I think the deck building aspect of this is a lot of fun, if not suffering from balancing issues. The overworld stuff is a mixed bag. The questing is fun but the walking around the map doesn't make sense to me. The classes are great because they all play very differently. Every class has a specific ability card they start with. This is a card that returns or stays in yourr hand every turn. It's basically an identifier that tells you exactly how the class is meant to be played. A good example of this is the Blood Mage. You sacrifice a certain percentage of your health and you draw a random summon card that is in your deck. So if you have the board space you can summon a blood creature. Each one activates in a different way. Blood Wyrm attacks a random enemy. Blood Golem redirects all attacks to itself and heals itself every activation, and Blood Fae give you an Ultimate Charge. They last 4 turns: They level up one level per turn (or you can level them with cards in the deck for the Blood Mage). After 4 turns they "overcharge" (unique again to the blood mage) and they are destroyed with a special effect for he overcharge. But that is only one example The Sentinal class builds a charge based on how many arrows are shot. You expend charges to play quiver cards or you build it up and use for a special effect. It's cards are completely different, it's got a unique ability card. The Summoner summons similar creatures that phase in and out of and do different things depending on what form they are in. Another element that is different from every class is the Ultimate Meter. This is charged differently depending on what class you are playing. The blood mage charges thiers by Blood Fae or everytime it sacrifices some of it's health. The Sentinel charges it by shooting arrow. A certain number of charges has a special effect, you can use this once per turn. It adds an interesting strategic element to each class that is unique.
I was blown away by how much I enjoyed this game. For me, it tickles that part of my brain the loves conspiracy theories, UFO stories, and government cover-ups. It reaches through history in a way that fascinates me. The gameplay is excellent, the map is absolutely huge, and story is fascinating. I read every single meme/note I found, listened to every audio recording, watched every single video, and felt like I really got to know "The Oldest House". It's not too long of a game, I played through it in about 30 hours with a lot of exploration and completed both the DLCs. I thoroughly enjoyed them both but the game was left open ended. I hope we get a sequel to follow-up regarding Jesse Faden and The Board to really tie off the open ends. I also wouldn't mind more of an explanation of Ahti as well. Though, partly there is a fear that if we get it, it won't live up to expectations. This is one of those rare Half-Life level stories that may never get another game. Part of me would miss it but part of me would be a bit glad of it since I don't know that a follow-up could live up to this game. I waited till it came out on GOG, I am aware of the somewhat "scummy" moves by the publisher around this edition of the game and I was never a fan of them being an Epic exclusive like they were. This is not meant to be a review of a lousy publisher, it's meant to be a review of a really great game. Now that it is on better platforms, and if you are like me you really wanted to play it and have held off till now, this to me is a must buy.
Honestly, this is a great game. I may be an exception but I really liked the first game. At first, however, I hated the first game. But after going back to it a couple of years after it came out I truly came to appreciate the game. Then this one came out. By the time this game released, I was a huge fan of the first game. This one did not disappoint in any way. The is a direct sequel to the events of the first game so you really should play that one as well though this one has new characters and whole new story of it's own. This one introduced a kind of hub world that kept seeing you come back to a common area, which is an element I really liked about it. The graphics and voice acting were honestly all pretty excellent. The story was interesting, if not a bit contrived, after the first one. To me it's almost unbelievable this came out in 2017, it still feels so fresh to me. Keep in mind, the game emphasizes stealth but it's not an entirely stealth game. There are boss encounters, there are hairy situations where stealth doesn't work, there are situations where stealth lets you decide how to begin a situation but then it's all action. If you are in the mood for a reasonably creepy experience in an interesting world built arround pschological horror with a bit of gore throw in for good measure, this is the game for you. Looking at my sTeam page I have 26 hours in the game. I am not a completionist but I do explore my surroundings in a game such as this so I don't know how indicative that is of how much time you'll get out of it, but I also don't think you'll be disappointed. Just righting this review is making me want to play it again.
The title says it all, but I'll summarize quickly. 1. The game looks great. The rat swarms are amazing and skin crawling. If I had to criticize one thing in this area is that I wish there were more different character models for the Inquisition. But that is minor, they are not the main draw to the game in any way. 2. The puzzles are engaging. Most of the game is finding your way around massive swarms of rats or guards. I don't know that there is more than on solution for each puzzle, but it feels great. 3. The world feels fully fleshed out. The details are amazing. You expand your understanding of what is happening by the settings themselves and also you gain a lot of understanding by listening to people as you are sneaking around. 4. The characters are great. Not all make out of the adventure and each one that falls feels impactful. To me, you really feel the connections to these characters and it feels like you really understand them. The game is just great. I almost played it through in a single playthrough, and not because it's short but because I didn't want to quit. It's good I did not because it's a lot longer than I thought it was. There are secrets to find throughout the game, the ability to replay chapters, reason to perhaps go and try to get all the upgrades, etc. This game is worth the asking price. It's a top quality game that looks and sounds great. If you want to play an engaging stealth/puzzle game, this is the one for you.
I had my misgivings about this game when I watched videos about it. I really like the lore and art style of all the games, it's been amazingly consistent. But I wasn't sure I was gonna like this particular perspective. I thought it would greatly change the feel of the games. I'm happy to report I was completely wrong. This feels like a Darksiders game completely through. There are level puzzles, backtracking, lots of extras to find around the world, a great battle arena that is a lot of fun and challenging as well. The voice acting is good. The story overall is on par with other Darksiders games, so if you like the others you will probably like this and if you didn't, nothing will have changed that. My one complaint is the script for Strife. He just feels so different than the other Horsemen. Even the tempo at which he talks is vastly different from the other three Horsemen. I don't doubt the voice actor did a great job on the performance, the issue is likely in how his dialog was directed. He is very flippant and joking in many ways and it just feels out of place. I almost think this was a requirement, however. If you were to have two characters that were similarly dour it would probably make for boring interactions. And in this story most of the dialog takes place between War and Strife so there is a performative need to play off each other rather than two silent protagonists just walking around killing things together. War and Stife play very differently. I almost wish I had a partner to play the game with so we could each just rely on playing our individual characters. I played mostly as Strife since he was the newest Horsemen to play as and he is very different from the others in his gameplay style. But when I played as War, it essentially played like Darksiders 1, it was really quite stunning how they were able to keep that feel even though the camera and perspective were vastly different. If you like Darksiders, this is a must buy.
The game is deeper than it first lets on. The crafting is one thing, the cooking another. It give you incentives to seek out all the recipes by giving you a permanent stat increase the first time you consume a food. This makes you really want to track down all the recipes and create them at least once. Some of them are some of the best healing items in the game as well. When everything was said and done, it gave massive bonuses. I think when I completed the game I had 10% increased XP as well 8 MP regenerated per second. It was nuts. There is also the fact that there are hidden abilities with a lot of the items. For example there is a grinder blade that has spinning spikes on it. You think it's just a cool looking weapon but it actually hits multiple times with every swing. There is an armor you can collect from a certain enemy which actually turns you into that enemy while you wear it, and it's based off another games character as well as an homage to that game. The shards are crazy. There are so many, almost one per enemy in the game and many are quite different form each other. You can increase the grade of these by collecting duplicates of them. The you can use ingredients found around the world (found in chests and reaped from dead enemies) that update the rank. Having a full stock of 9 increases the effect (damage, for example) while leveling the grade will do things like make more of the summons appear or increase the radius of an effect. It's quite awesome because it's levels of stuff you can do that are optionally there to experiment and play with. I have seen some coverage of people complaining about the games price, but at $40 it's an incredibly good deal in my opinion. I beat the game, with all the optional bosses and side quests with a 100% map in about 31 hours. They have committed to releasing further content for free and I can't wait to see it. And if they released a paid expansion I wouldn't hesitate to purchase it.
Overall, this games presentation is pretty amazing. The graphic style is beautiful, the music some of the best I have heard in a game, and the overall map is enjoyable to move around. The story is a simply told kind of tour de force about the beauty and cruelty of nature. There is no good and bad, or right and wrong in this game. Even the "villain" is an extremely sympathetic character, which is an amazing thing to think about because there is very little in the way of story sequences. There is only a few very very very well done sequences and they tell the entire story. Two things hold this back from 5 stars for me. The first is the controls. Specifically jumping, feels somewhat unresponsive. I feel like your character barely leaves the ground. Even when you unlock the triple jump it doesn't feel like you a really have that upward mobility you really desire. And sometimes, when I press a button, things just didn't happen. Like, when you unlock the Kuro feather you hold right trigger to glide, but sometimes I would be in a platform sequence and it just wouldn't work. The second is the fact that there are so many things in the world that are one hit kills, it almost feels pointless to increase the number health orbs you have. Specifically, when you go through each temple and complete the puzzle aspect, you are treated to an escape sequence which puts you into a sequence that you die instantly if it's not done correctly. This leads to you just memorizing the sequence of things you have to do to get through it. If you are like me, you will get frustrated and the controls aren't quite there to warrant such sequences. Overall though, this game is more than worth the money at full price, but especially on sale. I don't know if there is any replay value here, but I am looking forward to the sequel, where I hope they fix the few issues the game had for me.
Let me Start with the idea that, after everything was said and done and I had beaten the game, I liked it. I have many criticisms of the game, but let me start with what I really liked. I beat it in just under 18 hours and unlocked 70% of the trophies. What I liked: - Lore - I think the thing I liked the most was the continuation of the lore in the game. It was pretty compelling if you want to see the continuuation of the Darksiders Story. - Art Design - I also appreciated how they continued the art style of the game that was started by Joe Mad. - The Map - The map was really well done. It was packed with little nooks and crannies you could find things in, ways that circled back onto areas you have been to, and it was just abotu perfect for the type of game they were making. I actually liked it better than the previous games maps. What I'm critical of: - Leveling - I get what they were going for but I they didn't get there. There is only 3 stats which doesn't change much about how you play. You will likely throw the lions share into Strength, followed by Health, then as you get better at perfect dodging you are forced to drop points in Arcane. Also, by not putting a lot of points in Arcane makes the Chaos form useless. - Frustrating bosses - Some bosses just felt kind of cheap. Some were great and interesting though. It would also have you watch the cinematic each time for some bosses (but it was at least skippable) - Frustrating Enemy Encounters - Many times I ended up surrounded by enemies and you can easily get stuck in a stun locked state as the enemies take turns attacking. More than once I was killed without ever having the ability to do anything about it. - Combat - This is really hit or miss. Due to the leveling system, nothing really changes as you play. I found myself just relying on the whip unless I had to use an alternate weapon for something.
I was very surprised by this game. There is a lot more than meets the eye here. 1. The gameplay itself was fantastic. As you progress through an entire world of puzzles and things snap into place, new paths open up, you find shortcuts, it feels amazingly organic. None of it was forced. One area flowed naturally to the next area. The map was a bit confusing at first to be honest. There is no key to what the symbols are, but just like the organic feeling of the world, you learn what each thing is, what each screen means. There is no voice and no text in this game. It is a visual experience when looking at everything. 2. The map starts small but becomes big. At the end, once you unlock everything, it feels small again, but only because you can freely run across it having defeated the denizens of the world. The world is also almost entirely unrecognizable at the end of the game as compared to the first. Not only do the pieces of the world come through and snap into place, but the landscape and where you can traverse is completely different. Bottomless pits become places you can go, dry areas have flowing water, and there is lots to run around and collect when everything is said and done. 3. The only downside is, unless you feel like collecting everything, there is no reason to go back. There are actually multiple endings but you only need to continue where you left off to see the other. It's almost bittersweet. The time with this game was really amazing, but like a good book I am a bit saddened it ended. 4. Other things to point out. This is first and foremost a puzzle and exploration game. The combat isn't bad at all, but that is clearly not the point of the game. The combat is challenging and fun. And as you unlock new abilities you will find you can now defeat some enemies that were seemingly invulnerable before. Final thoughts: Like a really good book, it's an amazing experience that you are left only wanting more of when it ends.
