The gameplay is mostly good and I had fun playing as a cybernetic demigod but the real appeal for me was in the roleplaying and world building. Night City is grimy, the technology is cool, and I really enjoyed the characters. The story is pretty typical cyberpunk fare with ample moments of desperation and betrayal, and the acting is great and really elevates the experience. By the end of the game I was really invested in my relationship with Keanu Reeves Johnny Silverhand.

I have a weird relationship with open world games. I’m the type of player who likes to do all of the side content, but after repeatedly burning out on the early Grand Theft Auto games, supposedly the cream of the crop, I kind of gave up on the idea. Breath of the Wild is the first open world game I actually completed, but that felt like an exception. It doesn’t help that I’m not that big on western fantasy. Cyberpunk though? That’s my shit.

The DLC was icing on the cake. It felt like they took everything they learned from the initial release to make a tighter and more focused standalone experience, and somehow it still integrates really well with the main plot. Keanu is still my number one but Idris Elba puts in phenomenal work as well. I don’t know how this game compares to the The Witcher, but as far as I am concerned it’s an essential experience.

Well, Team Cherry has cracked the code with a healthy infusion of Zero from Mega Man X4, Bloodborne, and actually good writing. I was never that hype for it so Silksong soared above my expectations. The art is great, the music is great, the bosses are great, the world building is great, and Hornet is fucking awesome to play as. They did it! I never expected to have two metroidvanias in my all time favorite games but here we are.

2D action games are my comfort food, but with a few notable exceptions like Shovel Knight, they rarely exceed my expectations. The Shantae and Gunvolt games, as well as other titles like Guacamelee are all fine. They’re good enough to play and enjoy but don’t leave much of an impact. Even Hollow Knight is a game that I really just liked. For the longest time it seemed like things had more or less peaked with Capcom and the Mega Man X series on top and that was it, which was pretty sad.

You need to take a lot of notes, you will die many times, and you will spend a lot of time stuck, running around in circles. Ultimately this is still primarily a game about solving increasingly unhinged puzzles. It’s brilliant, but it’s not always “fun” in the conventional sense. Still, finishing this game is without question the most satisfying gaming experience I’ve had this year, maybe ever, and yes, over Silksong.

When I first wrote about La-Mulana I said that all the sequel would have to do to become one of my all time favorite games is commit less sins than the original. Well, it succeeded. In basically every aspect, La-Mulana 2 is a greater game. Movement feels better, the boss fights are more exciting, and the clues are more helpful. The puzzles themselves are both more solvable and more ambitious, though maybe a little too ambitious to be honest.