Seneste anmeldelser af Weasel

I beat this game two days ago and I still haven't stopped bawling my eyes out. I went in blind and was not even remotely prepared for the profundity and metric tons of emotions this game is able to deliver. Very few games have ever made me feel as attached and invested in its characters as this game has. Their writing is phenomenal, and I even feel for the goons that only appear for one or two missions because they're so well written into the world. I don't have the DLC, but I still invested so much time into the side content and didn't feel like I needed it, it genuinely felt like enough to supplement the main story. I think I got the good ending and it still hurts so much just thinking about everyone I've grown to love in Night City and what happens after all is said and done.

I bought it on sale, but I would have been glad to pay full price for this. I never thought a game that was horrendously broken at launch and was slowly repaired over time would wind up being one of the best I've ever played.

You need to play this.

SPOILER-FREE

If you're the type that blasts through games with the sole intent of beating it as quickly as possible (assuming you haven't already beaten it fully prior), then you are doing yourself a colossal disservice.

From that perspective, you'd quickly pick up on how ridiculously pretty this game is both visually and aurally, along with how fluid movement can be. It doesn't take long to pick up on the controls and basic mechanics, but you'll definitely need to think so far outside the box that the box is barely visible through a NASA-grade telescope to figure out the more difficult puzzles. And that's not to say that the difficulty is a bad thing; I loved how this game made me seriously think about how the crap I was supposed to solve its puzzles, and it made me feel that much more gratified when I figured it out. Yeah, there definitely are some frustrating puzzles in this game, no doubt about that, but there's literally an achievement you can get if you leave a puzzle you couldn't solve and come back to it later to solve it. Not to mention a line from Elohim encouraging you to take a step back and try something else to ease your mind. While the end goal is ultimately to complete every puzzle the game has to offer, it never forces you to finish them right then and there, a very welcome departure from most other puzzle games. During my first playthrough, which I never actually finished, I thought that I had discovered the big plot twist that the whole game was focused on from just playing through and skimming writing on the walls and the terminal files. My naivety made me think that the game was trying to appeal to the /r/im14andthisisdeep crowd as a result of my ill-founded conclusions. I barely made it halfway through the third hub world before I dropped it for getting too "pretentious" and difficult (note the air quotes signifying the author's ignorance and general dumbassery).

Then I played it again much later, and this time, I paid attention to everything. And that drastically changed things.

You're given bits and pieces of lore with each world you explore through terminals, graffiti on the walls, audio logs hidden throughout the levels, and to a lesser extent through Elohim himself. Every level also has hidden stars that you can optionally collect to gain access to a secret level in each of the three hubs that give you even more terminals and graffiti to read and digest. And let me tell you, you are going to do a lot of digesting with what you read. It's hard to put into words exactly how they pulled it off, but there isn't a single piece of information from the terminals or the audio logs that feels like it was thrown in as "sUpEr dEeP" filler. Everything adds to the whole experience masterfully, and especially once things really get going, you're going to find yourself pausing a lot to take the weight of everything in. At least, I did; I'm more predisposed to this sort of introspection given my Philosophy Minor (which yes, I realize that isn't going to help me get a job anywhere, why do you think it's a Minor?). But even if you're not philosophically inclined, you'll still find a lot of what this game has to offer to be incredibly profound. Damjan Mravunac's beautiful soundtrack further adds to those moments where you just hang back and question everything you thought you knew. This is not an emotional game, but you're going to be feeling a lot of things when you're through with it. And I've never gotten that feeling from any other game I've ever played. Hell, I can't really think of any other piece of media that's made me feel the way I did after beating this game. What Croteam have done is beyond incredible, and they have my immense respect for taking on such a project so far removed from their usual work.

If you're still reading this far and you haven't either bought the game or booted it up if it's already in your library, what are you waiting for? I paid full price for it ($40), and I would have paid it again after I beat it. I haven't even bought the DLC for this game yet, but I'd gladly pay another $40 for it if it cost that much. This is one of very few games where, after I had completed it, I sat back and applauded it. My roommates at the time were very confused, but they just haven't played The Talos Principle yet.

This is easily one of the best games, if not the best game, I have ever played.