Dragon's Dogma 2 is a very hard game for me to rate because there is genuinely a lot that is not good with it. With that being said, this is one of my favorite action RPGs in terms of the fun factor and combat and exploration carry basically all of the weight in that aspect.

Combat is fluid, weighty, environmentally interactive, and diverse. Enemy variety can dry up due to the density of encounters and it is very easy to overpower via levels but the unique feel of each vocation and ability variety make it an absolute blast to fight in most encounters.

Exploration isn't super rewarding in terms of loot but the way combat plays out can feel very organic in a way I never experienced in other games. Going out into the wilderness with your pawns genuinely inspired a feeling of going on an adventure and the tension, the intrigue, and the challenge all pooled together for a great experience.

With my former experience with Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, it was good that this was all I expected and wanted out of the series as it satisfied what I wanted out of the game. However, that's where most of my positives dry up.

The story is even less cohesive than the original title with a kind of cool overall theme that is accompanied by characters that feel unimportant and uninspired, poorly paced story quests, and a general lack of urgency or importance.

The graphics are pretty solid and the world carried a gritty, realism inspired fantasy look but it has an overall lack of diversity and interesting art direction. A lot of the world lacks the magnificence and wonder expected of the fantasy experience, instead replacing it with a plethora of scenic vistas that don't really tell a story.

For fans of the first entry in the series, Dragon's Dogma 2 feels a lot like a greater volume version of the original with none of the hoped for improvements. If you go in looking to fight a bunch of monsters in a fun and badass way, this game can be incredible, as it was for me. If you want more out of this game or something resembling a halfway decent experience as an RPG, it will probably be best to look elsewhere.

Lords of the Fallen (2023) is a game that I felt had some incredibly high peaks and some incredibly low dips. Despite its inconsistencies, it has cemented itself as one of my favorite games of 2023 and my favorite soulslike game.

This game is absolutely dripping with atmosphere and has charmed me like few other games before. Incredible graphical fidelity paired with a stellar art direction has created some of the most gorgeous environments I have seen in gaming. The world and level design is sprawling, complex, and interconnected in a way I haven't seen since the original Dark Souls. The layout is intelligent and confusing with layered worlds and branching paths that feel expansive at first but click together and fill me with wonder when I piece it together. This level design combined with the umbral world and the sparse nature of checkpoints lends itself to a feeling of dread and urgency that completely immerses me in the experience. Beyond the layout of the world, the environmental storytelling is ominous and dark, the lore is deep and layered, and the sheer variety in player builds, both visually and functionally is incredibly impressive.

Lords of the Fallen's biggest distinguishing features from its inspirations are it's umbral lamp and the ranged combat system. The umbral lamp and corresponding world are an impressive layer on top of an already well-designed one without feeling gimmicky. It feels smooth and both the umbral lamp and world feel like they have a place in the Lords of the Fallen without feeling slapped onto the game. The ranged combat system is probably the best designed ranged combat system in any game I have played in this genre. Seemless spell casting or ranged combat without cycling spells or swapping weapons, a well-designed and scaling ammo system for non-magic options, and the presence of a ranged option for every build even with no investment lends itself to a really fun approach to the combat in this game.

Unfortunately, level design, gear variety, and atmosphere are the real selling points of this game and the low points hold it back from being something phenomenal that I could recommend to every fan of the genre. Performance at launch was awful for many players and while my experience was fine, it wasn't perfect. The lock-on system is terribly implemented and one of the worst I have ever seen. An enemy seems to be introduced every new level but the variety still feels very lacking and leaves a lot to be desired. The enemy density, which was nerfed since launch, definitely also contributed to the feeling of a poor enemy variety. The moveset variety between weapons is limited and although this game allows seamlessly meshing different attacks, this variety is still noticeably missing. The quest design is absolutely atrocious. Characters are cryptic in standard Fromsoftware fashion but Hexworks took it a step further and make the quests even more obtuse with easy to trigger fail conditions that lock the player out of completing those questlines. The bosses were rather easy as someone experienced in the genre but they weren't terrible for the most part. A number of them introduced small gimmicks with their arenas or movesets that didn't feel intrusive to the fight which was fun but a lot of them had ranged or AoE attacks independent of their normal attacks that make certain moments feel like a waiting game.

Overall, Lords of the Fallen is a game that I am really conflicted on, on paper. For me, the variety, atmosphere, and art direction outweighed a lot of these negatives and I find myself unable to stop thinking about the game almost 2 months after I had beaten it. Much of both of the positive and negative reception surrounding this game is valid, but I hope the developers can both take the feedback to heart and continue to experiment and take risks in the genre. Lords of the Fallen is a soulslike game that is good to have around for the future of the genre and while I cannot recommend it to everyone for a number of reasons, I find myself drawn in by the charm and I look forward to seeing what Hexworks will do with their consistent updates to Lords of the Fallen and whatever they have planned for the future.

Lies of P is a game that I am glad to have played but am left wanting more out of at the end of the day.

The combat system is incredible strong but it felt hindered by pushover regular enemies, well-designed but not worthwhile elites, and bosses who attacked way too erratically and quickly to trust my intuition and reactions, instead forcing me to memorize the boss as opposed to actually engaging with their fights. To be clear, there were still a number of really well-designed bosses but I often finished the fights feeling glad it was over so that I could move on, rather than overjoyed for overcoming a challenge.

The exploration and atmosphere are by far my biggest issue with this game. By the second area, I already came to understand that levels were basically single routes with the occasional shortcut leading to a boss that I probably wouldn't like. The art direction was decent and the shortcuts were useful but I found myself missing the element of discovery that I love in a typical FromSoft title and instead feeling like the game was pretty formulaic with a basic level layout, electric door #36, and then the boss shortly after.

I think another large reason that this game didn't impress me like it did so many others is that I think it played the genre too safe. Lies of P despite a few new mechanics felt like it tried too hard to clone a Fromsoft title and didn't take any risks with introducing its own flair. Frequently, all I could think about while playing was how uncanny the resemblance to Fromsoft titles was and how it didn't match the quality I had come to expect. The atmosphere wasn't as eerie or imposing as Bloodborne, the combat wasn't as tight as Sekiro, and the level design and build variety weren't as impressive as Dark Souls.

Lies of P comes across to me as a game that genuinely does well as a clone and can stand on its own as a very good game that I would recommend to most Soulslike fans who want more of the genre at a high level of polish. I really do believe Lies of P is a good game but I never felt impressed or amazed by it. I saw glimpses of the games I love but I never felt their atmosphere or character or quirks resonate with me in a way that charmed me.

Neowiz is clearly talented and very passionate about their game. I hope they take the opportunity to expand on their success here and cement their own truly unique twist on the genre.