Very weird game. On the one hand, god damn is this gorgeous, holy shit. We're almost 4 whole years into "next-gen" and we've finally got a game that LOOKS THE PART. There's brief flashes in here where I had to do a double take because my brain completely bought into the idea of it being real. Just for a second or two, but still. I've never had a game do that for me, and yet somehow, Ninja Theory (plus millions of dollars of Microsoft bucks) pulled it off. Bravo lads!

On the other hand, this is a massive step back in pretty much every other facet from the first game. The combat is even more simplistic (and there's a lot less of it), as are the puzzles (which are also way less varied), and the storytelling. Iceland is a cool setting, but it's got nothing on Helheim, with its varied imagery and boss designs. The giants are cool, but there's only two of them, and one of them got shown in its entirety at the game awards 3 years ago. That wouldn't really be a problem if there was much GAME here, but it's bordering on walking sim, and not in a good way.

I do really hope Ninja Theory keeps getting to make their weird, ambitious passion projects. With any luck they'll get to squeeze another one out (with some gameplay, perchance!? please!) before Microsoft realizes they've spent hundreds of millions of dollars on some Dear Esther sequels.