despite the obvious twin peaks and steven king influences i have to give this credit for the narrative. its nothing mindblowing yet its kind of lynchian antics kept me entirely invested throughout. at some points i feel this takes itself far too seriously for what often reads as goofy pastiche yet theres some very intriguing concepts at play here - the thomas zane/barbara jagger backstory especially along with the general "darkness" concept is interesting and genuinely eerie at times. wish the characters had a bit more to them, barry is great (and the game improves immensely when hes present) but the rest kind of the supporting cast generally lack interesting characterization. the eponymous hero himself is often pretty dull, to the point where i had trouble believing he was an acclaimed author with how dry the narration was, yet theres definitely potential to him that i hope the sequel will properly harness.

i'd say the major flaw here is the length and repetition. the combat is already clunky enough and after spending hours running through a forest shooting at the same types of enemies with the same weapons... it grows really boring. the movement mechanics are a pain to handle as well. i like the episodic format enough but i feel the tedious gameplay lets it down a bit. more variety couldve helped this game a lot, imo. you could probably lose the bulk of episodes 2-3 without missing much. things do pick up by the 4th, and it shines in the ocassional fun set piece (especially the "children of the elder god" scene, prob one of the most enjoyable i've played) yet the gameplay as a whole is pretty underwhelming.

above all i found this to be quite charming, if not very clunky throughout. wish it was shorter, yet i dont regret playing. solid 7/10.

would rank the episodes 4 > 5 > 6 > 1 > 2 > 3