel and wants to stop having them, encourages the player to disapprove of Ellie’s choice, because we know that Joel’s killing didn’t help Abby. She regretted not being with Owen, and she didn’t find peace. She only found peace when she showed love, acted in all selflessness by saving Yara and Lev. Going down a path of vengeance only alienated her more, it was love that made her rekindle with her humanity.
As for this relationship between Lev and Abby, it’s alright. I don’t feel strongly one way or the other about it. I do love the fact that Abby didn’t want to kill Ellie and Dina because of Lev, really showing that love has saved her from the cycle of vengeance, even though it would’ve been justified (although regrettable) to continue said cycle by killing Ellie and Dina. Personally, seeing Owen dead, killing off all chance of Abby being happy with him again really hurt me. I really liked Owen, and I really liked Abby, and I wanted both to be happy together, so I am kinda mad at Ellie for killing him. The performance by Laura Bailey really displays Abby’s love for Lev, so although I didn’t personally care for him much, let’s say Abby cared for the both of us.

Now, the ending. You can probably already guess that I love it. Ellie’s choice to go to Santa Barbara, motivated by Tommy, who looks like a worse version of who Ellie is about to become (a lonely, crippled man, which parallels Ellie’s loss of Dina and JJ and her fingers being bit off), is heartbreaking. The player is forced to watch a person he loves destroy her life in quest for vain vengeance, which he knows will be of no use.
But then, she can’t do it. She can’t kill Abby, even when presented with the opportunity. She remembers Joel, her last memory of him being one of forgiveness, and she lets Abby go, finally breaking the cycle of vengeance.
I used to think this was the wrong ending for this game, yet I still liked it because it was a “good” ending and Ellie had finally seen the light, although a bit late. I believed that the tonally right ending for this game wasn’t a “good” ending though, but an ending where Ellie couldn’t stop herself in time, having now lost two fingers, a family, her humanity, and still not having healed. That would sell the story of vengeance being destructive. But this story isn’t about vengeance, it’s about love, and how it saves you from hate. And let’s be real, this ending isn’t a “good” ending, it’s dreadful. Ellie’s lost her family, fingers, and is scarred for life. The only positive thing about the ending is that she hasn’t completely lost her humanity (even though it’s been consequentially damaged). The price of hate is still on full display, but there is a glimmer of hope that maybe Ellie will be able to find the missing part of her humanity again. This act of compassion by Ellie, to save Abby, maybe to spare Lev from going through what she’s gone through, saves Ellie herself. And that is the true message of this game: not that vengeance is bad (even though it is certainly a theme of the game), but that love and compassion is what saves you from it, in the same way the original sells the idea that love is what saves one from being a monster. In the same way Lev saved Abby, and Abby spared Dina, Ellie spares Abby. The biggest question is why. I personally believe it’s for two reasons: not wanting Lev to go through what she’s gone through out of compassion, and the fact that Ellie remembers that her last conversation with Joel was one about forgiveness and trying to forgive an unforgivable act. In the same way she tried to forgive Joel for such an act, she decides to do with Abby what she couldn’t with Joel. This, of course is up for debate, and even two years on from my original play through, I still don’t know if I’m sure of this interpretation. After all, Lev is a non-factor in the ending, except for Ellie putting a knife to his throat, so my interpretation doesn’t seem to be the one put forward by Naughty Dog.
The final Joel flashback. What a scene. I’ve always believed that love is cruel in a beautiful way. Simply put, no matter when someone leaves, it’ll always be too soon. There always will be one more “I love you” you could’ve said. This scene didn’t change my vision of life and love, it comforted it greatly though and it did make me push my conviction further. Life is too short to wage war on the people you love, so love them. Love is forgiveness. Even if they fail you sometimes, as long as it isn’t so recurring that you can’t even say in good faith that they love you, forgive. And I absolutely love Joel’s refusal to change anything about what he’s done. He had a chance to pull her back in easily by saying he was sorry, but he doesn’t. His love for Ellie is unconditional, unforgiving. And Ellie’s “I don’t know if I can ever forgive you for that… but I’d like to try.” is the best line I’ve ever heard in a video-game ever. That is a statement about love and its power that I’ll never forget. For a game so grim, so horrible, so violent, this line is so relentlessly optimistic, so convinced that love eventually always beats hate.

I love this game, it’s story, its message and it’s themes. No game has ever left me staring blankly at the credits, completely drained emotionally. No game has made me think for this long. It’s taken me two weeks to write this because I kept believing my writing wasn’t good enough for it, that it didn’t translate all that I felt while playing well enough. I still don’t think I’ve done it justice, so please play it, and if you have already and hated it, please replay it.

(Also, for future reference, I may make a YouTube video out of this review, so if you ever see a video that has this review as a script or the base of a script on this YouTube channel (and not anywhere else), don’t worry, it’s not plagiarism)

2021

A real shame that on PS5, this game is completely broken. It's just a choppy mess. The game has immaculate vibes, a great visual, themes that seemed really interesting, inspiration from Breath of the Wild... But I just had to drop it because of how choppy it is. The frame rate is just terrible. I don't know if that's the case on PS4 (if anyone could tell me if that's the case or not I'd be grateful), but yeah, right now I don't see myself pushing through a game which is just not pleasant at all, it just ruins the whole vibe of the game. Plus I really think it blows that the devs confirmed that the game would not receive a patch even with it being added to PS Plus. Real shame

I shelved this, because of Ubisoft didn't bother to finish their game, why should I ? I honestly thought that this game's reputation was undeserved, that with a few patches, the bugs had been ironed out... Well that's technically true, the game not being finished is about way more than bugs.
Simply put, the game's systems just do not work. Nothing feels cohesive, nothing feels tested. The game uses the newfound power of the PS4 to have crowded streets, which is super cool as crowds have always been a key aspect to assassin's creed, but moving through said crowds feel clunky. I don't mean that as "it feels slow" as that would be an interesting implicit encouragement to the player to use the more statisfying and developped parkour system rather than just running through streets, I mean it as if you run through a crowd, Arno's running animation will be the same as it always is, with the crowd awkwardly sliding out of the way.
As for the stealth, the game really encourages it, but you get detected so quickly that using stealth perfectly is actually impossible. Now, lots of games do this: Uncharted's stealth was always about thinning out enemy numbers rather than clearing a whole encounter for example. The problem is, Ubisoft clearly wanted this to be a stealth game, as the penalty for detection is having 20 guards running at you. Rapid detection times aren't a problem, but your tools are so few and useless that you don't have any way of working around being detected. This game has no whistle button. A stealth game, the 6th mainline entry into a series that has had whistle button since the second game in the series and that wants to be a stealth game more than any of its predecessors, doesn't have whistle button. How is this possible. Instead, you have cherry bombs, that can lure enemies away from your position, or you can use the new "last known position mechanic" which sucks. Basically, if an enemy sees you and you then move out of his sight, the enemy will come and investigate your last known position... sometimes. The system doesn't work because either A/ the enemy just straight up detects you (because they have cat-like abilities to see in the dark) and pulls you out of stealth mode or B/ he doesn't see you, but because he's not sure that he's seen something, he doesn't come to investigate. So you have no way of luring an enemy to you. Cherry bombs are made to be thrown away from you, as they bring attention from multiple enemies, so they aren't an option.
Last rushed element: the story. Despite enjoyable characters (a charming man who becomes an Assasin out of self-interest in a romance with a childhood Templar friend) and an interesting pitch (the rupture of a period of truce between Assassins and Templars which many on both sides disagree with), the story beats just do not hit as they should. I won't spoil anything, but I wanted to care about some plot points so much, but couldn't. Also, there was a really interesting theme of two people putting each other before their respective creeds that goes massively underdevelopped as Arno doesn't really care about the creed. You can see how rushed the game was with the main missions: you could probably rush through the game, without any speedrun strats, in under 7 hours. A lot (if not most) story sequences have only two missions: scout a target, kill the target.

On other negatives, the monetization. This was the start of something ugly. Sure, the defenders of this game will point out that anything you can buy with real money is stuff you can buy with in-game money. Out of principle, I object with the very idea of a 60€ game (or any game that isn't free, and even then, whaling is litteraly made to trick you) having paid unlockables (paid extra content is different). But also, in this case, the main missions don't give you money. How weird, Assassin's Creed games often had you swimming in cash by the end of them because missions paid well, and passive income was often completely broken, but suddenly, when there is real money to be made, the main missions don't pay anything anymore and the passive income isn't anything substantial. Oh and also, consummables are suddenly really expensive (a full refill is often around 1500 livres) and you really need them if you want to (try to) be stealthy. What a weird coincidence. How then, does one earn money ? By doing terrible side-quests or by looting chests of course. The best equipment in the game will require you to do 3-4 side quests per piece of equipment by the way, so enjoy your mindless content.

Also, final developped piece of criticism I have against the game, it lacks music. So often I found myself exploring Paris to the sound of my two feet stomping the paving stones or dirt.

It's such a shame, because this game gets so much right. I'm not against the idea of more RPG elements being introduced in the series, even though in this particular case the skill tree doesn't have anything interesting in it and the equipment is the gate to passive-agressive monetization. The idea of the game being more stealth-based is also a good one, especially the assassinations which aim to give you more free will by presenting you with "opportunites" highlighted during a very well done intro package (even though in reality, these missions are more puzzleboxes than a sandboxes). The animations are also really well done (when they don't glitch out), the characters are well presented and seem to have depth but the game's story is so half-baked that they never really feel like they're used to their fullest extent, the parkour is really fluid once mastered (even though in tight areas or indoors, Arno has a tendency to climb on stuff you don't want him to)... See my problem with this game ? Every positive isn't fully fleshed out, except one.
Wow, Paris is so cool. It's probably the best world Ubisoft has ever put together, a faithful recreation that really makes this game.

I just had too much fun exploring the city to give this game anything under 2 stars, and there was so much that was promissing about this game that I would've loved to give it 3.5 or maybe even 4 stars. With more time in development, this would've been a classic, instead it serves as a cautionnary tale and the first in a long list of recent examples of a game being rushed out of the doors to be on sale for the holidays.

Video games are a pretty repetitive media. How many times have we complained about samey open worlds, overdone tropes, copy-pasted mechanics ? But sometimes, a game surprises you with its exuberant creativity and soul. Yakuza is one of the latter type of game.

Yakuza is a series that always intrigued me from afar. I would see these insane clips of the protagonist using pretty much anything from the decor as a weapon, a guy with an eyepatch moan before fighting the protagonist in a minigame battle, all while people would keep singing the praises of the game's story and characters. It just seemed like a weird match at first glance, like pear and melted chocolate. But, just like pear and melted chocolate, Yakuza is a mix of insane gameplay and characters with a good, drama-driven story that works wonders.

No aspect of the game encapsulates the craziness of Yakuza as well as Majima. The guy is a complete psycho, capable of inspiring fear just as well as he is capable making you smile and laugh. His schemes to get Kiryu to fight him are hilarious, the japanese voice actor does a great job at bringing the character to life. He switches from terrifying psycho to goofball in a heartbeat and I love him for it. He absolutely is the best part of this game.

As for gameplay, it varies greatly in quality. You can dfeinitely feel this game was born on the PS2, as there is some grindy boss fights in there. The combat gameplay is at its best when you have a handful of goons in front of you that you take out alone, with or without furniture, motorcycles, bikes, katanas, lightsaber rip-offs or any other object you can put your hands on, ripping through them as the one-man army you are. When you get to one-on-one though... the game can get frustrating and unsatisfying. If you didn't know this was a PS2 remake, you'll definitely know once you get to the boss fights. These are impossible to do without item consumption. Bosses will ignore your attacks, dodge pretty much everything in heat mode, which isn't helped by the lock-on system that can be dreadful at times (especially when you only have two enemies left, it kinda pannicks at that point). My tip is to just stack healing items and power through, because it feels like that's what the game wants you to do. Rush mode is also your best option for boss fights, switching to other styles to use heat attacks.
The boss combat is definitely the worst aspect of the game, but the combat, overall, is great. Heat attacks are absolutely amazing, and even though I would've liked more variations in the animations of each individual type of heat attack (if i see Kiryu pick up a knocked down guy's head to punch it one more time, I'm gonna explode), there are a lot (especially for a game that originates from the PS2) of different context sensitive heat actions by the end-game. The 4 styles are pretty cool, each with their own best context to use. My favourite is probably rush, as you can do some real serious movie-style one on one fights filled with dodges and counter attacks. I didn't really try out dragon-style, as it takes time to become viable and by the time it did, I was already too familiar with the three other styles to switch.

The side content is really well done. The "entertainment" activities are really cool, wether they be bowling, darts or, especially, POCKET CIRCUIT, THE ABSOLUTE LOVE OF MY LIFE. Seriously, it's so cool and addictive, even though I was terrible at it. I will say it was hard to understand which attributes were really important and which weren't (the game insists acceleration is important for slopes but honestly, you should always prioritise a better top speed, even on sloped circuits), but it's addictive. The side-quest attached to it is really cool as well, which I can say about a few other "substories" as the game calls them. The one where you make a tourist visit town is really cool for example. It is a shame though that a lot of them are just about Kiryu escaping scams by beating up people, it just gets kinda repetitive. Majima Everywhere is an amazing concept, and there are great moments attached to it.

SPOILERS FOR THE STORY AHEAD
As for the story, it tries, maybe a bit too hard. The characters are great, with understandable motivations. Kiryu is an interesting idea, a kind-hearted yakuza who does his job in his own way. Nishikiyama is a great villain, shame he barely shows up by the end of the game. Overall, the pitch of the story is great: Yakuza drama, ten billion yen stolen, a mysterious girl at the center of it all, that's delightfully 2000-y. But, the story gets confused at the halfway point, and gets confusing in the final quarter. Chapter 6 is just pure filler, chapter 7 is better, but then it just devolves into chaos. New characters, whole new entities are presented in the final quarter of the story. The key to the mystery at the heart of this game is a guy you've barely heard of. I think the story would've been better if we stayed focused on the Tojo Clan family war, as that's what the first quarter of the game sets up. By the end, Nishikiyama feels like a complete after-thought, which is a shame because his dedicated cutscenes between each chapter made it so that he was the best-developped character in the game. He is the final boss, sure, but I'd argue he isn't the main antagonist, as that role falls onto Jingu, who you've barely heard of until then. I just think it undermines Nishikiyama's character development from loser to villain, as he just feels like he's been a pawn all along, really undermining his story. Furthermore, his sacrifice is just stupid: why did you blow up the building while the ones you are trying to save are still there ??? I know that you could interpretate his actions as pride, done in spite of Jingu rather than in favour of Yumi and Kiryu, but come on. Oh, and Yumi's death isn't nearly as impactful as what it could've been, because we barely know her. The game's story, by the end of it, just feels like too much.

Sequels usually develop on their predecessor's formula, making sure to take what made the original work and make it better. Respawn did not take this approach for its sequel to Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. If the original made the audacious choice of being a metroidvania, not fearing of alienating the more casual audience that could be attracted by the licence it was using, Star Wars Jedi Survivor is a more linear game with metroidvania inspirations. In my very personal opinion, this makes the game a resounding success, but bear in mind that I'm not the biggest fan of 3D metroidvanias.

The resulting experience is a game that is simpler to enjoy, but that doesn't lack personality notably thanks to its multiple lightsaber stances that play very differently to one another and are all viable choices to face any enemy and is moreso dependant on the player's desired play style than a real "meta." Drawing comparisons with Ghost of Tsushima would be tempting, but it's stance system was closer to a game of rock/paper/scissors than a diverse choice of viable options.

The metroidvania aspect of the game is now found only if you go out of the story's beaten path. You'll never encounter a locked door while following main objectives, you won't have to go from planet to planet to try and find where you can use your newly found skill like in the first game, but you will find a lot of secondary content locked behind story progression. To me, this is a very good compromise between linearity and metroidvania. One thing I hate in metroidvanias is the fact that I don't know if the locked door that I've been obsessing over for the past 3 hours of gameplay is hiding story progression or the most meaningless collectible ever. So, by limiting non-linear aspects of the game to side content exclsuively, I now know that any locked door is optional, and I can live with the peace of mind of knowing that I don't have to get my hopes up on what's behind that door, as I know that it will be optional.

This makes exploration way better than in the first game, as it feels completely optional and less frustrating, as you're not looking for where to progress the story: the player now chooses when he advances the story, and when he wants to explore and take on side challenges, which there are tons of. You'll find enemy camps (always a treat as you can use the game's amazing combat system), jedi temples which are bite-sized versions of the first game's temples, with better, but still very simple, puzzles, or even combat challenges. I won't spoil my favourite as its a very welcome call-back to the first game, but falling upon said challenge was one of my favourite gaming moments of the year. Finding out that the post-game offered a more difficult version of said combat was also a treat, even though my first reaction was to blankly stare at my TV in terror.

As for the story, it was a very brave one. It does a fantastic job at capturing both the prequels (by using its combat droids, whose voice lines are always hilarious and really capture their character) and original trilogy, all while calling upon some of the expanded universe in a pretty substantial manner which I won't spoil as it's better to go in blind on that subject, as the game's marketing really doesn't push the narrative to keep a lot of the surprises. All this is more than welcome in a world filled with original trilogy nostalgia bait. Even if the game still takes place in the original trilogy's orbit, it manages to link back to the prequel and expanded universe in a really skillful way. The pacing is a bit weird, as the begining is a bit long and the end of the second act really leaves you on an adrenaline high that makes it feel a bit counterintuitive to continue on afterwards, but overall the story's structure is decent. The themes and characters (and mirrored constructions of certain characters) are all well developped for a video-game, especially a licenced one, so kuddos to Respawn's writing team for that. To put it mildly, the first game's story was decent, but nothing we hadn't seen before from the Star Wars universe, while this game's story feels like a work of love for the whole franchise.

It has to be said that on the technical side, the game does have a few notable issues. I never encountered anything game-breaking in 30 hours of playtime, but there were a few hickups, most notably textures taking time to load in (mostly in the background, the foreground is almost always perfect), frame drops in very specific places on the map, and collision bugs during "finisher" sequences in mini-boss fights that propelled both Cal and the monster I was fighting 5 feet in the air.

But, once the textures load in, the game is truly beautiful. The main planet, Kobboh, is dense with vegetation in a way that truly only feels possible on next-gen. It isn't amazing, but it is noticeable, and to do all this with relatively few hickups is truly amazing.

I hate saying that I love these games as they have EA's logo on them, but I really liked Fallen Order as a simpler metroidvania which drew heavy inspiration from Dark Souls, Zelda and Uncharted. I always loved the bravery that took Respawn to make a game that wouldn't be loved by casuals to give us what was an unoriginal game but with good gameplay. Jedi Survivor has a smaller scale, less planets, a more linear experience, which may be more casual-friendly but also feels more refined and like it has more personality that its predecessor. In my opinion, Jedi Survivor is a resounding success, besides its catastrophic launch on PC that is.

Human Ressources : the video-game

This review contains spoilers

Spoiler Free Summary: Spider-Man 2 is a game of few but undeniable flaws, that can easily be disregarded thanks to a great story, some great moments and great traversal. Not a connaisseur's choice for sure, but an undeniably great time.

The rest of the review will have spoilers, so beware

Spider-Man media will always have a soft spot in my heart. The values the character carries, the stories that are told through him, the insane cool factor of web-swinging and climbing up walls... I grew up with Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man being an absolute pop culture icon, and rediscovering the character in different media over these past few years has been amazing, this game being the latest example.

Now, please note this game is not perfect. The side content can get repetitive, the combat, tough overall a bit better than the original two games thanks to simplified access to gadgets and more character abilities, saw Spider-Man feel a bit heavier than in the first game, less agilen and is still pretty simplistic. Put simply, you need to make your own fun with the combat by combining different attacks together. There is a bit of lack of depth (even though the addition of a parry helps), but honestly, the cinematography of the fights does kinda make up for it. Basically: Spider-Man 2 doesn't reinvent the wheel gameplay-wise, it isn't going to be a connaisseur's pick, it isn't close to being GOTY, it isn't deep. But Bloody Norah, it's fun.

The web swinging has been made so much better, you can really feel just how much quicker you're going compared to the first two games, and you need to take it into consideration where your web has been anchored (if your web is long, your arch will be long, so you may hit the ground, if it's short it'll be quicker and easier to change directions with), the web wings are great, the super slingshots are amazing... By far, the biggest upgrade from original to sequel is this web swinging, deploying the full potential of the PS5.
The side content, although a bit repetitive, is pretty cool as well. It uses a lot of cool villains, and the themes of the game are echoed in these side quests. Sure, a lot of them are about beating up baddies, or a copy and pasted, but it's still less repetitive than the enemy bases from the first game (of which three different types existed). The unidentified targets challenges are pretty cool, requiring you to really master the web-wings, even though they were, again, a bit repetitive.
The suits are absolutely phenomenal, they start off pretty average, but by the time you get to level 20 they're all bangers.

And finally, the story. Goodness, the story. More setpieces, better setpieces, amazing story moments, both in gameplay (the symbiote combat in general is absolutely amazing, a lot of the bosses are great, especially Peter V Miles, the Venom power trip is a delight) and in cutscenes. This story gets Spider-Man. It's a story about two themes: balance and second chances (as exemplified by Harry getting a second chance). Miles struggles throughout the game to balance his personal life and Spider-Man duties, a classic Spider-Man story that didn't really exist in the first game due to Peter already being a veteran, Peter can't keep a job because of his duty as Spider-Man, and so when the symbiote arrives, he welcomes it with open arms because it makes everything easier, and makes him forget about the second theme of the game : second chances. Spider-Man believes in second chances, the symbiote doesn't care for them. All it cares about is pleasing its host so that he better accepts it, researching efficiency over everything else, disregarding any values one may have. It wants to take away the nemesis' second chances, even though as we see in the game, through Beck, Li or Tombstone, some villains' second chances actually work. And that's something the symbiote shares with Kraven, who refuses to let reformed super-villains escape their past. Kraven is great, he's presented really well as a real menace throughout the game, and killing him as Venom felt wrong, but I can't lie, it felt amazing to overpower himw with such ease after his boss fight against Peter isn't the easiest I've come around.

Play this game. It won't change your life, but hot damn, it's immensely fun despite its flaws, and the emotional roller-coaster that is its story will really not make you regret this one.

One hour in and I'm still in the tutorial, and it looks exactly like every other pokemon game ever, with terrible performance.

Mass Effect is a series I never really was interested in, which just seems wild to me in retrospect. It's made by Bioware, who made KOTOR, (which are games I love) it's a sci-fi setting with lore and worldbuilding (much like Star Wars), and it has a branching story where your decisions feel like they impact the world around you. It seemed tailor-made for me. However, when the Legendary Edition was announced, I didn't really care for some reason. It wasn't on my list of games I wanted to play. When it got added to PS Plus as a monthly game however, I realised that I really should give it a try, and I'm so glad I did.

The game is far from perfect. It feels underdevelopped in many ways : it's a bit short, simplistic, it feels like it doesn't get all it could out of the companion command system, it doesn't really encourage you to forge relationships with your crew, the pacing can be off (Noveria was the first mission I did, and I do not recomend it, as it take a while to get going).
However, if you do make the effort of interacting with your crew, the conversations are really interesting and deliver the lore in a more digestable way than the codex does. The lore is on point by the way, at least in my amateur opinion. I'm rarely into video-game lore, but sci-fi worlds do usually interest me more than most other genres, and this one didn't disapoint. As for the combat, it's not anything special, but it does the job. It can be quite methodical, but sometimes enemies will rush you, requiring you to adapt quickly and go for headshots to neutralise them before they get into shotgun range, as those tend to quickly kill you.

Mass Effect feels like what it is: a starting point, which deserved to be expanded upon so much. I can't wait to dive into the second game in a few weeks/months time, after I'm done with Spider-Man 2.

This review contains spoilers

Back when Horizon Forbidden West first released, I decided to play it on the toughest difficulty, to force myself into playing strategically. Also, since I had loved the first game so much, I was set on 100% completing the sequel. That left me with 27 hours of playtime in which I accomplished only half of the game's story, a dull experience where even the simplest enemy is a damage sponge, and an overall dissapointing experience.
I was however keen on going back to the game eventually. I believed that with an easier difficulty setting and a focus on main quests accompanied by a few side quests, this game could be pretty good. Turns out, I wasn't completely wrong, but the experience still wasn't up to what the original accomplished.

Now don't get me wrong: Horizon Zero Dawn is no absolute masterpiece. It's one of my favourite games of all time, sure, but that's more down to the story and worldbuilding than anything else. Sure, the gameplay is really interesting with it's focus on targeting parts, mixing arrow shooting and trapping, really excelling at makign you feel like a hunter stalking it's giant mechanical prey. The sense of scale of the fights is immaculate, the sense of progression is really well done, the quests are mostly pretty good, the side activities are abundant but not overwhelming... Horizon Zero Dawn is a good game made great by its lore and worldbuilding. It's also a game that knows its ambition, and limits its scale in consequence. The game is by no means small, but the upgrade system is on the simpler side of things, there aren't a thousand different weapon types, and the skill tree is small but really gives you a sense of progression, as you unlock new moves. Zero Dawn wasn't trying to be the best game ever, and it made it great.

Forbidden West on the other hand, clearly wanted to put its name next to the likes of The Last of Us, Uncharted or God of War as a Sony classic, and it shows. The game seems to be trying to justify its own existence so bad, it really hinders the experience. The simple, coil based upgrade system from Horizon Zero Dawn ? Add a crafting based upgrade system on top of that. The amazing skill tree from the first game ? Replace it by one of the dullest skill trees ever, where every "skill" is just a stat boost. The limited but perfectly decent weapon selection from the first game ? Add more weapons, most of which are useless or very context sensitive, more ammo types, so that no two weapons play alike to such a degree that the player is confused as to which ammo goes with which weapon and what each does, which discourages him from engaging with shopkeepers and using different weapons. The map from the original, which is (relatively) dense compared to other open worlds ? Make it twice the size with the same number of activities, including an introductory part of the world which could've been cut off without any problem.

Forbidden West feels like it was scared of being told it wasn't enough of a sequel, so it just kept adding stuff to justify its existence, when it really didn't need to, because the stuff we actually wanted to see a sequel to, that being the worldbuilding, really excells. The tenakth are fascinating, the Faro twist is great, the world is beautiful (although I was severly dissapointed with San Francisco). It's a shame that Guerrilla didn't believe in its project's strength and felt like they needed to do way more than necessary. Sometimes, less is more.
The story sucks though. It just feels confused, and the theme of "Aloy learning to accept help" was interesting on paper, as it made perfect sense to push Aloy's character in that direction as she grew up an outcast, but it doesn't really have any meaningful beats. She just suddenly accepts help. There is no emotional low point, she just changes her mind. Not great.

Less is more, especially in a gaming landscape saturated with way too big open worlds. I truly do believe that there is a huge gap in the market for a small, dense, linear open world with a well crafted story and measured ambition, something even smaller than Zero Dawn. Instead, Forbidden West decided to fight fire with fire, to combat the other huge open worlds of our day with something even bigger, and the result is a nauseatingly big game that most will never want to touch again.

What a game. Beautiful visuals, environments, music... The movement is somehow even better than in the original, and the combat is leagues better. Even if the original game didn't grab you, please try this one. It really delivers on the potential the original showed.

This review contains spoilers

I'm going to be crucified for this but Inscryption is way overhyped. The card game is good, until you realise that it's completely unbalanced and really easy to cheese your way through. The 2D section is a chore, introducing new mechanics that it barely explains, although it's cool in concept.The final part is okay, but nothing groundbreaking either.

However, the story is a pretty great love letter to gaming culture. Playing through a creepypasta is such a cool idea I can't believe it hadn't been done before, and it's really well executed here. However, this game lives thanks to it's twists and turns, and once that is gone, I'm pretty sure repeat playthroughs aren't as enjoyable and show the cracks in the gameplay's proverbial armour. This is not a bad game, far from it, it's good, original, interesting amongst many other things, but it's far from being the masterpiece some present it as.

Guardians of the Galaxy was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed, and it really nailed what it wanted to be : an interactive movie. However, as a game, it does fall a bit short in my opinion.

Firstly, let's start with the good stuff : the story and characters are on point. The guardians are insanely likable and funny, and all of their characters are spot on. The only one which is a bit botched in my opinion is Gamora, who shouldn't be as sociable as she is at the beginning of the game. But even then, it's no deal breaker. Drax is hilarious, Rocket is just the right amount of scumbag, Quill just the right amount of idiot, and Groot sure is Groot. As for the story, it perfectly encapsulates what the Guardians are about : moving on from tough times by getting help from others. It's not amazing or anything, but it more than does the job, perfectly encapsulating the essence of Guardians, at least as presented in the MCU.
I also really like the "social system", by what I mean the dialogue options and alternative branches. They don't matter very much as they'll just make certain parts pf the game easier, but they are satisfying to get right. Also, it's just a perfect idea for a Guardians video game.

Now for the low points. I have a few, mainly to do with the gameplay. It's not bad per say, but it is poorly paced. The combat is good and enjoyable, comboing the guardians abilities is fun and the huddle-up system is great, but you don't get much of said combat for long parts of the game, or you get too short a burst of it. For the last few hours of the game, it's the opposite problem: you get too much of it. You just go into fight after fight after fight, and it really exposes how simple it is. At the end of the day, it's just maintaining L2 and R2, and issuing orders to the guardians. It does the job when you get one encounter every 10 minutes, but at the end of the game, you really feel how simplistic it is, even though you coudl see that as early as the E3 gameplay demo. Also, the enemy design and variety is pretty cheap, and the boss fights aren't very interesting at all.
As for the rest, it's a lot of walking around. And even though the charisma of every team member and the quality of the dialogue makes it all very enjoyable, it sometimes feels like it drags on ever so slightly. The pacing of the game simply isn't the best, partly because it is too long, also because the different fighting sequences aren't very well balanced through the game. Exploration isn't particularly interesting, as the guardians' abilities in that field are never used in interesting ways, although I will say that seeing the chemistry between members evolve during the game through their gradual encline to perform certain actions without even being asked was nice.

Overall, Eidos really succeeded at makign what they wanted to make : a Guardians of the Galaxy interactive movie. However, with better pacing and a bit more complex gameplay mechanics, wether that be in combat or exploration, the game could've been way better, so that's a bit of a shame.

Resident Evil 4 was a game I was honestly kinda anxious to play. I had heard so many sing its praises, all while describing "atypic" controls. Honestly, I was scared that this game was nothing more than a nostalgia trip for most, and in no way the all-time classic it was heralded as. I truly believed that there was a good chance that this "atypic" control scheme was just a poorly aged one, and that I, as someone who didn't grow up with this game, would find nothing but frustration in it. However, the hype around the launch of the Remake made me want to pick it up, but I did tell myself it would be better for me to play the original first, and decided to make it one of my must plays of the summer, once I was done with TOTK of course.

Yes, the game controls awkwardly, but anyone who played this game will tell you that it was by design. In most games, getting swarmed by enemies is not a problem, as you can just run and gun. Here, that's not an option, as Leon is some sort of mobile turret, standing in place as soon as he gets his gun out. This makes crowd control an art to master, requiring you to often take your eyes off your foes. Indeed, Capcom didn't sacrifice the "horror" part of their survival-horror franchise on the altar of action-packed gameplay. Instead, they adapted it to make the two mesh together really well. Leon's shaky aim, combined with the nerves of needing to make this shot to avoid damage, will often lead to missed shots, or triumphant headshots giving you that rush of dopamine.

Everything about the game's atmosphere just nails it on the head. The decor is sublime, the characters are memorable, the dialogue reeks of early 2000s because of how campy it is. Much to the contrary of the last two resident evil games, RE4 doesn't get worse as it goes along. Instead of completely changing gameplay styles midway through like Biohazard and Village (both of which ending up playing more like Gears of War/Call of Duty than Resident Evil), it stays consistent with its formula and expands on it. For example, the longer you go along, the more precise the games asks you to be, with specific enemies being only weak to headshots or shots to a specific part of the body more generally. This makes the game feel challenging all the way through.

As for negatives, I will say there were a bit too many insta-kill enemies/QTE's out there, a bit too many QTE's in general, and the final act of the game does drag on a bit, and is a bit too packed with new or barely introduced characters. It's not bad by any means, it's just that by the time you actually get to the final boss, that excitement rush when first arriving at the final location will have slightly wavered.

Overall, I'm gutted I took so long to get to this, as I maybe would've bought RE4 Remake on launch and indulged in all the excitement that generated. This is absolutely worthy of all the praise it gets, and defintely is one of the best games I have played ever, and, besides TOTK, my favourite game I've played this year.