So, I've been sitting on the games for ages now, and finally got around to playing the first one. I tried the original BS1 on the PSX years and years ago, but it ran so poorly that I never got very far.

I know the Original Version is available with the first game now, but I went ahead and played the Director's Cut version instead. I wanted to know why it was so controversial for myself, since such things are often subjective. Personally, I really appreciated the hotspots and allowance for hints. Sometimes, something as simple as a "you shouldn't be here yet" is all I needed to know and saved me from wasting my time. I'm also thankful they removed the random deaths cause frankly I think that stuff is distracting and disrupts the flow of the adventure.

That said, I definitely find the new opening segment with Nico to be rather jarring and after having finished the game I keep asking myself what her portions actually added to the game's story. We're told several times that this is just "something she needs to do" and that "nobody can ever know" so that only stresses the idea that there was no point. It doesn't further explain what Carchon and the others were up to or why they were assassinated, or how they tied into the Neo-Templars plot.

Another thing that bothered me, and this may be present in the original version, is that George and Nico's relationship seems.. awkward, at best. George briefly drops a line near the beginning that he studied law, or something, and he has a sense of *justice* and that's his whole reason for investigating.. but that doesn't really explain why Nico was so readily accepting of his help or why her journal entries would say stuff like "I'm so glad for George's help" when, during conversations, she seems either skeptical or dismissive of the things he says/does. And then for George to get increasingly interested in Nico, despite several times stating it's a working relationship only and there being no real indication she's interested back, and suddenly he starts calling her his girlfriend and is jealous of Andre and such.

I mean, am I missing something or did all that just sorta appear out of nowhere? "Oh, the story's been going for a little while, let's have George suddenly start thinking of her as a love interest." It doesn't feel natural or anything. I recall having a similar feeling about the Secret Files series, as well, which was pretty hamfisted and clunky with its relationship between the protagonists.

As for the game itself, I certainly enjoyed it. It was nice to finally play through it and see what the hubbub had been about, though I suppose it didn't quite live up to the expectations I'd had for it given the way some people seem to revere it. Maybe I've just played too many P&C games that it didn't wow me, or maybe the Director's Cut was too disjointed to really be able to appreciate the writing/gameplay.

I DO know I found myself wanting to scream cause of how slowly Nico and George walk on several occasions. Also, the bible verse puzzle, how did they expect people unfamiliar with the bible to know what to look for? I mean, it took me a moment to figure out what exactly they wanted me to do but I did recognize the names at least. It's just a question that kept bugging me.

I'm not saying I disliked the game or anything, these are just thoughts and feelings that I had while playing.

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Oh, and a short BS2 observation bit I wanted to add so I don't make another post:

I hopped into the second game almost immediately afterwards, and boy howdy does it feel shorter. I only played it for like 2 hours and I'm already like 47% done? Also, Nico's new voice is bothering me a lot, not helped by the whole "sometimes voices are in one ear and sometimes they're in both ears" issue I'm having with the audio which is most likely intentional. Speaking of Nico, she seems to flip flop from being happy to see George to being annoyed with him. One moment she's all "thank you for helping me" and then she's "this better not be a waste of time". Maybe things will smooth out in the second half.

EDIT: Remembered a weird line from BS2 that really bugged me. George said something like "I thought Moue was dead", and for the life of me I can not imagine why he'd have said this. Whenever I went to the police station Moue was there, unless he vanished before we left on the final leg of the journey and I forgot to check, but still.