SIMULACRA 2 12+

I can really see how the team is honing and improving their craft. I particularly like the tree of choices that let you know exactly what was missed, and the WARDEN app was a good way of keeping track of evidence and doling out information. An in game notes app would be very handy, or some way to catalog info or thoughts, I had my phone to the side opened to a notes app the whole time. Also, it's SO bizarre to have all the actors saying your name...spelled different, but still, very weird and cool. The acting was generally very good, though there were moments of awkwardness or overacting that seemed more due to directing than acting, as all the actors showed that they were capable of giving great performances.
Also, the visual effects are PHENOMENAL. The music as well. Really top notch, I love the primal growling of the Simulacra.

First things first, spoiler alert!
I finished the game about 5 minutes ago and while the overall story was okay, the first game was much better. The story wasn’t as great and it had that “social media is the devil” vibe to it. It was a sort of copy and paste of the first game but this time, social media presence is the main focus rather than a dating app. There were less scares, (I only really thought the background got scary) the acting wasn’t great, and most of all, the glitches. I get that the development team is doing everything in their power to fix it and they had a timeframe. But this game could have used a lot more patching up. In some of the most crucial situations like the final talk with the rippleman, I got booted out of the game in the middle, making me go back to the beginning all over again. Some of the problems were confusing and not explained well at all, and in the middle of solving them, the game would glitch or kick me out and I’d have to start over again. Very frustrating, but overall a fun experience.

I love the story and the way the game is structured... it’s a great, immersive, and spine chilling game IF it can be run smoothly. I have encountered several game breaking bugs that have hindered my playing experience and left me with an empty feeling as I had to exit the app and make a whole new game. The first one was where you had to talk to Mina- I had all of her evidence but the game apparently didn’t register the cue for allowing me to interact with her. The second one was when I exited out of the video of Maya doing “yoga” (located in the computer files). After I exited, the game took me to a screen where the only thing I could interact with was a guy named Greg. It wouldn’t let me open up the other apps, go to the home screen, nada. The third one was when I was interacting with Mina and confronting her about her lies on social media- the game froze and Ruben’s contact never came up in the game, causing me to have to restart. Like I said, it’s got a good premise, but with these bugs that set me back two-three hours, I can’t give it the full five stars