I need to replay this game. My expectations ruined my first playthrough :( It's a game that kind of transcends genre in that it takes storytelling to new heights to build this whole world and establish this rich cast of characters.

However, I came into this blind expecting something linear/easy, casual and straightforward (a la Abzu, Life is Strange, Night in the Woods). I only played late nights before bed and fell asleep playing it during at least three of the five acts. It moves at a very contemplative pace, but it came across as glacial. I expected something grounded so the constant introduction of new surreal sci-fi type aspects took me out every single time. Also, it's not casual in that these storylines are heavy. Technically the plot is simple (at its core it's a road trip), but we've got characters all struggling through different crises and hardships that can be felt even in between their lines of dialogue.

But of course as the game progressed I got more into it and understood its rhythms and by the end of the fifth act I was all in. It's a gorgeous, melancholy game set in what feels like a southern rural gothic atmosphere about anything and everything in life. It's got themes of found family, home, regret – the past as a ghost, friendship, loneliness, healing, technology and labor, the list goes on and on. I will think about this game for a long time. And the soundtrack bangs. I cried to basically all the lyrical songs.