anatolikbelikov
BACKER
2023
So I'm bumping the score to 3,5 and potentially later down the line with the release of season 4 and huge updates on the itemization - it can go up to 4.
A lot of annoying and boring stuff was fixed and the game feels much better now.
A lot of annoying and boring stuff was fixed and the game feels much better now.
2013
I know that it was or is a game changer Arpg with tons of mechanics, loot, customization etc etc.
I sincerely tried to push myself through it a couple of times, but every time I was stopped by ugly UI and most importantly- the ugly loot. The loot in this game doesn't look cool, at all. I just don't like or even dislike the art-direction of it, I'm sorry.
Where Diablo 4 has an ok loot but they made it so small on a screen that I barely can see it, here it is in your face, but looks ugly.
I believe Diablo 2 (especially D2 Ressurected) is still unbeatable and a master class in art direction and design.
I sincerely tried to push myself through it a couple of times, but every time I was stopped by ugly UI and most importantly- the ugly loot. The loot in this game doesn't look cool, at all. I just don't like or even dislike the art-direction of it, I'm sorry.
Where Diablo 4 has an ok loot but they made it so small on a screen that I barely can see it, here it is in your face, but looks ugly.
I believe Diablo 2 (especially D2 Ressurected) is still unbeatable and a master class in art direction and design.
In short: it's a good game with variable quality of scary moments and a neat concept.
I think if they introduced the player to all mechanics and story bits much slower - it would be much more impactful and scary.
The quality of spooky moments varies from "Hereditary" type of moments to straight nonsense like some sort of "Nun 1-2".
The atmosphere is top-notch.
I think if they introduced the player to all mechanics and story bits much slower - it would be much more impactful and scary.
The quality of spooky moments varies from "Hereditary" type of moments to straight nonsense like some sort of "Nun 1-2".
The atmosphere is top-notch.
2000
Used to play it when I was a kid. Booted it up on a weekend (got it on GOG, steam version didn't work) to check how it holds up. Well it's a pretty deep (non pun intended) RTS with a super cool setting, that I've neer seen anywhere else - civilistion got nuked and gone underwater. If you have an itch on Waterworld (movie, 1995) or you like Subnautica - this might be for you. The mix of trance and ambient is really nice, the sound is really good. Though I love the aesthetic, I don't think that I would play from time to time - the visual readability is quite broken (everything looks samey) and overall flow (no pun intended) is slugish. Age of Empires + Star Craft. gameplay wise are still better.
2020
Well, it's an excellent made game. It's entertaining, complex and challenging.
At the same time, it's very hollow in its content/message.
Since I've put into this game 100+ hours, my partner asked - "do you think it's the best game of all time? Do you think it deserves last year's GOTY status?"
I answered yes, to the latter question. And to the former - I came up with this analogy: Is Lord of the Rings - Return of the King the best movie ever? Remind you - it got all the main Oscars when it was released. Well, I'd say no. It's very entertaining and I love to rewatch the Director's Cut once every 2-3 years, but at the same time - it doesn't change me, or add or subtract anything from my personality/worldview or pardon me - my soul.
I felt the same here - I'd love to play it again in a year or two, but would I call - it the best game ever made? I'm not sure.
Now, when I finished it, I'm thinking - is it worth GOTY status, if I finished the game last year? Actually - I'm not sure either.
Again, it's a great Game, it's very entertaining and I loved my time with it, but I can't feel that it changed something in me like a great piece of art usually does.
Not all games indeed have to have some sort of message (emotional, political, social, personal etc), but for some reason, its absence here was the most evident. Its silence was loud.
People steal, kill, fuck, and lie in real life and dressing them as elves, giths, gnomes, dwarfs or illithids doesn't make it more transcendental, otherworldly or magic. It's like a kinky dress, that the game likes to drop at you, so when you have a sex scene, your character looks "as an object of lust and coolness", at least in the way how Larian imagines it.
The thing is, I don't need my partner to wear lingerie - so I have a boner.
At the same time, it's very hollow in its content/message.
Since I've put into this game 100+ hours, my partner asked - "do you think it's the best game of all time? Do you think it deserves last year's GOTY status?"
I answered yes, to the latter question. And to the former - I came up with this analogy: Is Lord of the Rings - Return of the King the best movie ever? Remind you - it got all the main Oscars when it was released. Well, I'd say no. It's very entertaining and I love to rewatch the Director's Cut once every 2-3 years, but at the same time - it doesn't change me, or add or subtract anything from my personality/worldview or pardon me - my soul.
I felt the same here - I'd love to play it again in a year or two, but would I call - it the best game ever made? I'm not sure.
Now, when I finished it, I'm thinking - is it worth GOTY status, if I finished the game last year? Actually - I'm not sure either.
Again, it's a great Game, it's very entertaining and I loved my time with it, but I can't feel that it changed something in me like a great piece of art usually does.
Not all games indeed have to have some sort of message (emotional, political, social, personal etc), but for some reason, its absence here was the most evident. Its silence was loud.
People steal, kill, fuck, and lie in real life and dressing them as elves, giths, gnomes, dwarfs or illithids doesn't make it more transcendental, otherworldly or magic. It's like a kinky dress, that the game likes to drop at you, so when you have a sex scene, your character looks "as an object of lust and coolness", at least in the way how Larian imagines it.
The thing is, I don't need my partner to wear lingerie - so I have a boner.
2014
Actually, I played it when it was released back in a day: 2010 or so.
So when I launched Vampire Survivors for the first time I was surprised at how it reminds me of this game. It’s funny to read reviews now and see a comparison in a reversed order.
The game still holds up but I take half a star for an abysmal gamepad controller on a PS5. The aim always reverts to a default position so I have to pull a stick all the time in order to keep it under control. Such a stupid thing.
So when I launched Vampire Survivors for the first time I was surprised at how it reminds me of this game. It’s funny to read reviews now and see a comparison in a reversed order.
The game still holds up but I take half a star for an abysmal gamepad controller on a PS5. The aim always reverts to a default position so I have to pull a stick all the time in order to keep it under control. Such a stupid thing.
2014
It's cool, but the aesthetic threw me off or should I say - it didn't carry me through the rest of the game. When the extensive base building starts - the game loses that mysterious, a bit even horror-ish atmosphere and it becomes like a terraria - go, explore, dig, build, repeat. Outer Wilds has the same low poly style but somehow manages to stay scary sometimes, this one is not.
2021
Relaxing
Good graphics, cool world-building expansion, cool new biomes, new tools and at least some new interesting characters that don't worship Aloy like everyone else in the original game.
Multiplayer review only.
I don't understand why people are mad about CoD campaigns and take them so seriously. It's like being offended that new Expandable movie is a dogshit. Though, I don't play campaigns, because I don't want to spend hours in a linear scripted corridor like this.
Multiplayer is really good and addictive. It's actually so good that my partner started to play CoD too, though she isn't a gamer at all and actually doesn't care about videogames.
TTK is much better than in MW2 and gunplay is so good.
Maps are cool.
No music, which is a bit disappointing.
I don't understand why people are mad about CoD campaigns and take them so seriously. It's like being offended that new Expandable movie is a dogshit. Though, I don't play campaigns, because I don't want to spend hours in a linear scripted corridor like this.
Multiplayer is really good and addictive. It's actually so good that my partner started to play CoD too, though she isn't a gamer at all and actually doesn't care about videogames.
TTK is much better than in MW2 and gunplay is so good.
Maps are cool.
No music, which is a bit disappointing.
2023
It's one of the games that I immensely respect and appreciate but don't particularly like or even love.
It's the most Remedy game that you can play, which is good and bad.
I know that there are people like RedLetterMedia who think that films like Blob, Gremlins2 or Suspiria (1977) are the best movies ever, and it's totally fine with me. I can enjoy such pieces and have a lot of appreciation for them, but what I can't do - is to say that they are masterpieces and paradigms or life-changing experiences for me.
Remedy always had this "B-movie" take on games.
I think it works best when it's either very simplistic, like Max Payne 1,2, or when it's over the top, like here in AW2. Everything in between always fell flat for me. That's why AW and Control were very 'meeeeeh".
I think AW2 is a very good game and an important one because it's a rare case in 2023 of the "Author" in the game industry. I respect this a lot.
But man, a graphomania in Remedy's games drives me nuts.
It's the most Remedy game that you can play, which is good and bad.
I know that there are people like RedLetterMedia who think that films like Blob, Gremlins2 or Suspiria (1977) are the best movies ever, and it's totally fine with me. I can enjoy such pieces and have a lot of appreciation for them, but what I can't do - is to say that they are masterpieces and paradigms or life-changing experiences for me.
Remedy always had this "B-movie" take on games.
I think it works best when it's either very simplistic, like Max Payne 1,2, or when it's over the top, like here in AW2. Everything in between always fell flat for me. That's why AW and Control were very 'meeeeeh".
I think AW2 is a very good game and an important one because it's a rare case in 2023 of the "Author" in the game industry. I respect this a lot.
But man, a graphomania in Remedy's games drives me nuts.
2023
A typical example of when everyone here says how generic, boring, and predictable this is and yet it makes and will continue to hit highs and sales. As they say in fighting: he's not a champ, but he is a people's champ.
prrrrram-tam-tam
tadaram-tararam
tadaram-tararam
I bought the game for two reasons:
To support FromSoftware - one of the best companies out there.
And just to feel the FS art direction and design once again.
Obviously, it's not a dark souls like the game, but all recognisable FS elements are here: decay, huge spaces, a dying world, the feeling of loneliness and giant bosses.
To me, it's enough.
Let's see if I actually like mechs now.
To support FromSoftware - one of the best companies out there.
And just to feel the FS art direction and design once again.
Obviously, it's not a dark souls like the game, but all recognisable FS elements are here: decay, huge spaces, a dying world, the feeling of loneliness and giant bosses.
To me, it's enough.
Let's see if I actually like mechs now.
2023
I'd say wait a few seasons to see where it goes.
The core problem with IV is the same as I had with D3 - a loot isn't fun. The game gives you unique items every 20 minutes, which is an oxymoron. If they are so frequent - how can they be unique?
After finishing the main campaign (why they killed Kain in D3? so stupid) I went back to Diablo 2 Resurrected.
For a number of reasons:
1) Loot. You have to grind and earn it. It took me a couple of months in order to get Harley Shako. But when I got it - it was such a blast. I really get excited because I have to earn stuff. You can think of like in Dark Souls paradigm. It's hard but feels so good.
2) Loot - and how it looks. All unique items look cool and they really have a unique look for each item. Here in D4 - it all looks the same. It's a shame. And items preview - why are they so tiny? I want to LOOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL thing with Zooming lens of glasses.
3) Art direction. To me D4 is really good made and competent game. But I can't remember any music, any monster (except the skeleton-bow-towers) and any location from it.
Yes, I see that a lot of work was put into this. But it feels so generic. I'm sorry. And I don't even bring up that it lacks the established Blizzard art direction (bulky as fuck characters and high level of Masculine over-the-top body shapes).
Every time I boot up D2R - each location has a unique sound effects with weird SFX, monsters are unique and there are many of them, everything is so consistent, focused and well-thought. It's not only well made but made with intention and direction.
And finally
When I see on twitter smt like: "The first player who hits 1 000 000 damage" - it says that something is wrong with the game, when coolest what you can take from it is amount of zeros and nulls.
Thanks but I'm good with numbers and numericals when I apply my yearly tax form.
The core problem with IV is the same as I had with D3 - a loot isn't fun. The game gives you unique items every 20 minutes, which is an oxymoron. If they are so frequent - how can they be unique?
After finishing the main campaign (why they killed Kain in D3? so stupid) I went back to Diablo 2 Resurrected.
For a number of reasons:
1) Loot. You have to grind and earn it. It took me a couple of months in order to get Harley Shako. But when I got it - it was such a blast. I really get excited because I have to earn stuff. You can think of like in Dark Souls paradigm. It's hard but feels so good.
2) Loot - and how it looks. All unique items look cool and they really have a unique look for each item. Here in D4 - it all looks the same. It's a shame. And items preview - why are they so tiny? I want to LOOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL thing with Zooming lens of glasses.
3) Art direction. To me D4 is really good made and competent game. But I can't remember any music, any monster (except the skeleton-bow-towers) and any location from it.
Yes, I see that a lot of work was put into this. But it feels so generic. I'm sorry. And I don't even bring up that it lacks the established Blizzard art direction (bulky as fuck characters and high level of Masculine over-the-top body shapes).
Every time I boot up D2R - each location has a unique sound effects with weird SFX, monsters are unique and there are many of them, everything is so consistent, focused and well-thought. It's not only well made but made with intention and direction.
And finally
When I see on twitter smt like: "The first player who hits 1 000 000 damage" - it says that something is wrong with the game, when coolest what you can take from it is amount of zeros and nulls.
Thanks but I'm good with numbers and numericals when I apply my yearly tax form.