ENA occupies a special place in my heart and I actually hope more people recall this title when voting for game of the year 2025.

At one point I got that same vibe I had playing skyrim where I felt like any direction I turned toward had adventure waiting for me. I just wish I'd spent more time with it to be honest.

This was such a blast to play through and experience. I love the level generation and the combat feels like you're in a Saturday Morning Cartoon laser shoot-out. As a kid who grew up watching BraveStarr this is basically everything I could have ever asked for. The dialog is fantastically written and acted. Each character is unique and fun to play with. The only thing I wish it had was a NewGame+ mode so after unlocking the whole gang I could keep going. But all things considered I had a really good time! I love it.

There are so many layers to this onion. You have to give it a big ol' zesty bite!

I really wanted to like this because it has so much going for it. Sadly I cannot recommend this dumpster fire. The core gameplay loop is deeply unenjoyable. And I'm not sure what it is. Perhaps it's respawn rates being too long. Perhaps its how it handles online match making. The game itself seems to be one which favors camping and waiting until the last possible moment to steal victory from your opponents, and the secondary game mode isn't much better with the last player left in a fight taking home all the spoils if they can even make it to a deposit box before someone else snipes them and takes it all. It's just this horrible whirlwind of stealing stealing stealing and nobody likes a kill stealer or being robbed. In most shooters with these mechanics, like Battlefield for instance, you have point control and respawn tickers. In these cases skill level directly contributes to the overall flow of combat. Here it's luck. It's whoever just happened to show up last that's going to systematically win. Which, again, rewards only campers. And nobody likes Campers. The first online guild ever formed was called "The Camper Killers" for this very reason. Hating camping is in our blood as gamers so to make a game where camping is the one and only path to victory you've created an absolute travesty and it sucks to see all the hard work of all the people involved in making this go to such a horrible place.

I did like the team names though that was cute and the sports arena vibe is quite good. The Asthetics are fun and I like the character customization. I just really don't appreciate the core focus of the game which is, sadly, the game, itself. I'm so sorry. I really really want to like this, but I guess what I really want is just another Monday Night Combat or Battlefield at the end of the day and this ain't it.

As a on Grognard who played a lot of D&D and other Tabletop RPGs I can say that this game is the closest one can come to the D&D 5E Experience without actually playing with a group.
I can also say I'm so happy that I've never had so many people interested in 5e come to me to play after enjoying BG3 and that, itself, is probably the most vabuable contribution this game has made to society as a whole. In the long run we're all going to be playing more D&D and that is a win for everyone.

There are so many little moments.

Like I came upon a mine with an angry fire-breathing miner.

I sneaked past him and stole his ore he was trying to mine.

Then after dying and coming back through the same mine the ore was gone (I'd taken it), but the miner was still there.

Instead of repeating his same mining animation or patrolling behavior or even being a threat he was just having a coffee break.

He had nothing left to mine for since I'd taken his ore. So he was just kinda sitting there. Almost looking broken-hearted like he'd lost his purpose.

It's little precious things like that... Carefully hand-crafted environmental and character-driven storytelling... Which have no reason to be there, but they put them in there, that make this my Game of the Year 2022.

Without a doubt one of the best games I've ever played in my life. Period.

Slick. Well executed. Felt like it was just flexing every time it employed some new stylized camera or concept and nothing overstayed its welcome. This was an unforgettable experience through-and-through.

This is the BEST VR GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED.

I may very well be the BEST ONE I WILL EVER PLAY.

(Also I played it for 20+ hours in Playstation VR as well)

If you're in the mood for some deep dark hard sci-fi set so dang far in the future you can't even comprehend it... This has that in spades. I got it for the awesome gameplay but was surprised to find a fascinating story in there, too. Great world building.