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Huge turn off for me when I realized I'd only be able to see the character I created if I held still for too long. I don't know ANY OTHER game that lets you create a character like that and then they never show them or even give you the option to go into third person to see them that way. The game was fun at the beginning but the longer I played, the more monotonous it became. It feels like the same thing over and over and all the characters are quite dull. If they make a second one, they have some work to do.
The game has its flaws, but it is definitely “must play” for whom are fond of rpg. Solid story, fascinating world, nice characters. The action gameplay is lame, but you’ll get used to it.
I want to be honest. I played this game for 90 minutes, and 90% of this time I was looking for some solution about crashes of game. And apparently because of the current version of the game (v2.51) - game is completely unplayeble.
Red Dead Redemption is a game I always remember. I was a year out of college and sort of didn't know what I was going to do with my life. I remember being down in the dumps a bit living with my roommate in Concord NH. I loved Rockstar games and remembering looking up Red Dead Revolver and it looking like a game I probably wasn't too interested in. I picked up Red Dead being skeptical and it ended up being one of my favorite games. A character you could become obsessed with, John Marston.
Cut to 2019 and Red Dead Redemption has been replaced. That gunslinger I once loved has been replaced by a caring bad guy who is self-aware of the bad deeds he continues to do. He can't help himself and he knows that, which is probably why I love his character so much. With one of the realist villains I can remember with Dutch Van Der Linde and some of the most realistic gameplay in a videogame, I was enamored for 80 plus hours of gameplay.
I can't wait to remember it again.
Cut to 2019 and Red Dead Redemption has been replaced. That gunslinger I once loved has been replaced by a caring bad guy who is self-aware of the bad deeds he continues to do. He can't help himself and he knows that, which is probably why I love his character so much. With one of the realist villains I can remember with Dutch Van Der Linde and some of the most realistic gameplay in a videogame, I was enamored for 80 plus hours of gameplay.
I can't wait to remember it again.
What can I say? I adore this game. The story is phenomenal and just what we need during a time where we are so distant as humans. The twist at the end was unexpected and welcomed, I felt a wave of emotion I wasn't expecting. The gameplay is not for everyone and all I heard going into the game was how much work it was. People saying that the first 5 to 10 hours were grueling. I enjoyed the beginning thoroughly and at a time when the game got more intense, thought back to the days where I was just a porter walking through this painstakingly meticulously beautiful world making my first deliveries.
Yes after the first couple of chapters the game opens up and introduces more familiar mechanics but the walking mechanic is always the star of the show. So much creativity and polish are what I expect from a Kojima game and he didn't let me down. Will go down as one of my favorite games of the decade and a game I will always come back to think about.
Yes after the first couple of chapters the game opens up and introduces more familiar mechanics but the walking mechanic is always the star of the show. So much creativity and polish are what I expect from a Kojima game and he didn't let me down. Will go down as one of my favorite games of the decade and a game I will always come back to think about.
What Fallen Order fails to capture with its polish and overarching gameplay it provides in an engrossing story and enjoyable combat. At about midway through this game, I felt like a Jedi and that's why I was playing to begin with. What I didn't expect was a character I cared about and a story that actually made me want to continue just as much as unlocking the next force power. The game is extremely linear but it makes up for that with a dynamic mix of enemies and ways to attack them.
I think it could have done with more time in the oven as there are a good amount of glitches and bugs that took place through my playthrough but they never prevented me from enjoying myself. I cannot wait to see what Respawn does with this series going forward.
I think it could have done with more time in the oven as there are a good amount of glitches and bugs that took place through my playthrough but they never prevented me from enjoying myself. I cannot wait to see what Respawn does with this series going forward.
A mixed bag, but when it's good, it's highly entertaining. Killing Nazis doesn't get old. There is some real creativity in the story that is immensely entertaining B-grade stuff. The game begins jarringly, with a sadistic set of choices you are forced to make. Thankfully, this stops relatively early on in the game, and the game finds its stride as the Nazi-killing romp begins.
There's no other game like this! Wow!
The Surge is a souls-like with a unique limb-targeting system, but everything else feels bland, slow, or unfair.
It's a shame that The Surge didn't play better, because its high tech industrial world was pretty cool looking, and by the end of the game I was genuinely interested in its intricacies and the story's resolution. The bulk of the gameplay, too, was genuinely good. The exploration was satisfying, the resource management felt good, and the build variety was enough to make me feel like I was doing my own thing.
The bosses, however, were awful. (Which, for this genre, is a deal-breaker.) The whole "target their limbs" stuff worked great, but someone responsible for balancing the game decided to make all bosses deal insane amounts of damage, even if you opt to go for the slow but supposedly sturdy armor. Add on the fact that there were very few actual bosses (maybe 5, if I'm remembering correctly), and it made for a disappointing rather than satisfying feeling every time I encountered and defeated one.
Combat could have been better, but I understand that it may have just been my playstyle (single-rigged weapons) that felt slow and clunky. I did very little experimentation beyond heavy weapons, as that's my preferred weapon type. I never got to max level and likely will never return to see what's behind the literally level-gated content.
Overall, it was worth the price I paid, but it wasn't worth the frustration I put into it.
It's a shame that The Surge didn't play better, because its high tech industrial world was pretty cool looking, and by the end of the game I was genuinely interested in its intricacies and the story's resolution. The bulk of the gameplay, too, was genuinely good. The exploration was satisfying, the resource management felt good, and the build variety was enough to make me feel like I was doing my own thing.
The bosses, however, were awful. (Which, for this genre, is a deal-breaker.) The whole "target their limbs" stuff worked great, but someone responsible for balancing the game decided to make all bosses deal insane amounts of damage, even if you opt to go for the slow but supposedly sturdy armor. Add on the fact that there were very few actual bosses (maybe 5, if I'm remembering correctly), and it made for a disappointing rather than satisfying feeling every time I encountered and defeated one.
Combat could have been better, but I understand that it may have just been my playstyle (single-rigged weapons) that felt slow and clunky. I did very little experimentation beyond heavy weapons, as that's my preferred weapon type. I never got to max level and likely will never return to see what's behind the literally level-gated content.
Overall, it was worth the price I paid, but it wasn't worth the frustration I put into it.
This isn't your typical ARPG. Most modern ARPG's focus on the loot grind and minmaxing a character. Shadows Awakening, however, focuses on its story, for better or for worse.
The story is okay. A lot of the worldbuilding is hidden behind books instead of being out in the open. The characters needed more focus on their relationships with one another, although each of them have their own fleshed out backstory. The story is branching and allows for multiple playthroughs, but I don't know if I could go through another 30 hours of gameplay for those comparatively small changes.
The gameplay is just alright. It uses a system similar to Trine where you can seamlessly switch between four "puppets". As a result, though, it never feels like any one puppet's mechanics are fully fleshed out. The system really shines when you begin combining skills across puppets; I only wish there were more skills that let you transfer buffs across puppets. It supports a variety of playstyles (tank, mage, berserker, archer, etc.) very well.
The inventory management and movement kits, however, are extremely lacking. Moving across maps felt like a slog, even with all the movement speed buffs I could find. The inventory is nothing short of a mess. It helps that you have 100 slots, but keeping track of everything is convoluted, to say the least. Skill trees could have used their own separate UI as well to help give a better sense of progression.
I'm recommending this game because it has consistency in the quality of content it provides and some good handcrafted dungeon design for an ARPG, which is a rarity these days. I did one playthrough (with every single side quest) but don't think I'll do another. I would not recommend this game to anyone looking for an ARPG to grind. There is no endgame to speak of. This is a story focused experience.
The story is okay. A lot of the worldbuilding is hidden behind books instead of being out in the open. The characters needed more focus on their relationships with one another, although each of them have their own fleshed out backstory. The story is branching and allows for multiple playthroughs, but I don't know if I could go through another 30 hours of gameplay for those comparatively small changes.
The gameplay is just alright. It uses a system similar to Trine where you can seamlessly switch between four "puppets". As a result, though, it never feels like any one puppet's mechanics are fully fleshed out. The system really shines when you begin combining skills across puppets; I only wish there were more skills that let you transfer buffs across puppets. It supports a variety of playstyles (tank, mage, berserker, archer, etc.) very well.
The inventory management and movement kits, however, are extremely lacking. Moving across maps felt like a slog, even with all the movement speed buffs I could find. The inventory is nothing short of a mess. It helps that you have 100 slots, but keeping track of everything is convoluted, to say the least. Skill trees could have used their own separate UI as well to help give a better sense of progression.
I'm recommending this game because it has consistency in the quality of content it provides and some good handcrafted dungeon design for an ARPG, which is a rarity these days. I did one playthrough (with every single side quest) but don't think I'll do another. I would not recommend this game to anyone looking for an ARPG to grind. There is no endgame to speak of. This is a story focused experience.
A game that is Wolfenstein in name and in world design, but nothing else. A surface deep-RPG system mars the entire experience.
The idea of co-op Wolfenstein was good, but the implementation could not have been worse. They added a leveling and skill system (literally just increasing your damage by 2% per level) onto The New Order's gameplay, then stripped out everything that made The New Order fun. You replay the same levels over and over, fighting the same enemies in the same placement every time. You fight bullet sponge bosses and enemies that have to be attacked by a specific weapon type (of which only three of your default 8 deal) to deal a significant amount of damage. Difficulty is all over the place, with the game being borderline impossible at stages due to lack of ammo, then being a cakewalk at others due to the revive and "pep" systems.
The only redeemable aspect of this game is the world building. It's got the stellar writing Wolfenstein has always had with loads of alternate history articles, music, tapes, and goodies to dig into. I was going to include the story in this, but the two protagonists, despite being actually well written for a pair of dumb-as-bricks teenagers, ultimately aren't very likable. The story sets up for some potentially very interesting content with multiple realities, apocalyptic doomsday weather machines, and God Keys, but ends before any of these are explored with any depth at all.
The idea of co-op Wolfenstein was good, but the implementation could not have been worse. They added a leveling and skill system (literally just increasing your damage by 2% per level) onto The New Order's gameplay, then stripped out everything that made The New Order fun. You replay the same levels over and over, fighting the same enemies in the same placement every time. You fight bullet sponge bosses and enemies that have to be attacked by a specific weapon type (of which only three of your default 8 deal) to deal a significant amount of damage. Difficulty is all over the place, with the game being borderline impossible at stages due to lack of ammo, then being a cakewalk at others due to the revive and "pep" systems.
The only redeemable aspect of this game is the world building. It's got the stellar writing Wolfenstein has always had with loads of alternate history articles, music, tapes, and goodies to dig into. I was going to include the story in this, but the two protagonists, despite being actually well written for a pair of dumb-as-bricks teenagers, ultimately aren't very likable. The story sets up for some potentially very interesting content with multiple realities, apocalyptic doomsday weather machines, and God Keys, but ends before any of these are explored with any depth at all.
VERY tight and enjoyable gunplay, okay story, and some glaring issues with bugs and the length of the game. There's some unfinished areas of the game that are clearly placeholders for DLC. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I got it on sale.
Darksiders 3 abandons the RPG heavy systems of Darksiders 2 for a souls-like fusion. Fury’s whips are fun to use, have plenty of reach, and somehow work perfectly with this style. You collect souls and use them to level three different stats: Health, Strength, and Arcane. There’s a variety of weapons and enhancements, similar to the original, but you can upgrade enhancements in powerful and varied ways. You get new, elemental weapons throughout the game, each handling differently and enjoyably. The combat is slower paced and more impactful than the original, bearing more similarities with Dark Souls than with God of War. With that comes a heavier emphasis on exploration and discovering resources for upgrades and new enhancements.
The story, which takes place immediately before Darksiders 1, follows Fury on her journey to kill the seven deadly sins on a war-torn earth. Despite the return to Earth, the environments are still varied, intricate, and always provide you something nice to look at.
The dungeon and puzzle design of this entry is the most lacking of the franchise. There’s still dungeons and puzzles, and still some “dungeon treasures”, but they definitely take the back seat to focus on the more methodical combat, exploration, and resource management that Souls titles are known for.
The story, which takes place immediately before Darksiders 1, follows Fury on her journey to kill the seven deadly sins on a war-torn earth. Despite the return to Earth, the environments are still varied, intricate, and always provide you something nice to look at.
The dungeon and puzzle design of this entry is the most lacking of the franchise. There’s still dungeons and puzzles, and still some “dungeon treasures”, but they definitely take the back seat to focus on the more methodical combat, exploration, and resource management that Souls titles are known for.
This small indie game has an extremely short playtime, but is still fun to explore. It also has some great original music, the 3D graphics has a decent art style, the story is completely subjective to each player's interpretation, and there are a good amount of achievements or unlockable cheats for some amount of replayability.
Although, the game doesn't offer enough to get players going back for more, with its limited amount of puzzles. It also needs work in character animations, and there are a small amount of tracks in the game.
To conclude, the game is still a decent title, and probably one of the best games that Coffee Stain North has ever made yet. It's definitely for people into games that don't have a conclusive story, speedrunners, or just someone looking for good indie games.
«Underrated»
«Beaten more than once»
An old game that has a decent community playing it to this day. The amount of content for a single-player session is as good enough as it is playing multiplayer. The modes offer player choice with different classes and vehicles, the music is not originally produced for the game but still fits well for the game, and the voice performance for the clone troopers are great!
However, the game does have some clipping issues when playing as characters with large guns that you hold on your shoulder. In addition, the current state of its multiplayer mode on PC is pretty difficult to find a sizeable server. And the PC controls can be slightly different for experience FPS gamers of other titles like Call of Duty.
Putting the flaws aside, this game is still a fun game to play. It's great with some friends, the in-game content is completely satisfying, and the game is best for Star Wars fans or even FPS players.
«Beaten more than once»
The game is an enjoyable collect-a-thon made with adorable 3D graphics and amazing 2D artwork. The music is catchy and fits each level incredibly well, and the voice actors do a great job portraying their roles. The story is very basic, but it works exceptionally well just to direct the player in the game.
This game is great, but I have some issues with it. The plot is fine, but most of the levels are made as separate stories instead of pieces to the puzzle that is the entire story. And to further add into this point, the main villain is not even present most of the time, which makes her development weak. Finally, the game alone is also very easy and doesn't offer enough replayability except to explore the worlds and play the campaign.
All in all, it's a fun indie game for anyone interested in platformers, and it's for all ages.
«Can’t stop playing»
Warframe's gameplay is smooth as hell, but that's not enough to make up for its shortcomings in pretty much every other area. Forced wait times to "build" items, unlocks and quests requiring you to grind out repretitive missions, its murky UI, and its progression system all could have been hand-waved away if it weren't for the final wall to your progression: a pitifully low inventory limit that requires you to use the game's premium currency (purchasable only with real money) to increase it.
Despite being an ARPG from the same era as Diablo 3, Torchlight II provides a fairly different experience. The game shines in its build variety, procedural and hand-crafted levels alike, and is enriched by its modding scene. There's not a feature in the game that can't be changed to your liking through the use of mods: extra areas of the game, extra classes and skills, more gear and cosmetics, more and varied monsters, etc.
The biggest flaw of Torchlight II, however, is its boss fights. They are dreadfully long depending on the difficulty you select and your build. The endgame is also a bit sparse in the absence of mods, and the legendary gear in the base game pales in comparison to the legendary gear of Diablo 3.
Overall, it's an enjoyable game that has plenty of replay value with mods. Plus, it has near flawless multiplayer integration of both mods and the base game. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good, old-fashioned ARPG to play, but not for anyone looking for more of Diablo 3's arcade-like end-game experience. This game shines with its mods and in trying different builds, not with its endgame.
The biggest flaw of Torchlight II, however, is its boss fights. They are dreadfully long depending on the difficulty you select and your build. The endgame is also a bit sparse in the absence of mods, and the legendary gear in the base game pales in comparison to the legendary gear of Diablo 3.
Overall, it's an enjoyable game that has plenty of replay value with mods. Plus, it has near flawless multiplayer integration of both mods and the base game. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good, old-fashioned ARPG to play, but not for anyone looking for more of Diablo 3's arcade-like end-game experience. This game shines with its mods and in trying different builds, not with its endgame.
Why Diablo 2 is Not A Good Game (and never was)
I know how that title sounds. It’s both a bold and a wildly unpopular opinion. But hear me out. One day in Hell difficulty, I thought "Why?" What was the point? There was no content I hadn't unlocked yet, no story left to experience, no setpieces remaining. Not even gameplay. The only thing I had to look forward to was killing things slightly faster, doing the same thing I was but more efficiently. I decided that once I defeated the final boss on the hardest difficulty, I wouldn’t play the game any further. If it weren’t for my small party of friends playing together, I would have instead dropped it after Nightmare difficulty, because the gameplay only gets worse from there.
You know what else released in 2000? Deus Ex, Counter Strike, Majora’s Mask, Tony Hawk 2, The Sims, FFIX, Paper Mario, Mario Tennis, Mario Party 3, Kirby 64, Banjo Tooie, Thief 2, Spyro, Jet Set Radio, Perfect Dark, and Baldur’s Gate II. This is a seemingly insane line-up of genre defining titles and cult classics. Go back and look at the visual design, gameplay, and clarity present in some of these games. Mario Tennis had fast-paced smooth gameplay, Kirby 64 had adorable animations and great visual clarity, Mario Party 3 had a brilliant control scheme that supported 4 players at once, Banjo-Tooie and Spyro featured satisfying platforming, Jet Set Radio had fast-paced arcade-like action. Hitman, Thief, and Deus Ex featured branching gameplay systems as well as impressive visual design.
And then there’s Diablo 2. It ran in a glorious 480p, but somehow looked worse than just about every other game that was released alongside it. Poor visual clarity is largely due to the attempt to make it “realistic”, but the shortcomings of Diablo 2’s visuals don’t stop there. Animation quality is awful with no impact and very little meaningful information communicated. Text is often unreadable. It is impossible to discern what is going on in busy encounters. UI design is extremely claustrophobic. Brightness ranges from eye-strainingly dark to blindingly bright. Some zone transitions get completely missed because they blend in with the drab color pallet.
Part of this is attributed to Blizzard chasing the success of Diablo 1. D2 came out only 2 years after the original, so there wasn’t a lot of dev time to innovate and make something meaningfully better than Diablo 1. Part of it is also attributed to the genre lacking any real conventions and best practices. The thing is, Diablo 2 didn’t establish any best practices. Rather, it was a case study in what to do differently in RPG’s moving forward. For example, potion economy, the wording of gear, attack rating and defense rating, control scheme, 2-skill limit, movement, item drops, skill trees and synergies, difficulty levels, damage immunities, procedural generation, life recovery, mana burn, keys, item rarity, trading/economy, UI, inventory management, and charms are all things that Diablo 2 got wrong, and that every ARPG has done differently since. For the things Diablo 2 got right, it did VERY right. Gear was impactful, runewords were really cool, and named enemies and unique bosses required careful attention. It’s a wonder that runewords have never found their way into a more modern title.
Some people say Diablo 2 has merit for its atmosphere and story. As far as atmosphere is concerned, Diablo 2 destroys any hope it had of maintaining its bleak atmosphere by making pretty much everything a nondescript blur. The remaster does wonders for this, restoring the grounded feeling the original was meant to have had. Storywise, the game is full of exposition dumps. Each act has a pretty cutscene that helps connect things together, but the story largely relies on Diablo 1 as a base, and suffers for it. At the very least, it did help hype up the act bosses and make them more meaningful encounters.
Diablo 2 is a cult-classic. It appeals to a very select group of people for a very specific reason. Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe there’s some appeal to the clunky systems, or maybe the loot grind is just cathartic and mindless and that’s all that matters. In any case, there are better alternatives to Diablo 2, especially for those new to the genre. Torchlight, Path of Exile, Diablo 3, Grim Dawn, Van Helsing, Warhammer 40k Inquisitor, and Titan Quest all offer more refined experiences than D2.
I know how that title sounds. It’s both a bold and a wildly unpopular opinion. But hear me out. One day in Hell difficulty, I thought "Why?" What was the point? There was no content I hadn't unlocked yet, no story left to experience, no setpieces remaining. Not even gameplay. The only thing I had to look forward to was killing things slightly faster, doing the same thing I was but more efficiently. I decided that once I defeated the final boss on the hardest difficulty, I wouldn’t play the game any further. If it weren’t for my small party of friends playing together, I would have instead dropped it after Nightmare difficulty, because the gameplay only gets worse from there.
You know what else released in 2000? Deus Ex, Counter Strike, Majora’s Mask, Tony Hawk 2, The Sims, FFIX, Paper Mario, Mario Tennis, Mario Party 3, Kirby 64, Banjo Tooie, Thief 2, Spyro, Jet Set Radio, Perfect Dark, and Baldur’s Gate II. This is a seemingly insane line-up of genre defining titles and cult classics. Go back and look at the visual design, gameplay, and clarity present in some of these games. Mario Tennis had fast-paced smooth gameplay, Kirby 64 had adorable animations and great visual clarity, Mario Party 3 had a brilliant control scheme that supported 4 players at once, Banjo-Tooie and Spyro featured satisfying platforming, Jet Set Radio had fast-paced arcade-like action. Hitman, Thief, and Deus Ex featured branching gameplay systems as well as impressive visual design.
And then there’s Diablo 2. It ran in a glorious 480p, but somehow looked worse than just about every other game that was released alongside it. Poor visual clarity is largely due to the attempt to make it “realistic”, but the shortcomings of Diablo 2’s visuals don’t stop there. Animation quality is awful with no impact and very little meaningful information communicated. Text is often unreadable. It is impossible to discern what is going on in busy encounters. UI design is extremely claustrophobic. Brightness ranges from eye-strainingly dark to blindingly bright. Some zone transitions get completely missed because they blend in with the drab color pallet.
Part of this is attributed to Blizzard chasing the success of Diablo 1. D2 came out only 2 years after the original, so there wasn’t a lot of dev time to innovate and make something meaningfully better than Diablo 1. Part of it is also attributed to the genre lacking any real conventions and best practices. The thing is, Diablo 2 didn’t establish any best practices. Rather, it was a case study in what to do differently in RPG’s moving forward. For example, potion economy, the wording of gear, attack rating and defense rating, control scheme, 2-skill limit, movement, item drops, skill trees and synergies, difficulty levels, damage immunities, procedural generation, life recovery, mana burn, keys, item rarity, trading/economy, UI, inventory management, and charms are all things that Diablo 2 got wrong, and that every ARPG has done differently since. For the things Diablo 2 got right, it did VERY right. Gear was impactful, runewords were really cool, and named enemies and unique bosses required careful attention. It’s a wonder that runewords have never found their way into a more modern title.
Some people say Diablo 2 has merit for its atmosphere and story. As far as atmosphere is concerned, Diablo 2 destroys any hope it had of maintaining its bleak atmosphere by making pretty much everything a nondescript blur. The remaster does wonders for this, restoring the grounded feeling the original was meant to have had. Storywise, the game is full of exposition dumps. Each act has a pretty cutscene that helps connect things together, but the story largely relies on Diablo 1 as a base, and suffers for it. At the very least, it did help hype up the act bosses and make them more meaningful encounters.
Diablo 2 is a cult-classic. It appeals to a very select group of people for a very specific reason. Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe there’s some appeal to the clunky systems, or maybe the loot grind is just cathartic and mindless and that’s all that matters. In any case, there are better alternatives to Diablo 2, especially for those new to the genre. Torchlight, Path of Exile, Diablo 3, Grim Dawn, Van Helsing, Warhammer 40k Inquisitor, and Titan Quest all offer more refined experiences than D2.