The greatest open world I’ve ever lived in, and I really mean lived. This game creates the experience of truly existing in a virtual space. Whether that’s to head into town and speak to the locals, buy new gear, hunt animals in the snowy mountains, bond with your horse or spend hours upon hours fishing. RDR2 captures a certain level of immersion that is both captivating and alienating to different people yet that’s the price of creating something with such a level of feel artistic integrity. And that’s to say nothing of the story, character and themes all of which are some of the strongest in the industry or any industry for that matter. They took a beloved game, and made a prequel that ultimately bolsters the original thing while also superseding it in every single capacity. A true masterpiece.

Probably needlessly scrutinizing a game that’s really just meant to be a realization of a cute community joke, but there’s a shocking amount of work that feels wasted on a game where so many modes end up feeling so undercooked. The thing you’ll probably notice within the first couple of races is that your competitors have terrible AI and, more significantly, don’t have the means to catch up with you once you gain a lead. Lapping the other racers so easily and seeing them struggle to navigate through some of the setpieces will probably make anyone into an advocate of at least some rubberbanding, and seems like a sign that this needed to be delayed a few months to make this more than just a one-off novelty. (And maybe more simply, making stages less reliant on hazards that the AI seems so incapable of navigating)

There’s definitely some deeper stuff here when it comes to item usage and building your max speed by fighting other racers and monsters on the track, but talking about the successes and failures of integrating Bloodborne mechanics into a kart racing setting seems like overkill when all you’ll need to secure first place is holding down the throttle.

Fares a lot better in its battle modes and boss fights, especially the one map in the campaign mode where two teams compete against each other to amass as many blood echoes as possible by killing enemies and surviving before time expires. On both of my playthroughs, victory was a super close thing- and maybe as a result of the open arena and amount of moving pieces, any shortcomings the other competitors might have were drowned out in all the chaos. A nice jolt when the rest of the game is so lax in comparison. Bosses also work as totally bespoke scenarios that leverage the absurd premise- especially the TLB that gamely gets into a Kart of its own for the final encounter.

Think this mostly works as a charming return to Yharnam, but there’s enough potential to want a fuller game than currently exists here. An amazing April Fool's title had it released a few months ago, but something that feels a little driftless right now.

I need to preface this review with the fact I ADORE Alan Wake 2, as well as the first game and Control, but this DLC pack was absolutely middle of the road, totally fine but nothing greater. Thematically and symbolically it’s doing what Alan Wake always does and that’s all pretty good. Each one is better than the last with the 3rd being a standout concept with presentation that was genuinely fun to explore and allows greater context to the Remedy Universe and the previous episodes. But one episode being pretty good doesn’t make up for the others being pretty throwaway scenarios. None of it is as meaningful or insightful as their other stuff, especially the base game of AW2, but not bad by any means and allows for a reassessment of what these games are doing. The use of particularly characters for particular theming, especially in the context of Alan Wake is great and like I said the concept explored by Episode 3 is particularly tantalising.

However, it’s mechanically dull, just shy of 2 hours in total and amounts to shooting stuff with no sense of tension because all your weapons and gear is super over powered, and level design that’s ultimately boring and shallow in areas we’ve visited before in the base game. There’s just nothing about it that makes it significantly worth playing as opposed to just watching online or reading about. With AW2, the experience was the thing, it was tense, thrilling, mind bending and beautiful. And that’s not even to mention the challenge of solving puzzles whilst surviving. These DLC chapters are just stuff happening, interesting concepts with tasks that are the most basic and amount to walking with pressing buttons with little thought, it’s incredibly passive, and while the stuff happening does have narrative merit, it’s not deep enough and, with design this shallow, it’s really not worth playing at all to be totally honest. Which is a shame.