I recently took a chance on Redacted because I saw a youtube review and it looked like sci-fi Hades. And honestly the gameplay is fine but the announcer making already dated pop culture references and being unfunnily snarky turned me off so much that I refunded it at around 90 minutes in.
It basically is Hades some minor mechanics tweaks, slightly less open environments and a "rivals" mechanic that adds another layer of both strategy and randomness to each run.
I didn't hate it but nothing was so good that I didn't uninstall after the announcer said "this isn't barney the dinosaur" after I died to the level boss.
Game link here if anyone has a stronger stomach for that stuff than I do: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2229940/REDACTED/
The Joss Whedon-style of writing has destroyed pop culture writing for at least a generation or two. Nothing can be taken seriously, everyone has to be snarky and quippy as trailer-bait. Nothing can ever be emotional or authentic, everything reduced down to the soy-mouth, pointing finger JPEG.
what's amazing is I recently rewatched Firefly and it still holds up, despite all the movies and shows ripping off its humor lately. Not only is the show funny, but the emotional moments are still very impactful.
they are all trying to be Joss Whedon, and failing miserably.
This part at the start of Serenity is worth highlighting. The character makes a smartass retort because he wants to undermine the moment for his own self-interest, but the punchline is the escalation.