conceptually one of the best games ive ever played, alan wake 2 is beautifully atmospheric, has a great narrative as well as possibly the best voice cast of all time; every word alan speaks is babygirl, what a man. Even if i dont think its that scary (it has some good scares) its certainly a dreadful and heartwrenching experience. despite having 2 protagonist’s, saga and wake’s story is always engaging no matter how weird and fucked up it gets. i cannot imagine a different route that the story couldve gone, saga’s journey through the densely wooded, almost calming cauldron lake trying to save her family without even knowing how while alan is in the dark place straight up tweaking feels like a very apt sequel idea (-someone who’s first remedy game is AW2).
Despite how incredible this game is, i feel as if the gunplay never reached the pinnacle i was hoping. its not bad by any means, i just feel like literally everything else in this game is better. Playing on normal, the enemies felt a little bulletspongey: one example being i thought i was doing the first boss fight wrong cause bro just kept getting back up.

bonus small little harper complaint: i got stuck a lot cause i wasnt sure where to go, but this is easily fixed if u dont have memory the equivalent of a large isopod

buy this game play alan wake 2 please please its inspiring its peak i promise

silent hill 2 is a game so un-apologetically driven by aesthetics and fucking with the players expectations. at many points in my playthrough i was shocked by how well team silent managed to unnerve me through pure atmosphere and the always insane environments (very awesome level design!!), with always good puzzles (a few too esoteric imo). Another shocking thing is that despite how inspired some titles are by silent hill theres still so many little things that make james sunderlands journey fresh and exciting.

A lot of people complain of SH2's bad combat system but i personally think its charming, and fits well for the title. Its so perfectly clunky and the animations are so smooth that they make up for any misgivings..

I think it is safe to say silent hill 2 could not be made at any other time period than when it released, the fmv cutscenes manage to look so uncannily beautiful paired along with an absolutely haunting industrial soundtrack; mixed with delightful ballads and guitar of course.
mary's undying love for her time spent with james resonates with me to a hurtful extent, all of the dialogue from this game sticks in my head for days at a time.

Maria is very t girl coded but dont tell anyone

its... alright. Disregarding the egregious pricing and short length of this title, There's something about the gunplay that ground zeros and subsequently the phantom pain has that makes me feel a little disappointed. on one hand, the menuing and overall aiming mechanics are snappy and fluid; its just that it never has fulfilled the same niche for my brain that mgs2-3 have. The story in ground zeroes feels so incredibly barebones with nothing to really go off of except name references to past entries and a small cipher mention. The funny thing is i have been playing peace walker more recently and the overall game experience is similar to the later metal gear games but it feels much more fluid despite being definitively more clunky than mgsV. One of my main issues is that i dont have much to latch on to here, there just isnt much going on and its not even that satisfying to play!! I wish i enjoyed the more open ended areas of the mgsV saga, but as it stands i am a little saddened by this entry in the series