I remember playing this on my 360 back in the day and having alot of fun with it warts and all, especially after the major update came out. Playing it now a whole slew of flaws make playing it rather awkward, especially after playing it right after Ghost Warrior Contracts. However there is still fun to be had and it's limited production value gives it a janky charm. A real issue would be the apparent lack of multiplayer which I remember my 360 copy having. 3/5 Have some dumb fun
While still undeniably fun it more than shows it's age with graphics that haven't held up too well and gameplay that moves at a slow pace, but there is still plenty to enjoy and saying this as someone whose only just played this for the first time, it's atmosphere is top notch and genuinely creepy. Well worth grabbing for both fans and newcomers looking to see how Diablo started out.
I think I understand why this game cops so much flak. It was the first soulslike to be announced and come out, the developer's previous work left alot to be desired and at the core it is very similar to the Soulsbourne games, Does that mean it's bad? No, this game didn't need to be just as good just be good by it's own standards. Honestly the game does enough differently in every area that it does feel like it's own thing and the wholly new stuff CI added, they're great. Like enemy respawns being a only a death penalty, exp multipliers which makes the combat feel more arcadey and great boss battles. Yes it's not as hard as the Soulsbournes but the bosses in this game are a real highlight and while some you can beat first time around, most of them do still offer up a solid challenge alongside some of the regular enemies. At it's worst Lords is a strong 6/10, an alright game and at it's best a weak 7, a good game and makes for a great introduction to the realm of soulslikes for newcomers to this new sub genre. So if you're thinking about grabbing it either on sale or full price I'd say go for it and give it a chance.
Played this game back in the day renting a copy from Video 2000 for my 360, loved it, and now I want cookies
*MILD SPOILER WARNING* Tacoma could've been an interesting narrative experience where you explore an abandoned transit space station, piecing together the events leading up to a life threatening accident through augmented reality, and be an innovative new entry in the walking simulator genre. Instead we just get an utterly dull slog where everything of real interest has already happened. We're not on Tacoma to find out why the crew disappeared, died or can't communicate with Earth, they made it back and we're just there to do some post evac maintenance on it's AI. Checking out the AR logs of what happened just to kill time while the AI is bit by bit downloaded in to a storage unit. The AR aspect could've been interesting, seeing people's events playout in real time like a VHS player and even makes the game ideal for VR, but with a handful of exceptions none of the recordings are particularly interesting or of any real significance. Just first world problems stuff. To make it worse it's obvious this is a very short game so there's no gradual escalation of tension as the AR recordings playout, one minute it's oh crap where gonna die, then we jump to let's have sex in case we don't make it. No side plots, personal politics or anything to spice the narrative up, hell it even screws up the most basic world building aspect any game can have, text logs. Thanks to the fact the majority of them are just inane personal texts between the characters and others that aren't part of the story, or have been corrupted, like some of the recordings, becoming unreadable in large chunks and serving no purpose. A much better narrative experience is Get Even, while that screws some things up it's shortcomings are forgivable because at least it's solidly designed at the base and has good story. Tacoma could've been an interesting narrative experience but instead barely uses the few good ideas it has and falls prey to the worst crime it's genre can commit, be detached and boring.
