As my review title says, the game starts out fun, with a neat blend of Diablo-style ARPG and elements from other fantasy games like Neverwinter Nights. It's the usual get quests, kill stuff, receive gold and cool items, repeat. But soon the excitement and novelty wears off, and the game becomes just an annoying slog. What appears to be a big, open world to explore turns out to be just a few towns with huge stretches of wilderness in between, with dozens upon dozens of monsters that respawn the second you leave and reenter an area. Apparently this is to make multiplayer more interesting, but I only did single-player, and it was just a frustrating grind, constantly having to fight off enemies, even in towns. You can buy horses that are somewhat helpful at dashing past enemies if you're just trying to get from point A to B, but many enemies have abilities that can stop you in place, forcing you to deal with them and their underlings. The voice-acting for the heroes and enemies gets extremely repetitive. There's one priest enemy that for some reason sounds like a woman doing a bad Spongebob impression and has a death-wail that goes on for a good five seconds, so when you end up fighting a bunch of them, it's just like nails on a chalkboard. And there's no way to disable the enemy voices without turning off all sound effects. This game has a lot of potential, and has aged well in many ways. The graphics still look pretty nice, and there is some fun to be had. But there are just too many little annoying things dragging it down to keep it from being a great game.
I tried playing this game, but found very little enjoyable about it. The animation is pleasant, and I like the journal that keeps track of enemies you've killed (and that have killed you) as well as items and other various stuff. Other than that, I haven't enjoyed this game. It's a perma-death rogue-like, meaning when you die you start back at the beginning. Which wouldn't be a problem, except you die in only four hits (I think that number increases as the game progresses, but I never got that far). This makes the game extra challenging and repetitive, which some people see as a strength, but is a huge turn-off for me. The levels are randomly generated, but yet they are somehow boring and feel small, filled with the usual cliche RPG "monsters" like spiders, bats, snakes, and other unimaginative creatures. You collect bombs and ropes that help you navigate the levels, as well as gems and coins to let you buy more bombs and ropes. You can go out of your way to try to collect every single last bit of money, but most of the time it is too dangerous and doesn't seem worth it. If you're a hard-core gamer that likes being killed constantly, this game might appeal to you, but if you're looking for something fun and simple to pass the time, skip Spelunky.
I'll admit, I enjoyed the first Two Worlds game a whole lot. It was cheesy and some of the mechanics were odd, but it was just fun. The sequel, though, was a huge disappointment. Combat feels clunky, magic is worthless at low levels and confusing at high levels, all of the voice actors sound bored to death (especially the PC), horse-riding is a pain, etc. I could go on. So many things adding up to make this a bad game. I actually played all the way through the main quest. I devoted so much time to trying to get the hang of everything that I felt I had to see it through. And I regret doing so. The story drags majorly by the third act, and the climactic scene & fight are some of the worst I've encountered in a game, including plot twists that don't make a whole lot of sense and having the final fight rely on a mechanic that doesn't appear anywhere else in the game. I recommend avoiding this game, and definitely don't buy it at full price.
I've read many reviews comparing Painkiller to Doom and other classic first person shooters. I love Doom, etc., so I thought I'd give this a try. I got three levels in when I realized that this game, with it's constant shooting at wave after wave of enemies, is somehow actually boring. That's the worst sin a game can commit, to make me wish I could be doing something else. The levels are way too linear, making you run from checkpoint to checkpoint. Then the battles all consist of: lock you in area -> teleport in dozens of monsters -> run & jump while firing until all enemies are dead -> pick up any health or ammo -> move on to next area -> repeat forever. The variety of enemies wasn't too bad, but three levels in and I still only have two guns, one of them the boring old shotgun? There's something wrong with that. I want to like this game, the graphics look good and the monsters flying around when you shoot them is amusing (though it lost its charm after a while), so I may try again and get further to see if it get's better, less repetitive. But what I've played so far isn't that great.
