BLACKSHARD

DO NOT BUY IF: * You have a monitor resolution higher than 1920x1080. The devs will tell you that the game doesn't run properly on anything higher. * You have an Nvidia graphics card. The devs updated the game to include a splash screen that says the game will crash with Nvidia drivers. * You want to use DX12 and ray-tracing. The devs will tell you that DX12 causes the game to crash in a game designed for DX12 and ray-traced lighting. IF you can get the game to run, it's really, REALLY amazing. But I spend almost as much time trying to fix my save/prevent crashes as I do playing. As of last night, it won't load at all. I was completely entranced and taken in by the vibes and atmosphere and creepy anti-human spaces. Now that I can't play it at all, that love and excitement has turned into bitterness and anger. If you reach out to the devs they say it's because my monitor resolution is too high, or because I'm using DX12 (even though the game relies on RTGI), or because Unreal Engine...

It was fun until it wasn't. I clicked on something in game that gave me a meme ending that closed the game and now I have to start a new playthrough to continue the game... The walking around was already getting tedious and I'm not starting over after being an hour in to see a different ending.

Simply breath taking. Get your screenshot key ready, because every step is a new beautiful photograf.

This game scratched an itch that I couldn't even comprehend. Whether it's the artwork, the spaces, the characters, or the writing...every aspect of this game is a primally unsettling, yet meditative and engaging experience. The use of contrast, scale, and story are executed to absolute perfection, and evoke a sense of awe, terror, and fascination all at the same time. Walking through the halls of the Labyrinth, you really get the sense that every room is a temple to a moment in time. To paraphrase my pale-faced friends, you can really feel the tyranny of fate.

Putting aside frustrating issues with loading (which can be passed with tinkering with the graphics and language settings.. for some reason) This is hands down the greatest walking simulator I've ever played. The fact that people aren't raving about this game online on the daily is beyond me. The atmosphere, the mood, ambience, the soundtrack, are simply flawless. There's never been a game thats felt like wandering through mostly empty, vast corridors could be so rewarding.

If you painstakingly explored every nook and cranny of Whisper of the Worm or any Destiny raid or dungeon and have a insatiable lust for megastructures/nihei, oh boy do I have a game for you.

Ok, now, that's a friggin' banger. The atmosphere is just incredible and the original soundtrack from ALT236 and AL9000 is doing a mesmerizing job (and it's damn good at it). I regularly thought I was in the universe of BLAME! (Tsutomu Nihei) in numerous ways. Godammit... You know the next step... VR please / pretty please... Joke aside : Shut up and take my money, credits, bells, whatever... You're doing effing great!