macmesa
2019
A complete failure in every possible creative avenue. A compilation of everything wrong with over-eager pretentious video game design. Why you don't let a bloated egoist auteur run amuck with infinite money and autonomy. There's a reason he had a publisher.
2015
Awful in almost every way, but I love it for whatever reason. The seriously out-of-touch dialogue and silly plot are charming enough I suppose.
2016
Still don't really understand why this one is so universally beloved. The centerpiece relationship is fine but nothing we've never seen before. It's a shame that a talented studio is probably headed toward an inevitable demise under a really bad publisher. I hope they gave the writers a raise so they could buy their way out of making more awful star wars games.
2008
Well and truly one of the most overrated video games ever. A repetitive slog with clunky, outdated shooting. The story it's trying to tell is SY-FY channel-esque. The atmosphere it tries to build is mostly successful but not really original.
2010
David Cage is one of the worst things to happen to video games in the 21st century. The way he writes his stories is a plague.
Couldn't tell you a single thing that happened. Played it twice.
2010
Really bad
2022
A genuine elevation of the medium. I'd be surprised if I played a better game from 2022.
2019
Exodus digs its heels with its mediocre combat and laughable stealth but the effective qualities still shine through to demonstrate the brutality of Metro's world. What makes this one worth your time are the characters. Exodus is written very maturely and with humanity. Worth your time.
Some of the most torturously derivative gameplay and exploration fraught with overambition. The game is held up by one of the best stories told with the best ensemble cast in video games so far. If the game was 10ish hours shorter it could've been one of the best.
2022
A great concept brought down by an inconsistent tone, hit-or-miss improv troupe humor, and despite its short runtime, bloat. There's a reason a Monty Python sketch was only a few minutes long. Imagine if you had to listen to the lumberjack song for 6 hours but while you're listening the Mounties were giving you a lecture about the dangers of collectivization.
2021
I hate to be harsh on something that came from a genuine, human place but Adios is a pretty complete failure. There's not a lot to say other than that this shouldn't be a video game in its current state. Adios being a video game adds nothing to it; It takes away quite a bit as it turns out. The visual ugliness takes the player out of the experience constantly. The inconsistent writing is sometimes cringeworthy. The "game-y" elements are half-hearted at best (why was that fishing thing there to begin with and why did it take what felt like several years to complete). The story is, overall, quite boring but the dialogue has sparks of humanity that keep you invested. The story that's being told holds plenty of merit but despite its short runtime, Aidos was just a waste of a fine premise and ended up being a slog. I hope the team at Mischief continues working because clearly, they've got heart. Just remember why video games are special and don't be afraid to invest in the art form, which you obviously care about.
2021
This review contains spoilers
Inscryption is pretty good.
The atmosphere is outstanding, it's genuinely creepy and well-written. I ended up liking two characters in particular and was sad to see them go. The problems however kinda outweighed what made the game worth playing. The core gameplay loop, a simple deck-building card game, does wear out its welcome about three-quarters into the game. The surprises in this loop stop coming about halfway through and the loop doesn't really regain its steam after that. The initial tension that made the card game so addictive, the threat of starting over and murder, kept me hooked for what turned out to be the entire game.
The story is satisfyingly subversive and that alone gets Inscryption a very long way but, like the gameplay loop, the plot runs out of steam towards the end and doesn't quite stick the landing. There were moments of genuine heart but that kind of became cluttered around a more messy, spare ideas gauntlet. It was just so excited around its own premise that it got a bit confused and pretty disorganized in its execution.
The final ending just didn't resonate very much and turned out to be a bit generic and predictable.
Overall, Inscryption was worth the time for the many fun ideas within, the decent card game underneath, and some genuine creativity and clear passion. Daniel Mullins gets so much better after everything he does, that is extremely exciting for his future.
This and Adios are demonstrating a disturbing trend where the main character getting abruptly shot in the head is considered good enough for a satisfying ending. It isn't, ask Tony Soprano.
The atmosphere is outstanding, it's genuinely creepy and well-written. I ended up liking two characters in particular and was sad to see them go. The problems however kinda outweighed what made the game worth playing. The core gameplay loop, a simple deck-building card game, does wear out its welcome about three-quarters into the game. The surprises in this loop stop coming about halfway through and the loop doesn't really regain its steam after that. The initial tension that made the card game so addictive, the threat of starting over and murder, kept me hooked for what turned out to be the entire game.
The story is satisfyingly subversive and that alone gets Inscryption a very long way but, like the gameplay loop, the plot runs out of steam towards the end and doesn't quite stick the landing. There were moments of genuine heart but that kind of became cluttered around a more messy, spare ideas gauntlet. It was just so excited around its own premise that it got a bit confused and pretty disorganized in its execution.
The final ending just didn't resonate very much and turned out to be a bit generic and predictable.
Overall, Inscryption was worth the time for the many fun ideas within, the decent card game underneath, and some genuine creativity and clear passion. Daniel Mullins gets so much better after everything he does, that is extremely exciting for his future.
This and Adios are demonstrating a disturbing trend where the main character getting abruptly shot in the head is considered good enough for a satisfying ending. It isn't, ask Tony Soprano.
2001
This review contains spoilers
Silent Hill 2 is the greatest piece of interactive media ever created, bar none.
Team Silent produces an atmosphere that cannot be replicated with world class graphical fidelity or all the processing power on all the world's computers running at once.
The game presents a deeply tragic, human story of a genuinely flawed human being who has done a terrible thing. The protagonist could be anyone. He is wholly relatable no matter the player's background. His personal hell is broad enough and plays with the core makings of the modern man in a way that allows for the universal application of his desires and fears.
This is all brilliantly displayed in the game and its interpretation is nearly completely left up to the player. Doing so is the real achievement of Silent Hill 2. No game, in my opinion, has come even remotely close to capturing such mature themes and doing it so well. The level of design, music, art design, atmosphere, tone, everything, all works harmoniously to see this man's nightmare come to life.
The game is quite dated visually and mechanically as it certainly looks and plays like a game released in 2001. I would argue that the dated graphical makeup serves the game's uneasy tone very well. The thick fog and low polygon count allow for the character design to flourish in ambiguity but none of what I just said is original. This is a nearly universal appreciation.
The gameplay however is more contested. It's pretty awful. The combatants are spongey and very easily avoided. This does draw some tension away which is quite interesting for me to say as for the entire seven-hour duration I was constantly terrified and unnerved.
The combat is quite bad I think. So what makes this worth being a video game? This is my favorite question as it challenges what we perceive to be mainstream quality today.
Silent Hill 2 is an introspective nightmare beyond comprehension and lucid logic. The puzzles are confusing and hardly make any sense but this is consistent as the world geometry is hardly consistent at all. Characters mood's change sometimes from each inflection of vowels within words, entire sections of the map will be blocked off at one point and free to explore the next with no explanation. An entire 90-minute section takes place in what should be about 30 yards of space underground at the absolute most. This all reinforces the malevolence of the town itself as an actor in the world. There is something beyond imagination at play and no it's not the stupid eldreich God shit from the other games, at least not in my mind. This is the punishing subconscious of a man bearing the most horrible guilt. It makes no sense as our nightmares rarely do. His grief and regret are overwhelming and the overwhelming nature of these emotions often leads to such internal confusion.
Further, the traversal in Silent Hill 2, not helped by the deeply irritating camera, is brilliant. The extension of certain corridors past their natural length draws you in and compresses you with such a thick tension that it steals your breath. This is an almost unexplainable feeling best captured by the moment but it can by no means be replicated by a movie, book, or whatever else.
This game is maddeningly good. It transcends the art form like no other.
Team Silent produces an atmosphere that cannot be replicated with world class graphical fidelity or all the processing power on all the world's computers running at once.
The game presents a deeply tragic, human story of a genuinely flawed human being who has done a terrible thing. The protagonist could be anyone. He is wholly relatable no matter the player's background. His personal hell is broad enough and plays with the core makings of the modern man in a way that allows for the universal application of his desires and fears.
This is all brilliantly displayed in the game and its interpretation is nearly completely left up to the player. Doing so is the real achievement of Silent Hill 2. No game, in my opinion, has come even remotely close to capturing such mature themes and doing it so well. The level of design, music, art design, atmosphere, tone, everything, all works harmoniously to see this man's nightmare come to life.
The game is quite dated visually and mechanically as it certainly looks and plays like a game released in 2001. I would argue that the dated graphical makeup serves the game's uneasy tone very well. The thick fog and low polygon count allow for the character design to flourish in ambiguity but none of what I just said is original. This is a nearly universal appreciation.
The gameplay however is more contested. It's pretty awful. The combatants are spongey and very easily avoided. This does draw some tension away which is quite interesting for me to say as for the entire seven-hour duration I was constantly terrified and unnerved.
The combat is quite bad I think. So what makes this worth being a video game? This is my favorite question as it challenges what we perceive to be mainstream quality today.
Silent Hill 2 is an introspective nightmare beyond comprehension and lucid logic. The puzzles are confusing and hardly make any sense but this is consistent as the world geometry is hardly consistent at all. Characters mood's change sometimes from each inflection of vowels within words, entire sections of the map will be blocked off at one point and free to explore the next with no explanation. An entire 90-minute section takes place in what should be about 30 yards of space underground at the absolute most. This all reinforces the malevolence of the town itself as an actor in the world. There is something beyond imagination at play and no it's not the stupid eldreich God shit from the other games, at least not in my mind. This is the punishing subconscious of a man bearing the most horrible guilt. It makes no sense as our nightmares rarely do. His grief and regret are overwhelming and the overwhelming nature of these emotions often leads to such internal confusion.
Further, the traversal in Silent Hill 2, not helped by the deeply irritating camera, is brilliant. The extension of certain corridors past their natural length draws you in and compresses you with such a thick tension that it steals your breath. This is an almost unexplainable feeling best captured by the moment but it can by no means be replicated by a movie, book, or whatever else.
This game is maddeningly good. It transcends the art form like no other.
2007
This and Silent Hill 2 are the only games I can honestly say, are perfect. There is not an ounce of fat on Portal. It is sharply written, designed, and executed without a blemish. There isn't much to say but this is a real achievement in the medium of video games.