I like soulslikes in general, but this one is so utterly bland and mediocre in every possible way that I couldn't even get through half of it. It's like DS with less gear, less skills, less customization options, less charm and less fun. It's not bad, it's 'fine'. If you like the genre then go get Nioh, or The Surge or Bloodborne, something with its own identity that tries to build upon the DS formula, because Ashen just takes away from that formula and adds nothing to it.
I couldn't play this when it came out, because my PC literally couldn't handle it. It ran at around 5 fps. Over a decade later I accidentally stumbled upon this game and bought it at a 90% discount. I really really wanted to play it when it came out, but I couldn't. Now I know that I didn't miss much at all.
It's downright stupefying that nobody even attempted to create a proper SWAT sim since this was released. It's been over 15 years and to this day this game/franchise is literally the only option available to gamers who actually want to play a REAL police tactical shooter, where you actually get to act like a SWAT guy, and not just mow people down on sight. The concept has so much potential, I really don't understand why nobody jumped on it since 2005. Anyway, I'm deducting 1 star for minor technical issues and the ridiculous reaction time of some of the NPCs. Other than that, this game is a classic, and it still very much holds up, especially in MP.
I've played this game for 44 minutes and in that time I've encountered at least a dozen bugs, ranging from minor annoyances like NPCs walking into walls and furniture to major issues like player characters getting stuck on nothing during battle. Me and my buddy tried to play the campaign mode together, but we always started in different cities, and every time the second player logged in, the first players character became uncontrollable, rendering this game mode completely unplayable. The sound design and music are less than mediocre, in terms of visuals the game is somehow worse than Neverwinter Nights, which came out 5 years earlier, hitboxes are messed up, sometimes you click on an enemy and start attacking another one, and sometimes you can't move past enemies, because if you click next to them you will attack them all the same, all in all, the game is barely playable single player, and practically unplayable in multiplayer. I would not recommend this to anyone who doesn't have a big nostalgia boner for it already.
The game is simply ugly, shallow, the plot makes no sense and has huge holes in it, the in game music is annoying, the radio music doesn't fit the world at all, gunplay is mediocre at best, animations are laughable, the whole thing is a f*cking disgrace. Fallout 1 & 2 are timeless, genre defining classics. This? This is poorly written, cringe inducing fanfiction that's 'kinda' based on the lore of those games, wrapped in what is most likely the ugliest post 2000 graphics, running on an engine that was already worthless and outdated in 2008 when this abomination first came out.
1. The writing is terrible. The narration is needlessly complicated, because whoever wrote this thinks that all you need to be a good writer is lots of adjectives and similes in every sentence. I felt zero connection with any of the characters and the story felt convoluted and uninteresting from the start, and only got worse as it progressed. 2. It's supposed to be an open world game but this is handled very poorly. If you don't head out in the direction the game wants you to go in, you will meet a batch of enemies that WILL kill you, because they are a much higher lever than you are. This actually makes the game feel very linear. 3. It's advertised as an rpg, but in fact it's just a turn-based tactical action game, with role-playing elements. There are simply no negative dialogue options in most conversations, which means that you can only play as a good guy, and more often than not, a bumbling idiot for everyone to kick around. Your choices make little to no difference at all, and the game constantly pushes you towards playing as a positive character. That's not roleplaying. 4. Your character's race and background have NO EFFECT on the story whatsoever. Outside of combat, they are completely meaningless. Every once in a while you get to pick a race/character specific line of dialogue, but almost every time that just leads to more pointless narration, and then the conversation continues on the same path it started on. I was lured in by the promise of an epic co-op adventure, and I immediately thought Neverwinter Nights. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed, and left with the bitter realization that true RPGs are a dying breed. We're living in an age where a mediocre tactical action game is widely renowned as "the best rpg of all time", and it makes me incredibly sad and angry. All I can do now is leave this bitter review to warn gamers like myself; don't believe the hype, leave this to casuals, and try to find true adventure elsewhere.
I was hesitant to purchase this, but now that I did, I really don't understand why a lot of people seem to hate on this game so much. Is it a perfect gem? Definitely not. Is it buggy and clunky? Not at all. Did it do anything revolutionary or outstanding? Nope. However, it is a very solid action game, with good controls, fluent animation and decent graphics. Some people argue that the combat system is janky and the hitboxes are messed up. I did not experience anything like that at all. In fact, I would dare to say that The Surge has a better and more refined combat system than any of the Dark Souls entries. You can do crazy combos, target body-parts and do outrages finishing moves, and the whole experience is just very fluent and very satisfying. I also like the designs very much. The machinery looks believable, the exo-suits look cool, and strolling around in a giant industrial complex feels very atmospheric. The crafting system is pretty decent too, and makes more sense than in most games. It's also kinda neat how you collect certain crafting material by smashing the right pieces off of enemies' armor. My biggest beef with this game is that it resembles Dark Souls too much. The usual Souls-like elements like the respawning enemies just feel awkward and off-putting in a sci-fi setting, in my opinion. The cryptic story is also a big let down for me. I want to know what happened, and I don't want to have to play a new game++ or browse forums for hours in order to find all the evidence and clues I need to piece together a half-finished story. These things make me feel like the developers or the publisher wanted this to be Dark Souls so much that it ended up losing its own identity along the way. This makes me really sad, because I honestly think that if the developers had more time and perhaps more funding, they could have made something very special and outstanding. I would say if you think that Dark Souls 3 is a 5/5 game, than this is at least 4/5.
