Retroactively bumped symphony of the night down half a star. The absolute pinnacle of metroidvania, with the best exploration and the most interconnected world in the genre by a long shot. The only game to have even comparable world design is the first half of Dark Souls 1.

While not as fast and explosive as ultrakill its willingness to let you go absolutely wild with its movement mechanics gives it a distinctly unique niche.

If you expected to read an in depth explanation for the visuals:
Shut the fuck up funko pop owner.

I'm personally against giving a perfect score to a game that's technically not finished yet so I'm compromising. It is already the best FPS I've ever played. An extremely fast game with incredible depth in learning and utilizing both your movement options and weapon combos.

The price of Stellaris (and all Paradox games really) is inexcusable.

This review score is probably severely influenced by Stockholm syndrome but I fucking love this game so much. Nothing else does galactic politics remotely as well (if you have the appropriate dlcs). Species and empire customisation is phenomenal (if you have the appropriate dlcs) and the stories you'll end up telling benefit greatly from the variety.

Family share it from someone already in too deep or spend a week trying to justify the purchase to yourself (it's not worth it).

What if a souls game was linear?
It's bad.

The combat is the pinnacle of souls combat though, and coupled with the best bossfights in the series you can find new ways to love this game.

The Ringed City alone is worth the price of this game.

Love waiting, love incessant padding to every core system, love every new addition being abandoned in favor for a newer one every 6 months.

If you removed the trash you'd have one of the most enjoyable shooters ever made, with incredible movement and build variety. Sadly, the trash is like 80% of the game at this point.

As far as party games go this is an undisputed legend. An absolute blast with a couple of friends and a drink or two.

Utterly indefensible.

Morally reprehensible.

Plays like ass.

I don't believe the pixels on my screen can actually be called characters.

Disgusting on every level.

Outwards heart is in a good place, its ideas ranging from okay to excellent but the execution is consistently mediocre.

It tries to emulate souls combat but falls very, very short.

It tries to have in-depth death mechanics that help you tell unique stories, but ends up with repetitive events that only end up making death meaningless.

It tries to make a situational and highly interactive magic system but gets hamstrung by it's ux choices.

It tries to create a large world that's fun to traverse but ends up with maps with a few, very obviously signposted locations where things are, surrounded by empty, boring space that you have to slowly walk through.