I will start off by saying that I'm very impressed by what's here, considering that it's a the work of a single core developer, or at least started that way before the "Infinite" release.

Graphically it's certainly a fun title. If you look closely it's easy to spot the rough edges, especially the animations, but the environments and models look cool and the lighting mixed with all of the water everywhere gives the eye plenty of natural enough looking detail to gush over. Basically, it's very shiny, with at least enough substance that you don't care to poke any deeper.

Gameplay is the hit and miss part for me. Some tools and elements feel nice, fluid, impactful. Most are rather easy to stress out. Like I've mentioned with Sekiro, I have a way of playing action games that makes certain character-controllers very... grumpy. If I kept things tame it all worked pretty well and mowing down the grunts and special enemies was a fairly satisfying process.

When I tried to sprint-cancel-power-slash spam while jumping and dodging, then it started get hissy with me and eating my inputs because the input state-machine wasn't quite ready for me, even though the visual feedback said otherwise. The movement also had a tendency to react poorly to mid-air collisions and landing on props, and the relationship between dodging mid-air and inertia was sometimes a bit iffy.

I'm a bit picky on the movement as well, because this was a game with rather short times-to-kill and rather simple enemy engagements, so a lot of my focus was on getting from enemy to enemy as fluidly as I could.

The arsenal you're given is perhaps a bit overkill. Namely, the sword can send out cutting waves with high damage and fairly high range, and with a couple other additional moves you can tack on, the guns are just kind of there most of the time. They feel fine and they're not useless, but I tended to only use them when either I just needed to take a few potshots while waiting for the plentiful exo-energy to regen a bit, or on the rare occasion that an enemy was just too far away.

This would be more of a negative, but the sword is admittedly quite fun to use and this isn't a competitive shooter, so there being superfluous options doesn't matter until the combat is actually boring, in my opinion.

What I will say is that I'm not big on how they implemented the controls for the sword combos. They're probably just fine for most, but I found a few inputs a little counter-productive to the types of movement you'd want to pair them with. i.e. Holding 'E' performs a forward dash attack, while the charge attack (which is ranged) is started by sprinting forward and holding 'E.' So there was a lot of straffing backwards only to dash right back into whatever hazard I was trying to avoid.

Overall, though, I would say the gameplay was fun. Flawed, but in forgivable ways.

I have no idea what was going on with the story, so nothing much to say there. But that's set dressing in a game like this. It sets the mood and has no intention of provoking some kind of deep thought beyond, "Woah, that's kinda wild looking. Guess I'm going here now."

The game is rather short as well. Could be a good thing, though. It executed on all of the interesting ideas it had then left when they had nothing more to give. And if you enjoy the combat more than me, I imagine speed running or upping the difficulty gives a litttle extra playtime. There are no long cinematics to get in the way of that.

So if the previews look neat to you, and you can get it for a price you wouldn't worry about, then I can recommend it. If you're looking for only the highest grade shooters, then leave it for now, but if you want a short burst of action game junk food, this will do it.

10+ years removed from when I first got hooked on this game in highschool (how....). By the 7th or 8th year, I came to fully understand why every year saw a new wave of people lamenting the constant updating and overhauling this game has experienced. I'm quite certain the game would have died down in popularity much sooner without the "live" aspect of it: people do actually like seeing their favorite things get a new coat of paint every season. No, the changes and new content were, and will always be, necessary for League to be League.

However, the intensity and unrelenting frequency of the changes is what I think has been unhealthy for it and brought me to the point of even saying I dislike the game now. The strategy and teamwork were what I enjoyed, but enjoying strategy means being able to have a firm grasp on the major variables involved. But now there are just way too many, and by the time you start to figure it out again THEY REDO IT ALL AGAIN.

The game doesn't have strategy anymore, not for anyone less than the top 0.5% of dedicated players. Its a monthly grab bag of chaos where you can log in one day and suddenly everyone's attacks light everything on fire.

I'm not even joking. At several points they have added too many Damage-over-Time effects to the game and you spend half the round on fire wondering what invisible circle you crossed to get caught.

On top of the core rule changes, there are now 163 unique champions to play, too, and that's not counting all of the ones that were completely overhauled. Got a favorite? Have fun while you can because next month they might get gutted or buffed into a completely different playstyle. Figured out how to counter one character you were having a hard time with? Good job, but now you'll never see them again this month and here's 3 other characters you need to learn.

There's no time anymore (or so it feels to me) for changes in the meta to occur naturally. There's a lack of understanding that when a game is actually balanced well, the strategies of the day will constantly evolve even without changes to the rules as players try to counter the popular trends and then become the popular trends to counter. At the very least you need to let the stew simmer for a bit.

I don't want to just rag on it grumpily. Change is a cool part of the game and some player bases are more hungry for itthan others. I'm willing to admit that I don't belong in that fast of a stream anymore, but I also can't help but feel it's a shame that instead of being able to gracefully retire from the game with warm memories, my friends and I have felt tossed out with a lingering sense of revulsion.

The game desperately needs a legacy "snapshot" system, where specific iterations (maybe even selected or partially selected by vote) of the game are preserved on live servers for the old guard to enjoy. Yeah, it'll split the player base some, but I have a feeling that once the reduced player attrition rate is taken into account, it'd balance out. And then they'd get to have even more of their beloved balance data from the active A/B test that would ensue.

In any case, this was slightly a rant, so apologies there, but I felt the sudden urge to put my grievances to word for what used to be one of my favorite competitive multiplayer games.

This is one of the most interesting "game collections" released, as far as I'm aware, as I've never seen another receive so many changes, additions, and fixes over such a long period of time. I've had it since the early days, though, and was there when it finally made its way to PC, so I'm going to judge it for the entirety of its lifetime, not just the current state.

MCC is a hot mess

I can't even comprehend the lengths to which its UI, the connective tissue bridging all of the cherished games within, has managed to SUCK SO MU—

Ahem... It's garbage. It's functional garbage now, but it's still so unwieldy it drives me crazy. Just try to pick team colors in a local match with casual players. Just try. Maybe here on year 9 they've finally returned it to being a quick dedicated button press on that player's controller, but for 8 years it involved going 2-3 menus deep, one at a time per system. Or really just one at a time since no one else knows how so I had to do it for everyone.

That's only one of many examples, but that will suffice. You're probably heard of or experienced this already, anyway.

I am still very thankful for the content of the collection, though. They have made it very simple to play the games we know and love, and even to enhance them with modern hardware if your rose-tinted-glasses aren't that heavily shaded.

So, for that, I'll give it a pass, because it does seem to keep reaching its goal eventually but I sometimes get the sense that Bungie really took all of the UI talent with them after Reach.

Every once in a while I see game or VN and get this feeling in the back of my mind that it's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for based on nothing more than a short store blurb and a couple screenshots. My instincts were spot on with this one.

World End Economica is a love story, financial industry drama, and near-future sci-fi woven elegantly together into a three part saga on chasing dreams and the consequences of doing so. It's a work written with an appreciation for economic history and that essential human element which spins its gears and shifts its structure. And it's very unapologetic about the depth of that appreciation.

I can't imagine most people could follow the plot of this game after the halfway point unless they already have some amount of knowledge on stock trading and banking. By episode 3 there are full on diagrams explaining the bundling process to create Asset-Backed Securities (all my 2008 financial crisis homies, where u at). But if you've seen something like The Big Short and could follow it well enough to enjoy, then I'd like to think you could appreciate what's here.

Can't say I know many people like that, though. Especially not the kinds who would be willing to pick up a somewhat obscure Japanese VN.

World End Economica isn't just about the financial intrigue, though, and that's what I love most about it. There is a superb cast of complex — but not complicated — characters here, and writer Isuna Hasekura does a phenomenal job displaying their conflicts and growth as they pursue often lofty but very human goals. From the outset you know what drives each of them, but the decisions they have to make along the way are far from cut-and-dry, leaving plenty of room for uncertainty in their choices and shifting relationships.

And I personally found the romantic interactions in all of it quite charming. If I had to put my finger on what makes it stand out there, it would be that there's a consistent feeling of meaningful progress between the characters, even when some are destined for heartbreak.

All of that delicious character drama is then nicely underpinned by the exotic setting — a young city-state on the moon — which serves as both a representation of how far they're trying to reach and how much can go wrong. The depicition of the lunar metropolis is delivered with just enough rigor to give a sense of wonder, while demonstrating just how many more factors work against humankind the further we get from the dirt we came from.

It's no action thriller, though. Even when the stakes are at their highest, it's the "threat of what could go wrong" that makes people anxious enough to vomit, much like many real-world crises in "developed" countries. Which is a very rare approach for space-faring sci-fi and I quite appreciate it.

From a more critical angle the only thing I can think to say about the story at this point then is that the first episode does take a bit before it really sinks a hook into you, so it took me a bit to get into it. After that, though, it kept the roll going smoothly enough.

Presentation-wise, I think the art is fairly pretty overall. Not mind-blowing, but fittingly clean. The VN engine used is fairly barebones, especially coming off the heels of Witch on the Holy Night. I don't consider this to be much of a negative, though, as this is the media niche where Higurashi became a widespread hit. If you're this far in, you aren't going to be complaining about modest budgeting.

More of an issue, though, is that I don't think I can recommend the Switch port of the collection. There are some bugs with loading sprites and other assets that actually detract from the experience. Like the kind where I got an hour into episode 2 before I saw the first sprite and only then realized that it wasn't a change in artistic choice or because they entirely ran out of budget for the second part. Thankfully I could correct it by reloading the entire game, but every once in a while a another, similar problem would rear its head or I'd be a bit paranoid that I was missing something when the VN was intentionally clearing the screen.

If that's the only convenient platform you could read it from, then I'd say go for it. Simply being aware of that should let you sidestep the problem. Shame it is that way at all, though.

In any case, I imagine most will see the "technical financial drama" part and run for the hills. But if that's actually a plus for you, then I thoroughly recommend this VN. It's delightfully intricate and packed with a gentle passion for both the excitement and heartbreak of life and the markets.

Yet another of my long-shelved Fromsoft playthroughs that I have finally completed. As it's only from 2019, that will bring my average time-to-completion down just a smidgen before I finally take down the last outstanding title on my plate...

As for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice itself, this was a fantastic mixup to the Fromsoft action RPG formula. I don't think they nailed everything they attempted, but the important parts more than made up for that, making this one of the most distinct and memorable action titles in many years, even among its siblings. I do think its fated to be a bit more niche because of that uniqueness, however.

I'll start with what I found to be the most consistently good part of the game, and that is the visual design and graphical implementation. I played the PS4 version of the game, so not even the full fidelity possible (even with the FPS boost of playing on a PS5) and frankly I'm quite surprised by how good it looks 4 years later. It's soft, but not too blurry; detailed but not noisy; muted for the most part, but pops with color when it matters.

I'm pretty used to coming back to Dark Souls and seeing that 360 era mess, and even DS3 doesn't quite measure up to the AAA standard of its time, so I tend to forget that Fromsoft really picked up on this one. They didn't really improve the technical fidelity of their tech all that much, seemingly (save for maybe improved shading and LOD resolving), but the design of terrain, models, and textures goes one step up from DS3 in delivering a feeling of "fullness" and "cohesion" to the world.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember a single "bad" looking part or model in the game. Other than some normal-human character models still having that "Fromsoft" look to them, the seams of the world are quite well hidden.

And the world is just so darn interesting and pretty. Reminds me of how I felt playing Jade Empire as a kid, but now with a twist of dark, Japanese mythology.

The soundwork is great, too. Can't quite call it the most "inventive" since a lot of it is bells, chimes, metal clashes, and sound cues from Japanese tradition — the stuff you'd probably expect from a samurai/shinobi flick — but it is well executed. Each distinct cue has a distinct meaning and gels with the visuals.

Music is mostly background, but it's pleasant and sets the right texture for the proceedings.

With all of that out of the way, the gameplay is probably what most people are coming to this game for and where the depth of the discussion lies. Primarily, to me, because while the broad strokes remain very similar, Sekiro is a large depature from Fromsoft's most popular titles (at this point in time). In Dark Souls, there is a significant statistical element to combat and an expansive toolset of weapons, thus as players encounter its many challenges they can choose a path of least resistance by adjusting their stat advantages or pulling up one of many alternative strategies. As often comes up in discussions of its difficulty, it naturally tailors itself to the player, if the player cares to meet it halfway.

Sekiro throws that out, gives the player a sword, a couple arm gadgets, and a very limited set of playstyles (relatively), then requests the player learn those or stop.

There are still optional items, equipment, and potential stat bonuses but, in variety and effect, they function much more like power-ups in the action games of the 90s and early 00s. There are no stat-increase choices to make, you only get higher Health/Damage at curated points by killing elite enemies and exploring the secrets of the world. The only real "RPG" aspect is a combat skill tree that unlocks through experience, but in implementation its no more complex than what you'd find in many "pure" action games over the decades.

Thus, the real meat of gameplay revolves around you learning the dance of single sword combat. Thankfully, that alone has enough depth for the runtime of the game. The pattern of combat is very close to what you'd find in a fighting game, with multiple options for offense and defense and each coming with its strengths and weaknesses. And most fights will actually make you use at least the core set of those options, which is usually enough to create fairly complex, ryhthmic patterns to the fights.

And what really makes it jive as a combat system is the use of a "posture" guage separate from basic health, which rewards clean gameplay by allowing for accelerated executions of enemies. Keep a steady offense and a precise defense, and the enemy's posture will break well ahead of their health depleting, allowing you to land a deathblow then and there.

It is immensely satisfying when you get the flow down.

It can take quite a bit more trial and error to learn than even Dark Souls, though. It's worth it, but there will just naturally be people who can't grasp it. Not necessarily even because of lack of skill. If you only had one character in a fighting game, then even some pros at other games just aren't going to be all that hot on it.

That comparison isn't 1-to-1, though. Being singleplayer makes the process of adjusting to its rules much easier to do gradually than a competitive title, and the mechanics aren't actually as deep as most fighting games, so its open to a wider variety of players as a result.

And there are some suberb fights on gorgeous setpieces in waiting for you to enjoy once you do get a handle on the system system.

There are also a handful of fights where (for me) either the amount of learning effort required didn't really pay off in a satisfying conclusion or where the posture bar was effectively a non-factor so you just had to hit the bloody thing 80 times and pray you don't screw up too many times in the process. These were the minority of boss fights, however... but they were there.

And that's all fairly subjective. What more often frustrated me, however, were the movement mechanics' finickyness and the resource economy of the game.

It has to be prefaced before any talk of movement, that this is another big departure for Fromsoft. We've seen many 3D game franchises labor over the decision to have jumping or not, and this was Fromsoft's point to finally go all-in on having it. There's a grapple hook, there's wall jumping, there's ledge hanging and ducking, and stealth and all kinds of shinobi things.

And 90% of the time its really fluid and effective.

... but I'm an ape raised on twitch shooters so if given any leeway, I will turn that 10% into 30. The heavily animation influenced (not quite "based") movement was quite grumpy with the kinds of maneuvers I was trying to pull, but it also wasn't so inflexible that I was forced to accept it like I would with a Resident Evil game. So for the 30+ hours I've put into this title, I'm still struggling to meet it in the middle many times and find a consistent way to play it.

I don't necessarily think the implementation is "bad." I think there are improvements that could be made, but I'm willing to admit that I'm half the problem (or more than).

However, my other frustration is one I see more as bad design on the game's part.

It is practically tradition in a Fromsoft game at this point that you lose your money and experience on death, but in past games you could potentially recover all of it. In Sekiro, you lose half of what you have (or thereabouts) and have no recovery option. For experience this doesn't start bad initially, as it locks in at every new skill point, so only the visible bar is at risk...

... but money starts fairly scarce and experience becomes scarce halfway in. So eventually it reaches a point where "losing half" can mean losing an entire area worth of money and experience with no recourse. And even with the nifty option to self-revive on the spot without losing it "immediately," with its limited usages some of us will inevitably (or quite frequently) still end up with a hard death. And Lord help you if you're on a difficult boss: those bars are gonna hit 0.

I think the Dark Souls style checkpoint recovery is a much healthier system. Yes, you can still lose it all, but as long as you can keep getting back to the point you made it last time, you can get everything back, plus change for the latest attempt as an additional reward for being mostly consistent. Here though, you slip up and get screwed, end of story.

Thankfully, those resources really aren't nearly as important, but it comes too close to being a full-on negative feedback loop.

----

If I had any more points to make, I have forgotten them and this review is now too long for my liking. In summary: Game is good, you should try it. You might not "like" it all the time, but give it a good effort because it'll reward you with some very satisfying, memorable experiences.

Even if you have to chip away at it in bursts over several years, like me. 😂

A very lovable game that did its darndest to make me not like it, and I will oblige.

As an artifact of gaming culture and meme-ery, this game is incredible. It oozes a goofy charm and character distinct to Rareware of the 90s. Not to mention that it brought into existence the legendary DK Rap. From that angle, this is a 'chef's kiss' masterpiece.

But, even though I grew up with an N64, I never actually played it back then and am coming into this fresh. My experience was akin to playing fetch with a very happy dog that generates gallons of saliva after every catch. The first couple of throws were simple fun, then it quickly turned into a messy repetitive chore but I feel bad stopping because the dumb dog's got that face.

I think at its core my issue is exactly what anyone familiar with the game would expect. Massive amounts of backtracking and repetitive switching between the Kongs.

There isn't much in the way of platforming obstacle challenges in the game, so in my mind what's "supposed" to be the main appeal of the game is checklist pleasure of the collectathon. And yet, this game feels like it's designed with every intention of blue balling your collecting efforts at every corner.

Room has to be unlocked with Chunky. Walk in. Collectibles are for Tiny and Diddy.
There is one coin you don't need for Chunky.
The switch barrel is two screens back.

You unlocked a quick travel portal.
You've already gotten everything relevant on either side.

Oh hey, there's a few bananas on this remote section of the map for Diddy. I'll bet there's a Golden Banana or some—
It's just 5 regular bananas and a long quiet march back.

I could not, for the life of me, find a "flow" to the levels. It was like having to escort a 3 year old on an Easter Egg hunt, watching them pass by obvious eggs because they "have to grab the green ones first," then they change their mind half way through and want the red ones. Except the game has turned me into that 3 year old.

These analogies are getting rather odd, but that's just the language of the heart.

This is just the design as well. I'm forgiving of technical issues and control jank because of the platform and the time, but the prior frustrations made me much less tolerable. Though I will say the controls felt far more responsive than Banjo-Kazooie. The camera not so much. Felt like it was purpose built to smack into every collidable object on the screen and was never at the right angle.

And oh man, some of those mini-games....

Oddly enough, I actually enjoyed the two part finale of Hideout Helm and the King K. Rool fight. I was freely abusing the powers granted by playing on an emulator at that point, but since that's pretty much how most people would be playing it these days, might as well mark that as a win. 😅

In any case, as far as a recommendation, if you're a die-hard N64 or collectathon fan, you probably need to visit this game as a pilgrimige. Everyone else is probably best enjoying from a distance.

The first time I played Dark Souls was in 2011 on the Xbox 360, and while I got next to nowhere, I put some hours in over the next 6 years.

Dark Souls II arrived in 2014, but I fell off almost immediately.

Bloodborne arrived in 2015 and I got a good chunk in and loved it... still sucked and couldn't finish.

Dark Souls III arrived in 2016, and I loved it. Still took me a while, but by 2017 I managed to do it... in co-op.

Dark Souls Remastered arrives in 2018. I'm high off finishing III, my friends and I are having a blast in co-op and bullying people with dragon breath in PvP. I finally make it past the Bed of Chaos on this run and even choose to do all new fights solo first time.

I get to Gwyn.

I'm 10 Vitality, 30 Endurance, 57 Strength with a Black Knight Halberd and can't get the parry timing.

🙂

2019: Sekiro drops and I love it. Filtered by Genichiro (shelved)

2020: I get a wild hair and replay all of Dark Souls III and the DLC solo.

I try the Gwynn fight again

🙂

2022: Elden Ring drops. I no life it and beat in 90 hours over the first two weeks.

Riding high again, I face Gwyn yet again later that year

🙂

...

Here in the Year of Our Lord 2023, I finally got the parry timing down while once again being coached by my little brother. 🙏

---

Don't really have a full review for this one, as there's really nothing interesting I think I can add to the discussion of this game. Figured the timeline of my attempts to finish this one would at least be somewhat entertaining to read, though. 😅

I'm one of those people who loves this franchise dearly, even when I was just playing up until my level of frustration outpaced my satisfaction then shelved it for a while. It's a great game and I highly recommend it, but if you're here, you've already heard that. Perhaps even to the point of strangle the next one to say it.

.... Now to finish those other ones I shelved.

Gorgeous. This is a magnificently gorgeous VN. A perfect one? Probably not. But the presentation was so classy and refined that I feel the need to gush about it out of the gate.

I finished the main story of this VN a week ago, but I've been having a bit of a hard time coming up with a good, reasoned review of it. The thing is, it suits my particular tastes (or a subset of them, at least) so well that it's hard to sort out the this-was-done-wells from the how-I-like-it-dones.

It's an NVL style VN narrated in the third-person released in the year-of-our-Lord 2022. That, from the outset, is not something I've seen often. Part of my surprise may simply be my own lack of experience, as I am still relatively fresh to the medium, but when even The House in Fata Morgana uses the ADV format for text and a pseudo-third-person perspective, I'm inclined to believe that Witch on the Holy Night is a bit of rarity on those points.

In fact, I think Umineko is the only other VN I've read with a third-person perspective...

I bring that up because (in contrast to my ability to talk about the game) that style brought a detached objectiveness to the telling of the story that let it give detail and context as needed. Yet, it could also naturally maintain the atmosphere of secrets and solitude that were fundamental to the experience. To put my impression in a very generalized metaphor: compared to most VNs I've played this felt like watching a stage play compared to hearing a story from your buddy at the bar. That's not a measure of quality, but the difference was refreshing.

As for the content of the story, I'll start by levying what I imagine to be the biggest complaint that could be levied against it, which is that if you're already played or watched Type Moon's other prominent works, particularly Tsukihime or Fate/Stay Night, the broad strokes of the story here will feel very familiar. However, there's shift in tone and structure that I think make this the more compelling of the bunch (unless the fights in Fate are your main interest).

It's not as relentlessly edgy of a story as Tsukihime or Stay Night, and the plot is fundamentally more intimate. It's still set in Type Moon's signature secret world of "Magi" with all of their cutthroat ambitions and hazy sense of morality (which for the record, I enjoy about all of them), but there's no grand contest motivating the actors like a Holy Grail War. Instead, its very personal, immediate goals that spur the story along. Frankly, it's exactly the story I wanted from Type Moon after I finished Tsukihime just over a year ago.

I especially enjoyed the character writing here. Every cast member has a good amount of depth that's gradually revealed over the course of the story. The variety of happenings along the narrative reveal different layers of each personality, and those layers generally feel very consistent with the core of each character. But where there is some discrepency, it makes sense and you get just enough of a peek into the casts' internal conflicts to understand the mismatch in their actions. Their relationships with each other also evolve satisfyingly: sometimes through the tempering flame of conflict, sometimes through small gestures of compassion.

What I found rather surprising is, while there are certainly some fun romantic undertones in some of the interactions, the story never actually becomes a "romance." Normally I'd actually see this as a mark against it; nothing annoys me more than a romance that's teased and never delivered in a story. But here it actually works as the writing sets the expectation that romance won't be a focus, and more importantly it gives time to other kinds of meaningful character interactions to develop the characters' relationships. Conversations about goals, fears, values, history... you know, all those little parts of a peoples' lives that might be important.

The pacing is quite nice, too. It's definitely more on the methodical side, but the setting and presentation do their work to get you into its rhythm. With the winter imagery, the elegant artwork, the restrained framing and animation, and fairy-tale-esque elements; even a chimp-brain, button masher like me was convinced to slow down and take it in at the novel's pace.

I even waited for the text animations to finish (most of the time), which is practically unheard of for me.

And I will say yet again, the art and animation work was phenomenal. While it's not nearly as bombastic as a Muv-Luv, or Danganronpa, or Phoenix Wright, the amount of effort and subtle dynamism in every scene of the game was astounding to me.

... And yet as I sit here and throw all this praise at this game, I'm not actually sure how much of it would be appreciated by the wider audience. If I were being pretentious, I could say, "People just won't understand it's subtleties." But really what I'm curious about is how much other people will really relate to those details even when they see them. It's admittedly a fairly eccentric story at times even accounting for the cultural differences of it being a Japanese novel.

That perfectly fits my kind of eccentric, and while I'm not the most eccentric personality out there, I still feel like I just can't promise you'll come out as hot on it as I am.

I do have one objective complaint about the game, though. The translation seems like it could have used another editing pass. I don't know enough Japanese to spot any major discrepencies in the content itself, and it mostly read quite well in English, but there were a few moments with noticeable typos or small mismatches between what's said in the original VO and the English text. Nothing experience ruining, but I would have liked to see this novel get a little more polish there.

So, as far as recommendations go, I would say any regular VN enjoyer should put this on their radar. If you're a Type Moon fan already, then get this on the top of your backlog stack. For everyone else, look at some screenshots and promotional videos. If you like the atmosphere you see, I can at least assure it will deliver on that.

The first and last time I played this game all the way through was around 2009 when I was in middle school, and now replaying it in the year of our Lord 2023, I've realized that it left even more of an impression on me than I realized.

Like to the point where the first novel I've written has a noticeably similar premise. (oh, what's this link doing here)

In any case, I'm glad to see I still enjoy this game quite a deal. There are some flaws I can see now that more experienced with the medium (and I'm not scared by every moving shadow anymore) but the qualities that really made this game special are still just as evident as they were back in the day.

For me, those qualities are mainly the art style, atmosphere, and world building.

I've had a soft spot in my heart for art deco design for as long as I can remember — probably a seed planted by Batman the Animated Series — and the aesthetic is just so wonderfully portrayed here. Every inch of the screen drips with that design language while still taking ownership of the style with the inclusion of haunting deep ocean elements and the twisted darkness that infects the setting.

And what a setting it is. While I no longer quite find it "terrifying" as I used to, Rapture is still quite effective at creating a sense of tension and curiosity. The maze-like city is full of dramatic shadows, memorable set pieces, and a persistent sense that you are witnessing something once awe-inspiring as it teeters into oblivion. Especially early on in the game, you can feel the threat of its twisted inhabitants all around you, on the edge and teasing to make an entrance — generally with unpredictable timing, but not always.

Then there's its signature world building. This is arguably the aspect of BioShock that has had the most pervasive effect on game development in the modern era. The story of Rapture is a fascinating one and its one told through exploration of the world. The main plot can stand on its own, delivered through set piece scenes and over-radio monologues, but its the details found in the details of the environments and the scattered audio logs that gives it depth.

One thing I was expecting upon replay, was for the effect of all of that to be blunted by years of AAA games attempting the same tricks, some well and most not. Surprisingly, it was not. I was just an engaged by the gradually revealed web of plots as I was the first time. More so, actually, as I understand so much more of the details now that I'm older. 😂

While it's easy to just chalk it up to Rapture being intrinically more interesting as a unique and original setting — and I do have some bias just from personal tastes — but I think a good amount of it is also in technical factors in its execution:

1. The game rarely forced me to read, and when it did it kept it short.

This might make me sound like a troglodyte, but this has been a consistent pain-point for me with most modern story-heavy action games. They forget that they are, in fact, ACTION GAMES. People have mental inertia. It's hard to downshift to slowly reading a full-page memoir after you just fought off 16 crazed mutants in a tense struggle.

2. The audio logs are easy to consume and well acted.

Pick up the log. Press T. If it's interrupted, press the button again to replay the last one found. And they sound like radio dramas. You aren't just hearing information about the world, you're hearing a person's story about the world.

3. The environment prompts questions, the audio logs answer, and vice-versa.

You walk into a ruined party in a bar. There are New Years decorations scattered around in the flooding chamber. That's odd. Pick up an audio log, its from a lady that attended the party and ends in chaos.

It's a simple writing mechanic, but its pretty important. Likely the thing that most games manage to accomplish... but there's a part many of them miss...

4. Almost all of the optional story bits can tie back to the main plot or gameplay elements.

Who's this chick from the party? Oh, it's the main antagonists ex.
What's this dock worker talking about? Oh, it's a secret area with useful loot.

Finding a sad bit of lore about someone's struggle in the world is neat. Finding out they're the reason for some plot or world detail you were curious about is interesting.

There's more that could be said about the actual content of all these "extra" details, but I've said my piece, lmao.

I think the other topic worth touching on is the gameplay. It holds up better than I expected but it's definitely the most "aged" part of the game. The shooting is satisfying sometimes, a bit spongey at others. It's not very precise, but not very punishing with resource management either. The weapons and plasmids are fun, though, and the tension early game makes fights engaging. It falls apart later, though. Not so much that it's boring, but if you're managing your build options well at all, and making sure to explore pretty throughly (as you'll want to), you'll steam roll the last third of the game, if not the last half.

Also... the Wrench is so hilariously efficient and useful with a few of the "tonic" modifiers you can get that it almost ceases to be a shooter at some point.

That's not a complaint for me. I love that Wrench.

Anyway, to wrap up: if you haven't played this game, you should. It's classic that's readily accessible on modern systems, has that 360 era approachableness of design even if you're not big on shooters, and still feels pretty novel even 15 years later.

Is it a good game? ... Well, it's one that works, and fairly smoothly. Which is a lot more than I was expecting. I dunno if maybe it was a mess at launch and just got lovingly polished over time or what. But for a ... (checks price) ... $4.20 dollar game that exists solely to deliver a 20 minute cavalcade of streamer memes, this is actually quite competently put together. I say this as a software engineer going on 5 years of experience. There were a surpsing amount of small details in this game that didn't break even when I tried to.

I'm sure you could still find a hundred bugs in it if you're really looking, but there were little things like when a "smash" attack from a giant Illuminati triangle pounds you through the ground: you'd expect to just fall aimlessly haha game's over.

Nope. There's a funny little reverse gravity effect to pull you back into the world. That was tested for and a thematic and somewhat elegant solution found.

That's pretty special

Anyway, it is still a pretty dumb game, objectively, and old memes are old memes for better or worse. But I accepted its terms, had 30 minutes of fun with it, and grew to respect the man who brought it into existence.

If you have nostalgia for 2017 memes, then you'll probably get a chuckle out of this next Steam sale.

[Quick note on the most controversial part of the game at launch: performance. The game has stabalized quite a bit, but you'll still probably wanna get some updated benchmarks before committing if you're running something like a GTX 1060 or a RX 6500.]

Since this is one of those kind of replayable-mission-based, multiplayer, co-op shooters, I put off reviewing this until I felt like I had a chunk of time in to see how my initial good impression held up as I sunk into the systems.

The answer is that after 40+ hours I still don't really care about the systems because I just wanna shoot plasma gun and watch dirty Nurgle worshipper pop like balloon.

Of this Left 4 Dead lineage of high-volume shooter, I'm quite confident in saying this is the most visceral, impactful, and satisfying one yet put out. I've been a casual enjoyer of the 40k universe since I was introduced to it with Dawn of War II, and this is the game my Quake raised brain has wanted in it since day 1.

The environments are awesome. The lighting is incredible. The graphics all-around make me feel pretty good about the money I've spent on my computer 😂. The sound design rocks. The MUSIC

OH LAWDY THE MUSIC

And so many of these weapons are so fun!

Even better — and probably why everyone's mid-low range computers were getting absolutely toasted on launch — Fat Shark somehow managed to up visually fidelity and shove 2-3 times more enemies onto the map at any one time than I ever saw in Vermintide. That, or they've managed to make the hordes "feel" more voluminous either by more aggressive, enveloping pathing or just through visual tweaks to the size and presence of each model. Probably a mix of all of the above.

The point is, I haven't been able to really think critically about things like "the scaling of combat" and "weapon balance" because when I go into a 3 or 4 difficulty mission (out of 5) with "High Intensity" active, I'm just swept away into the joy of trying to survive against an insane mob.

Even when it's overwhelming it never feels quite hopeless. Or perhaps it's better to say, even when it's hopeless I still just wanna cut and blast and try to fight my way out. It's great.

To that end, the game is actually surprsingly less punishing with health and reviving than Vermintide was. It's not coddling, but the rules on health and recovery have been made more cut-and-dry. If you make it to the next med-station, you can heal back to full and be ready for the next push. They've opted to have "shields" on top of regular health this time, instead of the temporary health recovery present in Vermintide, so now getting grazed by a hit or two isn't as annoyingly detrimental as before.

Geniously, they've introduced a "Unit Cohesion" rule (and other very tabletop inspired mechanics that I quite enjoyed) that serves as the only way to passively recover shields — outside of a handful of situational class abilities. That both removes the plainness of a hide-and-recharge based shield and has been fairly effective in getting groups of matchmade players to actually try and stick together.

As a hobbyist game designer, I bloody love that mechanic.

And they provide a counter balance to it with the active form of shield regeneration, keeping it from being miserable during the times where you need to split up: killing enemies in melee also recovers a chunk of shields. A skilled player can use that to cut themselves a bloody trail to their goal and back, but run out of nearby enemies when shooters descend or simply make too many mistakes and you're in for it.

So basically I'm in love with the core gameloop here and have been very satisfied with it....

Which is good because currently that's really all there is to the game: repeat the same 12-16 missions with different difficulty modifiers and collect gear to optimize your build. There are no story missions or a "Chaos Wastes" type rogue-lite mode to vary it up. The missions are designed a fair bit smarter than Vermintide's original set in that they took a few more clues from the Chaos Waste's maps on how to get more replayability out of them, but the fact remains.

So the game is best enjoyed in bursts. If you try to binge this with some kind of "completion" goal, the game will not satisfy you.

If you boot it up for an hour or two per session for lark with the boiz or to just let off some steam, then it will cover that need splendidly.

Definite recommend for Left 4 Dead fans and Warhammer 40k fans with an interest in shooters.