AI schlock. We're seeing more and more of these copy/paste games where you purchase it thinking it's one thing but then when you see the title of the game being installed it's different from what the game is titled. You click through deciding to give it a chance and you can tell right at the loading screen something is off. The mice attached to the computer? Well the cords drift off in different directions and connect to nothing. The things in the background? They vaguely resemble shapes you recognize but upon closer inspection you can see they look like nothing more than the same things you see your boomer friends on Facebook posting every day. You start the game and within five minutes find yourself in the middle of a s*x scene that you've seen before. Literally, the same assets, the same poses, the same "click to advance" button that you can't quite figure out at first.

I don't ask for much from my gooner games but I do want some effort, some sign of humanity. Some work put into the writing. If this is all we have to look forward to from this genre then it seems whatever passed for a golden era is quickly falling away.

A game clearly written by AI with recycled assets from other games. The women throw themselves at you within seconds of meeting you, the story is incomprehensible (which makes sense given the artificial intelligence used to write it), and the English feels initially like Changlish before you realize the far worse origin of its writing credits.

I know we don't come to these adult games for the greatest stories or writing in the world but you need to put at least some effort into them. This ain't it.

Shadow of Mordor is a fun game, I can say that for sure. Essentially its another Batman Arkham game, the controls, figthing system, and exploration rewards are virtually identicle. That being said, the Tolkien purists amongst us (myself included) have to constantly surpress shudders at the nonsense being spewed throughout the game. The game doesn't ever go into full depth of destroying the established lore however there are... certain liberties they take throughout the game that hurt me.
From Elf ghosts to a complete misunderstanding of Tolkien's philosophy in regards to power this game fails the legacy of Tolkien, no matter how much they try to say that they were attempting to be lore friendly.
The game does a good job of creating a new dark lord in Middle Earth, however it never really makes that it's point or declares that this is what's happening. However in Tolkien's worldview, the type of power you attempt to gain in SoM can only result in you becoming a corrupted servant of evil.

That being said, I was able to possess an orc, jump to another, brand that one, turn him against his enemies, jump onto the back of a rancor and start eating other orcs... so you could say it's fun.
The biggest problem the game faces, for those who don't give a crap about Tolkien purism, is that there's no real replay value, it's one of those games where you play through once... and that's all you really need to do, which is the key flaw of most any open world game really.

So I would recommend this game, but if you like your Tolkien uncondensed, you might want to plug your nose during the narrative bits.

The last "game" I played that hit me like this was Dear Esther, and what that was lacking (length) was made up for here in The Cat Lady.

The Cat Lady is a trip, one that is actually quite difficult to adequately describe. It always kept me guessing, I never had any clear idea of what would happen next and it actually ended up brigning me back day after day. You could probably play this in one sitting, but why would you want to? Letting the story sit with me day after day made it feel stronger. I'm not sure I can think of many games that would make me describe it that way.

If I had any complaints it's that the game play isn't altogether challenging, but that's not really the point. The only other complaint I have is that the ending didn't feel quite as polished as the rest of it and we were left with one particular loose end, though that could have just been because of how I chose to play it.

If you like horror, ambience, complex topics, and strong STRONG female characters who aren't just Ripley, this is a game you should check out.