Remedy's best game to date. Still has its flaws, but so does every other remedy game. It is a very good example of what a "perfect sequel" is to me. This is the best sequel alan wake could have possibly gotten. I can think of ways the game itself could be better, but in terms of it being a Sequel and what that means: literally could not have asked for a better one. I adore it. I'm so glad Remedy got to make this game

extremely niche game but good god is it exactly what I want out of a co-op game. Extremely challenging and only ramps up the difficulty the further you get in ways that just make you let out an exasperated sigh as you realize you have to figure out how to deal with the new challenge presented to you. and I say that as a good thing. this game is bullshit at times, and it doesn't care. you can absolutely manage the stuff it throws at you but you need to go out of your way to make it work. the game is also very fond of making things easier for a bit, maybe for a few full missions, to lure you into a false sense of security, only to hit you with a curveball so insane that you have to just sit there in stunned silence after you lose and realize just what was going on. dying is part of the learning experience. the game WILL fuck you over and you will have to sit there and take it til you figure out the best way to do things. it's a game about optimization and efficiency. add on top of that the excellent voice acting performances, full of charm and character, with a lot of great banter between everyone, and some seriously excellent art direction (the fog and lighting carry so fucking hard). it's great. it's really fucking great. i'm still only on rundown 2. but i fully intend to beat this game. it's just gonna take a while.

well

has a lot of charm but just doesn't do much

worth a play if you want more re4 but it is sorta just. re4 but not as good. obviously better than the original separate ways though. it's fine.

surpassed every possible expectation I could have had for it. solid level design, awesome bosses, tightly designed and challenging combat, fantastic enemy variety and design. takes elements from every modern fromsoft title and tweaks them in interesting ways to encourage using everything in your arsenal, to the point that it stands on its own and creates a unique feeling combat system that will utterly obliterate you if you don't take the time to learn it. think more sekiro than bloodborne (which everyone seems to love comparing it to). the more I play the more I fall in love with it. People specifying that it's the best Non Fromsoft Souls-like feels wrong, because this is better than a lot of what fromsoft themselves offer.

outstays its welcome

movement feels wrong at first but once it clicks, it clicks. more depth to it than you might expect, with plenty of cool movement tech to take advantage of (and on hard difficulty: you'll need to). limited ammo to encourage utilizing your full aresenal, excellent gunplay, excellent soundtrack, lackluster bosses. awesome game.

wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into, but i'm glad I gave it a shot because wow

definitely better than the first, but feels like it drags on a bit too much. the swapping between 3 characters with a universal inventory idea is well handled. story is okay

falls off in the final act, and the difference is noticeable, but this is still an incredible game. Not only is it arkane's peak, it's also the peak of the immersive sim genre as a whole. Deserved way more attention

a glimpse into what dead space 3 could have been. better atmosphere, better voice acting, better writing, and it's 1 hour long. it's not incredible, but this makes it very clear that dead space 3 could've been a hell of a lot better. I even had a little bit of fun with it!

revisited this game to see if it really was as bad as I remembered, and turns out it's even worse. it sucks. it sucks so fucking bad. it's almost hilarious how bad it is. does nothing good. flotilla section was a cool idea but everything else about this game is insufferable. the combat is nowhere near as interesting or fun as the other games in the series, the gun crafting is a horrifically unbalanced gimmick that gets old really quickly, the story is mind numbingly bad (why is there a weird fucking love triangle going on. why is the dialogue so fucking bad no matter what), the text logs are almost all in ALLCAPS for no reason? and also the writing on them is THE definition of bad Horror Game Notes writing (which is insane bc ds1 and 2 did this well!), audio logs force you to stand in place to listen to them unlike the other two games where it follows you, it's just bad. it's just really really bad. rest in peace visceral, everyone knows EA did you dirty. but wow

absolutely horrible story and brand of horror compared to the first game, but more than makes up for it with the combat, which is refined almost to the point of perfection. one of the best action horror games ever made.

insane movement

small scale, short, but very tightly designed survival horror game. it's lacking on the story front, but it's clear that that wasn't the focus this time. excited to see if frictional continues in this direction.

Did not go into this game expecting to be this thoroughly impressed by it. Some of the most engaging and thoughtfully designed third person shooter combat i've seen in a very long time.

just as good if not better than the original. in terms of what "kind" of remake this is, it's incredibly faithful to the original game, but everything is expanded. Isaac talks now, the relationship between the characters is expanded, the story is expanded (not sure how I feel about the new Twist near the end though), the ship is expanded (and seamless, now), notoriously bad aspects of the game have been completely reworked and expanded, expanded expanded expanded. It's the perfect balance between old and new. BUT. It's not as immersive as the original. music is overused (even if it is better music), ambient background noise is definitely there but I didn't notice it as much as the original (these two things combined quite literally ruins the atmosphere of chapter 9, which was one of the only Creepy parts of the original game), slashers don't seem to use their "run at you all crazy" attack anywhere NEAR as often as they did in the original (I saw it happen maybe 4 times total, whereas they did it all the time in the original), the line gun's alt fire is....? I mean it's technically better than the original's, but it's not as fun. so like I do have my hangups (especially like. ethically, considering how EA treated this series and the people who made it in the past), but I still can't deny that it's just. overall an improved game. it is very good. buy it third party btw.

Still the best atmosphere of the series. Playing on hard and getting rid of the plasma cutter as soon as you get a different gun is the way to go. I beat the asteroid part with the default fucked up mouse controls as a kid and it legit took 6 hours. Worst time of my life.

Took a second for me to get really invested in it, but it’s a very pretty, solid little game in an uncommon setting with uncommon cultural influences. Absolutely worth checking out.

solid, charming little game. the dungeon escape and randomizer modes are a nice bonus.

Extremely "Whatever" game with an excellent, often misunderstood combat system. it quite literally carries the entire game on its back. without it this would be a 1.5 or a 2

an instant survival horror classic, as far as i'm concerned.

good but padded in a way that's a bit unsatisfying (mostly due to the level design rather than the fetch quest nature of it)

this dlc is a single, massive, beautiful dungeon. and it's easily the toughest thing in the entire game, as there is no bonfire before the boss. However, I love it for that. it's a tough journey through the coolest looking area in the entire game. the boss is great too.

Absolutely an all time favorite, and a very important game to me. on its own its a very solid (and if i'm being honest, extremely underappreciated) soulslike that funnily enough occupies a style similar to elden ring despite being a thing way before ER! It has a similar open world with isolated dungeons structure (though obviously on a much smaller scale). the dungeons in this game are a huge breath of fresh air though, as they are long, single take descents into a dark, challenging area with a boss at the end. No shortcuts, and the only “bonfires” you get are one outside the dungeon, and one at the end, near the boss. It's not a perfect game, it's solid. probably one of the most solid souls-likes out there, even if it doesn’t want to experiment with the formula very much. but where it really shines is its art style, and music. that's what elevates this game to an all time favorite for me, because it lines up so specifically with my aesthetic that it feels like it was a game that was literally made for me. I have a stupidly autistic attachment to it. Everything being so up my alley made it fun for me to just walk around in this game. i'd sit and stare at everything. I was in awe the entire time. It really felt like I was exploring this world myself, and it lined up so heavily with a stupid fantasy "headworld" i've had since I was a kid. It is the prettiest game I have ever played, and it has the best soundtrack in any game i've every played. As far as I'm concerned, it's a masterpiece. one of the best games ever made. for me.

campaign is short and neither great nor bad. that said the meat of this game is in the endgame. it's the best the series has ever seen. it's also too much for me right now. As much as I'd love to get deep into it and create all kinds of crazy builds, I decided I have too many other things to do and simply can't be bothered to build multiple characters up to chaos level 100. Guarantee this would be my favorite in the series for the endgame alone if I got more involved in it, but i simply don't have the time or patience to let this keep me from chipping away at my massive backlog. Will probably revisit it long in the future (as well as all the other games, as I still have Unfinished build ideas for all of them), but for now i'm done.

if there were ever a dlc that deserved more time in the oven, this is it. What it does, it does almost very fucking well. but there's barely anything here. Falsely lures you into thinking it's going to be a Wacky Silly story at first, only to flip over almost immediately and turn into a much more serious and personal story. but there are a lot of missteps along the way, and it has some of the worst side quest design the series has ever seen. and it's also dreadfully short. which normally wouldn't not bother me as these dlcs are always highly replayable, but. it really gets in the way this time, purely because you can tell they wanted to do so much more with it than they got to. Almost excellent story, some of the biggest lore dumps the series has ever seen (I know I sound insane for saying that), but it's all held back by an experience that feels lacking in almost every single area. there are glimmers of excellence in here, but none of it gets to shine. A genuine shame. very mixed feelings on it.

takes itself even more seriously than guns love and tentacles, but is a much more straightforward story. but what it lacks in thematic depth, it makes up for with a genuinely oppressive feeling with its story. it's very grim for borderlands. unbelievable soundtrack, some of the best combat arenas the series has ever seen, amazing setting and visuals. but it's obvious this is where development on the DLCs started to get a little bit rushed. went from thinking it was "okay" at first, to mostly enjoying it as more time has passed. it's good but I do sorta flip and flop on it. torn between 3 and 3.5

favorite DLC out of all the games. Surprised me in a lot of ways. Instead of being a simple lovecraft parody, it plays itself surprisingly straight, and tells a genuinely great story with some surprisingly serious themes for a borderlands game. I've said it many times at this point, but borderlands is much better when it tries to tell a relatively serious story. I hope this (and dragon keep, and bounty of blood) end up being a blueprint for the series moving forward. It won't be, though.

very enjoyable

I love this game but I have a lot of hang-ups with it, especially wrt endgame balance and its story and ESPECIALLY its character writing. by far the best borderlands game from a pure gameplay standpoint, but falls apart in so many other areas for me that I think most other people won't give a shit about. a very big "it's good, BUT...." game for me, except my "buts" will sound insane to normal people.

need to replay. was very impressed by it when it came out.

Need to replay this one (might even bump rating up a little bit after. torn between 3 and 3.5), wanna explore the character builds more in depth, but this one's underrated imo.

only played once, and it's been a while, but I liked it. need to replay.

Excellent, despite having some of the worst combat encounters in the entire series.