Recent reviews by Devadatta Baraka

Good game. This was back when Valve was cool. Workshop made it better.

Expect quirky small town normalcy by day, with a dark spooky atmosphere by night. This game's setting mashes up a hand-full of horror influences and references to create a fun Americana undertone for a psychological thriller with a mythological twist. Many of the behaviors of the enemies in this game share characteristics with urban legends such as shadow people, poltergeists, and skinwalkers.
Is Alan facing an ancient evil embodiment of chaos? Or is he a schizophrenic murderer in denial? The game leaves a lot of room for interpretation, which makes the story fun to try to figure out.
However, you may not want to even play the specials with how repetitive this game is. Very limited enemy variety and every enemy needs a light shining on them for a few seconds before you can shoot them.
Imagine holding a flashlight's beam over a soda can, waiting seven seconds before shooting a hole in it, then repeating the process again with 300 cans. Most of the enjoyment I got from this was managing battery life on the flashlight, saving items for when I needed them, and figuring out ways to avoid fights with dodge/sprint.
The fun I get from this game is in soaking up the atmosphere, dodging axes, listening to character banter, and over-analyzing the story to death.

Worth it when it's on sale, if you liked Human Revolution it's basically more of that.

This is the best the gameplay has been in the series, but you don't get to do a lot with it; even with DLC. After playing the other games recently, I've been thinking about replaying it soon. I was upset with it when I first finished it, but when I look back at my time with DXMD I think I did "have fun."

The level design is the most dense it's ever been and there's a lot of different routes/secrets/collectibles for anyone looking. The attention to detail in the levels themselves is the most admirable aspect of this game. I remember liking Prague, the slum city, and the snow level the most.

I played this two years ago and I forget most of the story. All I can remember was the "aug lives matter" sh was really stupid. Jensen was some kind of counter-terrorist agent, Samizdat was pretty cool, and there were a lot of times the story kisses up to the first game a lot (with references and parallels muh intertextuality). There's a lot of teasing/foreshadowing to the nonexistent sequel. If there's anything that makes me hesitant to play this again, it's the messy story.

I can't tolerate these first person platforming sections anymore. I love walking around the environments just looking at stuff, but it's not worth dealing with the timed jumping and crappy breath control gameplay.

If you haven't played Persona 3 ever before, play FES instead.

This game comes off a bit like an adaptation of it's previous iteration than a faithful recreation, since the developers were de-mastering their game for a handheld. I don't dislike visual novels, but there's a lot of missing cutscenes and story that are described to you instead of shown, and if you haven't seen these scenes already you may be a bit out of the loop since they've lost their impact.

If you are already familiar with Persona 3 and want more, this is kind of a treat. You won't be missing anything you didn't already see and there's the FeMC route with all the male social links. It's a cozy game, especially with a controller.

I really like the characters and music. The artwork and story moments are cool. The main town is charming and has a lot of secrets and people to talk to. I think what broke this for me was the combat system, which is too dependent on random cards you may or may not get. It's not frustrating when I die, because I know I didn't do anything for it to happen, just had some bad luck. Still can't say I'm really having fun anymore with this one, although I did try to give it an honest chance.

The developers made this for the campaign, so disregard the useless co-op and multiplayer. Give it a chance and you'll be in for a phenomenally written psychological horror game in a military atmosphere.

Gameplay starts basic but introduces more variety as you progress.
The controls are a bit broken, but similar to earlier Silent Hill and Resident Evil, this adds to the tension and chaos of it's tone and setting.

All of the above, it's a flawed masterpiece. I come back to it every few years to horrify myself with it again.

Cute, simple and effective tribute to a unique village.

Great visual novel that will likely test your sensitivities, or better yet, give you room to dance with your dark side.
Went into this with the patch applied. I found it to be repulsive, sick, twisted, and well within it's merits.
The music here is pretty great too.

The disturbing nature of it's story implies a vast scale of terrors beyond what is shown here. Cynical cosmic horror projecting a desolate cloud of dread I feel every time I go stargazing... knowing, but not understanding just how small I am.

Definitely check it out if you enjoy Lovecraft, Borges, or Ellison.

Get it on sale if you can, there's not a lot here. I recommend if you enjoyed the VR missions from the previous games and Peace Walker. You get the most out of this by trying to do better on the missions every time, finding all the secrets, and doing the trials.