It's those incredible rare and almost non existent experiences that make me love this medium so much... The beauty, love and craftsmanship of how everything comes together in this work of art can't be put into words.

Feeling completely empty now and won't be able to play anything else for a while.

Compared to the first Hellblade it's a small step backwards, mainly because the combat system got reduced (but looks even better of course) but overall it's still one of the few all time greats.

A gripping page-turner of an adventure. The entire experience is marred by poor animation transitions, or rather the lack thereof, and various instances of clipping fabrics, character heads spazzing out wildly, buttons on coats floating where they shouldn't, and whatever other minor presentation blemishes escape my present recollection. Such as the various instances of pop-in.
What I'm getting at is that this is a loveable piece of jank that I look forward to re-experiencing someday in order to angle for different outcomes.

I found the combat system very easy, even on Challenge difficulty, only wiping twice throughout the entire campaign, but it provided enough variancy in the encounters that I managed to keep entertained. I find random encounters so distasteful largely in part due to how rote and routine they become after the optimal series of commands is discovered. Thankfully Thaumaturge seemed to be comprised entirely of hand crafted encounters of admittedly samey ruffians. From one encounter to the next I often felt the need to evaluate for a moment before committing to a plan of attack that might be very different than the input order I employed in the previous encounter.

Wiktor was a wonderful protagonist to puppeteer. With plenty of opportunities to relish in substantiated pride, regret, compassion, a whole gamut of compelling emotional drama with which to weave a personalized journey through this lovingly detailed rendition of Warsaw wherein demons and warlocks are engaged in webs of intrigue.

It bears mentioning that beyond the combat there's little to no game here besides the dialogue tree. Investigation and deduction are performed automatically by the objective wisps, leaving "clues" to serve the purpose of flavor-text dispensers. It'll lack mass-appeal to the general gaming audience much like any other visual novel.

If this gets a round of polish patches I expect it to enshrine itself as being quite good. It's the sort of game that's best experienced when you're in no real hurry to get anywhere and want both a nice book and a nice mini-series to occupy your time.

Portal: Revolution is the first Portal mod that felt very well-polished to me. The puzzles work, no weird cheesing, and the achievements are well-incorporated as well.

I wouldn't say this mod was difficult compared to other mods, but it was more atmospheric and a lot less frustrating. A nice, short story with plenty of puzzles. Revolution even features new mechanics, which were fun and refreshing. I wish there was a little less "navigate the facility", but overall a pleasant experience.

The voice-acting was pretty good, too. Although the story was clearly written from fans' viewpoints, it fit well into the Valve universe.

I recommend Portal: Revolution to anyone who is in for a refreshing puzzle experience after having completed the main two games.

Still one of my favorite MMOs. My partner and I convinced a friend to try out GW2. It's been years since I have fully replayed the core game's story. Overall, I like the main story. When you create your character, you get to pick a couple of choices for their backstory. That can be really fun when you're creating alts. You can make a serious or goofy character. It adds to role playing.

I like how they presented the dialogue. You can make the text read quicker by skipping lines, or skip entire dialogue if you're replaying for achievements. They get rid of this format right after. :(

You can complete main story missions with friends! You can't do that in other MMOs for some ungodly reason.

The game never felt like a slog to me, unlike other MMOs. I enjoy you don't have "quests." You just run into an area and start helping.

I do find Orr boring. They lay heavy on the backstory from the first Guild Wars. Really helpful for someone like me that didn't play it. However, I don't need to see it again with every character. It's the same info. The final three zones into Orr are too similar. The enemies are the same. The atmosphere is identical. I did play around the time when these zones were the end game. Even back then...it was plain.

Everyone gets their MMO drug of choice and for the past 10 years this has been mine. The ability to just drop for a year or two at a time and come back in with little to no catching up to do gearwise really helps from feeling burned out (not to mention not having a subscription fee to make you feel like you need to be playing). The gameplay might not be as intricate compared to some others out there, but it's really fun once you get the hang of it. And the amount of things you can do in the world, especially as a solo player, really helps so you never feel like there's nothing to do. The endgame turns a bit into Fashion Wars, which may turn some people off who are looking for a more traditional power grind - but if you enjoy the exploration or character part of MMOs I highly recommend this one.

this is definitely the kind of game that isn't for everyone; at it's core, it's mostly just a walking simulator limited in scope and event. for what is lost in breadth, however, is made up in spades by depth.

for me, an asian-american kid growing up in the 2000s who spent a lot of time at relative's houses and other sort of things involving family, this game perfectly encapsulates the vibe of just being aimless and having an innocent view of the world as a kid without any of the emotional baggage of real life. all of the details put into it are so perfect — the randomness and haste of the placement of all of the objects you can look around in and inspect in every room (as well as the rooms themselves, and the stories behind them), the shrine dedicated to family long gone, the ornamental knick-knacks scattered about, the sort of loose "cramped but free" feeling to the place, the interactions with family members and how they act and interact with you and what you're doing, even the daydreams are delightful and charming, and remind me of the same kinds of things i'd lose myself in when i was 10. everything here just matches in my head that kind of feeling of being stuck at my grandparent's house while my parents were off doing something else, and having to keep myself occupied without any of the things i had at home.

i think for most people who are open to playing this, it does a fantastic job at capturing a slice of life that you take for granted as a child, but come to desire and nostalgically look back upon when you grow older. for someone like me though, coming from an asian background, this game perfectly hits all of the memories and experiences i remembered growing up. i might be biased in giving this 5 stars, but i cried while playing it, so i don't really care — whoops!