We completed the main campaign.

We’re still playing it, though, for the sake of exploring all the locations and for some of the extra achievements, while waiting to find some other shooter to try out. If you have any recommendations, they’re welcome—preferably third person shooters, since my gf gets motion sickness quite fast with the 1st person ones.

A really good puzzle game, I must say. I really enjoyed most of the puzzles. They start simple, but become more and more challenging. Nothing too complicated, though. There are three, maybe four, core mechanics, and the developers manage to exhaust them in every way possible. I got stuck only on a handful of puzzles (some of the ones that give you the extra stars. I found them to require a way of thinking that was beyond “lateral”. Meaning that you either know what to do/where to go or you don’t.)

Furthermore, it's really pleasing to the eye. They put some simple but really nice locations, and that’s a plus for me.

What I liked even more was the story, though, and the way it was built, gradually unravelling before you and leaving hints here and there. I actually lost the time to basically read every single piece of computer log and found some very interesting inputs, beyond the story itself. Only the endings felt a bit unsatisfying, the “real” one included. I don’t know what I expected exactly.

My biggest question was: “How freeing the cat in the simulation makes it appear in the “real” world?”. It’s even in the game cover. How’s that so important? I can’t find a logic to it.

Anyway, recommended.

I really liked this game.

The gameplay is where it shines the most, the combat system in particular. I liked how the parry+counter system works, I liked how varied the attack pattern of the different enemies can be, and I liked the boss fights—every single one of them. There’s a good progression feeling and the fights, even the hardest ones, never feel unfair, especially since the learning curve is not that steep.

I liked the exploration part of the game and the puzzles you need to solve in order to get the various items. Mind, nothing too brain-teasing, apart, maybe, for the block puzzles in the sewers, but still, they were a nice addition and never felt pervasive.

Even the inventory/items/crafting/upgrading weapons system was handled well. You get materials and “money” without any need of farming, which would have been a drag for me. You get them as you progress and explore the map without almost noticing, as it should be.

Lastly, the story. I must say I didn’t like the character design, nor I felt compelled by the story, but there’s something undeniably original to it. Meaning: the timer. If you play the game as intended (= without disabling it), you and every single NCP in the game are on a timer. When it expires, they become unsighted (= they basically lose their mind and attack you). That means that if you don’t go through the game fast enough or if you don’t give them any of the material that can extend said timer, you’ll end up losing access to some of them (= to weapon upgrades, weapon shop, materials shop, etc.). That kind of resource is limited in the game (at the start, at least), so if you’re too slow, you have to make choices, deciding which character to save and which one to let die. Well, I liked it! It’s bad when a character dies on you, but really, it’s a fine addition that adds a further layer to an otherwise forgettable story. (Btw, the true ending lets you get back in time and bring everyone back to life, at the cost of a slightly harder final boss fight, so the “dreadful” feeling of letting someone die is not permanent. And, anyway, if you’re on a second playthrough and you remember a bit the map layout, the timer is quite lenient, so you can still explore and get everything, even at the harder difficulties, without letting anyone go unsighted).

In addition to the main campaign, there are two other game modes with rogue-lite mechanics: the boss rush and the dungeon raid. You basically have to fight either all the bosses or just some of them, but with a limited random selection of items and upgrades. It was fun trying them out a couple of times, but they became repetitive quite fast.

Anyway, all in all, I really recommend this game.

I played the second title in the series a few years ago. I must say that I got an immediate sense of familiarity when I started this one, to the point that I couldn’t actually recall the differences from that game. I just remember there was an additional playable character and a few more types of traps and enemies and an improvement in the QoL of the upgrade system, but the game felt basically the same. Mind that I liked that one at the time, and I liked this one now, too. But, because of these similarities, it felt like replaying a game I had already played, so the whole experience suffered a bit from it.