I was excited for Death Stranding 2, the first game was special and invited me to think deeper about the games I play and genuinely might have been the catalyst for much of the personal development I've had since 2019. So going into this game I had high expectations, it's a Kojima game after all and despite the many shortcomings I see in his writing he always manages to deliver something that entertains and leads to contemplation of his story, the ideas it explores, and my own beliefs.  Death Stranding 2 is no different and is what very well might be his best work. It has writing that tells a more cohesive, tangible, and personal tale while still retaining all the existential themes and commentary on the world although more toned down to allow for that actual storytelling. The gameplay takes what the first Death Stranding did and evolves it in every sense of the word, the game refines all the features from the past game and introduces tons more that expand the sandbox to be more fun, varied, and dynamic. The core gameplay loop of delivering packages is still what the game is but how you do it has been opened up ten fold and features like stealth and combat have been executed to feel akin to MGS5 and more naturally integrated into the package delivery loop. It's seriously one of the most engaging gameplay experiences I've ever had. I became addicted to playing this game and as I write this all I want to do is dive back and deliver packages. 

I think I enjoyed this game much more than most, there’s a chance that I’m wrong but I thought people say Final Fantasy 2 is one of the worst but enjoyed it. 

The Outer Worlds is just too complacent about everything it does. Nothing about the game is bad per say, but the entire experience is plain and simply, aggressively fine. It sticks to a formula that is very safe and well trodden which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it means that I've played this game a million times over in a sense. Everything Outer Worlds has to offer has been done before and better in the other games it's pulling from, which means while you are getting an objectively good game it lacks any real draw for people that play western RPGs on a regular basis. It's clear the developers making this game know how to build a game and IP, the roots of the studio go back to Fallout and other landmark series so they have done this song and dance before which benefits the game in many ways. It’s why I can’t say anything all too damning about the game and can recommend it to just about anyone who's interested. Unfortunately that experience is why the game is also unremarkable, because the people making it are just making more of what they already did and not taking risks. Which I understand, it's better to play it safe and establish your IP so you can take bigger swings with it later on . Obsidian at the time of making this game was a much smaller studio and needed a game that would sell and publishers would fund, it worked too. The game got them bought by Xbox and now hopefully they are going to take those big swings with the Outer Worlds 2. However this game is just the bread and butter of RPGs, it’s not going to rock your socks but its tasty all the same.

Never before have I played a game that is such an embodiment of the time when it was made. The screams screams early 2010’s shooter, with a macho generic action plot, grey and yellow color palettes, gear of war inspired shooting, and just about everything you’d picture when you imagine a video game that you’d see in the background of a TV show or a new channel complaining about video games being violent and ruining the youth. It’s your stock standard 3rd person shooter and there ain’t nothing wrong with that. 

I just don’t think I resonate with the Nintendo style platformers the way most people do. Donkey Kong got reviews that were off the charts, positioning it as one the best games in recent times but to me it’s just…. fine. I can recognize it's a good game and I enjoy playing it but it's nowhere near what I'd consider a master piece. The same can be said with Mario Oddessy, I just don’t get why people hold these games in such high regard. It’s not even an aversion to platformers on my end because a game like Astro Bot blew me away but these Nintendo platformers just don’t resonate the way they do with most. All that being said I still wanted to fully experience Donkey Bananza because it’s such a landmark title for the Switch 2 so I kinda felt like it was required gaming on my part. 

It will be difficult for me to write thoughts for this game, as it affected me on such an emotional level. The one thing I need to put at the forefront, however is that I just played one of the best games of all time. It was such a beautiful, emotionally intelligent exploration of grief and all its complexities, complications, and forms. Clair Obscur knows what type of story and experience it wants to provide the player, and every facet of the game works together to achieve that vision, it’s a near-perfect game. 

I’d hoped I would have enjoyed this game more, but the truth is there's just not much going on in South of Midnight. While the presentation, art style, and music are all so passionately displayed, the gameplay and story just didn’t do it for me. I almost immediately lost interest in the game, which is a shame, because the setting and directorial intent are so amazing, but that’s really all the game has going for it. 
I wanted the story to land so badly because I think the culture and folklore of the Deep South is interesting and unique, unfortunately, it falls short. You play as Hazel, who’s trying to get her mom back after she was swept away in a flood, which right off the bat is just kinda forced and stilted into happening. But along the way, while saving her mom, Hazel discovers that she’s a Weaver and that there are all these mystical creatures and locations tucked away in the Bayou. You learn what Weavers do and the history of them, which ties into a story of runaway slaves and also your Grandma, who seemingly knows a lot about all this mystical stuff, and she was a Weaver. 
You're helped along by a magical fish, which acts as your guide in this new world and teaches you about everything. A lot of the game is you helping people and creatures process their past trauma by bottling their memories and releasing them into a magical tree, which relieves them of the trauma and, in return, clears the world of “The Haint,” which is a physical manifestation of Hate and Fears. I like how they explore a lot of southern folklore this way and can really get deep into the culture, but that's about all I enjoyed. 
The writing is really messy, and I couldn't even understand what was going on with 85% of the traumas and characters. Pretty much all of them go nowhere, and nothing about them leaves an impact. It’s a really bad script structure and presentation, with not enough time spent on any one character. The entire game feels rushed and unexplained, even Hazel Weaver's abilities just sort of appear with no real explanation or exploration of that concept. Then all mystical shit makes no sense because I have no idea how Hazel and the general public never saw giant fish, talking trees, magic plants, and all the other magical stuff from southern folklore before the events of the game.
Interesting plot threads are present with your Grandma; she’s evil and using you, but you learn what caused her to be this way and why she’s doing what she’s doing. It ties into the childhood of your dead dad and comes back to the exploration of holding on to past trauma and hate until it grows into something evil. Then there are these dark forces at work and a realm in between the world, which your Mom is, which was interesting, but again, it’s all rushed, and the actual writing is super bland and kinda dumb. The story has good ideas and even good moments, but a bad execution, and does not amount to anything satisfying. 
The gameplay lacks execution and ideas. This is an 8-hour game, and they couldn’t even keep it interesting for 10 mins. You’ll do two things the entire game, platform and fight, the platforming has some bones, but the combat is absolutely unacceptable for a AAA Microsoft Studio. Every combat encounter locks you into the same arena where you have a few attacks to use on some really boring enemies. There’s nothing fun or engaging about this combat, if they put some effort into encounters then maybe the core mechanics of the combat could be fun but it’s literally just a circle that you fight in for every single fucking encounter. There is absolutely no level design, just waves of enemies spawn until the game decides to stop. I think if they actually built encounters around the abilities available, being a push, pull, and possess mechanic, then I could see them having something simple and fun. You could even incorporate some of the platforming into encounters, but alas, they just lazily throw enemies at you over and over. Boss fights are much better, and do have some unique mechanics and allow the platforming, combat, and level design to work together, but there are only a few, and really only one, which was actually impressive.
The platforming isn't anything to write home about either, despite being miles more fun than the combat. You can jump, double jump, dash, glide, wall run, and grapple, which isn't a bad base for a platformer, but the level design is pretty poor. It's very much a game where you just go in a straight linear line, and that linear path has nothing interesting going on. You’ll never do anything unique with those mechanics, just the standard shit you would expect over and over, jumping on platforms does not engage the player for long. There’s pretty much two moments where the game was fun, one was a boss fight which did a great job at giving you a mix of platforming, visuals, scripted moments, music, and unique boss fight mechanics then the other was when they introduced wind tunnels that let you fly but that’s a late and very scripted mechanic. Every other part of the game I was bored out of my mind. 
I guess there is minor exploration, you can find very quick offshoots that give lore or upgrade points for a basic skill tree. You do get a little companion character that can be controlled in small spaces but again those spaces are very linear and have nothing interesting in them. The game is just super bare bones mechanically and a complete waste of a cool idea for a game.
Far and away the biggest positive of South of Midnight is its Art Style and music, which was absolutely the focus for the devs, and its clear. The game has a stylized, almost claylike visual style that mixes in a stop motion look which really sets it apart from other games. The character designs are all super memorable and different then the environments are beautiful. My only complaint is sometimes environments look a bit too video gamey, and in the mystical places, that's fine but when you are in the real world with people around, it kinda took me out of things. Each chapter also has this really cool storybook animation/cutscene, which I loved and made it feel like a fairytale of sorts.
The music and every aspect of the sound design is perfect, the ambient soundtrack is one thing and very well done but they also have full full-fledged song that describes what’s happening while the song is playing. Sometimes the lyrics feel a little rough and hard to understand, but they absolutely nail it with setting the mood and emphasizing a moment. There are even lyrics and little vocals incorporated into the platforming when you do things like jump or glide. I can in no way complain about the visuals and music in the same way I did the rest of the game, the team did a great job in that respect.
I just wish the game had as much care and passion put into the rest of the game as they did the music and visuals.