smeethan
2022
Okay, I finally got around to playing the game and LORD am I ever glad that I did. This whole journey for me started because I watched Kai Cenat struggle with the tree sentinel and I thought: Hey, I could probably do that. So I did that! ... and then I did a lot of other things I had never done before.
I just want to say that I am giving this 5 stars, which is an indication of my enjoyment of the game and not a comment on it's flaws or merits. Like anything else that is real, this game is not a work of perfection. That being said, There are few games I've enjoyed to the extent that I enjoyed Elden Ring which is why I will leave it with such high praise.
Let's hit on the few things I didn't like first.
I understand the the quest "system" is a vestigial organ from dark souls, but in my opinion a game with such a rich story needs a more consistent way to experience that story hoping you wander across the correct NPC or going back to deliberately re-check an area multiple times. In my playthrough, I had started Millicent's quest, progressed to what I thought was it's natural solution, and then left to "carry on" with the game. What I did not realize later in my playthrough is that her quest would be very important to me. At a loss of where to start, I look up a quest guide and find out that on my own I have basically everything I need for her quest and now just have to fast travel to a bunch of locations I've already been to meet her there? Why was this the case? Because I didn't revisit the same areas multiple times to progress the dialogue enough. It's unintuitive and somehow I ended up completing the quest on my own anyways. It's not just Millicent either. Despite playing with the intention of avoiding online guides I was simply unable to due to how bad the game is at pointing you in the right direction at times. This is fine if you want only 5% of players to experience any story elements in your games.
On occasion, the open world actually feels like an open world video game. This would normally not be a contention. But, because Elden Ring has so many distinctive environments and setpieces, it becomes pointedly obvious when assets are reused and enemies are copy pasted. There are lore reasons for some of it but it still broke my immersion on occasion and the catacombs and caves were very repetitive. Same thing with repeat boss encounters and cornily renamed bosses (I'm looking at you Godefroy the Grafted).
As for the positives: this whole experience was a positive. I loved every moment and felt that every moment of genuine exploration was rewarding and interesting. For me, this game comes on the heels of completing Another Crab's Treasure, which was my first completion of what you could call a "soulslike" game. The combat always fresh, and I had just enough respecs to try new playstyles and experiment with different items and spells. There was so much optional side content that I most likely missed that I could play another 40-50 hours and still not see everything. While some will say this quantity comes at the price of quality, I tend to disagree, This has been probably my most satisfying play of 2024, and fucking balatro came out this year.
I just want to say that I am giving this 5 stars, which is an indication of my enjoyment of the game and not a comment on it's flaws or merits. Like anything else that is real, this game is not a work of perfection. That being said, There are few games I've enjoyed to the extent that I enjoyed Elden Ring which is why I will leave it with such high praise.
Let's hit on the few things I didn't like first.
I understand the the quest "system" is a vestigial organ from dark souls, but in my opinion a game with such a rich story needs a more consistent way to experience that story hoping you wander across the correct NPC or going back to deliberately re-check an area multiple times. In my playthrough, I had started Millicent's quest, progressed to what I thought was it's natural solution, and then left to "carry on" with the game. What I did not realize later in my playthrough is that her quest would be very important to me. At a loss of where to start, I look up a quest guide and find out that on my own I have basically everything I need for her quest and now just have to fast travel to a bunch of locations I've already been to meet her there? Why was this the case? Because I didn't revisit the same areas multiple times to progress the dialogue enough. It's unintuitive and somehow I ended up completing the quest on my own anyways. It's not just Millicent either. Despite playing with the intention of avoiding online guides I was simply unable to due to how bad the game is at pointing you in the right direction at times. This is fine if you want only 5% of players to experience any story elements in your games.
On occasion, the open world actually feels like an open world video game. This would normally not be a contention. But, because Elden Ring has so many distinctive environments and setpieces, it becomes pointedly obvious when assets are reused and enemies are copy pasted. There are lore reasons for some of it but it still broke my immersion on occasion and the catacombs and caves were very repetitive. Same thing with repeat boss encounters and cornily renamed bosses (I'm looking at you Godefroy the Grafted).
As for the positives: this whole experience was a positive. I loved every moment and felt that every moment of genuine exploration was rewarding and interesting. For me, this game comes on the heels of completing Another Crab's Treasure, which was my first completion of what you could call a "soulslike" game. The combat always fresh, and I had just enough respecs to try new playstyles and experiment with different items and spells. There was so much optional side content that I most likely missed that I could play another 40-50 hours and still not see everything. While some will say this quantity comes at the price of quality, I tend to disagree, This has been probably my most satisfying play of 2024, and fucking balatro came out this year.
2024
I didn't want to leave a review for this game until I gold staked every deck but I have 60 hours on record with this game and I realize that's not happening anytime soon for me.
It's hard for me to give Balatro praise in a way that has not been done better by so many others. It's mechanically one of the most intruiging concepts for a deckbuilding roguelike I have ever encountered, and the mental math formula is addicting as hell. The game-feel on all of the effects, cards, and even the sfx and music are just perfect. I feel like I'm playing a card game in an extra-spatial dimension while I'm waiting on the world to end. It's honestly just perfect, which is hard in a genre where so many of these kinds of games feel repetitive, flat, and dry.
It's hard for me to give Balatro praise in a way that has not been done better by so many others. It's mechanically one of the most intruiging concepts for a deckbuilding roguelike I have ever encountered, and the mental math formula is addicting as hell. The game-feel on all of the effects, cards, and even the sfx and music are just perfect. I feel like I'm playing a card game in an extra-spatial dimension while I'm waiting on the world to end. It's honestly just perfect, which is hard in a genre where so many of these kinds of games feel repetitive, flat, and dry.
While the premise "battle for bikini bottom meets dark souls" sounds like a stupid joke, Another Crab's Treasure really sells it in a complete package and makes it work. I think it says something about the developers commitment to recreating the beloved fromsoft formula that I can confidently say this is one of better "soulslikes" in existence.
That being said, this game has lowered the skill requirement, not only in it's generous accessibility settings, but also in the way that certain pieces of gear and spells you unlock will eventually take the challenge out of most the combat. Personally, I hit that point about half way through the game. However, to my personal experience, this lowering of skill requirement kept me more engaged with the game because I rarely ever felt "stuck" or like I was unable to move forward at the pace I wanted to. While I am mildly upset that I didn't spend the amount of time I might have liked to on some of the later bosses, I could easily play again with some self-imposed limits and completely change my experience.
Everything about this game (aside from it's often juvenile sense of humor) is charming. The art is fantastic, the boss designs (both in looks and movesets) are very fun. The levels are well designed, with plenty of secret areas to be revisited once you unlock new abilities.
Taking only 30 hours to 100%, I'd recommend this game to anyone, especially those looking for an entrypoint into the soulslike genre who do not want anything majorly intimidating.
That being said, this game has lowered the skill requirement, not only in it's generous accessibility settings, but also in the way that certain pieces of gear and spells you unlock will eventually take the challenge out of most the combat. Personally, I hit that point about half way through the game. However, to my personal experience, this lowering of skill requirement kept me more engaged with the game because I rarely ever felt "stuck" or like I was unable to move forward at the pace I wanted to. While I am mildly upset that I didn't spend the amount of time I might have liked to on some of the later bosses, I could easily play again with some self-imposed limits and completely change my experience.
Everything about this game (aside from it's often juvenile sense of humor) is charming. The art is fantastic, the boss designs (both in looks and movesets) are very fun. The levels are well designed, with plenty of secret areas to be revisited once you unlock new abilities.
Taking only 30 hours to 100%, I'd recommend this game to anyone, especially those looking for an entrypoint into the soulslike genre who do not want anything majorly intimidating.
Really delightful game. It looks fantastic and has a fun story. The combat is fast pace and very fluid. There's not too much to think about which is something I think the game benefits rather than suffers from. The collecting of doohickeys gives a fun reason to veer into the occasional side path without feeling like too crushing of an objective to miss. A short and sweet game, very carefully curated into a meaningful experience.
It was okay. Really takes from that Fallout NV/Elder Scrolls "go here and talk to this NPC" formula. I didn't enjoy the companions so for what I played I just didn't use them. I like the perk and level up system, but I found that instead of specifying to a specific skill set I was switching gear often enough to just spread everything out evenly. Overall it just didn't hold my attention for long enough, and I was tired of having my 10 minute walk to the next NPC interrupted by fighting 50 space rats and 20 bandits. If I do return it will be for the decision making and action alignment elements. I enjoyed some of the more narrative driven RPG aspects.
2021
After increasing my playtime from 10 hours to nearly 100 hours at this point, I figured it was time to actually talk about this game and give it a more thorough review. Plenty of people will tell me that despite increasing my playtime tenfold I still have not given it enough time because in order to truly experience the endgame pvp content you have to dedicate hours to grinding lifeskilling in order to make a good enough build to actually compete. However, to be so honest, lifeskilling was an aspect I barely enjoyed. I might even go so far as to say that one of the few elements that I enjoyed about this game was the sense of achievement that came from leveling with friends and getting a slightly better gearscore than before. They weapons are fun to tinker with at a lower level but as time moves on you get punished for trying to switch to new weapons due to each weapon being underleveled. This discourages learning new playstyles and makes the combat generally less enjoyable, which is dissapointing because the combat in new world often felt more interactive than other MMOs I had tried. The PVP I did play felt unengaging and the never ending cycle of leveling up life skills in order to have a better chance at getting select perks on gear makes me cry when I think about it. In the end I felt like I got my character to level 60 as a way to participate in a system that once I tried I decided I didn't enjoy. Maybe one day I'll give it another shot.
Nothing special here. That's the best way that I can describe this game. The building mechanics are simplistic and the scoring mechanic boils down to "how many hidden objectives did you find and complete in this prompt" which you can always easily get all three. Sometimes the game will be picky with you about which components you choose to install (Especially GPUs and what is considered an "upgrade") which leads to burning money where you do not need to and wasting a day waiting for a new part to ship. All that said, it can still be a pleasant waste of time if you have nothing else happening and want something to busy your hands while you listen to a podcast. I'm gonna play the second game and see if it got any better.
2021
A mediocre party game akin to gang beasts. Where this game excels is the variety of combination of maps and game modes in the competitive game. The Co-op is devastatingly boring.
2023
This was my first survival horror game and it is just spectacular. I tried to play the original first and I found that the controls were just from another era. I'm glad this version exists so I could experience the story, otherwise I might not have.
The atmosphere is always unsettling and rich in brutal detail. The story was well paced and never gave me a reason to put the game down. One thing that I struggled with (purely as a skill issue) was getting myself into fights with a lot of enemies and very few resources, but I found that with a little determination and focus I was able to fight my way out of a lot. Some of the Ashley missions were difficult because the AI has some weird behavior around positioning (I'm looking at you chapter 7). Other than that the gameplay was always charming. While I felt that sometimes the enemy variety was a bit lacking, this complaint is balanced by the fact that every new enemy is a new fight to be learned, especially when dealing with several different types at once. The merchant and collectable system was well executed. Treasures with gem slots make exploring side paths and fighting additional enemies feel rewarding not just for the completion aspect, but also by giving you additional money to purchase upgrades. The same goes for challenges and spinel.
I still have a lot left that I want to experience, and the game makes sure of that. Lots of treasures that I missed, challenges to complete, achievements to hunt and a DLC to play. On top of that there's an additional difficulty to master and a New Game Plus to encourage any completionist. There's so much in this game, and it's a fantastic demonstration that you do not need an open world live service game in order to get more than 20 hours out of a player, even an inexperienced one such as myself. This game changed the way I think and feel about survival horror as a genre, and as a result I'm far more likely to play more in the future.
The atmosphere is always unsettling and rich in brutal detail. The story was well paced and never gave me a reason to put the game down. One thing that I struggled with (purely as a skill issue) was getting myself into fights with a lot of enemies and very few resources, but I found that with a little determination and focus I was able to fight my way out of a lot. Some of the Ashley missions were difficult because the AI has some weird behavior around positioning (I'm looking at you chapter 7). Other than that the gameplay was always charming. While I felt that sometimes the enemy variety was a bit lacking, this complaint is balanced by the fact that every new enemy is a new fight to be learned, especially when dealing with several different types at once. The merchant and collectable system was well executed. Treasures with gem slots make exploring side paths and fighting additional enemies feel rewarding not just for the completion aspect, but also by giving you additional money to purchase upgrades. The same goes for challenges and spinel.
I still have a lot left that I want to experience, and the game makes sure of that. Lots of treasures that I missed, challenges to complete, achievements to hunt and a DLC to play. On top of that there's an additional difficulty to master and a New Game Plus to encourage any completionist. There's so much in this game, and it's a fantastic demonstration that you do not need an open world live service game in order to get more than 20 hours out of a player, even an inexperienced one such as myself. This game changed the way I think and feel about survival horror as a genre, and as a result I'm far more likely to play more in the future.
Very fun! had a good time deciphering this with a friend. Only 4 stars because it's very short and the coop is very tempermental.
2020
3.5/5 because it's wayyy cheaper than owning physical. Unfortunatly on PC you can feel that jank. If you have over 5 cards in your hand, they become hard to select. The general feeling of observing the computer-players' boards is difficult as well. Apparently the online has one play mode which is 5 minute long turns which is simply too long for a game to last, making online play worthless as well. That being said I still enjoy the game immensely in single player or against bots.
2011
It's hard to say something about minecraft that hasn't been said already. It is one of the few games that has truly earned the description "infinitely replayable". Thanks to the fantastic modding community I find there is always a reason for my friends and I to start up a new server and explore a new domain with new objectives in mind. It will always be near and dear to my heart.
2023
Best multiplayer experience since the cultural event that was the Among Us boom in 2020. Although the gameplay loop is very simplistic, the combination of proximity chat and the lack of information leads to surprising and entertaining gameplay over and over again. Unlimited party size mod (and many others) do this game many favors and I hope the devs continue to add new features and expand the game.
One of the most enjoyable 2d Mario titles in recent memory
2023
Multiplayer FPS games have never been my thing, but I found myself having a surprising amount of fun with my friends in this game. The combination of strategizing the correct objectives to push, learning new mechanics and strategies, and the inherent janky feeling of destructible environments kept me going back for more during the open beta. I hope I continue to enjoy it this much as the game goes into its full launch.