oof, this is a dilemma - I almost always play on the default difficulty, with the rationale that this is the one that has gotten all the tuning and balancing

but when the default is "Easy" and there's another one named "Normal" 🤔

a question every parent asks themself sooner or later

ugh, yet another woke game

The opening monologue talks about Stephen King, and then the first named NPC is "Mr. Maine" 🤔

my brain: ah yes, diverse islands

the product placement in this game is wild, the flashlight batteries are also specifically Energizer (although given how fast they run down, I'm not sure it does the company any favors)

nice, we got the Baba Yaga Special

ughhh, the quicktime events 😩

hey, this is kind of a cool use of the flashlight

ok, episode one completed

the more I experience combat, the more I dislike it
having to use the flashlight to make the enemies vulnerable is kind of novel, but apart from that it's everything I didn't like about combat in Control, except instead of being a badass agent with cool abilities, I'm this middle-aged writer who kind of slowly stumbles around trying to blast the same three Types of Guy over and over

the story is engaging so far, although I don't love that the wife immediately got fridged - I hope it turns out to be more involved than "you actually just killed her and this is all just a hallucination"

onward!