The Halloween Special: A very spooky review of Little Nightmares II

Halloween and horror games. A truly iconic duo. There's just something special about playing a spooky game during a spooky holiday during a spooky month. And I was planning on doing a review of Five Nights at Freddy's since that's a very popular horror franchise that just released a theatrical film. But I also never did a review of Little Nightmares II, which is one of my favorite horror games ever. And I feel like Little Nightmares is more fun to talk about because it is such a strange and surreal experience unlike anything else in the genre. Don't worry, I'll cover FN@F eventually. But today we're doing Little Nightmares II.

Image from https://www.behance.net/gallery/88698867/Little-Nightmares-II

So what is Little Nightmares II? Developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco, Little Nightmares is a horror game franchise focusing on a world of giants. And when I say "giants" I mean everything is bigger than the humans(?) you play as. Heck, even something as simple as a wooden stool is so big that your character can barely climb up on top of it. The games focus on using platforming skills to navigate environments that would be considered mundane, were not for the literally gigantic proportions of both the furniture and the monsters living in said environments. Released in 2021, Little Nightmares II is a direct sequel to the 2017 original. I personally considered Little Nightmares I to be an excellent game, it being such a surreal and unique experience both as a horror game and as a platformer. Though in my review of the first game, I made the argument that it doesn't "count" as horror due to a lack of traditional jump scares. I now regret making that claim, since the notion that a game is only "horror" if it has jump scares was ignorant of me. After all, any work of art that seeks to disturb and unsettle is horror, even if the means to cause that reaction differ from the "standard" methods used by similar works.

Little Nightmares is unique among horror games for two main reasons. The first reason is the game is played in a third-person perspective, meaning you can actually see your character moving around. Most horror games are played in first-person, making you see directly through the eyes of the protagonist. But the third-person perspective calls attention to the characters you play as, which considering the "true nature" of one character in particular, is rather fitting. The second reason is that, with the exception of some tie-in comics and a debatably canon series of audio plays that Bandai Namco released on their YouTube channel, the Little Nightmares series tells its story without so much as a single word of dialogue, instead letting body language and environmental details do all the narrative work. As such, Little Nightmares is a story that is as mysterious as it is open to speculation. But it's not mysterious in the same way that Five Nights at Freddy's is. That franchise is mysterious because it hides story-relevant information from the player in increasingly elaborate ways, but the information itself is fairly simple. Little Nightmares doesn't hide information, it just gives you information that only makes sense with the benefit of hindsight. Basically, you don't have to go digging through three different lore novels or solve a riddle hidden in the source code of the creator's website to the understand what's going on. The only information that is not (to my knowledge) in the game itself are the names of the two main characters, Mono and Six. But the story still works even without knowing their names, you would just get used to calling them the Boy and the Girl respectively.

So do you need to play the first Little Nightmares to understand the sequel? Well, yes and no. Some scenes don't hit as hard narratively without experiencing the original. After all, what significance can a newcomer expect to gain from the scene where a little girl dons a bright yellow rain coat? But considering the wordless story and overall mysterious vibe that the series is going for, knowing what happened in the first game is not required. That, and it's entirely possible that Little Nightmares II takes place before the first game. Maybe. Because of the ambiguity of this title, I will be judging it primarily on its own merits and only bring up comparisons to the original game when it is relevant to do so. One little warning before I explain the game any further. While Little Nightmares II is rated T for Teen by the ESRB (thus it is intended for ages 13 years or older), it is still very much a horror game and as such there might be disturbing imagery and subject matter too intense or macabre for more sensitive audiences. Continue reading at your own discretion.

Now, Little Nightmares II is a rather short game. You could beat this game in about 10 hours or less. This is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that the short length is good for a "bite-sized" experience, or if you want to try speed running, then this is a good game to start speed running for. The curse is that if you really like the game, you might finish it earlier than you were expecting and are left feeling mildly disappointed at the short length. Because of the game's short length, as well as its level structure (the protagonists go to giant-sized version of a seemingly normal place, they encounter the giant living in said place and either destroy it or escape from it), I will going over the broad strokes of all five main levels, as well as some fun facts here and there. I won't discuss every single thing, like every puzzle or every chase scene, but I will give the general vibe of the level.

Our story begins with a vision of a hallway with an ominous looking door at the far end. This hallway is important for later, so keep it in the back of your mind. Once the vision ends, our protagonist wakes up in a forest filled with broken television screens. The main character of Little Nightmares II is a young boy wearing a paper bag mask that Tarsier named Mono in promotional material, but given the wordless nature of this game's storytelling, you would have no way of knowing Mono's name otherwise. Anyway, Mono moves through the forest by solving physics based puzzles, like pushing boxes around to form a makeshift staircase or swinging on a rope to cross a gap that's too wide for him to jump over. Even before we meet the main monster for this level, we encounter human(?) sized beartraps and hunting nets filled with rotting carcasses. There is something in these woods that appears to be hunting humans (and possibly other giants) for some purpose. Maybe for sport? Or for satiating a depraved appetite? It wouldn't be the first time Little Nightmares tackled the theme of a monstrous hunger driving people to committing acts of extreme debauchery.

Image from https://adventuregamers.com/screenshots/view/38395/95962#images-88

Mono comes across a cabin in the woods, clearly built with a giant in mind. In there he finds a young human(?) girl trapped in the basement, with several tally marks implying that the girl has been stuck down there for at least 55 days. The Girl's only comfort being a music box playing a haunting melody pulled straight from the original Little Nightmares. So Mono frees her by grabbing a nearby human-sized hatchet and breaking down the door The Shining style. While this girl is reluctant to cooperate with Mono at first, the two of them soon find a series of obstacles that are impossible to overcome by themselves, and so they decide to work together for the foreseeable future. This is the main "gimmick" of Little Nightmares II. From this point onward the player with have a companion that will automatically assist with certain puzzles, such as helping to push heavy objects around or giving them a boost to jump up to an otherwise out-of-reach ledge. There's also a dedicated "hold hands" button that allows you to manually control both Mono and the Girl at the same time, by making them hold hands together. Which is surprisingly cute and wholesome for a game filled to the brim with ghoulish horrors. 

Fun fact! Tarsier originally intended for the whole game to have a two-player co-op mode, with player one being Mono and player two being the Girl. Unfortunately, The co-op mode was sadly scrapped early on in development because Tarsier couldn't figure out how to get it to work properly. And this is an interesting tidbit because Bandai Namco recently announced Little Nightmares III, and that game's main gimmick is that it has an actual, genuine two-player co-op mode like the one that this game was originally planned to have. So even though Little Nightmares III is being developed by Supermassive Games instead of Tarsier, it's nice to see one of Tarsier's unused ideas get (hopefully) fleshed out in a future project.

Mono and the Girl escape the cabin and head into a nearby workshop where we are introduced to our first enemy, the Hunter. The Hunter is a giant responsible for setting up those traps seen earlier in the Forest. The Hunter covers his face with a primitive mask made from a burlap sack with a single hole for him to see through. A common theme across the Little Nightmares franchise is that almost everyone living in this world hides their real faces with masks and other pieces of headwear. Even Mono and Six cover their faces, the former with a paper bag and the latter with a raincoat hood. So the idea of hiding one's face behind a mask is clearly important. But the other giants' masks looked "better quality" for lack of a better term. Either being a stretched out faux-skin material or a ceramic Kabuki mask like the ones used in Japanese theater. But the Hunter's mask looks homemade, which means he either can't afford a real mask or he has rejected giant society by making his own. He also has an uncanny interest in taxidermy, since his cabin is filled with stuffed humans(?) posed to look like they are having a "normal" family dinner.

The rest of the Forest level is spent either running from the Hunter in exhilarating chase scenes or sneaking around him in tense stealth sections. Funnily enough, the Hunter is the least supernatural monster in the whole series. Every other monster has stretching limbs, heightened senses or straight up reality warping magic. But the Hunter is just a big guy armed with nothing more than a double-barreled shotgun, a handful of beartraps and a lamp. There's some beautiful simplicity in that. Anyway, because of his shotgun he is the only monster capable of attacking Mono and the Girl from a distance. So if they are being chased, they need to duck behind cover to avoid getting blasted, then they must run to the next piece of cover while the Hunter is reloading.  The level ends with Mono and the Girl reaching a shed at the edge of the forest, and using the spare giant-sized hunting rifle inside to kill the Hunter with a point-blank shot. Overall, the Forest level is an excellent first level that introduces all the core game mechanics that the rest of the game builds upon. Running and jumping, pushing and pulling objects around, climbing up certain walls and swinging on ropes. This level also serves as an introduction on how the Girl works as a companion. Additionally, the Forest sets the vibe of the whole game. You know you are in for a wild ride when you find a net full of rotting carcasses (that may or may not be human) hanging from a tree within thirty minutes of starting the game. It establishes that this is a bleak, uncaring world where monsters will kill humans by the dozens if they are given the chance to do so.

After escaping the Forest, Mono and the Girl cross a lake(?) using a giant door as a raft. Here we are properly introduced to the main setting of this game, a location that we will just call the City for the sake of simplicity. The City is for the most part abandoned, the only indication that people lived here are piles of discarded clothing. The buildings themselves seem to curve and look downward on our two protagonists, as if the City itself is watching their every move and judging them for it. And from this point on in the game, each main level is spaced out with a brief trip to the City streets until you head back indoors. Each trip to the City streets ends with Mono finding a working television set. Every time a TV turns on, Mono is drawn to them, like a moth to a flame. And interacting with said TVs allows Mono to catch a glimpse of that ominous door at the end of the hall that was teased at the start of the game. Before he can see what's on the other side, the Girl will pull him away from the TV as it shuts down once more. Again, all of this is important for later, so keep it in the back of your mind.

Image from https://adventuregamers.com/screenshots/view/38395/95962#images-61

The next level is the School, which is a level that I admittedly have mixed feelings on. First a little context. A feature that's new to Little Nightmares II is that Mono can pick up certain objects, such as wooden sticks and giant-sized utensils and use them as improvised weapons to attack minor enemies. The Forest doesn't really have any enemies besides the Hunter, who is clearly too big and strong to attack directly. So the School introduces the Bullies, the students of the School and the first enemy type that can be harmed with said weaponry. As such, if the Forest was an introduction to puzzle solving and Jolly Cooperation, then the School is the introduction to the combat system. The problem is that Mono's attack animation is rather slow, which makes sense since he is at best an adolescent human using tools meant for giants. But because of the slow attack animation, you basically have to time your attacks perfectly to defeat the Bullies, because if you swing your weapon too early or too late, they will kill Mono with one grab. The fact that Mono dies in one hit combined with his slow attack speed forces you to "git gud" as the saying goes, because this game's combat mechanics leave very little room for error. This is the only real criticism I have of the game, that the combat is just a little bit too unforgiving. What's worse is that (mild spoiler alert!) the enemies in the next level are nowhere near as aggressive as the Bullies, and if the Bullies' aggression was reduced slightly it would not be anywhere near as bad as it is currently. Like, I have beaten Little Nightmares II dozens of times. I've gotten every collectible possible and even tried my hand at just for fun speed running. But the School trips me up every playthrough precisely because of the unforgiving combat.

But on the subject of things I do like about the School, it has my favorite monster in the whole game, the Teacher. The Teacher is a female giant who, aside from her wrinkled "face" and stiff body movements, appears to be relatively normal. Then her neck starts stretching and slinking around the School like a demented serpent. The Teacher is the scariest monster in the game, because her design and abilities make you feel viscerally uncomfortable just from looking at her. And the Bullies, which devolve into rowdy degenerates when left to their own devices, shrivel up in fear when the Teacher is hosting a lesson. The whole School seems to fear the Teacher. Speaking of, while I dislike the combat sections with the Bullies, I do like the design and aesthetic of the School. Having such a mundane setting be twisted into a giant maze of bookshelves, desks and school supplies is peak Little Nightmares level design. And honestly, if it weren't for the combat sections with the Bullies, the School would have been my favorite level.

Anyway, early on in the level the Girl gets kidnapped by the Bullies, forcing Mono to fight his way through the School on his own. After spending almost the entire Forest level together, this is the first time our protagonists have been separated. As such, you do feel a little handicapped in your options, on top of the worry you feel for the Girl's well being. You get her back towards the end of the level, which leads to one of my favorite scenes from the whole game. So imagine. Mono and the Girl have been reunited, they're sneaking through a School corridor, and there is a lone Bully absentmindedly scribbling on the floor. There's a sledgehammer that you can grab. So your first instinct is to grab the sledgehammer and bonk the Bully before they can notice you. That's how you dealt with the Bullies before. But before you even have a chance to pick it up, the Girl runs over to the Bully and grabs them in a stranglehold. And then she breaks the Bully's head open with just her bare hands. If it wasn't for the Bully's head being made of porcelain instead of flesh and bone, this kill would have earned the game an M for Mature rating. It is genuinely one of the most disturbing sights in the game. For newcomers, seeing a child do something so brutal is not only harrowing, it's a hint that there is more to this girl than meets the eye. For veterans of the first game, this is your first clue as to the Girl's identity, which I won't spoil just yet.

So Mono and the Girl escape from the School and return to the City streets. Curiously, the Teacher is the only giant in the game that never gets killed on screen. In fact, Mono and the Girl don't do anything that prevents the School from making more Bullies. So no matter what happens next, just remember that the Teacher is still out there. But more importantly, it's now raining in the City. Mono is unaffected, but the Girl is visibly shivering from the coldness of the rain. So while exploring the streets, the Girl finds a bright yellow raincoat, which she equips immediately. Newcomers won't get what the big deal with the raincoat is, but anyone who played the first game knows why. Basically, the Girl putting on the raincoat confirms once and for all that she is the protagonist from the first game, a human(?) girl named Six. Again, because of the wordless nature of the story, you wouldn't know Six's name unless you looked at promotional material. So from here onwards, I will refer to the Girl as Six. Anyway, the reveal that Six was the Girl you were traveling with the whole time would have been a pleasant surprise, if it weren't for the fact that it was really obvious who she was from the moment she first appeared. First of all, the music box at the beginning of the game is playing a song from the first game called Six's Lullaby. Second of all, there's the aforementioned scene where the Girl smashes a kid's head open, and anyone who played the first game will tell you that Six is incredibly ruthless and prone to acts of extreme violence. And third of all, the Girl has literally the exact same model as Six, just without a raincoat. And finally, Six (complete with raincoat) is literally on the box art of the game, standing front and center alongside Mono. None of this is a bad thing, of course. It's just mildly amusing that the game treats the raincoat reveal as some shocking twist despite how obvious the whole thing is.

Anyway, after getting the raincoat and heading indoors, Mono and Six find themselves at the next main level, the Hospital. And the Hospital is the level where the game proudly says "I'M NOT GONNA SUGERCOAT IT!" and stops going easy on the player. The puzzles here are more complicated and require visiting multiple rooms to solve. There are minor enemies in the form of the Living Hands, which are exactly what they sound like. Living, disembodied hands that crawl around like spiders. These can be squished with a well-timed weapon strike from Mono, and they are as previously mentioned, nowhere near as aggressive as the Bullies. Overall, I think the combat in this level is better than the School because even Mono still dies in one hit, the skittishness of the Living Hands makes them easier to deal with. It's still not perfect, but I'll take the Living Hands over the Bullies any day. There are also multiple giants in the form of the Patients. The Patients are mannequins made with a mixture of cloth, wood and flesh. They only move when in complete darkness, so long as the lights are on they are as still as a statue. This level introduces the flashlight, a tool Mono can use to freeze the mannequins. While I don't consider the Patients to be the scariest or even the best monster in the game, they are definitely the most stressful to deal with. And also the scene where Mono is running down a hall while hundreds of Patient hands erupt from the walls is iconic. On par with the Dinner Guest scene from the first game.

Image from https://adventuregamers.com/screenshots/view/38395/95962#images-35

The Hospital is probably the longest level in the whole game, with the first half being Mono and Six trying to power up a defunct elevator by installing new fuses in the generator, and needing to solve a series of puzzles to get those fuses in the first place. The second half of the level is spent working your way downwards to the Hospital's morgue, where you encounter the main giant of the level, the Doctor. Insert Doctor Who joke here. Anyway, the Doctor is an obese slug-like giant that crawls on the ceiling and navigates the morgue while upside down. The Doctor can be seen experimenting on the Patients, taking them apart and putting them back together as crude abominations. However, the most interesting thing about the Doctor is that you can see the masks worn by every other giant encountered so far in his office. He even has the masks of the giants from the first game on display. So now we know who is the one in charge of making the masks and handing them out to the rest of the giants. What purpose the masks serve is still unclear at this point. Anyway, the Doctor chases Mono and Six through the rest of the morgue, but he gets trapped inside a cremator. You can either spare the Doctor's life by leaving for the elevator immediately or you can kill him by turning the cremator on, burning the Doctor alive. This is the only time in the game where the player can choose whether a giant lives or dies. It doesn't really impact the rest of the game as the Doctor never returns regardless of your decision. As sadistic as it sounds I prefer turning the cremator on, if only because it plays an animation of Six warming herself up with the cremator's fire. It's a cute animation that is made hilariously morbid with context.

The fourth and penultimate level is the City itself. Just the entire rest of the City. Mono and Six platform their way across the rooftops and sneaking through abandoned apartments. And surviving at least one collapsing building. They also figure out what happened to the rest of the City's population. They all got turned into the next main enemy type, the Viewers. The Viewers are the giant citizens of the City who having seemingly turned completely feral, despite ironically looking the most human of all the giants encountered so far. The only thing keeping their animalistic impulses in check is their addiction to TV. To give you an idea how desperate the Viewers are for any kind of stimulation, they will literally throw themselves off cliffs just to get a better look at a working TV. They will drag the TVs they do have into the shower with them so they can continue watching while bathing. They are so addicted they will put themselves, and anyone caught in their path into very real danger. Now I don't want to get too political here, but I'm pretty sure the central theme of this level is that too much media consumption is bad for your health. Especially since the only thing that the Viewers seem to watch is static. They aren't watching funny children's cartoons, or compelling romantic dramas, or even simple game shows. The Viewers are being stimulated with nothing more than meaningless lights and the pointless drone of static. 

Now is the point where I am going to tell you to beware of spoilers. From this point on, things get so wild that it would be a shame to not experience the game for yourself. If you want to know my opinion on the rest of the game without spoiling it too much, I consider this level and the final level to be pinnacle of Little Nightmares' art and storytelling style. And as previously mentioned, Little Nightmares II is one of my favorite horror games ever. So if you have any interest in playing this game, you can pick it up on literally any modern gaming system. Steam, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, etc. Without further ado, let's get into spoiler territory.

So you know how I said that every time Mono finds a working TV he is drawn to it, and how he always gets pulled away before the door at the end of the hall opens? Well, in the fourth and final visit to the City streets, he finally got to see what was on the other side of the door! It was the Thin Man, a sharply dressed giant with unnaturally long limbs. The Thin Man then reaches out of the TV and into the real world and grabs Six, leaving nothing behind but a shadowy specter. Much like the School, the rest of the City level has Mono completely alone. There are two main threats in this level, the Thin Man himself and the Viewers. 

The main gimmick of the City level is that Mono has learned to do his own version of the Thin Man's ability to travel into and out of television screens. And Mono has to use this new ability to escape from Viewer hordes and reach areas that would be otherwise inaccessible. It's a really clever and creative gimmick that makes up the majority of this level's puzzles. The Thin Man himself only appears sporadically throughout the level. You cannot really hide from him the same way you hide from other giants. You either run when you see him appear, or it's back to the checkpoint with you. One detail I like is that the closer the Thin Man gets to Mono, the slower the world around him moves. So if he's right behind Mono, the whole game goes into slow motion. It's an effect that makes him both more unsettling and more dangerous than the other giants. Anyway, after enduring several injuries and losing all of his tools, Mono finally removes the paper bag mask and confronts the Thin Man directly. Mono then somehow steals the Thin Man's magical powers and destroys him with his own magic. It's an awesome scene, and the music and frame adds a sinister edge to it. Especially when you remember the first game's ending, where Six stole the Lady's magic and used her new power to slaughter hundreds of giants at once. But now that the Thin Man is dead, there are only two things left to do. The first is rescue Six, obviously. The second is track down the source of the TV transmissions that the Viewers are addicted to and destroy the signal. 

The final level is the Signal Tower, inside of which is a freaky nightmare realm with looping halls and furniture floating around in zero gravity. Nothing about the Signal Tower's interior makes logical sense. Because it's a nightmare that operates on "nightmare logic" In fact, one might say that the Signal Tower is A LITTLE NIGHTMARE. Insert "bad-um ting!" sound here. And once again, spoiler alert! I mean it this time. If the City was a good enough level to deserve a spoiler warning, the Signal Tower deserves a super spoiler warning. Because not only does this section spoil the final level of the game, it also spoils some late game stuff from Little Nightmares I. Understood? Good! So Mono reunites with Six. But something is... off about her. Something... Distorted. She's now a giant, with long arms that stretch and bend at painful looking angles and mismatching legs that are grossly longer on one side than the other. And mirroring the beginning of the game, Six is sitting alone in a room, her only comfort being the music box. Mono has grown to care about Six during their time together, and possibly in a misguided attempt to help his friend, Mono breaks the music box. Which sends the distorted Six into a frenzy. This is the final boss. It's not an exciting confrontation with whatever villain designed such a horrid City. It's a young boy trying to save his friend from a fate worse than death. There's something beautifully tragic about it.

Image from https://adventuregamers.com/screenshots/view/38395/95962#images-79

So Mono trashes the music box completely, restoring Six to her original form. But the Signal Tower begins to collapse. There is one last chase scene, where Mono and Six run through the falling ruins of the Signal Tower itself. But no matter how well you play, Six will always outpace Mono, and Mono will always fail the last jump. The only reason he doesn't die is because Six turned around and caught his hand. Now, a little bit of context here. Throughout the game, about once per level is a "Leap of Faith" spot. These spots are gaps that Six can get across, but not Mono. In order to get past these spots, Mono would have to jump across and trust that Six will catch him. The whole game was building up to this exact moment. This was the final Leap of Faith spot. And well... You know that scene in The Lion King? The one where Mufasa is hanging on the ledge and Scar starts to pull him up, only to say "Long live the King!" and throw Mufasa down to his death? Yeah. Six just drops Mono down into the Signal Tower ruins. Why did she do this? There's a lot of theories. Maybe she was always planning on betraying Mono once he outlived his usefulness to her, maybe it was an act of petty revenge. After all, Six has been beaten, chased, tied up and hanged upside down, shot at, and had a building collapse right on top of her since she first met Mono. Perhaps she blamed Mono for all the bad parts of their adventure. But if she did, why did she stick around for so long? She could have left Mono the moment they reached the City, but chose to stay anyway. Maybe her hand slipped and dropping Mono was a genuine accident. But if it was an accident, while did Six act so calmly about it? Either way, Mono falls into the ruins while Six returns to the City to do as she pleases. The final scene of the game is Mono growing old and transforming into the Thin Man before locking himself away behind the door at the end of the hall shown at the start of the game. 

One thing I neglected to mention earlier. There are two kinds of optional collectibles hidden in each level. The first are hats, which allow you to customize Mono somewhat. Most of these hats are goofy jokes, like a teddy bear hat and a bucket helmet. But the other collectible are Shadow Children. Shadow Children are spooky ghosts that disappear when interacted with. If you grab every Shadow Child in the game, the ending is altered to show one additional scene. In this new ending, we see Six experiencing one of her infamous hunger pains, just like in the original game. She then looks over an advert for a submarine-based restaurant called the Maw. Which is the location from the first game. And the place where Six will succumb to hunger-induced madness and become a cannibalistic sorceress. Which means there is a very good chance that this game is a prequel. Actually, I suppose the fact that Six went the whole game without using her sorceress abilities is a bigger piece of evidence for this game being a prequel, since she only gains those powers in the first game's ending. But this ending does solve one mystery from the first game, which was why was Six in the Maw in the first place. Before, it was safe to assume she was a captive or perhaps she was born there. But this ending implies she went to the Maw of her own volition with the express goal of finding something to devour. So there's that mystery solved.

So what does this ending mean? Lots of things. Firstly, the fact that Six is still experiencing her hunger pains (or perhaps, this is the origin of said hunger pains) means even if Six saved Mono at the end and the two lived happily ever after, Mono would eventually be attacked by Six once her hunger drives her to cannibalistic madness. In such a scenario, Mono would be forced to kill Six in self defense, or else Six would devour her only real friend. Therefore, Mono's days were numbered the moment he freed Six from the Hunter's basement. This isn't to demonize Mono. Not at all. I believe he was doing what he felt was the right thing. But more importantly, Mono became the Thin Man. Which means a few things. Most obviously, that "normal" humans can transform into giants, meaning all the monsters encountered in the Little Nightmares universe could have been innocent people who were twisted and contorted into monstrous parodies of their former selves. Secondly, it means that Mono is probably trapped in a Groundhog Day style time loop. Starting quite possibly as early as the Forest, freeing Six, narrowing escaping the giants, killing his future self, and being betrayed at the last minute. Only to be released by his younger self and doing everything again in a loop. Either that, or Mono was just yet another victim in a long line of different Thin Men. Each doomed to wait in a lonely room at the end of a hallway that only seems to exist in TV signals until some other poor fool repeats their mistakes and sets them free.

And there you go! A review of all five levels in Little Nightmares II. Spoilers are over, by the way. As for presentation, this is a game that rides that fine line between being hauntingly beautiful and deliberately disgusting. The closest thing I can compare it to would be something like The Nightmare Before Christmas or The Corpse Bride. In fact, the art style is reminiscent of Tim Burton movies in general. The camera is fixed at a single angle for the whole game, which gives the vibe that the player is peering into a deranged dollhouse or a sinister stage. And again, most of the locations are relatively mundane places in theory, like a school or hospital, but the gigantic and warped proportions of the buildings and furniture makes everything look uncanny. And the monsters are all excellently designed and animated. I especially like the detail they put into their "idle" animations. When the giants aren't attacking the kids, they can be seen doing normal everyday tasks around their respective facilities. The Hunter can be seen cleaning and stuffing a recent victim, the Teacher plays piano in between lessons, and the Doctor washes his hands before and after every experiment. It gives them all a little bit more personality outside of being angry murder monsters. This was something that was true of the first game's giants as well. I played the Nintendo Switch version of the game, and while I can't speak for other systems, I never encountered any kind of glitches or frame rate drops whatsoever. The whole game runs smoothly from start to finish.

The OST was composed by Tobias Lilja. And as far as this game's music goes, it bears repeating that Little Nightmares II rides that line between beautiful and disgusting.  Some songs in the OST, like Six's Lullaby or Togetherness are peaceful piano melodies, while other songs like Boots through the Undergrowth or Captive Audience sound less like music that you would willingly listen to for leisurely purposes and more like an alarm going off to warn you of incoming danger. This is not a bad thing, in fact it the "stressful" songs add to the experience. Nomes in the Attic is probably one of my favorite songs from the OST because it sounds eccentric and whimsical. Fun Fact! The music that plays when Mono fights the Bullies in the School is called Crackheads. I am not making that up. Whoever came up with the OST song names needs to be given a raise for that pun.

Now, sound effects! You already know what I am going to say. Fine line between beautiful and disgusting. The sounds of things like footsteps and Mono hitting something with a weapon are clean and crisp. The sounds the giants make come in varying flavors of uncanny. Like the sound of the Teacher's skin straining as her neck stretches is yet another disturbing element of her design. The sound of the Hunter's gunshots do a good job conveying just how much force and power he packs into his weapon. And one thing that I appreciate, which is both an audio thing and a visual thing, is that there are no actual jump scares at all in Little Nightmares II. It has enough confidence that its surreal and grotesque world and monsters are scary in and of themselves that it never resorts to cheap surprises to catch you unaware. In fact, the giants are well, giant, and as such you always see and hear them coming from miles away. But this doesn't detract from their ability to frighten, but it instead enhances it. Every scene with the giants is a tense game of cat-and-mouse. You are the "mouse." in this analogy. And you will be filled with dread as you hope that the "cats" don't notice you while you're sneaking around right under their noses. And when the "cats" finally notice you, that feeling of dread is transformed into adrenaline as you run for your life.

Overall, Little Nightmares II is a masterclass of horror. Its world is macabre, its denizens monstrous, and the whole experience is magnificent. I cannot recommend this game enough. If you like horror games, or want to dip your toes in the genre without diving headfirst into something more explicitly gruesome, then Little Nightmares II is a great place to start. I give it an easy 5 stars out of 5.

Little Nightmares II is owned by Bandai Namco and developed by Tarsier (who are no longer working with Bandai Namco at the time of writing). None of the screenshots used belong to me. Please support the official release.

Subnautica, finding beauty and terror in the deep blue sea. A review

 You may not know this, but I like horror games. Five Nights at Freddy's, Little Nightmares and Bendy & The Ink Machine were my first real exposure to the horror genre, and I've enjoyed the thrill of these kinds of games ever since. But you want to know the scariest game I have ever played? The one that gives me overwhelming dread and terror every time I play through it? That game is called Subnautica. Which is funny, because that isn't even a real horror game. At least, not in the conventional sense. So let's talk about it!

image from Wikipedia.org and Giant Bomb

Developed and published by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Subnautica is a charming survival adventure game released back in 2018. The game sold 5.3 million copies and is often considered a must play for survival game fans. Basically, think Minecraft or Terraria but underwater and with a smoother art style. Anyway, you play as a space traveler named Ryley Robinson. Ryley was a crewman of The Aurora, an enormous Star Trek style space cruiser that has sadly crash landed on an alien planet. This planet, given the rather clerical name of 4546-B, has a surface comprised of  90% water. In other words, almost the entire planet is one big ocean. You are then dumped into Riley's shoes and told to find a way to escape, while also looking for any survivors of the crash. Your only companion for most of the game is the PDA. The PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is an AI Program designed to keep you alive in this foreign, presumably hostile environment for as long as possible. It also doubles as the in-game tutorial, teaching you basics of exploration, crafting, and building management. The story is admittedly a simple tale of one man trying his best to survive an alien environment, but the fact that this game even has a story at all is a big deal. Most survival games don't even have a story, or named characters, or an explicitly stated goal to work towards. Normally they just dump you in a metaphorical sandbox and tell you that you need to "make your own fun!" For having a story, and a competently written one at that, Subnautica already gets points for originality.

The bulk of your time is spent swimming around in an alien ocean, collecting resources and finding new technology blue prints to build with. Most creatures in the game are not truly hostile to you, though some like the Stalker and Crash Fish will attack if you provoke them first. They are, after all, just regular animals, at least by this planet's standards. The only exception to this rule are the Leviathans, but they deserve their own section of the review. When you first start the game, you have nothing to your name except for some protein bars and a bottle of drinking water. Everything you want, you have to make yourself. Want to swim faster? You got to make yourself a pair of fins to boost your swim speed. Want to stay underwater for longer? You got to build an oxygen tank so you don't drown. Want a place to store your belongings and admire the oceanic views in piece? You need to build a habitat. While some items can be crafted as soon as the game starts (assuming you have enough resources) most items require you to find the associated blue print for that item beforehand. Blue prints can be found either in abandoned bases left by the other survivors or by scanning debris from the Aurora with the scanner tool.

Image from trueachievements.com

All of these things cost resources, which you collect simply while exploring the ocean. And some resources can be turned into other resources. For example, kelp can be made into fibers, and copper ore can be made into either batteries or wires. And unlike every other survival game in existence, Subnautica does NOT have procedural world generation. What this means is that instead of letting an automatic generator create the world from a randomly chosen number, the world has been handcrafted by the developers themselves. And honestly, the ocean is wonderfully designed. Every biome, every bit of coral and every branch of kelp was placed deliberately for the best possible experience. You always start in the Safe Shallows biome, which true to its name, is the safest and shallowest area in the game. It's the only place in the game where you can reliably build above sea level, and the wildlife here is mostly docile.

But I know what you are thinking. "Spencer, this doesn't sound that scary! This game sounds pretty chill, actually!" That's because of how Subnautica is balanced. You need to leave the Safe Shallows eventually, either because you ran out of resources to work with or because you want to progress the story. And the further away from the Safe Shallows you go, the more danger you will find. The animals get more territorial and aggressive. The water pressure makes swimming without specialized submarines impractical. Even the sunlight itself darkens to pitch black if you dive deep enough. While the Safe Shallows are a good safety net, it is impossible to beat the game without taking that plunge into the dark, unknown abyss. And the biomes get progressively creepier as you descend.

And sooner or later, you will face a Leviathan. Leviathans are the game's main mascot monster. There are a few variations of these enormous life forms, some being more peaceful than others. The Reef Back Leviathan is a giant whale-like creature that is completely docile, even letting you mine ores off its back. The Ghost Leviathan is a blue serpent that only appears if you somehow go outside the ocean's borders, and it attempts to scare you back in. And then there's the Reaper Leviathan. The Reaper is an apex predator that will hunt you down to the ends of the ocean if it catches your scent. It can destroy entire submarines with just one or two attacks, patrols several areas that are critical for story progression, and announces its presence with an unsettling roar. The threat of Reaper Leviathans is so great that whenever I head to any area they frequent, I try to speed-run my way past them, because the less time you deal with Reapers, the better.

Image from ausgamers.com

But the Reapers by themselves aren't the main reason I consider this game to be scary. They are the most dangerous fish in the entire game, that much is true. But the reason Subnautica is scary is because of the ocean itself. It grows darker and darker as you descend, it hides its treasures in caves and tunnels hundreds of miles below the surface. You have no clue what is down there, and you have no idea what might be looking back at you. So imagine, going so deep underwater that you can't see the sunlight anymore. You have no idea what time of day it is. You go into a cramped underwater cave. You get mixed up in the cave system, and can't find your way out. Your equipment is low on battery charge. You start to panic as your oxygen depletes. You know if you don't get out now, you will drown. You frantically kick around, trying to find an exit point. You find a hole in the ceiling. Hope fills your heart as breathable air leaves your lungs. "I can make it!" you think. You swim as fast as you can, and as you make it out of the cave, you hear it. A blood curdling roar in the distance. Where is it coming from? You can't tell. Your only concern is getting some air in your lungs. As you kick and struggle against the watery abyss, you realize as your oxygen runs out completely and the Reaper approaches from the pitch-black abyss... You never stood a chance. Even if you made it back to the surface, you couldn't outrun the Reaper. Or vice versa.

That is why Subnautica is scary. It is a game that perfectly captures that feeling of terror and desperation that comes with the danger of underseas exploration. It is a known fact that humanity has explored more of outer space than our own oceans. You know why? Because the deep blue sea is an environment completely alien to the human experience. We as a species do not belong that deep underwater, either because the water pressure would destroy us, or we would encounter a sea creature that exists far beyond human comprehension. Something within us knows that fact deep down, even if we would never admit it. And Subnautica manages to recreate these feelings using a fictional, alien ocean and fictional alien fish. In that regard, Unknown Worlds has my respect.

This isn't to say that Subnautica is always scary all the time. This is just a specific scenario after all, and the majority of a playthrough is spent just taking in the wonder and majesty of this strange, but beautiful underwater world. In fact, the game has a surprising amount of humor, mostly delivered through the PDA and collectible logs you can read for lore. I think my favorite joke is that the PDA reminds you that any resources you collect are legally the property of the Alterra Corporation (the company Ryley works for), and that anything he crafts he owes back to the company. There's also another joke about how one of the survivors managed to kill themselves accidentally by waving a distress flare around an exposed gasoline leak, thus triggering a deadly explosion. That sounds horrible, but the context makes it clear this was more of a moment of avoidable stupidity than anything truly tragic.

On the subject of difficulty, Subnautica offers three main difficulty options. Freedom Mode is the easiest, Survival Mode is moderate, and Hardcore Mode is as hard as it sounds. In Freedom Mode, the hunger and water gauges are disabled, meaning you no longer have to worry about collecting food or drinking water to survive. In Survival Mode, you do have to worry about hunger and thirst, and you will drop a random assortment of items upon death. Hardcore Mode is exactly the same as Survival Mode, but with a caveat. If you die in Hardcore Mode, your save file is automatically deleted, forcing you to restart the entire game from Day One. There's also a variant of Freedom Mode called Creative Mode. Creative Mode turns you completely invincible, and free to build whatever you want with a infinite supply of resources. In other words, it's exactly like Minecraft's Creative Mode. The difficulty is sadly locked into the save file, which means if you want to adjust the difficulty you do need to play the game again from scratch. I personally played through the game on Survival Mode, since the sales pitch is "survive in an alien ocean" and I wanted the full survival experience. But I'm also not good enough at the game to beat it in one go, so Hardcore Mode is a pass for me. 

There's also base building. That's what the habitats are for. They allow you to store all of your belongings, and can be outfitted with specialized rooms for additional utility. Say you need to find a specific resource for your next project. Scanner rooms (which are like giant versions of the scanner tool) can highlight that specific resource within a 50 meter radius so you can find it more easily. If you need a reliable source of food, indoor planter boxes let you grow edible plants as long as you have enough room for them. If you have a submarine with a low battery charge, The Moonpool can automatically recharge your sub as long as as the habitat has power. Speaking of power, there are two main things to keep in mind when building your habitat. The first is power, and the second is structural integrity. Let's talk power first. You need electricity to keep things running. But where does one get electricity? There are a lot of ways, though their effiency is dependent on the location you built the habitat in. Solar panels generate power from sunlight, obviously. But if your habitat is so deep underwater that you can't even see the sun, solar panels stop working entirely. Thermal Plants generate power as long as you build near a large source of heat, such as a geyser or undersea volcano. In colder regions they are pretty much useless, but in warmer waters they surpass all other options. Bio Reactors convert dead fish and kelp into power and can function just fine in any location, but Bio Reactors can burn through your surplus supplies if you're not careful. Nuclear Reactors are far stronger than the other three options combined and works just about anywhere. The problem is that Nuclear Reactors produce nuclear waste, which is both useless and potentially dangerous. Use whichever form of power is best for the kind of habitat you want to build.

Now let's talk structural integrity, the second main thing you need to worry about for base building. Basically, every time you add an additional room to a habitat, the structural integrity will lower. If it reaches below a certain threshold, your habitat will break apart and start flooding. This is bad, for obvious reasons. While you can repair any damage done to your habitat with the appropriate tool, it is better to prevent this from happening altogether. You can do this by raising a habitat's structural integrity with foundations, reinforced walls, and bulkhead doors. All of these solutions are fairly expensive in terms of resources. So it is generally better to build small to medium sized habitats with reinforcements here and there than to try and make a massive mega base. That said, if you are dead set on making one big mega-base with multiple floors and dozens of rooms, you can do that as long as you use enough reinforcements to keep it from collapsing. Habitat building requires you to have enough planning and foresight to both keep the base powered as well as making it structurally sound, while being flexible enough to make something that looks aesthetically pleasing. It's a simple, but engaging base building system.

You know how I said that Subnautica is one of the few survival games to have a story? Throughout the game, you find audio logs from the other survivors of the crash. And even some logs from the crew of an entirely different spaceship that crashed on this same planet several years before you did. Through these logs you learn that the planet is under quarantine. There is a water-bound bacteria that infects all living matter with a deadly virus. This virus wiped out the intelligent life forms on 4546-B, leaving only the fish who developed a natural resistance to it. And this was why the Aurora crashed; it was shot down by an automated anti-air cannon to prevent the virus from spreading to the rest of the galaxy. Your new goal from now on is to find a way to cure the virus and disable the quarantine system, because even if you manage to build a one-man spaceship to get back to human civilization, you will just be shot down again if you don't cure the virus before launching. One thing I really like about this storyline is how you learn you were infected by the virus. At the beginning of the game you are given the option to scan yourself with the scanner tool. The first time you do this, Ryley's vitals come back normal. But after a few days, if you choose to scan yourself again, you'll hear an alert about a bacterial infection in Ryley's body. Let a few more days pass, and the next time you look at your bare hands, and you might see grotesque tumors forming on your skin. There's no fancy cutscene for this reveal. You could easily miss these details if you aren't looking for them. But I appreciate when devs try to tell story through game mechanics instead of traditional cinematics. Of course, this game pulls a Batman: Arkham City when it comes to the idea of the protagonist being infected with a virus. No matter how long you take to beat the game, the virus will never kill you because the rate at which it spreads in Ryley's body is tied directly to story advancement. Ryley will always survive "just" long enough to cure himself, even if the virus has been eating at him for in-game months or years. This might be immersion breaking, but I view as a quality of life thing. After all, it would really suck if your Hardcore run was stopped because you took too long to find the cure.

In terms of presentation, Subnautica is definitely a good looking game. It has a clean, almost cartoony aesthetic. Most of the technology in this setting is smooth and pristine, when it's not being ravaged by wildlife. The creature designs are also excellent. Even though they are fictional alien fish, most of the animals here have enough biological consistency that they could believably exist in real life. They move like believable animals and they act like believable animals. Like, I could totally see National Geographic doing a nature documentary on these creatures. And the biomes are all distinct from each other, using wildly varied colors and lightings to make each one stand out. And because of that, you can reliably guess where in the world you are just by the colors. Just to give a few examples, the Safe Shallows is a coral reef so close to the surface that parts of it jut out above the water, and it uses a lot of blues and greens to look safe and inviting. The Jelly Shroom Cave is an unground cave system filled with bioluminescent mushrooms, and it uses pinks and purples to convey a sense of wonder and mystery. And The Crash Zone is a dead, barren wasteland consisting entirely of sickly yellows and browns. Every other biome follows this pattern of being tied to one or two distinct colors that immediately showcases the "vibe" of the biome in question.

There are only two bad things I have to say is that this game, one of which is a problem that almost every survival game experiences; if you move too quickly through the world, the game starts having a hard time loading in terrain and associated textures in time with your movement. Basically, if you move too fast, the sea floor might disappear for a brief moment until the game can load it back in. And with the sole exception of Terraria, every survival game I have ever played has a problem similar to this. Heck, even Minecraft, a game that was hailed as one of the best survival games ever made, has this problem. I played the game on PS4, and I do not know if this a console problem or a problem with the game itself. But this is not really a deal-breaker, because again, every survival game has this issue. It just breaks immersion a little if it happens to you. The second main issue with Subnautica is that the controls for walking on dry land are a little bit clunky and awkward. Which also isn't a deal breaker because you spend so much of your time underwater, and it is clear that the devs prioritized getting the aquatic movement right over the land movement.

The game's sound design is impeccable. Its music, composed by Simon Chylinski, is ethereal and mysterious. The music invites you deeper into the ocean while simultaneously making you feel trapped by it. The simplest way to describe Subnautica music is that it is the soundtrack equivalent of a siren's song. Fitting for a game about undersea exploration. The only exception to this rule is Abandon Ship!, a song in the OST that only plays when your submarine is critically damaged. This song can best be described as an intensely urgent techno rave. It's not bad, in fact it's one of the best songs in the whole OST. But again, it only plays when your sub is critically damaged. And it blows my mind that the best song is played during a situation the player would rather avoid. On an unrelated note, the sound effects are also great. The Reaper's roar is intimidating, the soft hum of the submarine's engines give a sense of power, and the voice acting is actually really good. Which, again, is surprising for a survival game, since these games typically don't have voice acting at all. The PDA speaks in a comically monotone voice that feels accidentally sarcastic. The Sea Emperor (who holds the cure for the virus) sounds equal parts majestic and regal, but also ancient and tired. Which fits for a creature that predates the virus that killed all the land-dwellers in the first place. And the audio logs you can collect do a good job showcasing the stress and despair the other survivors felt in their final moments.

Overall, Subnautica is a beloved icon of survival games for a reason. It manages to be just as, possibly even more scary than actual horror games while being a fun underwater exploration experience. I consider this game, Minecraft and Terraria to be the "Holy Trinity" of survival games, for these three games set the standard for which all other survival games should be judged against. So if you like Minecraft or Terraria, you will probably like Subnautica. Even if you haven't played a survival game before, Subnautica is a great place to start. For these reasons, I give Subnautica a perfect rank of Five Stars out of Five.

Subnautica is available on PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X. Subnautica is the property of Unknown Worlds Entertainment and their parent company, Krafton. Please support the official release.

An extremely late review of the hardest game I've ever played: Sekiro

Hey there. Long time no see. I haven't posted anything in over a year and that's no good. Why was I gone for so long? To make a long story short, I lost motivation to work on the blog. For a very long time. So this blog kind of became a zombie blog. No new content but somehow still getting views. In the meantime I started writing my own original stories, but none of them are at a state where I feel comfortable sharing them on the Internet. So until my original work is complete, I am going to try and revive the blog. And I am going to attempt to stick to a monthly/bi-monthly schedule, so something like this doesn't happen again. With that spiel out of the way, I want to introduce you to one of, if not the single most difficult game I ever played... Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Image from Wikipedia.org

Sekiro was developed by From Software and published by Activision (before they were bought out by Microsoft), and was released in 2019. To say From Software is a one trick pony is to do them a disservice. They are more like a one trick unicorn. They only really make one kind of game (that being Gothic Horror adventure games with deliberately steep learning curves and mysterious storylines that the player has to figure out themselves), but they have gotten so good at that one style of game that they have refined that one style to near perfection. Of course, the problem with this is that if you don't like From Software's style, you're probably going to find their entire catalogue off putting. And no game embodies the "one trick unicorn" mindset better than Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Now, I love the From Software games. They are true artists, with a clear passion for their work. And indeed, I consider Sekiro to one of their finest works. It's not their best game, but it's definitely in the top three. But explaining why I like this game is complicated. Hence, the purpose of this review. Quick content warning, though. This game is rated M for Mature by the ESRB, meaning it is intended for audiences 17 years old or older. The review itself will keep things (somewhat) family friendly, but this is not the kind of game you want to give Little Timmy to keep him distracted for five minutes. Not unless you want a broken controller. Or nightmares about undead monkeys.

So what exactly is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice? Sekiro is an action-adventure game created and directed by gaming legend Hidetaka Miyazaki, who is most well known for his work on the Dark Souls trilogy. This game is technically considered a part of the Souls Borne series, but it is often regarded as the black sheep of the series. This is due to its more straightforward narrative and lack of series standard features, such as multiplayer or character customization. Despite its status as the "black sheep" of From Software's catalogue, Sekiro was their first game to win the Game of the Year Award, cementing the developers' status as legitimate titans in the video game industry and not just a niche studio. 

Taking place in Sengoku Era Japan, you play the role of a Shinobi known only as the Wolf. In case you're unfamiliar with Japanese history, the Sengoku period was regarded as the darkest and bloodiest time in the country's history. It was almost a hundred years of nonstop civil warfare, bloodshed and violence. But while this war wages on, the Wolf is tasked with protecting a small child named Kuro. And protecting Kuro is important because he possesses the power to grant immortality to anyone of his choosing. In other words, Kuro is a walking Fountain of Youth. Despite taking place in a real historical setting, Sekiro has a lot of fantasy elements, so don't expect the game to be historically accurate.

Anyway, Kuro and Sekiro planned to flee the country to keep the power of immortality out of the wrong hands. Unfortunately, a samurai named Genichiro blocked their escape route. The player is then dropped into a scripted boss fight that a first time player has no chance of actually winning. And this is done to teach the player one valuable lesson: You are going to fail in this game. A lot. And that's okay. Sekiro is a game that has earned a reputation, rightfully so, as one of the most challenging video games ever made. But with enough time and practice, you can defeat people like Genichiro without breaking a sweat. But back on topic. Genichiro chops off the Wolf's left arm and kidnaps Kuro. The Wolf did not die, for Kuro's immortality blessing was protecting him. But he was now missing an arm. So a mysterious elder called the Sculptor gives the Wolf a wooden prosthetic that can be customized with a wide array of gadgets. The game starts for real here.

The plot for the first half of the game is surprisingly simple. The Wolf is honor bound to rescue Kuro by any means necessary. But he is free to explore the world however he wishes as long as he works towards that goal. And one of the biggest departures from From Software's usual storytelling style is that the Wolf is an actual character. Normally, Souls Borne protagonists are mute but customizable heroes, serving as self-inserts for the player. But the Wolf is a predetermined protagonist, with his own personality and motivations. And your enjoyment of Sekiro is going to come down to whether you are okay with playing as an established character instead of a self-insert. I personally really like the Wolf. He's very serious and uptight, only speaks when spoken to first and even then, he keeps conversations brief and to the point. The Wolf has lived an extremely hard life, being an orphan adopted by Japan's most dangerous assassins, and the only thing keeping him sane is his determination and loyalty to Kuro. And for From Software's first attempt at a predesigned hero, the Wolf works well. He fits the gloomy, Gothic Horror inspired worlds that From Software are known for while having a journey that feels more personal because he has a very clear goal to work towards and a very clear villain to stop.

Speaking of villains, the main villain of this game is Genichiro, the samurai from the start of the game. Genichiro is a man with a surprisingly sympathetic motive. He was adopted into a family of samurai warriors called the Ashina Clan. Genichiro genuinely loves the clan like the family he never had. And he will commit any atrocity he can to save his family from the war. This is why Genichiro kidnapped Kuro in the first place. He wants Kuro to bless his army with immortality so they can outlast their enemies in a battle of attrition. Kuro refuses to cooperate because every time someone is blessed with immortality, a random person in the world is infected with a deadly disease called Dragon-Rot. So blessing an army would cause a plague. Genichiro knows this, and doesn't care. He is so desperate to win the war he is willing to cause a global pandemic. 

You fight Genichiro multiple times throughout the story, and I'm going to be honest, Genichiro was the boss that got me to like this game. Up until the second duel with Genichiro, I had very mixed feelings on Sekiro. Sure, I liked the samurai aesthetic and the combat against regular enemies, but the first few bosses were frustrating to deal with, and I had to take multiple breaks to calm down in between each attempt. I pushed as far into the campaign as I did more out of stubbornness than actual enjoyment or fun. But Genichiro redeemed the game in my eyes. He was the best showcase of Sekiro's combat up until that point, and I didn't even mind losing to him because he had a perfectly polished duel. Utilizing swordsmanship and archery in equal measure to keep you on your toes. He's fast, but predictable. His attacks have a good rhythm that makes learning how to deflect easier the longer the fight goes on. But most importantly, fighting him was actually fun! And the bosses that came after Genichiro's second duel were even better! The only reason why I consider Elden Ring (another Souls-Borne that won Game of the Year) to be a better game than Sekiro is because the bosses before the Genichiro rematch are too annoying and frustrating for their own good. If Sekiro had a better early game experience it would surpass Elden Ring in my eyes. That isn't to say that Sekiro is a bad game. Both of these games are excellent showcases of From Software's talent and passion. I just feel Elden Ring is a slightly better experience overall because of its more beginner friendly early game.

The game's story takes a weird turn when you finally reunite with Kuro. You see, Kuro has grown to resent his immortality powers. So he starts cooking up a plan to erase the very concept of immortality from reality. At this point the Wolf's goal changes from simply rescuing Kuro to helping him complete a ritual known as Immortal Severance. From here, the story can branch off into one of four endings, based on which version of the ritual you perform. These endings play out in the typical fashion for Miyazaki stories. Here's a mild spoiler warning for the remainder of this section of the review. There's a bittersweet ending where your journey's end mirrors the beginning in a cyclical manner, a more positive ending where the hero sacrifices themselves to give the future generations a better future, and a weird ending hidden behind an elaborate puzzle. There's also a bad ending choice that can be made halfway through the game, which ends the story early and locks you out of the entire second half of the game. Personally I liked most of these endings, though I feel that the "heroic sacrifice" ending is the one that stays truest to the Wolf's characterization. But I did get the weird ending on my first playthrough simply because this game's weird ending is called the Dragon's Homecoming, which is the coolest sounding name for anything in any video game ever. Like, I saw the names of the different endings (which are vague enough to not spoil their contents) while looking at the PS4 Trophy requirements, saw "Dragon's Homecoming" and decided I would go for that ending simply because that sounds cooler than all the other options combined.

Image from sekirothegame.com

But that's enough for the story. What about gameplay? If I had to describe Sekiro in one word, it would be "speed." This game is fast. Very fast. The Wolf moves remarkably faster than any other Souls-Borne character, at least so far. But almost every enemy in the game can match that speed or even surpass it. So how do you defend yourself against such foes? Deflecting. Now, a quick history lesson for anyone unfamiliar with From Software. All of their Souls-Borne games had a deflect ability. And in every game besides Sekiro, it was (in my opinion) too risky to use because it was impossible to tell what could be deflected and what could not unless you looked up that information ahead of time. Sekiro solves this problem with two very simple solutions. First, almost every attack can be deflected. And second, the few attacks in the game that can't be deflected have a clear visual and audio telegraph warning you ahead of time. These are known as Perilous Attacks. If you hear a violin shriek or see a red Japanese symbol floating above your head, that is your cue to get out of the way. But aside from Perilous Attacks, everything in the game can be deflected. Regardless of size, speed or power. You can deflect a charging bull, throwing knives from other Shinobi, body slams from a King Kong sized ape, and everything in between so long as it not a Perilous Attack.

And you want to be deflecting as much as possible. Every time you deflect an enemy's attack, you deal damage to the enemy's Posture. Think of it as a second health bar for enemies. If an enemy's Posture is completely broken, the Wolf can perform a one hit KO move called a Shinobi Deathblow. Generally speaking, it is often both faster and safer to break enemy Posture with deflections and finish them off with a Deathblow than it is to defeat the enemy with normal attacks. Especially since some enemies don't give you any time to attack directly, meaning you have no choice but to use deflections to break through their Posture. And when you are deflecting a seemingly endless barrage of blows and finally pull off that Deathblow at the end, you feel like a master swordsman. In that regard, Sekiro might have the best sword duels in video game history. Just keep in mind that the Wolf also has Posture of his own, and yes, if the Wolf's Posture is completely broken then he too becomes susceptible to a Deathblow. There's also a stealth system that lets you sneak past enemies or slay them quietly, though it is a very simple system and said enemies will lose track of you just mere minutes after spotting you. One cheeky thing you can do is use stealth to sneak up on certain bosses and perform a free Deathblow on them, which skips over the entire first half of the boss battle. This sadly doesn't work on every boss. But when it does work, it feels cathartic. 

One of the biggest points of contention among From Software fans is that the Wolf cannot be customized. The rest of the Souls-Borne series have a huge selection of weapons, armor and magic spells that let you handcraft your character's fighting style to your exact liking. Sekiro doesn't offer any of these options. You start the game with a katana and you end the game with that same katana. There is some customization in the form of the Shinobi Tools and Combat Arts, but these are supplements to the main fighting style, not replacements or alternatives. Shinobi Tools are gadgets that can be attached to the Wolf's prosthetic arm, and you equip up to three of them at one time. Each one is custom-tailored for specific threats. For example, The Loaded Axe can break through enemy shields while the Flame Vent can be used to set foes on fire. All Tools use a limited ammo source called Spirit Emblems, which make it so you cannot use the Tools recklessly. The only exception to this rule is the Grappling Hook, which not only has infinite uses, but is always equipped to the Prosthetic no matter what. This sounds overpowered, but the Grappling Hook is used almost exclusively for traversal, so it balances itself out. Combat Arts are special attacks that can be performed by pressing the attack and deflect buttons at the same time. These are special attacks have some additional utility on top of doing damage. For example, "Double Ichimonji" restores the Wolf's Posture with every use, while "High Monk" can be used to jump over certain Perilous Attacks. You can only have one Combat Art equipped at a time. 

Image from sekirothegame.com

But there is one thing I have to address in this review. The difficulty. Sekiro is a hard game. There is no easy mode, or any equivalent thereof. And unlike the rest of the Souls-Borne series, there is no co-op mode that lets you team up with other players if you get stuck. And to add insult to injury, if you die multiple times in a row, a random friendly character or merchant will get infected with Dragon Rot, pausing any storyline or business that character is involved in until you find a cure. Combine all this with the limited customization, you get what is often considered the hardest game From Software has ever made. The biggest flaw with this game is that its difficulty feels very frontloaded. You start the game with only one healing potion instead of the series standard three potions, and the items needed to upgraded the Wolf's health and defenses are locked behind some deceptively tough bosses. The first three or so areas feel much harder than the rest of the game for these reasons, but if you can push past those grueling first areas and get some upgrades, the rest of the playthrough becomes much more manageable. 

Fun fact! I rewrote this section more than any other part of the review, because every time I try and explain my thoughts on the difficulty in a concise manner it always devolves into me complaining about the Chained Ogre and Blazing Bull bosses. I'm pretty sure those two bosses killed me more times than the actual final boss. But with the benefit of hindsight, the Blazing Bull wasn't that bad. You just have to turn off the "logical" part of your brain when you deflect it, because the Wolf deflecting a charge from a giant bull covered in fire does not look like it should be physically possible. But it isn't considered a Perilous Attack, so despite all logic and reason, you can deflect the Blazing Bull's charges. The Chained Ogre has the opposite problem. Almost everything it does is considered a Perilous Attack. And the Ogre is fought early enough in the game that a new player might come to the conclusion that dodging is more important than deflecting, when the opposite is true. If they toned down the number of Perilous Attacks the Chained Ogre has, or maybe moved it further into the campaign when Perilous Attacks become more frequent, then it wouldn't be that bad. But if anyone quit the game because of Chained Ogre or Blazing Bull, I wouldn't blame them.

But on the subject of bosses I actually like, The Great Shinobi Owl is a personal favorite of mine. He is the Wolf's father, and as such he fights with all the same Shinobi Tools and Combat Arts that the Wolf uses. Shuriken, firecrackers and poison bombs are just a few examples of the stuff he can pull out at a moment's notice. He is a cunning and manipulative trickster, and at one point he even feigns surrender just to get some cheap hits in. Owl is as close as the Wolf gets to fighting a clone of himself, which makes this fight even more brilliant. And his theme music is so good I was literally stunned in real life by how good it was. And thanks to what can best be described as time travel shenanigans, the Wolf can challenge Owl to a rematch in the distant past, and a good fight got only better because this Owl is in his prime. As such, he moves faster, he has new combos and weapons to deal with, and he can even summon ghostly owls to assist him. And his theme music somehow got even better!

And of course, you can't talk about Sekiro without talking about the Sword Saint. Most discussion of this game online is about the Sword Saint. Spoilers again, since the Sword Saint is literally the final boss. The Sword Saint is Isshin Ashina, Genichiro's surrogate grandfather and the greatest swordsman who ever lived. Earlier in the game Isshin winds up dying of a terminal illness. Genichiro gets his hands on a magic sword called the Mortal Blade, which can bring one deceased person back to life as an immortal being, at the cost of the user's soul. So Genichiro uses the Mortal Blade to revive his grandfather, sacrificing his own life to do so. Isshin agrees to fight the Wolf, not because he wants to, but to honor his grandson's dying wish to protect the Ashina Clan and win the war. And you get a glorious, one on one duel between two immortal swordsmen, throwing everything they got to put the other down. The Sword Saint is one of the best boss battles I've ever seen in any video game ever, right up there with Nightmare King Grimm from Team Cherry's Hollow Knight. He tests your skill with every aspect of the game's combat. He has fast katana strikes that need to be deflected, and wide reaching Perilous attacks from a giant spear to test your dodging skills. He has a flintlock pistol that he can use to take potshots at you from a distance. He'll even use heretical magic to supercharge his weapons with electricity, requiring to perform deflections in midair to avoid getting zapped. And you fight him in the same open meadow at the start of the game, where you first fought Genichiro. And when you land that final Deathblow on him, Isshin's reaction isn't rage or despair, it's respect. His last words to the Wolf are congratulating him for being a splendid warrior, with no hard feelings for everything that happened. Everything about the Sword Saint, from the spectacle to the music to the actual fight, is a perfect climax to end your journey. 

Image from sekirothegame.com

On the subject of presentation, Sekiro is definitely one of the best-looking games in From Software's catalogue. While it does have traces of the Gothic Horror flair that the developers are known for, it's mixed in with this Feudal Samurai aesthetic that lets the game stand out among its peers. Some areas, like the Senpou Temple, are simply gorgeous to look at with bright colors and an almost serene atmosphere. Other areas, like Mibu Village, are decrepit shells of their former glory. And a personal favorite area of mine is the Hirata Estate, a once prestigious palace engulfed in flames. One thing I noticed is that their is a stronger focus on verticality in Sekiro compared to previous From Software games, with lots of multi-story buildings and steep cliffs. This is partly to give you places where you can reliably use the grappling hook, and partly to induce a sense of grandness and overwhelming scale. The enemy designs are also some of the best in From Software's catalogue. Surprisingly, there's not a lot of incomprehensibly twisted monstrosities, like a normal Souls-Borne game. Instead, most of the enemies are humanoid, and their designs are generally cleaner to look at. Considering the strong emphasis on sword duels, the enemies had to have these cleaner designs so you could actually tell what they are about to do and respond accordingly.

One of my favorite bosses in terms of spectacle is the Guardian Ape due to the transition between its first and second forms. Mild spoilers, but when you defeat the Guardian Ape for the first time, the Wolf decapitates it. You get the "Shinobi Execution!" message that marks the end of a boss battle. But the gate to the next area is still closed. And the Ape's body stands back up, grabs its severed head, and keeps on fighting like nothing happened. It's a good scare that lures you into a false sense of security, especially because the "Shinobi Execution!" message makes the fake out feel more authentic. And the way the Ape's undead form moves around like a puppet being guided by invisible strings is not only unnerving, but its a hint to the Ape's true nature as a victim of one of the Senpou Temple parasites.

There is only one critique I have with the game's presentation, and that is the frame rate. Now, Sekiro has a frame rate of 60 frames per second on PS4 (the system I played it on). This is a fine framerate for an action game. But one area in the game, Ashina Castle, causes problems. Ashina Castle is by far the biggest area in the game, being a massive, well, castle that must be climbed from bottom to top and back again. Because of how big this area is, and all of the moving enemies within the castle and around its perimeter, this area causes the frame rate to slow down. The framerate does correct itself after a few seconds, but the framerate dips happened often enough in this one area that I couldn't ignore it. What's weird is that this the only area with framerate problems, the rest of the game runs just fine. This is most notable during the third and final visit to the Castle, where Central Ministry forces are added on top of the Ashina Clan enemies already in the Castle. While it is cool to see the two villain factions duking it out, the chaos they cause together is what really brings down the game's framerate. All of this is of course, not a deal breaker, just something to be aware of.

The sound design is excellent. The sound effects for the clashing of steel is clean and crisp, especially if you deflect multiple attacks in a row. The mechanical whirs and clicks of the Shinobi Prosthetic add a satisfying flair whenever you use a Shinobi Tool. But the highlight of the sound design is the sound effect for Perilous Attacks. It is a shrill violin shriek that immediately grabs your attention and alerts you to incoming danger far sooner than the red symbol that accompanies it. Whatever From Software's next Souls Borne game is, I sincerely hope they bring back Perilous Attacks just so they can add a sound effect just as iconic as that violin shriek. 

I played through the game with the Japanese voices, despite there being an official English dub. The reason I did this was because the Japanese voices were enabled by default. I'm not a "Subs over Dubs" kind of guy, but after looking up clips of the English voice acting, I can say the Japanese voices sound a lot better. Except for Gyoubu Oniwa, the first named boss you fight. His introductory speech in English is much more entertaining than it is in Japanese. In Japanese he sounds like a stern but refined soldier just trying to do his job. In English he sounds like a bloodthirsty demon screaming loud enough to wake up the dead. And because of that, the English version of Gyoubu's speech became an overnight meme back when the game first released. But the weird thing is, this is the only character I feel sounds better in English. No knock against the Japanese voice actor, for they did a splendid job. But the two takes are so wildly different that they make the same character have a completely different vibe.

Sekiro also boasts an impressive soundtrack, composed by Yuka Kitamura. Most of the music is done with traditional Japanese instruments, such as Taiko drums and Shamisen. As previously mentioned, Great Shinobi Owl's theme music is by far the best song in the game. It starts off with a slow yet intense melody, like a showdown between two skilled assassins. And then when Owl feigns surrender and hits you a cheap blow, the song speeds up and becomes more chaotic, almost as if even the orchestra itself is shocked at Owl's underhanded tactics. Another great song is the music for the Corrupted Monk boss. For the first stage of the boss the music is a fast paced flute solo, but as the fight progresses, more instruments get added in and the song grows more theatrical and menacing. And of course, the Sword Saint's theme music is a triumphant choir mixed with Taiko Drums and (what I think are) flutes, the perfect send off to your journey.

In conclusion, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a great game, though it is admittedly not for everyone. The game is legendarily hard and the early bosses leave a bad first impression, but if you stick with it, Sekiro has some of the best sword combat in the history of action games. Honestly, if you combined this game's deflections and speed with the weapon variety and exploration of Elden Ring you would have the perfect From Software game. But it still stands on its own as a really good ninja game, as long as you are willing to sit down and practice. And even if you have no desire to even touch this game, the Sekiro speed-runs are pretty cool to watch. I give Sekiro 4 out of 5 stars.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is owned by Hidetaka Miyazaki and From Software. All of the screenshots featured here do not belong to me. Please support the official release.

XCOM 2, skillful tactics and deadly luck: A review

 I actually wrote a completely different review of X-COM 2 over four years ago, and never published it. I never will, since it was incredibly poor quality and I am a professional with standards. So I'm writing a new review for XCOM 2 and doing it better than I did originally, if only to do this game justice. So with that out of the way, let's begin.

So what is XCOM 2? Well, it's the sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which in turn is a reboot of X-COM: UFO Defense. From what I understand the whole franchise was published by 2K Games, but only the "modern" XCOM games were developed by Firaxis. This game got a pseudo-sequel spin-off game titled XCOM: Chimera Squad. While Firaxis has not currently said anything official on the matter, rumors are spreading that a hypothetical "XCOM 3" game is in the works. Even though Firaxis is currently working on a licensed strategy game titled Marvel: Midnight Suns at the moment. That much is public knowledge. Anyway, the concept of the franchise is simple. You play the role of the leader of a private military organization called XCOM, which is dedicated to protecting humanity from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats. Basically, think of XCOM as being the unholy love child of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Men in Black. Unfortunately, the only game I have played is XCOM 2, so I cannot speak for the quality of the other games in the series.

XCOM 2 takes place 25 years after the events of the bad ending of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but don't worry, you don't need to play the first game to understand the story so long as you know the basic concept (bad guy aliens took over Earth, take it back). But let's do a more detailed recap anyway, for prosperity's sake. In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM mounted a secret war against these psychic aliens led by these creatures called the Elders. In that game's bad ending, XCOM fails to stop the invasion from becoming public, and the Commander (that's your character, by the way) is kidnapped by the aliens. 25 years later, the aliens, now calling themselves ADVENT, have successfully taken over the entire planet. Every global superpower either surrendered to protect their people or were destroyed outright for resisting. But the dream is not dead, for a small group of rebels (most of whom are either survivors of the first game's war or are said survivors' now grownup children) plan to rebuild XCOM from scratch. But every rebellion needs a Commander. So Central Officer Bradford (who was your second-in-command before everything went to the pits) mounts a rescue operation to save the Commander, who was being psychically tortured this whole time, forced to relive the war over and over in a loop for 25 whole years. How the Commander is even sane at this point is beyond me. What's worse was that ADVENT was using your character's military genius to augment their own soldiers, hence why the rebellion struggled to gain any real footing prior to your rescue.

The rescue op is actually the game's tutorial, walking you through the basics of combat. XCOM 2, like all other games in the series, is turn-based. You move across the map on a board-like grid. Every character in the game has two actions they can perform. They can shoot, move, reload, or use a class-specific skill or ability. Unless an ability explicitly states that it requires both action points, you can use your two actions in any combination you like. You can move and shoot, shoot and reload, use an ability and run away, move twice, or any combo you'd like. The blue outline pictured above shows everywhere the currently selected soldier can run to, using only one action. Moving your cursor outside that outline brings up a second, yellow outline. This shows everywhere you can run to if you use both actions. If you end your turn directly behind certain objects in the environment, you will get a cover bonus. This bonus will make you harder to shoot and reduce the damage on enemy attacks. How much of a cover bonus you get is based on the size of the object in question. A bench for example only provides a half-cover bonus, so it won't protect as well as, say a wall or the side of a truck.  Make sense? I hope so, this game can get pretty complex pretty fast, but that's honestly part of the charm.

The rescue op/tutorial is scripted so that two of your soldiers will get killed off by the end, leaving Central Officer Bradford, starter-character Jane Kelly and yourself as the only survivors. And this is where the XCOM franchise's infamous reputation comes in. This game is hard. Because it's a roguelike. It's difficulty is a selling point. But most importantly, if any one of your soldiers' health hits zero, they are dead, and will stay dead for the rest of the game. Even if you win the battle. The only saving grace is that you can eventually unlock an upgrade for your soldiers called "Stay With Me" which will allow your soldiers to survive one lethal attack with a single hit point remaining (Stay With Me works only once per soldier, per battle, so any lethal attacks after that first one gets blocked will kill). So you have to accept the possibility that one wrong move, one bad strategy, or even just a stroke of bad luck can take away your favorite characters, FOREVER. Is it stressful? Yes. Is it fun? For me, the answer is yes, because I live for that kind of high-stakes strategic combat. It makes your close calls more meaningful, and your losses sting more than they would have if this game was easy. You can adjust the difficulty at the beginning of each playthrough, but keep in mind that it cannot be changed after the fact. If you go in on easy mode (called Rookie mode here) and decide the game is too easy, well too bad, you're going to have to start a whole new playthrough if you want to change it. A major inconvenience, but again, this is a roguelike. But I personally like the high-stakes nature of XCOM 2. It results in some awe-inspiring moments that sometimes feel straight out of an action movie. I still remember this one incident when my Sharpshooter (basically a sniper) got knocked off a three story building and barely survived the fall with one hit point remaining (meaning one more attack from anything will kill), only to get attacked by a very dangerous enemy type known as a Lancer. Despite having every possible advantage, every possible opportunity to kill her, the Lancer somehow missed his attack, and my Sharpshooter was free to limp to safety while the rest of the squad gunned the Lancer down. The mere knowledge that had things played slightly different, my Sharpshooter would be dead where she stood, that's the real magic of XCOM. You care about your soldiers, either because you made them all yourself, or because of scenarios like this. You know these guys aren't invincible. You know that all it takes for one of your soldiers to go down is one mistake; one missed shot, one wrong turn around the corner. Yes, even a stroke of bad luck outside of your control can wipe away your whole squad. The best you can do is prepare for the worst, and pray it never comes to pass.

The soldiers you use, with the exception being Jane Kelly since she's a premade character, are randomly generated and customizable. You can create your own characters and put them into the game, changing their skin tone, gender, hair, facial features, fashionable accessories (such as sunglasses and masks) and even their language/accent, nationality and personality. There's even a biography option, letting you write custom backstories for all of your characters. I love this system. It's simple, but allows for some distinct character designs. My Ranger (a laid back and carefree Australian woman with a wolf tattoo and stylish headband) didn't look or act anything like my Specialist (who was a stoic British man who kept his hoodie up to hide his scar-covered face). And when you're making four-to-six man teams, you want them to be distinct from each other. And if your characters survive a certain number of missions, they can get tattoos and battle scars to show how far they've grown since joining the rebellion.

Every soldier in your rebellion is assigned a class. Classes determine what kind of weapons and abilities a character can use, but when leveling up your squad (done by completing, or at least surviving missions and killing enemies), you're always given a choice between two new skills. Because of this, two soldiers of the same class might have radically different fighting styles because took different sets of skills while they were training. While the skills can be mixed and matched to your heart's content, some skills are meant to be used in conjunction with others. For example, Rangers get to choose from a list of skills that enhance either their stealth abilities or their swordsmanship. The Blade Master skill for example boosts the power and accuracy of all of your melee attacks. Blade Storm allows your Ranger to make a free melee attack at any enemy that runs towards you. And yes, the Blade Storm ability does receive the damage and accuracy boost from Blade Master. And then there's Reaper Stance, where a Ranger can get a free Action every time they kill an enemy with a melee attack (meaning, so long as you keep killing with melee attacks specifically, your Ranger can keep their turn going essentially forever). Again, if you plan on using Reaper Stance, you might as well grab Blade Master to make your melee attacks deadlier. The other classes are balanced this way as well. Well, except for one. 

The Psi Operative is the most unique class in the entire game, and is completely overpowered once it gets going. And yes, this one class is such a show stealer that it needs its own section in the review. This class is not available right away, but once you build a Psi Lab for your base (more on that later) you can start training your soldiers into becoming Psi Operatives. Now, this class has two main gimmicks. The first is that you have access to all the crazy psychic powers that ADVENT has been using the whole game, letting you give the aliens a taste of their own medicine, so to speak. And the second, which makes this class potentially better than all others combined, is that you don't need to put your Psi Operative in any real danger to level it up. You see, the Psi Operative can continue training from within the safety of the Psi Lab as long as you want with no penalty. Leave them in the Psi Lab long enough, and they can eventually learn every single possible skill that is available to them, all without even once setting foot on the battlefield. The other classes have to spend (in-game) months, sometimes years being beaten and hardened by the brutality of warfare to become powerful. The Psi Operative just has to soak in a funky psychic jacuzzi for a few weeks to not only reach that same level of power, but surpass it. Psi Operatives don't abide by the rules of the other classes, and are obscenely strong because of it. It takes a great amount of restraint and discipline to not just turn every available recruit into a Psi Operative and run several teams of just Psi Operatives once the option becomes available. 

One criticism I will make of the game's combat is that the way accuracy is calculated is rather odd. Basically, XCOM 2 does not calculate the accuracy of your weapon by distance. It instead calculates it by the following factors. Whether the soldier taking the shot can physically see the target, whether or not the target has any kind of cover bonus, the soldier's own Aim stat, any kind of accuracy bonus granted by being in stealth (or using a weapon with a scope attached), any kind of Dodge stat that the target may or may not have and finally, whether or not you have a flanking bonus (shooting from the side or from behind). Because of this, you get odd situations where point-blank shots defy the laws of physics and somehow miss their target completely simply because something in the calculation was in the target's favor. Basically, moving closer to your target will NOT boost the accuracy of your next shot, but doing things like flanking or destroying enemy cover with explosives will.

Combat and character customization are only parts of the game, and the last major component of the gameplay is the base management. You see, the rebellion is based inside a mobile fortress known as the Avenger. The Avenger has several rooms flooded with debris and wreckage. You can spend a few in-game days clearing the rooms out, and then build various facilities to further aid your squads. These facilities include an infirmary (which speeds up the rate at which soldiers recover from injuries), the aforementioned Psi Lab (which is used to create and train Psi Operatives), and Communication Relays. What do Communication Relays do? They allow you contact additional resistance groups across the globe. Which is important, because not only do resistance groups provide resources and potential recruits every month, but they will offer additional missions and operations that your existing soldiers can go on. Another thing to keep in mind about base management. Your resources are limited. The main currency of the game is Supplies, which represents everything a Viking militaristic rebellion needs to survive. Food, water, medicine, ammo, that kind of thing. At the beginning of every in-game month (marked by you getting a progress report from the mysterious Councilman, who is your essentially your boss) a Supply Drop will be placed somewhere on the globe (but always within rebel territory). Taking a quick detour to grab those Supplies while they last is always a good idea. Supplies can be used to build new facilities in the Avenger, buy utility items like flashbangs and med kits, and start crafting specialty armor. You can also have Dr. Tygan and his research team perform autopsies of all the different ADVENT creatures to learn more about them and to unlock even more items to craft. And finally, you can rearrange the Avenger's engineering crew to improve any of the facilities you built. Like say you desperately need to make contact with a new resistance group. but your Communication Relay is maxed out (each Relay can only stay in contact with three rebel groups at a time). You can place an Engineer in the Relay room to manage it manually, allowing you to contact more rebel groups (how many more I don't remember).  

But naturally, most missions aren't as simple as "kill all bad guys." They usually have some kind of additional objective to work on. These can be anything from escorting a VIP to an evacuation point, to hacking a computer, to rescuing a group of rebels trapped in the middle of an ADVENT purge. The vast majority of the missions introduce some kind of time limit to encourage the player to be more aggressive, which is a design choice made in direct response to a criticism of Enemy Unknown. You see, in that game, the best, most optimal strategy was to sit in a corner of the map and play very cautiously and defensively. There was nothing stopping you from doing so and and as such, "turtling" (as this tactic was called) was the safest way to start any and all combat encounters. The enemy had to fight on your terms, not theirs, and you had the advantage of getting better terrain bonuses (such as high points for Snipers). But because of all the time limits in the vast majority of XCOM 2's missions, you basically have no choice but to be aggressive and push your advantage whenever possible. Heck, the entire campaign itself is on a time limit, since you only have so long before ADVENT completes it's mysterious Avatar Project (which will eradicate all human life). You can buy XCOM more time by attacking Alien Facilities. Alien Facility Raids are pretty much the only mission type that are NOT timed in any way, so you can be as cautious and defensive as you want for once. How much time you buy is dependent on how long that specific Alien Facility has been running. So it can add anywhere between a week to a year depending on how long you let that Facility run.

But ADVENT isn't sitting on its laurels while you're out building up a resistance force, for they will improve their own forces over time. Gradually introducing newer, more advanced enemy types. Such as the Vipers, snake women who can immobilize your soldiers by constricting them, or the Archons, angelic cyborgs that fly around and attack from above. There's a plethora of different enemy types, and not only do they all look distinct from each other, but each type requires a different strategy to deal with (Vipers let go of their victims if they get blinded by a flashbang, Archons are free target practice for Snipers). And then there's Dark Events, where ADVENT can place an upgrade on preexisting enemies or hamper your squad out of combat in some way. You can stop these Dark Events by taking on Guerilla Ops, but there will always be at least two Ops available, and you only have enough time to attempt one. So it winds up as a "pick your poison" mechanic where you have to learn which Op stops which Dark Event from happening, figure out what you can live with them getting away with, and prioritize the Op that would counter whatever the more dangerous Dark Event is. Like the Dark Event that makes new recruits 25% more expensive to hire is really mundane next to the one that lets them add twice as many enemies to all mission types. Or the one that lets them speed up the progress of the Avatar Project.

And you want to know the best thing about all this? XCOM 2 has some post-release DLC (downloadable content) that further changes up the game. Sometimes, to the point that XCOM 2 with DLC feels like a completely different game than it does without DLC. To explain the DLC simply, the first one is titled Anarchy's Children. This one adds additional hair styles and outfits to customize your characters. That's it. Frankly it's the simplest DLC of the bunch and unless you somehow aren't happy with the options already provided, this DLC can be safely skipped over. After that is Alien Hunters. This DLC adds three new bosses, all of whom are crazy superpowered versions of fan-favorite enemy types from the base game (so Vipers, Archons, and Berserkers). These bosses, known as the Alien Rulers, have a chance to show up randomly in every mission. They have a literal mountain of health (and more than enough firepower to send whole squads to the infirmary, if they survive at all), but any damage dealt to them is permanent, so if you run into them in future battles, they'll start with less health. Your reward for defeating the Alien Rulers is some custom weapons and armor that emulate their abilities. This DLC is pretty neat, but it makes a hard game even harder, because you know, super bosses that can show up randomly on what should be a relatively chill mission can be a real problem. After that is Shen's Last Gift, a DLC that adds a new story mission that exists to bring closure to Lily Shen, the mechanic whose dad was killed back in Enemy Unknown. It adds a new soldier class, the SPARK. The Spark is a remote controlled robot, and is the textbook definition of a Jack of All Trades, Master of None. It fights primarily by using watered down versions of the other class's abilities, and mostly exists to fill gaping holes in your team after you've suffered a significant casualty.

And last but not least is War of the Chosen. This DLC gives a massive overhaul to the ENTIRE CAMPAIGN. New enemy types and bosses to fight. New soldier classes to play with. A new intro cinematic that explains how Bradford's resistance cell managed to track down the Commander. A new poster mechanic that allows you to make nifty propaganda posters Uncle Sam style to encourage people to join the rebellion. A new fatigue system that forces you to rotate your teams around so that everyone is trained up equally, instead of you power-leveling the same handful of soldiers you started with. New rebel factions to try and ally with, each with their own intricate cultures, lore, and philosophies. There's a new bonding mechanic where two soldiers become soulmates (whether this means they're a romantic couple or just best friends is up to your imagination) and receive a wide variety of bonuses and abilities when they fight together. There's also a new mechanic that lets you send your soldiers on solo missions that they'll do automatically while the rest of the rebellion is doing something else. And those new bosses I mentioned? They are the Chosen, the strongest aliens ADVENT can throw at you. They update their strengths and weaknesses with every encounter, forcing you to try a new strategy to take them down every time. War of the Chosen is massive, and to be honest, it changes so much of the original game that it makes you wonder why Firaxis didn't release War of the Chosen as a separate game entirely. Seriously, with just some tweaks to the overall plot, War of the Chosen could very well be the fabled "XCOM 3" in and of itself.

In terms of presentation, XCOM 2 is a good looking game. Now, it doesn't have a crazy art style and it isn't so hyper realistic that you could mistake it for real life. But the animations on your soldiers and especially the ADVENT aliens themselves are very clean and polished. I like how whenever you deal the killing blow to an alien the game switches from its usual isometric camera angle to give a more cinematic view of the attack. And the cinematic camera angles can give some downright breathtaking scenes. Imagine, one of your soldiers is badly wounded and about to die, and one of the ape-like Berserker type aliens comes barreling at your weakened soldier. But your Sniper was in Over-Watch, and they flip their rifle around and shoot the Berserker right between the eyes, causing its skinless body to tumble and flop like a pathetic fish from the momentum of its charge, and saving that wounded soldier's life. This sounds cool on paper, and the cinematic angle switch makes it even more impressive. There's also some little details that I adore, such as when attempting to shoot through a window your soldier will smash the glass with the butte of their weapon before making the shot, or how if you move indoors but forgo stealth, you squad literally kicks the door down before charging inside. There are some visual oddities however, like the aforementioned physics-defying point blank shots that can still miss their target completely. But I think that's more on the mechanics of the game not really allowing point-blank shots to be useful in general than it is a fault of the animators. I will say that I did play on PS4, and I did notice some mild performance issues, namely the framerate would stutter occasionally. Never in the middle of actual gameplay, but whenever the game finished a loading screen the frame rate would notably dip before correcting itself moments later. I'm not sure if this a problem with the PS4 port specifically or if the game itself has frame rate issues. It's hard to tell when a game obviously designed with PC in mind is then brought to consoles. But over the course of my 70+ hour campaign the only major glitch I noticed was when my game crashed. Thankfully, I had several spare save files so I didn't lose much progress. I've been told by the XCOM fandom that it's always a good a idea to have multiple save files in case the game crashes.

In regards to sound, the music is pretty inoffensive, if somewhat forgettable. It can be heroic and triumphant at times, but notably, when a mission goes horribly wrong (either you fail the objective or the squad is wiped out) the victory music is silent, letting you and the surviving soldiers reflect on their mistakes and shortcomings. The sound effects are great, such as the sound of gunfire and the otherworldly cries of the various ADVENT creatures. The voice acting is generally decent. Bradford sounds exactly how you expect him to sound like; a hardened militaristic man who just wants this war to be over already. It's a shame that his mission banter gets rather repetitive. But out of all the important characters, my favorite in terms of voice acting is the Councilman. The Councilman is voiced by none other than Jon Bailey (who is most well known for his role as the Epic Voice Guy from Honest Trailers) and steals the show with every line. He portrays the Councilman with this deep, guttural baritone that is simultaneously intimidating and hypnotic. And because of his distinct voice, his compliments when you do well in the campaign feel more genuine than they do from everyone else. Likewise, his criticisms of you for performing badly are especially impactful since you really want to stay on this man's good side, and his voice conveys that sense of power over you perfectly. I also enjoy the banter between your custom soldiers. An especially nice touch is how the soldier's accent, mannerisms, and dialogue actually change based on their assigned personality and nationality. Like the way my laid-back Australian Ranger would coyly ask "Impressed yet?" after taking down a powerful enemy with a well-placed slice from her sword will never not be charming. Or how my bubbly and energetic German Psi Operative would cheerfully say something in actual German before blasting a poor schmuck's face off with her mind. But these custom voice lines also have the power to be heartbreaking, since the soldiers have special voice lines for just about everything. An enemy sniper narrowly misses the Medic by a hare? He yells out "I'm pinned down over here!" One of the aliens try mind controlling the Grenadier? He frantically screams "Get out of my head!" And yes, they even have special voice lines for when they get injured or are even killed outright. 

In conclusion, XCOM 2 is a great strategy game. It can be rough around the edges at times, but its still an enjoyable experience. Just don't go in expecting a cakewalk. And remember, there's no shame in save scumming. But if you do save scum, you kind of owe it to yourself to at least attempt a legitimate playthrough one day. The game is very much a thrill ride at its core, and for those looking for a high-stakes roguelike, you can't go wrong with this one. But here's an interesting question. Would I recommend the DLC for this game? The answer is simple. If you really enjoyed what the base game has to offer, go for it. It's your money after all. But I would recommend doing a playthrough of XCOM 2 without War of the Chosen before playing a campaign with that DLC specifically. Not because it's a bad DLC (out of all of them I feel like it's the most worthwhile), but because it changes so much that it makes the base game feel more bare bones and watered down in retrospect. So XCOM 2 gets a "This close to Greatness!" rank from me. 

I feel like I owe long-time readers an apology, really fast. Sorry for disappearing for almost two months without a trace. The truth of the matter is that I've been feeling burnt out. It's hard to work on this hobby of mine without motivation, and as such, I tend to put off working on the blog for perhaps unreasonable lengths of time. 2021 was my least active year in a while, and I have nothing to blame save for my own procrastination and self-doubts. With that being said, I hope you enjoyed the review.

XCOM 2 is the property of Firaxis and 2K games. All images were found on Google Images. Please support the official release.