It's a decent boomer shooter for relatively cheap. Like other reviews said, the roguelite element is just an insubstantial skill tree. Some of the upgrades are just outright worse than others.

Compared to other similar games, this one feels pretty unbalanced. The "bullet-time" mechanic is so powerful that it can completely invalidate bosses. The assault rifle and overly generous ammo economy make regular enemies way too easy to avoid.

The level design is very simplistic and doesn't really utilize a lot of the tools from Doom to their fullest potential. I'm mainly talking like keys and upgrades that were used for backtracking. The furthest this goes in terms of intrigue is like some secrets but it never really felt natural or fun.

No hate to the developer, this is neat. Just putting my experience out there.

"Phantom Liberty" integrates seamlessly with the core narrative of "Cyberpunk 2077." Rather than feeling like an afterthought, it appears as a natural extension of the original story. This cohesive integration ensures that the DLC enhances the player’s immersion and connection to the main plot, providing a more unified and satisfying experience.

One of the most significant improvements "Phantom Liberty" brings is its thoughtfully crafted endings. These conclusions offer depth, closure, and emotional impact, compensating for the base game’s rushed conclusion. Players will find that their journey feels more complete and meaningful, with endings that resonate and leave a lasting impression.

P.T. Adamczyk outperforms CyberPunk's original soundtrack with the DLC’s soundtrack. The music introduces fresh infiltration and movie vibes to the missions, elevating the cyberpunk experience. This enhanced soundtrack adds tension to the ambiance, creating a more immersive and dynamic atmosphere that complements the high-stakes narrative.

"Phantom Liberty" maintains the game’s replay value, a crucial element for long-term engagement. Multiple paths and choices keep players engaged beyond the initial playthrough, encouraging exploration of different outcomes and scenarios. This replayability ensures that the DLC remains captivating and worth revisiting.

The new district, Dogtown, impresses with its unique design and intriguing concepts. As a playground for exploration, Dogtown offers players a fresh and exciting environment to navigate. The district’s well-crafted layout and rich detail invite players to uncover its secrets and immerse themselves in its distinct atmosphere.

"Phantom Liberty" introduces memorable characters, each meticulously crafted. These new characters significantly impact V’s fate, adding depth and complexity to the narrative. Their well-developed personalities and story arcs enhance the overall experience, making interactions more engaging and meaningful.

Also, V’s actions resonate more profoundly, with higher stakes and more significant consequences. The choices players make matter more, influencing the course of the story in impactful ways. This amplification of V’s influence adds to the intensity and immersion of the gameplay, making decisions feel weightier and more consequential.

The new DLC quenches the thirst left by the base game’s story, offering dozens of additional missions that enrich the experience. This content overflow provides players with more opportunities to engage with the world of Night City, extending the enjoyment and depth of the game.

The tension in "Phantom Liberty" builds throughout the DLC, keeping players on the edge of their seats. Unexpected twists and turns make it a rollercoaster ride, ensuring that the narrative remains exciting and unpredictable. This thrilling peripeteia enhances the emotional and dramatic impact of the story, making the journey even more compelling.

"Phantom Liberty" is a worthy expansion, breathing new life into "Cyberpunk 2077" and Night City. Whether you’re a seasoned merc or a fresh recruit, this DLC is a must-play. With its seamless integration, enhanced narrative, and thrilling new content, "Phantom Liberty" elevates the game to new heights, providing a richer and more immersive experience for all play

5/5 10/10 100/100

Stormblood 2

Having finished the game in early access, this expansion is going to polarize people on the story. While this may be a bit strange after two greatly received story expansions, longtime players and fans will remember the game existed before Shadowbringers, and and harkens back to the critically underrated Stormblood expansion.

That expansion is remembered for being fun first and badly written second. Stormblood's bipartiasan reception will most likely be the experience Dawntrail receives as well, where the first half of the story is primarily Warhammer, while the latter half of the story is more akin to Warhammer 40000.

However, the most important part of any mmo is the gameplay, which is where dawntrail eclipses Shadowbringers and Endwalker by a significant margin. there's no denying that if they keep up their trajectory, this will be the best expansion the game has ever had. The job balance is finally good again, the dungeons are fast and tricky, the current EX trials are the best starting duo the game has ever had, and the upcoming Arcadion raids will be the best raid series the game has ever had. It's clear that whoever they have hired to design mechanics will thrive this time around, and the upcoming deep dungeon, criterion, AND field zone content will perpetuate this success. We are in good hands.

Since story is a vehicle to gameplay this time around, this expansion is easily the best of the bunch.

(Review for 999 Remastered)

Played through this with friends.
Compared to the DS version:
-The graphics are nicely redone for HD
-The voice acting is REALLY GOOD
-The escape room puzzles keep their appeal even with the loss of a second screen
-The time chart being added was a big plus
-The split of Novel and Adventure modes to compensate for the loss of a second screen was awkwardly implemented.
-Without going in to too much detail, a big change at the very end was not implemented well.

1. Waiting Time:
For years I couldn't prepare myself to play and I didn't continue because I was bored and always stayed in the same places that I said to start 2-3 times. I finally had the opportunity to play the Black Mesa game and I played it. I wish I had entered the half-life universe earlier, I didn't know that there was so much I missed and so when I finished the game inside me.
-why didn't I start early, look at the game!

2. Visual and Technical Quality:
The visual and technical quality of the game definitely met my expectations. However, we can see that these features still need to be improved in some places, but I have to say that I think it has really good visuals.

3. Delayed Exploration and Regret:
I feel like I should have discovered Black Mesa sooner. I decided to give it a try at the insistence of friends, but I should have done it sooner. The atmosphere and the storyline added to the slight regret of being a late discovery.

4. Entering the Half-Life Universe Early:
I would have been able to appreciate the Black Mesa experience more if I'd dived into the magic of the Half-Life universe earlier. This game opened a door for me to dive deeper into the universe, and I felt that I lacked the advantage of having opened that door earlier.

All in all, Black Mesa impressed and delighted me in many ways, but there is also a sense of regret from the long wait and late discovery. I should have enjoyed this game sooner, and I should have entered the Half-Life universe sooner. It's an overdue pleasure, but I can say that it gave me a lot of satisfaction.

What a miserable grind of a game. First off, I'll say that nearly every aspect of the story and characters are an upgrade from 1. There's actually something beyond finding the item a town needs and defeating the monster in order to save the kingdom.
In 2, that's still the basic idea behind your journey, but there's so much more to each character and the drama is increased by actual conflicts and struggles. There's a rebellion, tragedy, betrayal and several areas that surprised me because they exceeded the generic fantasy setting and plot of the previous game. I didn't expect the story from a game that released in 1988 to hold my attention so well. The tale of the dragoons, wyverns, and their last remaining survivors was particularly good.
What's not an improvement is the battles and leveling system. I know that games should try to improve and innovate after first otherwise you risk running something out that is stagnant or feels too similar, but what Final Fantasy 2 shows is how you can completely botch fundamental mechanics.
Without getting too deep, characters level up skill use with weapon types, instead of individual skills like "strength, magic, etc". These are actually still in the game, but are largely inconsequential compared to how important it is to level up your skill use with whatever weapon type you're using, "sword, axe, staff etc".
The problem is that these are use-based, meaning you need to get successful hits on enemies in order to level them up, and since there are few enemies in the game that take very many hits, you end up barely being able level up your weapon use without hitting YOUR OWN team members, which is the best way to grind for higher stats.
This is absolutely dreadful because there are so many difficulty spikes and enemies that will wreck your party out of nowhere that you never get a good understanding on if you need to grind, or if you just got unlucky. Many times I found I just needed to retry a boss or enemy in a chest and their random attacks lined up in such a way that I was able to win.
This isn't even mentioning how spells don't operate in the same way physical weapons do either. You get spell books that you teach your characters and instead of their own individual stats creating a powerful spell, the spell ITSELF is what levels up, which means if you're say...at the end of the fucking game and get a really good spell, it's level 1, and likely needs to be grinded a few levels to be viable, which is a real pace killer and a great way to dash any enthusiasm about a fancy new spell.
You acquired Ultima? the best spell in the game? It barely does 100 damage to normal mobs. You might as well use the level 14 fire spell you've had since the beginning.
This game is such a whiplash of crushing battles and trivial bosses that it throws the entire game balance off. I'd also like to say I couldn't imagine playing through this without the pixel remaster's ability to turn off random encounters. The final level Pandaemonium is a very cool area art-wise, but suffers from completely dull dungeon design, which is the same for basically all of the dungeons in this game. For whatever reason they decided that a million rooms with nothing in them and dead ends with no rhyme or reason, was fine. You never think when going through floors, you just walk until the end.
With a staggeringly easy final boss thanks to the blood sword I can say with confidence that around 90% of the spells, items, weapons and armor are basically useless. It's so easy that I actually wouldn't recommend using the blood sword if you want a challenge or rewarding experience because it feels like cheating when you kill the final boss in 4 turns.
But that's what I would recommend if I knew for a fact you would be as sick of grinding by the end of this game as I was. You could go back to the real game of final fantasy 2, which is the endless monotony of hitting your own party members and healing for hours on end in an exercise of tedium even for jrpgs, or you can haste, berserk, and blood sword your way to Final Fantasy 3.