I have such fond nostalgia for this silly old game, so I was beyond excited when this remaster was first announced. So part of me recommending it is definitely due to nostalgia goggles. However, the recommendation comes with *A LOT* of caveats. The first of which is that this game's script and plot isn't all that deep and complex. It's like a b-tier action movie with horror elements. It's schlocky and fun and full of dirty humour. It's a good "junk food" kind of game.

Other elements of the game will be a little.... I supposed dated? Such as the whole ~blatantly pandering to the male gaze~ thing with the topless giant Paula in lingerie segment, among other things. That kind of objectification will be a major turnoff for some people. Maybe even the fact that Paula's role is pretty much that of a Scream Queen with seemingly no other substance throughout the majority of the game. Some of it is compounded by the previous point, I guess... B-level scripting. And another part of it is that it can simply get bad and be deserving of a bit of cringing in some notable situations. I don't get offended by this kind of thing though; it doesn't bother me deeply enough to seethe over. Just putting it out there so those more sensitive can be a bit more informed.

Regardless of the above warning, the game just doesn't take itself all that seriously. It's pretty much just Penis Jokes: The Game, with other flavours of sexual humour, and one or two menstruation and poop jokes thrown in. For the most part, it's simply downright goofy!

So anyway, lots of other reviews have gone into the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ aspects of this Port-Wearing-The-Name-Of-A-Remaster already, so I won't go too deep into it. My biggest personal issue was with the aim sensitivity and jankiness on controller. Holy moly, the default controller sensitivity is weird af. I bumped that down a few notches and I'm more or less used to it, and the strange aim, *now*, but it still felt strange for the longest time. Maybe I've just gotten too used to smooth aiming of modern games... the tank-adjacent aiming of my teeny-bopper years seems to have become too jarring for my delicate adult sensibilites lmao. I also have no joystick drifting issues with my controller, but Garcia likes to randomly walk to the side semi-frequently. Sometimes when aiming Johnson, sometimes not. It's either delayed input response, or maybe unaware feather-light touches. Soooo maybe there's further merit to the overt-sensitivity weirdness? Or it could simply be a me problem. I'm not sure.

Other than that, I only have two other, more minor issues. Those being dialogue playing out of sync of the cutscenes a few times towards the middle-end of the game. And that all of the dialogue is gone for the second last scene of the game is completely missing. What's meant to be a touching reconciliation is instead just a prolonged and awkward silence, which sucks.

Anyway, with all that out of the way, I want to gush about the visuals and world building now. Because those are still so damned cool after all this time, and also the biggest reason for my fondness of the game.

The Demon Realm is a surreal and viscerally gross world to explore. The place is rife with meat and teeth and eyes and corpses. It's a rich environment with so many little details both tucked away and in plain sight, yet easily missable if you don't slow down to appreciate them. For example, I've just started my third playthrough on hard, and I've only now noticed that the non-goat lamps that you occasionally light, are fashioned like mouths, with lots of teeth. That the corpses that spawn demons when covered by darkness are androgynous enough that I didn't realise they might actually be pregnant women. And all those piles of glistening white on the cobblestone streets? Contrary to what I thought as a teen when I first played on PS3, those aren't snow... they're coagulated jizz LMAO. The library level also has a few open books with some neat little diagrams in them, and before you meet the first boss, George, there's a damaged propaganda poster of him on one of the brick walls. Unfortunately the image quality of those, and other non-interactable posters and books, is compressed and crunchy, so the finer print is difficult, if not impossible, to make out. :(

Visually, the Great Demon World Forest is still my fav level to go through. Mostly because I am a sucker for forest and watery environments. All the damaged baby dolls fiercely wriggling around are kind of funny too. And there's just something about watching Paula emerge from the swamp water, dirty and sopping wet, before she engages in another chase scene, that gives me goosebumps. ... And maybe the stirrings of a lady boner.


TL;DR: if you can endure the jank, the campiness of some of the voice lines and script, and some aged tropes, then this is a silly fun game to take your pole for a stroll in. ;9

A simple port but the best version you can get.