Arguably the most beautiful isometric-ish games ever. The lighting is stunning, the maps are filled with details, animations and interesting objects and characters. I wanted to take screenshots of every single location. Even a dark cave looks interesting thanks to the dynamic lighting (Xoti’s lantern is a great showcase for that). Deadfire is also a big step up in terms of the overworld map. I quite liked the stronghold mechanics of the first game but the fantasy of having your own ship and crew and just explore a whole region is undeniable. In terms of story, the main quest is clearly an afterthought compared to the factions and side quests the game offers. It’s also different in mood and tone, and whichever you prefer depends on the type of player you are. So, overall, a great sequel that looks amazing, and trades moodiness and a very complex main quest for freedom and exploration. A must-play for CRPG fans, for sure.
Even though the art is really pretty and the dialogue remains as funny as in Detective Grimoire, it didn’t grab me in the same way. I think the main mystery is just too boring, and too convoluted for its own good. Towards the end it picks up the pace and becomes more focused.
It’s free so I recommend playing it if you enjoyed Stasis or usually like point-and-click adventure games. Having said that, I thought that Cayne was a bit of a downgrade compared to Stasis in almost every aspect except graphics quality. The world feels a bit more cartoony, the characters are charicatures most of the time and there are more moonlight logic puzzles with annoying backtracking. Still, an enjoyable experience but I'm not sure I'd given Stasis a chance if I had played Cayne first.
I’ve beat Divinity: Original Sin 2 twice before playing this game, and that has definitely influenced my experience — but not in the way I expected. I thought I was going to be frustrated by the lack of certain improvements found in the sequel or overall less interested in the world after spending 200 hours in it in the last few years. But it was actually the opposite. Having the benefit of playing the Enhanced Edition many years after the original release date, I found DOS1 to be surprisingly polished and friendly. Almost everything I loved from the sequel was here, albeit different. I even preferred some aspects here, like combat, which is less complex but also less chaotic and more immediate (the armor system of the sequel is a choice). The story also benefited from the narrower focus. It doesn’t have huge twists but it’s intriguing and engaging, with memorable characters and a neat Homestead you can come back to after lengthy quests for a bit of a breather. Overall, I found DOS1 an essential play for DOS2 fans — not because it’s necessary to understand or enjoy the sequel (it’s actually the opposite), but because it’s just as good. Play it before, after, it doesn’t matter — but play it!
The amount of “game” this has is honestly very surprising. They chose an interesting but overlooked character from the books and developed an epic tale that you play… with cards. Like, what? But it works! And then, somehow, successfully recreated the open world RPG feel of the Witcher games with an isometric view and a very limited amount of interactions. It’s a great accomplishment. It’s weird to feel like an AAA game is a work of passion, not because there aren’t passionate devs working on those but because of the scope and financial pressure those projects have. Thronebreaker is absolutely a passion project with great writing, amazing art and a lot of attention to detail. Loved it!
The story and voice acting had the right amount of weirdness and camp, and even though it’s fairly predictable, it’s also satisfying to go through each suspect and try to unravel the mystery. Excited to play Tangle Tower and see what else this developer has done.
I don't recommend playing it unless you check out the demo and you’re *extremely* into it — because sadly the game gets worse the further you get. The positives are a very good art direction, and some stunning environmental work. The game serves as a great showcase of what the studio can build in Unreal, and it almost seems intentional that by building different games inside of Gamedec, Anshar is basically proving their versatility and attention to detail in creating unique levels. It's a great "hire us" pitch, I'll admit. The negatives are the narrative, the dialogue and some very basic quest design. The lore is so unnecessarily complicated for a game that has very little new to say. The main ideas of each level are explained in one line in a trailer they made 3 years ago. Everything else is filler, and it increases in quantity and stupidity the further you're in the game. By the end I couldn't care less about the main plot and the protagonist. There's also a lack of good secondary characters, so it's very hard to stay invested. Gamedec is disappointing because it had a good premise and the art and production chops to pull it off. A narrative game lives and dies by its writing, though, and here it went from basic but serviceable to, sadly, bad and boring.
The impeccable vibes and atmosphere, some really great writing and an intriguing, unique world made me finish it in one weekend. It's also beautiful and has an amazing score, which definitely helps.
Trying not to be harsher than I should because visually I'm sure it felt revolutionary at the time and there's a good number of impressive set pieces with excellent presentation (in fact, besides the faces, almost everything holds up really well), but I didn't really enjoy it. The two aspects I adored in 'Control', I nearly hated here. Combat peaked 2 or 3 hours in so they decided to throw more and more enemies at you. When it's to support a set piece or build momentum, it works, but most of the time it just exists to add filler. The story was equally disappointing. It heavily meanders and is not well paced at all. Characters are either dumb, annoying or just extremely flat. Alan has a good voice but only *one voice* so it becomes boring fast. Almost every dialogue is bad exposition, pop culture references that date the game and just expose how empty and unoriginal this world is, or just annoying banter with clichéd characters. Played this in preparation for Control's AWE expansion (and, allegedly, upcoming Alan Wake 2), but I also expected to find a diamond in the rough, a cult classic or at least a solid 7/10 game. What I found was none of these things, but a very middling game with counted moments of ambition.
Loved it from top to bottom. Really satisfying combat, rewarding exploration and beautiful level design. You're mostly doing the same gameplay-wise for most of the game but it works because the presentation is impeccable, the world remains intriguing even after finishing the game, and basically because it's FUN. Also played both expansions (and 'Alan Wake' before to get the full context). 'AWE' was very mid - more of the same but nothing special. 'The Foundation', though, is great. 'Control' at its best. Compelling mysteries, an awesome action set piece, cool new location, and two new traversal/combat abilities. Way better than AWE, and a proper epilogue to the game. As a caveat, I'll say that I've played both DLCs more than half a year after finishing the main game, and I lost some of the combat flow and mechanic muscle it required, so I switched on 'immortality' and never looked back. You still take damage, and if you're like me, you'll still feel like you're about to die, but you don't, so you never loose progress. Completely enjoyed both pieces of DLC thanks to this, so I recommend doing so if you are in a similar position.
