Ghost of Tsushima

Beautiful presentation. The near lack of UI means you can focus on the gorgeous world around you. Favoring contextual guidance over a floating compass makes for a much more immersive experience than similar games. The story also punches way above its weight, adding context to (eventually repetitive) missions and driving big emotional beats in key moments. I also loved its focus on little moments, like letting you write haikus in especially picturesque spots.

The combat takes some time to get going, but really clicks once its does. Gets stale eventually, mostly due to the lack of enemy variety. Enemies get a little spongey, but you have enough tools that it's never too boring. The duels are cool, really capturing the essence of a tense sword fight. Stealth was decent, if basic.

The overall gameplay loop is a safe one: big standard open world faire (including the cluttered map and identical collectibles). But there's a reason the genre is popular: it's fun to run around and just exist in this world. If you don't mind the lack of originality, you'll have a good time. Everything's nicely polished.

I played the DLC as well and found it only ok. There's an ok plot, but mostly it's just more of the base game. More of a good thing is good, but I'm at an age where "more" is the last thing I need from these expansive open world adventures. I also didn't love the focus on hallucinations, a plot device I find tedious. That said, there's some nice narrative payoff for Jin before you wrap things up with him for good.