thesweeney20
2023
"I've driven down this road before,
I'm driving on it forever."
AW2 is narratives on top of narratives that reference other narratives about people writing narratives to alter their narrative. If clear beginnings and ends are what you're looking for, this isn't the story for you. It is "Death of the Author" in videogame format, whatever you believe the core narrative of the game is, that is what it is. And this isn't some copout by Sam Lake and his writers room to avoid writing a cohesive story, every character of every story within this story is motivated by trying to comprehend another story. It's great, it's a horror story, and a thriller, and a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, and a crime drama...and a musical. Going to go down as one of the most meta pieces of fiction, ever.
I'm driving on it forever."
AW2 is narratives on top of narratives that reference other narratives about people writing narratives to alter their narrative. If clear beginnings and ends are what you're looking for, this isn't the story for you. It is "Death of the Author" in videogame format, whatever you believe the core narrative of the game is, that is what it is. And this isn't some copout by Sam Lake and his writers room to avoid writing a cohesive story, every character of every story within this story is motivated by trying to comprehend another story. It's great, it's a horror story, and a thriller, and a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, and a crime drama...and a musical. Going to go down as one of the most meta pieces of fiction, ever.
2011
Cave Johnson is what the majority of my rating is going towards.
2020
Gameplay on par with navigating through a projectors settings. It is clear a great deal of effort went into it, will get around to it.
2013
My current hobby, or would be if the poor souls I play as weren't consistently being mauled to death in lavish department stores while I hunt for a nice new pair of shoes. Great fun, look forward to the updates.
This game doesn't even need a review here, what more could already be said for this? It is a feat in every department, narratively, technically, visually, it just keeps getting better and better and making you go HOW THE F U C K did this run on a PS2???? timeless
It's a love story. A really, really good one at that. Lake writes with a vulnerability that I don't think we're ever going to see again. It's hard-hitting line after hard-hitting line from front to back. The game builds off everything that made MP1 work in the best way possible. One of the most timeless games, ever.
2001
Everything that makes Remedy great now can be traced back here. Live action visuals, in-universe tv-shows, an overwhelming ambience and Sam Lakes' poetic waxings made this game the cult classic it continues to be.
Lures you in with quirky communism and then drowns you in its vivid soul.
A landmark achievement in interactive fiction and a heartbreakingly beautiful swan song for Dan Houser.