Grim Dawn is probably the most polished and cohesive ARPG I have ever played. It features an in-depth class & skill system, a multitude of gear, a great setting, and a fantastic presentation. Its failings are those of the genre at large, so it's difficult to point to Grim Dawn in particular as the culprit. It's like complaining that a competitive FPS is too reflex based and fast paced, when that's just the nature of the genre. Nonetheless, the game does suffer from some frustrating RNG, overwhelming abundance of useless gear, and a forgettable story. I do think that at least some of these things could be done differently, but so much of the game is so enjoyable, it's hard to truly decry it as bad. I will say, the ability to use cheats to alleviate the grind is welcome, though you will need external tools to be able to do so. Nonetheless, in an age of always online games, it's welcome to have Grim Dawn be a complete experience that you can do with as you wish. If you enjoy the genre, you will love Grim Dawn. If you dislike the common faults, Grim Dawn will (mostly) not be the exception. It's a good game, and I think it's worth playing at least once. Whether it's worth finishing is another question, but the soundtrack alone is worth a listen.
Carrion's fluid traversal & excellent level design is only matched by its stellar presentation and superb atmosphere. The game is technically sound, and the core gameplay loop (traversal as a blob, avoiding danger, & consuming poor humans) has been distilled very well. Some of the mechanics (size changing, enemy posession, enemy AI manipulation, metroidvania progression, defensive abilities) are not as refined. The lack of a map in particular hurts the game the most. As such, the game's relatively short length (4-6 hours depending on playstyle, skill, and degree of completion) works in the game's favor. The story is pretty basic & abstract, it's mostly there for ambiance. Its baseline pricepoint of $20 is very fair for the excellent experience you're getting. If it's on sale, it is absurdly worth getting. I had a great time with the game. What I really hope for is a sequel that takes the other aspects that weren't already masted in the demo, and hones them to create an expanded & longer experience. I would love to see Carrion 2 have a post-apocalyptic Seattle for you to roam around in (Seattle Underground, Space Needle, Met Market, etc.), with a greater emphasis on using the other gameplay features (e.g. stealth, specific attack skills, defensive/utility skills, enemy manipulation, etc.)
Souldiers is another one of these metroidvania/dark souls mashups that have been getting popular over the last couple of years. You've got your usual quick & heavy attack, with a cooldown timer on the latter. Positioning is vital, and you have a block and dodge that you will need to use often. There's a heavy emphasis on knowing when to do what, and that classic Dark Souls sense of being punished for "being greedy" is also found here. The game is dragged down in a few areas. First, the melee/archer/mage class choice doesn't really feel balanced. At least early on, I'm getting mired in conflicts where if I don't have ranged options, I'm going to spend a lot of time waiting for certain enemies to get close enough for me to hit. Second, the pacing with the Dragon Statue Fires (this game's version of Dark Souls bonfires) doesn't seem quite right. Third, things like Ammo Shards should just refill when you save/heal at a DSF. The game is already asking you to be cautious and methodical in so many other areas, it doesn't seem reasonable that ammo gathering is something you should have to deal with in addition to the multitude of other resources. I personally don't find it fun to have to keep demonstrating that I have mastered this idea of how to gather ammo shards from trash mobs. Fourth, the game's keyboard controls feel... off. I'm sorry, I don't know how else to put it. Maybe it's down to the layout, and I haven't found something that works for me yet. Maybe it's the relative size of platforms and characters, with everything feeling so cramped. But compared to other entries in the genre, something feels wrong. Maybe it's better when you use a gamepad, I can't say for sure. I want to stress at this point that I do overall like the game. There's clearly a lot of thought and effort at work here. I just wish some areas had had more polish.
A lot of randomness with a restrictive window for viable builds to reliably get you through a run. There is a lot of variety in terms of cards, enemies, etc., but you are punished for experimenting and lack meaningful control over too many factors that are vital for you to succeed. The game offers many hours of gameplay, ultimately falls short for me and fails to satisfy its potential.
Overall, Control shines most brightly when it capitalizes on using its visuals and gameplay to create this "David Lynch meets Matrix" experience. If that sounds interesting to you, then you'll be in for a good time. The core controls are pretty much in-line with what you expect from a 3rd person shooter. The movement can be floaty / off at times, but the enemy AI is usually pretty lenient so that it doesn't matter. Standing still is definitely not recommended. This isn't a cover based shooter. Visually gorgeous, the game features a variety of enemies and environments. The boss fights are on the disappointing end of the scale, but the mini-bosses tend to be a good combination of main enemy and trash mob spawn. A lot of ability functionality is locked behind keystone progression tree perks and come too late in the game. Something like energy regenerating while you hold an object or being able to launch multiple objects at once all should come much earlier than they do. The loot/gear acquisition/progression is also one big RNG grindfest. Think of the worst lootboxes out there, and that's what the core progression pretty much boils down to. The silver lining here is that there isn't any monetization of the RNG. Overall, the progression doesn't seem thought through. But it's nothing that a bit of manual course correction either via save-file editing or CheatEngine won't fix. The DLC content is alright. The maps reuse some existing structures from the base game, but nothing terribly major. The collectibles and writing are all pretty good, and the voice acting is solid from everyone. The Alan Wake DLC is "only" ok if you, like me, haven't played any Alan Wake games before, since I'm sure all the clever tie-ins would greatly enhance the experience. The Foundation DLC seems short and underdeveloped compared to the base game, but still worth playing through at least once. Overall, I'm glad to have played it. Maybe wait for a sale to get it though.
The game is very approachable and is just all around fabulous. Fun action combat that rewards positioning while still being very accessible. It's further elevated by the game's superb presentation, with a very clean art style that combines a beautiful children's book art style with readability. The real star of the show is the writing, which is just marvelous and witty. My only complaint with it is that the gear progression could use some tune-ups. Gold acquisition / chest frequency is too low for the amount of content in the game. Some grinding is ok, but you'll be at it for a long time if you care about maxing out any piece of gear. That said, you don't need to max gear to be able to complete the game (spells are much more important), but it does matter more if you care about doing every single side-quest. I'm very much looking forward to getting Cat Quest II and would recommend Cat Quest to anyone. What it does well, it does really well.
Prodeus is a kickstarter project that (at the writing of this review) has now entered early access. Its design philosophy is heavily inspired by Doom, with intricate and layered level design that promotes exploration, a beautiful and detailed pixel aesthetic, fantastic sounds & music, and lots of gore. Enemies all look, move, and sound great. My only real design critique has to do with the player's weapons. Fists feel hilariously bad, dealing damage to enemies that seems to be on-par with wet tissue paper. The shotgun's alt-fire seems to deal remarkably little damage, considering it's slower rate of fire and charge up time. The pistol's alt-fire is ok, but the damage could use some help. As it stands, its damage is also lower than the regular fire.The dual-SMGs are fine conceptually, if a bit bland in their execution. Their time to kll / accuracy seems pretty poor, when the pistol achieves comparable results for far less ammo expenditure. Conceptually it should be like performing like the shotgun, without the pauses between shooting, in return for much higher ammo expenditure. That would help differentiate it from the shotgun, and help give both a more distinct role. I can't comment on the rest of the weapons, for reasons I'm about to get into. My machine is on the lower end of specs, but well within the minimum to recommended spec range. My performance with the game (as of November 2020) has been very poor. I have already communicated the details of the technical issues to the developers, and they have responded quickly, promising revisions and improvements with coming updates. When it comes to overall development, they have been very transparent and reliable so far during the game's development process, so I'm optimistic that they will deliver. These are the only real problems I have with the game. I can recommend it to just about anyone. Maybe hold off if your machine is on the lower end.
