its fine. the game itself is in the best state its been in in years, and there are no major pain points so far that tend to flare up with games that ask so much of the player. however, it just feels fine. by far the most excitement i have felt so far is the expansion launch ritual of seeing all the old clan again after a couple years.

in all likelihood, i'm going to follow the same pattern of playing this for a couple months and then wandering away again like i have for the last 3-4 expansions. that being said, unlike the last expansion, i'm not going to be walking away out of frustration.

still does not stand up to the part time job sort of playstyle bungie can sometimes ask of the player, but the environments and art style in this are still some of the most extravagant in any sort of modern visual medium.

due to sunsetting, you now have to play the mind numbingly tedious DLC drops in order to have the gear to be ready for day 1 raids. i no longer have the time and patience for engaging with the parts of the game i don't enjoy, so deep stone crypt was probably my last day 1 raid. while experiencing this previously entirely unknown activity with 5 other players is one of the greatest gaming experiences you could ever have, its questionable if its worth all of the work throughout the year to make sure you are ready for it.

im just gonna set this to played so i can keep track of my thoughts.

03-09-2022
the dedicated mounted fights are the worst boss encounters they have ever made. not a single thing about mounted combat feels satisfying to me. i'm also becoming less and less convinced around all the summons. i get that its basically an in game easy mode, and thats fine, but i cant help that nagging feeling that some of these bosses are built specifically with the summons in mind. the act of using them just makes the fights feel less readable and more chaotic, so it feels a bit like a lose lose for me personally.

honestly theres been a whole hell of a lot of feeling like i'm either underpowered or overpowered. its definitely the least satisfying feeling souls game so far as far as combat goes. either i'm fighting like usual using my whole melee toolkit and feeling like i'm underpowered compared to a souls game, or i'm bloody slashing everything into bits feeling like an absolute god. i've had a pretty consistent feeling of being out of place much of the game.

03-06-2022
its so funny i was ever worried this game was going to be easier than any of the other games. by the time i finished stormveil, i thought i was at least nearing the halfway point just based on what i could make out from the map.

03-05-2022
OHHhhhh the rennala intro oh my god, the chorus of children. absolutely beautiful, the gold and blue tones to the arena. completely superb shit, im punching the air, im hollering.

3/3/02, cleared the map all around godrick, just killed godrick.

im unsold on the open world when it comes to really sparking that fire in me that most locations in the souls games do. however, jesus christ did they nail the loop. i rarely find myself playing late into the night, but i keep getting stuck in that "ok i'll just check out one more spot".

-i'm not sure i'm understanding the combat just yet, two handed uchigatana feels less impactful than it ever felt in ds. struggling really hard until i gave up and put a shield on, and guard counter + poise break feels absurdly strong. not sure i like that, but maybe they accounted for the dodge roll two handed builds somewhere in the itemization and i just haven't found it yet. the enemies and bosses are great, i just for the first time am not sold about a combat addition in a FROM game.

30 minutes prior to credits rolling i would have given it a 2, but ... i dont know. i've never played a game where my opinion has swung so drastically from minute to minute. probably an unnecessary amount of misery in here to really drive the point home, but it did contrast with the humanity really well.

going through and finally playing all the big budget sony exclusive games throughout the PS4 lifespan, and i think this one is my favorite.

the sound design is unbelievable. the gameplay is unbelievable. the animations are some of the most polished and refined i have ever seen (minus the jumping one).

its disappointing to me the general reception this game got from the vocal pop culture nerd crowd.

i thought it would be interesting to revisit this game after dropping it a week after launch, maybe i'd find something to like. i didn't. this is the most disappointing game i have ever played.

i still can't believe they chose this tone for the story, its an 80s sunday morning cartoon where every 30 second map is a new episode that is tangentially related to the previous one. this COULD work, but they also managed to forget to include a shred of charm that makes those 80s cartoons enjoyable to watch. there are no stakes, no threat to fear, nothing to overcome. its just a schizophrenic romp through the countryside, until you bump into diablo and he falls over dead.

the combat would be fine, but it was an enormous mistake to allow the player to constantly change difficulty levels at will. either you are brain dead cutting down monsters with one hit, or you are spending 45 seconds on each one. either way it never really feels great. never really feels like your character is becoming more powerful.

all i did was complete the campaign. didn't experience the infinite paragon grind myself, but jesus what an awful idea to never give players the satisfaction of beating the game. having gotten into path of exile over the last few months, the biggest difference between the two of them imo is how poe allows the player to feel like they have won, to have beaten the game. hell, poe allows the player, through perfectly manipulating the dozens and dozens of character creation systems, to bend the game over onto itself, to the point where it feels like the game and servers can barely handle it.

all in all, this is a game that does not feel like it respects you. it feels like the game openly considers you to be the rat in the skinner box. no thoughts, just press button get reward. diablo 3 just seems to be an infinite, never changing, grind.

just finished it. up until i got to the red forest, i was ready to mark this down in my all time favorites. the atmosphere is pretty much unmatched, i loved every second of trudging through the countryside getting into skirmishes with bandits and dogs. i loved the horror atmosphere of the bunkers as well, incredibly done.

really did not enjoy the final three maps though. the hardest difficulty setting felt good up until the red forest, where suddenly nearly every piece of cover is radiated, you can be fighting a dozen enemies at once coming from all angles, and any bed / vendor is a good 15 minute walk away. the final two maps, while still having a relatively wide arena, turn the game into one long hallway packed with too many human enemies and too many invisible enviornmental hazards. i played through the final two maps at night as well, where there was basically no visibility whatsoever. this is probably my fault, but a twenty minute walk to find a bed to sleep in to pass the time just did not seem fun to me at all.

that being said, i think this is a fantastic game that is worth a playthrough. i've made at least 4 attempts to get into this game over the years, and i'm glad that i found the patience to appreciate the jank. can't wait to check out the rest of the series.