Video Games on Tome of the Snarky Artificer

Thoughts: 012 Vampyr

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:34:52 -0400

This is part of a continuing series of old rants/essays/snark/thoughts/etc/etc/etc from years back that I figured I might as well throw somewhere other than a decrepit and deleted Discord server. This one comes from a “video game book club” that I played with some fellow traveler nerds (though I believe I solo’d this one).

As Always, Assume Spoilers

Finished Vampyr the other night. The whole thing ended with a whimper and the writing is still weirdly disjointed. I was learning big terms and my character was using it like he knew what it meant and then ten minutes and two characters later I could finally ask what it was. I literally don’t understand what the main plot device WAS. Major thoughts as follows in order to get them out of my brain.

Thoughts: Undertale

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:30:52 -0400

As Always, Assume Spoilers

After years, I have finished Undertale! Well, the first run anyway. I only killed one person (who the game sorta forces you to, more on that later), and got a real terrible unsatisfying ending before being told to replay the whole thing correctly - and fuck that deal.

Thoughts: Resident Evil 7

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:22:56 -0400

As Always, Assume Spoilers

Game Segments

Mia’s Section

Dropping you right in the action is good. The first cutscene is a hook, and makes me want to explore the house.
. . . Isn’t “my dead wife might be alive and here’s the message to prove it” literally the exact hook of Silent Hill 2?
I liked the idea of the video tape sequence (although who uses VHS tapes any more?). It built some tension (although I wanted everyone to die by the end because they were so annoying). I thought they were going to show me something horrific and then make me go there, but instead it’s just a mandatory hint to progress. Feels like a missed opportunity
The aesthetics feel pretty Rob Zombie, and that’s a compliment here. Minus Mia, who is clearly skewed towards a Japanese style and feels a bit off as a result.
I think this is the tutorial sequence? The game keeps taking control away from me and I can’t tell if it’s a quicktime event or a tutorial. As a result, I can’t tell if I’m learning anything. Especially when in at least one case you can only fail.
They definitely cheat on space a couple of times - Mia teleports about at least twice. Kudos to the level designers for making most of it make spatial sense, even if the timing in nonsense.
Related: maybe let me spend some time going slow instead of fast? Instead of constantly jumping me?
Extremely linear - I never felt like there was anywhere but one place to go.
The boss fight is straight up trash. The room is too small to do anything with, and there’s zero feedback. Even once I figured out the strategy (headshot, back off, headshot, etc) it can only ever be boring at best.
I figured the plot would be largely nonsense, but damn if Ethan Winters isn’t the stupidest man alive. He acts like he’s in a horror movie in the worst way, always asking the wrong questions that no one would care about.
I kinda expected more puzzles. The only one in this section is more just a linear set of gates and keys. No thinking required.
Survival Horror usually builds tension out of limited resources and using them wisely. This entire section has nothing to use resources on so maybe they’re not going for that? Not sure what the gameplay focus is here, if any.
I wonder if the designers are worried I’ll be bored, because every three minutes something loud happens. Let me appreciate your atmosphere!
Okay, Ethan’s hand is more abused than the average teenage boy’s. There’s three instances of violence against his left hand in particular, one after the other. Any one of them was enough.
Favorite beats: the disgusting fridge, Mia climbing up the dark stairs.

Jack/Daddy’s Section

Don’t even commit to Ethan losing the hand for 30s, I guess.
While playing, I’m a bit less impressed with the dinner scene. Mostly because it flies by a little too fast and the only one with any real personality is Lucas, that dick. Also, the face stabbing scene is way less effective after nonstop gore. And I can enjoy gore more than most!
Does Ethan just have crazy healing powers? HE GOT STABBED IN THE FACE!
Grandma just vanishing in game for the player to notice is actually a very good subtle touch. I dig it.
The game will just not let me think for myself! At one point Jack literally traps you in a one way corridor with no escape and just walks the other way. It just shows the designer’s hand that it had to all be planned because there was literally nothing else Jack could do without trapping the player.
This cop is literally the stupidest cop I’ve ever met in a video game and I’ve played Oblivion!
Didn’t we just have a boss fight? Okay, it’s another one I guess. Wait, now he’s driving the car, WTF?
(two deaths later) Oh, it’s not a boss fight! It’s a LucasArts Adventure Game™ with a shovel wielding manic!
Jack gets “killed” twice in this boss fight alone. I get it, he’s immortal. Why does he blow his own brain out after all that? No idea. Not that Jack has a consistent personality beyond “angry”.
Is this still the tutorial? I’m still stuck in linear sequence. No brain required.
Okay, the main hall feels better. There’s a couple of spots of interest. Actual puzzles, thank god.
Dammit, Grandma, you voyeur! (I approve of this touch, Grandma repeatedly pulling a Batman is actually creepy)
The cartoon doors are massively aesthetic breaking and illogical, but they’re highly memorable? Not sure how I feel about this.
Well, now that Jack is chasing me again after three whole rooms of exploration, I can confirm that there is no stealth mechanic and he is psychic.
Why do I even have this gun or this knife, everyone is immortal!
I thought he’d be chasing me through my exploration, but I guess not. Time to force me in the direction the game wants me to go!
Oh my god, it’s been literally hours and I finally encounter my first “normal” enemy! What the hell? And with no music or anything.
Great, these enemies are bullet sponges. Takes me about ten shots to kill one (5 headshots, 5 body shots or misses). I get that it’s a thing with survival horror, but it’s not fun.
The basement sections actually feel like survival horror - exploring, managing resources, taking down enemies.
That morgue puzzle is so incredibly dumb. I solved it first try, but it makes no sense how it even works in the “real world.”
I ran out of ammo and healing, which is frustrating because I hadn’t cleared the rooms with multiple enemies.
I find it very weird that the game has spent the entire time teaching me that ammo is fucking useless only to demand that I have a ton of it all at once. The combat learning curve is a right angle.
I learned that the knife might be better than the gun for single enemies. It can chop off limbs. Still no idea why I would ever use the stab.
The block is horrible. After the slash there’s dead space in the animation that cancels your block. Enemies can attack during your attack before you block. Blocking always reduces damage, but sometimes damage goes through anyway. No idea when. I expect some inelegance of combat, but clear feedback of your actions is a must.
I do like that enemies have multiple spawns within a room after the first time.
So, I just kept kiting one offs into different rooms and slashing them Doom style. It took me forever but it worked. Except the last room, which I ran through to just get ahead.
This section feels like it should have been the real tutorial of the game, honestly. Also, we should have been taught the knife instead of the gun first, because it’s the weapon you always have.
The Jack boss fight: Maybe the worst so far? It’s a cheap cutscene grab, with really unclear rules. There’s pretty much no time to attack him. He’s almost unbeatable until he randomly opens the chainsaw cage. The chainsaw fight is confusing as fuck, because there’s no feedback and the UI is covered in sparks. I died several times and I still don’t know why - mostly because the chainsaw turned off with no warning. I would have thought it was another puzzle, but the death screen hint literally said “use the item in the room.” And I have no idea why a chainsaw would kill him harder than car crashes, being impaled, fire, or bullets to the brain. But he’s treated as dead this time for some reason.
Low point: did he say “Groovy?” Did Ethan really respond: “Not Groovy” in a bored voice?
Ethan, it’s a murderhouse! KEEP THE CHAINSAW!
I wasn’t able to use a shortcut door afterwards like I thought. Weird.
Shotgun: I got it, I feel like I was supposed to have this for the previous section. Which I guess was possible? I feel like Jack would have trapped me in the room with the broken one and killed me. Haven’t used it yet because now there’s nothing to use it on. The gameplay loop doesn’t seem stable enough that any tool I get is useful outside of the narrow area I get it.
Stupid moment: the clue to get the shotgun says you have to use the scorpion key to get it. Which is exactly the kind of clue that only makes sense to the player and no one in-story. I mean, yeah, you need the scorpion key to get the broken shotgun, but wouldn’t they just tell you to get the broken shotgun?
Mia’s Tape: The woooorst . . . Forced stealth with no mechanics for it, walking along a linear path you have to guess at. The whole point is to not get caught by the mother, but she catches you at the end anyway? This section brought to you by completely pointless.
I was pretty exhausted by the time I got through the Three Headed Dog door, mostly by frustration.
I told Daniel this is like the Call of Duty of horror games - every twenty minutes it’s some new spectacle. No time for dread or atmosphere. So I guess the Rob Zombie comparison is apt.
I wonder if the devs understand the difference between uncertainty and confusion. Because I’m only feeling the latter, and rarely the former.
So far I’m not really loving this game. Mostly because it’s really convinced that I just want to walk around a linear funhouse getting cutscene’d. It’s not actually survival horror except for those five or so rooms in the basement. There’s no gameplay flow, the puzzles are weak, and the boss fights are incomprehensible. I’m actually kinda surprised at the degree to which I dislike almost every choice. I really don’t understand how this got good reviews at all. But it has fans, so . . . Someone likes something.
Favorite beats: Grandma, plus there’s a way for you to quickly escape Jack on the second floor by jumping to the first and then he bursts out of the wall in front of you. Legitimately great jump scare.

Margarite/Mom’s Section

Nice trailer
Is it weird that Ethan looks at a random bra and says “must be Zoe’s?” I think it’s weird.
Oh, that’s what the coins are for: unlocking bird cages with upgrades. What? Why am I learning basic mechanics at what feels like 25% of the way into the game? I bought stimulants because reload time isn’t my struggle. Remembering to reload is. Currently saving up for the Magnum.
I’ve just kind of accepted at this point that there’s no real coherency in the game.
Oh, that’s why Mia’s tape existed - to give you insight into the layout of this area for clues.
This just in: no puzzle was hard enough to justify giving those layout clues. Although the room for the light puzzle being reversed is interesting?
Now I have a flamethrower. This seems like overkill. I’m very heavily armed for a random dude in the woods.
Still linear as fuck . . . Why did we need the tape again?
Most annoying section: the jump scare that throws you in the pit (other than the fact it involves Margarite cheating and teleporting). I died here like four times just trying to figure out how to solve it. I eventually just shot her out of frustration, and hoped the flinch meant something. I don’t know how/if anyone figured that out the first time. The lack of feedback is incredibly rough in spots like this.
Creepy kid section is fun. Good walking simulator moments.
WTF, why am I getting an arm from a hidden room shrine? And a head later, I guess? It looks cool enough that This part feels like the original RE “science horror” intruding on what is otherwise a hillbilly horror.
Don’t particularly like the monsters on the way back, but at least it feels like they’re skippable
Okay, credit where credit is due: the reveal of Margarite’s new mutant body is actually very good. The surprise long arm creeping out behind a wall sparks curiosity and nervousness, and also reveals the new route. Plus, you know she’s down there and don’t want to go.
I . . . Didn’t realize that the greenhouse was going to be just a boss fight. So I went in with no flamethrower, and just a shotgun. I used about twenty shots of shotgun ammo and two with the pistol. It worked, but it was clearly just a dull bullet sponge fight. Did she have weak points? I spent time shooting her in the head and mutant gut. No idea if the second one is crit or body shot.
At least this boss fight has an arena. It was minimally competent and not based on a gimmick like the other guy.
Honestly, this whole section feels like it should have be the tutorial level. It’s much truer to the gameplay. Still weak as hell but it had clarity of design.
Favorite beats: The creepy kid legs running away, insect mom grabbing the lantern.

Interlude

I took a break at this point to go back and look for the treasure in the pictures. Found 2/3.
Honestly? Best part of the game. Suddenly I’m balancing risk vs reward in the form of the resource loss I might incur. Which . . . Isn’t that the whole point of survival horror?
Going back also recontextualized new areas I had been before. Made me be able to plan routes
And the loot was actually interesting enough to make me feel like it was worth it.
Lucas’s Tape is the best one so far. Not really any story context, but just a random Saw-like adventure game room. I didn’t find it super satisfying or meaningful, but at least it works as gameplay.
I haven’t found any new coins in so damn long . . . I want that Magnum. The coin collecting definitely feels uneven.
I think enemies have resistances? I can put down a big mold man with the flamethrower in half the time it takes to roast a crawling one. But using the pistol it feels reversed? Uncertain what purpose this vagueness serves. Then again, I’m just uncertain in general what the point/focus/goal of this game is.
I realized that I wished I had picked easy instead of normal for the wrong reasons - normal is the same actual difficulty as easy for me, but it takes way, way longer. My patience is challenged more than my twitch skill or resource management. The enemies should have 50% less health with 50% less resources. Same tension, less boring.
Favorite beats: most of the things I did here?

Lucas’s Sections

Okay, literally every single possibly helpful female character gets damsel’d at once? Come on! Just kill Zoe!
The two keycards thing is bizarrely forced and nonsensical but it lets you revisit areas, which is nice
Lucas feels like the only character with personality. Pity his personality is “annoying dickbag,” but at least it’s something.
Lucas’s section feels like the only one actually trying to use the gameplay to build paranoia. The normal explosives give a resource choice (health or bullets) and makes the player squint for them. The ones in boxes are just peak “fucking with the player” and I enjoy it.
Still linear as fucking fuck, but at least there’s tension and -gasp- choices for the player to make.
The pit fight is interesting I guess. I made it rain shotgun bullets and went through it pretty quick. I don’t really get the fat guy attacks, they hit sometimes but not others.
I bought the Magnum! But I only have six special bullets. Hopefully I can craft more.
“Time to get rid of all your gear” - this is literally a stolen moment from Silent Hill 2 again!
Huh, the puzzle room is just the puzzle over again but you can be smart enough to not set yourself on fire. Which opens a weird plot hole where I don’t see how Ethan can know the password if he didn’t watch it. Very confused how they expected this to make sense given the odds of literally being forced to save scum.
Oh come on, the boss fight isn’t even Lucas? It’s Jack again? Really fucking weird. I knew it made no sense for him to be dead before. But Marguerite is dead permanently. No idea why.
This is one of the most video gamey bosses so far, and the design is what I think of when I think RE bosses. Which is to say, “anime bio-horror Zelda.” SHOTGUN ALL THE EYES!
WTF is this save Mia or Zoe bullshit? There’s nothing logically behind this choice, and I’m pretty sure that Ethan is also infected (they’ve implied it a couple of time and I’m pretty sure Zoe just directly said it).
I saved Mia because it felt like what Ethan would do. Plus, Mia’s tied to the story whereas Zoe is just kind of a “go here next” voice.
Favorite beats: definitely a chain of boxes I shot up that punched back. I wasn’t even pissed, it was just my bad luck.

The Ship/Mia Round 2

I can’t remember if this is a known wreck, but who the fuck misses an entire tanker crash? How does no one know about this?
The initial exploration is long and slow and kind of pointless feeling.
Man, letting Mia voice shit was a weird call because the voice actress is miles better than Ethan.
So Mia is a scientist experimenting on children? WTF? Shoulda saved Zoe.
The feel of the flashback sequence is closer to what I expect from “classic” (1-3) Resident Evil. Science labs, klaxons, and some light milsim for flavor. This isn’t a tone I personally care for but it does go better with the gameplay.
Goddammit, way to fuck your pacing, game. I just finally get enough resources to have the ability to enjoy actual survival horror, then you take it all away, then you give me back a new gun for one level, then you take it all away so I can start over ever without a knife. Argh.
I don’t really understand what I’m doing. Why is Ethan getting abducted and held there? He’s supposed to be the new dad now?
Why is ghost Jack talking to me? I wondered if it was some infection hivemind thing, but Jack is definitely dead by this point. They made a huge deal out of it. Is this just a really lazy writer?
Why is Eveline just letting Ethan go?
I never got the machine gun, I found Evaline before I found the key. And they cheat and don’t let you use the lockpick on that.
The “modern day” level gives the illusion of openness, but since you spend most of it without a weapon it’s still pretty linear because of the enemy placement (I got lost here for a while and definitely watched them cheat with the spawns to guide you).
No boss? Thank fucking god.
Favorite beats: Anything involving multiple Molded and a remote bomb.

The Mines/Finale

I kinda liked the mines? Just you, your current resources, and a slew of varied enemies to burn through. I finally felt like I was making choices and switching weapons based on enemy type. Would have been nice to be less linear, as ever, but finally I felt like missed shots mattered rather than pointless because I didn’t have enough anyway.
Baiting enemies into explosives is fun, I’m glad I can be clever here.
I used my six Magnum shots here. It wrecks faces.
Burned most of my shotgun ammo on the two big boys. I would call that a boss fight. Not really a deep one, but an functional one.
Did they forget about Lucas? What happened to him? His boss fight is hiJACKed (sorry) and then we never hear from him again.
They pretty much state in the docs you find that Eveline is likely just an abused kid committing evil to try and get love. And yet, it doesn’t feel like they want her to be tragic at this point, just monstrous. I really hate Mia at this point, whose backstory and motivations it seems like they’re just not going to acknowledge. Should have saved Zoe.
Ethan has to be infected, because the notes say that you have to be in order to see freaky Evaline. I guess it explains why his hand still works. Pity Ethan’s too stupid to realize any of this.
I don’t understand Evaline’s motivations. She wants you to join the family but also wants everyone to kill you? Why? Because “you didn’t want to be the dad?” What was wrong with the previous dad, Jack, and why does she think you rejected her before you even knew she existed?
Final boss time! Time to kill scared, vindictive kid! That everyone keeps calling a bitch! (Seriously, what the hell, I insult kids left and right but this feels so uncomfortable)
The first boss fight phase is terrible! How was I supposed to know that blocked psychic abilities works to the degree that it stops an almost one-shot? The devs have to leave a blatant hint on the loading screen. Also, it’s so hard to tell that running works here since it barely works in the rest of the game.
I guess Evaline is grandma, which doesn’t feel like a reveal that makes sense and also makes my inability to punch Granny all the more frustrating. How was she teleporting before?
Did she say “damn you all to hell?” That’s weirdly out of character.
The second boss fight phase is terrible! Just unload all the bullets or get eaten in one hit. Final bosses are often let downs, but this is fucking nonsense. The Mia fight at the beginning is better than this, and that was just the world’s slowest maypole dance.
The third boss fight phase is terrible! In multiple ways! Holy shit where do I even start . . . !?
Eveline was cartoonish enough as a giant face. Now this “more grounded” RE game that started with hulking cannibals has a four-story ugly anime monster. I was laughing at the lack of restraint.
Where did the choppers come from? Dear god, they couldn’t even keep the non-milsim tone for one whole game. (I’ll forgive Mia’s section, as it’s more of a diversion). Who are these guys and why are they here?
Why was I just thrown a pistol with six bullets by a random dude? Throw me a rocket launcher or something! (There’s a tradition in RE going back to 1 of using rocket launchers on the final boss)
The player is literally not allowed to move during this segment. It’s effectively a cutscene where I can shoot three of four times. I would have preferred this to be a cutscene.
Okay, enough bitchin’ about bosses.
None of the Redfield or Umbrella stuff makes any sense to a first time player. It’s weird to have the climax be “remember the rest of the franchise” to the point of overshadowing the main character.
Why is Ethan magically reconciled with Mia? On the boat ride he was suspicious of her (a bit before he should have been), and it seemed like their relationship was rocky without the hand stabbing. Were the devs too scared to have a sad ending in their fucking horror game where everyone dies?
Video game climaxes are notoriously “lowest effort” (and, honestly, I get it) but this was pushing it. It felt like there was a lot of effort put here, just nothing good came of it.
Favorite beats: I got nothing, this whole section felt like trash - both on a gameplay and story level.

End verdict

Resoundingly meh and kinda exhausting in a stupid way. I have no interest in the DLC (which I did not buy, thankfully).
Feels like the sales pitch was Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets some Silent Hill meets F.E.A.R., but nothing really works together.
The core mechanics are thin but not actually bad.
Most of the weaknesses are terrible level design, honestly. They don’t show off the strengths of the system and actively distract from it.
Each level does improve on the last, but it feels like the designers took a tutorial and an intro level and stretched it out for a whole game. Most early-2000s games that they reference would have had a lot more (arguably too much) escalating design.
I’m honestly not sure why we had to run (almost) every level twice? (Even if the first is truncated). It’s an interesting idea, but they never seem to get it to work.
I still don’t think that “classic” bosses work in this genre. The two fat men felt climactic without being as artificial as Jack 3.0 or as bullet spongey as Margarite.
Apparently the Mia/Zoe choice is just a good/bad ending choice. If you “save” Zoe, they both die anyway - Zoe up front and Mia later on the ship. That makes no sense! And after getting to the end, I like Zoe better anyway because she’s not working for a secretive lab that builds chemical weapons out of children. I’m very confused why saving Mia is the good ending, that’s actually kind of reprehensible.
I wonder if the multiple endings are ways to encourage replay but honestly there’s nothing worth replaying - nothing new to find, no real power fantasy, no real story depth.
If this was an indie studio I’d give them a chance on a sequel, but I’ve seen RE8. It’s a different set of sins. Some points are stronger, other weaker. But it’s the same core.
The real issue is definitely the over focus on spectacle. This is horror for the attention deficient and easily bored/distracted.
The real verdict: I uninstalled this minutes after completing it.

Personal Verdict, based on why I play games:

Story - The story is entirely an excuse plot to get from zone to zone. Whatever.
Exploration - Except for a couple of moments, basically none because it’s so linear
Player Expression - None, except maybe the mines. The constant cutscene-ing works against this.
Discovery - Actually kinda decent? Just not enough of it.
Aesthetics - Beginning of the game is strong, even if hillbilly horror isn’t my thing, thanks to focus on the grotesque. By the end it’s complete incoherent nonsense.
Emotional Invocation - I didn’t feel fear, I didn’t feel tense, I felt frustrated and constrained. I don’t think this was on purpose. I felt trapped by the devs, not the gameworld or situation.

Thoughts: Pillars of Eternity

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:11:54 -0400

This is part of a continuing series of old rants/essays/snark/thoughts/etc/etc/etc from years back that I figured I might as well throw somewhere other than a decrepit and deleted Discord server. This was written up about the base game of the first installment - I never played any of the expansions.

As Always, Assume Spoilers

Backstory: One god (Eothas) started a war by creating an avatar and then taking over a kingdom, and then invading another kingdom. A bunch of people working for another goddess (Magran) made a magical nuke and blew up Eothas There’s also a goddess running around in exile (Woedica), who no one seems to like? I think the game’s pretty vague on how Woedica. Also, in one country (the one you’re in), all the babies are being stillborn because they aren’t getting souls. Souls apparently get reincarnated in new bodies after death in this universe.
Story premise: You, the main character, get punched by a magical wind and can now interact with souls. In practice, this is mostly “see history” on people. Fun concept, not really amazingly explored beyond flashbacks, mind reads, and some ability flavor . Also, you keep getting dreams of a previous life.
Structure is very BG2 (Ed: Baldur’s Gate 2, for the children) - there is a bad guy, he did something bad to you (although here it’s dubiously bad, other than weird dreams), now you have magic powers and he’s doing bad thing, hunt him down. Game lets you RP how/why you hunt him down.
Most of the game is generic pastoral fantasy. Go to place X, kill everyone in the dungeon, disable some traps along the way. Roleplaying options are mostly “do good” or “demand more money” or “be a pointless dick.” First third of the game involves try to get to a city, doing some pretty traditional fetch quests along the way. The second third is doing some weak faction quests and getting scraps of information about the villain - ends with the city in riot mode because literally everything you do in game gets fucked by the villain in a particularly lame way (we’ll get to this). Last third involves basically a running theme of “here’s what all the gods think about shit” and belatedly getting you familiar with all the deities, who have just been vaguely in the background until now, while you prep for the final fight with the villain.
Right before the final fight, you meet some ghost lady from your nightmare who delivers the “twist”: “The gods aren’t real.” That is literally what she says and everybody gasps in shock. I have to listen to a bunch of otherwise smart characters act hurt and betrayed before pointing out that the gods exist, I’ve met them, this guy over here is literally a cleric who gets his powers from the gods, and you yourself are being tortured in the afterlife by the fucking gods. A whole conversation later the writing finally makes it clear that what she actually means is “there are no natural gods, these gods were created by an ancient civilization to enforce morality.” Okay, I guess that’s interesting, but we’re locking into the final dungeon at this point and can’t do anything interesting with this information. Made even weirder by the fact that several (at least half) the gods are portrayed as dicks (seriously, one of them leads slavering cults that sacrifice random civilians, one preaches extreme Darwinism, and that one guy started invading other countries!). So morality is a bit of a stretch . . . This whole thing is made stupider by the fact that she found all this out not by investigation, but by basically a bunch of people who were initially evangelizing for the created gods basically talked about the plan one room over. And yet no one else ever figured this out? (I guess others might have, but she’s the only figure in the game lore to come near this perspective). Long story short, this is a vaguely interesting idea who’s presence as a last minute twist robs it of all justification. Saving most of the god stuff for act 3 doesn’t really help either, because their existence isn’t a big focus of the game up to that point.
The core weakness is that the villain’s (Theos) plot is basically “lol, whatever.” Basically:
- Sadly, he’s almost always off screen, and has no real personality in his appearances.
- His first appearance is just operating a big weird machine.
- He leads a crazy secretive cult, as in no single member knows more than two other members. No idea how he recruits them or what they want.
- He’s one of the initial guys who created gods. Supposedly because he thinks that atheists are incapable of morality without fearing an afterlife (this is only revealed at the end, after you know the twist). Of course, he also worships (kinda?) the gods. Nevermind the fact that the gods that were created are basically the kind of gods people were making up anyway (he literally says before they made the gods people were fighting over). He also literally brags about causing several Holocaust-level catastrophes to keep the issue going, although he doesn’t explain how those terrible things helped anything? He just says shit “I stabbed this good ruler and replaced him with a famine causing tyrant” because somehow that was better than atheism? Like, how cartoonish is this guy’s view on atheism, given he would have been agnostic/uncertain of what gods existed according to his own admission (that the ancient civ was looking for gods with magic and found none).
- He’s working specifically with Woedica specifically, the god that no one else likes and got herself exiled (although what that really means is unexplained). It says she’s his favorite because she doesn’t follow rules when they’re inconvenient (I think she’s the god of law and vengeance, which is weird). But he’s basically super invested in this one goddess. There’s another line that implies they’re just mutually using each other for their own goals, but his are kinda vague in this case, because I have no idea how this helps him.
- Anyhow, his whole plan is to use these ancient machines to trap the souls that are supposed to reincarnate into babies, and then send them straight to Woedica as a power source. Debatably making her the ultimate villain of the game, but she’s so backgrounded it doesn’t matter. Okay, cool. This part is fine and could work great, although the god-atheism bit muddles it all.
- Along the way, he tries to blame “animancers” (basically necromancers) for the stillborn plague. The way he does this is a combination of mass raising undead corpses, and possessing a sanitarium inhabitant so he can fuck with a scientist enough for a magical accident to happen (the details here a vague, and it’s super jarring to find the main villain possessing a guy locked in a cell). It’s vaguely implied that this is because the study of animancy might lead to the discovery that the gods were handmade, but it’s an implication of an implication that animancy was how the gods were made.
- In the course of the second act, the PC fucks up the whole animancy plan. The end of the act involves just going to see the city’s Duke and convincing him to allow/disallow animancy in the city. I never got to see his verdict because after you’ve laid out what’s going on, Theas just walks in while possessing an animancer and fireballs the Duke, kicking off riots. This could have really been done at any point and leaves open the “why go about this is such a roundabout way?” Especially because animancers are being superstitiously blamed for the spellborn plague without his intervention. He also would need the Duke to ban the study.
- Of course, Act 2 is the only time he really does things. His only appearance in Act 1 is to turn on a machine, and in Act 3 he does nothing! In the ending he’s just there to trigger a larger, scarier machine.
Weird implications that annoy me
- Literally all the cool stuff is in the backstory (god bombs, treacherous queen, avatars of gods causing wars)
- I really like the idea of a villain who thinks we need a god to be moral, but it only really works in the context on a monotheistic “god is good” religion. Petty squabbling Greek gods don’t really work like that. I guess the “bad” ones are meant to be threats, but they have so many worshippers it’s comedic.
- You can’t disrupt the god status quo. Endings where you wave your middle finger at a god involve them blighting the land. Really weird. It leaves the player with food for thought, I guess.

Thoughts: Inscryption

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:08:19 -0400

As Always, Assume Spoilers

Finished Inscryption. My opinion remains about the same as I reported earlier. There’s a few too many horror themes going on that clash, and the meta-story is far too cute for no real payoff. Also the ending is both somehow too terse (OLD_DATA has no payoff) and too long (a long padded goodbye to EVERYONE). I was left both vaguely confused, unsatisfied, and very tired.

Thoughts: Firewatch

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:05:33 -0400

As Always, Assume Spoilers

The Breakdown

Okay, I have finished Firewatch. I liked it a lot, although I think it overplayed its hand at a few key places. Basically the characters, dialogue, voice acting, atmosphere, and theming were all excellent. Setting is good. The plot itself is . . . Fine. It’s a cardboard cutout holding up the rest, and while you can get it to make sense it requires a lot of work.

Thoughts: The Evil Within

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 18:31:19 -0400

As Always, Assume Spoilers

The Missions

Mission 1

This is just a plot filler mission
Two vaguely anime cops and an edgy teenager’s noir detective
Anime hood man is . . . Very silly and dumb
The chainsaw man sequence is pretty much on rails - I found this out when I tried to be clever and learned that his scripted path changes when you get to a certain point
Hoping this is just the “teaser”
The city collapsing is . . . Too much too soon.
Somehow, a lot is going on and no-one is reacting correctly. Especially the main character.

Mission 2

Oh, it’s zombies! I didn’t actually realize that was going to be the main enemy.
Sebastian handles like a truck. Sometimes in a good way, often in a “the physics engine is crying” way.
There are checkpoints and also manual saves? I don’t get it.
Yeah, this is super RE4 in general concept. Even got the roundhouse kick.
It’s still very linear, but I can see how this would be cool - like the better parts of RE2, where going off the beaten path is a risk/reward calculation for resources.

Mission 3

This was fun. Nice to have some actual tools, though.
The Good Doctor is fucking Great. He’s the only voice actor to recognize what he’s in, a camply schlock piece. Much better than the constant bored “. . . shit” deliveries.
The village is more linear that it seemed, but it’s nice to have multiple angles of attack through the map. It’s almost Dishonored-like, but much smaller
I love the guy who just dives off the damn watchtower
Zombies with guns aren’t really zombies, but . . . Whatever. More annoyed at the obvious choke to force you to get the guns, but also
I caught a bunch of scripted events that kinda just took me out of the mood
Jesus Christ, I spent so long trying to take down the chainsaw guy. I really hate RE bosses, because it’s so unclear whether you’re doing damage or if they’re a puzzle boss. I burned a grenade, two mines, and a bear trap on that asshole. He moves so fast.
If not for the boss, I kinda liked this one.

Mission 4

Yeah, now we have some random spooky imagery that doesn’t go anywhere.
Why is no one reacting to zombies and teleportation like it just happened.
I can’t get anyone’s motivations to make sense in what is I assume the matrix. If the level world is real (including in the past), it makes no sense that no one is reacting; if it’s in Sebastian’s head, I don’t understand why anything is happening.
Invisible enemy. Interesting. Takes a lot of bullets to put down, which is annoying. I wonder how often soft locking happens?
WTF why am I in a pure combat zone all of a sudden after the game basically refused. This is definitely more “frustrating” than claustrophobic. Also, I hate that the one trap zombies don’t set off is motion detectors? You can shoot them, but damn.
This is a highly linear level, I don’t love it.
Oh, I get it. This game is going for “shooter variety” - stealth section, combat section, plot section, spooky section . . . Doesn’t seem to be building up yet, just switching between them.
I don’t get the Grudge lady thing. I guess just linear pressure to run forwards? I don’t feel like I’m making choices under pressure, just trying to figure out how the game designers WANT me to go. Again, more frustration than horror or tension.
The door that doesn’t open until you trigger her - even though it was locked before - is BS. Mostly because it doesn’t trigger until too late.
Hey, it’s anime dude! Oh, he killed me in a blink. Run away I guess?
That just kinda . . . Ended. Well, whatever, it sucked.

Mission 5

Is the plot ever going to advance? I feel like we’re still just “walking forward” but really towards anything. Are we still on “get Leslie?” We’ve been teleported around so much that I don’t understand why we think he might be forward.
Okay, this is an interesting use of invisible enemies, I’ll give them that. I’m not sure if I am/am not supposed to kill them - I killed one and ran past the other.
The blur room puzzle is weirdly artificial, and while visually cool feels tied to nothing
I get an AI buddy, yay . . . Oh, he shoots and stabs! Nice!
. . . He is not immune to friendly fire like, say, a grenade.
The horde attack is both deeply annoying and also kinda the best part of the level? I’m at least doing something requires to think at all. The ammo spawns are very clearly tuned up. I can see the developers changing the game rules out from under us but pretending they aren’t.
Goddammit, every time we see Kidman, her shirt gets soaked. This whole thing is a bit juvenile, but this is just embarrassing.
Fucking long haired lady . . . I spent forever on this because I couldn’t get the timing on the one furnace to work and I also kept missing the one barrel.
The chain yanking thing . . . What’s the point? Also, wasted ammo because I didn’t know that was a thing. . .

Mission 6

More horde events, yay . . .
Sniper rifle is interesting, given that there often isn’t much range
Wasted a bunch of resources on the infini-zombies because I didn’t realize that was the case
Chainsaws! Are! Bullshit! (I was stuck on this guy so long, because I still have no clue how much approximate health they have). One kit kills, fast moving, takes so much punishment I had to burn out a frost bolt, a flash bolt, and all my shotgun ammo.
I nicknamed the MC “Detective Wino” because the way he holds bottles makes him look like a drunk guy on the street. Who knew our fearless hero was a alcoholic? He’s never actually had a drink anywhere onscreen!
Yay, another boss (and his brother) . . . Run, shoot, run, shoot . . . I feel like these are just fancy gates. Because I never feel like I can use skill here, it’s just “dump large amounts of ammo and big resources.” Luckily Joseph got involved halfway through and did most of the work. The taunting zombie getting splatted was funny, though.
Interesting dungeon visually, again what is the point? Culty sacrifices feel disconnected from everything else going on. Science experiment ties in better, but the connection to whatever reality is feels . . . Tenuous.
The dog is bullshit, I have no idea how to actually avoid damage - I just had to give up and eventually just dump damage (grenade, all my shotgun ammo, all my bolts). The thing is fast, turns on a dime, and cheats - it can move through objects that you can’t.
I got the glasses, but did not kill the dog.
Is each level getting exponentially longer? This one had so many phases. I know I should be conserving ammo, but it really screws with you when there’s always another phase and you don’t know how many. Three boss encounters is too many. Two seems like it should be the upper cap.
I feel like a bunch of these levels work better on a replay - because then you have the foreknowledge of how far you gotta go and can plan to pace your resource usage. Currently I’m getting screwed by infini-zombies and surprise bosses, and thinking I’m close to the ending
Honestly, I had to struggle through the last fight because the thought of doing everything again was . . . Exhausting.
The flow at this point seems to be “get through a couple of designed fights, boss checks your ammo supplies”
Current story beats: mad science, a sacrificial cult, a serial killer, reality warping, humans being turned into hate-zombies. Do these things go together? I guess they could.

Mission 7

I kinda liked this one too? Felt like there was a nice rhythm, although using the grates was a bit obvious and easy. Hard to say more here, other than this felt pretty decently executed, almost like a Dark Souls level? Mix of exploration and looping and hidden chambers and environmental options
Goddammit, Leslie. I should just shoot you in the head. Why do I even want to find you?
Boss was a “fun” puzzle. It was still super frustrating, but

Mission 8

Did . . . Did they finish this mission? Some annoying combat zombies, a terrible one-hit kill puzzle (I missed the book the first time because I never got the symbol), and just . . . Done. Randomly.
I don’t get the fetuses. Although it is hilarious roundhouse kicking like ten of them at once for a huge burst of blood.
Oh, we’re in a shared mindscape. That . . . Has not been utilized as a concept one bit, actually. Maybe one and half times (church and the lab)? Less teleportation and it’s just an RE4 “go through the action gothic environment.” I feel like giving us that tipoff around Mission 2 would have not only been fine, but actively better and give them more room to leap between level concepts. Well, at least I get to see the doctor.
How did we get here? What does this have to do with our hero’s dead family members? Why does Ruvik want us dead? No idea.
The jank is obvious . . . I died to the Many Limbed Thing v2 because I didn’t realize that the cutscene had ended

Mission 9

Oh hey, NOW you use your “in the mind” concept. Fuckers.
Sebastian has a dead kid. Shocking.
Upsides of this level: Nice concept, interesting transversal around, I like backtracking in these games, some story, puzzle breaks up the combat
Downsides of this level: Cheating devs (see below), each death in the main section just starts you completely over, that very confusing grinder trap
If you die a bunch like I did (Ruvik got me like three times by dumb luck before I figured out how he works) it becomes real obvious that the devs are cheating. Zombies are spawned by very specific triggers depending on what you do. So first it looks random and thus frustrating, then it doesn’t and somehow that’s even more frustrating. Also, they have to cheat a bullet into your pistol or the grinder trap is impossible
I grenaded a fat zombie and little zombie and both lived! How does damage work!?
Stealth is fake. Every time I stealth now, they see me through walls or are specifically positioned or coded to prevent stealth. I only use stealth after throwing bottles now for the free kill.
The story: okay, this doesn’t actually give me any insight into anything. Ruvik was a dick with a dead sister doing brain experiments. Is he the Serial Killer mentioned earlier? What does he have to do with the evil church (if anything)? I’m learning Ruvik’s backstory before I can even learn what he’s doing RIGHT NOW.
Imagery update: MANNEQUINS! Yeah, they’re just throwing shit at the wall. That thematically ties to nothing.
Coalesced some of my thoughts around the bosses which is: with the exception of the dog, they all work on paper. Each one forces a different playstyle during the combat. Problem is that figuring out if you’re doing the right thing is . . . Really rough without feedback. RE has been going 20 years, how have they never made the bosses not suck?

Mission 10

The trap section part 1 differentiates itself as at least an interesting gimmick.
Once again, the developer is cheating HARD. The whirling blade section triggers at a certain point regardless of you being viewable, which is . . . Artificial
I know some people don’t care about artificiality in games, but it drives me up a wall. Trust your gameplay and let me make choices, game!
Stealth is definitely broken. An enemy walking over a bomb fifty feet away alerts them to your position behind cover.
The trap section part 2 was tricky but I felt like I finally had some things I could do and while not getting ahead. Actually balancing resources and setting up traps.
I feel like I can’t disarm the motion sensor bombs well enough to ever take the risk.
I am deeply, deeply frustrated with the crucifix guys - mostly because I didn’t realize that they were to be avoided and weren’t minibosses. So I actually spent a shit-ton of resources on the first one, only to realize that once there were two there was no damn way I should have done that. Too late, though.
Got my ass handed to me so many times but the duo because the door didn’t stay, unlike all of the others. I turned it five times! It was a bad time.
The long haired lady (Laura!) is back! Not sure why, although “Ruvik controls the dream” is as good as anything. Had to keep redoing this section trying to spot the tiny places to shoot. Definitely continues to make me feel like I’m making no progress.
This boss somehow sucks MORE than all the other bosses. Janky physics (I got stunlocked so many times by objects that were barely moving), inability to dodge, highly agile (it 180’d so many times), every clever trick being coded away (died hiding under a car, saw a special cutscene). The really annoying one is the goddamn one-hit kill! It took me HOURS to beat, and I only did it when I realized that the phase 2 hitbox is so broken that I can just walk under the thing. Running to the left or right or back gets you killed instantly, though. It was wildly uneven.
This level was fucking exhausting. Felt like it needed to be about one segment less. Three gimmicks in a level is just too many - arguably, two is too many, but bosses are only debatably gimmicks.
You want to know frustrating this level is? The wiki I use to jog my memory stopped recording mission details as of this mission. Seriously.
Plot beats: not much. Leslie is somehow the key out, but I’m not sure what Jimenez was trying to do. No one is acting as if everything in the mindscape is fake, even though everyone knows it at this point. Jimenez dies like a bitch to the multi-headed thing, which is disappointing because I liked him. And he seems to recognize the corpse-limb-thing? Ruvik ominously threatens Sebastian, and yet doesn’t kill him because . . . Fuck you, I guess? He keeps killing me in other places, so it’s so weird that he just doesn’t here. I guess the inmate is the new info-giver going forward?
They spoiled the nurse’s name in a tooltip: Tatiana. Weird.
There’s five more fucking missions . . . I hope chapter 15 is a quick one. This is becoming a slog, I was perilously close to just rage quitting the whole game during this boss fight because of the bullshit.
Have any of the bosses been ever properly contextualized in the greater scope?
I feel like there’s a version of this game structure that I would really like . . . And this is not the execution. Too much artificiality and changing rules and unclear goals.
I mentioned to Daniel that the game is often conflating “horror atmosphere” wit h “loud and noisy”

Mission 11

Not a ton of new stuff here - no plot advancement and encounter design is somewhat interesting, but not a ton different than before. I think the rhythm of the game has set in.
I did find a Magnum! Using RE rules, this will only be used on bosses, I bet (this is literally more of an RE4 sequel than RE5)
Fish creature breaks up things, although I don’t love it.
I had to start the level over because I used too much ammo on the Ruvik clone fight - I didn’t realize he was the only one who had to die. Once again, unclear victory conditions kill.
The psychic zombie cop behind the door is the most bullshit I’ve seen, it’s actually impossible without certain ammo
I notice that the tram car zombies have much, much lower health than normal because the devs cheat . . .
Ah, now I am a zombie . . . Or not. Is that plot thread going anywhere?
This ended so anti-climatically. I guess I kill Joseph next?

Mission 12

What the fuck is even going on here? This is actually suddenly an RE 5 or 6. I take back what I said about finding the rhythm.
Giant boss is dumb, but at least his attacks are kinda dodgeable (after dying a few times)?
Bus fight against the horde is fine.
Machine gun? A fucking machine gun? I made that cry both as the thing showed up the first time and when I mowed down like 50 dudes.
Pointless driving sequence . . .
At least I walked out of this with a fuckton of ammo, so that ain’t good

Mission 13

So Sebastian’s wife went missing, not died. Is that why he’s in the mindscape fucking around, because she got abducted by the serial killer (I assume Ruvik?)
Clone zombies are scary only because one hit kills that
The puzzle sequence with the beyblades is less a puzzle and more “keep dying until you learn the things that happen” - not actually scary. I know puzzles are needed to break up action, but I think I would have preferred actual, you know, puzzles.
Hello Safe Boy. I guess blowing you up twice was the point? I’m still unsure if there’s a timer on the dumbwaiter or the kills were required.
Who the fuck is this lunatic half-spilling the beans? Leslie in the real world? Ruvik’s not crazy half? Sebastian’s subconscious? I don’t understand his purpose aside from Greek Chorus Exposition (tm).
I thought that it was implied that Kidman knew more about what’s going on. Wish she would tell us, the audience. (also, why didn’t she kill him the first ten times we saw them both together?)
I have no idea what Leslie is supposed to turn into, so I definitely don’t believe that Sebastian does.
Can I play as Kidman? I think the DLC lets me. That sounds much more fun. I await disappointment.

Mission 14

More of the same, I think I get it now.
Another good balance of resource tension
Decent boss? I don’t think I liked squid boy, but it’s a more interesting encounter.

Mission 15

Seems like this was a “one of each” structure mission, not a bad capper on paper
This is waaaaaaaaay too long a walk through random scenes. A few minutes and it’s a nice break - but we never go anywhere and it’s too long.
The huge Blood Arena was one hell of a fight. Burned most of my ammo pulling various tricks. I kinda was fine with this one. Felt like it could have been The Boss encounter in another game
TWO Safe Heads! Burned all my bombs and most of my Magnum ammo. I’d be more impressed wit hthe fuck-you is A) they clearly have different rules to the previous encounters and B) it’s a pretty transparent rip off of the Silent Hill 2 Pyramid Head structure, only without the theming. This is the “real” final boss.
I will never learn who the asylum inmate is, because he’s dead now. Seriously, no name or face for Mr Exposition. Can’t even find a wiki entry for him
The stealth/trap section is . . . Annoying. It makes sense as a climactic encounter portion, but you can tell that the devs weren’t a fan because there a checkpoint every five feet.
Our hero is an idiot. Shoulda shot Leslie. I’m pro-team-Kidman.
I’m torn on this finale. On one hand, it’s basically a victory lap after all the suffering. On the other, it’s pretty dull and feels wrong for Ruvik’s style of villain. But big beasty monsters are the thing, I guess.
The rocket launcher . . . Sign of Resident Evil incarnate.
Did . . . Did we not escape the mindscape? That screech is supposed to be a thing from Ruvik that triggers the madness, no? (not that plot never went anywhere)
If Ruvik was the brain, how did he stab Sebastian in the eye to get him in the machine? Was none of this outside The Matrix? So nothing happened over the whole game, including the final hint that Ruvik bodyjacked Leslie (because it’s still the sim)?

Summation

I . . . Almost want to like this game? The encounter design side works real well on paper. In practice the constant obvious artificiality and rule changing kills me.
There’s a strong enough core to make a much better game, maybe the sequel does that? Maybe someday. I need a break from this.
I felt frustration more than accomplishment or fear in most of this game.
Story is complete bunk, this was a level first game with the excuse plot hastily assembled later
I’m reminded of why RE doesn’t do it for me. It’s just . . . Too much noise. No style.
Brief googling reveals that the DLC does all the story work retroactively to patch up this BS. Although there is a DLC where you play as the Keeper/Safeheadman, which sounds oddly fun.

Personal Verdict, based on why I play games:

Story - Slow, Bad, self contradicting, pretty sure it technically doesn’t start or end? I’m not even sure that the PC is the protagonist
Exploration - Linear levels with very minor alt routes, so not much
Player Expression - There’s some minor “how do I”
Discovery - Okay at best. It’s fun finding resources, but the linearity takes some away.
Aesthetics - Meh. Didn’t really do it for me? Not enough atmosphere beyond the basic splatterpunk walls.
Emotional Invocation - Not really? There’s something to the slow shooter mechanics, but everything else doesn’t do it for me. RE2 (REmake) was better in every way.

Thoughts: Deathloop's Invasion Mechanic

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 18:20:37 -0400

As Always, Assume Spoilers

So, I’ve played a bunch of Deathloop now for very little progress. But I think I’ve finally got enough of a grip on one of the core mechanics of Deathloop: Julianna. The invasion mechanic is kinda the heart of the games pacing. So let’s look at this from both sides, because while I think this is a really cool experiment, and I love it on paper, I feel like it’s wonky in execution so far. No spoilers will be included.

Thoughts: Darkwood

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 18:10:42 -0400

As Always, Assume Spoilers

Intro

So, Darkwood. Please at the following dismissive caveats to all my critiques:

Survival games are not my thing
Top down non-tactical is not my thing

The Thoughts in Question

Prologue

Menu music? Fucking amazing. Love it.
They’re really leaning on “evocative vagueness” as a thing, which I usually like. I think they’re being a bit too vague though as I couldn’t figure out that the forest was the “enemy” until after the first rambling cutscene.
The UI is super muddy, and difficult to read things on.
The controls are . . . Bizarre. Playing on controller, literally nothing feels right.
Sometimes my weapon swings fast, not other times. Not sure why.
That puzzle was straight up nonsense, why is a radio wired corpse saying lock combos?

Chapter 1 (barely started):

The general vagueness of this thing is killing me. I’m mostly just struggling and repeatedly dying as I try to figure out what my goals are supposed to be. This is definitely a problem of mine, personally, I need some form of broad goal to motivate me.
I tend to be motivated by exploring and finding new interesting things. Here, like a lot of survival games, the motivation is to find things to stave off death. That simple inversing is fucking with me.
Am I supposed to be doing nothing at night? I’ve died every night because I can’t use the bed (I assume I need the shrooms?) and I get bored/frustrated doing nothing and either go outside or a dog breaks in. Either way, I Am Meat.
I lied: my impatience is actually what’s killing me. Between the long gaps of “now what” and the fact that the avatar is in worse shape than a slug, everything feels like it’s moving incredibly slowly. Not necessarily deliberately, just slowly.
I will find a weapon yet.
I have so far repaired my kitchen door and one window, but nothing else.
I do like the bizarrely fairy tale nature of the atmosphere.
Current goals: find red mushrooms, find planks, go from there
Bear traps walked into: 2
Poisonous mushrooms walked into: many

Latest from Darkwood

I found the solution to my gear issues: molotov cocktails. Broke out a few and was able to get much farther through acquiring a chain of sticks and an upgraded pitchfork
Finally got the (non red guy) combat to click mostly because a little range means I can see the attack animations
WTF are these banshees doing? Just killing the lights and spawning a billion mini guys?
I found the village! I misunderstood what the village was before this. I’m annoyed how many keys
I built a gun but have not used it. I debated shooting my way over the bridge, but I suspect it will just go hell.
I figured out the pig farm only to be blocked by an obviously special item to progress
Guess the plan is to go back to the village at try to trigger some way to get the magic item.
The linearity seems to be increasing, but I can’t tell towards what. It’s mostly negative reinforcement slapping we away until I find the correct way forward.
Current day: 23

Key critique: the trader getting reputation feels increasingly like the core mechanic and I have very mixed opinions. It’s the opposite of a rubber band effect: the more you survive, the more you leapfrog ahead. And it gives you more resources than almost anything else except for very rare items. If you took out the trader, the power curve doesn’t work. But it feels like a hack relative to the survival mechanic - it’s an inelegant motivation for the player to actually survive that has to be balanced.