Waste
2024
This is unironically my GOTY 2024 contender, I am not kidding. What a brilliantly made free game I can play anywhere I want at any time with an interesting gameplay loop. In my previous review, I talked about how only 1/10 rogue-likes manage to be good because they play to the strengths of the genre while being fueled by the creator's talent. This is the shining example. This is what every slop game should look to be. This is how you do gacha elements. This is genuinely the best pokemon game bar none. It is insane how good it is, and how bad people are at pokemon seeing some of the reviews.
Why couldnt you just make the same game but again, in one of the only times this would have been kino to do?
Roguelike game design almost always sucks, genuinely, and it's all laid out in this game. It's almost always been used by lazy game devs as a crutch for their inability to make good games. The 1/10 in the genre stand out because those games are masterfully crafted with the genre in mind, and end up becoming masterpieces because the talent behind them were, well, talented. This game reeks of laziness and slophouse production. It just takes the original game, ruins it with roguelike elements, then creates an awful environment where levels feel so cheap and uncreative. The powers you get, the way equipment is handled, the way you tackle on the same bland levels over and over, it's genuinely like getting an amazing main course meal like the orignal game, then just dumping a ton of desert on top of it that doesn't match the main meal. "What do you mean you don't like ice cream on your carbonara? They're both great food items you like to eat, so we mixed them!" ahh game.
Roguelike game design almost always sucks, genuinely, and it's all laid out in this game. It's almost always been used by lazy game devs as a crutch for their inability to make good games. The 1/10 in the genre stand out because those games are masterfully crafted with the genre in mind, and end up becoming masterpieces because the talent behind them were, well, talented. This game reeks of laziness and slophouse production. It just takes the original game, ruins it with roguelike elements, then creates an awful environment where levels feel so cheap and uncreative. The powers you get, the way equipment is handled, the way you tackle on the same bland levels over and over, it's genuinely like getting an amazing main course meal like the orignal game, then just dumping a ton of desert on top of it that doesn't match the main meal. "What do you mean you don't like ice cream on your carbonara? They're both great food items you like to eat, so we mixed them!" ahh game.
2024
I expected more Dragon's Dogma, I instead got less somehow. Performance issues are genuinely unbearable, the denuvo included with this game is the worst version possible, and the story is a MASSIVE backwards step from the immense kino dd1 was. The gameplay is all fine, but at that point you genuinely have to ask yourself why you would pick this game up over dd1 in it's current state? The same gameplay, the same structure, but a worse story, worse performance, and overall has less content because DD1 has the DLC included in modern ports. I think a lot of DD1 fans are giving this game a pass because it is a DD game, and that it's "so effing based dude" because it does a lot of things that DD1 does that is really good. But, genuinely sit down and think about it. What in the eff are you doing paying 70 dollars for a broken mess, just to replay DD1 in a lesser form?
Worth the 20 cents I paid. It's kirby at home. It has a fantastic first world. That's all it has though. Too shortlived, but it's a super cheap game so at least the pricing is fair for it's insanely disappointing stopping point. Harder platforming than most nintendo platformers, but not too hard. It's like a really good meal but the portion size leaves you hungry still.
2024
Lethal Company but with an actual better gameplay loop. I hope it becomes better over time, as it is clearly still in its starting phase. As it is though, it's just a better Lethal Company. Instead of being a horror game shoved full of random le whacky humor, it's a whimsical game that then has horror inserted. Hard to explain any other way, and it just works better.
This review contains spoilers
None of these stars are story related. In fact, that missing star is straight up because of how bad, thoughtless, and insulting the story is written. If I jumped from ShB's quality of writing down to the level of storytelling Endwalker provided me with, I would shatter every fucking bone in my body. It does everything wrong that Stormblood did with it's structure and pacing (filling your quests with filler by an endless amount, yet when a story beat happens it manages to still rush it as if they had no time to develop anything) paired with it trying its best to outright copy and re-do many story beats that Shadowbringers did much, much better. What a disaster of a story. A horrible and badly made conclusion to a story over 10 years in the making. Instead of making this two separate expacs like originally planned, they mashed 2 whole storylines together and brought back Zenos for no reason. The Garlean storyline literally gets forced to end after building up a character that easily could have been BBV material, and instead makes him shoot himself after 20 minutes of meeting him. Then it introduces a whole new villain with a whole new power system in the last 3rd of the story out of NOWHERE and gives them no development until the LITERAL final fight in the form of 5 lines of dialogue. This is a terrible story, and it's only made worse by the fact that it came after the masterclass writing that was Shadowbringers. Insane how badly someone can fuck up an entire arc when the blueprint for doing such was right in front of them. They followed it, sure, but they did it while refusing to understand why the blueprint was made in the fashion it was in. So many fantastic ideas and themes are present, and not only does EW fail to deliver on those built-up promises, it outright refuses to at times. Then, it introduces the laziest and most insanely rushed FF4 reference as the plot for the postpatch, where it delivers a contrived remix of the Shadowbringers MSQ without understanding what made ShB so good. You can tell Ishikawa stepped down from Main Scenario Writer around 5.4 when Ardbert is literally dug out from his grave to give fanservice as he pet Seto. Such a bullshit scene that ruins a perfect ending for a perfect character, for a forced emotional beat. It marked the beginning of Endwalker and I mean that in every way possible.
The soundtrack, side-content, raids, V&C Dungeons, gameplay changes, mechanics, everything else that is NOT tied to MSQ specifically is so good that it redeems this expansion as worthwhile. All 4 stars are to those things alone, and the missing 5th star is how much of a tragedy this MSQ was.
I cannot imagine why anyone loves this story, genuinely, especially when it does EVERYTHING wrong that Stormblood did (which is disliked amongst many people who enjoy EW). EW is just Stormblood 2, and yet everyone acts as if this is the pinnacle of storytelling XIV has to offer. With my ShB review I mentioned how I went in expecting an 8 and was given something far beyond a 10. How my expectations were outperformed. Endwalker was something I expected to be on the level of Heavensward. Yes, a downgrade from ShB I had expected, but yet again my expectations were so undershot that I wound up shocked. This was a worse MSQ experience than Stormblood ever could hope to be. Not even ARR's postpatch left me more bored, jaded, disappointed, and discontent with it's direction like Endwalker did for me. SOMEONE in Square Enix needs to be demoted. This was made on purpose and greenlit with the intent to sell "as is." This was the intended product. It was meant to be this pile of garbage writing. And it was given the okay. Someone needs to be fucking kept away from that decision somewhere in the chain of command, because holy hell.
TL;DR - Endwalker is shortened to "EW" and it couldn't be more fitting for its MSQ. It is written the same way a CW show is written. At least Zenos became a character finally.... at the literal end. Meteion is NOT a real character by the way, I am begging the audience here to start watching some Kino, start studying literary devices in the Greek, Roman, and Victorian eras, and maybe... just maybe..... healers adjust. If ShB was Square Enix's MGS2, EW is Square Enix's MGSV.
The soundtrack, side-content, raids, V&C Dungeons, gameplay changes, mechanics, everything else that is NOT tied to MSQ specifically is so good that it redeems this expansion as worthwhile. All 4 stars are to those things alone, and the missing 5th star is how much of a tragedy this MSQ was.
I cannot imagine why anyone loves this story, genuinely, especially when it does EVERYTHING wrong that Stormblood did (which is disliked amongst many people who enjoy EW). EW is just Stormblood 2, and yet everyone acts as if this is the pinnacle of storytelling XIV has to offer. With my ShB review I mentioned how I went in expecting an 8 and was given something far beyond a 10. How my expectations were outperformed. Endwalker was something I expected to be on the level of Heavensward. Yes, a downgrade from ShB I had expected, but yet again my expectations were so undershot that I wound up shocked. This was a worse MSQ experience than Stormblood ever could hope to be. Not even ARR's postpatch left me more bored, jaded, disappointed, and discontent with it's direction like Endwalker did for me. SOMEONE in Square Enix needs to be demoted. This was made on purpose and greenlit with the intent to sell "as is." This was the intended product. It was meant to be this pile of garbage writing. And it was given the okay. Someone needs to be fucking kept away from that decision somewhere in the chain of command, because holy hell.
TL;DR - Endwalker is shortened to "EW" and it couldn't be more fitting for its MSQ. It is written the same way a CW show is written. At least Zenos became a character finally.... at the literal end. Meteion is NOT a real character by the way, I am begging the audience here to start watching some Kino, start studying literary devices in the Greek, Roman, and Victorian eras, and maybe... just maybe..... healers adjust. If ShB was Square Enix's MGS2, EW is Square Enix's MGSV.
I only ever started playing FF14 because it was a social thing, because a group I was in was playing this game. I used to hate FF14 when it came out, not just because 1.0 sucked and was infamously bad, but because even when ARR dropped it had so many asinine issues with it that I didn't ever want to install. I hated that it was even a numbered FF game just like 11. One look at my profile and you can see what kinda man I am with the games I do and do not like. I don't care if you think I'm a weirdo, a contrarian, or even if you agree with me and accept that I am a true Kinosopher and lover of all Kino. The truth is, this game was an MMO and I don't like those usually. I didn't like their awful class system at the time with shared role actions, I hated TP, I hated how most of the duties worked, the story was sloppy as hell, I hated how you needed to make alternative characters to play with certain servers and data centers, and 1.0's taste was still fresh in my mouth. I would endlessly bash this game from around 1.0's release to just about the time the Monster Hunter World collab dropped, because THAT also sucked (for MHW that is). In hindsight? I was actually right to bash and hate on everything that I had. It was AWFUL. It genuinely sucked. After 2018 or so I stopped paying attention to it, and this is the time Shadowbringers dropped in. It went under my radar for so many years, and I regret not at least learning more about it.
While most of the MMO mechanics were still around at the time of this expansion's drop, I played it only this year since I joined around Summer of 2023. I got to play the game after every complaint I had about the game itself was changed and fixed. Literally everything above that I mentioned, it's gone. The game itself is massively improved. I went through the slog that was ARR but enjoyed specific moments of it. I played Heavensward which was narratively a bit better but god awful with its level design. I stomached the ass that was Stormblood MSQ (the non-MSQ content was great actually). I had heard great things about Shadowbringers beforehand from friends and others online, and I had moderately good expectations considering the main writer for ShB was the DRK scenario writer, a kinosopher who also clearly loves Berserk. Natsuko Ishikawa is a brilliant writer, and it is a shame she has not written much more than what she has for XIV. Genuinely it is a tragedy and a loss that she does not have more works under her name, solely because her quality of writing is so good that we could use more of it. Not only had I gone in expecting something good, I was assured that a good writer was going to make it consistent throughout the expansion.
I was wrong. It was not good. It was perfect. It far exceeded whatever expectation had placed for it. I expected an 8 or so but I got a 10. Half a star is missing for the usual MMO padding, a death that should have happened (but they are not allowed to kill certain characters it would seem), and for issues pertaining to XIV as a whole. That being said, the MSQ was fucking perfect and encapsulated the feeling of hopelessness and moving on from pain and loss. The story itself is next to flawless, but on top of that the quality of the individual lines written is top notch. The details are remembered and carried throughout the expansion. It's not just a great story, it's a well-written one at that.
This expansion is Square Enix's Metal Gear Solid 2. A perfect, life changing story written by a woman primarily (mgs2's story was rewritten and edited by a woman! Kojima doesn't like people knowing that!) and it will never be topped again or even met at eye level by the company producing the game. It is a shame that Natsuko Ishikawa has stepped down, it is super clear from 5.4 and 5.5's story (and what I have seen of Endwalker) that she has stepped down due to the quality of writing following her down the stairs. Stand tall, my gamer.
While most of the MMO mechanics were still around at the time of this expansion's drop, I played it only this year since I joined around Summer of 2023. I got to play the game after every complaint I had about the game itself was changed and fixed. Literally everything above that I mentioned, it's gone. The game itself is massively improved. I went through the slog that was ARR but enjoyed specific moments of it. I played Heavensward which was narratively a bit better but god awful with its level design. I stomached the ass that was Stormblood MSQ (the non-MSQ content was great actually). I had heard great things about Shadowbringers beforehand from friends and others online, and I had moderately good expectations considering the main writer for ShB was the DRK scenario writer, a kinosopher who also clearly loves Berserk. Natsuko Ishikawa is a brilliant writer, and it is a shame she has not written much more than what she has for XIV. Genuinely it is a tragedy and a loss that she does not have more works under her name, solely because her quality of writing is so good that we could use more of it. Not only had I gone in expecting something good, I was assured that a good writer was going to make it consistent throughout the expansion.
I was wrong. It was not good. It was perfect. It far exceeded whatever expectation had placed for it. I expected an 8 or so but I got a 10. Half a star is missing for the usual MMO padding, a death that should have happened (but they are not allowed to kill certain characters it would seem), and for issues pertaining to XIV as a whole. That being said, the MSQ was fucking perfect and encapsulated the feeling of hopelessness and moving on from pain and loss. The story itself is next to flawless, but on top of that the quality of the individual lines written is top notch. The details are remembered and carried throughout the expansion. It's not just a great story, it's a well-written one at that.
This expansion is Square Enix's Metal Gear Solid 2. A perfect, life changing story written by a woman primarily (mgs2's story was rewritten and edited by a woman! Kojima doesn't like people knowing that!) and it will never be topped again or even met at eye level by the company producing the game. It is a shame that Natsuko Ishikawa has stepped down, it is super clear from 5.4 and 5.5's story (and what I have seen of Endwalker) that she has stepped down due to the quality of writing following her down the stairs. Stand tall, my gamer.
2021
As a giant hater of Ready or Not from Summer 2022 to recently, I caved in and played the newest update after I heard about the total company restructuring and seeing the dev notes finally become good as they admitted lots of faults and showed true progress. The TLDR is that this is the best update this game has had, but not the best it could have gotten. There is still much to be done, and I do not think this should have been a 1.0 update, it should still be in EA. I highly recommend it to people who have already owned the game but felt jaded by how terrible it became to reinstall and check it out. It's genuinely great. HOWEVER. I still cannot recommend the game to new players, or people who have not purchased the game yet, ESPECIALLY with the new price tag.
I played RoN 1.0 most of the release day, then the Hotflix. I S ranked every mission and beat the game on Ironman without losing a single life or officer. Here are my thoughts, good and bad:
This game is a 6/10 vanilla and a solid 8.5/10 with one mod. There is still some AIDS stuttering in hub world and some REALLY bad stuttering on the hospital level, and minor stuttering in general but I'm almost always above 60. I cannot for the life of me get OBS to get smooth gameplay consistently as some parts of recordings will be a stuttering mess, even if my own gameplay on my monitor is smooth. The game has some of the worst optimization it could have had, but at least it's playable on my above average hardware (Ryzen 7 5800x, 32GB 3600 MHz ram, 3060 ti xc). I cannot imagine anyone with anything lesser having a good time.
The main problem with the game is the AI is too good of a shot no matter what mission it is. From trained veterans to meth heads to school shooters to people robbing a gas station, they all have the same agro, the same reluctance to surrender, and the same accuracy. They're all the same, which makes some map design really bad. It makes the game so boring to play vanilla, you just gun everyone because they almost every drop their guns for compliance, and I mean almost never (we're talking maybe 1 or 2 enemies out of the 15+ every mission will drop their guns, and that's a maybe). This means you just play Call of Duty, and if you're trying to S rank it means sweating so hard with a beanbag shotgun (pepperballs are NOT good, they don’t 100% work instantly all the time, and if your AI partners use them you can get pepperballed by the area of effect they create if you're not using the gas mask which means no NVGs or Ballistic Mask) that you just stop having fun through frustration instead. There's no eb and flow, no balance, no actual depth. Just shoot to kill and move on as fast as possible. No tactics. No thought. Just breach, kill, bag, move on.
Various mods exist, and they all conflict with each other because they all affect the same thing: the AI. My favorite one is "No Crack for AI", specifically the "A Little Crack" version the guy made. Makes every enemy feel fair and makes dropping morale a bit easier, and they don't just insta headshot you every 3 seconds across the map or through walls. It's not as bad as it was last year, and the SWAT AI is great now because they actually hit stuff AND automatically grab evidence and arrest anyone on their own (if you're not being shot at).
The guns feel nice (most of them at least, the UMP and various rifles feel like cheeks and aren't worth it for the damage-to-recoil ratio), the new maps and redesigned maps are all kino, and I love the actual scenarios they have created. Various maps, like the LSPS map, the beach-side house, the Ruby Ridge reference, and the streamer's house, all feel like they're straight out of a SWAT 5 we never got. But the worst maps are the ones that were not changed at all from the Early Access, aka made by the old team before they were fired: the Apartment Suites with the Veterans, and the Nightclub. They're poorly designed and not well crafted. The rooms are all too dangerous to enter in to play tactically, and trying to S rank these missions took ages due to their size, how aggressive and cracked the AI are (and they need to be since they're trained operatives lore-wise), and how pidgeonheld you are at approaching the location. Brisa Cove (the veterans mission) needs to be placed around either Rust Belt or Neon Tomb, there’s no way in any universe that a mission this hard belongs as the 6th mission a new player will run into and wall themselves in. Go look at the Ready or Not reddit page and the Steam community tab, it’s filled with players walled here, and it’s not a skill issue. As someone who actually beat this game on Ironman without being killed, and did every mission S Rank, that is one of the hardest missions in the game and it’s barely beaten by the Nightclub and Clemente Hotel due to their sheer size and only because of that.
The game doesn't feel like it's 1.0 yet, this feels like what it should be just before it. This is more like a 0.9 or something. 18 maps with no other game modes, and the only thing to do is get all achievements and unlock all the customization stuff (which I did) leaves the game feeling like a good 20-30 dollar game, not a full priced one. I know they want to make a PvP mode but that shouldn't come for another few years. They need to work on more content for the PvE. It's currently got less content than SWAT 4 did, and that game came out almost 20 years ago. I have yet to play multiplayer, as I did everything completely solo. I might do some self-imposed challenges, but come on, that's fucken weird.
All in all, a great update, but it’s not fully there yet. I expect a good patch soon. The game is playable, it works (mostly), and it’s fun again. I don’t feel myself hating the experience like I used to in EA when the old team destroyed this game’s reputation. I have hope again. Thank you for making this not just some 8 year old pipedream. I still think it's worth a redownload and playing it for ole time’s sake, I think it’s even good single player, but not without a mod or two. It's not quite Skyrim levels of "its only good with mods" but it's neighbors with it. If the devs fix the AI aggressiveness and the insane aiming (the former is the bigger problem, because with more enemies surrendering to good tactical gameplay you will obviously be shot at less), the game bumps up in score easily. Let’s hope they continue their newfound goodwill.
I played RoN 1.0 most of the release day, then the Hotflix. I S ranked every mission and beat the game on Ironman without losing a single life or officer. Here are my thoughts, good and bad:
This game is a 6/10 vanilla and a solid 8.5/10 with one mod. There is still some AIDS stuttering in hub world and some REALLY bad stuttering on the hospital level, and minor stuttering in general but I'm almost always above 60. I cannot for the life of me get OBS to get smooth gameplay consistently as some parts of recordings will be a stuttering mess, even if my own gameplay on my monitor is smooth. The game has some of the worst optimization it could have had, but at least it's playable on my above average hardware (Ryzen 7 5800x, 32GB 3600 MHz ram, 3060 ti xc). I cannot imagine anyone with anything lesser having a good time.
The main problem with the game is the AI is too good of a shot no matter what mission it is. From trained veterans to meth heads to school shooters to people robbing a gas station, they all have the same agro, the same reluctance to surrender, and the same accuracy. They're all the same, which makes some map design really bad. It makes the game so boring to play vanilla, you just gun everyone because they almost every drop their guns for compliance, and I mean almost never (we're talking maybe 1 or 2 enemies out of the 15+ every mission will drop their guns, and that's a maybe). This means you just play Call of Duty, and if you're trying to S rank it means sweating so hard with a beanbag shotgun (pepperballs are NOT good, they don’t 100% work instantly all the time, and if your AI partners use them you can get pepperballed by the area of effect they create if you're not using the gas mask which means no NVGs or Ballistic Mask) that you just stop having fun through frustration instead. There's no eb and flow, no balance, no actual depth. Just shoot to kill and move on as fast as possible. No tactics. No thought. Just breach, kill, bag, move on.
Various mods exist, and they all conflict with each other because they all affect the same thing: the AI. My favorite one is "No Crack for AI", specifically the "A Little Crack" version the guy made. Makes every enemy feel fair and makes dropping morale a bit easier, and they don't just insta headshot you every 3 seconds across the map or through walls. It's not as bad as it was last year, and the SWAT AI is great now because they actually hit stuff AND automatically grab evidence and arrest anyone on their own (if you're not being shot at).
The guns feel nice (most of them at least, the UMP and various rifles feel like cheeks and aren't worth it for the damage-to-recoil ratio), the new maps and redesigned maps are all kino, and I love the actual scenarios they have created. Various maps, like the LSPS map, the beach-side house, the Ruby Ridge reference, and the streamer's house, all feel like they're straight out of a SWAT 5 we never got. But the worst maps are the ones that were not changed at all from the Early Access, aka made by the old team before they were fired: the Apartment Suites with the Veterans, and the Nightclub. They're poorly designed and not well crafted. The rooms are all too dangerous to enter in to play tactically, and trying to S rank these missions took ages due to their size, how aggressive and cracked the AI are (and they need to be since they're trained operatives lore-wise), and how pidgeonheld you are at approaching the location. Brisa Cove (the veterans mission) needs to be placed around either Rust Belt or Neon Tomb, there’s no way in any universe that a mission this hard belongs as the 6th mission a new player will run into and wall themselves in. Go look at the Ready or Not reddit page and the Steam community tab, it’s filled with players walled here, and it’s not a skill issue. As someone who actually beat this game on Ironman without being killed, and did every mission S Rank, that is one of the hardest missions in the game and it’s barely beaten by the Nightclub and Clemente Hotel due to their sheer size and only because of that.
The game doesn't feel like it's 1.0 yet, this feels like what it should be just before it. This is more like a 0.9 or something. 18 maps with no other game modes, and the only thing to do is get all achievements and unlock all the customization stuff (which I did) leaves the game feeling like a good 20-30 dollar game, not a full priced one. I know they want to make a PvP mode but that shouldn't come for another few years. They need to work on more content for the PvE. It's currently got less content than SWAT 4 did, and that game came out almost 20 years ago. I have yet to play multiplayer, as I did everything completely solo. I might do some self-imposed challenges, but come on, that's fucken weird.
All in all, a great update, but it’s not fully there yet. I expect a good patch soon. The game is playable, it works (mostly), and it’s fun again. I don’t feel myself hating the experience like I used to in EA when the old team destroyed this game’s reputation. I have hope again. Thank you for making this not just some 8 year old pipedream. I still think it's worth a redownload and playing it for ole time’s sake, I think it’s even good single player, but not without a mod or two. It's not quite Skyrim levels of "its only good with mods" but it's neighbors with it. If the devs fix the AI aggressiveness and the insane aiming (the former is the bigger problem, because with more enemies surrendering to good tactical gameplay you will obviously be shot at less), the game bumps up in score easily. Let’s hope they continue their newfound goodwill.
copying my steam review:
Already dropped about 220 or so hours on my Switch version, getting all the best Monsters and maxing out their bingo-sheets fully optimized and 2-stared on every gene. Now I'm finally wrapping up the PC version and caught up now. I'm basing my review content-wise on what I've already done on the Switch version (pretty much everything bar a few irrelevant subquests) and the performance is based on what I've seen so far with my own eyes starting at launch day (made it to the second Anjanath sighting) and then today (Made it to the end of Rutoh Village so far).
Content:
The game is, really good! Simple and easy at first but eventually the difficulty doesn't come from playing RPS, but rather kinship management, gene placement (so you can actually WIN those HtHs often and deal damage), and the timing for healing (not healing at the right time if you need another heart or to top off CAN get you wiped). The story I really couldn't personally care for. It's not bad by any measure (the plot "twist" kinda sucked and was unpredictable for bad reasons but, it's not TERRIBLE at least), I'm just saying I didn't care for it since its not why I bought this game. For fans of the first game, the story is probably amazing to you since it's filled with characters from the previous title and a few cheeky references. As much as I can appreciate the love and care done, it's not why I bought this time. For someone taking their time and grinding monsters out, and getting average and acceptable genes for the sake of progress, I finished the main story in about 60 hours (10+ hours were from the demo alone). I bought this game knowing the majority of my time playing this game would be in the post-game and its content. I was correct. I love the gameplay loop, I love the Super Rare tickets I can do with friends, I like the trials MUCH MORE than the Tower from the first game, and the overall gene editing as well. Even if I couldn't appreciate the QoL improvements made in this game coming out of the first game (causing me to NEVER look back), I'd still wind up in love this with game enough to play through it (and pay for it) two separate times. I do miss being able to easily change monster elements, but I don't mind it as much as I was expecting. The monster selection in this game is pretty neat, and the future roadmap is 100% going to keep me coming back monthly to catch up and try out all the new stuff (although I'm expecting one of the things to kinda suck I'm ngl). It's nothing 900IQ or anything but, it's not dumb either. It's just nice casual fun, which I think I've needed after playing a ton of minmaxy and hardcore games I've been diving into for thousands of hours the past few years. The attention to detail and the love put into this game is NOT unnoticed (example: using the Ice Armor move on Velkhana gives it it's ice armor form from Iceborne when it enrages). It's not perfect, and it doesn't actually have to be. It's pretty damn close though.
Performance:
This game was raided with negative reviews on the launch day this game had. I have zero exaggeration when I say this: none of it was even correct lmao. Like cumon, if you're gonna exaggerate stuff to try and make this game look bad, at least base it in truth to make it LOOK honest. People were claiming they were using top of the line specs and they were encountering stuttering, frame dips, the works. I'm running this game on a Rysen 3600 and a 1660 Super and I can play this game at MAX settings and at 144fps smoothly with zero problems, even when a lot is happening on the screen at once. There's ZERO way people were having this many issues with the game. Really now? Keyboard controls were maybe KINDA awkward? Man, using KBM on a Monster Hunter game? That sounds like a goooood idea. This is like lambasting a Souls game in its entirety for not feeling as good on KBM as it does on controller. And to top it off, it was people complaining about the simple character creation when it came to these controls. You can run this game on a potato, and as long as you know where you W, A, S, and D keys are on your keyboard you can figure out how to play this game. This thing is optimized insanely well, and the controls.... well if you can't afford a controller then you better get used to using right click to rotate that camera, bc it really ain't THAT bad. TLDR: Anyone complaining about performance with GOOD hardware 100% has issues with their PC that are not related to the game, and they should get that stuff checked out ASAP because this game is optimized insanely well. Please check your parts if you claim your 2070 Super cant hit 60 fps because something is VERY wrong and it is NOT on the game's end.
TL;DR: Bulldrome rarely drops its own parts in 144fps, good game. Worth at full price, which means on sale it's even more worth getting.
Already dropped about 220 or so hours on my Switch version, getting all the best Monsters and maxing out their bingo-sheets fully optimized and 2-stared on every gene. Now I'm finally wrapping up the PC version and caught up now. I'm basing my review content-wise on what I've already done on the Switch version (pretty much everything bar a few irrelevant subquests) and the performance is based on what I've seen so far with my own eyes starting at launch day (made it to the second Anjanath sighting) and then today (Made it to the end of Rutoh Village so far).
Content:
The game is, really good! Simple and easy at first but eventually the difficulty doesn't come from playing RPS, but rather kinship management, gene placement (so you can actually WIN those HtHs often and deal damage), and the timing for healing (not healing at the right time if you need another heart or to top off CAN get you wiped). The story I really couldn't personally care for. It's not bad by any measure (the plot "twist" kinda sucked and was unpredictable for bad reasons but, it's not TERRIBLE at least), I'm just saying I didn't care for it since its not why I bought this game. For fans of the first game, the story is probably amazing to you since it's filled with characters from the previous title and a few cheeky references. As much as I can appreciate the love and care done, it's not why I bought this time. For someone taking their time and grinding monsters out, and getting average and acceptable genes for the sake of progress, I finished the main story in about 60 hours (10+ hours were from the demo alone). I bought this game knowing the majority of my time playing this game would be in the post-game and its content. I was correct. I love the gameplay loop, I love the Super Rare tickets I can do with friends, I like the trials MUCH MORE than the Tower from the first game, and the overall gene editing as well. Even if I couldn't appreciate the QoL improvements made in this game coming out of the first game (causing me to NEVER look back), I'd still wind up in love this with game enough to play through it (and pay for it) two separate times. I do miss being able to easily change monster elements, but I don't mind it as much as I was expecting. The monster selection in this game is pretty neat, and the future roadmap is 100% going to keep me coming back monthly to catch up and try out all the new stuff (although I'm expecting one of the things to kinda suck I'm ngl). It's nothing 900IQ or anything but, it's not dumb either. It's just nice casual fun, which I think I've needed after playing a ton of minmaxy and hardcore games I've been diving into for thousands of hours the past few years. The attention to detail and the love put into this game is NOT unnoticed (example: using the Ice Armor move on Velkhana gives it it's ice armor form from Iceborne when it enrages). It's not perfect, and it doesn't actually have to be. It's pretty damn close though.
Performance:
This game was raided with negative reviews on the launch day this game had. I have zero exaggeration when I say this: none of it was even correct lmao. Like cumon, if you're gonna exaggerate stuff to try and make this game look bad, at least base it in truth to make it LOOK honest. People were claiming they were using top of the line specs and they were encountering stuttering, frame dips, the works. I'm running this game on a Rysen 3600 and a 1660 Super and I can play this game at MAX settings and at 144fps smoothly with zero problems, even when a lot is happening on the screen at once. There's ZERO way people were having this many issues with the game. Really now? Keyboard controls were maybe KINDA awkward? Man, using KBM on a Monster Hunter game? That sounds like a goooood idea. This is like lambasting a Souls game in its entirety for not feeling as good on KBM as it does on controller. And to top it off, it was people complaining about the simple character creation when it came to these controls. You can run this game on a potato, and as long as you know where you W, A, S, and D keys are on your keyboard you can figure out how to play this game. This thing is optimized insanely well, and the controls.... well if you can't afford a controller then you better get used to using right click to rotate that camera, bc it really ain't THAT bad. TLDR: Anyone complaining about performance with GOOD hardware 100% has issues with their PC that are not related to the game, and they should get that stuff checked out ASAP because this game is optimized insanely well. Please check your parts if you claim your 2070 Super cant hit 60 fps because something is VERY wrong and it is NOT on the game's end.
TL;DR: Bulldrome rarely drops its own parts in 144fps, good game. Worth at full price, which means on sale it's even more worth getting.
This "nuanced racism" sucked. "i got mistreated growing up, and one day i saw someone from my race get abused in the street, and it made me horny. now i want to genocide my entire race. the writers want you to feel bad for me" SHUT UP! I cannot believe there are people out there who think this is a good story about racism... because it has the most unrealistic portrayals and reasons behind the character's racism.
No masterclass writing whatsoever but the dungeons were, neat. I guess. Story was decently made, I am a proud Catholic!
Whoever made that northwest Dravania part of that one map should be flogged btw
Whoever made that northwest Dravania part of that one map should be flogged btw
Incredibly boring, paced like a saturday morning cartoon. Very few cool characters, kills some of them too. Awesome. Yawn!
Hildebrand was awesome. 2 of these stars are because of him!
Hildebrand was awesome. 2 of these stars are because of him!
One of the only games to have an interesting story revolving around colonialism with very good answers to every side of the issue. A CRPG that's actually thought provoking, has actual dialogue, has a good combat system, a great character creator, and a superb voice acting job. BG3 wishes.
Kept getting called multiple slurs and no-no words because I said someone turned their back to an enemy, then they proceeded to full magdump hold-the-trigger and miss every shot as they body blocked multiple people. Someone called in an airstrike and said "this bombing run was fact checked by real American patriots" and we all died because they bombed on top of us. No one's going to objectives half the time, people cant aim for shit, you have nobody going Commander or Observer despite half the lobby being level 400+, and no one seems to be able to throw incendiaries when their teammates AREN'T in the doorway.
In almost any other game with some sort of competitive nature, I'd hate the game. Or, I'd be mad, slinging my own no-no words like David in the bible hurling them at the great tism Goliath. But this game is magic. It's like I'm in middle school again playing Bad Company 2 all over again. I don't feel mad when these things happen. I don't get frustrated when my teammates are just treating the game as a point-and-click adventure. I have a smile on my face all while the very western-accented man with Korean text as his steam name is just mag dumping into forefingers, and the Russian named player is dogshit (and his steam profile is all in English), and I'm using an lmg on a tripod to hold a point. Was that a pick-up truck with an MG on the back? It drove off course and fell in a ditch. Did I get mad and say the game is unpolished and stupid and bad? NO! I say, the game is kino and wonderful and stupid!
This is the game you're looking for if you're typing away in Discord servers with tears rolling down your cheeks because "CoD isn't like it was in the good old days" as your hair grays. This is the game you're looking for when Ready or Not isn't really doing it after an hour or so as you think back to trying to capture B on Metro in BF3 (and how ass that one-sided map was). This is the game you're looking for when you get genuinely enraged when you think about every modern shooter because "it just ain't like it was when I was a youngin'." This one is the one. This is absolutely the game, the most modern FPS shooter I can stomach, and it's kino. The fact I got this on sale for 9 dollars is insane to me. I've had more fun out of those 9 dollars than I have with some 60 dollar games. I've had more fun with these 9 dollars I spent than the hundreds of dollars I have spent on some card games. I've had more fun because of 9 dollars compared to the nearly 2 grand I dropped on a Vegas vacation years ago. 9 dollars. I don't actually know how much this game normally costs outside of Steam sales, but whatever the number is, I can't imagine it being "too much" for what I paid for.
In almost any other game with some sort of competitive nature, I'd hate the game. Or, I'd be mad, slinging my own no-no words like David in the bible hurling them at the great tism Goliath. But this game is magic. It's like I'm in middle school again playing Bad Company 2 all over again. I don't feel mad when these things happen. I don't get frustrated when my teammates are just treating the game as a point-and-click adventure. I have a smile on my face all while the very western-accented man with Korean text as his steam name is just mag dumping into forefingers, and the Russian named player is dogshit (and his steam profile is all in English), and I'm using an lmg on a tripod to hold a point. Was that a pick-up truck with an MG on the back? It drove off course and fell in a ditch. Did I get mad and say the game is unpolished and stupid and bad? NO! I say, the game is kino and wonderful and stupid!
This is the game you're looking for if you're typing away in Discord servers with tears rolling down your cheeks because "CoD isn't like it was in the good old days" as your hair grays. This is the game you're looking for when Ready or Not isn't really doing it after an hour or so as you think back to trying to capture B on Metro in BF3 (and how ass that one-sided map was). This is the game you're looking for when you get genuinely enraged when you think about every modern shooter because "it just ain't like it was when I was a youngin'." This one is the one. This is absolutely the game, the most modern FPS shooter I can stomach, and it's kino. The fact I got this on sale for 9 dollars is insane to me. I've had more fun out of those 9 dollars than I have with some 60 dollar games. I've had more fun with these 9 dollars I spent than the hundreds of dollars I have spent on some card games. I've had more fun because of 9 dollars compared to the nearly 2 grand I dropped on a Vegas vacation years ago. 9 dollars. I don't actually know how much this game normally costs outside of Steam sales, but whatever the number is, I can't imagine it being "too much" for what I paid for.
2023
