LazyBob
It's good looking and Parkour is good enough to be worth playing for but it's buggy and everything else is mediocre.
Fighting giant machines is cool but only part of the main quest is really good (stuff involving the past) and I don't care much for the rest. Sidequest are also mostly forgettable/easily skippable. Otherwise the open world is full of usual modern open world shit, towers, enemy camps, collectibles etc. That's fine but has been pretty boring. Games very pretty at least.
Best Destiny 2 campaign they've done.
2022
I absolutely loved this game. It kept me captivated for over 90 hours, a rare feat. As someone who's favorite game is currently Bloodborne and before that was Skyrim, this game feels like it was aimed to appeal to me.
Combat feels like a refinement of Dark Souls 3 which personally, I'm in favor of. I don't think that's the best combat in any From game (that's Sekiro) but for a game with this many different weapons and skills its the best fit.
Character building is fantastic here. There's a lot of room for different builds. Maybe the best in any From game. I actually had trouble deciding how to play as a result. For example even if I did decide on a mainly Faith build there's so many different weapons that are good for that and such a ridiculous variety of incantations. I also really appreciate the addition of Ash of War so weapons aren't restricted to one skill opening even more possibilities.
The exploration of the world is some of the best I've seen. It's refreshing not to have your hand held with map markers like in most modern open worlds. It works well here because even without that there are good visually indicators for places of interest. Also every side dungeon you find giving at least one cool new weapon/talisman/spell etc. makes this all feel super rewarding. I also want to draw attention to how I was never sure if I had actually found all the areas because every time I thought that I wound up somewhere new unexpectedly.
I loved the side quests (that I could find). They had some of the most interesting lore in the game and some of the better ones lead you to some of the cooler optional areas and bosses in the game. A few felt much more consequential then ones in previous From games. I also want to share my appreciation for how many side quests intertwine. Mostly not in ways that make you choose one or the other but rather in fleshing out that characters do share relationships with one another instead of it feeling like each of their stories exist in a bubble.
My biggest criticism of the game is that most bosses are not memorable and/or many are too relentless making getting attacks in a challenge. The biggest thing contributing to the memorability part are that most bosses are used multiple times. That feels like it was a necessary concession because that was the most realistic way to fill a game of this scale. Regarding bosses being too relentless, I have to assume the existence of summons is what warped the boss design to be like this. There's now a near guarantee bosses will have two targets even if a player won't summon another actual person which may have made From feel like bosses would be too easy if they had bigger openings.
At the time of writing this, From really needs to fix the stuttering issues on PC. The game may be so good I ignored it but many rightfully wont be as forgiving.
Overall one of the best games I've played in years even in spite of the criticism. I will be genuinely shocked if it is not my personal game of the year. I'm unsure if it will unseat Bloodborne as my favorite game ever as I'd need to think more on that bur it definitely cracks my top ten.
Combat feels like a refinement of Dark Souls 3 which personally, I'm in favor of. I don't think that's the best combat in any From game (that's Sekiro) but for a game with this many different weapons and skills its the best fit.
Character building is fantastic here. There's a lot of room for different builds. Maybe the best in any From game. I actually had trouble deciding how to play as a result. For example even if I did decide on a mainly Faith build there's so many different weapons that are good for that and such a ridiculous variety of incantations. I also really appreciate the addition of Ash of War so weapons aren't restricted to one skill opening even more possibilities.
The exploration of the world is some of the best I've seen. It's refreshing not to have your hand held with map markers like in most modern open worlds. It works well here because even without that there are good visually indicators for places of interest. Also every side dungeon you find giving at least one cool new weapon/talisman/spell etc. makes this all feel super rewarding. I also want to draw attention to how I was never sure if I had actually found all the areas because every time I thought that I wound up somewhere new unexpectedly.
I loved the side quests (that I could find). They had some of the most interesting lore in the game and some of the better ones lead you to some of the cooler optional areas and bosses in the game. A few felt much more consequential then ones in previous From games. I also want to share my appreciation for how many side quests intertwine. Mostly not in ways that make you choose one or the other but rather in fleshing out that characters do share relationships with one another instead of it feeling like each of their stories exist in a bubble.
My biggest criticism of the game is that most bosses are not memorable and/or many are too relentless making getting attacks in a challenge. The biggest thing contributing to the memorability part are that most bosses are used multiple times. That feels like it was a necessary concession because that was the most realistic way to fill a game of this scale. Regarding bosses being too relentless, I have to assume the existence of summons is what warped the boss design to be like this. There's now a near guarantee bosses will have two targets even if a player won't summon another actual person which may have made From feel like bosses would be too easy if they had bigger openings.
At the time of writing this, From really needs to fix the stuttering issues on PC. The game may be so good I ignored it but many rightfully wont be as forgiving.
Overall one of the best games I've played in years even in spite of the criticism. I will be genuinely shocked if it is not my personal game of the year. I'm unsure if it will unseat Bloodborne as my favorite game ever as I'd need to think more on that bur it definitely cracks my top ten.
I liked this more then the prior game but it makes some choices with the story I don't love and while things it was weak at like melee combat are improved they're still not great. New machines add a good amount of variety and I felt the map is much better overall however there are some better areas that are unfortunately underused.
The level design is dull, graphics are bad, and performance is terrible. Combat is fantastic and story crosses into so bad it's good territory. Best bad game of 2022.
I was surprised how much I loved this. It just kept getting better until the end. I usually don't like games that are too easy but this is a good example of one where it's easy but still engaging and fun so its ok for me. Glad I gave this one a chance.
I like SOTFS better then vanilla 2 due to the inclusion of the DLC that mostly have better areas/bosses then the base game but its still the worst of the Dark Souls trilogy. Weird decisions like ADP, enemies having limited respawns, poor controls, gank squads etc. bring it down even if it introduced some cool ideas like power stance and bonfire ascetics. Worst Dark Souls is still better then most games though.
2015
Currently my favorite game of all time. The gameplay and atmosphere are unmatched.
The combat is phenomenal and the bosses are the absolute best From has done due to the single style of combat it's focused on unlike the Souls games. Art direction is fantastic as well. Only real detriment for me is that there's not much incentive to replay a lot which is the downside of focusing on a specific style of combat.
2020
The game still holds up well but ultimately I didn't love a third of the levels and only a handful of bosses felt fun to fight instead of just gimmicky. I respect what it did to start the Souls games at the very least and I'm sure I'd have appreciated it more if I played it on release instead of when there was a remake.
This review contains spoilers
ALL HAIL THE BUCKET
It's more Wii Sports. Outside switching some classic ones for new sports it feels very familiar. Online gives it more longevity for when you don't have friends/family playing with you at least. It feels light on content for a non-pack in title like the original one was though. Having Golf at launch would have helped but it feels like they really should have had other sports from the original like Baseball and Boxing in too.
Holds up better then I remember but lacks the depth of later entries and I hate some of the level design.
A big improvement over BN1.