Opening Connection to ß.4.5-23
Defense Access 40-a <tpr-A21H.43.21.123> ORDERS SUPRESSION DEPLOY SUPRESSION FORCES TO SECTORS S-23 TO S-928 ALL BLOCKS SUBJECT TO DECIMATION. REBEL ACTIVITY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. 100% SUPRESSION MUST BE REACHED AT ALL POSSIBLE COSTS. BOTH NULLSECT CELLS AND IMAGO DEI CELLS HAVE BEEN INDENTIFIED AS KEY INSTIGATORS IN THIS AREA. CIVILLIAN CASUALTIES ARE ACCEPTABLE AT ANY RANGE. LOCKDOWN ON ALL TRANSIT ROUTES MUST BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO INSERTION. SINGLE RAID TARGET INDENTIFIED AS KEY ASSOCIATE OF NULLSECT. DEPLOY SQUAD TO APPREHEND AND ELIMINATE. _
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BX#19
Fantasy action-RPG in a chinese historical / mythical setting

- The combat system in this game is immaculate: skill-based, deep, fast and responsive. The spirit bar, which is basically stamina + mana/magic + Sekiro's posture, dictates the rhythm of the fights and you constantly need to manage yours and try to break / consume the enemy ones especially by spirit attacks (= heavy / slower attacks) and by deflects. In fact, in Wo Long dodging is deflecting, and every single attack is deflectable. Once you get the hang of it, the fights start to be rhythmic and methodic; add to it unique movesets per weapon category, critical blows, tons of spells, elemental weaknesses and strenghts, weapon martial arts, beasts to summon, bows and throwables. Heavily inspired by their Nioh(s) and Fromsoft's Sekiro but unique in its own way;
- The RPG system is based on the chinese philosophy of the 5 elements, and even if seems complex and has tons of different stats and numbers, it's extremely rewarding and satisfying: this game has a giant build construction potential;
- The bosses are cool in design, and big, and hit hard: each one has its own mechanics, movesets, weaknesses and strenghts;
- The art direction is fine; the ancient China in which you fight your battles shows passion and love for the historical period, and the fantasy element (spells, demons and magic in general) mixed with it works oddly well. Music is also good and helps the immersion;
- The historical / mythical figures are very cool in design;

BUT

- There are tons of technical issues (especially the 1.02 / day one version, but still present after updates): flickering, frame drops, freezes, crashes;
- The mechanics feel overwhelming at first glance and, such as in Nioh, the one-time tutorials and the (useless) descriptive tips in the menus do not help. Team Ninja can't get a proper way to ease the learning curve of the complex mechanics of their own games;
- The missions system even if it's not a cons per se, I can't get over it; it feels old, uninspired and ruins immersion. The morale (and fortitude) system serves only to give the player a sense of progression even in a already beaten mission. There are tons of other way to make areas replayable (dynamic events and quests, ng+, new enemies and mobs), this is just not as fun;
- The companions (and the AI of the enemies) are totally dumb and completely useless; their only purpose is to fish wrong bosses attacks and to drop their own sets and weapons when friendship with them is maxed out;
- The PVP / invasion mechanic is laughable as it seems more like a tribute to Fromsoft than an actual part of the game. There is a game currency that's used as reward for invading / defeating opponents with which you can roll new random weapons and gears but, since the game is filled with loot, it's basically useless;
- The story feels like an excuse (bad old guy in search for the immortality elixir, you are the hero to defeat it), and the writing feels anime-y in the worst possible way. I had to mute the voice volume since they keep talking all the time during missions and are extremely annoying.

BX#18
First-person Sci-fi / Horror puzzle game

- The art direction of this game is top notch: the devs managed to create beautiful yet threatening and disturbing biomechanical scenarios heavily inspired by H.R. Giger;
- The atmosphere is just perfect: the level design constantly makes you feel lost in a alien world, the excellent sound design and the minimal HUD in first person keep the immersion as high as possible.

BUT

- Puzzles were a bit disappointing: not utterly bad but nothing memorable or fun to solve;
- Anything related to "action" is unbalanced: rhythm is too low, no dash to escape enemies attacks, the first weapon has no range, reload time of all the guns is just unfair, enemies damage is too high and yours is too low, there's no enemy variety (= 3 aliens in the entire game) and no AI, not enough bullets & health machines, etc. It feels like they wanted to add the action parts with no clue on how to do that, and it ended being boring, unbalanced and unfair;
- The checkpoint system is trash: no manual saves, some checkpoints had like 20 to 30 minutes of progress between them;
- A few technical issues: bugs (= I got stuck in a section just before a cutscene and the guy stopped moving, so I had to manually load the previous game, lost progress and had to redo it), audio glitches, freezes when firing;
- A bit too cryptic: no dialogues to hear or words to read for the entire game. Is there really a story in here?

BX#17
Gothic / Dark-fantasy Metroidvania

- Art direction, setting and music are just incredible;
- The combat is fast and responsive, special moves and parries are risky and satisfying;
- Enemies and bosses have very cool designs and are cool to fight;
- At times it's very difficult...
- The lore is deep and there are tons of secrets and quests...

BUT

- Exploration at times feel useless (= countless of hidden items are just "souls" to spend);
- I encountered a few bugs and glitches, even if I'm 100% sure the devs will work on them;
- QOL features are missing (= the map is one of the worst I've ever seen);
- ...so it's not for everyone;
- ...but sometimes it's way too cryptic even for soulslike fans.