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dishonored 2 is an extremely good game that builds on the it's predecessor in extremely smart ways, blowing out the scale while still keeping a solid focus on the storytelling and pacing of the game without succumbing to the open-world brain disease. however, there is some strange tension at times where it feels like the body of the mechanics is present and accounted for but there are points where it feels like it's missing the lubricant to keep the gears going smoothly. in terms of story, the game is a massive improvement on D1, with Karnaca being equal parts beautifully breathtaking and horrifically rotten in really interesting ways. though i do have a few nitpicks here and there (like what happened to Daud? keep in mind im writing this before playing DOTO) and i wish that even though i played as emily, i would have still been able to hear corvo's thoughts on the situation, but that's why the character select is there, right? deliah is a really great foil for emily and a great examination on what emily *could* have been and *might* still become if she dosen't understand the weight of her actions and responsibilities. i loved all the other characters throughout the game, though i always came away from most interactions wanting just a *biiiiit* more backstory on all of them. and while im talking about characters here, special mention should go to the now extremely well known clockwork mansion and aramis stilton's manor, both extremely memorable locations that are characters in and of themselves! gameplay is for the most part, extremely good. the feel of movement and using your abilities to navigate these massive spaces and get to your destinations and targets is exhilarating and second to none........most of the time. similar to D1, every now and then the abilities fail you and you will accidentally warp right in front of a group of hostiles instead of the perch above them. and this feeling of occasional jank is inescapable throughout the entire game, but it never got me into a no-win state, i should say. just remember to quicksave! aesthetically, the game is a feast with jaw dropping art design and locales that look like concept art come to life. i lost track of how many times i had to stop and admire what i was looking at. the vocal performances are also stellar, though i'll never understand the equation that AAA sometimes makes where instead of getting just a VO actor, they get a Big Name, but then i'll never realize this character was played by a big name, just that the performance was great. did you realize that vincent d'onoforio plays Duke Luca Abele? i sure as hell didn't until the credits! i should also mention that i did have some somewhat frequent visual bugs to do with lighting (seems like it has something to do with emissive lens flares or something) and long distance views sometimes produced weird 'crawling' visual artifacts when i moved the camera. this is on a 3080 ti, so ymmv. in summation, i highly recommend dishonored 2 with the understanding that sometimes that extremely smooth gamefeel can feel like you are slipping on a banana peel, but it always corrects itself in the end as long as you are patient with it.

cool aesthetics, miserable experience. i know a lot of people love this, and i thought *i* would love this, but instead it just made me frustrated and irritated.

the first wadjet eye game is still quite good but it's definitely quite a bit rougher. there are more fail states and it's sometimes unclear what to do next, which isn't a bad thing but was a little bit frustrating when you are just trial-and-error'ing through certain sections. the story is still really interesting but i wish some of the elements with the protag that i had problems with (he dosen't really seem to have budged on his ideals that caused the problems?) were further fleshed out but, again, this was wadjet eye's first game. also, i had problems with alt-tabbing and eventually had to settle with playing in a window. i still recommend this, but it does have a lot of teething problems that quickly got resolved in later games. also, it was great seeing rosangela in that one scene!

as a spiritual (pun fully intended) successor to the Blackwell games, Unavowed is akin to going from Catacomb 3D to Doom. everything is improved and refined across the board, from the aesthetics to the writing to the sound design and voice work all the way down to the mechanics of what point and click adventure games can be. however, Unavowed is more then *just* a point and click game, instead being a quasi-RPG (i've never played the quest for glory games and if they did it first, don't yell at me) that allows for a lot of player agency and roleplaying. the storytelling and characters are extremely good, especially the Wall Street and Bronx chapters, which made me quite emotional. all this being said though I didn't care much for Vicki the cop and her power of Having A Gun, but you can mostly ignore her, so ymmv. Paranormal New York is an unbelievably rich setting and i cherished every minute i spent in all the lovingly detailed and gorgerous scenery that the game sends you to. even the subway is wonderful! i also want to shoutout the tasteful and restrained callbacks to the Blackwell games without Unavowed doing the thing a lot of other games do where they point to a thing and go "remember this?" and then do nothing with it. i firmly believe unavowed will be a game that i will replay again and again just to see how events can play out differently. this has easily become one of my favorite adventure games and, while being more pulpy, it's story and characters put it right up there with modern point and click games such as Red Strings Club and Kentucky Route Zero. lastly, i should mention there were some weird visual bugs i encountered, such as the background and sprites not loading in for the first flashback with the General, but nothing that was a progression blocker or caused crashing.

the final blackwell game is a fantastic way to end things. the culmination of everything that has happened in the previous games is here aesthetically, with the art getting a *massive* upgrade in particular. the backgrounds look like they belong in an SNK fighter at times with out detailed they are, and the character animation is sublime. the audio also deserves a special mention here too, the composer and sound designer were firing on all cylinders (and is it just me, or does that police station music sound like it belongs in a deus ex game?) and by this point, all the voice actors were completely comfortable with their characters and deliver extremely good performances. the story is.....it's still really good but i feel like the stakes getting raised *that* high becomes a little silly and takes away from the emotional gravitas of the characters. i also wish we got more closure on the after credits stinger of the last game, but making games is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard so i imagine it just wasen't coming together. this, like every blackwell game before it, is well worth your time and money. just go in expecting a little more bombast then the quiet existential questions the game has asked before.

this is probably my favourite blackwell game, because the story and writing just keeps getting better. the fourth game has a lot of emotional gut punches and there were a couple times some of the characters and their motivations were hitting too close to home that i had to turn the game off. based on what i've heard, the art changes in this one were a little controversial but they appear to have been changed when i played it back to the style of the previous games, so don't let that scare you off. visually, this game is a massive improvement in terms of lighting and shadow, which looks incredible. if you care about game length, this game is a little bit longer then the previous ones and is a little more fleshed out without feeling bloated.

moving back to the present, the third blackwell game at times feels like a modern retelling of the previous game, but it does it in a way that you don't notice and builds upon the storyline established in the previous game with more surrealistic and abstract elements. plus, this game got me to learn about joe gould! don't let anyone tell you that games won't ever teach you anything. the visuals have got a massive upgrade with much slicker pixel art and weather effects such as rain, which is always welcome, yet never come at the cost of storytelling or game design or anything. puzzles are still pretty straightforward but I got confused a few times.

the real story of the blackwell games kicks off here and sets in motion events that would reverberate for years to come. the smoky jazz and rain slick 1970's new york streets are one thing, but the vocal performances have also been improved considerably. lauren's bitterness and exhaustion is palpable from the first screen, and the interplay between her and joey is fantastic, yet different from the one between him and rosa. again, puzzles were mostly straightforward but i still needed a guide towards the end, which isn't a knock on the game by any means.

a fantastic start to a sublime adventure gaming series. rosa and joey's debut is a strong one that instantly sucks you in to an extremely (and very well-researched!) new york full of spirits who can't let go. from day one, the blackwell games nailed the mood and aesthetic, and it only got better from here. the puzzles were mostly pretty straightfoward but i couple times i had to look at a guide, which didn't impact my enjoyment of the games one iota. highly, highly recommend!

KRZ is the new american video game. a marriage of south american magical realism, Lynchian surrealism and Steinbeck's themes of injustice and fate (among many others), it knows exactly what it is doing, takes exactly as long as needed to get there, and leaves you a changed person by the end. KRZ is the antithesis to the common nihilistic storytelling where anyone who believes in something is a naive fool only worthy of pity or scorn. KRZ will take you on a journey through the ghosts of the past and future, and won't look back once.