i don't think i ever had this experience where a game i was loving so much, soured so spectacularly. the first few hours of it, i was ready to give it 5 stars, gushing with praises about the impact of weapons, the shotgun specifically that melts people at close range and evaporates heads while a brain flies of to some random place in the room, the perfect emulation of john wick and how sliding into a group of enemies is like a strike in bowling.

and then the problems started. sure, as a fear spiritual successor i was expecting horror, and so the goop zombies although not great enemies felt ok, and the mothman was kinda even cool, but the level design started to become boring.
and then it nosedives, with a jumpscare i actually groaned at it. a forced stealth segment with the dumbest most youtuber spooking ass monster you ever saw. and then, why not? the backrooms. not inspired or anything, the actual backroom, just because it automatically makes the game scary i guess? even though it makes no sense?

this soon is followed my a succession of awful bosses, weird story, dialogue and NPCs and the dumbest and most predictable betrayal ever written in video games. and in this torrent of bad stuff, the mediocre edges start to surface. the repetitiveness of the combat, the emptiness of the hub in-between missions, the lack of any uniqueness and originality in the design of characters, levels and even the world.

i am actually annoyed not just at the game itself, but at how much it goes downhill after a few short levels. started with a strong 5 and ended with a 1, so i guess a 3 is fair score overall.