SLAMTUCKER
87 reviews liked by SLAMTUCKER
Granblue Fantasy: Refund
I hate this game. I thought I hated BOTW but apparently I don't because this game proved to me it could have been so much worse.
I hate the combat, it's spammy, tedious, there's still no weapon variety.
I dislike shrines, they're generally better in this game but not by enough for me to be okay with them.
But that's not why I hate it since those were things that were in BOTW.
I despise the rune abilities. Having to contort your fingers in such a specific way every minute and a half to use basic, essential mechanics makes for an unfun experience AT BEST. But it got to the point where playing for more than an hour made my hands physically hurt with better no alternative control scheme. Dogshit.
I hate the open world. There's nothing to do and there's no direction for where to go. BOTW is a game that prided itself in letting you go where you want when you want but this game decided it didn't want to do that. I was five hours in, went slightly south of the starting town, and found black enemies that just oneshot. No direction for where I'm 'supposed' to go in a game that clearly wants to you to go a certain way. Dogshit.
But that's still wasn't my breaking point. My breaking point was venturing through the snow and finally going to a shrine to get my 4th light of blessing to get a new heart container. But the shrines was a tutorial. An annoying tutorial that I was forced to do in a such a specific way otherwise it failed me. A tutorial for a mechanic it ALREADY TAUGHT ME in the sky islands. And it locked a light of blessing behind it. Dogshit.
I hate what this game stands for. We'll probably never get a legit old format mainline Zelda game at least for a long time at best, maybe never at all. One of my favorite franchises is dead to me. And there's nothing I can fucking do about it.
I hate the combat, it's spammy, tedious, there's still no weapon variety.
I dislike shrines, they're generally better in this game but not by enough for me to be okay with them.
But that's not why I hate it since those were things that were in BOTW.
I despise the rune abilities. Having to contort your fingers in such a specific way every minute and a half to use basic, essential mechanics makes for an unfun experience AT BEST. But it got to the point where playing for more than an hour made my hands physically hurt with better no alternative control scheme. Dogshit.
I hate the open world. There's nothing to do and there's no direction for where to go. BOTW is a game that prided itself in letting you go where you want when you want but this game decided it didn't want to do that. I was five hours in, went slightly south of the starting town, and found black enemies that just oneshot. No direction for where I'm 'supposed' to go in a game that clearly wants to you to go a certain way. Dogshit.
But that's still wasn't my breaking point. My breaking point was venturing through the snow and finally going to a shrine to get my 4th light of blessing to get a new heart container. But the shrines was a tutorial. An annoying tutorial that I was forced to do in a such a specific way otherwise it failed me. A tutorial for a mechanic it ALREADY TAUGHT ME in the sky islands. And it locked a light of blessing behind it. Dogshit.
I hate what this game stands for. We'll probably never get a legit old format mainline Zelda game at least for a long time at best, maybe never at all. One of my favorite franchises is dead to me. And there's nothing I can fucking do about it.
Lords of the Fallen
2023
I hated this game from start to finish. But I couldn't leave the game unfinished. The movement, the overwhelming amount of enemies, the bad level design, and overall clunky feel of the game. The only thing this game had going for it was the graphic fidelity.
Gank DOES NOT EQUAL difficult
So glad to be done with it.
Gank DOES NOT EQUAL difficult
So glad to be done with it.
Lords of the Fallen
2023
I've beaten almost every single major souls-like release since 2015, i've made it a point to play one new souls-like (made by fromsoft or not) a year.
Lords of the Fallen is the only one I'm actively dropping, because of three reasons:
1. Confusing areas
I think most of my time in the game was spent actually trying to figure out where the fuck to go because the game does not give you many clues or hints as to where the fuck you are. Almost every single fast-travel system in souls-likes have features in place where it'll allow the player to know where they're going such as the location name or the region it's in. Lords of the Fallen does not do that. It instead has separate names for each bonfire that doesn't tell you where exactly it is, you just gotta go by the image to really know where you are.
2. Enemy and Boss design
The one thing a souls-like has to nail is this and quite frankly, Lords of the Fallen falls flat on its ass. Enemies are either laughably easy, mildly annoying or just flat out boring to fight. There's been numerous times where I've audibly said "Oh god, not that guy..." when I saw an elite enemy. I didn't say it because it'd be hard, I said it because I had literally just fought two others of the same kind and I'm sick and tired of it.
Bosses aren't much better either. May get better down the line but from where I got to, they were either dumb gimmick fights or just super predictable.
3. UI Design
It's 2023 and I do not know why the UI in Lords of the Fallen is so annoying to use. You have a literal legion of games to look at when it comes to designing your UI and you went for one that's trying to give you information in the most clunky and vague way possible.
Fuck this game, fuck CI games, Imma go play Lies of P instead.
Lords of the Fallen is the only one I'm actively dropping, because of three reasons:
1. Confusing areas
I think most of my time in the game was spent actually trying to figure out where the fuck to go because the game does not give you many clues or hints as to where the fuck you are. Almost every single fast-travel system in souls-likes have features in place where it'll allow the player to know where they're going such as the location name or the region it's in. Lords of the Fallen does not do that. It instead has separate names for each bonfire that doesn't tell you where exactly it is, you just gotta go by the image to really know where you are.
2. Enemy and Boss design
The one thing a souls-like has to nail is this and quite frankly, Lords of the Fallen falls flat on its ass. Enemies are either laughably easy, mildly annoying or just flat out boring to fight. There's been numerous times where I've audibly said "Oh god, not that guy..." when I saw an elite enemy. I didn't say it because it'd be hard, I said it because I had literally just fought two others of the same kind and I'm sick and tired of it.
Bosses aren't much better either. May get better down the line but from where I got to, they were either dumb gimmick fights or just super predictable.
3. UI Design
It's 2023 and I do not know why the UI in Lords of the Fallen is so annoying to use. You have a literal legion of games to look at when it comes to designing your UI and you went for one that's trying to give you information in the most clunky and vague way possible.
Fuck this game, fuck CI games, Imma go play Lies of P instead.
Starfield
2023
They really took that AMD partnership seriously with how shitty the performance on Nvidia is, huh.
Anyway, literally in the first minutes of the game:
You meet nonchalant Barrett, who's just arrived and is going to give you his ship. But he doesn't tell that space pirates were actually following him
Yara yara dialogue, and then the pirates ship appear
Barrett: "I REALLY thought I lost them..."
Supervisor Lin: (angry) Barrett!
Pirate ship start landing
Supervisor Lin: "Weapons! Everybody get ready!"
A gunfight starts between your people and the pirates
You kill them, they kill a few of yours
Supervisor Lin: "Of course Barrett was being followed... Every. Time."
Barrett: (all happy and smiling) "Now that was some fine work under pressure."
Barrett goes on being cheeky and cracking jokes like nothing happened
...
I guess he doesn't care that he just got a bunch of people killed? LMAO.
I know I'm being a little bit of a cunt, but come on... it's the very first minutes. Bethesda writing, baby!
Game's feeling really boring atm. Doesn't do anything better than the games they're trying to copy. What's the point of the spaceship if I'm going to fast travel everywhere I go? And what the FUCK is that map? It actually does a disservice to the player by existing. How come Skyrim, a game that came out in 2011(!), has a better map? This doesn't feel like a game that's been in development 8 years.
I'm going to try it again in a year or so... or whenever the modders finish its development.
Anyway, literally in the first minutes of the game:
You meet nonchalant Barrett, who's just arrived and is going to give you his ship. But he doesn't tell that space pirates were actually following him
Yara yara dialogue, and then the pirates ship appear
Barrett: "I REALLY thought I lost them..."
Supervisor Lin: (angry) Barrett!
Pirate ship start landing
Supervisor Lin: "Weapons! Everybody get ready!"
A gunfight starts between your people and the pirates
You kill them, they kill a few of yours
Supervisor Lin: "Of course Barrett was being followed... Every. Time."
Barrett: (all happy and smiling) "Now that was some fine work under pressure."
Barrett goes on being cheeky and cracking jokes like nothing happened
...
I guess he doesn't care that he just got a bunch of people killed? LMAO.
I know I'm being a little bit of a cunt, but come on... it's the very first minutes. Bethesda writing, baby!
Game's feeling really boring atm. Doesn't do anything better than the games they're trying to copy. What's the point of the spaceship if I'm going to fast travel everywhere I go? And what the FUCK is that map? It actually does a disservice to the player by existing. How come Skyrim, a game that came out in 2011(!), has a better map? This doesn't feel like a game that's been in development 8 years.
I'm going to try it again in a year or so... or whenever the modders finish its development.
From the ashes of tacked-on RPG mechanics, skinner box checklists and crappy open worlds, From Software single-handedly resurrected the AAA action game.
It's no secret that From Software have become very influential in the gaming industry as of late. So much that it appears that most other large developers have come to rely on Fromsoft for guidance, using games such as Dark Souls and Sekiro as blueprints for action game design. While these games are also great, and developers have taken some good from them, it feels like the wrong lessons have been learned. The gaming scene, both in the indie and big-budget spaces, has been hit with a plethora of games with overly-reactive combat systems, to the point where once refreshing mechanics such as iframe dodge rolls and parrying have become homogenised and stale, combat mechanics becoming little more than Simon Says with extra steps.
Maybe it's poetic then that Fromsoft have had to come in to set game design on the right path again with Armored Core VI - a game that's both fast-paced and more proactive than it is reactive, to remind the gaming industry that action games have progressed beyond Punch Out. Furthermore, it's just so refreshing to play a new "big release" game in a year full of "big releases" that isn't either some 200,000 hour long open world RPG schlock or another damn remake.
My gushing and hot takes aside, for context I should mention that this is my first Armored Core game. I was meaning to play the original Armored Core game this month before the release of AC:VI, but sadly a mix of real life obligations and other games in my backlog got in the way of that. Regardless, I went into AC:VI with as open a mind as possible, not really knowing what to expect, especially after my disappointment with last year's Elden Ring.
The chapter 1 missions start off pretty simple and slow but it's not long until the setpieces and boss fights come at you hard and fast, carried further by the excellent environmental design and incredibly impactful sound design that has become second nature to the studio at this point. I was hooked as soon as I realised how much potential there is for aerial maneuvers and complex movement to outpace your enemies. It is true that most enemies you encounter are small fry who don't pose a real threat to your massive AC unit, but the people complaining about this are missing the forest for the trees. This is ultimately a mech game, and mech games need small fry enemies to sell the power fantasy, which ACVI does very well.
The more threatening foes and boss fights do indeed pack a punch, but the key difference from most other action games in recent memory is that you determine the pace of the battle here. Your build matters. Your movements matter. your attack combinations matter. I loved the lightning-fast pace of the duels against other ACs in particular, and throughout my playthrough I was reminded of 6DOF shooters which are another niche I have a soft spot for, especially the unfortunately dead and criminally overlooked Strike Vector. My favourite part of the game in my first playthrough were chapters 3 and 4. These chapters are a roller coaster from start to finish and it's where you finally have enough funds for the customisation and experimentation with different builds to truly come together.
The customisation aspect is another key part of the gameplay that pleasantly surprised me. Although I do like mech games on the whole, most of the mech games I play have either nonexistent or pretty minimal customisation, and my negative experiences with the agonisingly slow Mechwarrior games made me worried that the customisation would put me off.
The customisation is both varied and snappy in pace. You can refund any kit you purchase for the full price so experimentation is encouraged. Although the overall weapon balancing isn't the best (I'll get to that later), there's an impressive variety of builds and mech types here, from nimble glass cannon reverse-joint mechs to hovering, sniping quadripeds to big dumb missile-spamming tanks, and all the archetypes feel good to play around with in the training room and arena. I must have spent at least two and a half hours of my first playthrough designing several mechs which look vaguely like touhou characters lol. I've heard that some staples of customisation in previous AC games were removed here so that makes me even more interested in checking the previous entries out.
I'm not going to go into the details of the story, but I like how it's presented. Although there's no real "characters" as such, with everyone just being voices that you hear, there's a super immersive quality to the UI and just the way that the game presents information to the player through regular update messages and mission briefings. Some of the later plot moments and conversations even manage to feel a bit sentimental which is impressive given the limitations of the storytelling format. Honestly it also feels nice to finally play a modern Fromsoft game with a straightforward narrative that doesn't require a youtuber-bait "deep lore" rabbit hole to be enjoyed or even understood.
So while I gave this game a "perfect" (doesn't actually mean perfect) 5 star rating, I do have some gripes here, but nothing too major. The lack of a fastfall is noticeable - the fact that you fall so slowly is odd given that the rest of the movement is super fast and responsive. I wish there was some form of HUD customisation. The option to remove hard lock-ons should have been available from the very start. While the soundtrack is growing on me and I like it more than I did at first, I have heard some songs from previous AC games and they seem better overall than this. Although the stagger system does a good job at giving the combat a much needed sense of ebb and flow, its effects are overtuned, practically making burst damage a necessity against certain bosses, and discouraging long-range combat too much for a mech game. Although ACVI handles cooldowns better than most others, I am still largely against cooldowns in principle when it comes to action games due to slowing down the gameplay. I just think that this game could have had even higher highs and even more spectacular boss fights without such limitations. Although ACVI is absolutely not a soulslike in any way, Fromsoft's recent games have undeniably had their influence on this game, mostly for good, but I feel like mechanics such as weapon cooldowns come from still being stuck in an "action RPG" mindset as opposed to a "mecha action" mindset.
I've been blown away by the Fires of Rubicon, assimilated into the coral hivemind of the AC fanbase. This game is a blast and I'm definitely excited to complete my NG+/NG++ playthroughs and try out other games in this overlooked series.
It's no secret that From Software have become very influential in the gaming industry as of late. So much that it appears that most other large developers have come to rely on Fromsoft for guidance, using games such as Dark Souls and Sekiro as blueprints for action game design. While these games are also great, and developers have taken some good from them, it feels like the wrong lessons have been learned. The gaming scene, both in the indie and big-budget spaces, has been hit with a plethora of games with overly-reactive combat systems, to the point where once refreshing mechanics such as iframe dodge rolls and parrying have become homogenised and stale, combat mechanics becoming little more than Simon Says with extra steps.
Maybe it's poetic then that Fromsoft have had to come in to set game design on the right path again with Armored Core VI - a game that's both fast-paced and more proactive than it is reactive, to remind the gaming industry that action games have progressed beyond Punch Out. Furthermore, it's just so refreshing to play a new "big release" game in a year full of "big releases" that isn't either some 200,000 hour long open world RPG schlock or another damn remake.
My gushing and hot takes aside, for context I should mention that this is my first Armored Core game. I was meaning to play the original Armored Core game this month before the release of AC:VI, but sadly a mix of real life obligations and other games in my backlog got in the way of that. Regardless, I went into AC:VI with as open a mind as possible, not really knowing what to expect, especially after my disappointment with last year's Elden Ring.
The chapter 1 missions start off pretty simple and slow but it's not long until the setpieces and boss fights come at you hard and fast, carried further by the excellent environmental design and incredibly impactful sound design that has become second nature to the studio at this point. I was hooked as soon as I realised how much potential there is for aerial maneuvers and complex movement to outpace your enemies. It is true that most enemies you encounter are small fry who don't pose a real threat to your massive AC unit, but the people complaining about this are missing the forest for the trees. This is ultimately a mech game, and mech games need small fry enemies to sell the power fantasy, which ACVI does very well.
The more threatening foes and boss fights do indeed pack a punch, but the key difference from most other action games in recent memory is that you determine the pace of the battle here. Your build matters. Your movements matter. your attack combinations matter. I loved the lightning-fast pace of the duels against other ACs in particular, and throughout my playthrough I was reminded of 6DOF shooters which are another niche I have a soft spot for, especially the unfortunately dead and criminally overlooked Strike Vector. My favourite part of the game in my first playthrough were chapters 3 and 4. These chapters are a roller coaster from start to finish and it's where you finally have enough funds for the customisation and experimentation with different builds to truly come together.
The customisation aspect is another key part of the gameplay that pleasantly surprised me. Although I do like mech games on the whole, most of the mech games I play have either nonexistent or pretty minimal customisation, and my negative experiences with the agonisingly slow Mechwarrior games made me worried that the customisation would put me off.
The customisation is both varied and snappy in pace. You can refund any kit you purchase for the full price so experimentation is encouraged. Although the overall weapon balancing isn't the best (I'll get to that later), there's an impressive variety of builds and mech types here, from nimble glass cannon reverse-joint mechs to hovering, sniping quadripeds to big dumb missile-spamming tanks, and all the archetypes feel good to play around with in the training room and arena. I must have spent at least two and a half hours of my first playthrough designing several mechs which look vaguely like touhou characters lol. I've heard that some staples of customisation in previous AC games were removed here so that makes me even more interested in checking the previous entries out.
I'm not going to go into the details of the story, but I like how it's presented. Although there's no real "characters" as such, with everyone just being voices that you hear, there's a super immersive quality to the UI and just the way that the game presents information to the player through regular update messages and mission briefings. Some of the later plot moments and conversations even manage to feel a bit sentimental which is impressive given the limitations of the storytelling format. Honestly it also feels nice to finally play a modern Fromsoft game with a straightforward narrative that doesn't require a youtuber-bait "deep lore" rabbit hole to be enjoyed or even understood.
So while I gave this game a "perfect" (doesn't actually mean perfect) 5 star rating, I do have some gripes here, but nothing too major. The lack of a fastfall is noticeable - the fact that you fall so slowly is odd given that the rest of the movement is super fast and responsive. I wish there was some form of HUD customisation. The option to remove hard lock-ons should have been available from the very start. While the soundtrack is growing on me and I like it more than I did at first, I have heard some songs from previous AC games and they seem better overall than this. Although the stagger system does a good job at giving the combat a much needed sense of ebb and flow, its effects are overtuned, practically making burst damage a necessity against certain bosses, and discouraging long-range combat too much for a mech game. Although ACVI handles cooldowns better than most others, I am still largely against cooldowns in principle when it comes to action games due to slowing down the gameplay. I just think that this game could have had even higher highs and even more spectacular boss fights without such limitations. Although ACVI is absolutely not a soulslike in any way, Fromsoft's recent games have undeniably had their influence on this game, mostly for good, but I feel like mechanics such as weapon cooldowns come from still being stuck in an "action RPG" mindset as opposed to a "mecha action" mindset.
I've been blown away by the Fires of Rubicon, assimilated into the coral hivemind of the AC fanbase. This game is a blast and I'm definitely excited to complete my NG+/NG++ playthroughs and try out other games in this overlooked series.
A Phenomenal experience
I won’t say I am the biggest AC fan having played multiple titles but never really diving deep into them. I will say though I really did enjoy my time with AC4 and For Answer so I was excited for 6 to finally release. It is with no shocker that fromsoft has once again knocked it out of the park with AC6 this game was so well made and such a blast to playthrough.
This isn’t elden ring 2?!?!?!
My lord when I say I am appalled by new fans I mean it when I say I am truly baffled by the early reception the game got. On launch I couldn’t go 2 minutes without someone saying “WheRe is EldEn RinG 2??” or “LorD THiS iS Like A sOUlS game” and it was painful. It’s truly amazing to see people realize that yes……… they make more than souls games LOL. On the other hand I see a lot of people complain that this is like a souls game or that this is a hard game which to that I say…… Did you play any other AC games?????????? The series is not a walk in the park lol. Yes this game has challenging bosses but you have to understand you are struggling because you are not changing your loadout and trying new things on top of learning enemy attack patterns. This game was not THAT hard, it does provide a good challenge but do not listen to anyone when they say this is the hardest game ever. Hell, I can’t even beat sekiro to this day and people want to claim this is the hardest game LOL.
Is this a true armored core game?
As well as new fans I have also seen vets complain about how this isn’t the AC they wanted or how this isn’t a AC game at all. Yes AC6 has some changes like No more maps in missions , a perm stat boost leveling system like an RPG, no radar etc etc. Honestly though, these seem more like nitpicks and forced reasons to hate the game because most of the complaints are really things you can live without in this game. It is still an AC game to its core from its fast paced action to its amazing customization. You all need to just enjoy things more rather than cling to past titles. It is evident they are trying to really change this series up with 6 and honestly I think they really nailed it. Yes there are healthpack like flasks from souls games , checkpoints that allow you to change your whole AC on the fly if you feel stuck and hell you even get a refill on your ammo with checkpoints but is that really bad??? Because they are trying to change the formula it all of the sudden makes the game not AC at all?? Idk this is more of an opinion thing I just don’t really understand why some Veteran players find some of these things an issue if anything I am glad a lot of the stuff has changed.
Finally lets talk about the game
To begin , the story is good enough, I honestly didn’t really find it memorable but tbh I don’t play AC games for the story. What I play the series for is very much still amazing and even more fun now imo. AC6 leans for a more heavy dodge battling system really relying on you to fly mid air and dodge enemy attacks which I have always enjoyed in mech games. I find it more fun and engaging, making me really never stop to breathe during boss fights which are pretty darn challenging. Furthermore , there are so many weapons and armor pieces to choose from giving you an immense amount of builds you can think of to tackle down the content and NG+. To elaborate, I am not the biggest class builder I am usually pretty bad at creating things but I actually spent a good amount of time making my own builds in AC6 and it made me proud. As mentioned before there is a new RPG perm stat system in which you earn a side currency which is pretty much attribute points that you buy upgrades with. In addition, you can buy activation skills that allow you to get hero-like skills. For example, There is a skill that once used throws a bubble AOE around you hitting enemies within range or another skill which grants you a shield for a short amount of time. This system can actually be very crucial as it can heavily upgrade your build depending on what weapons you want to use so you have to really think hard about where you put these points into. Furthermore , you earn these points through a mode called arena which is a 1V1 against a Bot enemy. Honestly the arena was a letdown as there was never any challenge in any of the fights, I breezed through them all once I finished my build. In the end I like this system as it gives even more purpose to specific builds you go for. AC6 is a blast and the combat is consistently engaging and so addicting you will want to keep playing more and more and more.
Bosses
The hot topic when it comes to AC6 currently are the bosses and more specifically the infamous first chapter boss. Bosses in AC6 provided a good challenge but I still believe people are blowing the difficulty wayyyyy to out of proportion. AC is a series where you need to think about how you want to tackle specific things which in AC6’s case are bosses. This is crucial because you really need to think about what weapons to bring and not only how to dodge stuff. If you understand this it will make the bosses a lot more tolerable and very beatable. Furthermore, the bosses overall are great and all are designed very well besides one specific boss that I won’t get into for the sake of wanting people to experience things as fresh as possible.
PVP
One of the things I was most excited about was the PVP in AC6 and sadly it did let me down. While the core PVP gameplay loop is very fun and probably what I will be playing a lot of it feels extremely bare bones. To explain , there isn’t any PVP progression or hell even a Matchmaking system to boot. The only way to play is through custom lobbies which can be a hassle since there are a lot of times where I sit refreshing the room lists because I keep trying to join full rooms. I seriously do not understand why fromsoft always neglect PVP components in their titles even though they are insanely popular with the fanbase. Not having either a matchmaking system or progression system for online will really make a lot of players want to stop playing after a while as there isn’t anything you get out of PVPing in the game. It's a shame because the PVP is EXTREMELY fun and brings the creativity out of people which at times can be toxic as some PVP builds are insanely broken. Giving you the option you can do single or team matches and that is all there is no modes or nothing its either 1v1 or team deathmatches. I can only hope they update the PVP stuff as time goes on like they usually do with souls games but I really wished there was more of an offering because it has SO much potential since the game itself is already amazing.
Graphics
Are people seeing the same game I saw? So many “PS2 graphic” comments have been thrown around for this game and I do get it. The game looks beautiful and the environments are great to look at. I just think people were watching trailers in 480p and not upping the resolution.
My issues?
Honestly I don’t have many complaints about the game outside of a few things. To begin, I wish there were more enemy variants to battle against throughout the story. There were a few levels that seemed very unfair to me, throwing an insane amount of enemies at you all at once forcing you to beat them all or restart from the beginning. Lastly , this is more a nitpick and personal thing but I do not like the fact you are forced to play through the entire game 3 times to get all the endings. I can understand 2 times but lord playing this game 3 times ON TOP of having to S rank all missions means you have to play 4 playthroughs if you want to 100% the game.
In the end
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with AC6 and it's a game I am very much going to continue to play as I will slowly tackle the trophies down. As stated above I really hope more PVP content gets added because I really want more reasons to continue playing PVP because it is so much fun. If you are on the fence about this game having never played AC I can throughout assure you that this is very much a game you can hop into without having to play the other titles. I wish I could sit here and say you should play the other titles but there is no way to play them on newer gen consoles unless you own a PS2 or Xbox 360/PS3. Either way you can play AC6 without any worries and enjoy your time fully with it not knowing a single thing about past titles.
I highly recommend this game.
I won’t say I am the biggest AC fan having played multiple titles but never really diving deep into them. I will say though I really did enjoy my time with AC4 and For Answer so I was excited for 6 to finally release. It is with no shocker that fromsoft has once again knocked it out of the park with AC6 this game was so well made and such a blast to playthrough.
This isn’t elden ring 2?!?!?!
My lord when I say I am appalled by new fans I mean it when I say I am truly baffled by the early reception the game got. On launch I couldn’t go 2 minutes without someone saying “WheRe is EldEn RinG 2??” or “LorD THiS iS Like A sOUlS game” and it was painful. It’s truly amazing to see people realize that yes……… they make more than souls games LOL. On the other hand I see a lot of people complain that this is like a souls game or that this is a hard game which to that I say…… Did you play any other AC games?????????? The series is not a walk in the park lol. Yes this game has challenging bosses but you have to understand you are struggling because you are not changing your loadout and trying new things on top of learning enemy attack patterns. This game was not THAT hard, it does provide a good challenge but do not listen to anyone when they say this is the hardest game ever. Hell, I can’t even beat sekiro to this day and people want to claim this is the hardest game LOL.
Is this a true armored core game?
As well as new fans I have also seen vets complain about how this isn’t the AC they wanted or how this isn’t a AC game at all. Yes AC6 has some changes like No more maps in missions , a perm stat boost leveling system like an RPG, no radar etc etc. Honestly though, these seem more like nitpicks and forced reasons to hate the game because most of the complaints are really things you can live without in this game. It is still an AC game to its core from its fast paced action to its amazing customization. You all need to just enjoy things more rather than cling to past titles. It is evident they are trying to really change this series up with 6 and honestly I think they really nailed it. Yes there are healthpack like flasks from souls games , checkpoints that allow you to change your whole AC on the fly if you feel stuck and hell you even get a refill on your ammo with checkpoints but is that really bad??? Because they are trying to change the formula it all of the sudden makes the game not AC at all?? Idk this is more of an opinion thing I just don’t really understand why some Veteran players find some of these things an issue if anything I am glad a lot of the stuff has changed.
Finally lets talk about the game
To begin , the story is good enough, I honestly didn’t really find it memorable but tbh I don’t play AC games for the story. What I play the series for is very much still amazing and even more fun now imo. AC6 leans for a more heavy dodge battling system really relying on you to fly mid air and dodge enemy attacks which I have always enjoyed in mech games. I find it more fun and engaging, making me really never stop to breathe during boss fights which are pretty darn challenging. Furthermore , there are so many weapons and armor pieces to choose from giving you an immense amount of builds you can think of to tackle down the content and NG+. To elaborate, I am not the biggest class builder I am usually pretty bad at creating things but I actually spent a good amount of time making my own builds in AC6 and it made me proud. As mentioned before there is a new RPG perm stat system in which you earn a side currency which is pretty much attribute points that you buy upgrades with. In addition, you can buy activation skills that allow you to get hero-like skills. For example, There is a skill that once used throws a bubble AOE around you hitting enemies within range or another skill which grants you a shield for a short amount of time. This system can actually be very crucial as it can heavily upgrade your build depending on what weapons you want to use so you have to really think hard about where you put these points into. Furthermore , you earn these points through a mode called arena which is a 1V1 against a Bot enemy. Honestly the arena was a letdown as there was never any challenge in any of the fights, I breezed through them all once I finished my build. In the end I like this system as it gives even more purpose to specific builds you go for. AC6 is a blast and the combat is consistently engaging and so addicting you will want to keep playing more and more and more.
Bosses
The hot topic when it comes to AC6 currently are the bosses and more specifically the infamous first chapter boss. Bosses in AC6 provided a good challenge but I still believe people are blowing the difficulty wayyyyy to out of proportion. AC is a series where you need to think about how you want to tackle specific things which in AC6’s case are bosses. This is crucial because you really need to think about what weapons to bring and not only how to dodge stuff. If you understand this it will make the bosses a lot more tolerable and very beatable. Furthermore, the bosses overall are great and all are designed very well besides one specific boss that I won’t get into for the sake of wanting people to experience things as fresh as possible.
PVP
One of the things I was most excited about was the PVP in AC6 and sadly it did let me down. While the core PVP gameplay loop is very fun and probably what I will be playing a lot of it feels extremely bare bones. To explain , there isn’t any PVP progression or hell even a Matchmaking system to boot. The only way to play is through custom lobbies which can be a hassle since there are a lot of times where I sit refreshing the room lists because I keep trying to join full rooms. I seriously do not understand why fromsoft always neglect PVP components in their titles even though they are insanely popular with the fanbase. Not having either a matchmaking system or progression system for online will really make a lot of players want to stop playing after a while as there isn’t anything you get out of PVPing in the game. It's a shame because the PVP is EXTREMELY fun and brings the creativity out of people which at times can be toxic as some PVP builds are insanely broken. Giving you the option you can do single or team matches and that is all there is no modes or nothing its either 1v1 or team deathmatches. I can only hope they update the PVP stuff as time goes on like they usually do with souls games but I really wished there was more of an offering because it has SO much potential since the game itself is already amazing.
Graphics
Are people seeing the same game I saw? So many “PS2 graphic” comments have been thrown around for this game and I do get it. The game looks beautiful and the environments are great to look at. I just think people were watching trailers in 480p and not upping the resolution.
My issues?
Honestly I don’t have many complaints about the game outside of a few things. To begin, I wish there were more enemy variants to battle against throughout the story. There were a few levels that seemed very unfair to me, throwing an insane amount of enemies at you all at once forcing you to beat them all or restart from the beginning. Lastly , this is more a nitpick and personal thing but I do not like the fact you are forced to play through the entire game 3 times to get all the endings. I can understand 2 times but lord playing this game 3 times ON TOP of having to S rank all missions means you have to play 4 playthroughs if you want to 100% the game.
In the end
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with AC6 and it's a game I am very much going to continue to play as I will slowly tackle the trophies down. As stated above I really hope more PVP content gets added because I really want more reasons to continue playing PVP because it is so much fun. If you are on the fence about this game having never played AC I can throughout assure you that this is very much a game you can hop into without having to play the other titles. I wish I could sit here and say you should play the other titles but there is no way to play them on newer gen consoles unless you own a PS2 or Xbox 360/PS3. Either way you can play AC6 without any worries and enjoy your time fully with it not knowing a single thing about past titles.
I highly recommend this game.
Es gibt vieles was man an For Answer loben kann.
Die Missionen? Sind besser!
Die Menüs? Sind besser!
Das Bauen? Ist besser! Diesmal wollte ich sogar mal wieder Mechs bauen!
Die Story? Ist besser... zumindest etwas! Irgendwann kam ich aber auch nicht mehr mit.
Die Musik? Nicht besser, aber mehr vom good stuff!
Die Grafik? Uhm... na ja, immerhin kann ich nun mein UI im Himmel sehen, sowie die Farbe von meinem eigenen AC. Die Filter wurden also etwas runtergeschraubt.
Die Arena ist ebenfalls zurück, es gibt wieder verschiedene Routen, For Answer ist das was 4 von Anfang an hätte sein sollen.
Allerdings bleiben viele der Probleme die ich mit Teil 4 hatte weiterhin vorhanden.
Der Kampf ist weiterhin sehr schnell mit weniger Fokus auf dem zielen, wodurch sich alles so indirekt anfühlt und man weniger aktiv "ausweicht" und mehr "durchgehend in Bewegung" ist. Kleine Gegner sind dadurch fast ein Joke, während feindliche ACs sich alle viel zu ähnlich bekämpfen lassen.
Das Spiel hat zwei neue Elemente mit dem Vanguard Overed Boost und den Armored Fortresses als Gegnern, auf die das Spiel aber doch etwas zu häufig zurückgreift.
Als mir die Credits entgegenliefen und dort plötzlich das Achievement für Ending Nr 1 aufploppte, hab ich zuerst geseufzt. Doch nach genug rumgemurre hab ich mich durchgerungen zumindest noch ein zweites Ende zu holen. Also hab ich extra andere Missionen gewählt, versucht meine Ränge in den Leveln die ich schon hatte zu verbessern, nur um am Ende dann genau das selbe Ende nochmal zu bekommen. Na supi
Eine deutliche Verbesserung gegenüber seinem direkten Vorgänger, der aber nur das was schon da war deutlich verfeinerte. Ich kann verstehen, dass dies für viele der Lieblingsteil ist, ich bevorzuge aber weiterhin die Teil 3 Ära der Reihe.
Schade, weil von hier an scheint es nun nur noch bergab zu gehen. Wish me luck!
Die Missionen? Sind besser!
Die Menüs? Sind besser!
Das Bauen? Ist besser! Diesmal wollte ich sogar mal wieder Mechs bauen!
Die Story? Ist besser... zumindest etwas! Irgendwann kam ich aber auch nicht mehr mit.
Die Musik? Nicht besser, aber mehr vom good stuff!
Die Grafik? Uhm... na ja, immerhin kann ich nun mein UI im Himmel sehen, sowie die Farbe von meinem eigenen AC. Die Filter wurden also etwas runtergeschraubt.
Die Arena ist ebenfalls zurück, es gibt wieder verschiedene Routen, For Answer ist das was 4 von Anfang an hätte sein sollen.
Allerdings bleiben viele der Probleme die ich mit Teil 4 hatte weiterhin vorhanden.
Der Kampf ist weiterhin sehr schnell mit weniger Fokus auf dem zielen, wodurch sich alles so indirekt anfühlt und man weniger aktiv "ausweicht" und mehr "durchgehend in Bewegung" ist. Kleine Gegner sind dadurch fast ein Joke, während feindliche ACs sich alle viel zu ähnlich bekämpfen lassen.
Das Spiel hat zwei neue Elemente mit dem Vanguard Overed Boost und den Armored Fortresses als Gegnern, auf die das Spiel aber doch etwas zu häufig zurückgreift.
Als mir die Credits entgegenliefen und dort plötzlich das Achievement für Ending Nr 1 aufploppte, hab ich zuerst geseufzt. Doch nach genug rumgemurre hab ich mich durchgerungen zumindest noch ein zweites Ende zu holen. Also hab ich extra andere Missionen gewählt, versucht meine Ränge in den Leveln die ich schon hatte zu verbessern, nur um am Ende dann genau das selbe Ende nochmal zu bekommen. Na supi
Eine deutliche Verbesserung gegenüber seinem direkten Vorgänger, der aber nur das was schon da war deutlich verfeinerte. Ich kann verstehen, dass dies für viele der Lieblingsteil ist, ich bevorzuge aber weiterhin die Teil 3 Ära der Reihe.
Schade, weil von hier an scheint es nun nur noch bergab zu gehen. Wish me luck!
Fight Knight
2021
Fight Knight is a truly unique game. I actually have not seen anything like it. I enjoyed the story, the gameplay (although it was a bit mash-y), and especially the music. The visuals were charming, and the story it told was beautiful. I loved it, and I am hungry for Fight Knight 2.
Oh FOMO, what a devil you are.
I was stupid, truly. This is my cross to bear. Hearing people say, 'It's like BOTW but it has a lot of the bad things removed!' 'It's BOTW but better!' 'Look, you can make a gingerbread man with a dick and get 10k retweets!'. The temptation, it got me to try a game I knew, KNEW I wouldn't like, but I felt some horrible urge to try nonetheless.
Largely, I find TOTK to be a project made from hubris. That you can generate a ton of hype and a huge amount of time on a development cycle to do absolutely fucking nothing, and still turn a profit. It's the same world, the same boring design, the same shrines, the same korok seeds. Except now, you have the option to play fortnite in the middle. What a concept. Give players the opportunity to make elaborate but ultimately pointless shit to do the marketing for you.
Dare venture into the depths or the sky, and it will feel briefly like a true sequel to the original BOTW, with new ideas and concepts being thrown around, but don't stay too long or else you'll discover that they are completely devoid of anything meaningful besides their novelty.
When people say this is BOTW but more polished, I have to wonder what people are talking about. This has -EVERY- issue that BOTW has, down to the bone marrow. It's almost like it's the same game, and the extra content was previously planned DLC or something! Same garbage item degradation, same green expanse of nothing of which most of your time is spent holding up, same repetitive shrines. Is Fortnite really that impressive to people? Am I the insane one here?
This game somehow feels more like a demo than the first game did, an idea sold not on the game it is, but what iteration on a formula could produce. Which, considering the long dev cycle this game had, isn't something I'm looking forward to.
I was stupid, truly. This is my cross to bear. Hearing people say, 'It's like BOTW but it has a lot of the bad things removed!' 'It's BOTW but better!' 'Look, you can make a gingerbread man with a dick and get 10k retweets!'. The temptation, it got me to try a game I knew, KNEW I wouldn't like, but I felt some horrible urge to try nonetheless.
Largely, I find TOTK to be a project made from hubris. That you can generate a ton of hype and a huge amount of time on a development cycle to do absolutely fucking nothing, and still turn a profit. It's the same world, the same boring design, the same shrines, the same korok seeds. Except now, you have the option to play fortnite in the middle. What a concept. Give players the opportunity to make elaborate but ultimately pointless shit to do the marketing for you.
Dare venture into the depths or the sky, and it will feel briefly like a true sequel to the original BOTW, with new ideas and concepts being thrown around, but don't stay too long or else you'll discover that they are completely devoid of anything meaningful besides their novelty.
When people say this is BOTW but more polished, I have to wonder what people are talking about. This has -EVERY- issue that BOTW has, down to the bone marrow. It's almost like it's the same game, and the extra content was previously planned DLC or something! Same garbage item degradation, same green expanse of nothing of which most of your time is spent holding up, same repetitive shrines. Is Fortnite really that impressive to people? Am I the insane one here?
This game somehow feels more like a demo than the first game did, an idea sold not on the game it is, but what iteration on a formula could produce. Which, considering the long dev cycle this game had, isn't something I'm looking forward to.