jobosno
BACKER
I always have a hard time succinctly describing my feelings on this game, because it's one of the best superhero games I've ever played and yet just thinking about playing it is exhausting on some level. When the fights are at their best, it's about as good as Arkham-style combat can be, forcing you to do a little dance of managing smaller orcs while trying to work your way around the captain's specific resistances and immunities. There are always credible threats to your health, but there are so many ways to turn things in your favor that it doesn't really ruin the power fantasy when your near-death experience is also a chance to instantly counter and decapitate some idiot loser who thinks this is his chance to kill you.
I just... don't care about the rest of it? The world is too big and the regions feel too similar, there's more Nemesis interactions than the previous game but when you get to a higher level it's just too exhausting to keep track of all of them. There's like a hundred of these bozos and they're all mad at me for cutting their arm off and buddy, get in line. I don't care about gear! I don't care about sending hitmen to rival captains or customizing my Tolkien tigers to spit Baja Blast or Code Red during a siege. These systems aren't really deep enough to feel like you're doing anything, and they have almost no stakes other than one more orc yelling at you. It's primarily exhausting because the player is obviously meant to find them equally compelling - unless you're dying constantly, deciding to go out and do the fun part of the game (running into a fort and killing the strong guys) means you just... win? The way the AI generates new characters isn't frequent or aggressive enough to counter the player, even when the difficulty is cranked up. It's truly a bizarre design decision to have the player beset on all sides by uncountable hordes of enemies in the plot and then decide in the gameplay that the AI armies will never chip away at your gains unless you let them. Those late-game fights against strong captains forcing you to get creative single-handedly carry this to a low 7/10 score, because without the variety in combat, even the nemesis system couldn't save the mess created by tacking on all these other systems.
I just... don't care about the rest of it? The world is too big and the regions feel too similar, there's more Nemesis interactions than the previous game but when you get to a higher level it's just too exhausting to keep track of all of them. There's like a hundred of these bozos and they're all mad at me for cutting their arm off and buddy, get in line. I don't care about gear! I don't care about sending hitmen to rival captains or customizing my Tolkien tigers to spit Baja Blast or Code Red during a siege. These systems aren't really deep enough to feel like you're doing anything, and they have almost no stakes other than one more orc yelling at you. It's primarily exhausting because the player is obviously meant to find them equally compelling - unless you're dying constantly, deciding to go out and do the fun part of the game (running into a fort and killing the strong guys) means you just... win? The way the AI generates new characters isn't frequent or aggressive enough to counter the player, even when the difficulty is cranked up. It's truly a bizarre design decision to have the player beset on all sides by uncountable hordes of enemies in the plot and then decide in the gameplay that the AI armies will never chip away at your gains unless you let them. Those late-game fights against strong captains forcing you to get creative single-handedly carry this to a low 7/10 score, because without the variety in combat, even the nemesis system couldn't save the mess created by tacking on all these other systems.
2022
I have spent many years trying to find an Ip Man simulator. I don't want a game where you go on the offensive. I want the game where trouble comes to me. I am going to sit there, one hundred dudes will do their best to punch me, they will fail, and I will make them all look silly in the process. I don't want some two-button auto-fighting combat system, I want to feel like I'm doing something.
Sifu mostly delivers! I played Absolver, I played the Arkham games, I played Sleeping Dogs, I played Overgrowth, I played Yakuza. Sifu's probably the closest it comes to being Donnie Yen. So it probably makes sense that at any point during Sifu, I probably would tell you that I'm having a fucking blast in that moment. But! I want a little more. I want more game, of course, but what I really mean is that I feel like a lot of Sifu is either undercooked or underutilized.
There are some cool scenes! If you've heard anything about the game, you've heard about the Oldboy hallway. The museum is probably my favorite area in the game between the big ink pendulum thing and the way it plays with your vision on the way to the boss. But the environment mostly feels like it's there because they need something that doesn't look like you're running through a level blockout. When they want you to play with the environments it's some of the most fun you'll have with the game - the museum exhibits, all the clutter in the high-rise level, the parts of the nightclub where you're allowed to interact with objects. The game really wants you to only use weapons when they deem fit though, judging by the barren combat corridors that exist all throughout the game. Some of these encounters would be a little more interesting if I could be more inventive with how I use my environment outside of a couple rooms.
Weapons are a little weird and I wish they found a better balance with them? They can be fun when the enemies pose a threat and you're actually forced to use them wisely, but I only really feel like these are used to full effect against bosses - catching kunai that a boss is throwing at you and airmailing it back to its original sender is as satisfying as an entire fight all on its own, but more often you are either given one or zero weapons when fighting a boss. Sure, that's fine, design decision, that's cool. But it's weird that it comes immediately after a level where I had a bat in my hand the entire time because almost every enemy in the level had a bat or knife, and I could replace my weapon 4 times over before the first one would've broken.
I also feel like the upgrades are missing something. I probably only used 30% of the upgrades in the game intentionally, and that includes both the statue upgrades and the skill... totem pole? It feels like the developers want to extend a hand to you and offer you the chance to make incremental, permanent progress, but these upgrades feel mostly meaningless. There are a couple moves/combos you can use to cheese your way through a boss but there's no real reason to do so if you want Sifu's combat to retain its charm.
Bosses are Sifu's biggest strength. They feel like this is what the game was meant to be about, which is why it's so weird that there's only five of them. The lead-up to each boss plays with the environment, and four of the five encounters are actual, real skill checks. Each of them will slap the soul out of you if you don't understand the skill they're testing. It's effective teaching, and each boss makes you better at the game overall when you need to go back to previous levels and beat them at a younger age. I do think the game would benefit from having more difficulty options, because the bosses seem to assume that you've played the way I did and only do the bare minimum until the game tests you on a skill - button mashing until the game demands you actually defend, blocking until the game insists that you learn how to dodge, etc. People who mastered these early (or learn quickly) are going to cruise through the game much faster. It really leaves me wishing that there were more bosses that tested you on multiple things at once, or forced you to adapt a bit more. No boss tests your positioning against multiple enemies, none have any real mixups. If any Sifu DLC ever gets released, I hope that it includes some endgame bosses that really, truly test the player who's able to make it to the end.
Lastly, I don't want to undersell the fights against standard, non-boss enemies. The fights against crowds are mostly a joke to begin with - it's what allows that Oldboy reference to actually resemble the movie - but they become a genuine thrill as special enemies are mixed in. Unlike the Arkham games, where special enemies are more of a nuisance than anything ("spam dodge until you get a chance to press The One Button That Kills This Kind of Guy"), special enemies in Sifu feel like a welcome challenge. They apply additional - but not overwhelming - pressure to the player, forcing you to change the way you defend to create new opportunities to attack while still keeping up with the rest of the mob. I enjoy doing the entire museum level all over again (despite having the shortcut) just so I can do the last chunk before the boss where they confine you to a small area while mixing in a bunch of dancers and grapplers.
There's a lot to like here, but I wish the environments and enemies were more alive OR more varied. Its gameplay scratches an itch for me that Absolver never did, being a little bit faster with a lower skill floor (while still making progress towards the skill ceiling feel meaningful and exciting). I really hope Sloclap decides to do more with this system, no matter what form it takes.
Sifu mostly delivers! I played Absolver, I played the Arkham games, I played Sleeping Dogs, I played Overgrowth, I played Yakuza. Sifu's probably the closest it comes to being Donnie Yen. So it probably makes sense that at any point during Sifu, I probably would tell you that I'm having a fucking blast in that moment. But! I want a little more. I want more game, of course, but what I really mean is that I feel like a lot of Sifu is either undercooked or underutilized.
There are some cool scenes! If you've heard anything about the game, you've heard about the Oldboy hallway. The museum is probably my favorite area in the game between the big ink pendulum thing and the way it plays with your vision on the way to the boss. But the environment mostly feels like it's there because they need something that doesn't look like you're running through a level blockout. When they want you to play with the environments it's some of the most fun you'll have with the game - the museum exhibits, all the clutter in the high-rise level, the parts of the nightclub where you're allowed to interact with objects. The game really wants you to only use weapons when they deem fit though, judging by the barren combat corridors that exist all throughout the game. Some of these encounters would be a little more interesting if I could be more inventive with how I use my environment outside of a couple rooms.
Weapons are a little weird and I wish they found a better balance with them? They can be fun when the enemies pose a threat and you're actually forced to use them wisely, but I only really feel like these are used to full effect against bosses - catching kunai that a boss is throwing at you and airmailing it back to its original sender is as satisfying as an entire fight all on its own, but more often you are either given one or zero weapons when fighting a boss. Sure, that's fine, design decision, that's cool. But it's weird that it comes immediately after a level where I had a bat in my hand the entire time because almost every enemy in the level had a bat or knife, and I could replace my weapon 4 times over before the first one would've broken.
I also feel like the upgrades are missing something. I probably only used 30% of the upgrades in the game intentionally, and that includes both the statue upgrades and the skill... totem pole? It feels like the developers want to extend a hand to you and offer you the chance to make incremental, permanent progress, but these upgrades feel mostly meaningless. There are a couple moves/combos you can use to cheese your way through a boss but there's no real reason to do so if you want Sifu's combat to retain its charm.
Bosses are Sifu's biggest strength. They feel like this is what the game was meant to be about, which is why it's so weird that there's only five of them. The lead-up to each boss plays with the environment, and four of the five encounters are actual, real skill checks. Each of them will slap the soul out of you if you don't understand the skill they're testing. It's effective teaching, and each boss makes you better at the game overall when you need to go back to previous levels and beat them at a younger age. I do think the game would benefit from having more difficulty options, because the bosses seem to assume that you've played the way I did and only do the bare minimum until the game tests you on a skill - button mashing until the game demands you actually defend, blocking until the game insists that you learn how to dodge, etc. People who mastered these early (or learn quickly) are going to cruise through the game much faster. It really leaves me wishing that there were more bosses that tested you on multiple things at once, or forced you to adapt a bit more. No boss tests your positioning against multiple enemies, none have any real mixups. If any Sifu DLC ever gets released, I hope that it includes some endgame bosses that really, truly test the player who's able to make it to the end.
Lastly, I don't want to undersell the fights against standard, non-boss enemies. The fights against crowds are mostly a joke to begin with - it's what allows that Oldboy reference to actually resemble the movie - but they become a genuine thrill as special enemies are mixed in. Unlike the Arkham games, where special enemies are more of a nuisance than anything ("spam dodge until you get a chance to press The One Button That Kills This Kind of Guy"), special enemies in Sifu feel like a welcome challenge. They apply additional - but not overwhelming - pressure to the player, forcing you to change the way you defend to create new opportunities to attack while still keeping up with the rest of the mob. I enjoy doing the entire museum level all over again (despite having the shortcut) just so I can do the last chunk before the boss where they confine you to a small area while mixing in a bunch of dancers and grapplers.
There's a lot to like here, but I wish the environments and enemies were more alive OR more varied. Its gameplay scratches an itch for me that Absolver never did, being a little bit faster with a lower skill floor (while still making progress towards the skill ceiling feel meaningful and exciting). I really hope Sloclap decides to do more with this system, no matter what form it takes.
2021
Mostly impressed by the people who are able to find this relaxing. If the game weren't so insistent on outlining everything in little red lines I would probably be endorsing it as a little therapeutic adventure, but as time went on I found myself just flying through the levels, taking all the shit and putting it on the floor so I could just see those red lines as quickly as possible and figure out why the MC is so damn insistent that putting the microwave 8 feet up on top of a cabinet is better than leaving it on the countertop.
I really enjoyed one or two of these, mostly the ones with the most room for creativity, but unfortunately the game is a lot more interested in providing a dump truck full of little trinkets for you to use to cobble together a story. I don't think this is inherently bad! But I had a lot more fun arranging the GF's collection of horror movie merch than I did finding spots for the horribly bland MC's collection of Eiffel Tower souvenirs. There are a handful of very obvious plot points that nobody is going to miss, but it seems that most of what people enjoy about this game is the story that they've projected onto it. There's a chapter where the main character moves in with The Worst Video Game Boyfriend of the Year who the devs tried very hard not to make "too cartoonishly terrible" and his biggest crimes are... picking an overly grayscale apartment and having hobbies that are a little too "adult Redditor"? Zero sympathy for the main character trying to hang her movie poster-sized diploma in every apartment for the next 20 years after she graduates. Under the bed is absolutely the perfect spot. These two deserve each other.
Yeah, I've pretty thoroughly soured on this game at this point, having played through the whole thing and mostly feeling like the game doesn't have a real point that it's making. Life events happen? You can tell a lot about a person through their belongings? Clutter bad? Really makes you think! I could tell you almost nothing about this person, but I know enough to find them deeply annoying. The power of games!
I really enjoyed one or two of these, mostly the ones with the most room for creativity, but unfortunately the game is a lot more interested in providing a dump truck full of little trinkets for you to use to cobble together a story. I don't think this is inherently bad! But I had a lot more fun arranging the GF's collection of horror movie merch than I did finding spots for the horribly bland MC's collection of Eiffel Tower souvenirs. There are a handful of very obvious plot points that nobody is going to miss, but it seems that most of what people enjoy about this game is the story that they've projected onto it. There's a chapter where the main character moves in with The Worst Video Game Boyfriend of the Year who the devs tried very hard not to make "too cartoonishly terrible" and his biggest crimes are... picking an overly grayscale apartment and having hobbies that are a little too "adult Redditor"? Zero sympathy for the main character trying to hang her movie poster-sized diploma in every apartment for the next 20 years after she graduates. Under the bed is absolutely the perfect spot. These two deserve each other.
Yeah, I've pretty thoroughly soured on this game at this point, having played through the whole thing and mostly feeling like the game doesn't have a real point that it's making. Life events happen? You can tell a lot about a person through their belongings? Clutter bad? Really makes you think! I could tell you almost nothing about this person, but I know enough to find them deeply annoying. The power of games!
2019
Every time I come back to this game I have a blast with it, but I really only find myself coming back to it for a round or two every couple of months. The game has a lot of things that really make it click and a lot of elements that really... don't. Oftentimes they're the same features!
Risk of Rain 2 is really good at producing those runs that would be really memorable in any other roguelike - the ones where it feels like RNG has made everything come together. You've got a coherent build, the random elements have mainly been on your side and now you stroll through the levels completely uninhibited, a walking god. My primary issue with Risk of Rain 2 is that these are just... too easy to get?
Given that just by surviving you'll get new items that make you stronger, the difficulty of any given run tapers off pretty hard. Even playing on the highest difficulty (Monsoon, the one available in standard game modes) doesn't do a whole hell of a lot to change this, with the first ten minutes still being that same waiting game to see whether you get wiped, or if you live long enough to get items. After this point, it's possible to die if the game ratfucks you by spawning enough of a couple particularly annoying enemy types, but given a few runs and enough knowledge of the monsters, your run is more likely to end when everyone in the party is able to one-shot the entire screen with a single mouse click, with everyone sitting down to decide "should we one-shot the final boss now, or wait another loop?"
It never really feels like there's a middle ground where you're just scraping by - unless you're playing with friends. If you die, your friends can revive you by beating the level, which means you've missed out on an entire stage worth of items and are more likely to die in the upcoming stage, thus repeating the cycle until you're just repeatedly getting one-shot by the one enemy your friends weren't able to wipe out with AoE attacks. Frankly I wish there were a more multiplayer-friendly character, a more support-oriented class. Yes, it would be less optimal than just pumping out damage, but currently the only Survivor who can really protect allies is the Engineer, and that's not really an active decision on their part. I want something that can enable the group I'm playing with to have fun.
Side note: Yes, you can play with Artifacts on - big gameplay modifiers that are typically presented as a tradeoff (enemies drop items, but chests no longer spawn, etc), but in my experience you will never get a party of people to agree on this since everyone has a love/hate relationship with each individual Artifact (except for the purist, who hates all Artifacts).
Looking back over what I've written so far, it sounds far more negative than the 9/10 I've currently given this game. But I think both the rating and what I've said so far accurately represent my feelings about this game: this game is great when things are going well, but there are so many ways that fun can be soured - die too early, die too often in multiplayer, get your ass cooked by 40 elder lemurians at once, die because you picked up too many movespeed items, or reach the point where you can one-shot your entire screen (which, admittedly, is fun for a little while in the same way that enabling cheats is in any other game). There are so many ways this game can suck. As mentioned before, though, if you can stop yourself from dying early and survive long enough to get a few items, steadily ramping up your power to ludicrous levels is so gratifying despite being far easier to do here than in any other roguelite I've played.
If you have any interest in roguelites and aren't turned off by this one being a shooter, give it a shot. Playing with friends might help you get into this game, but if you're having an awful time due to some of the elements listed above, I'd suggest playing on your own and looking up how to unlock some of the other characters since the ones you start with have (in my opinion) some of the least satisfying gameplay hooks of any of them. Try not to take too long looting each stage once you've found the teleporter - the difficulty constantly ticks up as time goes on and spending too long looking for items is a deathtrap, especially on higher difficulties.
Risk of Rain 2 is really good at producing those runs that would be really memorable in any other roguelike - the ones where it feels like RNG has made everything come together. You've got a coherent build, the random elements have mainly been on your side and now you stroll through the levels completely uninhibited, a walking god. My primary issue with Risk of Rain 2 is that these are just... too easy to get?
Given that just by surviving you'll get new items that make you stronger, the difficulty of any given run tapers off pretty hard. Even playing on the highest difficulty (Monsoon, the one available in standard game modes) doesn't do a whole hell of a lot to change this, with the first ten minutes still being that same waiting game to see whether you get wiped, or if you live long enough to get items. After this point, it's possible to die if the game ratfucks you by spawning enough of a couple particularly annoying enemy types, but given a few runs and enough knowledge of the monsters, your run is more likely to end when everyone in the party is able to one-shot the entire screen with a single mouse click, with everyone sitting down to decide "should we one-shot the final boss now, or wait another loop?"
It never really feels like there's a middle ground where you're just scraping by - unless you're playing with friends. If you die, your friends can revive you by beating the level, which means you've missed out on an entire stage worth of items and are more likely to die in the upcoming stage, thus repeating the cycle until you're just repeatedly getting one-shot by the one enemy your friends weren't able to wipe out with AoE attacks. Frankly I wish there were a more multiplayer-friendly character, a more support-oriented class. Yes, it would be less optimal than just pumping out damage, but currently the only Survivor who can really protect allies is the Engineer, and that's not really an active decision on their part. I want something that can enable the group I'm playing with to have fun.
Side note: Yes, you can play with Artifacts on - big gameplay modifiers that are typically presented as a tradeoff (enemies drop items, but chests no longer spawn, etc), but in my experience you will never get a party of people to agree on this since everyone has a love/hate relationship with each individual Artifact (except for the purist, who hates all Artifacts).
Looking back over what I've written so far, it sounds far more negative than the 9/10 I've currently given this game. But I think both the rating and what I've said so far accurately represent my feelings about this game: this game is great when things are going well, but there are so many ways that fun can be soured - die too early, die too often in multiplayer, get your ass cooked by 40 elder lemurians at once, die because you picked up too many movespeed items, or reach the point where you can one-shot your entire screen (which, admittedly, is fun for a little while in the same way that enabling cheats is in any other game). There are so many ways this game can suck. As mentioned before, though, if you can stop yourself from dying early and survive long enough to get a few items, steadily ramping up your power to ludicrous levels is so gratifying despite being far easier to do here than in any other roguelite I've played.
If you have any interest in roguelites and aren't turned off by this one being a shooter, give it a shot. Playing with friends might help you get into this game, but if you're having an awful time due to some of the elements listed above, I'd suggest playing on your own and looking up how to unlock some of the other characters since the ones you start with have (in my opinion) some of the least satisfying gameplay hooks of any of them. Try not to take too long looting each stage once you've found the teleporter - the difficulty constantly ticks up as time goes on and spending too long looking for items is a deathtrap, especially on higher difficulties.
2022
Spoiler-free
I didn't want to do another list format review but I have so many thoughts about so many different elements here that I'm not going to even bother trying to try writing this out. Oh well! I didn't intend to binge this game but when I started this review I'd put 40 hours into the game over 2.5 days. You'll see a lot of comparisons to DS3 as it's the most recent entry (and the one most fresh in my mind).
- Don't be fooled by the name, it's Dark Souls 4. The bones here are clearly DS3's, but if you're a Souls fan who hated DS3 you should still give it a shot - most of DS3's most objectionable traits are either irrelevant here (due to being a different IP) or have been buffed out. There's a surprising amount of DS2 DNA here as well, from the theming, to the gameplay (power-stancing), and the exploration (Pharros' Lockstones)
- I'm not the type to get riled up by the idea of Souls games getting easier in the first place, but there are so many QOL improvements here that make the game better to play without necessarily being easier. Changing your character's name/appearance at any time, modifying armors to remove cloaks/capes, changing weapon/scaling affinity at any bonfire (without grinding materials!), more throwables/weapon arts blurring the line between melee users and mages. There are so many more options here that allow for more creativity without turning the game into a joke.
- Good GOD the environments in this game. DS already had a way of making you feel tiny, but the sense of scale here triggers something ancient in your brain. Climbing a mountain for hours only to reach the top and see walls as tall as modern skyscrapers overpowers the part of my brain responsible for video game logic and triggers an instinctive feeling of unease. I've played many games, but FromSoft is the only developer capable of eliciting this reaction.
- The new system that lets you chain successful blocks into a followup attack makes defensive playstyles a little more interactive/interesting without simply parry spamming. If you get good at it you can turn some bosses with lower poise into a meme, but it's not going to carry you through the required bosses to advance the plot.
- So far I haven't seen anything as wacky as some of the DLC weapons in DS3 (Aquamarine Dagger, Crow Quills, Door Shield, etc.) save for one weapon. It would be nice to have crazier stuff (assuming I'm not just missing it) but the fact that you can freely swap weapon arts at any bonfire single-handedly makes up for it. Edit: There's plenty of visually weird content here, but nothing as mechanically weird as the above. EDIT: These exist, you just have to do some serious exploring to find them. With the number of weapons in the game, you're going to spend a lot of your time finding boring straight swords, but finding the shield that fires a cannonball or the buckler that unleashes a poisonous snake bite will always be worth the time investment.
- Instead of having DS3's paired weapons, dual-wielding two weapons of the same type gives you the paired weapon attacks on L1 - power-stancing is BACK. I'm dual-wielding twinblades atm (more blades per blade) and I don't think I've ever felt this cool in a FromSoft game.
- Flails! I will always advocate for adding flails to any game but nobody ever does. If I could've made any addition to DS3 it would've been a flail and now I've got my wish in the best form possible.
- Movement is a lot better. The dismounted jump isn't going to blow any minds but it's absolutely better than the absolute joke of a jump in previous games. I've seen people complain about how they chose to "add stealth" to the game and the reality is that stealth already existed in the Souls games, the crouch just makes it less tedious (instead of slowly pressing the analog stick).
- A small negative: With the open-world, the leadups to bosses don't have the same mounting tension that a single, themed level could (think Anor Londo before O&S, or the Grand Archives before the Twin Princes). Story bosses make up for this by being hunkered down in some elaborate complex, field bosses usually make up for it through some other kind of spectacle.
- Multiplayer! You can now set multiple passwords at once for playing with different groups, and there are designated markers to place summoning signs around (and an item to automatically send yours there). Haven't done any PVP yet, will have to revisit this, but co-op is easier than ever and not getting invaded in singleplayer (unless you opt-in via an item) is really quite nice.
- Crafting isn't nearly as bad as I expected and can basically be ignored wholesale if you want to. This will be a dream for ranged players, though, as my crafting menu is like 80% different types of arrows. Only complaint here is that I am now constantly running into situations where I'm poisoned and I can neither make nor buy the anti-poison item yet.
- Bosses have all been fun and fair so far (cleared 2 of the big 5, have fought 3) and have a clear flow of combat. Nothing really feels like bullshit. Unless something serious changes in the last region (and change) I've left to discover I'd say this is the best overall batch of bosses yet and the fights themselves look gorgeous too, from the stages to the movesets. Needs more Royal Rat Authority. EDIT: I probably wouldn't say this is my favorite batch of bosses any longer - large bosses in large arenas leave you feeling like you're constantly running to them instead of hitting them, and late bosses especially have a problem with large AOE attacks that get spammed (which is a bit tedious). It's still a mostly good set of bosses, but the experience is wildly front-loaded, since the bosses that aren't tedious to fight often get re-used elsewhere which ruins the sense of novelty a little bit.
- Lastly - NPCs and hub area: I really like this hub area! They have some intriguing interactions with each other and it's got me genuinely interested in their stories. NPCs in general seem to have more to say on average although I suspect it'll be a lot harder to finish their quests without a guide unless you're routinely visiting areas you've already cleared. Favorites so far are Millicent, and the place that gives you invasion quests that makes me nervous 24/7 even though combat is disabled there.
-----
EDIT: Everything after this point was added after finishing the game. I still stick by everything I wrote above, but if you'd like more in the way of criticisms, this might be what you're looking for. Still keeping things spoiler-free.
- Completed the game around level 130 after 100 hours exactly - this is at a pretty leisurely pace (plenty of coop, plenty of exploring) but by no means a completionist playthrough. My stats are all over the place (no more than 40 in anything, except for 50 Vigor) so you could probably do this a lot earlier with an actual coherent build.
- NPC questlines are still fantastic. I've fully finished Millicent's, Hyetta's, Fia's, and Ranni's, with one of these being especially notable for unlocking an ending, a whole new section of the map, and a kickass boss fight.
- I don't really need a quest log, but as someone who didn't think to keep a journal or anything about where I've run across these NPCs, I do wish I could at least look back on a log of things they've said so I could try to find them at future locations. I also think it would be nice to have some kind of marker that shows me whether or not I've beaten the boss at the end of a cave/catacombs/etc (instead of fast travelling there and seeing if I'm allowed to fast travel out - not the fastest solution!).
- It really feels like they want you to run some kind of hybrid build this time around - running pure dex/str/quality feels like you're really handicapping yourself, especially given how many melee weapons have relatively high fai/int requirements.
-The game really undersells how important it is to kill the white scarab beetles. They often have some stupid good Ash of War abilities that you can get for 5 seconds of time and two R1s. Absolutely goofy. I just ran right past so many of these things because I remember it being explained as "oh they replenish your flasks and shit!"
- It's still nice not being invaded when playing solo, but PVP is pretty miserable for invaders. It's sort of balanced out by the fact that invaders can run some of the busted madness/bleed builds (or that one bugged deathblight build) with the intention of using it in PVP, but I've seen plenty of gank squads in my limited attempts at PVP and that shit always sucks.
- The bosses continue being great for the most part, but the pacing is a little weird as the end basically makes you complete several bosses rapid-fire. Most of the most annoying boss mechanics are limited to optional bosses, but the late game bosses love AOE-ground-pound-bullshit which is pretty annoying, even if you learn to deal with it.
- There's a fairly major change in world state towards the end (similar to the arrival of night in Bloodborne) that fucks with how you use bonfires in one region of the map. It results in some really genuinely intriguing story beats, especially in the hub, but most annoying is how it messes with your ability to play co-op. I assume using the "send sign to summoning pools" thing is how you work around this, but sometimes the summoning pools are placed strangely. Whatever! EDIT: It's not! You're just boned if your friend wants to play co-op in the area most affected by the world state change.
- It is so easy to upgrade weapons in this game. I've managed to get 9 or 10 weapons to +9 or +24 (depending on what kind of upgrade materials they use - basically one step short of being maxed out either way). It takes a LOT of runes if you're buying them from the Maiden Husks, and the bell bearings to enable buying them are often only made available in the late game, but the ability to just straight up buy your way to an upgraded weapon is a lifesaver, especially if you're trying out a new build.
I didn't want to do another list format review but I have so many thoughts about so many different elements here that I'm not going to even bother trying to try writing this out. Oh well! I didn't intend to binge this game but when I started this review I'd put 40 hours into the game over 2.5 days. You'll see a lot of comparisons to DS3 as it's the most recent entry (and the one most fresh in my mind).
- Don't be fooled by the name, it's Dark Souls 4. The bones here are clearly DS3's, but if you're a Souls fan who hated DS3 you should still give it a shot - most of DS3's most objectionable traits are either irrelevant here (due to being a different IP) or have been buffed out. There's a surprising amount of DS2 DNA here as well, from the theming, to the gameplay (power-stancing), and the exploration (Pharros' Lockstones)
- I'm not the type to get riled up by the idea of Souls games getting easier in the first place, but there are so many QOL improvements here that make the game better to play without necessarily being easier. Changing your character's name/appearance at any time, modifying armors to remove cloaks/capes, changing weapon/scaling affinity at any bonfire (without grinding materials!), more throwables/weapon arts blurring the line between melee users and mages. There are so many more options here that allow for more creativity without turning the game into a joke.
- Good GOD the environments in this game. DS already had a way of making you feel tiny, but the sense of scale here triggers something ancient in your brain. Climbing a mountain for hours only to reach the top and see walls as tall as modern skyscrapers overpowers the part of my brain responsible for video game logic and triggers an instinctive feeling of unease. I've played many games, but FromSoft is the only developer capable of eliciting this reaction.
- The new system that lets you chain successful blocks into a followup attack makes defensive playstyles a little more interactive/interesting without simply parry spamming. If you get good at it you can turn some bosses with lower poise into a meme, but it's not going to carry you through the required bosses to advance the plot.
- So far I haven't seen anything as wacky as some of the DLC weapons in DS3 (Aquamarine Dagger, Crow Quills, Door Shield, etc.) save for one weapon. It would be nice to have crazier stuff (assuming I'm not just missing it) but the fact that you can freely swap weapon arts at any bonfire single-handedly makes up for it. Edit: There's plenty of visually weird content here, but nothing as mechanically weird as the above. EDIT: These exist, you just have to do some serious exploring to find them. With the number of weapons in the game, you're going to spend a lot of your time finding boring straight swords, but finding the shield that fires a cannonball or the buckler that unleashes a poisonous snake bite will always be worth the time investment.
- Instead of having DS3's paired weapons, dual-wielding two weapons of the same type gives you the paired weapon attacks on L1 - power-stancing is BACK. I'm dual-wielding twinblades atm (more blades per blade) and I don't think I've ever felt this cool in a FromSoft game.
- Flails! I will always advocate for adding flails to any game but nobody ever does. If I could've made any addition to DS3 it would've been a flail and now I've got my wish in the best form possible.
- Movement is a lot better. The dismounted jump isn't going to blow any minds but it's absolutely better than the absolute joke of a jump in previous games. I've seen people complain about how they chose to "add stealth" to the game and the reality is that stealth already existed in the Souls games, the crouch just makes it less tedious (instead of slowly pressing the analog stick).
- A small negative: With the open-world, the leadups to bosses don't have the same mounting tension that a single, themed level could (think Anor Londo before O&S, or the Grand Archives before the Twin Princes). Story bosses make up for this by being hunkered down in some elaborate complex, field bosses usually make up for it through some other kind of spectacle.
- Multiplayer! You can now set multiple passwords at once for playing with different groups, and there are designated markers to place summoning signs around (and an item to automatically send yours there). Haven't done any PVP yet, will have to revisit this, but co-op is easier than ever and not getting invaded in singleplayer (unless you opt-in via an item) is really quite nice.
- Crafting isn't nearly as bad as I expected and can basically be ignored wholesale if you want to. This will be a dream for ranged players, though, as my crafting menu is like 80% different types of arrows. Only complaint here is that I am now constantly running into situations where I'm poisoned and I can neither make nor buy the anti-poison item yet.
- Bosses have all been fun and fair so far (cleared 2 of the big 5, have fought 3) and have a clear flow of combat. Nothing really feels like bullshit. Unless something serious changes in the last region (and change) I've left to discover I'd say this is the best overall batch of bosses yet and the fights themselves look gorgeous too, from the stages to the movesets. Needs more Royal Rat Authority. EDIT: I probably wouldn't say this is my favorite batch of bosses any longer - large bosses in large arenas leave you feeling like you're constantly running to them instead of hitting them, and late bosses especially have a problem with large AOE attacks that get spammed (which is a bit tedious). It's still a mostly good set of bosses, but the experience is wildly front-loaded, since the bosses that aren't tedious to fight often get re-used elsewhere which ruins the sense of novelty a little bit.
- Lastly - NPCs and hub area: I really like this hub area! They have some intriguing interactions with each other and it's got me genuinely interested in their stories. NPCs in general seem to have more to say on average although I suspect it'll be a lot harder to finish their quests without a guide unless you're routinely visiting areas you've already cleared. Favorites so far are Millicent, and the place that gives you invasion quests that makes me nervous 24/7 even though combat is disabled there.
-----
EDIT: Everything after this point was added after finishing the game. I still stick by everything I wrote above, but if you'd like more in the way of criticisms, this might be what you're looking for. Still keeping things spoiler-free.
- Completed the game around level 130 after 100 hours exactly - this is at a pretty leisurely pace (plenty of coop, plenty of exploring) but by no means a completionist playthrough. My stats are all over the place (no more than 40 in anything, except for 50 Vigor) so you could probably do this a lot earlier with an actual coherent build.
- NPC questlines are still fantastic. I've fully finished Millicent's, Hyetta's, Fia's, and Ranni's, with one of these being especially notable for unlocking an ending, a whole new section of the map, and a kickass boss fight.
- I don't really need a quest log, but as someone who didn't think to keep a journal or anything about where I've run across these NPCs, I do wish I could at least look back on a log of things they've said so I could try to find them at future locations. I also think it would be nice to have some kind of marker that shows me whether or not I've beaten the boss at the end of a cave/catacombs/etc (instead of fast travelling there and seeing if I'm allowed to fast travel out - not the fastest solution!).
- It really feels like they want you to run some kind of hybrid build this time around - running pure dex/str/quality feels like you're really handicapping yourself, especially given how many melee weapons have relatively high fai/int requirements.
-The game really undersells how important it is to kill the white scarab beetles. They often have some stupid good Ash of War abilities that you can get for 5 seconds of time and two R1s. Absolutely goofy. I just ran right past so many of these things because I remember it being explained as "oh they replenish your flasks and shit!"
- It's still nice not being invaded when playing solo, but PVP is pretty miserable for invaders. It's sort of balanced out by the fact that invaders can run some of the busted madness/bleed builds (or that one bugged deathblight build) with the intention of using it in PVP, but I've seen plenty of gank squads in my limited attempts at PVP and that shit always sucks.
- The bosses continue being great for the most part, but the pacing is a little weird as the end basically makes you complete several bosses rapid-fire. Most of the most annoying boss mechanics are limited to optional bosses, but the late game bosses love AOE-ground-pound-bullshit which is pretty annoying, even if you learn to deal with it.
- There's a fairly major change in world state towards the end (similar to the arrival of night in Bloodborne) that fucks with how you use bonfires in one region of the map. It results in some really genuinely intriguing story beats, especially in the hub, but most annoying is how it messes with your ability to play co-op. I assume using the "send sign to summoning pools" thing is how you work around this, but sometimes the summoning pools are placed strangely. Whatever! EDIT: It's not! You're just boned if your friend wants to play co-op in the area most affected by the world state change.
- It is so easy to upgrade weapons in this game. I've managed to get 9 or 10 weapons to +9 or +24 (depending on what kind of upgrade materials they use - basically one step short of being maxed out either way). It takes a LOT of runes if you're buying them from the Maiden Husks, and the bell bearings to enable buying them are often only made available in the late game, but the ability to just straight up buy your way to an upgraded weapon is a lifesaver, especially if you're trying out a new build.
Truly incredible. I saw someone else say that this game can flip flop between being the best game and the worst game in the same ten minutes and good god, they were right on the money.
- This is the most fun I've had with first-person parkour in any game. Not Dying Light 1, not Mirror's Edge. It's a bit floatier than DL1 because you now lightly snap to thin/narrow terrain. After about an hour of play you get used to it. After a little more time and a few more skills, the convoluted paths laid out for early-game Aiden are more a suggestion than anything. This game hits new heights once you can completely disregard the paths laid out before you and blaze your own trail.
- Gear just does not matter at all. You get 5 pieces of gear with bonuses of 1-2% each. I usually just pick whatever gear has XP bonuses.
- Things like the immunity system actually make night and dark areas scary again. Sleeping biters are a fun incentive to come back to places in the middle of the night.
- The new upgrade system sucks. I don't mind the inhibitors, but all the skills in the skill tree feel kind of limp and way too situational to ever be useful. Compared to things like "you get a grappling hook" or "here's unlimited combat stamina" from DL1, the Big Final Perk in each tree is worth less than dirt.
- Rarely, Aiden will giggle or cheer himself on when you do one of the parkour skills you've learned, and it's so goofy and childlike that it's really endearing. I notice it once every 6 hours or so (infrequently enough to avoid annoyance) but it does a lot to make Crane 2 feel more organic than Crane 1 ever did.
- I quite like the new grappling hook! I know people are disappointed it doesn't just let you Spiderman around (it actually uses physics now) but I like this system a little more, feels a little more skillful, a little more interactive.
- The heights of the second half of the map are thrilling! I don't much care for the paraglider and generally try to avoid using it as much as possible, but when you're running on the side of a skyscraper it feels a lot different than making small jumps between mid-rise residential buildings (like those in Old Town in DL1).
- The story. Oh boy the story. I was essentially neutral on the story until the epilogue - the voice acting oscillates between passable and mind-boggling, and Rosario Dawson makes a prominent appearance as an insufferable Marvel character.
- The ending. I'm not going to spoil anything, but in the ending I got on my first run most of what happens was essentially pulled out of thin air. I think I confused the game with my choices because I watched a character shoot themselves in the head in the center of my screen only for the epilogue to say they're ruling the city.
- The faction system had the potential to be interesting but I just cannot bring myself to care about the Survivors at all. They are just a thoroughly charmless group who consistently treat you like you're the biggest asshole they've ever met. I saw no reason to not side with the Peacekeepers until roughly halfway through the story when the game decides some shit needs to happen so I can make some big story choices.
- Why would you remove text chat? Accessibility issues aside, I'm not trying to hear chip bags and music from two rooms over.
- This is the most fun I've had with first-person parkour in any game. Not Dying Light 1, not Mirror's Edge. It's a bit floatier than DL1 because you now lightly snap to thin/narrow terrain. After about an hour of play you get used to it. After a little more time and a few more skills, the convoluted paths laid out for early-game Aiden are more a suggestion than anything. This game hits new heights once you can completely disregard the paths laid out before you and blaze your own trail.
- Gear just does not matter at all. You get 5 pieces of gear with bonuses of 1-2% each. I usually just pick whatever gear has XP bonuses.
- Things like the immunity system actually make night and dark areas scary again. Sleeping biters are a fun incentive to come back to places in the middle of the night.
- The new upgrade system sucks. I don't mind the inhibitors, but all the skills in the skill tree feel kind of limp and way too situational to ever be useful. Compared to things like "you get a grappling hook" or "here's unlimited combat stamina" from DL1, the Big Final Perk in each tree is worth less than dirt.
- Rarely, Aiden will giggle or cheer himself on when you do one of the parkour skills you've learned, and it's so goofy and childlike that it's really endearing. I notice it once every 6 hours or so (infrequently enough to avoid annoyance) but it does a lot to make Crane 2 feel more organic than Crane 1 ever did.
- I quite like the new grappling hook! I know people are disappointed it doesn't just let you Spiderman around (it actually uses physics now) but I like this system a little more, feels a little more skillful, a little more interactive.
- The heights of the second half of the map are thrilling! I don't much care for the paraglider and generally try to avoid using it as much as possible, but when you're running on the side of a skyscraper it feels a lot different than making small jumps between mid-rise residential buildings (like those in Old Town in DL1).
- The story. Oh boy the story. I was essentially neutral on the story until the epilogue - the voice acting oscillates between passable and mind-boggling, and Rosario Dawson makes a prominent appearance as an insufferable Marvel character.
- The ending. I'm not going to spoil anything, but in the ending I got on my first run most of what happens was essentially pulled out of thin air. I think I confused the game with my choices because I watched a character shoot themselves in the head in the center of my screen only for the epilogue to say they're ruling the city.
- The faction system had the potential to be interesting but I just cannot bring myself to care about the Survivors at all. They are just a thoroughly charmless group who consistently treat you like you're the biggest asshole they've ever met. I saw no reason to not side with the Peacekeepers until roughly halfway through the story when the game decides some shit needs to happen so I can make some big story choices.
- Why would you remove text chat? Accessibility issues aside, I'm not trying to hear chip bags and music from two rooms over.
2018
- I can unreservedly say that the environments in this game look gorgeous, but animations in the world vary wildly between being 1. unnecessarily detailed for a top-down MMO played at this level of zoom, and 2. absolutely horrendous, like they were legitimately only half completed
- The big setpiece battles look incredible! The rendered scale of battles here shits all over the battles in Diablo 3 (and similar battles in other Diablo clones). It's the only time during the main campaign where you feel like your character is as powerful as the story says they are. I'm level 40, why am I still killing six boars at a time? Spawn more enemies please.
- Loads of classic MMO bullshit. Classes locked to a certain gender, painfully over-acted dialogue (even for an MMO), horrendously horny animations and armor for any female subclass. I tend to play as female characters in most games and I think this is the first time I've ever been outright embarrassed about it. I've got a fairly high tolerance for it but when I equip all the new, strong armor I get after a dungeon and see my character is wearing dolphin shorts and a... uh... cheongsam crop top(?) it's gonna get an eye roll from me.
- For an MMO it's actually kinda hard to play with your friends? You can party up but you have to go back to the friends list to see where on the map they are, you don't get to see what quest they're doing or where their objective is, but if their objective is "eliminate 10 rats" or w/e you can contribute to that without being aware of it at all. If someone who isn't the party leader tries to start a dungeon it just laughs at you and doesn't notify the party leader at all, so you've gotta tell the party leader what waypoint is closest to you (if they're not on the same map) and have them manually run all the way to the dungeon to start it. Maybe endgame content is easier to coordinate, but boy did they make the main campaign a pain.
- Classes are actually fairly interesting overall, and the ability to modify each skill as you level it provides an opportunity for build variety among each subclass (although not to the same degree as D3). The specialty skills are my favorite part of this system, as it offers you a sort of gameplay "anchor" to build around. Personal favorites are the gunslingers' gun-swapping, the soulfist's 3-tiered damage amp, and the gunlancer's shielding/status immunity.
- I'm not at endgame yet but I've enjoyed my time with it so far. There's a lot of bullshit "mash G until the quest is complete" nonsense mixed in here but fighting stuff is enough of a treat that I'm hoping for something like the rifts from Reaper of Souls once I clear the story. There are a lot of systems here that I haven't had to engage with yet (or don't care to, e.g. housing) but unless this game takes a hard left turn before endgame I'll probably continue to put time into this for a couple more weeks. I can't really see myself coming back to this long-term, though. We'll see if that changes - right now I'm biding my time until I can see what this game looks like once you're truly finished with the story.
- The big setpiece battles look incredible! The rendered scale of battles here shits all over the battles in Diablo 3 (and similar battles in other Diablo clones). It's the only time during the main campaign where you feel like your character is as powerful as the story says they are. I'm level 40, why am I still killing six boars at a time? Spawn more enemies please.
- Loads of classic MMO bullshit. Classes locked to a certain gender, painfully over-acted dialogue (even for an MMO), horrendously horny animations and armor for any female subclass. I tend to play as female characters in most games and I think this is the first time I've ever been outright embarrassed about it. I've got a fairly high tolerance for it but when I equip all the new, strong armor I get after a dungeon and see my character is wearing dolphin shorts and a... uh... cheongsam crop top(?) it's gonna get an eye roll from me.
- For an MMO it's actually kinda hard to play with your friends? You can party up but you have to go back to the friends list to see where on the map they are, you don't get to see what quest they're doing or where their objective is, but if their objective is "eliminate 10 rats" or w/e you can contribute to that without being aware of it at all. If someone who isn't the party leader tries to start a dungeon it just laughs at you and doesn't notify the party leader at all, so you've gotta tell the party leader what waypoint is closest to you (if they're not on the same map) and have them manually run all the way to the dungeon to start it. Maybe endgame content is easier to coordinate, but boy did they make the main campaign a pain.
- Classes are actually fairly interesting overall, and the ability to modify each skill as you level it provides an opportunity for build variety among each subclass (although not to the same degree as D3). The specialty skills are my favorite part of this system, as it offers you a sort of gameplay "anchor" to build around. Personal favorites are the gunslingers' gun-swapping, the soulfist's 3-tiered damage amp, and the gunlancer's shielding/status immunity.
- I'm not at endgame yet but I've enjoyed my time with it so far. There's a lot of bullshit "mash G until the quest is complete" nonsense mixed in here but fighting stuff is enough of a treat that I'm hoping for something like the rifts from Reaper of Souls once I clear the story. There are a lot of systems here that I haven't had to engage with yet (or don't care to, e.g. housing) but unless this game takes a hard left turn before endgame I'll probably continue to put time into this for a couple more weeks. I can't really see myself coming back to this long-term, though. We'll see if that changes - right now I'm biding my time until I can see what this game looks like once you're truly finished with the story.
Little tiny bite-sized tragedies, each one a treat in its own right. The sections connecting these vignettes give away the game a bit, and it's not like each story is treading new narrative ground, but as a free 90-minute game from a two-person team it's punching well above its weight class. I love a lot about this, especially the historical setting that doesn't get enough love in gaming. Nothing sells me on a game like firing it up and seeing "1929, Central Asia".
If nothing else, this game deserves your time for the second act alone. If that were released as its own game I'd be giving it a 10.
If nothing else, this game deserves your time for the second act alone. If that were released as its own game I'd be giving it a 10.
this game can't make up its mind re: how badly it wants to be Siege. it's not an awful game, i don't hate it, but all of its most prominent strengths - the gunplay, the operator variety, etc. - all of them are Siege exports. all of its biggest drawbacks come from changes made for this new game mode (because let's be honest, that's what this is).
some operators have interesting changes made to their abilities for this, some are just pasted in wholesale. the operators here seem to be selected based on popularity instead of utility - there's virtually no reason to ever use Fuze or Hibana, and there's no sign of operators that would be far more useful here: Ying, Lesion, etc. guns that were changed for the PvP of Siege are virtually useless here - any especially rapid-firing SMG is unusable due to recoil - it's a much greater issue when you're up against more than five opponents and are spraying most of your bullets into the wall.
weirdly though, i do keep coming back. the game gets the noggin joggin' a lot more than it ever was during Siege's Outbreak event (the thing that inspired this whole shindig). the sprawl seems kind of tedious when starting out but becomes a genuine issue at higher difficulties when you realize it makes everything else more threatening by merely existing. wrangling randos towards an objective can suck in ways multiplayer is always capable of, but the satisfaction of working with them to reach ever-higher Maelstrom Protocol ranks is real, although hard to convey. watching someone you just met brave a horrifying wave of enemies, risking their own operator's death just to help you recover yours is always heartwarming (not a word i thought i would use in a review for a Tim Clunky game).
the short version of this review is that this is very, very obviously for people who like the strong skeleton Siege has (with its operators and satisfying gun mechanics) but want a PvE game built on this chassis. it reminds me a bit of the kind of fun i got from playing Vermintide 2, effectively a horde mode where the horde itself is a credible threat (and not just fodder). all in all? i do like the game, it's fun in a completely different way from normal Siege. i'm a little mad at myself though for paying Forty United States Dollars for this (sponsored by White Claw Surge™) - if you're interested in this, definitely wait until it's on sale or try it through game pass if you're already subbed. i think you're much more likely to find an experience that's worth the money this way. strong 6 to low 7/10.
some operators have interesting changes made to their abilities for this, some are just pasted in wholesale. the operators here seem to be selected based on popularity instead of utility - there's virtually no reason to ever use Fuze or Hibana, and there's no sign of operators that would be far more useful here: Ying, Lesion, etc. guns that were changed for the PvP of Siege are virtually useless here - any especially rapid-firing SMG is unusable due to recoil - it's a much greater issue when you're up against more than five opponents and are spraying most of your bullets into the wall.
weirdly though, i do keep coming back. the game gets the noggin joggin' a lot more than it ever was during Siege's Outbreak event (the thing that inspired this whole shindig). the sprawl seems kind of tedious when starting out but becomes a genuine issue at higher difficulties when you realize it makes everything else more threatening by merely existing. wrangling randos towards an objective can suck in ways multiplayer is always capable of, but the satisfaction of working with them to reach ever-higher Maelstrom Protocol ranks is real, although hard to convey. watching someone you just met brave a horrifying wave of enemies, risking their own operator's death just to help you recover yours is always heartwarming (not a word i thought i would use in a review for a Tim Clunky game).
the short version of this review is that this is very, very obviously for people who like the strong skeleton Siege has (with its operators and satisfying gun mechanics) but want a PvE game built on this chassis. it reminds me a bit of the kind of fun i got from playing Vermintide 2, effectively a horde mode where the horde itself is a credible threat (and not just fodder). all in all? i do like the game, it's fun in a completely different way from normal Siege. i'm a little mad at myself though for paying Forty United States Dollars for this (sponsored by White Claw Surge™) - if you're interested in this, definitely wait until it's on sale or try it through game pass if you're already subbed. i think you're much more likely to find an experience that's worth the money this way. strong 6 to low 7/10.
2020
It's kinda... endearingly shitty? It's like a child's idea of what would be the best video game ever made: a completely absurd (and aggressively formulaic) mashup of your favorite elements from every other game, with no regard for how they interact with one another. There are dungeons, farming, cooking, a pokemon capture/breeding system that lets you breed anything with a health bar and pathfinding AI, base building, and it's so goofy and disjointed that the only real goals in the game do not even bother with making you touch these systems at all (literally).
It's mostly a strange experience because it's all like, 75% complete, spread evenly across every element of the game. You could spend all your time fishing and cooking, but for some reason there are like three core ingredients you can only get by breaking boxes on the beach, of which there is a finite, non-respawning number. Item descriptions are clearly machine translated but understandable, save for ~15% of items where the description is either still in Japanese, completely indecipherable English, or so vague that it may as well not exist. If it felt like progress meant anything in this game, I would almost be frustrated by how many times I've used a ridiculous amount of rare resources to build some mysterious rainbow-colored orb that seems to do literally nothing when placed/thrown.
It is a game made by people who very clearly love video games and very clearly have no idea what makes a good game work. There are games out there with satirical mechanics meant to parody time-wasting games, and yet none of them are as effective as Craftopia, which prompts you to do things like "craft one THOUSAND automated furnaces and cast them into the void" to permanently gain... +0.1 MATK.
And yet, I feel like it's worth noting that the game has never crashed. It's janky, but never has the experience completely fallen apart for me, despite this horrendous mess of features. I have done some really stupid shit, including breeding an entire farm of Anubis (the god), who exists on an island in the sky solely to help you gain permanent stat buffs, and the game never stopped me. Everything that is present works well enough that it's at least fun-adjacent if you can rope a particularly foolish person into joining you. I absolutely do not recommend any part of this experience, least of all if you have to exchange legal tender for the opportunity.
It's mostly a strange experience because it's all like, 75% complete, spread evenly across every element of the game. You could spend all your time fishing and cooking, but for some reason there are like three core ingredients you can only get by breaking boxes on the beach, of which there is a finite, non-respawning number. Item descriptions are clearly machine translated but understandable, save for ~15% of items where the description is either still in Japanese, completely indecipherable English, or so vague that it may as well not exist. If it felt like progress meant anything in this game, I would almost be frustrated by how many times I've used a ridiculous amount of rare resources to build some mysterious rainbow-colored orb that seems to do literally nothing when placed/thrown.
It is a game made by people who very clearly love video games and very clearly have no idea what makes a good game work. There are games out there with satirical mechanics meant to parody time-wasting games, and yet none of them are as effective as Craftopia, which prompts you to do things like "craft one THOUSAND automated furnaces and cast them into the void" to permanently gain... +0.1 MATK.
And yet, I feel like it's worth noting that the game has never crashed. It's janky, but never has the experience completely fallen apart for me, despite this horrendous mess of features. I have done some really stupid shit, including breeding an entire farm of Anubis (the god), who exists on an island in the sky solely to help you gain permanent stat buffs, and the game never stopped me. Everything that is present works well enough that it's at least fun-adjacent if you can rope a particularly foolish person into joining you. I absolutely do not recommend any part of this experience, least of all if you have to exchange legal tender for the opportunity.
2009
I experience the full spectrum of human emotion every single game. Everything people say about Mario Party ending friendships is a way better fit for this game, where it feels like 30% of games are flipped on their head in the last turn. Mario Party for gambling addicts and masochists.
Arguably more fun when you only kind of have an idea as to what's going on, that way you're not sitting there seething because your friend is playing fucking Maynie again. If you can get a group of people together who aren't going to start screaming and shit, though, it's a fun game to kill some time. Unlike Mario Party, it never feels like a slog when the turns pass so quickly.
There's immense satisfaction in having a strategy come together, especially when it's so dependent on getting the right cards, although there's also some decent meme potential - some of the most fun I've had with the game has come from playing Lone Rider and zooming around the board three times faster than everyone else before getting one-shot by the boss.
Arguably more fun when you only kind of have an idea as to what's going on, that way you're not sitting there seething because your friend is playing fucking Maynie again. If you can get a group of people together who aren't going to start screaming and shit, though, it's a fun game to kill some time. Unlike Mario Party, it never feels like a slog when the turns pass so quickly.
There's immense satisfaction in having a strategy come together, especially when it's so dependent on getting the right cards, although there's also some decent meme potential - some of the most fun I've had with the game has come from playing Lone Rider and zooming around the board three times faster than everyone else before getting one-shot by the boss.
2021
I've been waiting for a spiritual sequel to SWAT 4 for a very long time. I have been so eager for this hypothetical game that 4 years ago I - a person who never preorders anything - spent $120 United States Dollars on this game when it was just a video. Please adjust your perception of me accordingly.
There was a long alpha period where I was too afraid to pay much attention to the game, save for reading a few excited emails about how they've finally implemented doors (and oh boy, have they). Now that it's finally purchasable for the general public on Steam, I've tried it and… it's pretty good?
Don't get me wrong, this is not even remotely a finished product. Within our first three missions, a friend and I already ran into a bug that forced us to completely restart the level because I couldn't interact with the only door out of a room. But the core of SWAT 4's gameplay is here and it feels pleasant and modern - most importantly, actually using the equipment you lug around doesn't feel like a chore anymore. There are tweaks to the formula too, welcome changes that modify the balance of the game or add features present in popular mods for SWAT 4. Turning the game into a joke by spamming the beanbag shotgun is no longer an option, a melee button allows you to subdue civilians who won't let you handcuff them (grandma), and the addition of trapped doors forces you to slow down and greatly adds to the paranoia that comes with being outnumbered in a hostile environment.
BUT
As much as I enjoy the gameplay at the core of the experience, I've got a couple gripes, and they can be real stinkers, depending on your perspective.
The first and most minor are the early access-related complaints. I don't mind a lot of the jank since I've been playing SWAT 4 for years now, but new players are going to have questions that the game doesn't answer, bugs that you're not sure are truly bugs or not, and a lack of features / equipment. The game also doesn't feel like it's trying too hard to stray from SWAT 4's formula (thus becoming its own thing), but it feels like it's too early in the process to say whether the end product will feel the same way.
The other big one is the game's politics. A game like this is going to be overtly political and frankly I wasn't expecting a lot, but the developers of this game have made some… interesting choices. Probably the most objectionable is the civilian dialogue, as most of them will say something after you handcuff them - again, like SWAT 4. The women have terrible voice lines, including at least two separate lines hitting on the cops, and one racist voice line that also just… doesn't feel like it even makes sense? Thankfully the game has very little story compared to The Other Game, since the trailers for this game very much leaned into the "careful, devoted cop heroes are the only thing keeping a tidal wave of crime from crashing upon this city" idea. I know the developers split with the publisher of the game, and I've only seen a single mention of it so far indicating that it may be due to the devs' intention of setting a future level in a school shooting. Not really thrilled about where this game could go in the future - as things stand I'm expecting the game from 2005 to be the more respectful of the two.
All in all, I think I'm mixed on Ready or Not as a consumer product. I'm not holding out hope that this will become something I can recommend in good conscience, even though everything in it feels great. Kicking in doors feels thunderous. Developing a system to conquer missions becomes a satisfying collaborative puzzle. Taking a room where armed hostiles are mixed in with civilians without anyone (friend or foe) sustaining an injury is as exciting as beating any video game boss, crammed into a couple tense seconds. But I just can't recommend it, not before you look into the game, the developers and decide if you'd like to support them with $40 of your own money.
Perhaps this game will change, perhaps the devs will respond to my complaints if they get enough feedback. I've been pleasantly surprised before. Watch this space??
There was a long alpha period where I was too afraid to pay much attention to the game, save for reading a few excited emails about how they've finally implemented doors (and oh boy, have they). Now that it's finally purchasable for the general public on Steam, I've tried it and… it's pretty good?
Don't get me wrong, this is not even remotely a finished product. Within our first three missions, a friend and I already ran into a bug that forced us to completely restart the level because I couldn't interact with the only door out of a room. But the core of SWAT 4's gameplay is here and it feels pleasant and modern - most importantly, actually using the equipment you lug around doesn't feel like a chore anymore. There are tweaks to the formula too, welcome changes that modify the balance of the game or add features present in popular mods for SWAT 4. Turning the game into a joke by spamming the beanbag shotgun is no longer an option, a melee button allows you to subdue civilians who won't let you handcuff them (grandma), and the addition of trapped doors forces you to slow down and greatly adds to the paranoia that comes with being outnumbered in a hostile environment.
BUT
As much as I enjoy the gameplay at the core of the experience, I've got a couple gripes, and they can be real stinkers, depending on your perspective.
The first and most minor are the early access-related complaints. I don't mind a lot of the jank since I've been playing SWAT 4 for years now, but new players are going to have questions that the game doesn't answer, bugs that you're not sure are truly bugs or not, and a lack of features / equipment. The game also doesn't feel like it's trying too hard to stray from SWAT 4's formula (thus becoming its own thing), but it feels like it's too early in the process to say whether the end product will feel the same way.
The other big one is the game's politics. A game like this is going to be overtly political and frankly I wasn't expecting a lot, but the developers of this game have made some… interesting choices. Probably the most objectionable is the civilian dialogue, as most of them will say something after you handcuff them - again, like SWAT 4. The women have terrible voice lines, including at least two separate lines hitting on the cops, and one racist voice line that also just… doesn't feel like it even makes sense? Thankfully the game has very little story compared to The Other Game, since the trailers for this game very much leaned into the "careful, devoted cop heroes are the only thing keeping a tidal wave of crime from crashing upon this city" idea. I know the developers split with the publisher of the game, and I've only seen a single mention of it so far indicating that it may be due to the devs' intention of setting a future level in a school shooting. Not really thrilled about where this game could go in the future - as things stand I'm expecting the game from 2005 to be the more respectful of the two.
All in all, I think I'm mixed on Ready or Not as a consumer product. I'm not holding out hope that this will become something I can recommend in good conscience, even though everything in it feels great. Kicking in doors feels thunderous. Developing a system to conquer missions becomes a satisfying collaborative puzzle. Taking a room where armed hostiles are mixed in with civilians without anyone (friend or foe) sustaining an injury is as exciting as beating any video game boss, crammed into a couple tense seconds. But I just can't recommend it, not before you look into the game, the developers and decide if you'd like to support them with $40 of your own money.
Perhaps this game will change, perhaps the devs will respond to my complaints if they get enough feedback. I've been pleasantly surprised before. Watch this space??
2021
Kinda hard to fuck it up when you change so little from a game as good as Horizon 4. They've added a couple additional player-retention systems that I haven't bothered to understand, but the core draw of "arcade/sim-hybrid car game without the 'grind'" is mostly untouched from the previous entry in the series.
Another thing that's mostly untouched is the fact that the cast is almost entirely British, save for two Mexican characters (one of whom is a non-entity) who are ridiculously grating caricatures of Latino people. "Familia" is brought up an almost comical number of times in these unskippable cutscenes, and while the gameplay still carries a lot of the weight, I'm forced to assume that the writers first learned of Mexico (as a concept) less than two weeks before they started working on the game.
I can really only give this an 8 (at the time of this writing) in good conscience because you can blow through most of the cutscenes fairly quickly and start racing unimpeded. Driving around in the 1983 Audi Sport Quattro feels incredible - even if I'm still bitter about them taking the Lancia Delta from me - and I have spent entire play sessions just carving through dirt roads, observing some of the most beautifully arranged scenery I've seen in a racing game (even if individual details don't hold up to scrutiny). The one star missing from this rating feels massive though, and it's because the annoyances will rear their heads and you will remember them when you're done playing. I don't mind checklists in games like this - it can be nice to kill some time by sitting down, knocking out a few mini-objectives and moving on with your day. But with the new accolade system, there are so fucking many of these little achievements and they're so easy to rack up. I unlocked the entire campaign without consciously engaging with this system a single time, making me wonder why they've even bothered to graft this system onto a perfectly fine game instead of just using a normal XP system (the way it already does for player level). I can only assume it's there to torture completionists with an endless torrent of tasks that take two minutes each, keeping them playing this game until FH6 comes out and they can get started on the new checklist.
I suppose, though, that I can only sound so cynical about these things because the game kept me playing long enough for the little nitpicks to leave a blister. When the game started I wasn't really thinking about the aesthetics of British people airdropping vehicles to set up little outposts on Mexican soil - I was taken with the sense of speed, with the gorgeous environment, with the way the soundtrack's energy lined up perfectly with everything happening on screen. I've complained a bit here, and I could complain a lot more - it's a skill I've mastered over the years - but the truth of the matter is that I started out by putting 33 hours into this game over a 4 day weekend, and I will likely do so several more times before I claim to be done with it. I bounce between racing games but always return to Horizon for its variety - variety in race types, in cars (the ever-desired hypercars and the incompetent novelty vehicles), and in open world activities. The experience of playing FH5 will probably never fully live up to my first experiences of playing FH4, but it is absolutely a worthy successor.
Another thing that's mostly untouched is the fact that the cast is almost entirely British, save for two Mexican characters (one of whom is a non-entity) who are ridiculously grating caricatures of Latino people. "Familia" is brought up an almost comical number of times in these unskippable cutscenes, and while the gameplay still carries a lot of the weight, I'm forced to assume that the writers first learned of Mexico (as a concept) less than two weeks before they started working on the game.
I can really only give this an 8 (at the time of this writing) in good conscience because you can blow through most of the cutscenes fairly quickly and start racing unimpeded. Driving around in the 1983 Audi Sport Quattro feels incredible - even if I'm still bitter about them taking the Lancia Delta from me - and I have spent entire play sessions just carving through dirt roads, observing some of the most beautifully arranged scenery I've seen in a racing game (even if individual details don't hold up to scrutiny). The one star missing from this rating feels massive though, and it's because the annoyances will rear their heads and you will remember them when you're done playing. I don't mind checklists in games like this - it can be nice to kill some time by sitting down, knocking out a few mini-objectives and moving on with your day. But with the new accolade system, there are so fucking many of these little achievements and they're so easy to rack up. I unlocked the entire campaign without consciously engaging with this system a single time, making me wonder why they've even bothered to graft this system onto a perfectly fine game instead of just using a normal XP system (the way it already does for player level). I can only assume it's there to torture completionists with an endless torrent of tasks that take two minutes each, keeping them playing this game until FH6 comes out and they can get started on the new checklist.
I suppose, though, that I can only sound so cynical about these things because the game kept me playing long enough for the little nitpicks to leave a blister. When the game started I wasn't really thinking about the aesthetics of British people airdropping vehicles to set up little outposts on Mexican soil - I was taken with the sense of speed, with the gorgeous environment, with the way the soundtrack's energy lined up perfectly with everything happening on screen. I've complained a bit here, and I could complain a lot more - it's a skill I've mastered over the years - but the truth of the matter is that I started out by putting 33 hours into this game over a 4 day weekend, and I will likely do so several more times before I claim to be done with it. I bounce between racing games but always return to Horizon for its variety - variety in race types, in cars (the ever-desired hypercars and the incompetent novelty vehicles), and in open world activities. The experience of playing FH5 will probably never fully live up to my first experiences of playing FH4, but it is absolutely a worthy successor.
2019
Recommended by lpslucasps on this list.
I've managed to shoot myself in the foot a little bit by promising to "review" anything on the aforementioned list, as this game has proven to be an especially difficult one. I've got a lot on my mind after playing it and I'm going to have to cheat a little bit with the format, because I don't think I can nicely condense this down into a single review with a coherent theme.
- Loads of nostalgic authenticity throughout the experience. I don't think this comes as a surprise to anyone given that it's the most surface-level observation, but it's true. I was born at the right time and raised by a tech-savvy mom, allowing me to witness the end of this era of the internet, even if I was a little young. There are a lot of details here that are so easy to forget in the era of WordPress and Squarespace sites prepared straight out of the can, adhering to good graphic design principles.
- It's a little uncomfortable seeing how little some things have changed. There are still painfully earnest posts from children and teens trying to figure things out, every new technology is still a fight between little Davids trying to unseat massive, corporate Goliaths before they take over the Cool New Thing™. Communities have always had awful shit that moderators are woefully unequipped to handle, on platforms that the creators don't even fully understand...
- ...and it all reminds me of being at work. I work in IT and found myself slipping into work mode a lot here, forced to emotionally detach myself from the cases/tickets I'm working on. I see your very real, very serious harassment case, and I can't do anything to punish them because I don't have the tools. I am powerless, except when it comes to ruining someone's day because a policy they've never read said posting a picture of a cartoon fish is an actionable offense. New fires will always ignite as you're putting out the old ones, and moderators are given this cruel, Sisyphean task of rectifying every possible issue on a platform using extremely limited tools that are hardly suited to the task.
- I feel like a lot of my enjoyment is tethered to my own memory of the ugly, poorly laid-out webpages of old (complete with horrendously compressed gifs, videos, and music). I can't speak to how it'll play for those without the memories - the memories aren't important for knowledge reasons, but for patience reasons. This game is full of tedium, and while I'm not trying to pitch this as some "zoomers will hate this!", I would personally be a little annoyed by it all if it didn't remind me of times where I was younger and dumber. If you get past that (or don't care), there's a lot of love here - love for technology of the past, and love for the people that use it. It's a pretty little digital diorama, and I like what it represents.
- I stand with Gooper
I've managed to shoot myself in the foot a little bit by promising to "review" anything on the aforementioned list, as this game has proven to be an especially difficult one. I've got a lot on my mind after playing it and I'm going to have to cheat a little bit with the format, because I don't think I can nicely condense this down into a single review with a coherent theme.
- Loads of nostalgic authenticity throughout the experience. I don't think this comes as a surprise to anyone given that it's the most surface-level observation, but it's true. I was born at the right time and raised by a tech-savvy mom, allowing me to witness the end of this era of the internet, even if I was a little young. There are a lot of details here that are so easy to forget in the era of WordPress and Squarespace sites prepared straight out of the can, adhering to good graphic design principles.
- It's a little uncomfortable seeing how little some things have changed. There are still painfully earnest posts from children and teens trying to figure things out, every new technology is still a fight between little Davids trying to unseat massive, corporate Goliaths before they take over the Cool New Thing™. Communities have always had awful shit that moderators are woefully unequipped to handle, on platforms that the creators don't even fully understand...
- ...and it all reminds me of being at work. I work in IT and found myself slipping into work mode a lot here, forced to emotionally detach myself from the cases/tickets I'm working on. I see your very real, very serious harassment case, and I can't do anything to punish them because I don't have the tools. I am powerless, except when it comes to ruining someone's day because a policy they've never read said posting a picture of a cartoon fish is an actionable offense. New fires will always ignite as you're putting out the old ones, and moderators are given this cruel, Sisyphean task of rectifying every possible issue on a platform using extremely limited tools that are hardly suited to the task.
- I feel like a lot of my enjoyment is tethered to my own memory of the ugly, poorly laid-out webpages of old (complete with horrendously compressed gifs, videos, and music). I can't speak to how it'll play for those without the memories - the memories aren't important for knowledge reasons, but for patience reasons. This game is full of tedium, and while I'm not trying to pitch this as some "zoomers will hate this!", I would personally be a little annoyed by it all if it didn't remind me of times where I was younger and dumber. If you get past that (or don't care), there's a lot of love here - love for technology of the past, and love for the people that use it. It's a pretty little digital diorama, and I like what it represents.
- I stand with Gooper
2017
I initially wrote a more ordinary review about DiRT 4 as a set of features, describing how the car feels and how it compares to the DiRT Rally series. After a little more thought, though, none of that really stands out enough to warrant writing a whole review. What's remarkable, though, is the sense of camaraderie you feel with the AI co-driver.
No other sports game has done as good a job with this. In most sports games, your AI teammates are (at best) competent enough not to think about, and at worst feel like poorly concealed double agents. DiRT 4's co-driver demonstrates that you need them through your own fuckups and the moments in which you doubt the accuracy of the pacenotes. Moments in which you hear "caution crest, immediate right 1, don't cut" and think "eh, this looks just like any other sharp right turn" only to realize that sight-reading that turn would've air-mailed you both right off a cliff. Moments in which you have screwed up badly enough to lose your headlights on a night stage and can barely see your own car, but still manage to post a decent enough time because the course is being read to you.
This isn't the first rally game to include pacenotes, and it's not even the first game in the DiRT series to include them either. But the arcade elements present here lend the game a greater sense of speed and a more balanced sense of danger - I've played both DiRT Rally games prior to this and never really felt like I should be going all that fast unless I want to hit a fence at 16 kph and somehow simultaneously puncture 3 separate tires. With greater control over my car, though, and somewhat decreased vehicle damage, I feel like I can fly around corners much faster - meaning that my co-driver is all the more valuable when she's telling me how I should crest a hill, or when I can safely cut a turn, reining me in when I get a little too confident. And sure, the co-driver isn't some well-rounded human character, given that she never misreads the pacenotes, or drops them, or loses her place. But a little chatter at the beginning and end of races about how well you did, or encouraging you to do your best despite damage to the car, that goes a long way towards making her feel like an incredibly trustworthy human instead of the "robot reading from a script" that she actually is.
DiRT 4 has actually managed to succeed in making me feel like I've got a dependable teammate when I'm playing completely alone, something that I've never seen outside of scripted, story-oriented games, and they managed to do it primarily through arcade-like driving physics - emboldening me to hit the gas a little harder, and take blind corners with confidence.
No other sports game has done as good a job with this. In most sports games, your AI teammates are (at best) competent enough not to think about, and at worst feel like poorly concealed double agents. DiRT 4's co-driver demonstrates that you need them through your own fuckups and the moments in which you doubt the accuracy of the pacenotes. Moments in which you hear "caution crest, immediate right 1, don't cut" and think "eh, this looks just like any other sharp right turn" only to realize that sight-reading that turn would've air-mailed you both right off a cliff. Moments in which you have screwed up badly enough to lose your headlights on a night stage and can barely see your own car, but still manage to post a decent enough time because the course is being read to you.
This isn't the first rally game to include pacenotes, and it's not even the first game in the DiRT series to include them either. But the arcade elements present here lend the game a greater sense of speed and a more balanced sense of danger - I've played both DiRT Rally games prior to this and never really felt like I should be going all that fast unless I want to hit a fence at 16 kph and somehow simultaneously puncture 3 separate tires. With greater control over my car, though, and somewhat decreased vehicle damage, I feel like I can fly around corners much faster - meaning that my co-driver is all the more valuable when she's telling me how I should crest a hill, or when I can safely cut a turn, reining me in when I get a little too confident. And sure, the co-driver isn't some well-rounded human character, given that she never misreads the pacenotes, or drops them, or loses her place. But a little chatter at the beginning and end of races about how well you did, or encouraging you to do your best despite damage to the car, that goes a long way towards making her feel like an incredibly trustworthy human instead of the "robot reading from a script" that she actually is.
DiRT 4 has actually managed to succeed in making me feel like I've got a dependable teammate when I'm playing completely alone, something that I've never seen outside of scripted, story-oriented games, and they managed to do it primarily through arcade-like driving physics - emboldening me to hit the gas a little harder, and take blind corners with confidence.