Conclusion: The first of the series was not as good as it could have been.
There have been many games since that provided an interesting evolution on the formula. Sometimes, just by throwing away needlessly obtuse bits of the original. And only by traveling back do we see: Yeah, it broke a lot of molds. But some of those molds existed for a good reason.
Stopping people from pausing, giving the most obtuse explanations, putting near-invincible enemies so near your starting point - generally not good design steps even when building up something challenging for players.
And worse: Every critique of it had to be filtered through “git gud”. Yes, its push for high difficulty was a good thing for gaming advancement. But people tried to excuse EVERY issue the game had through that filter. A dad that wants to pause the game to care for his crying baby does not need to “git gud”.
Point: The series and genre has evolved
Conclusion: The first of the series was not as good as it could have been.
There have been many games since that provided an interesting evolution on the formula. Sometimes, just by throwing away needlessly obtuse bits of the original. And only by traveling back do we see: Yeah, it broke a lot of molds. But some of those molds existed for a good reason.
Stopping people from pausing, giving the most obtuse explanations, putting near-invincible enemies so near your starting point - generally not good design steps even when building up something challenging for players.
And worse: Every critique of it had to be filtered through “git gud”. Yes, its push for high difficulty was a good thing for gaming advancement. But people tried to excuse EVERY issue the game had through that filter. A dad that wants to pause the game to care for his crying baby does not need to “git gud”.