Alan Wake 1 is a 10/10 psychological horror/thriller movie trapped and constrained by a pretty average action adventure game. I can absolutely see why a sequel came out after 13 years. It's just so dense with potential, especially after that ending.
The gameplay itself is the only drawback. Pretty serviceable third person shooting with very repetitive and sometimes annoying encounters. Nice enemy variety, however no real variety in how to best them. The possessed objects are never fun.
The narrative, effort, and style simply elevate it far beyond a stock standard 2010s action game with horror elements. The attention to things that make it feel - for lack of a better term - off, and again, more than a production-line action game. The live action parts, the music, licensed or original (Space Oddity plays during the credits and it's amazing). Hell the entire story itself is something I've never seen before. I can't even conceptualise how someone came up with this. Very impressive.
All in all the best 7/10 I've ever seen.

while waiting for this game to fully release I have (in no particular order)
-hit puberty
-been to a psychiatric hospital
-lost my virginity
-had a nephew and a niece
-started developing games of my own
-joined a cult
-left a cult
-had about 11 boyfriends, girlfriends and other partners
-endured intense psychological trauma
-become a completely different person
-shaved my head
-grown dreadlocks
-shaved my head again
-grew my hair out
-read the entirety of Homestuck
-watched Evangelion
-watched lain
-played chaos;head
-played subahibi
-got really into denpa
-become a horror movie collector
-grown out of whatever phase i was in when i was into games like this
-learned french
-started learning japanese
-learned the banjo
-learned the ukulele
-learned the guitar
-learned the violin
-learned piano
-learned python
-learned HTML
-learned how to draw
-learned pixel art
-moved house 6/7/8ish times
-learned how to sew
-aged about 9 years
-played AA2 (which is basically yansim if it was good)
-played Daigaku Gurashi (which is basically AA2 with less boobs)
-seen several attempts at remaking yansim come and go
-been hospitalized
-drank alcohol for the first time
-smoked a cigarette for the first time
-been to a party for the first time
-been 2 years clean from SH
-seen the fnaf movie
-made a backloggd account
(and that's just off the top of my head)

I‘ve admittedly taken a break from gaming this past month. My mental health has been quite all over the place & I really lacked the energy to start something new as a result. And while I haven’t abandoned any of the games I’m currently playing through, I definitely have been demotivated as a result to continue them. Normally I’m not one to open up about this sort of thing but I do feel like it’s very important to give some context on where my mindset is at the moment when it comes to gaming.

Hi-Fi RUSH is exactly what I needed at this time. This game is absolutely fantastic & as someone who loves Devil May Cry & Bayonetta, it was pretty obvious this game would be up my alley. But I didn’t expect it to make this big of an impact on me. This is the most fun I’ve had in a very long time & it’s one of the most unique experiences I’ve had with a game in years.

I’m not usually someone who cares much for graphics in games but I have to start off with talking about just how gorgeous this artstyle is. It’s vibrant, it’s colourful, it’s just so varied in its design making every single level stand out & feel so alive. I also loved how this game transitions from its beautiful animated cutscenes into the gameplay itself, it really is so seamless. This feels like a title from 15-20 years ago & I mean that in the best way. If you told me this was a game from the early days of the PS3 I would believe you it just has that kind of vibe to it & I absolutely love that. It’s so different to everything else we see nowadays where so many developers are focused on making realistic cinematic experiences & I honestly miss seeing this amount of creativity from game developers.

Let’s talk about the combat. At first glance, sure this looks like a fun action game but a big part of the gameplay is the music. Now I will admit I’ve never really played a lot of rhythm games. I can see they certainly have their audience but for me, it’s never been something I’ve delved very deep into. That being said however, THE COMBAT IN THIS GAME IS SO DAMN SATISFYING. Managing to time your attacks to the beat of the song is one of the most satisfying feelings I’ve had playing a game in my life. You have a bunch of attacks in your arsenal such as light & heavy attacks, a dodge & a parry & the amount of combos you can unlock to pull off too as well as special attacks, partner beat attacks & parry counters, there is so much depth to the combat it’s unreal. But here’s the most interesting part. It’s not just your attacks that time to the music but the enemies & the world too. And that is truly one of the coolest aspects of this game to me. It’s definitely difficult to master but when you actually do, the feeling really can’t be described.

And how could I talk about this game without mentioning the soundtrack itself, OH THE SOUNDTRACK. This is no exaggeration one of the greatest OSTs I’ve ever heard, every single song fits so perfectly not just with the gameplay but the vibe of the entire game itself. There’s a number of licensed songs but a lot of original ones made too. So many moments throughout my time playing through Hi-Fi RUSH I just had a massive grin on my face. I can’t exactly put into words just how much serotonin I felt with one battle sequence late in the story but if you’ve played this game, you may already have an idea of what I’m referring to.

The humour in this game is honestly on point. There’s so many tongue in cheek moments & I can tell that the writers had a lot of fun with crafting the narrative. The amount of references too don’t feel forced either & they really serve the narrative quite well. As for the story itself? Yeah it’s really good. It’s not going to win any awards for being complex or deep but it’s executed in a way that’s really hard for me to complain about & the actual story beats really worked for me & kept me intrigued & wanting to keep going forward. The characters were incredibly likeable especially main protagonist Chai who is given so much life from the performance of the always excellent Robbie Daymond. It was very hard not to root for him against the bad guys & the other characters are pretty great too like Peppermint, Macaron, CNMN & one other that I’ll let you discover for yourself if you haven’t played the game yet, though if you’re this far through my review & haven’t picked it up, what are you doing?

Honestly the fact this game exists just amazes me. In an industry with so many narrative driven experiences that AAA devs insist on churning out every year for frankly ludicrous amounts of money, Hi-Fi RUSH stands as something completely unique & fresh. It’s a reminder that above all else that at the end of the day, video games are meant to be fun & if there’s anything that I could wish for? It’s that by the time the credits started rolling, I just wanted more. Yes 10 hours is a more than fine length for a game such as this but I think it would’ve been cool if we got some kind of story expansion or even a sequel which unfortunately will never see the light of day because Tango Gameworks were shut down (thanks for that Microsoft.)

Despite all that though, Hi-Fi RUSH is an excellent game & more than worth your time & money. And I really really hope that with the more people that support it, we can somehow show that when a dev team is allowed to just do something completely different & pour so much love & passion into a project, it can create something not only truly magical for them but for gamers itself. If you love video games, you absolutely owe it to yourself to play Hi Fi-Rush. I’m not asking, I’m demanding. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played & I adore it with every fibre of my being.

Final rating: 9/10

There are three ways to approach Fear & Hunger. Yes, this is an overly reductive take, but bear with me.

The first approach is casual. Load it up, wander around, lose your shit at the first sight of a stinger, die early, and then quit and experience the game vicariously via YouTube. Approached this way, F&H is actually a great experience. It has a unique aesthetic and broaches topics that rarely appear in the medium of games.

The second approach is hardcore. Play for a while, die a lot, double down, study the wiki, learn the best strategies, take advantage of the game’s secrets, and become an F&H expert. For gamers who want to dig in deep, F&H can also be an excellent game. It offers all sorts of mechanics, many of which are hidden, for tenacious players to discover and exploit. Likewise, it’s packed with rewarding secrets for those willing to put in the work. Notably, players who play this way are also the ones who make captivating Let’s Play videos of the game.

Which brings us to the third way, a middle approach which falls between the first two. More dedicated than casual, but not as deep-diving as hardcore. This is where I fall in the F&H spectrum, and as you probably guessed from the two-star rating I slapped on this review, I did not have a good time.

The biggest issue for me is time. Fear & Hunger is a slow game. Your character walks like they’re wearing stone boots. Yes, there are ways to move faster, but you won’t find them unless you engage in lots of trial and error or read a guide.

The slow pace is exacerbated by the fact that life or death is often predicated a literal coinflip. Yes, there are many ways to avoid coinflips – methods which you can learn via extensive trial and error or guides. If you’re really crafty, you can even find a way to turn the coin flips in your favor – but it’s a secret you’re unlikely to discover without the help of a guide.

Personally, I found that the slow pace and chance-based deaths worked against the horror elements. Horror works best when there’s a sense of relief every now and then, but here it’s all tension all the time. Likewise for the obscenity: The game turns the flesh up to 11 early, and after ten or fifteen minutes I was completely inured to the depravity. When everything is obscene, nothing is.

After a few failed runs, I grew tired of the tedium. Under most circumstances I would’ve just dropped the game, but it was the game of the month for a group I’m in, so I felt compelled to finish it. So instead of quitting I downloaded a “Game Genie-fied” version (whoops – my age is showing) of the game that gave me lots of extra weapons and items and plowed my way through.

A few hours later, I limped across the finish line. Burnt out as I was, I was still feeling curious about why everyone else loves this game, so I jumped over to YouTube and watched a few Let’s Plays. Taking a step back like this, extricating myself from the brutality, helped me appreciate the game more. The art is lovely, and there are all sorts of cool mechanics that I didn’t even know existed.

That’s good and all. But it doesn’t change the fact that my experience playing the game was less Fear & Hunger and more Tedium & Frustration.

It was my second time beating this game. The first one was during its release.

You know, there're not that much games which capture my soul entirely, but this one... It's one of them.

Hi-Fi Rush is a helluva banger, and I despise Microsoft for closing Tango Gameworks. It's a game which doesn't have a deep, hard plot or something like that, but instead it has a striking and fun gameplay, a bunch of jokes, some adrenaline attractions, and, after all, a fucking soul put in it.

The entire soundtrack is a banger, especially the selected copyright songs (I mean, there's Prodigy!!!), and... Damn, I have no words to describe how cool this game is. It's just so well done, that it grabs and doesn't let you go 'till the very end. Just try it out for yourself, and spend a couple of hours of yours playing a game that actually deserves your attention and all the praise it has.

Fuck you, Microsoft. I'll never forgive you.