James O'Brien

8+ years RPG-focused journalism, former print magazine contributor, 200+ long-form reviews and retrospectives

James O'Brien has a simple rule: if a game lets him choose dialogue options, he will play through every branch, even the morally ambiguous ones that make him feel slightly guilty afterwards. He started his career writing long-form RPG retrospectives for a print magazine that has since gone digital-only, and he still approaches each review like a book report — character arcs, world-building consistency, the weight of player choice. James covers everything from sprawling CRPGs with 200-hour completion times to tight 15-hour narrative experiences, and he maintains a running ranking of the best companion characters in gaming history that his colleagues love to argue about over Slack. He firmly believes Mass Effect 2 had the best loyalty missions and nobody will convince him otherwise.