52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

[kamikazekeeg]

54. The Last of Us Part II Remastered

This game was a lot longer and heavier than the first, which is saying something considering all of the themes of heaviness the first one dealt with. In terms of gameplay and combat, I have to give all the props to Part II; loved all the new weapons and being able to be even more stealthy. In terms of everything else, it's the first one all the way. It doesn't have anything to do with the way the events played out in the second game. It was mainly due to pacing issues and the inevitable monotony. I play stealthy, so it was sneak, strangle, gather, repeat. If things got hairy, it was because of all the guns and me panicking about where stuff was. I actually grew to like the second character that you control and their arc. Finally, hell yes to all the LGBTQUIA+ representation. We love to see it.

That pacing was my biggest issue with the game, because spending hours playing one character, just to shift to playing hours with another character, before shifting back to the other for the ending, it never felt right to me, it comes off as clunky.  It was honestly what I was looking forward to most with the second season of the tv show, which would allow to create a better narrative between the two characters, but I've heard nothing particularly good with Season 2 and I didn't like the casting for Abby so kinda stopped caring about that lol

[Cartagia]

54. The Last of Us Part II Remastered

This game was a lot longer and heavier than the first, which is saying something considering all of the themes of heaviness the first one dealt with. In terms of gameplay and combat, I have to give all the props to Part II; loved all the new weapons and being able to be even more stealthy. In terms of everything else, it's the first one all the way. It doesn't have anything to do with the way the events played out in the second game. It was mainly due to pacing issues and the inevitable monotony. I play stealthy, so it was sneak, strangle, gather, repeat. If things got hairy, it was because of all the guns and me panicking about where stuff was. I actually grew to like the second character that you control and their arc. Finally, hell yes to all the LGBTQUIA+ representation. We love to see it.

That pacing was my biggest issue with the game, because spending hours playing one character, just to shift to playing hours with another character, before shifting back to the other for the ending, it never felt right to me, it comes off as clunky.  It was honestly what I was looking forward to most with the second season of the tv show, which would allow to create a better narrative between the two characters, but I've heard nothing particularly good with Season 2 and I didn't like the casting for Abby so kinda stopped caring about that lol

Pacing is my big bugbear with the game as well.  I thought for sure that the show was going to take the opportunity to address it, but it is structured just like the game, which makes it worse by the fact that it will be at the very least a year before we start the second half of the story.  And we thought the game dragged things out!

[dhaabi]

20 - Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (PS5 2021) - BEAT

I don't think you've mentioned it outright, but are you planning to play through the entire Five Nights at Freddy's series after having completed three of them back-to-back?

[kamikazekeeg]

I don't think you've mentioned it outright, but are you planning to play through the entire Five Nights at Freddy's series after having completed three of them back-to-back?

I'm working my way there lol I've technically played most of FNAF1 at this point, I'm on Night 4, I'm just struggling to motivate myself to get through it because while I don't adore the classic FNAF camera gameplay, it's not helped by how terrible feeling it is to play that first game.  Gonna try and finish it this week.  I'm a little more interested in getting the Help Wanted games, just waiting on a sale, but I will be eventually going through the whole series as I've been quite hooked on FNAF stuff lately. 

I'm also part way through FNAF World, specifically one that is a fan remastered version that overhauls it abit with additions and improvements, as the original FNAF World is really poorly designed with awful load times.

[realpoketendonl]

9. Metroid Dread (second playthrough)

First replay of the year. I first beat this game when it came out, but I hadn't played it since. I had been wanting to for ages though, and now felt right. I've finished playing all the 2D Metroids since then (well, except NES but still), and I wanted to replay Dread to see whether it would still hold up as my favourite.
And yes, I still think it does. This game is absolutely fantastic. Everything flows together so beautifully. Exploring and finding new paths is a joy, the boss fights are great, it just feels good to slowly grow more powerful as the game goes on. I'm quite tired right now so maybe I'm struggling a tad with finding the right words, but Metroid Dread is still every bit as good as it was when I first played it. I was a tad doubtful at the beginning as there were a few things irking me, but the rest of the game more than made up for it. In terms of pure gameplay feel, Metroid Dread is unmatched amongst the 2D Metroids if you ask me. And some of the moments late in the game made me shout or gasp (in a good way). If you haven't played it yet, I cannot recommend it enough.

And I suppose that makes my definitive 2D Metroid tier list:

• Metroid Dread
• Super Metroid
• Metroid: Samus Returns
• Metroid Fusion
• Metroid Zero Mission
• Metroid II: Return of Samus
• Unplayed and thus unranked: Metroid (NES)

(not ranking the Prime games amongst these because they are so different in style)

[bikingjahuty]

54. The Last of Us Part II Remastered

This game was a lot longer and heavier than the first, which is saying something considering all of the themes of heaviness the first one dealt with. In terms of gameplay and combat, I have to give all the props to Part II; loved all the new weapons and being able to be even more stealthy. In terms of everything else, it's the first one all the way. It doesn't have anything to do with the way the events played out in the second game. It was mainly due to pacing issues and the inevitable monotony. I play stealthy, so it was sneak, strangle, gather, repeat. If things got hairy, it was because of all the guns and me panicking about where stuff was. I actually grew to like the second character that you control and their arc. Finally, hell yes to all the LGBTQUIA+ representation. We love to see it.

That pacing was my biggest issue with the game, because spending hours playing one character, just to shift to playing hours with another character, before shifting back to the other for the ending, it never felt right to me, it comes off as clunky.  It was honestly what I was looking forward to most with the second season of the tv show, which would allow to create a better narrative between the two characters, but I've heard nothing particularly good with Season 2 and I didn't like the casting for Abby so kinda stopped caring about that lol

I'm surprised to hear people mention the pacing as an issue. I have some issues with Part 2, but the pacing was never one of them. The game had me hooked from start to finish. I will also say the second part of the game is better than the first, which seems to be the popular opinion.

[kamikazekeeg]

I'm surprised to hear people mention the pacing as an issue. I have some issues with Part 2, but the pacing was never one of them. The game had me hooked from start to finish. I will also say the second part of the game is better than the first, which seems to be the popular opinion.

I don't know, something about spending hours with one character, just to shift to hours spent with another, then finish up the first character just came as clunky for me narratively.  It's not even outright bad, just felt kinda jarring to me.  I thought it was a weird complaint to have until I saw others agreed with me on it lol It doesn't hurt the story at all, I still liked the story, I just felt like it could have been executed a little more differently, jumping between the two more than just large chunks.

[Cartagia]

I'm surprised to hear people mention the pacing as an issue. I have some issues with Part 2, but the pacing was never one of them. The game had me hooked from start to finish. I will also say the second part of the game is better than the first, which seems to be the popular opinion.

I don't know, something about spending hours with one character, just to shift to hours spent with another, then finish up the first character just came as clunky for me narratively.  It's not even outright bad, just felt kinda jarring to me.  I thought it was a weird complaint to have until I saw others agreed with me on it lol It doesn't hurt the story at all, I still liked the story, I just felt like it could have been executed a little more differently, jumping between the two more than just large chunks.

Yeah, pacing is generally the most consistent (legitimate) criticism levied at the game, and the I think the bifurcated structure is big reason of why it feels so noticeable. You spend like 6-7 hours with one character, and their story, to then immediately run back another 6-7 hour story that hammers home the exact same themes.  It makes it start to feel like a slog, which feels even more draining because of heavy the story is.

[bizzgeburt]

11 - Adventures of Alundra; The [DE] (PlayStation)
https://vgcollect.com/item/264378

Hardware: PlayStation one
Play time: 37 hours

Finishing games out of my backlog/pile of shame is my main gaming goal this year. One of the titles I once dived into but got out of it due to shere frustration is The Adventures of Alundra for Sony PlayStation. I started this game trying it all on my own, just to learn that such action-rpg's ain't my kind of games anymore. Maybe it's getting used to modern game mechanics but some of the puzzles in this game were simply too complicated and I was not resilient enough to bare them properly. For the now accomplished serious playthrough, I decided to rely on a well written and worked out walkthrough .. yea, shame on me - I focused on enjoying this game with it's visuals and dungeon-/map-designs.

That said, let's get into it: The Adventures of Alundra is a very Zelda-like top-view action-rpg with emphasis on exploring, puzzles, fighting and even a bit platforming. The game was developed by Matrix Software (other works: Dragon Warrior- and Final Fantasy-portations, Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel, etc.) and published for PlayStation in europe by Psygnosis on June 5th 1998. At first glance it may look like a straight ripoff of the old Zelda-games, but after playing it I can say, that this game handles many aspects completely different than Zelda. All in all storyline and npc-interactions are way deeper and by time even depressing, so that the games atmosphere changes from the well-known happy gingle sunny fantasy rpg into a really dark and sad story quickly, touching issues such as faith, painful loss, alcoholism and even multiple personality disorder. The player takes control over Alundra, a descendant of people with the ability to enter into the dreams of others. He's plaqued by nightmares ordering him to travel to a remote village called Inoa to try to erradicate an evil threatening the whole land of Torla (I suggest this is what the game's world is called, I'm bad at remembering such names when the game doesn't mention it very often).

The game presents itself in a mostly 32bit-like top-view optic with pixeled sprites and square-/tile-based mapping. Different layers of height are used to further possibilites in puzzling and platforming. Gameplay mostly consists of interacting with the different inhabitants of Inoa and travelling a big wilderness around the village with many dungeons spread throughout the land. Alundra can wield up to 5 different weapon types with different abilities to either slice through enemies, smash rocks blocking the way or reach farther away targets. There aren't many different monsters though, but every enemy-type at least offers it's own pattern of movement and attacks, with some of them really being a pain in the behind. Dungeons there are many, and most of them include brain-frying puzzles, a lot of backtracking and trial/error, and - at least at some points - overly frustrating unforgiving platforming, which turned out to be the hardest parts of this game to me. In between all of this, there's a lot of exploring and looting going on. With every tool you aquire, new paths open for you, just as it should in a game like this. The dungeon- and puzzle-designs are well worked out and quite impressive. If Zelda OoT's Water Palace was your kind of dungeon, The Adventures of Alundra might be worth a try. Beating bosses isn't a big deal here ... once you've learned their patterns and weaknesses. In total, this game offers quite the same elements every proper Zelda-game offers, with a little less puzzling and therefore more annoying platforming (and the way darker plot as mentioned before).

As the fan of oldschool (16/32bit) rpg's that I am, the game's visuals really appealed to me. Mapping is magnificent, visually as well as gameplay-wise. A lot of detail is put into water's effects or even birds flying around. Even though the basics of graphics are those in the like of SNES-games, the shere size of the world and dungeons is impressive due to the console's capabilities and animations/effects are very beautiful to watch I must say. It's clearly visible that this isn't a SNES-game though it doesn't feature the more sophisticated 3D-graphics of exteriors shown in titles like Grandia. Graphics simply work very well in giving this game a classic yet developed appeal.
The intro-video is an anime like piece of art within itself and made me wonder if there's an actual Alundra-Anime out there somewhere (let me know if ya'll guys know something about it). And without spoilering too much I can assure you that the player is rewarded with an even longer and more detailed anime-clip when beating the game.
Character designs are of really high qualitiy and compliment the scenes shown in the anime-sequences. All this give The Adventures of Alundra a very well worked out and high-quality appeal in total.

The game's musical score is credited to Kōhei Tanaka, who actually has a cameo in the game, where you can listen to the different pieces whilst progressing in the game. Tanaka shows responsible for the music of countless video-games and anime series with One Piece being one of the most popular. The game's music always seems to set the right mood for the situation or dungeon you're in, though I personally only found a few pieces memorable enough to post about them in this forum (Classic Video Games > The Best Retro Game Music).

I incidentally played this game using a walkthrough, but even with that some single parts of this game turned out to be frustratingly hard, especially platform sequences that required timing and high-end jumping simultaneosly. Though bueatiful to watch, the oldschool-appeal of rpg-maping in addition with multiple height layers but primitive shadow-programming is a major factor for this negative experience. Every other aspect of gameplay works just fine and looks great in it's own way. Though not my favourite, the soundtrack is still good. The dungeons and puzzles? Zelda-worthy. The story? Amazingly deep and unconventional, especially for games of this genre. Very dark as well, which I didn't expect starting this, but it caught me very quick and kept holding me up until the end. No spoilers intented.

So, if you enjoy playing (old) Zelda's, but would like to experience a darker plot, The Adventures of Alundra  should serve you well.

This is the 11th game I beat this year, being the the second one out of my pile of shame. Can't wait to get my hands on a copy of the 2nd. Alundra-Game! 

[marvelvscapcom2]

Mafia Old Country has officially ended my gaming drought. I got really immersed but travels and adulting has simply not let me sit in front of any plastic gaming recepticle for dedicated play time for like a week lol. Ive had almost no time.  But it definitely is a glorious game. Happy to be back and hopefully at 51. Soon!    Thanks to everyone for the advice with handling gaming burnout. I am still easing back in gently to not burn out again but I think the break was much needed.

[kamikazekeeg]

21 - Five Nights at Freddy's 1 (PC 2014) - BEAT - I am not doing Night 6 lol This is one of those games I want to say I like more than I do, mostly because I find some ideas of its kinda interesting, I love the animatronics, but this isn't a well designed game from its kinda rough visuals (I did find a mod that up-rezzed the images used so Night 4 and Night 5 were abit cleaner to look at which was nice), to the complete lack of any options whatsoever, my mouse could go off the screen because I'm not in fullscreen and there are no options, and button presses could be questionable at times leading to accidental longer presses of the lights which is bad for precious power saving moments. 

I also don't think I'd get through this game without a guide.  Chica and Bonnie are easy enough, Foxy I could maybe figure out because you just need to glance at him to see if he's bolting anyways, but Freddy is almost broken on Night 5, because if you don't know that he doesn't move when the camera is on, and that you have to keep him on the stage for as long as possible or he'll sit at the one camera he can get you with, forcing you to keep the door closed, sometimes as early as 2am, that is just a crap mechanic.  If you can't figure that out, you will never beat Night 5. 

That aside, it's also interesting to see how this is the game that started a franchise and that Cawthon will go on to produce 6 more games in 4 years after this lol Like they aren't crazy deep games for the most part, but it's still just mostly one dude cranking these out like crazy.  Gonna casually make way through the main games now, while keeping an eye out for the Help Wanted games to get sales as I don't really want to pay full price for them, and they are slacking on putting on sales...not doing the summer sale it seems this time, so might not be till the winter sale for them.

[bikingjahuty]

86. God of War - 2005 (PS3)

Unlike some gamers my age, I was never really into G4TV for the most part. With that said, I did watch it here and there during the mid and late 2000s, however probably the biggest G4 takeaway was seeing their God of War review in 2005 which immediately sold me on the game. The promise of blood, boobs, and excellent hack and slash gameplay immediately appealed to teenage me, and shortly after I acquired my own copy. Since then, it seems like a tradition that I play God of War every 10-years or so. Surprisingly, I always forget huge chunks of this game between playthroughs which I guess in a way makes each time I revisit it feel fresh and novel. But anyhow, with the original God of War being 20-years old and my desire to finally make it to God of War 3 so can see what all the fuss is about with the modern reboot titles, I decided to play the original again.


For the most part, God of War is an excellent modern hack and slash title. The gameplay, action, and just over the top nature of practically everything you do in this game is well implemented and feels appropriate given the setting and characters of this game. Luckily, Santa Monica Studios went just beyond Kratos just using the same set of moves throughout the game and instead allows you to level up your slash attacks, as well as various other sub attacks and weapons you'll acquire throughout the game. This makes combat dynamic and fresh as you'll be employing a combination of abilities and moves depending on what sort of monsters/opponents you're up against. Some enemies are vulnerable to specific kinds of attacks or abilities which makes battles feel a lot more enjoyable than just approuching every encounter the same way. You'll be leveling up these abilities by collecting red orbs which are dropped by fallen enemies, broken statues or pots, and in various chests throughout the game. Speaking of orbs, you can also collect green and blue orbs too which help replenish HP and MP respectively. Green and Blue orbs are mostly obtained via chests and the game is pretty liberal about providing these in places where it knows you'll likely need them the most. There are also quick time events in this game, mostly implemented within the game's combat. Luckily, the need to engage in these QTE's is not forced most of the time, and does provide some minor benefits if you choose to do them. All of this creates a pretty balanced and enjoyable combat system that rarely stumbles. Unfortunately, other aspects of the gameplay outside the combat is where God of War falls short.


There is a decent amount of platforming, obstacle traversal, and puzzle solving in God of War. Truth be told, most of these non-combat gameplay elements aren't terrible, or really even bad. Most of implemented fairly well, albeit they can at times feel somewhat stiff or awkward depending on what you're doing. Unfortunately, a few of these non-combat sections, especially several towards the end of the game are downright awful to the point where I'm shocked they made it into the final game. While they aren't impossible to get through, they are beyond tedious and feel like something from an NES game in terms of how punishing and unfair they are. I guess some mascocists might find this to be a positive, but for your average person they're anything but. There are enough of these sections throughout the game to annoy the crap out of you, bit not enough to ruin the game, not even close. Pretty much every time I get to one of these annoying platforming or obstacle avoidance sections, I pretty much just grit my teeth and get through it so I can go back to enjoying the rest of the game.


The visuals in God of War are on the whole very good. character models, animations, cutscenes, level design, and backgrounds all look great for the most part. There is a nice spread of ancient greek monsters to battle against, along with other types of foes like zombie soldiers, trolls, and even a enemy that reminds me of the Anubises from The Mummy Returns. There is unfortunately I drought of bosses in God of War, which is unfortunate since the ones that are present are pretty cool looking and mostly fun to fight. My main grip with the visuals has to do with the repetitiveness of enemies and lack of variety, as well as certain environments being recycles or outstaying their welcome in other ways. Other than that, it's hard to fault anything visually in this game.


Finally, God of Wars audio is also pretty damn good. The soundtrack is appropriately epic and over the top. Its orchestral score is excellent and complements the action taking place very well. Voice acting is also pretty good, although I always found Kratos' performance to be a little hammy at times. I know part of this is likely intentional, but part of it undoubtedly feels like like a lack of skill on the part of Kratos' voice actor. Other than that, there are a lot of excellent destruction and monster noises, and just overall it's pretty good stuff to listen to.


Maybe more than beating God of War again for the third or fourth time since it came out, I'm looking forward to driving deeper into the series for the first time. The furthest I've got into the franchise was beating God of War 2 about 8 years ago. I actually remember liking that game more than the first one, but more than that I'm looking forward to playing and beating God of War 3 eventually, and then moving on to the modern reboot titles. Here's to new and hopefully very enjoyable gaming experiences with this series in the future! (8/22/25) [38/50]

[bikingjahuty]

87. M.U.S.H.A. (Genesis)

I've been meaning to return to MUSHA on the Genesis for a very, very long time. Before I get into my review of MUSHA, I'll start off by saying that this game holds a fairly sentimental place in my heart. Most, but not all of the games I play, I actually physically own, including the highly sought after physical cartridge of MUSHA. I actually found my copy on my birthday back in 2011 at an independent game store I'd never been to before. In a glass case, there it was for only $40, which even at that time was a steal. I've happily owned it ever since, however it's been almost that long since I actually sat down and spent some decent time with it. Funny enough, I expected to maybe like MUSHA slightly less than I did back then, but damn I was very wrong.


You see, I've played A LOT of SHMUPs over the years. Some I've reviewed like this, but many I have not. Between 2016 and 2020 or so, I went through a massive SHMUP phase where practically every other game I was playing belonged to the genre. In that time, I realized that I'm actually not the biggest fan of old school shooters, or more specifically, most SHMUPs released before the mid 90s. There are some exceptions to this, but overall there are a lot more gameplay limitations that plagued older SHMUPs, as well as some very obnoxious gameplay elements that many of them suffer from. While MUSHA, released in 1990, does suffer from some of this, it surprisingly feels ahead of its time as well in many ways too.


Being a Compile SHMUP, many of that companies gameplay staples are present in MUSHA as well. You have primary weapons power ups, secondary weapon drops that can simultaniously power those attacks up, and also small support ships you can obtain as well. Power ups are mostly plentiful, although the game still technically maroons you when you day, which essentially means you are left with no power ups in situations where you absolutely need them to survive. While MUSHA is guilty of this old school SHMUP sin, it at least throws more your way in the form of power ups to where you are gradually able to have somewhat of a fighting chance of making it past some hectic part you just recently got obliterated in. This is way more than most SHMUPs released around the late 80s and early 90s that pretty much just say "screw you" and barely give you anything at all to make it through the situations that previously killed you. On top of that, enemy balancing and placement, projectile volume and patterns, your ships maneuverability and hit box size all complement each other fairly well, albeit not perfectly. Once again, these elements in MUSHA are definitely a step above most other shooters released during this same time, making MUSHA far more enjoyable to play whether you enjoy old school or newer SHMUPs more.


While the gameplay is good, but noticeably flawed in some ways, I have almsot nothing bad to say about MUSHA's presentation. Visually, MUSHA may have been the best looking Genesis game when it came out in 1990. I'm not even kidding. Between the awesome and unique stage and enemy designs, the kick ass anime cut scenes at the beginning and end of the game, and really good visuals effects, MUSHA was only rivaled by maybe a few PC games when it first came out. Some of the enemy designs, especially the bosses are incredible in MUSHA. Sure, there are a lot of lessor ships that get overused in this game, but overall the graphics in MUSHA are almost perfect for an early 90s console game.


Possibly even better than the visuals is MUSHA's audio, particular it's soundtrack. I know the Super Nintendo technically had superior sound quality, but I can't say there's any rock inspired music on the SNES that can even come close to sounding as raw and awesome as MUSHA's soundtrack. MUSHA's OST is high energy heavy metal pumped through the Genesis' FM sound chip to produce one of the best scores on the Genesis to this day. If you don't believe me, watch old episodes of Classic Game Room and the dude on their practically fanboys over the soundtrack the entire time. Sound effects are also good, but it's that goddamn soundtrack that steal the show to make this game's audio the stuff of legends.


I absolutely love MUSHA, and while its outdated gameplay elements do hold the game back objectively and also slightly hamper my subjective enjoyment of the game, it's still phenomenal for what it is. When it comes to SHMUPs on the Genesis, or really just classic shooters in general, MUSHA is among the very best of them. (8/22/25) [38/50]

[dhaabi]

53. Vile: Exhumed || PC || 08.18.2025



For better or for worse, Vile: Exhumed is an adventure game of sorts that's gained recent news coverage for being removed from Steam just prior to its planned release. Fortunately, though, the Streisand effect is working in its favor, as it's a game that myself and many others likely would not have been made aware of otherwise.

Self-described as "a game about male entitlement," Vile: Exhumed is an intense experience about graphic, unfiltered horrors from real-life scenarios that will not be for everyone which are presented through analog horror design. To be upfront, the censorship and removal of this game from digital storefronts was invalidated and appropriately outlined on official pages and documents pertaining to it including its main webpage Vile Is Banned. It's a game that was dismissed for showcasing "sexual content with depictions of real people," though the latter claim is wholly inaccurate whereas the former regards censored nudity without any presence of sexual acts. Regardless, a large majority of the game's content is text-based which, personally, I found to be far more disturbing to read than I ever did viewing the few instances of relatively tame photos and videos.

With that said, Vile: Exhumed is a game that's difficult to discuss. Taking place in the late '90s, players are tasked with navigating a desktop PC while assuming the role of its owner. There are various programs including e-mail, notes, and access to various marketplaces and forums related to VHS and adult videos. Appropriately, various other elements trigger including e-mail alerts and pop-up ads. But to access certain programs, players must gain information from the sections already available by sifting through an array of websites and documents, meaning that progression isn't linear. With the context that the player is the desktop's owner, there is little sense that we'd not already be aware of such password knowledge, but it's a small detail that's easy to overlook. From the unlocked sections first available to players, most of what's uncovered here is just to provide insight about the general mentality for these groups of people which does also include the player-character. It's readily apparent that some of the individuals involved in these communities are generally people without merit. In time, however, more incriminating information about the player-character is learned upon gaining access to shady sites and instant messenger conversations which unveils perverse and threatening thoughts, behaviors, and meetup activity.

To put it mildly, it becomes clear that the player-character actively explores and engages in explicit, morally-obtuse sexual kinks and fixations. Which, the argument can be made that these behaviors are fine when not acted upon or heightened to a certain level, but that unfortunately is not the truth in this matter. Instead, the evidence we as the player uncover while playing as the player-character is outright unsettling. It becomes clear that this person's intimate interests are not only alarming but unequivocally dangerously violent when acted upon. There is a severely irrational delusion upheld by him that he's some important figure who's worthy of any and all attention by those he targets. Again and again evident by uncovered messages, he propositions his own dangerous fetishes for them to meet to appease his desires. But this is not just some attitude held toward one specific woman or even several women. No, it's a belief that encompasses all women whom the player-character reveres nothing more than objects to serve his twisted fantasies.

Quickly, the feeling of accomplishment upon solving a puzzle was totally lost when beginning to parse through a previously-locked section's contents. At times, it felt difficult to separate myself as the player from the player-character because it was me progressing through the narrative to uncover these unhinged, parasocial attitudes. As the player, I never knew what to expect next or just how intense the actions and thoughts described would be until they became evident. And to no surprise, I really just got the total ick when reading e-mail messages the player-character had sent to various women. Nevertheless, the game's puzzles are thoughtful enough to have maintained my interest in sifting through various pieces of information, though I think players will already be tragically invested in the game's story content plenty to see which direction the game takes to complete them regardless. If it was not evident until now, Vile: Exhumed is less about its gameplay than it is about sharing an interactive story. For what it's worth, though, navigating the PC is straightforward. Still, I know I didn't uncover everything in my playthrough based on marketing material, as I've later learned that some webpage elements were interactive despite thinking otherwise.

Ultimately, Vile: Exhumed is a game that's far less centered on glorifying violent acts committed by men and the unhealthy views they hold toward woman than it is delving into the psyche of one deeply troubled and deeply sick individual. The idea that women are deserving of consent and act in ways they feel comfortable doing when and how they desire is the game's most pervasive topic, above all. And, of course, it really doesn't come as any surprise to me that a game with this sort of controversial messaging was not only wrongly targeted and removed from digital storefronts but was developed by a woman. At the same time, I admit that Vile: Exhumed is not a game that I enjoyed due to its graphic subject matter, but it is one that I'm glad to have played.