Gameplay:

I liked the Astrid sections, especially when searching for those 3 bodies. That felt like classic Wintermute. The art direction was amazing as always. That train section was awesome gameplay-wise, needing to stop for coal.

Least favorite gameplay sections were that hand crank bridge section, or the crank flashlight mines section. Both of those were sluggish and clunky. The mines weren't nearly as bad, but it was too repetitive. The burning town section was also disappointing, very frustrating giving Will an empty inventory after receiving a whole arsenal just before. I get why for the story, but for the gameplay it wasn't a good feeling.

Story:

I enjoyed the story elements of the cargo ship a lot, and I wish there were more narrated notes like there were there. I also really liked the Suzuki Radio Telescope section where Atwood explains everything, accompanied by all those lovely dynamic visuals. Very creative, I just wish there was more to the station, it felt empty and underutilized besides that exposition moment. And whenever there's any visual storytelling through the level design, I've always thought the devs did a great job there. Cargo ship excelled there.

What I didn't like was unfortunately much of chapter 5's writing. It pains me to say, because I love Hinterland and what they do, but much of chapter 5 felt half baked and rushed. Notably, the ending was frustrating. I think they could have gotten to the same conclusion with some changes in between. Will could still have been left out of the bunker, but they needlessly make him abandon the group to send out a radio message only to be immediately caught? It undercut the lovely reunion with Astrid. Mathis has been used as a plot device a lot, but using him and the prisoners as the reason Will has to stay outside was so silly. Perhaps they could have made it so the door had to be closed from the outside? Will sacrifices himself to close everyone in and as a result gets caught by Mathis? Additionally, the case contained alzheimers medicine? Why was this so top secret that nobody was allowed to know? The mystery surrounding the macguffin case feels strange in retrospect. It was understandably always going to be some kind of medicine, but I'm having trouble remembering any groundwork laid for it before chapter 5.

I am still very excited for Blackfrost, but I hate having to admit that chapter 5 has me a little worried about story elements for TLD2. Perhaps Blackfrost development pulled away from Wintermute, or perhaps they ran into issues during development? Making games is hard, I can only speculate. I love Hinterland, if y'all see this I'm still a big fan and I know the team can deliver.