Bad reviews are from people mad that they removed the borderline pedophillic blood rubbing minigame, now you can play the game in the living room without feeling embarrassed. Not but seriously, Mary Skelter 2 is a great Dungeon Crawling RPG. The first game was very solid and competent but Skelter 2 improves on everything of Mary Skelter Nightmares, from the gameplay, to the balance and level design. I say without a doubt it's compile hearts best game and probably their first great game (They have some good but not great titles and a lot of stinkers)
The new character Yajouj’Majouj has to be the most fun character yet, his kit makes him play like a mage + Machine gun, absolute chaos will follow where you play him. The new relics, Divine charms and Graces are a very welcome addition and just keep adding to the growing repertoire so each run you wont end up getting the same item, and many of them are fun to use as well. And lastly the mask cosmetics. It doesn't affect gameplay but it does make your characters look more badass
It's 2021 and this is the first time I'm playing this game, so I have no Nostalgia or rose tinted glasses affecting my opinion. But seriously, I can't believe I missed this game as child, it's basically a perfect fusion of Age of Empires and Rise of nations. While there's less nations than RoN, they all have much more variety than just a bonus and 2 or three unique units. There's less ages but there's more depth to them, unlike RoN or even Empire Earth where it feels like you're zooming through the ages and not really fighting a lot in the early eras, both modes here (action and Empire) will assure you will have plenty of fighting through the eras and come to appreciate the change in technology Visually the game ain't half bad, and this is coming from somebody whos picky about graphics, sure RoN looks a tad bit better, but to be fair it did get an extended edition to enhance it, the vanilla version would be about on par with this. All in all , take advantage of this sale and get the game if you want to play an amazing rts lost to history. Seriously why are so many of the best rts games just so obscure; Rise of Legends, World in Conflict and now this, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World
It's a great beginners first 4X game, the art style is absolutely gorgeous and the soundtrack is such a good boop. But for veterans of the series, best look elsewhere, the games depth is pretty shallow and the lack of diversity of victory conditions means this game focuses too much on war and less on empire development/diplomacy
FATE (Far as the Eye) is a tough game, don't let the gorgeous cute art style fool you. It's like what if Civilization mixed with animal crossing and took lessons from Dead Cells on how to be brutal. Your goal is to reach the eye before the wave kills your tribe, each mini level called a halt you have a goal, to collect a certain amount of resources. The depth of the game is something else and really shines due to many factors you need to take in account per halt: Build orders, building placement to optimize duration of collecting, terrain to traverse, hunting, farming, cooking, small diplomacy with other tribes, exploring ruins and deciding which technology to research. Add to that random events called vagaries and you have a really tough but very deep game that will provide dozens of hours of gameplay. Before the patch I would have given the game a 3, due to the vagaries being really unbalanced and sucking the fun from the game, but the devs responded fast and now they've been balanced to the point the game really shines. The game is hard, and you will fail but hey, that what Rougelites are all about.
*If I could I would give this so far a 3.5 stars. The game has potential to reach 4.5 stars in my book if the devs play it smart with post launch patches to polish the game and iron out any bugs. Now, Hellpoint is a good soulslike, and for the most part you will enjoy it as long as you don't go in expecting Dark Souls 1 or 3 quality. Combat is good, but the enemies are too easy to stun lock making it a bit too easy The atmosphere of the game is reminiscent of Dead Space, it's creepy, immersive but don't expect much variety of biomes in game, it's metal halls and hallways for the most part. Soundtrack is well....missing for the most part, game mostly has the same eerie tune in the background. Progression is solid, it's basically Dark Souls 1, yeah the game ain't exactly brimming with originality, but hey it works. Actually it does do a few things different, there's more emphasis on platforming and there's random events that bring in more challenge. All in all, the game is very fun despite having a lot of rough edges, a few bugs, game design inconsistencies, at it's very core the game is fun, which just shows that with some polishing up it can easily surpass the Surge 2 and Code Vein.
*As of this review I'm 7 hours and 23 minutes in and at around the halfway point I played 5 hours straight today. Thats how captivating this game is, there's just something about it's gorgeous picturesque art style, mesmerizing soundtrack and solid gameplay that makes me feel fuzzy inside as I journey through the world of Roki. It gives me the same feeling as playing an Ori game. That same enchanting and surreal atmosphere, that pulls you into the world, where you end up meeting mythical folkloric creatures, exploring abandoned ruins of past civilizations and trying to rescue a family member from a the"villain" Roki is a narrative driven adventure puzzle game, through your travels you'll find all sorts of items that can be combined to craft new trinkets to help solve a puzzle. In the game's nature there is a bit of backtracking to do, but thankfully there's a very generous fast travel system, that it never feels like a hassle. The gameplay is simple but effective. The writing is very good, really bringing the mythical creatures and the protagonists, Tove and Lars to life. But what really shines is the hypnagogic soundtrack, the little tunes accentuate the bizarness of the world while at the same time being so relaxing I full heartily recommend this game if you want to meet peculiar chaaracters, and enjoy puzzle games
So as many of you might be interested in the game after the new desolation update and want to see for yourself how far the game has come since it's atrocious launch in 2016, I say don't bother. The foundation is still a complete and rotten mess, where you have to pray that the games doesn't crash for any little thing you do. Adjust your resolution? Crash. Go from full screen to borderless? Crash. Open you save file? Crash. Alt-tab? Crash You might as well go play Crash Bandicoot There could be a decent game under this technical mess but heck if they still after all this time have't prioritized polishing the game instead of just throwing a bunch of new mechanics to try and smother the bugs, then all it is, is a shiny turd.
