Let's face it, DIABLO 3 kinda was disappointing: recycling of the entire second act from Diablo 2, lackluster character building, monster recycling, hell, even boss recycling. It was just lazy. WARHAMMER: CHAOSBANE was also hugely disappointing and the two TORCHLIGHT games just had a too cartoonish graphical style for my taste. Apart from the original DIABLO, GRIM DAWN, VICTOR VRAN and PATH OF EXILE there are hardly any outstanding hack & slash games out there. Well, THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF VAN HELSING: FINAL CUT changes that! The setting is unique, I love the mixture of Transylvanian gothic horror paired with weird mechanical low sci-fi in the style of Frankenstein, next to GRIM DAWN's outstanding setting, this one nails it just as well. While Van Helsing is an OK protagonist, it's his sidekick Lady Katarina the friendly ghost who outshines him. The Final Cut gives a total of 6 playable classes, which just alter Van Helsing's armor and weaponry slightly, I found the standard "bounty hunter/monster hunter" class to be my favorite. Overall they don't add much to the game. The locations on the other hand look great, I love the graphics and the voice acting is quite good too. Personally this is my No. 3 Hack n Slash game after GRIM DAWN and the original DIABLO.
ASHES OF MALMOUTH is a quality DLC well worth its price. A lot of content, including two new acts tons of new items and enemies add a lot more variety than DIABLO 3 has to offer in its entirety. The difficulty is beefed up, too, but still well-balanced and polished. Definitely a must-have addition to GRIM DAWN, the best DIABLO-like game.
Here's a DIABLO-clone that beats them all, DIABLO II & III, PATH OF EXILE, TITAN QUEST, TORCHLIGHT, made by people who clearly love those games. This game gets everything right that DIABLO 2 & 3 messed up: atmosphere, a great skill system, interesting enemies and an engaging story. The atmosphere is unique and grim - not cartoonish like D3 or TORCHLIGHT, there's a sense of dread, monsters are truly terrifying, not little cuddle-buddies like the baddies in D3. The dark fantasy theme is mixed with 19th century firearms, magic and post-apocalyptic destruction and it works. Character classes are not your run-of-the-mill stereotypes like "barbarian" or "mage", you pick from "soldier", "occultist", and such classes. You can even multi-class with a second class. There are two huge DLCs available which add two new locations that are almost as big as the base game each and are definitely worth their $20 and $15.
Sounds good in theory: play a battlemage in a fantasy shooter. Gone is the restrictive mana, and also any type of weapon: you exclusively use magic. It also looks pretty good, shooting fireballs and iceshards at enenies is pretty fun - at first. While HEXEN had clever level design, LICHDOM is simply a corridor shooter. What is acceptable for one or two levels becomes repetitive really fast.
Die by the sword 's idea isn't bad - the execution however is terrible! First of, the controls are atrocious! The menus have a terrible lag for some reason it takes about half a minute to load the menu! Graphics look alright I guess for the time, I've seen worse. I've seen better (older than DBTS), for instance Quake 1 or Heretic 2. But unlike Die by the sword, those two are highly playable! Don't waste your money on this garbage.
Up is down, down is up. What a mess!
I got the original version on STEAM, which with the dated controls does feel dated. I was delighted when I heard that Nighdive was going to remaster it in the same way they did SYSTEM SHOCK. First off, we get modern controls with mouse-look and WASD movement, which is a HUGE improvement and makes it easier to control. I don't know how I played it so well in the 90s, but easy-to-use controls are just a blessing. Secondly we get the 1920 x 1080 resolution, which maintains the original graphics style and sprites, but they finally don't look so blocky. Forget Puke Nukem or SHADOW WARRIOR, BLOOD is the ultimate Build Engine game with the best anti hero protagonist ever. Now if Nightdive only could obtain the rights to WITCHAVEN and give it the Nightdive treatment I would never have to buy a new game ever again!
...got stuck in the tutorial mission due to a bug that won't let me pick a lock to progress.
I found myself sometimes starting up THE WITCHER 3 just to lay down some cards. Apparently I was not the only one, as CD PROJEKT RED soon announced a standalone GWENT game, mainly intended for multiplayer sessions. This standalone caters more to single players, featuring a story which is very good with decison making added. You move around a world map and collect resources around the map, manage a camp and fight out battles - GWENT style. It feels and plays just like the HEROES OF MIGHT & MAGIC series with tactical combat replaced by GWENT. And it works! Got it for $30 - half price of an AAA game, which is fair. The conversations, which make out a large portion of the game a fully voiced even with a narrator for between the dialogues. The voice acting is very good. Note that if you were a GWENt expert in THE WITCHER 3, the rules are different here. There are much much more cards and some special rules.
