Resident Evil 7 is one of the best games in the series, the idea that the game was a return to form for the franchise has been done to death, what’s more interesting is everything it did differently.

A new tone and art style, Resident Evil 7 is grounded in a way the games before it never even attempted, the art direction makes the horror scarier and the zanier parts more surreal, the perfect balance between true scares and pure camp that few games have ever managed.

A setting that will stick in my mind forever, Resident Evil 7 is the perfect blend of classic Resident Evil and 2010s pop horror games.

A game that in all reality should be a 5/5 but falls just short. There’s something missing, a bit of that Resident Evil variety and replay value, enemies that feel unfair and like they’re almost magnetically attracted to the player. The lack of music is pretty egregious and the fact the original soundtrack is behind a paywall is unacceptable.

The game’s horror feels a bit cheap, the use of gore feels edgy and over the top at points without feeling justified, which granted, is part of the Resident Evil charm, but this game expects you to actually be a little scared at least. There are a few very gorey scenes that had me rolling my eyes. The use of dark hallways and a flashlight also feels a little cheap, and a bit pop horror game-y like it’s trying to be Let’s Play/Streamer bait.

It’s still a fantastic game despite all this, I’d genuinely recommend it to anyone, unmatched atmosphere.

I wish I could consider this a favourite game, without a shadow of a doubt it is Rockstar’s best story, and I personally don’t think that the story would’ve worked in any other medium, there is no other medium that allows us to connect with a protagonist like this, to spend so much time with them. That being said, the story and gameplay are very disconnected to me, it is Rockstar’s game design at its worst, and that’s just so disappointing. As a long-form interactive story, Red Dead Redemption 2 ranks highly, but as a coherent and connected game that merges that story with the actual gameplay, it suffers greatly. Treat your employees like people.

Grand Theft Auto V is definitely one of Rockstar’s worst mainline games, as a story it trips over itself and often feels like it’s caught up on being miserable, it expects us to take these characters seriously while simultaneously having them exist in this (personally) unfunny, immature and simplistic satire that feels full of itself, a sense of humour that feels right at home in a terrible adult comedy cartoon. Then the characters actually talk to each other and suddenly that all melts away, the jokes and scenes are actually entertaining sometimes, it’s like the game doesn’t know what it wants to be, what tone to have.

This is compounded by a cynical, money hungry live service style online mode that is so detached from the original game that it might as well not be anymore.

But it is funny when man fall down so, do with that what you will.