what an astounding example of the craft in more ways than it has any right to be. finished the game yesterday and it's a study in incredible game design, implementation, beautiful scenery, and surprisingly compelling character writing for BT, 6-4, & all the villains. satah and i were stunned all the way through.
- one of my fav things about it is that it's a game that knows & embraces that it's a video game. the zoom & title card sequences for each of the bosses? i'm tired of games that are "immersive" i want games that are cinematic in a way that embraces the narrative structure of games.
- i heard someone say that it's a game that knows just when to move on from a gimmick before it gets boring and that's maybe the most artful part of the design. each sequence keeping a fun unique mechanic just long enough it's always satisfying, all threaded through with the best movement system of any 3D platformer ever made and it's not even close, & with the self-assured knowledge to keep that as the persistent mechanic because it's just that good.
- also BT forever. i love him. i love him and i want to protect him. i'm inverting rule 3. protect the titan i love him.
if i had to be critical of anything:
- cooper is nothing, matt mercer is (unsurprisingly) giving nothing
- the ending [spoilers ahead] doesn't hit, they fake-kill BT too many times & move on from that last one too quickly so by the time i start to believe i'm not feeling it & mired in a moment of triumph, plus then they just pull-back post-credits anyway. everything else with BT (including the previous fakeouts) were incredible to, so i was surprised they failed the ending that way
that said, it doesn't take away from the fact that the vast majority of the game is simply best-in-class. also the fighting-in-two-timeline-mechanic is simply one of the best levels in video games, period.
