Around the beginning of the year, I looked back at my rating for Outer Wilds with a bit of hesitation. I may be more generous than many other reviewers with my 5/5's, but I still genuinely consider everything I give the perfect score to, a league above the rest, and as I looked at Outer Wilds, I couldn't conjure up as many concrete reasons, as I could with any of the others, to the point where I retroactively changed the rating to a 4. So I began to tackle the DLC, in hopes of remembering what blew me away about this game, in a previous life.
Outer Wilds is a game that I played alongside over 50 other's in the oft unfondly remembered year of 2020. During those months of quarantine, fewer and fewer hours at work, and dwindling social interaction, I took to clearing out my backlog at a rabid pace. It got to the point where I was playing multiple story heavy games in the same day. I begin to get addicted to watching the credits roll after beating a game, and so I just kept going, realistically past the point of burnout, but this was Covid era, I was experiencing burnout with everything. And then in October, after my declaration of a 52 game/One game a week pace for 2020, I played Outer Wilds. I was charmed by the world, the atmosphere, but I genuinely wasn't viewing the game for what it actually is. While I was playing Outer Wilds like an open world adventure game with cool sci fi flare, I was missing out on the layered puzzle at the core of it all. For whatever reason, I viewed the obtuse logic and note rewarding puzzles as obstructions to seeing the credits roll, so I willfully looked up walkthroughs, almost immediately when I'd hit an impasse. By the time I made it to the remarkable finale, I tried my best to feel proud of what I'd accomplished, but over time the victory began to feel hollow, and I desperately wished to wipe my memory of the game and start fresh.
Fast forward to 2023; Life went on, my game completion rate dwindled, but everything else began to improve. It wasn't until I sat down with a newly acquired PS Plus (Extra) subscription, and noticed a familiar space-traveling game, that I decided to give Outer Wilds another shot. It was genuinely like I was playing a new game, despite my previous knowledge undercutting some puzzles, I was still having a blast reading the history of the Nomai, figuring out their technologies and cities, and using immensely satisfying A->B->C logic chains to get a full picture of what I had seen 3 years ago. It was then that I remembered that I had purchased the games' acclaimed DLC soon after beating it, but I had simply never played it.
I had a miniature revelation moment, knowing that this was my chance to experience a chunk of the organic discovery process the base game offered, with completely fresh eyes. I made it my goal to avoid walkthroughs, unless I had tried out everything to the extent of my knowledge, I focused on deductions and exploration, and I ended up being genuinely blown away by what Echoes of the Eye has to offer.
This may be one of the best-in-class complete packages that I've ever seen for DLC of a game, it offers something completely fresh, while keeping the same satisfying design principles that the base game did.
As I type this review, I am about one hour removed from the completion of Echoes of the Eye, the tears have dried a while ago, but the impression that I'm getting, is that I finally understand not only what I felt in 2020, but what I missed, playing this game back then with guides. I hope everyone can find some sense of satisfaction with this weird, messy entertainment medium, because Echoes of the Eye definitely reminded me of what that feels like.

plague knight's expansion is, for lack of a better word, weird. in the best way possible however. plague knight is a bit of an anomaly compared to the other knights you take control of in treasure trove. he has the worst movement options, but at the same time, has amazing movement options? he's not very powerful in head to head combat, and yet, can melt enemies and bosses way faster than any other playable knight can. he's a weird, little gremlin man and they capture that vibe perfectly in his 'kit'. this is definitely the most difficult campaign of the 4 (although I fucking suck at joustus so king knight is a close second) . i used to struggle so hard playing as plague knight, this is actually the first time I've beaten this game! and I gotta say, it was wonderful. plague of shadows is the king of hair pulling moments in treasure trove by far and none of the 3 other games come close. but i think that's going to make me come back way more. it feels like i can learn to get better at him, whereas with specter knight, it feels like i know everything there is to him. i can't write a review without mentioning how cute plague knight and mona are together, i love them. also, i mention polar knight in every shovel knight review i've posted, so i also need to do so here. i wish polar knight got his own game. either way, this was a great time, and this definitely isn't the last time i'll play this

look you can give me all these fancy ass magic powers and special grenades that turn anything with a pH value of 9 or above into feathers if u use it on thursday, but if you give me a shotgun and ammo for that shotgun i will use that and nothing else. But this was cool and I enjoyed how u can do whatever even leaving. Ya U can just leave. THats my canon ending bc thats what i would do in this situation. anyways it was pretty sick. Also loved the semi survival stuff. Flying super fast into something and actually getting a concussion??? fucking awesome. what other game lets you get a concussion? i tried to search for lists of games that let you get a concussion but unfortunately I was unable to find what I was looking for. Its a bit more simple than something like deus ex 1 but it feels like deus ex more than deus ex HR so thats got 2 say something.. CYA

Mushroom zombies is the dumbest idea ever. Why ruin the best monster with a mushroom? I can’t take it seriously at all. Mushroom monsters are reserved for Mario. I can’t be scared of a pizza topping. Not only that, but their face looks like pepperoni. OK I guess theyre going with a pizza zombie theme. But then out of nowhere they start making dolphin sounds. OK buddy... I get you're trying to be different from every other zombie thing but the appeal of zombie things is that they could all happen in the same world.

Like oh im passing thru this house and maybe umm idk Ben from night of the living dead was here. Whatever. The spore thing is stupid too and serves no purpose. I dont like "clickers" and the fact that its impossible to melee fight them more than one at a time. I dont like the puzzles all being ladder or plank or wood pallet and i dont like how close the camera is to your character wtf i cant see anything.


and the camera zooms in dramatically every time you do a melee hit and you get less and less situational awareness and it sucks because these mushroom bitches can one shot you if they approach you but i cant see you because im punching this zombie and i can see about 4 milimeters of my 900 inch 4k tv screen not being taken up by joel, the man with the shoulders of me on steroids.

In fact im gonna go on record as to saying I think this may not even be fixed if it was playable with a keyboard and mouse. I'm sorry to everyone who stockholmed themselves into thinking that videogames are playable on controllers but I feel about 60% in control of my character at any given moment.

I couldve pulled off some badass shit if i was allowed to aim and do an input without pressing up left quarter circle l2 at the same time to switch my gun. Even then the melee system still somehow doesnt understand that we figured out targeting with devil may cry 3 and hell probably before that who gives a shit.

Now im using my last melee charge on this baby normal zombie who cant one shot me and oh look the one shot pizza zombies coming here time to do the whole encounter again. FUCK limited melee weapons i hate them with all my heart let me have a knife or something i swear to you i can smash a baseball bat into someone full force and it'd break on the first hit but that's because i'm extremely strong. if someone like joel were to hit a baseball bat into someone you know it would last for a very long time because it's made of strong wood sometimes aluminum or something not plywood.

Seriously i dont get the obsession with having charged up/limited melee attacks in these arkham knockoff stealth games like this and deus ex HR. What a god damn shit show for real. But yeah now for the good parts. This game is really good, i love the story and the graphics, the writing is nice, i insulted the combat a bit earlier but when it works and you're smashing zombie heads into the wall and punching them into pieces it feels amazing.

I love exploring neighborhoods and stuff and looting its very relaxing and nice. I would love to live in a zombie apocalypse IRL i think it'd be very relaxing just like that.

Yeah so... now for the elephant in the room. Yes I know I had this game at one star before. Why did I give it another try?
well aside from not being able to think about anything but walking dead for the past 6 months, I've been curious as to why so many love this game and think its the best ever made.

And yeah I totally get it now. I'm a man, I'm man enough to admit when I was wrong. I've sinned a lot in my life and I've made plenty of mistakes. I shot my brother, I rated encore higher than to pimp a butterfly, I watched Jane die, but nothing.. nothing will compare to the 9 years I have spent thinking and telling others that this game was bad.

And for that ... I apologize. But I'm thinking... does this make me a normie? am I a normie now? am I gonna line up for the next god of war reboot game? oh pls no. I need to play something patrician and niche to fix my reputation. Shit i think its time i pull out god hand.

I'm too old for this game to have been my first Multiplayer obsession in my life. It was 2006 I was in 6th grade and I watched a video On IO On Demand about the best games of all time and they talked about how Counter Strike was this masterpiece of Mutiplayer Shooting and at the time I was educating myself about classic video games so I went to my local Micro Center and bought myself a boxed copy of Counter Strike 1.6 and got home and they key didn't work. So I complained to Valve in the early days of steam and they sent me a free code for 1.6, Half Life, Condition Zero basically all the early hits. So I was a complete loner when I was this young and had no previous experience playing games with others, and was I ever fucking blown away by this. I know this is entirely anecdotal but to me this was the best looking game of all time. Now at this point source was out but this game ran on my shitty desktop with integrated graphics, to me the GoldSrc engine just has so much fucking charm and life to it that I just get nostalgic even thinking about it from the visuals to the digital sound effects every gun felt amazing, every map felt massive and every round gave me this insane anxiety. The first server I ever joined was home of the Elite Immortals, there was a group of late 20s and 30s who were all talking like something out of a dive bar shooting the shit and trash talking. I had a shitty little headset that was made for telemarketers and I was so scared to talk. They instantly started taunting me because I had no idea what I was doing and I got kicked, I joined back and terrified to talk I said in my pipsqueak little voice "I'm new how do I play" They all erupted in laughter and jeering and a guy named "}{ells Reaper" said stick with me I'll help you. I played all night and it felt like hanging out with the cool adults, they taught me everything, I learned to joke with them talk with them, play competitive games of Counter Strike, what guns to buy when to save, how to traverse the maps. I went to sleep that night and all I could think of was Counter Strike I laid there thinking of routes to run, plays to make, the friends I made. I would sit in school and draw map ideas plan setups I would get home and talk to my 2nd Family, "Beantown, Johnny Ringo, Sweetleaf, Reaper, Sarah, Green Leaf" they were all this group of alcoholic degenerates who didn't play other video games in fact if you called CS a video game they would get mad because they weren't nerds, they were all rednecks who were just there to have a good time. I remember playing on Office one night and finally getting admitted into the clan, getting to put [EI] in front of my name felt so good, I felt accomplished. I got to play in some scrims and some matches when they needed an extra man, I cancelled a date with a girl because we had a big match. CS 1.6 wasn't a game it was a hang out, a place to go. The clan and server would eventually break up, I would drift in between Clerkz and other US East servers but that wasn't my family. This was the most formative years of my life and it meant the world to me. Cheers to all of the Elite Immortalz, you guys made me who I am today.

I jumped off a charging horse, killed two Moblins, landed back in the saddle. I climbed a cliff for a solid five minutes only to be headbutted off the top by an unexpected goat. I conjured ice to ascend a waterfall. I flipped a puzzle upside down. I jumped from great heights and played chicken with the ground. I went snowboarding. I unleashed bees on my enemies. I regularly took a big dog for a walk. I bought a house. I built a town. I met a load of wonderful people. I smiled for hundreds of hours.