The Sands of Time is a very fluid and exhilarating platformer, with smartly designed environmental puzzles, a killer soundtrack and fun chemistry between the Prince and Farah. The game is just held back by garbage combat encounters that overwhelm you with tons of enemies and it gets very frustrating and very repetitive as the game goes on. Not enough mechanical complexity or enemy types to justify these lengthy encounters. Still, this is a solid atmospheric adventure through ancient Persia that is worth playing for the stellar platforming alone.

I'd say this is CDPR at their absolute best. It might be controversial to say because of how popular The Witcher 3 and of course Blood & Wine is... But I think Phantom Liberty is the best thing they've ever made.

The way this DLC weaves themes and character so elegantly is an absolute marvel of a dance they pull of effortlessly. At no point did I feel I could see the strings holding the game together, it just flowed, it was completely organic and had me hanging off of every word. From the set pieces, to the unique quest design, the narrative crux and the way it all ties back into V's personal journey as part of Cyberpunk 2077, this DLC nails it all. It's plain and simple, a masterpiece, in every way that counts.

I've played this before beating the main game for the first time, since this takes place before the ending I wanted to do this chronologically at the right point and it didn't feel wrong to do so, in-fact I think I'll be going into the base game's ending with a richer perception of both V and Johnny. Still speechless at just how good this was, utterly blown away.

Great on all fronts; narrative, atmosphere, voice acting and gameplay as usual with the boundlessly creative minds at Remedy. Flashlight mechanic adds an extra layer of tension in an already very tense game. Only issue I have is its bad habit of bombarding you with waves of enemies left and right and center which made gameplay scenarios samey and predictable, I can't count how many times I was moving in the woods from point A to B while camera is zooming out to show the enemies then zooming back in. If they spread out those combat encounters and doubled down on environmental storytelling like the stuff with TVs and Radio, this would've been an easy 10/10.

What a beast of a game, its addictive gameplay and variety of builds hooked me in and never let up. I never was a fan of the Roguelike concept as I vastly prefer the traditional game structure but this game's boon system adds this unpredictable flavor that makes every run feel fresh and exciting as you never know when you gonna get THAT busted build and such. Story is perfectly curated for a rogue system with some superb voice acting but that comes with some restrictions since story didn't really move forward in any significant way until my first clear 21 attempts in and up until that point dialogue was usually like "oh you got killed by this X thing ?, perhaps you should do Y next time" or some character yapping about random shit and when it finally decided to move forward, it just wanted to give you a reason as to why you should try to escape over and over again. Game's overall carried by the super solid gameplay and stellar voice acting. Even if you don't like Rogue games, you should give this a try at least.

Hellblade: Senua Sacrifice and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II when compared together, feel like a give-or-take duology that beautifully bounces off each other in a symphony.

The first game has the better story, thanks to its singular focus on Senua and her psychosis, while the second game comes just close to overtaking Sacrifice as it takes Senua singularity, and gives her a purpose larger than life, an almost shamanistic task of taking down the giants and lead a group of people, which inadvertently takes away the story's focus on psychosis as that plot thread was already resolved in the first game

Gameplay wise, I knew what to expect and got what I was l looking for, a story led interactive adventure game, but as a sequel, 2 makes some sacrifices that are both necessary, but some confusing to distinguish itself from the previous games. The puzzles, for example, are few, longer and simplistic to the point some didn't need to be here, like that hour-long hidden folk trials, and combat, which I admire how raw, visceral and violent it is, feels a bit sloppy when trying to time attacks, read enemy movements and the lack of charge stabs and kicks makes it the more confusing why the simplification when it would've actively contributed to the presentation

Speaking of presentation, this game is nuts. I would confidently call this a digestible spiritual successor to Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days, as the game employs a ton of post-processing to make it as filmic as possible, like an anamorphic lens, black bars, chromatic aberration, distortion, film grain, it's immense the number of techniques employed for this as well as the character's fidelity, which is industry leading.

Had they not simplified some crucial combat mechanics from 1 and expanded on the puzzles, I feel it could've surpassed the first game

“This is a great cinematic experience but a bad video game”
What I mean by cinematic Experience is that this is hands down one of the most movie like and cinematic stuff in video game platform(which is also its fault more on that later).
The CINEMATOGRAPHY, DIRECTION, the PHOTOREALISTIC visuals, top of the line MOTION CAPTURE, SOUND DESIGN, minimalistic OST that just goes with vibes and the way NARRATIVE is presented is PHENOMENAL to say the least, and the ACTING on screen certainly one of the best, it can easily be translated to a film or a high budget mini-series, the way COMBAT ENCOUNTER and big SET PIECE moments played out are just CINEMATIC as hell.
But on the other side of things the basic LEVEL DESIGN, BAISC PUZZLES(not repetitive like 1st game thankfully), the COMBAT don’t have any kind depth at all encounters played out same get boring quickly, GAMEPLAY is just pushing the stick forward, STORY is not as personal to sauna as 1st game but its serviceable which all comes together by the end so it kinda deliver in that part, the only good thing is its phenomenal looking visuals which comes at high cost u need a monster of a pc to play it at reasonably good FPS.
As a cinematic experience its one of a kind and solid 8/10
But as a game its like barely a 5/10.
I recommend u watch 4k60fps version on Youtube, for folks expecting Ninja Theory to reinvent the action genre yea this ain’t it, its baffling that NT took 7 year with this game and they just manage to make it just 5-6hr long and in this state, they should’ve better take that time to make a small 6 episode tv show imo.

Sequel to the acclaimed 2017 prequel, Hellblade 2 continues the story of Senua in very dramatic fashion. What at first feels loke a duller, less personal story compared to that of its predecessor, quickly becomes a great tale about redemption, forgiveness and carving one's own path in life. The strong focus on mental health and Senua's well depicted psychosis is back as well and it makes Hellblade 2 stand out among similar titles in its educational value which allowed me to better explore feelings like anxiety and self doubt which I, like many others, experience on myself.

Technically the game shines as one of the best looking titles ever made with photorealistic enviroments and top notch animations, albeit at the cost of the game being very linear and limited in scope.

This extreme limitation in the game's scope hits especially its gameplay with a combat system that feels satisfying to play with but that is also barely fleshed out and just added as a way to regularly interrupt the dull walking around that the game would be without it.

Puzzles are also another way in which Senua will interact with the world around her. Sadly, most of them are very simple even if not too tedious, with only a small section of the game offering an interesting and fun type of puzzle which never presents itself fully into the game again.

Overall, Hellblade 2 is a beautiful looking game that tells an almost equally beautiful story at the cost of having very little in the way of gameplay. I quite enjoyed my time with it, but it is not a game for everyone. If you don't care about Senua's journey or the pretty landscapes she'll explore, Hellblade 2 will not be for you.

"i was high on COCAIN while orgasming nonstop"
The gameplay, the 90's anime art style is goatest of GOAT.
The rush of dopamine u get in few mints is more then enough to justify its price point.
"Got freaking damn it these cutscenes ooozes so much charm and old ass anime coolness
Fucking hell badassness and coolness next level"

The only issue I have with it is that barring a few unique and funny boss fights, and some out of this world setpeace levels, the game level design 70% of the time remains the same, with similar powerups, wish they experimented more.

Edit: "But man replaying it over and over on hardest difficulties I just had to bump this up to 10, this game is outlandishly fun"

Solid 10/10


OLD Demo review
Hands down best Demo i ever played in my life, and GOT DAMN while playing it, I feel like i was high on COCAIN while orgasming nonstop.

“Souls like with spongebob coat of paint”
Game is solid concept wise, writing, level design, gameplay concepts are good with good enemy variety and great bosses but it do have that AA jank to it especially in gameplay department, its not as snapy or responsive as something like sekiro, BB or lies of P, but its serviceable ig

Story is also Very good, but holy shit the game dragged on the last act for some bs environmental message that came out of nowhere lol, even tho the main quest felt pretty much over it just goes on to introduce this new story arc and just make it a slog in last act.

7/10