I wanted to like it but just can't bring myself to recommend it. Pros: +Nice variety of missions +Nice soundtrack +beautiful graphics +Interesting campaign Cons: -Bad interface/tooltips: equipment won't show its data while installing it into your ships, only during missions. You won't know what it does until you want to use it (unless you learned it beforehand). -slow, and I mean SLOW gameplay: you will be able to comfortably cook a good meal during the time it takes your ships to reach a reasonably distant target, maybe even shop for ingredients sometimes -buggy controls: at times, I ordered ships to move to a position and went out of the room, only to find them spinning slowly in the place they had been when I left, sometimes they REVERSED directions instead; sometimes I ordered ships to assume siege formation just for them to spin around each other perpetually -very specific layout of equipment is often needed and no way to know it beforehand-it may occur that you remove a weapon because there is absolutely no sign for needing it in a specific mission, just for it to be the essential weapon required to fulfil this mission. Other games may help the player by granting you required equipment during the mission by specialized units-not this one. Please reload the mission briefing, reequip your ships, restart the mission and try again. All in all I found Nexus to be a frustrating experience which I pretty much ragequit 1,2 missions before the ending due to the intensity of its stacked up failures I just didn't want to bear any longer. 2 Stars for the effort, none for the execution
I have been searching for a new action rpg for a while as I decided to skip Diablo 3. As Grim Dawn has many obvious parallels to Titan Quest, it's the best comparison in general. If compared to its predecessor, I have to rate Titan Quest a bit better, though only in my book. Where Titan Quest's classes felt significantly different enough to justify multiple different character builds, Grim Dawn doesn't give me enough distinct features between classes to really enjoy starting up a new character. Weapons appear to be of less significance than in genre competition, as there are way less weapon dependent skills/attack skills and even the classes I assumed would be melee classes felt more like mage classes than fighters. Where Titan Quest by my standard would allow for multiple warrior-style builds, which I usually enjoy, I simply don't get that feeling in Grim Dawn. It also shares the weekness of Titan Quest's item system, which never got the same level of addictiveness as Diablo 2 reached. Combined with an overblown resource collection and crafting system, item collection feels more like a chore than a gain. Another problem to my taste is the rather static world design. Some caves seem to be mobile and appear at random places of specific maps from one bootup to another, but I still prefer random maps as introduced in Diablo, as they make for better exploration and require the player to find his way anew every time instead of "uncovering" an already known map. Titan Quest, based on real places, had an excuse that Grim Dawn does not. Why I still give the game 4 stars? Well...despite my critique, Grim Dawn delivers in many areas. The enemy design is fresh and original (though I think there are too few enemy types and too many humans among them), the world is big and there is a lot to do even once you defeated the boss. If you're not too attached to melee and the importance of combat classes and just seek for a new action rpg, Grim Dawn might still be a good catch for you.
I was looking for a short game for relaxation after some disappointing experiences with other games lately. I decided to try out Dex and my expectations were not disappointed. This, though, may also be a point of critique: As I said: I was looking for a SHORT game, and while the game's length satisfied me very much, it might be a bit too short for its price. On the other hand the art style and presentation as well as the quality voice acting do help the game create a consistently appropriate atmosphere befitting the genre. The quests show a nice degree of variety, immersing the player into the lives of multiple believable characters. Some, maybe all, allow for several different approaches. Still, I'm not absolutely convinced they are enough to motivate multiple playthroughs, but those are imho not necessary for a quality game. Once more I realized minor issues with controller-settings in a game: Some gamepads don't allow for enough buttons to be mapped, leading to trouble playing the game via gamepad. In my case, I was halfway through the game when I found out why I was not able to use guns previously: the button they were mapped to was not recognized by the game. Also, my second stick would not react properly during the hacking passages, making the beginning a very rough experience. Still, despite its drawbacks: - short playing time - gamepad issues - little motivation for multiple playthroughs Dex was in my opinion worth its money due to + beautiful art style + great and entirely voice acted dialogue + variable possible ways to approach missions + nice customization options befitting the game's atmosphere and + and a well thought out and presented cyberpunk-scenario which + serves to tell a compelling story. Altogether it was a very enjoyable experience, justifying an above average rating in my opinion.
I really enjoyed the first Darksiders game, so I thought this would be more of the same awesome experience. Quite contrary. Right now, as I write this review, I have only advanced halfways through the first chapter and have found too many problems that really bothered me to just leave it at that. These are the worst offenders imho: 1. Considering the game is one of those games that are imho best enjoyed using console controls, I tried to use my gamepad. Too bad the game did not recognize my pad at all. Even using x360ce, it would never find the pad which usually works fine and also did so for the first installment. I sought the web for solutions and couldn't find any yet. So I'm stuck with the horrible mouse + keyboard controls, which feel really awkward. This seriously interferes with the game's feel. 2. I have seen lots of loading times at inappropriate points of the world. I can usually feign ignorance when encountering loading times when, say, opening a door, loading a video or applying large changes to gameworld areas. But I won't ignore a (intended) loading time while traversing a corridor. Similarly, some tutorial tooltips appear in the middle of a maneuver, throwing the player off the action he's about to perform. Again, the mouse and keyboard controls I'm saddled with and tied to make much of the platforming way more frustrating than should be for an avid platforming-gamer as I fancy myself. 3. The crashes seem the smallest of the issues, as the game does not crash all that often, but often enough to make the difference between being mildly annoyed or moderately pissed off. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to when or why the game will crash. On the positive side: If someone else can get his gamepad to work or enjoys playing this kind of game with mentioned controls, it's can probably compete with the first Darksiders (though I found that one a bit more beautiful), but the issues seriously detract from the experience,my immersion and worst: My fun.
