Besides playing Control: Ultimate (Epic), I've also lately been playing something else.
I've been playing Shenmue 1 HD on Steam (PC). I'm some 5 hours into it or so, give or take.
Shenmue feels like some kind of mix of an open-world adventure/RPG-lite game; detective game; walking simulator; and brawler game. Oh, and there's also some Quick-Time Events (QTE's) too. Ain't ran into many fights yet (i.e. namely just ran into one, in a parking lot), but have ran into a few QTE's. Combat feels like it came right out of the old-school Virtua Fighter games, more or less - but it can be difficult when you've got multiple enemies on you.
Also worth nothing - it's an old game (from 1999), so...it's basically locked at 30fps. No real slow-downs ever or anything, so...it's fine, basically. No odd stutters and animations for the most part seem fine.
Game feels like its dialogue is often very stilted with its dialogue, writing, and English voice-acting (i.e. none of this is that great) - but I do like the plot itself; and absolutely just love the game-world itself. Can't help but smile, still wondering if the translation is just not that good; or if this was purposely written & acted hammy like this (like many old-school movies it seems to take inspirations from); or maybe both.
You'll be definitely walking around the game-world a lot, talking to NPC's and investigating...just to push the main story and game ahead. Sure, the game looks old (b/c it is) and is a bit remastered (feels like some models were touched-up and/or redone like Ryo and other not-so-important NPC's just weren't) - but, it's fine.
The game-world might not be that huge (not sure how much bigger it gets, later on) - but it feels like you can pretty much (eventually) enter doors, rooms, buildings, and whatnot that are actually there, which you couldn't get to earlier...once you progress the story, time, and days along. Things just ain't here...just for show or window-dressing basically, which a lot of modern games are actually doing these days.
There's also mini-games with even old SEGA arcade games that you can play (and pay for with in-game money...like you can do in modern Yakuza games); pool tables where you can shoot pool; throw darts; and other stuff. NPC's run on schedules to do stuff, work, and other things of that sort...which reminds me of what Gothic games did, a few years later (in 2001).
You can pick up items; zoom-in on items; look at items and their details; and interact w/ most items - pretty much like you would in the real world. If you're using a rotary phone, you're going to have to dial every number like you would on a rotary phone like back in the 80's. In many ways, it often feels very sim-like in these ways.
No real mini-map here either. You have to check the maps in the game-world (often on signs), learn the area, and whatnot. Since you will have to go home and return on time and keep going around areas - you'll memorize your way around them. Feels very old-school here.
Regardless, despite Shenmue 1 showing its age in many ways - yeah, I just still can't stop playing this. There's something about this game & its game-world. There's something so laid back, especially when nothing of much is happening; and I just want to go around, explore, and get immersed in the game-world. I feel like this is also part walking-simulator game, before these even became a thing in recent year...as I ain't even ran into a ton of fights or QTE's yet. There's something about playing detective to find out info about who killed your dad & where this person's at, so revenge can be extracted.
There's just something - so many somethings actually, to be exact here - about this game.
it for now and see if something with higher Vram launches early into the new year.
