skally_wag
Sentinel
Atomfall: 52.6hrs. Really enjoyed it. Opted for melee a lot due to scarcity of ammo, but that's probably me, I always have a fear of running out, hence I finished the game with full ammos.
Last game you finished, tell us about it
- Thread starter JemyM
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Easy solution ts to just cheat and edit the amount. Otherwise yeah you run out of bullets in most games otherwise. Anyway glad you enjoyed it I haven't played it yet.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Yeah I did enjoy the first Dead Island game up to a point, yet probably not enough to toss money at a second game. Good to know that if I do feel like whacking on zombies there are options!
I typically had 3 ranged weapons to 1 melee weapon in my weapon wheel. As long as I didn't stick with the same weapon for too long, I usually didn't have any problems with ammo. I like that it's a bit scarce compared to other games.
skally_wag
Sentinel
Agreed. Crafting ammo might have been a nice option.
I did enjoy taking down all the robots.
No_.ne
Watchdog
- Joined
- March 11, 2025
- Messages
- 81
Beat 2 games recently.
First up, Immortals of Aveum, got a key from a friend and I'm glad that's how I got it because, well, it was the definition of average for me. Average gameplay, average story, so on and so forth. The characters had their moments but I thought that they were generally unlikeable, and the story was a combination of utterly predictable writing (which pretty much led to me guessing a fuckton of the plot "twists" way before they actually happened) and some generally interesting lore (nothing special, but still better than the rest of the story). The gameplay was, atleast in my opinion, below average solely due to the particle effects. There were so many of those that there were points where the screen was basically nothing but the UI and particle effects. Also, played the game on the hardest difficulty and mechanically it was a cakewalk but the enemies were just bullet sponges (until I got some better gear.) Overall, no part of the game was straight up bad, but no part of it left me wanting more. 5/10
Second, DOOM 2016.
100%ed the game once on Nightmare difficulty. Ultra-Nightmare took me 8 attempts. I think Ultra-Nightmaring Eternal made beating this one pretty easy for me, atleast relative to Eternal. Thing is, Weapon swapping is just as effective here as it was there, if not more so. Double shot from the ssg, then jump while firing the gauss cannon to create some distance and use the rocket launcher. Rinse and repeat and you can deal with the heavy units. For the smaller ones, the upgraded scope can be used to pop their heads. Since the game isn't specifically designed around the fact that you can quick switch, nor do they have any specific weaknesses like they do in Eternal, they all kinda just melt if you just get good enough at weapon switching. Died once to an imp (sadly), twice to jumps, once to a cacodemon, once to a mancubus, once to a baron of hell, and once to my own rocket's splash damage.
My final thoughts on the game are pretty much that I prefer the complexity and dance-like, lock-and-key approach of Eternal's combat, but that I don't care about that when I'm playing the game at all because playing it is still so much fucking fun. Rip and Tear some fuckwads from hell and that's it, don't worry about the rest.
The levels actually feel like places rather than arenas and corridors connecting arenas, even though they too are basically just that. It's just that at times it feels like Eternal makes no effort at all to mask that fact.
Also, the story's actually kinda cool at times and is not mythological shit that might be cool but makes no sense (ahem, Eternal)
Like, Hayden's actions and role here and in eternal just don't make sense at all when you think about the fact that Eternal's in the same timeline as this game?
8/10
First up, Immortals of Aveum, got a key from a friend and I'm glad that's how I got it because, well, it was the definition of average for me. Average gameplay, average story, so on and so forth. The characters had their moments but I thought that they were generally unlikeable, and the story was a combination of utterly predictable writing (which pretty much led to me guessing a fuckton of the plot "twists" way before they actually happened) and some generally interesting lore (nothing special, but still better than the rest of the story). The gameplay was, atleast in my opinion, below average solely due to the particle effects. There were so many of those that there were points where the screen was basically nothing but the UI and particle effects. Also, played the game on the hardest difficulty and mechanically it was a cakewalk but the enemies were just bullet sponges (until I got some better gear.) Overall, no part of the game was straight up bad, but no part of it left me wanting more. 5/10
Second, DOOM 2016.
100%ed the game once on Nightmare difficulty. Ultra-Nightmare took me 8 attempts. I think Ultra-Nightmaring Eternal made beating this one pretty easy for me, atleast relative to Eternal. Thing is, Weapon swapping is just as effective here as it was there, if not more so. Double shot from the ssg, then jump while firing the gauss cannon to create some distance and use the rocket launcher. Rinse and repeat and you can deal with the heavy units. For the smaller ones, the upgraded scope can be used to pop their heads. Since the game isn't specifically designed around the fact that you can quick switch, nor do they have any specific weaknesses like they do in Eternal, they all kinda just melt if you just get good enough at weapon switching. Died once to an imp (sadly), twice to jumps, once to a cacodemon, once to a mancubus, once to a baron of hell, and once to my own rocket's splash damage.
My final thoughts on the game are pretty much that I prefer the complexity and dance-like, lock-and-key approach of Eternal's combat, but that I don't care about that when I'm playing the game at all because playing it is still so much fucking fun. Rip and Tear some fuckwads from hell and that's it, don't worry about the rest.
The levels actually feel like places rather than arenas and corridors connecting arenas, even though they too are basically just that. It's just that at times it feels like Eternal makes no effort at all to mask that fact.
Also, the story's actually kinda cool at times and is not mythological shit that might be cool but makes no sense (ahem, Eternal)
Like, Hayden's actions and role here and in eternal just don't make sense at all when you think about the fact that Eternal's in the same timeline as this game?
8/10
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2025
- Messages
- 81
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Today I fully wrapped up with Persona three, finishing the expansion and being entirely done. The last stage of the game involved three different areas where you have to battle special encounters, the first being three fights with team members(!!!), it's you and Metris vs. two former compatriots. These fights aren't too hard, just don't underestimate them because even if you didn't level these characters you'll find them equal to your two.
The next set of fights are behind a new Monad door, and these....well, these are no joke. I had to reconfigure like six different personas just to get through these, and even with that the final two fights were touch and go.
And the final fight is Erebus, and compared to the prior battles he's easy.
All in all, this was a fabulous game and had me completely entertained for well over a month. The next time I'm caught up on my backlog I might look at grabbing Persona five.
The next set of fights are behind a new Monad door, and these....well, these are no joke. I had to reconfigure like six different personas just to get through these, and even with that the final two fights were touch and go.
And the final fight is Erebus, and compared to the prior battles he's easy.
All in all, this was a fabulous game and had me completely entertained for well over a month. The next time I'm caught up on my backlog I might look at grabbing Persona five.
No_.ne
Watchdog
- Joined
- March 11, 2025
- Messages
- 81
Finished Persona 5 Royal.
It's still one of the densest JRPGs I've played, and while it still didn't change my mind about my preference for the modern games being 4>3>5, it's also still a 9/10.
Or rather, Royal (and the content that Royal adds, that being Akechi's new confidants and the third semester) are so well done in my opinion that I cannot think of a Persona 5 that does not have them as a 9/10 any longer, because they do fit and contrast with the themes of the base game just that well (though I do have my thoughts on the difference between the two endings). Maruki in particular might be my favorite singular antagonist in all the Persona games.
I'm gonna make a separate thread to talk about my thoughts on Royal for 2 things
It's still one of the densest JRPGs I've played, and while it still didn't change my mind about my preference for the modern games being 4>3>5, it's also still a 9/10.
Or rather, Royal (and the content that Royal adds, that being Akechi's new confidants and the third semester) are so well done in my opinion that I cannot think of a Persona 5 that does not have them as a 9/10 any longer, because they do fit and contrast with the themes of the base game just that well (though I do have my thoughts on the difference between the two endings). Maruki in particular might be my favorite singular antagonist in all the Persona games.
I'm gonna make a separate thread to talk about my thoughts on Royal for 2 things
- Talk about my opinions on Royal's content in particular.
- A part of my brain started nagging me about the ideology behind the Phantom Thieves' actions, specifically in relation to the way Shin Megami Tensei handles the Law side of things.
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2025
- Messages
- 81
- Joined
- July 31, 2007
- Messages
- 9,860
Clair Obscur - Expedition 33
This game would be impressive even if it came from a team of experienced gamedevs, but the fact that this is Sandfall's first game is absolutely mind-boggling. And it doesn't seem like they're swimming in very experienced gamedevs either? Not sure about that, but what they managed to pull off is very impressive.
Some hubbub has arisen around the topic that the team isn't really just around 30 people, but apparently it is. They did indeed also use contractors for various work, but the core game team is very small compared to most studios. The credits, as a final arbiter, were impressively short compared to other titles. So I'm gonna entertain that idea.
Hearing this all stemmed from Guillaume Broche's main idea is very believable. This is obviously driven by such a singular vision. But that vision could've been squandered had the rest of the effort not aligned as well. And the fact that it did, so well, is incredibly impressive. Luck probably also played a role, but all the rest is due to their impressive team.
This is a very unique title in that, it seems to excel in almost everything it does. From combat, to general gameplay, to visuals and story and music. All range from good to great and even exceptional.
I'll start with the visuals which have been consistently so impressive and visually striking. Such wonderful art direction, with so much contrast. And a painterly look and feel. Gorgeous stuff. And the creatures, so imaginative. Just beautiful to behold.
Moving on, I was shocked at how fun and engaging the combat system is, with the introduction of timed dodges and parries. Also infuriating sometimes, depending on the difficulty you play at, but overall very enjoyable. It certainly makes turn based way more involved than usually. I think I played for a mixture of Hard and Normal difficulties. I did encounter some issues with that, in that I had thought I had chosen Hard from the start. But at some point in the playthrough I stumbled back on those settings and saw it set to Normal. So I don't know. But on Hard it was plenty challenging, especially in a couple of the optional end-game encounters. And one in particular, where even setting of it was also most impressive. That fight, against Simon, I could not complete on my own. On Hard it was more difficult than anything souls/borne/ring had managed to come up with. So much so that I suspect it was made more-so as a little joke.
On top of that, the character building system, especially the active and passive pictos, is so engaging. So much fun was had, min-maxing and planning builds. And then testing them out. Can't remember the last game where I would constantly and repeatedly spend tens of minutes switching around abilities. I also deliberately only focused on 3 of all 5 characters, basically leaving the rest completely on the bench. Since each character also has its own combat mechanic, 3 were enough for me to try and get a handle on. But it's also impressive how diverse each one is.
I also liked how they gradually introduce movement in the open world, first by land, then sea, then air. Loved exploring it all.
On the story department, it again win aces. A great journey, with a couple quite hard-hitting twits and turns. And peppered throughout, but especially culminating in some solid study of issues of the human condition. Not particularly truly unique, once you strip out all the flair and flavor (since these issues have been studied since mankind has had trauma and the time to reflect on this), but still a beautiful metaphor for it all. And it might seem like "it's only about that issue?" at first glance, but the more you dissect it, it becomes slightly more than that. But even if I'm just reading more into it than it is, it's still solid. Simply put, art. And god knows we don't have a lot of these, in gaming, that leave you introspective and not just consuming stuff.
I also loved some of the characters, especially Maelle. Truly wonderful stuff. And her voice actress was something else. Seems I need to pay more attention to Shadowheart in BG3 then. She didn't really grab me there, though I did only play in Act 1 of that.
Finally, I'm going to end on music. Impressively, this could be the thing that tops it all off. I don't think I remember a game where I was this constantly impressed by the music. Just great pieces one after the other. And also very diverse, in all sorts of weird other genres. Not just the classical pieces. But those do indeed touch in ways not many do. I've even had particular songs becoming ear-worms for myself, and I could not not hear them outside the game. It was strange. And somehow, a huge soundtrack, at over 8h and 150+ songs? Truly impressive.
I understand there is some differing opinion on the ending(s)? I really didn't feel any issue. Liked the one I chose, and I'm hearing it's the one most people, who are even complaining, are complaining about. I also suspect out of the many that aren't complaining?
Anyway, I was thinking of starting a NG+1 for the other ending that I hear is more classically cathartic, but I probably want to sit on this some more.
Beautiful game! Highly recommended! Somehow it still managed to impress, even after all the glowing reviews I had constantly heard about, that i also tried to not get myself overhyped about. I think I'll give it a 10/10, since I cannot think of anything I did not like about it. Congrats to the dev team!
This game would be impressive even if it came from a team of experienced gamedevs, but the fact that this is Sandfall's first game is absolutely mind-boggling. And it doesn't seem like they're swimming in very experienced gamedevs either? Not sure about that, but what they managed to pull off is very impressive.
Some hubbub has arisen around the topic that the team isn't really just around 30 people, but apparently it is. They did indeed also use contractors for various work, but the core game team is very small compared to most studios. The credits, as a final arbiter, were impressively short compared to other titles. So I'm gonna entertain that idea.
Hearing this all stemmed from Guillaume Broche's main idea is very believable. This is obviously driven by such a singular vision. But that vision could've been squandered had the rest of the effort not aligned as well. And the fact that it did, so well, is incredibly impressive. Luck probably also played a role, but all the rest is due to their impressive team.
This is a very unique title in that, it seems to excel in almost everything it does. From combat, to general gameplay, to visuals and story and music. All range from good to great and even exceptional.
I'll start with the visuals which have been consistently so impressive and visually striking. Such wonderful art direction, with so much contrast. And a painterly look and feel. Gorgeous stuff. And the creatures, so imaginative. Just beautiful to behold.
Moving on, I was shocked at how fun and engaging the combat system is, with the introduction of timed dodges and parries. Also infuriating sometimes, depending on the difficulty you play at, but overall very enjoyable. It certainly makes turn based way more involved than usually. I think I played for a mixture of Hard and Normal difficulties. I did encounter some issues with that, in that I had thought I had chosen Hard from the start. But at some point in the playthrough I stumbled back on those settings and saw it set to Normal. So I don't know. But on Hard it was plenty challenging, especially in a couple of the optional end-game encounters. And one in particular, where even setting of it was also most impressive. That fight, against Simon, I could not complete on my own. On Hard it was more difficult than anything souls/borne/ring had managed to come up with. So much so that I suspect it was made more-so as a little joke.
On top of that, the character building system, especially the active and passive pictos, is so engaging. So much fun was had, min-maxing and planning builds. And then testing them out. Can't remember the last game where I would constantly and repeatedly spend tens of minutes switching around abilities. I also deliberately only focused on 3 of all 5 characters, basically leaving the rest completely on the bench. Since each character also has its own combat mechanic, 3 were enough for me to try and get a handle on. But it's also impressive how diverse each one is.
I also liked how they gradually introduce movement in the open world, first by land, then sea, then air. Loved exploring it all.
On the story department, it again win aces. A great journey, with a couple quite hard-hitting twits and turns. And peppered throughout, but especially culminating in some solid study of issues of the human condition. Not particularly truly unique, once you strip out all the flair and flavor (since these issues have been studied since mankind has had trauma and the time to reflect on this), but still a beautiful metaphor for it all. And it might seem like "it's only about that issue?" at first glance, but the more you dissect it, it becomes slightly more than that. But even if I'm just reading more into it than it is, it's still solid. Simply put, art. And god knows we don't have a lot of these, in gaming, that leave you introspective and not just consuming stuff.
I also loved some of the characters, especially Maelle. Truly wonderful stuff. And her voice actress was something else. Seems I need to pay more attention to Shadowheart in BG3 then. She didn't really grab me there, though I did only play in Act 1 of that.
Finally, I'm going to end on music. Impressively, this could be the thing that tops it all off. I don't think I remember a game where I was this constantly impressed by the music. Just great pieces one after the other. And also very diverse, in all sorts of weird other genres. Not just the classical pieces. But those do indeed touch in ways not many do. I've even had particular songs becoming ear-worms for myself, and I could not not hear them outside the game. It was strange. And somehow, a huge soundtrack, at over 8h and 150+ songs? Truly impressive.
I understand there is some differing opinion on the ending(s)? I really didn't feel any issue. Liked the one I chose, and I'm hearing it's the one most people, who are even complaining, are complaining about. I also suspect out of the many that aren't complaining?
Anyway, I was thinking of starting a NG+1 for the other ending that I hear is more classically cathartic, but I probably want to sit on this some more.
Beautiful game! Highly recommended! Somehow it still managed to impress, even after all the glowing reviews I had constantly heard about, that i also tried to not get myself overhyped about. I think I'll give it a 10/10, since I cannot think of anything I did not like about it. Congrats to the dev team!
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2007
- Messages
- 9,860
Just finished VTM Night Road, a text only choice game. I was skeptical getting it but wanted more VTM after two play throughs of Bloodlines. Glad I did, it's excellent. I gave it a 10/10. Here is my steam review.
Just finished and giving this a rare 10/10 score, as I experienced no bugs or errors and got my perfect ending. I played it raw - no looking things up, no guides, nothing. I went in with a blank slate and glad I did as the tension of knowing I had to deal with every choice created a lot of excitement and tension. No reloads and no going back to chose something else. I was nervous I might not get the ending I want but thankfully I got it. So, my score reflects my personal experience with the game and isn't based solely on its mechanics. I.e. its more a subjective score vs. an objective one.
The game itself I went into thinking it would be ho-hum. I had just finished two play through of the original VTM Bloodlines and wanted more VTM/vampire game play. I was skeptical of how good a text only game could be but I was bored and sometimes it pays to try something different. In this case it paid off. I was up until 2:30 am at night unable to pull myself away from the story.
I like that it has a character sheet with stats, attributes, and skills that all go up based on both usage and how you spend some of the experience points your earn doing things. There is tracking of reputation with 3 factions, simple inventory, tracking of the masquerade and humanity, money, and an excellent journal you could access at any time to get help. I also appreciated that when trying to make a choice in dialogue, with skill/attribute influence you could easily jump to your stats page to see your points, then return. I did play with storyteller mode on as it said that is how VTM is played and I preferred it that way.
The writing was top-notch. I wasn't expecting anything too good for a game like this, it can be hard to write a good story when there are so many choices and paths, but the writing was excellent and pulled me right in. I listened to some dark occult trance music while playing which really added to the atmosphere. I also liked the few pieces of artwork of some of the characters in the game.
I played the basic game, no add-ons, and can highly recommend it. I also liked that I had freedom to chose who I fed on and got to do a little romance on the side - although I want to stress that was not the focus of the game by any means. Just a nice side option and a surprise I hadn't expected.
Anyhow really fun well done game IMO.
Just finished and giving this a rare 10/10 score, as I experienced no bugs or errors and got my perfect ending. I played it raw - no looking things up, no guides, nothing. I went in with a blank slate and glad I did as the tension of knowing I had to deal with every choice created a lot of excitement and tension. No reloads and no going back to chose something else. I was nervous I might not get the ending I want but thankfully I got it. So, my score reflects my personal experience with the game and isn't based solely on its mechanics. I.e. its more a subjective score vs. an objective one.
The game itself I went into thinking it would be ho-hum. I had just finished two play through of the original VTM Bloodlines and wanted more VTM/vampire game play. I was skeptical of how good a text only game could be but I was bored and sometimes it pays to try something different. In this case it paid off. I was up until 2:30 am at night unable to pull myself away from the story.
I like that it has a character sheet with stats, attributes, and skills that all go up based on both usage and how you spend some of the experience points your earn doing things. There is tracking of reputation with 3 factions, simple inventory, tracking of the masquerade and humanity, money, and an excellent journal you could access at any time to get help. I also appreciated that when trying to make a choice in dialogue, with skill/attribute influence you could easily jump to your stats page to see your points, then return. I did play with storyteller mode on as it said that is how VTM is played and I preferred it that way.
The writing was top-notch. I wasn't expecting anything too good for a game like this, it can be hard to write a good story when there are so many choices and paths, but the writing was excellent and pulled me right in. I listened to some dark occult trance music while playing which really added to the atmosphere. I also liked the few pieces of artwork of some of the characters in the game.
I played the basic game, no add-ons, and can highly recommend it. I also liked that I had freedom to chose who I fed on and got to do a little romance on the side - although I want to stress that was not the focus of the game by any means. Just a nice side option and a surprise I hadn't expected.
Anyhow really fun well done game IMO.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
I've not played a pure text game in ages, might have to give that one a go, thanks for the review.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Today I finished Metaphor: ReFantazio and it was a complete joy to play, from beginning to end. I started with the demo version and simply couldn't stop, and it was a great call on my part. The combat is similar in ways to some of the Persona games, namely that you've overland and tactical situations to contend with. Depending on levels/builds you might completely overwhelm the opposition or find yourself battling for your very lives.
The story is solid, from what happened to the previous leader and the current situation, basically an election to choose a new king. Your main bloke participates in this contest and your stable gives you help along the way, in various forms. You start with a small stable that grows over the course of the game, some of the characters are quite strong, others not so much. Some will surprise you, for instance I benched Strohl for quite some time, then brought him back on a whim because the new fighter wasn't holding his own, and when Strohl got access to his final class, well, he more than delivered. Junah was also quite potent, though you've quite the wait before she joins, that or I missed her earlier at some point.
I usually stick with fighter-types in games yet this is one of those that quite obviously makes clear that magic is the way to go. I didn't have a pure mage at the beginning so the main bloke took that role and I pretty much stuck with that throughout the entire game. You can control added attribute points to a certain degree on your main guy yet the rest are distributed at random. By the end of the game, however, physical forms seem to be completely dominant, most notably because of buffs that can be applied to them. If there are similar buffs for magic skills I never found them.
Some parts of the game were really challenging. At a certain point I got access to the Prince class for the main character and that's when things truly opened up. This class seems to work for whatever build you have, be it fighter or mage, or anything in between. Once I got into this build it was hard to give it up, due to simply how strong it is. There are similar stories throughout the game, like how by near the final thirty percent or so of the game my thief was tanking everything, namely because of this ring I found that gave him insane dodging skill. He would taunt and, if the opposition missed, not only would they not damage him but they'd lose subsequent strike opportunities. When you take this to the silly level, well, let's just say it made some nameds rather easy to deal with.
You can easily change stable-mates on the fly, fluctuate classes at will, and experiment will all sorts of gear. Any Persona experience will serve well in this game as they're quite similar. Two caveats: I'll likely be buying anything from Atlus in the future and I sure hope this game gets an expansion at some point. If you enjoy the genre you cannot go wrong with this one, at any price.
The story is solid, from what happened to the previous leader and the current situation, basically an election to choose a new king. Your main bloke participates in this contest and your stable gives you help along the way, in various forms. You start with a small stable that grows over the course of the game, some of the characters are quite strong, others not so much. Some will surprise you, for instance I benched Strohl for quite some time, then brought him back on a whim because the new fighter wasn't holding his own, and when Strohl got access to his final class, well, he more than delivered. Junah was also quite potent, though you've quite the wait before she joins, that or I missed her earlier at some point.
I usually stick with fighter-types in games yet this is one of those that quite obviously makes clear that magic is the way to go. I didn't have a pure mage at the beginning so the main bloke took that role and I pretty much stuck with that throughout the entire game. You can control added attribute points to a certain degree on your main guy yet the rest are distributed at random. By the end of the game, however, physical forms seem to be completely dominant, most notably because of buffs that can be applied to them. If there are similar buffs for magic skills I never found them.
Some parts of the game were really challenging. At a certain point I got access to the Prince class for the main character and that's when things truly opened up. This class seems to work for whatever build you have, be it fighter or mage, or anything in between. Once I got into this build it was hard to give it up, due to simply how strong it is. There are similar stories throughout the game, like how by near the final thirty percent or so of the game my thief was tanking everything, namely because of this ring I found that gave him insane dodging skill. He would taunt and, if the opposition missed, not only would they not damage him but they'd lose subsequent strike opportunities. When you take this to the silly level, well, let's just say it made some nameds rather easy to deal with.
You can easily change stable-mates on the fly, fluctuate classes at will, and experiment will all sorts of gear. Any Persona experience will serve well in this game as they're quite similar. Two caveats: I'll likely be buying anything from Atlus in the future and I sure hope this game gets an expansion at some point. If you enjoy the genre you cannot go wrong with this one, at any price.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Well, I'm not used to finishing a game in a week yet that's what's happened this time. Disco Elysium was a fun ride, a good detective yarn and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy these kinds of games.
I played as a solid copper, trying to be a good guy and true to the badge, even though I'd lost that and my sidearm, somehow. So I stayed away from gear and booze, tried to work the case honestly with my partner and built my guy mostly on intellect with some endurance. Great stuff here to explore, my hands-down favourites have to be the two gear-heads near the corpse, their anti-police and paedo comments left me in stitches every time! Lots of other characters do a fine job of giving you details both involving the case and....well, other matters.
The case itself is pretty dark, and I'll not spoil anything here. This is a brief review because there's no combat system to suss out, no other party characters to explore, it's a pretty simple game, though much involved as the case goes on. When I replay this one, and I know I will, I'll likely go the gear and booze route and play a nasty police, just to see what the other side is like. If you like a good detective yarn I cannot recommend this one highly enough!
I played as a solid copper, trying to be a good guy and true to the badge, even though I'd lost that and my sidearm, somehow. So I stayed away from gear and booze, tried to work the case honestly with my partner and built my guy mostly on intellect with some endurance. Great stuff here to explore, my hands-down favourites have to be the two gear-heads near the corpse, their anti-police and paedo comments left me in stitches every time! Lots of other characters do a fine job of giving you details both involving the case and....well, other matters.
The case itself is pretty dark, and I'll not spoil anything here. This is a brief review because there's no combat system to suss out, no other party characters to explore, it's a pretty simple game, though much involved as the case goes on. When I replay this one, and I know I will, I'll likely go the gear and booze route and play a nasty police, just to see what the other side is like. If you like a good detective yarn I cannot recommend this one highly enough!
After playing VTM Night Road I decided to try another VTM themed text based game since I had so much fun with Night Road (which I got 29.9 hours out of per Steam which is a lot for a text based game and me being a fast reader, but I played it through a few times).
Anyhow I got VTM Parliament of Knives, written by Jeffrey Dean, and finished it last night at 8.4 hours for my first run through. While I liked Night Road better that is because I enjoyed the theme and options in Night Road, which had more character building, more skill checks, more variety, and was a bit more open. That being said Parliment is excellent, well written, and has a ton of plot lines running under the hood - impossible to see in one play through. If you like a more political themed story and character it's well worth the money in my opinion which granted is biased as I love VTM stuff.
There is some character building but you do not get to assign experience points directly after missions like Night Road. Instead you get options after sleeping during the day that are based on dreams and memories and you pick answers from a bunch of dialogue options that grant some exp to various stats. Like "You remember in the past you had some training from the prince, you focused on...." then you can pick something like fighting, social, intelligence, like options. Over time those stats/skills will go up. There was no will power check for hunger but there was a simple hunger meter but not sure how much impact it had. So it wasn't as detailed or defined as Night Road. For some that might be a plus as you focus more on the story and politics.
There are factions and relationships but I didn't manage to get involved with anyone based on my choices, just various friends I backed. This story also had a "bookmark" mode which would let you roll back to the start of a chapter, when you got to the end of it, undoing all you decisions, the closest to a "save/load" option I have seen so far. I went and lived with all my choices. but some might like it. Without cheats or looking things up I still managed to get a good ending, at least for what I like.
I am not sure I will try any of the other VTM story choice games. There are 3 based in NY as a series but I read a lot of the comments and its rather mixed and not sure I would enjoy them as much. There is also one where you play as a human trying to stop some vampires with your friends and that also didn't appeal to me.
The only other one I plan on playing, and I now own, is the Werewolf: The Apocalypse - The Book of Hungry Names. World of Darkness based and also written by the author of Night Road.
Anyhow I got VTM Parliament of Knives, written by Jeffrey Dean, and finished it last night at 8.4 hours for my first run through. While I liked Night Road better that is because I enjoyed the theme and options in Night Road, which had more character building, more skill checks, more variety, and was a bit more open. That being said Parliment is excellent, well written, and has a ton of plot lines running under the hood - impossible to see in one play through. If you like a more political themed story and character it's well worth the money in my opinion which granted is biased as I love VTM stuff.
There is some character building but you do not get to assign experience points directly after missions like Night Road. Instead you get options after sleeping during the day that are based on dreams and memories and you pick answers from a bunch of dialogue options that grant some exp to various stats. Like "You remember in the past you had some training from the prince, you focused on...." then you can pick something like fighting, social, intelligence, like options. Over time those stats/skills will go up. There was no will power check for hunger but there was a simple hunger meter but not sure how much impact it had. So it wasn't as detailed or defined as Night Road. For some that might be a plus as you focus more on the story and politics.
There are factions and relationships but I didn't manage to get involved with anyone based on my choices, just various friends I backed. This story also had a "bookmark" mode which would let you roll back to the start of a chapter, when you got to the end of it, undoing all you decisions, the closest to a "save/load" option I have seen so far. I went and lived with all my choices. but some might like it. Without cheats or looking things up I still managed to get a good ending, at least for what I like.
I am not sure I will try any of the other VTM story choice games. There are 3 based in NY as a series but I read a lot of the comments and its rather mixed and not sure I would enjoy them as much. There is also one where you play as a human trying to stop some vampires with your friends and that also didn't appeal to me.
The only other one I plan on playing, and I now own, is the Werewolf: The Apocalypse - The Book of Hungry Names. World of Darkness based and also written by the author of Night Road.
Finished The Necromancer's Tale.
Pros:
+ The story and overall atmosphere is excellent
+ It's fun to develop your necromancy and see NPCs react to it
+ Choices with consequences (or at the very least well done illusion of choice)... I'm unsure of how different choices would've played out, but curious enough that I'll definitely play it again eventually.
+ Excellent soundtrack that fits the tone perfectly.
Cons:
- Combat is somewhat lackluster. Not terrible by any means, but pretty basic and you have limited tactical options. While it is fun to create an army of the undead, some battles with large numbers of enemies get a bit tedious... Combat is relatively infrequent for most of the game, so this is not a major con.
- Graphics. They're not the greatest. But I found them "good enough" to immerse myself in the world.
Neutral:
The character building system is a bit odd and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. You make choices in the prologue that determine your character's stats. Then each chapter you get a fixed amount of skill pool points that you can spend to help you pass skill checks when your character's stat is not high enough.
You gain power by learning new spells but there's no leveling up.
Overall it is great game, well worth the money, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a narrative driven RPG. Check out the demo first as it should give a pretty good idea if you'll like the game.
Pros:
+ The story and overall atmosphere is excellent
+ It's fun to develop your necromancy and see NPCs react to it
+ Choices with consequences (or at the very least well done illusion of choice)... I'm unsure of how different choices would've played out, but curious enough that I'll definitely play it again eventually.
+ Excellent soundtrack that fits the tone perfectly.
Cons:
- Combat is somewhat lackluster. Not terrible by any means, but pretty basic and you have limited tactical options. While it is fun to create an army of the undead, some battles with large numbers of enemies get a bit tedious... Combat is relatively infrequent for most of the game, so this is not a major con.
- Graphics. They're not the greatest. But I found them "good enough" to immerse myself in the world.
Neutral:
The character building system is a bit odd and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. You make choices in the prologue that determine your character's stats. Then each chapter you get a fixed amount of skill pool points that you can spend to help you pass skill checks when your character's stat is not high enough.
You gain power by learning new spells but there's no leveling up.
Overall it is great game, well worth the money, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a narrative driven RPG. Check out the demo first as it should give a pretty good idea if you'll like the game.
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Drithius
Magic & Loss
After ~120 hours, finished the current available content for Erenshor, a single player "MMORPG" w/ simulated player characters. It does a great job hearkening back to ye olden days of Everquest, just plopping you down in an unknown land and having you run headlong into things that may or may not kill you in 0.5 seconds flat (no hour-long CRs though 
). What I especially enjoyed was its dungeon design, with roaming enemies you had to be careful around, great loot to find/farm, and even secrets to discover.
Looking forward to another playthrough in a month's time once the dev releases a new class and completes a balancing pass across the entire game.
). What I especially enjoyed was its dungeon design, with roaming enemies you had to be careful around, great loot to find/farm, and even secrets to discover.Looking forward to another playthrough in a month's time once the dev releases a new class and completes a balancing pass across the entire game.
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- Joined
- July 7, 2010
- Messages
- 1,209
Death Stranding after 152 hours and 95% Achievements. I'd give it 7/10. The landscape was nice to explore but there wasn't enough reward for doing so (no cool hidden loot or quests), just the occasional extra fetch-quest giver required for achievements. I didn't understand the core concepts enough to become invested in the plot, despite tons of cut-scenes and lore notes. I still don't know what DOOMS is, or what a BB is, or an EE, or beaches, seams, etc.. I would have preferred no BT's or human enemies or Timefall so I could have travelled the world in peace, but I appreciated that there was a lore reason to avoid killing.
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2010
- Messages
- 1,209
I agree some of it was kind of hard to follow despite the in-game notes. There's a Death Stranding wiki that explains things in a little more detail.
"Hero Of The Kingdom" 1 & 2 ... the perfect game for being on vacation with no effective internet connection and nothing interesting within 5 kilometres at all. For this, these games are just perfect, even although they are extremely simple (no moving spites, but the games feels like a mixture between adventure and RPG. No levels, though.) I found it creative how they handles health ponts : These are lterally represented by hearts in the inventory. They are consumed when doing tasks. They can get replenished throuch camping + food, or through sleeping in an inn.
Since this game series is rather of some kind of adventure style, there is no "paper doll" to equip with items.
The only "level up" mechanic is reputation, being represented by stars in the inventory.
Some quest givers won't give quests unless the protagonist has reached a certain number of reputation stars.
Edit : A warning : There is in a few quests some pixel hunting involved ! You should lower your screen resolution for that, seriously !
Since this game series is rather of some kind of adventure style, there is no "paper doll" to equip with items.
The only "level up" mechanic is reputation, being represented by stars in the inventory.
Some quest givers won't give quests unless the protagonist has reached a certain number of reputation stars.
Edit : A warning : There is in a few quests some pixel hunting involved ! You should lower your screen resolution for that, seriously !
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Carnifex
SasqWatch
Trails to Azure is finally done, with about five fake endings until I clobbered the last clown into submission. This was a fun romp, then again all the Trails games are, the cast is good and I liked the addition of having a car to use at times. Great exploration and numerous nefarious blokes/bloketttes to deal with, sometimes multiple times. Quite a few of the fights are really tough, and some of the mechanics near the end are rough, like additional adds that can be absorbed by the named which seems to increase their potency way too much. I favor a physical approach yet, by the end, I was glad I'd developed two mates that were stalwart art users.