The narrative and atmosphere/tension are 5/5 at times. Alan's sections are amazing. The shadows that you're unsure of being enemies or not are genius. I like there being two different story-lines that you can switch between from. I think one or the other could've gotten boring if the entire game was just one of those story-lines. I like the RE2 style of gameplay for a more tense gameplay experience. The meta style of storytelling is really fun especially if you're a fan of remedy games.
There is little gameplay. The gameplay that is there is decent. But the dodging mechanic is questionable and the running speed is slow enough to make running back to areas slightly annoying. The game does tension and horror brilliantly but severely overuses jumpscares to the point of irritation. The narrative has some elements that are a little confusing for me. I don't completely understand Alex Casey or Thomas Zane.
Saga's sections are great but not as innovative. She is also unfortunately part of the industry trend in movies, shows, and games of underwritten boring female protagonists. She is more interesting than the protagonist in Remdy's last game (Control). But being more charismatic than Plank from Ed, Edd n Eddy is not much of an achievement. Replacing Saga with Casey or similar to Casey could've brought this narrative to a 5/5.
Xbox Series X Version: This game is being hailed as a graphical showcase. Especially on PC. But I feel the grainy ray tracing in this version is really distracting and bad looking. I would've rather had no ray tracing.
There's quite a bit that bothered me but didn't completely ruin my experience to lower the rating from a 4.5
There is little gameplay. The gameplay that is there is decent. But the dodging mechanic is questionable and the running speed is slow enough to make running back to areas slightly annoying. The game does tension and horror brilliantly but severely overuses jumpscares to the point of irritation. The narrative has some elements that are a little confusing for me. I don't completely understand Alex Casey or Thomas Zane.
Saga's sections are great but not as innovative. She is also unfortunately part of the industry trend in movies, shows, and games of underwritten boring female protagonists. She is more interesting than the protagonist in Remdy's last game (Control). But being more charismatic than Plank from Ed, Edd n Eddy is not much of an achievement. Replacing Saga with Casey or similar to Casey could've brought this narrative to a 5/5.
Xbox Series X Version: This game is being hailed as a graphical showcase. Especially on PC. But I feel the grainy ray tracing in this version is really distracting and bad looking. I would've rather had no ray tracing.
There's quite a bit that bothered me but didn't completely ruin my experience to lower the rating from a 4.5