Avencast: Rise of the Mage is one of the first games I remember playing on my first laptop, as a kid. Although "remember" might be a bit of a stretch, as, after replaying, I realised my memories left me with a better impression than the game, frankly, deserves. It had its problems back then, the game would crash during cutscenes (which wouldn't even properly play), the animations were buggy, some levels were infuriating, but I held it in high regard - I thought it was fun. After a replay of a version on GOG, I could finally see the cutscenes, but I could also notice all the flaws a child could not. The game is bland - the enemy variety is non-existent, the content is very limited, the character progression, both skill- and equipment-wise - extremely simplistic, in the bad sense of the word. The game feels like it was made by an extremely small and inexperienced team with how simple and short it is. The story and the world falls under the generic-fantasy label, and it's poorly voice acted to boot. Characters also sometimes tend to sound, for a lack of a better term, inhuman, as if it was badly translated. I kind of wish I have not decided to replay this game and just let it exist as a fond memory, I held the bar pretty low, but I was still left disappointed.
It was difficult to subdue the nostalgia that would've otherwise driven me to give this mess a 4/5 review. But reviews should be honest, and new players will not have the benefit of Lionheart being one of the first games they ever played. It has its charm - the art direction is nice, the city of Barcelona feels alive when you first loiter around it, the music, while composed of pretty short loops is pretty and fits the aesthetic (the guitar theme lives in my head rent free). It doesn't shy away from tackling pretty serious topics of persecution, and, for the most part, does them justice, and it has a nice breadth of choices and builds one can dive into, for added replayability and fun. It is, however, unfinished, and by the halway point into the game, the quality starts to drop. It becomes more of a grind, of your character going through megadungeons filled with more and more enemies and less and less story, while the difficulty ramps. The final act of the game is severely disappointing, and feels rushed - because it was rushed. There are also some technical problems. Sometimes when you load into the game, your attack speed goes down, while keeping the same inaccuracy from your higher chosen speed. Positioning of enemies can be wonky, like them shooting at your character from inside the wall. But generally, nothing a quick reload wouldn't be able to fix. The difficulty curve is punishing, and the game doesn't indicate in any way how your skill levels relate to the actual difficulty of whatever you're trying to accomplish. I honestly recommend, if you want to try the game - it is very much combat centric, and if you try to spec into more of a charismatic character, like you would in other RPGs, you will suffer in the later parts of the game. So yeah. The game clearly had potential, I would love to see more in the world created for it, but the execution is lacking.
I remember my first few hours with Cyberpunk 2077 - right after release I booted up the game on a potato PC which I'm not sure it even met the minimal requirements for the title, and I was quite surprised to how the game looked and how high I was able to crank the settings while not suffering from many performance issues. It took a while to adjust to the first person perspective, it felt like V was a toddler when driving a lot of cars, which was annoying for someone who never drives in 3rd person for more than a few seconds at a time, and there was that one annoying persisting glitch of fog and smoke being composed of a bunch of 2d rectangles floating in the air. But it didn't matter. At all. From the get-go, it was the story and the world which consumed me. I spent hours immersed in Night City and every time I looked at the clock, I was surprised to see how much time has passed. There is something to this world, to these characters, that makes them feel so real and entertaining. They have soul. And while I did not expect much from the game systems since TW3 often lacked complexity, I was pleasantly surprised. It was just a bit unpolished. And the polish came later. As of 1.6., it was great, as of 2.0 and Phantom Liberty release, it is absurdly fun. And having mentioned the DLC - it is one of the best DLC for any game that I have played, definitely on par with Witcher's HoS and B&W. The title of this review clearly does not fit my experience with the game since release, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the technical difficulties the game had at launch for many people in some way, and I feel like that fairy tale has a lot in common with the troubles of this game since winter 2020/21. The many initial failures of Cyberpunk 2077 should not be forgotten, neither should the incredible work put into making the game better and repairing its reputation, instead - they should be a lesson and a warning for future game development.
Having played about 500 hours of Baldur's Gate 3, and finishing to tick off achievements at about 400 hours, I can confidently say that Baldur's Gate 3 is not just a great game, but an extremely accessible one at that. Whether you are a d&d veteran or a newbie to the world of turn based RPG's, the system is pretty easy to understand, and, while it may look overwhelming at first, you can quickly get the hang of it and start attempting to experiment. The story, while not incredibly deep, is engaging, the characters are memorable, and the set-pieces will leave you gasping in awe. The amount of options leading to different outcomes, both negative and positive was surprising for me. In most cases, if you think of a different way of approaching an issue, some other options will open to you. And if you want more challenge, there is the infamous Honor Mode, bringing the game to new heights of difficulty and making it seem even more like a d&d campaign, where there are no saves or re-do's. If you wanted to play it but didn't know if it was for you - try it. If you somehow didn't hear about it, hey - you can give it a try as well, I guarantee you will find something that hooks you in the game.
