kumasbear
2023
I've fully completed RoR1 twice, once in the original 2013 release and again several years later on the switch port. Didn't really follow RoRR announcments and I kind of expected it to be just a visual touch up and a new online system that wasn't a nightmare to deal with. But wow, I'm blown away. The environmental spritework is so gorgeous, there are tons of new items, encounters, a whole challenge mode full of custom maps and unique tasks, reworked survivors and even new ones. I'm super pumped to go through this whole game AGAIN. Way more than I expected.
2022
I don't want to be a hater, but this really wasn't it. I am a Sonic fan, I don't believe in the stupid ""Sonic Cycle"" and I think everyone just parrots their favorite youtuber's opinion instead of playing it for themself.
To start positive, here's what I liked:
1. Cyber Space stages - These were a blast. Weird, remixed versions of old stages reminiscent of Generations. Each one had a section that would immediately make you go "OH IT'S THIS STAGE!!" and it was really fun.
2. (Half of) the Soundtrack - The Cyber Space stage music kicks ass. They're either cheesy classic techno with soulful 90's style vocal lines or modern styles of electronic music, DnB, dubstep, future bass and they're all so catchy and groovy They perfectly capture the high energy, high speed essence of Sonic. The boss themes also excel at matching the vibe of Sonic, though these are more about the attitude. Heavy, chugging guitar riffs with the corniest AIM away message lyrics and screams. It's so good. They fully embraced the cringe and own it.
3. The concept of open world Sonic - Some of the islands really had me down for the idea of open world Sonic traversal. I could see why this is appealing, and as someone who normally hates big open "you can climb those mountains" style games, I was actually kind of loving it. Briefly. Then I played more than an hour.
The more time I spent with the game, the more the issues kept piling up. I can't really even concisely list them because they all sort of bleed into each other. I was just finding myself constantly asking "Why would you make it like this?"
Why am I punished for being Sonic?
Moving around goes from fun and novel to frustrating and annoying very quickly. Hitting a hill or random pebble in the environment too fast causes you to lose complete control of Sonic as you go into trick mode and can't move. You run over a boost pad that you couldn't see because of the draw-in and it sends you in the opposite direction and LOCKS YOU INTO A 2D SECTION THAT YOU CAN'T ESCAPE, forcing you to do a series of platforming that winds up placing you halfway across the map from where you were trying to go.
Why such a strong emphasis on combat?
For some reason there's a skill tree that I maxed out in the 2nd map and for the rest of the game the skill points were completely worthless, so I had no incentive to do extra platforming challenges or explore. The skill tree also contains hardly any movement skills and is essentially combat abilities. I do not care about combat in Sonic. This isn't why I play these games. When I get to a new island and I have to defeat world bosses to play the platforming stages I lose all desire to play the game. Certain enemies completely steal your camera control, even when you're running full speed away from them. Every single time it just caused me to run off a cliff and force me to retrace my steps to get back to where I was.
Why are there stat points?
I understand increasing health and attack. Easy upgrades that you can place in the map to incentivize exploration. And I was fine with these. The speed stat also makes sense, but why can you only increase it one level at a time? With a max level of 99, I was mashing A for a FULL TWENTY MINUTES last night, leveling my speed from 20 to 90. The health and power all upgrade at once, you turn in your heart and seeds once and you get levels for however many you had. Why not do the same for speed? And why even include the max ring stat? You get such a massive speed boost when you're at max rings, so why would I actively choose to carry more than 400? If I can carry 800 rings that just means I have to farm rings for twice as long to get my speed boost back. It's not only pointless, it's actively a DETRIMENT to players to level it up!
Why is there even a story?
I'm not expecting Citizen Kane from a Sonic game, but I had absolutely no clue what was happening at any point in the game. I don't need much. Forces was great, I knew why I was going to the stages I was going to, the writing was corny and funny and perfectly fit a Sonic game. With Frontiers, I felt like there was some sort of media tie-in that I missed, a comic series or youtube series explaining ANYTHING, and the game just expects that you already know it all! Like, they are saying things like "You know what the Koco are" and I'm sitting there going "no the fuck I don't lmao" I was actively watching and paying attention but at a point I broke and just alt tabbed and passively paid attention. I gave up. I don't care. Why am I supposed to feel something for Sage when she said 10 sentences and you don't even learn her name until the last 2 hours.
I don't know. If this was any other developer I would say that the sequel is probably going to kick ass. They could improve on the mountain of grievances I had and make the core concept really shine. But this is Sonic Team. They've been making the same mistakes for decades. I can only hope the next Sonic is back to stage based gameplay and the open-world aspect is dropped. But with the praise and sales this got, I'm not holding my breath.
To start positive, here's what I liked:
1. Cyber Space stages - These were a blast. Weird, remixed versions of old stages reminiscent of Generations. Each one had a section that would immediately make you go "OH IT'S THIS STAGE!!" and it was really fun.
2. (Half of) the Soundtrack - The Cyber Space stage music kicks ass. They're either cheesy classic techno with soulful 90's style vocal lines or modern styles of electronic music, DnB, dubstep, future bass and they're all so catchy and groovy They perfectly capture the high energy, high speed essence of Sonic. The boss themes also excel at matching the vibe of Sonic, though these are more about the attitude. Heavy, chugging guitar riffs with the corniest AIM away message lyrics and screams. It's so good. They fully embraced the cringe and own it.
3. The concept of open world Sonic - Some of the islands really had me down for the idea of open world Sonic traversal. I could see why this is appealing, and as someone who normally hates big open "you can climb those mountains" style games, I was actually kind of loving it. Briefly. Then I played more than an hour.
The more time I spent with the game, the more the issues kept piling up. I can't really even concisely list them because they all sort of bleed into each other. I was just finding myself constantly asking "Why would you make it like this?"
Why am I punished for being Sonic?
Moving around goes from fun and novel to frustrating and annoying very quickly. Hitting a hill or random pebble in the environment too fast causes you to lose complete control of Sonic as you go into trick mode and can't move. You run over a boost pad that you couldn't see because of the draw-in and it sends you in the opposite direction and LOCKS YOU INTO A 2D SECTION THAT YOU CAN'T ESCAPE, forcing you to do a series of platforming that winds up placing you halfway across the map from where you were trying to go.
Why such a strong emphasis on combat?
For some reason there's a skill tree that I maxed out in the 2nd map and for the rest of the game the skill points were completely worthless, so I had no incentive to do extra platforming challenges or explore. The skill tree also contains hardly any movement skills and is essentially combat abilities. I do not care about combat in Sonic. This isn't why I play these games. When I get to a new island and I have to defeat world bosses to play the platforming stages I lose all desire to play the game. Certain enemies completely steal your camera control, even when you're running full speed away from them. Every single time it just caused me to run off a cliff and force me to retrace my steps to get back to where I was.
Why are there stat points?
I understand increasing health and attack. Easy upgrades that you can place in the map to incentivize exploration. And I was fine with these. The speed stat also makes sense, but why can you only increase it one level at a time? With a max level of 99, I was mashing A for a FULL TWENTY MINUTES last night, leveling my speed from 20 to 90. The health and power all upgrade at once, you turn in your heart and seeds once and you get levels for however many you had. Why not do the same for speed? And why even include the max ring stat? You get such a massive speed boost when you're at max rings, so why would I actively choose to carry more than 400? If I can carry 800 rings that just means I have to farm rings for twice as long to get my speed boost back. It's not only pointless, it's actively a DETRIMENT to players to level it up!
Why is there even a story?
I'm not expecting Citizen Kane from a Sonic game, but I had absolutely no clue what was happening at any point in the game. I don't need much. Forces was great, I knew why I was going to the stages I was going to, the writing was corny and funny and perfectly fit a Sonic game. With Frontiers, I felt like there was some sort of media tie-in that I missed, a comic series or youtube series explaining ANYTHING, and the game just expects that you already know it all! Like, they are saying things like "You know what the Koco are" and I'm sitting there going "no the fuck I don't lmao" I was actively watching and paying attention but at a point I broke and just alt tabbed and passively paid attention. I gave up. I don't care. Why am I supposed to feel something for Sage when she said 10 sentences and you don't even learn her name until the last 2 hours.
I don't know. If this was any other developer I would say that the sequel is probably going to kick ass. They could improve on the mountain of grievances I had and make the core concept really shine. But this is Sonic Team. They've been making the same mistakes for decades. I can only hope the next Sonic is back to stage based gameplay and the open-world aspect is dropped. But with the praise and sales this got, I'm not holding my breath.
i think we should stop remaking games so that i can just remember games i loved as a kid as being good.
2023
I have played exactly 2 good non-Fromsoft developed soulslikes, this, and NOSE. Both of them realize what makes the formula work and takes whole-heatedly from them and aren't shy about it. Too often I feel people making a soulslike use it as a marketing point to get an audience but then none of what I would actually want from one is in the game. This was not the case in Lies of P. I don't know how else to say it, but the last couple Fromsoft titles have felt soulless to me. DS3 was "okay", Sekiro was fine but not for me, and Elden Ring was a massive disappointment. Lies of P has that soul.
I wanted a labyrinthine, brutal, fast-paced action RPG from the game that looked like legally ambiguous Bloodborne, and that's exactly what I got and then some. Everything felt right. The world, the movement, the sidequests, the gameplay loop, it was all perfect. The biggest difference came in the combat, but it wasn't necessarily a negative difference. I love the trick weapons in Bloodborne. It's my favorite iteration of combat Fromsoft has done in those games; fast, fluid, and combo centric. Lies of P does not have trick weapons (well, except for one) but it does offer it's own unique tools to play with. You're able to swap handles and blades on weapons, allowing you to use the quick, agile moveset of a dagger, for instance, but replace the normally short blade with a greatsword blade, slowing the moveset down a little, but retaining the relative agile nature the dagger while giving you much more range. Experimenting with this mechanic was a lot of fun, though I wound up using boss weapons for the majority of my playthrough. (I finished the game using the Two Dragons Sword, which honestly might be my favorite weapon in ANY Soulslike game, including Fromsoft ones.) You also get a Sekiro style robot arm with mulitple swappable abilities, though I didn't find myself using it all that much. I tried the gun arm which helped for stage play, and swapped to the grapple arm for boss fight mobility, but again, didn't really find a need to use it.
And the reason I didn't find a need to use it that often was because of what's maybe my favorite addition Lies of P added to the formula, the P Organ system, which acts as a sort of skill tree system for character progression. My least favorite part of a Souls game is how character building typically boils down to finding a weapon you like, then dumping stats into whatever it scales with the best, then dumping into stamina and HP. With the P Organ system I actively developed and evolved how I was playing the game based on what became available to me. I was happy with my Booster Glaive and dumping all my points into Technique because that's what I was used to. But when I saw some of the P Organ skills, like higher stagger when attacking from behind, or increased Fable (Lies of P's form of DS3 Weapon Arts) on perfect guard, I wanted to move into a more agile play style, swapping to lighter weapon to stay mobile and focusing on parries. I continued to adapt and change and wound up playing the game pretty differently every 8-10 hours or so. It was a lot of fun and super refreshing!
Most surprisingly of all, I didn't hate the story? Like I went in assuming the Pinocchio thing was mostly a gimmick but really loved the way they approached the subject of what makes us human and found it rather poignant at times. That being said, the story is also where most of my complaints regarding the game come in, namely, certain characters writing (pretty much just Gemini that cricket fuck) and a lot of the voicework which I found varied between subpar and outright distracting.
Oh, and slight aside that only really matters because of how bad Fromsoft has screwed up PC releases but Lies of P runs incredibly well with no configuration. Defaulted to high everything, ran at 144 with zero hitching or slowdown. I was thoroughly impressed.
I played this on Gamepass, which I normally don't like to do. I like to pay and own for games but I really thought this game was going to be bad and tried it mainly for a laugh. I absolutely plan to pick the game up on Steam later on because I want to 100% this. I want to play through with tons of builds, I want to see every outcome of every sidequest, see every ending, see every secret. And if the teaser at the end of the game ever comes to fruition I will be playing it day 1.
I wanted a labyrinthine, brutal, fast-paced action RPG from the game that looked like legally ambiguous Bloodborne, and that's exactly what I got and then some. Everything felt right. The world, the movement, the sidequests, the gameplay loop, it was all perfect. The biggest difference came in the combat, but it wasn't necessarily a negative difference. I love the trick weapons in Bloodborne. It's my favorite iteration of combat Fromsoft has done in those games; fast, fluid, and combo centric. Lies of P does not have trick weapons (well, except for one) but it does offer it's own unique tools to play with. You're able to swap handles and blades on weapons, allowing you to use the quick, agile moveset of a dagger, for instance, but replace the normally short blade with a greatsword blade, slowing the moveset down a little, but retaining the relative agile nature the dagger while giving you much more range. Experimenting with this mechanic was a lot of fun, though I wound up using boss weapons for the majority of my playthrough. (I finished the game using the Two Dragons Sword, which honestly might be my favorite weapon in ANY Soulslike game, including Fromsoft ones.) You also get a Sekiro style robot arm with mulitple swappable abilities, though I didn't find myself using it all that much. I tried the gun arm which helped for stage play, and swapped to the grapple arm for boss fight mobility, but again, didn't really find a need to use it.
And the reason I didn't find a need to use it that often was because of what's maybe my favorite addition Lies of P added to the formula, the P Organ system, which acts as a sort of skill tree system for character progression. My least favorite part of a Souls game is how character building typically boils down to finding a weapon you like, then dumping stats into whatever it scales with the best, then dumping into stamina and HP. With the P Organ system I actively developed and evolved how I was playing the game based on what became available to me. I was happy with my Booster Glaive and dumping all my points into Technique because that's what I was used to. But when I saw some of the P Organ skills, like higher stagger when attacking from behind, or increased Fable (Lies of P's form of DS3 Weapon Arts) on perfect guard, I wanted to move into a more agile play style, swapping to lighter weapon to stay mobile and focusing on parries. I continued to adapt and change and wound up playing the game pretty differently every 8-10 hours or so. It was a lot of fun and super refreshing!
Most surprisingly of all, I didn't hate the story? Like I went in assuming the Pinocchio thing was mostly a gimmick but really loved the way they approached the subject of what makes us human and found it rather poignant at times. That being said, the story is also where most of my complaints regarding the game come in, namely, certain characters writing (pretty much just Gemini that cricket fuck) and a lot of the voicework which I found varied between subpar and outright distracting.
Oh, and slight aside that only really matters because of how bad Fromsoft has screwed up PC releases but Lies of P runs incredibly well with no configuration. Defaulted to high everything, ran at 144 with zero hitching or slowdown. I was thoroughly impressed.
I played this on Gamepass, which I normally don't like to do. I like to pay and own for games but I really thought this game was going to be bad and tried it mainly for a laugh. I absolutely plan to pick the game up on Steam later on because I want to 100% this. I want to play through with tons of builds, I want to see every outcome of every sidequest, see every ending, see every secret. And if the teaser at the end of the game ever comes to fruition I will be playing it day 1.
2022
2/24 EDIT: I wanted to add an update to my feelings of this game as I'm revisiting it, something I never thought I would do, but the press about the DLC has me hopeful that I'll actually REALLY enjoy that, but because of how bad the PC port was I played on PS5 and need to get a character up to speed on PC. Anyway, my feelings remain the same. Such dissonance between the field design and legacy dungeons. If anything, I actually feel worse playing this game again because I forgot how much cool stuff IS in here but I only remember the vast swathes of boring, bland, repetitive catacombs and ruins. The one positive is all the stuff I said about the PC port is fixed, game no longer stutters and is buttery smooth, so that's good I guess. I still stand by DS2 being a better version of this game, and Lies of P is superior to this AND DS3. Trying to be optimistic for Shadow of the Erdtree.
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Alright, I know since I didn't give the game 5 stars that no one is actually going to pay attention to this review because this is the god game to save all video games, but that's fine. There's a lot of critique going around right now that is completely superficial or outright racist ("Japanese video games are bad wow when will they learn I hate anime and their culture and history and they should conform to our Western standards that we made and abandon anything they have accomplished!!") and I wanted to give critique that isn't any of that. This is a game I should love, but was ultimately disappointed by.
I guess I'll talk about the bad first. The PC performance is awful. It isn't a hardware issue, it is a software issue, DX12 takes a lot of the responsibility of performance off of the hardware driver and places it on the software using it. This is a double edged sword because while it can be very powerful, it has to be utilized correctly. Elden Ring does not accomplish this and is riddled with stuttering and loading lag as new assets get loaded in and compiled in real time. This is happening whether you notice it or not, so don't try and say "Well it's fine for me!" because it isn't, you just aren't sensitive to the frame hitching. I've seen footage of people who said it was fine and it was hitching. I've seen footage of speedrunners using autosplit and their time lagged as the game hitched. It's an issue, it exists, and if you are sensitive to framerates, as I am, it was unplayable.
So I already had a sour taste in my mouth for the game, but hey, I have a PS5, I picked it up there, and running the PS4 version ran at an incredibly smooth 60 FPS with no issues whatsoever (I guess this is a positive but it make more sense to include it here.)
Gameplay-wise, it's Dark Souls 3 again. This is kind of a bummer since I found DS3's combat to be a little too simple and every fight inevitably winds up being spamming R1 and rolling. Never really had to question my tactics, and anytime I tried using R2 or even power stancing and throwing in L1 and weapon arts, I would leave the encounter going "That would've been half as long if I just spammed R1." Balance-wise, it's kind of rough right now as well. Arcane, my initial build, is completely bugged and doesn't scale correctly so I was banging my head against the wall for the first 40 hours wondering why everything was so spongy. I unlocked respeccing and switched to a Dexterity build, which then wound up becoming nothing but R1 spam and later Hoarfrost Stomp spam because it was so overtuned.
Maybe my biggest gripe with the gameplay was the complete trivialization of multiplayer. I love the multiplayer aspect of these games. I love the tension of getting invaded while exploring a big, scary new area just as much as I love the thrill of invading someone else once I'm confident with my knowledge of the zone. I never got invaded once. It was only when I started invading for an NPC questline that I realized you only ever get invaded if you have other players co-op with you. Every invasion was 1v3 and invaders never get backup either. After about a dozen or so failures I promptly ignored the NPC and went on with the game. A complete waste of time to even have that feature in the game, and a true disappointment. PVP is the one time that R1 spam fails, and with so many fun and unique spells and weapons, I was crafting all these builds in my head only to realize that there was no point.
The open world is probably my biggest point of contention. It keeps getting so much praise as being wholly unique and vast, but it really isn't. Every catacombs is the same, every cave is the same, the same ruins are scattered throughout the entire map, the same enemies get used everywhere, etc. This in turn hurts the game's lore, as I really can't find myself getting invested when over half of the things I'm finding are just reused fights. The Crucible Knight Evergaol was the first fight where I really went "Wow okay this is gonna be good!" but after running into the 20th knight I just got so tired of it. It wasn't fun anymore and just felt like a chore. The constant reuse of fights and factions really made it hard for me to get invested in the game's lore, which is one of my favorite parts of Fromsoft's games. It's especially frustrating voicing this complaint when everyone just yells "The lore doesn't even matter you're just gonna watch it all in a YouTube video anyway!" because no, I'm not. I've never watched a Souls lore video, I just play the games and pay attention. They do such a good job writing these worlds and building up situations and stages that tell the story if you just explore and look around. This game simply feels like it was written by 2 people who didn't collaborate at all so they could just market a well-known name (🤔)
I don't have much else to say in terms of audio, but the music is really lackluster. For having the most tracks of any of Fromsoft's games, there were like, 3 that I can even remember. Most tracks are completely incidental or generic. Most of the voicework is also pretty weak (Rykard's VA was super sick though.)
Transitioning into the (few) things I legitimately enjoyed, the set pieces dungeons (Stormveil Castle, Raya Lucaria, Leyndell, a couple more that I won't spoil) were where the game truly shined. This was the world building I was talking about. They are some of my favorite stages in all of the Soulsborne titles. The game also has such a well realized aesthetic. The vistas are awe-inspiring and some of the creature design is top-notch.
I wasn't super hyped for this game so it's not like it just didn't meet any lofty ambitions that I set for it in my mind. I went in having only seen the reveal trailer from last year and the knowledge that I like Fromsoft's dark fantasy games. It's ironic that the game being touted as "too Japanese" is maybe the most Western game they've made and I think that it suffers greatly because of that. I clocked in at around 107 hours, with over half of that time spend running along cliff edges, going through cookie-cutter Skyrim dungeons, getting to the end and saying "Well, I'm sure the next one will be cool."
At the end of a Soulsborne game, I immediately fire up a new game to play it a totally different way with my knowledge of what is where and how to get it as fast as possible. But as the credits ran on Elden Ring, the only thing I was thinking of was installing a different game.
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Alright, I know since I didn't give the game 5 stars that no one is actually going to pay attention to this review because this is the god game to save all video games, but that's fine. There's a lot of critique going around right now that is completely superficial or outright racist ("Japanese video games are bad wow when will they learn I hate anime and their culture and history and they should conform to our Western standards that we made and abandon anything they have accomplished!!") and I wanted to give critique that isn't any of that. This is a game I should love, but was ultimately disappointed by.
I guess I'll talk about the bad first. The PC performance is awful. It isn't a hardware issue, it is a software issue, DX12 takes a lot of the responsibility of performance off of the hardware driver and places it on the software using it. This is a double edged sword because while it can be very powerful, it has to be utilized correctly. Elden Ring does not accomplish this and is riddled with stuttering and loading lag as new assets get loaded in and compiled in real time. This is happening whether you notice it or not, so don't try and say "Well it's fine for me!" because it isn't, you just aren't sensitive to the frame hitching. I've seen footage of people who said it was fine and it was hitching. I've seen footage of speedrunners using autosplit and their time lagged as the game hitched. It's an issue, it exists, and if you are sensitive to framerates, as I am, it was unplayable.
So I already had a sour taste in my mouth for the game, but hey, I have a PS5, I picked it up there, and running the PS4 version ran at an incredibly smooth 60 FPS with no issues whatsoever (I guess this is a positive but it make more sense to include it here.)
Gameplay-wise, it's Dark Souls 3 again. This is kind of a bummer since I found DS3's combat to be a little too simple and every fight inevitably winds up being spamming R1 and rolling. Never really had to question my tactics, and anytime I tried using R2 or even power stancing and throwing in L1 and weapon arts, I would leave the encounter going "That would've been half as long if I just spammed R1." Balance-wise, it's kind of rough right now as well. Arcane, my initial build, is completely bugged and doesn't scale correctly so I was banging my head against the wall for the first 40 hours wondering why everything was so spongy. I unlocked respeccing and switched to a Dexterity build, which then wound up becoming nothing but R1 spam and later Hoarfrost Stomp spam because it was so overtuned.
Maybe my biggest gripe with the gameplay was the complete trivialization of multiplayer. I love the multiplayer aspect of these games. I love the tension of getting invaded while exploring a big, scary new area just as much as I love the thrill of invading someone else once I'm confident with my knowledge of the zone. I never got invaded once. It was only when I started invading for an NPC questline that I realized you only ever get invaded if you have other players co-op with you. Every invasion was 1v3 and invaders never get backup either. After about a dozen or so failures I promptly ignored the NPC and went on with the game. A complete waste of time to even have that feature in the game, and a true disappointment. PVP is the one time that R1 spam fails, and with so many fun and unique spells and weapons, I was crafting all these builds in my head only to realize that there was no point.
The open world is probably my biggest point of contention. It keeps getting so much praise as being wholly unique and vast, but it really isn't. Every catacombs is the same, every cave is the same, the same ruins are scattered throughout the entire map, the same enemies get used everywhere, etc. This in turn hurts the game's lore, as I really can't find myself getting invested when over half of the things I'm finding are just reused fights. The Crucible Knight Evergaol was the first fight where I really went "Wow okay this is gonna be good!" but after running into the 20th knight I just got so tired of it. It wasn't fun anymore and just felt like a chore. The constant reuse of fights and factions really made it hard for me to get invested in the game's lore, which is one of my favorite parts of Fromsoft's games. It's especially frustrating voicing this complaint when everyone just yells "The lore doesn't even matter you're just gonna watch it all in a YouTube video anyway!" because no, I'm not. I've never watched a Souls lore video, I just play the games and pay attention. They do such a good job writing these worlds and building up situations and stages that tell the story if you just explore and look around. This game simply feels like it was written by 2 people who didn't collaborate at all so they could just market a well-known name (🤔)
I don't have much else to say in terms of audio, but the music is really lackluster. For having the most tracks of any of Fromsoft's games, there were like, 3 that I can even remember. Most tracks are completely incidental or generic. Most of the voicework is also pretty weak (Rykard's VA was super sick though.)
Transitioning into the (few) things I legitimately enjoyed, the set pieces dungeons (Stormveil Castle, Raya Lucaria, Leyndell, a couple more that I won't spoil) were where the game truly shined. This was the world building I was talking about. They are some of my favorite stages in all of the Soulsborne titles. The game also has such a well realized aesthetic. The vistas are awe-inspiring and some of the creature design is top-notch.
I wasn't super hyped for this game so it's not like it just didn't meet any lofty ambitions that I set for it in my mind. I went in having only seen the reveal trailer from last year and the knowledge that I like Fromsoft's dark fantasy games. It's ironic that the game being touted as "too Japanese" is maybe the most Western game they've made and I think that it suffers greatly because of that. I clocked in at around 107 hours, with over half of that time spend running along cliff edges, going through cookie-cutter Skyrim dungeons, getting to the end and saying "Well, I'm sure the next one will be cool."
At the end of a Soulsborne game, I immediately fire up a new game to play it a totally different way with my knowledge of what is where and how to get it as fast as possible. But as the credits ran on Elden Ring, the only thing I was thinking of was installing a different game.
i know the raid and final mission aren't out yet, but holy hell. this is it. i feel validated putting up with all the memes about destiny players.
the pale heart is probably the greatest environment of any FPS i've ever played. exploring it is so much fun and the amount of content packed into it is incredible. i'm addicted to exploring and how many secrets are packed in here. the post game activities are varied and fun with lots of rewards and makes the grind a blast. the art team was given free reign and they're one of the greatest art teams in the entire games industry.
prismatic is a ton of fun, unlocking it is simple and fun, and the combat encounters in the campaign are all a blast. my only complaint is that i wish it had been a little harder because barring the tripmine room, i didn't die once on solo legendary (well, aside from missing some jumps because i'm so used to having icarus dash)
i'm excited to see the raid and what follows but i doubt it could sway me on what i've already played. didn't buy the season pass originally because i had some trepidation about what was coming next, especially after lightfall, but i'm back in, 100%
the pale heart is probably the greatest environment of any FPS i've ever played. exploring it is so much fun and the amount of content packed into it is incredible. i'm addicted to exploring and how many secrets are packed in here. the post game activities are varied and fun with lots of rewards and makes the grind a blast. the art team was given free reign and they're one of the greatest art teams in the entire games industry.
prismatic is a ton of fun, unlocking it is simple and fun, and the combat encounters in the campaign are all a blast. my only complaint is that i wish it had been a little harder because barring the tripmine room, i didn't die once on solo legendary (well, aside from missing some jumps because i'm so used to having icarus dash)
i'm excited to see the raid and what follows but i doubt it could sway me on what i've already played. didn't buy the season pass originally because i had some trepidation about what was coming next, especially after lightfall, but i'm back in, 100%