- Spoiler: show
- 13th Jan - Dishonored 2
19th Jan - Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
23rd Jan - Sayonara Wild Hearts
4th Feb - Wolfenstein: The New Order
18th Feb - Titanfall 2
28th Feb - What Remains of Edith Finch
2nd Mar - Gone Home
2nd Mar - Florence
21st Mar - Hitman (2016)
21st Mar - Thief 2
22nd Mar - BioShock Remastered
25th Mar - Dishonored
3rd Apr - Resident Evil 2 Remake
4th Apr - Hitman 2
18th Apr - Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen
25th Apr - Monument Valley
1st May - Uncharted 4
6th May - The Last of Us
8th May - The Last of Us: Left Behind
9th May - Far Cry Primal
21st May - Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall & The Brigmore Witches
24th May - Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
31st May - The Banner Saga 1
8th June - The Banner Saga 2
17th June - God of War (2018)
27th June - The Last of Us Part II
12th July - Control
I left this part-finished a few months ago and powered through the last ~60% last night and today - it's a nice length, maybe 10 hours. Much of this game is incredible. The sparse, brutalist aesthetic is impeccable, and I spent a lot of time having fun with the photo mode. Great voice acting and motion capture, and in general tremendous production values. It also boasts some of the coolest sections in a game I've played this year - the famous Ashtray Maze does indeed rule, as well as some more dreamlike sections and other moments that feel successfully pulled from a serial like The X Files. The use of FMV is honestly genius, and the supporting cast of characters is really good. Dr. Darling and Ahti being clear winners, but I was quite partial to Langston, Marshall and Arish as well - the writing and performances should be lauded for how effectively these characters are established and how individual they feel. Jesse Faden herself is a complex and engaging character who Courtney Hope handles extremely well. The shooting is fun, and when Jesse is powered up with all the abilities it can be such a power trip. Levitating above enemy gunfire, ripping chunks out of nearby walls and office upholstery to hurl back at them before jinking away mid-air from incoming rockets is a hell of a feeling and the combat can absolutely sing.
The only problem is that, to me, the game has a troubled relationship with the concept of "challenge". There are a handful of sections that articulate challenge by throwing waves of enemies at you, which depending on factors like available cover or enemy type can be fun or infuriating. It can sometimes be unclear where damage is coming from, and there are some decisions that feel like straight clangers; giving you an ability and then immediately making you fight a boss that is immune to it being one. Many enemy attacks can do 90% of your health even when you've put points into your health bar, and I always dislike being punished with a loading screen and having to re-do entire encounters because I got unlucky right at the end of a minutes-long encounter - I always want to be able to screw up once or twice, and at times it felt like the game was balanced to disallow that, resulting in some unfair-feeling deaths. For whatever reason they have chosen not to include difficulty settings, which is a shame as there is a clever, tremendously fun and often even brilliant experience here that is just marred with a few spikes and cheap sections.
Despite those grumbles I will be returning to the Oldest House to explore side missions and engage with the combat some more, and possibly check out the DLC some day.
