This game managed to impress me from start to finish. Engaging story, believable characters, and pacing that hooked me all the way to the end credits. The decision to set the story in Alaska was also a really good one, you can barely turn a corner in this game without stumbling across another stunningly beautiful vista. God, I really want to visit Alaska again after playing this game ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

If you've ever played DontNod's previous game Life Is Strange, this feels like a refinement on everything that made that game enjoyable, while also jettisoning my two biggest complaints from that game. (No more cringy teenage dialog to be found anywhere, and they decided not to make the ending ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ anymore.) A definite improvement all around.

Also, as a trans person myself, I can't end this review without mentioning how pleasantly surprised I was with the writing of Tyler's character. The number of well-written trans characters in media is not a particularly long list, and the number of well-written trans protagonists is even shorter, so I didn't really go in expecting all that much.

Despite that, Tyler is a deeply relatable character, whose transition is directly relevant to the story while also not being his sole personality trait. I'm not a trans man, but so many of his lines felt so true to the trans experience that I would have already known that a trans person had their eyes on the script at some point even if the game hadn't told me that from the very beginning. He's easily my favorite character in a game that doesn't lack for strong characters. I've heard some people claim that he's the first transgender protagonist in any major video game, and if that's true, than I'm certainly glad that Tyler Ronan was the one to fill that particular milestone. (Hold on, what counts as a "major" game here anyway? Do Celeste or The Missing count?)

Uhhhhhh anyway, game good. 9/10.

This game managed to impress me from start to finish. Engaging story, believable characters, and pacing that hooked me all the way to the end credits. The decision to set the story in Alaska was also a really good one, you can barely turn a corner in this game without stumbling across another stunningly beautiful vista. God, I really want to visit Alaska again after playing this game holy shit. If you've ever played DontNod's previous game Life Is Strange, this feels like a refinement on everything that made that game enjoyable, while also jettisoning my two biggest complaints from that game. (No more cringy teenage dialog to be found anywhere, and they decided not to make the ending dogshit anymore.) A definite improvement all around. Also, as a trans person myself, I can't end this review without mentioning how pleasantly surprised I was with the writing of Tyler's character. The number of well-written trans characters in media is not a particularly long list, and the number of well-written trans protagonists is even shorter, so I didn't really go in expecting all that much. Despite that, Tyler is a deeply relatable character, whose transition is directly relevant to the story while also not being his sole personality trait. I'm not a trans man, but so many of his lines felt so true to the trans experience that I would have already known that a trans person had their eyes on the script at some point even if the game hadn't told me that from the very beginning. He's easily my favorite character in a game that doesn't lack for strong characters. I've heard some people claim that he's the first transgender protagonist in any major video game, and if that's true, than I'm certainly glad that Tyler Ronan was the one to fill that particular milestone. (Hold on, what counts as a "major" game here anyway? Do Celeste or The Missing count?) Uhhhhhh anyway, game good. 9/10.