Recent reviews by |$m0k!n|-Mr. 4HyDe-

Darkest Dungeon

I started this review with just one sentence without parantheses:

Despite all of the annoyances (and there is a lot of those) it's a funny and surprising game (until it really starts to bug you at which point you need to take a nosedive into the setup and layout of each hero, configure, and sanitize them for stress Relief, Group healing, AOE attacks with blight and bleed and sacrifice tons of level 0 heroes just to pass time), but I think any game that can make me smile and chuckle a few times is at least worth €2,45 - even at the risk it's gonna suck in the end a price at that level makes it much easier to tolerate somehow ;)

If you take the game too seriously the stress and frustration of constant failures and ridiculously unfair RNG will probably kill you too.

Play it right and you'll succeed for the most part, but know that the game love to throw you under the bus and sometimes there is just no escape.

Stress is the number ONE cause of death in this game.

Focus on Stress Relief, Group Healing and AOE attacks with Blight and Bleed.

Played on: AMD Ryzen 5600X, RTX 2060 Super, 64 GB RAM, NVMe M.2 SSD and it was very stable experience.

A happy surprise. I enjoyed this game a hell of lot more than the lack-lustre Pillars of Eternity.

The Adventure and CRPG is just as outstanding and feels much like a kindred to Baldurs Gate II complete with companion quests and romance options and I guess it's thanks to Chris Avellone.

Despite what else this game includes I would recommend the game for the Adventure, Dialogue, Companions and CRPG.

The game is like a hybrid of Adventure and Strategy and you need to play both parts to advance the game and continue progress and the Strategy is what pretty all "else" is about and it's really short on requirements, use and necessity.

The "else": There are a lot of confusing and tiring elements in the game like the whole kingdom management part and the slow travel speed and the constant need to rest when you move on the overland map. Later in the game you get the possibility to make a portal system in your villages, which I think should have been available much sooner in the game and it really helps to spread out and put your villages close to hotspots and generally far away.

In general there is a truly annoying lack of information in the game about the game and requirements of Kingdom Management where I'd recommend googling for "Kingmaker Advisor Requirements", even though it doesn't cover it all, like the lack of advisors and the growth of your kingdom. In general I googled a lot of stuff, but I do not recommend reading spoilers and walkthroughs. On one hand I would recommend you to be a little responsible yourself and turn a blind eye to that which will ruin the exploration, but on the other hand it can be a pretty long game... So... Yeah, well, give it a try before you decide to spoil yourself and don't do it too much.

Divinity: Original Sin is an outstanding game in a completely different league than this bottomfeeder.

How did Larian Studios manage to survive as a company producing garbage like this is a total mystery.

On the one bright side, the Deathknight is the one and only highlight to speak of in this mindless hack, but it's just isn't enough to compensate for the massive level of garbage.

The puzzles and the writing is not the worst I have seen, but the presentation is and the combat is much worse. Everything is a hassle. Even the most simple click is a royal pain. The targeting system is really far off at any resolution.

It the penal system would include this game as part of the punishment even life imprisonment could me cut down to just one day, before even the most hardened criminal would know what an eternity of punishment feels like.

I am clearly an immortal superhero because I endured this for 38 hours.

Hmmm...

It's without a doubt the most playable and intuitive of the Resident Evil games I've ever played, because it's first-person and generally act like it, but it's also one of the worst shoot-em-up games I've ever played, because movement is incredibly slow, run/sprint is like a walk and walk is like a crawl and "run" doesn't work with backstepping and there is no jump and sidestep is a joke. The lack of speed is really the backbone of everything this game has to offer - there would be no sense of challenge at all without it.

While they are are a few surprise encounters "scary" is not a word I would use to describe a single one of them and generally it's not a scary game unless you happen to be a little five year old girl, I guess.

There is one word which is ever present, but "annoying" is more than just a word, it's practically the theme of this game.

The puzzles are generally pretty easy, even though the pieces are a bit too easy to miss by design.

Pretty much all "boss" fights are crappy and weird and all guns are lame and the most annoying of all the "bosses" requires a bit of fiddling with the flip key.

There are a few straightforward shooter scenarios that work pretty well, but I don't think there is any kind of headshot that works in this game. The only "positive" highlight are those remotely triggered bombs, that are pretty easy to use and work really great to dispatch pretty much every one of the "standard" monsters, that all seems to be bulletsponges in other regards.

I would only recommend it if it comes cheap, because despite everything it's still entertaining on the first playthrough, but beyond that the game has no replay value at all - unless you happen to be a fan of lame and stupid repetition of course. Well, each to his own.

I had no issues with stability or performance of any kind other than the speed travesty.

Played it on "Ultra" on a: AMD 5600X, 64 GB RAM, RTX 2060 Super and running from a NVMe M.2 SSD.

Wow... I've only played for five minutes and I have already had enough of this game. I don't like kids and their games and I am playing as one complete with the lame sound of it... I hate it. I feel like I am fifty years too old for this retarded game. This is not at all like any of the other four Monkey Island games I've played. Not like Grim Fandango. Not like Day of the Tentacle. Not like any LucasArts game I've ever played and I am very happy that none of those games were like this piece of rubbish. Maybe the game will get better, but I can't get to that point at all, because of my resentment of the childish nature of the prelude.

Shocks. I must have hit the peak of grumpiness.

I guess none of the Resident Evil games are for me, because in my opinion they all suck and it baffles me.

Still, it looks pretty good and even though it's bloody slow and unresponsive and the controls are weird to me I could be tempted to buy this game with a massive discount to see if it gets any better.

Reminds me a bit about Alone in the Dark...

Play the demo, first, it's like 100% representative of everything the full game is and just as empty and hollow.

The full game is just as limited in itself as the demo. It feels like an extended Tech-demo, but never more than that. There is virtually no story, but a ton of bland and mundane logs, email and audio files depicting a boring life on a space station complete with petty feuds and unlimited stupidity.

The title makes no sense at all and it makes even less sense why Bethesda Softworkds axed the original Prey game just to release this extended Tech-demo in the same name, which is what it mostly feels like. It's clearly a game that doesn't know what it wants to be and failed to attract any real talent in both writiing, direction and voice acting. The technical side of the game has a bit of "Oomph" about it, before it turns into "Meh". It's like a lot features were just slabbed on without a second thought, without any polish and without really incorporating it into the story.

There is a lot of backtracking in the game, but there is no minimap and no fast-travel. I spend at least half of my total gametime getting from A to B through C, D, E, F and back to C and then G, etc, etc, etc... In search of Keycards and things I forgot.

The full game is every bit as tedious, linear, dull, clunky and boring as the demo and just as uninspired. There is like about an hour of gameplay in the end from the moment that "Dahl" appears, which is pretty decent, but totally not worth the price nor the effort to get there.

I wonder what game all those raving reviewers played, because that's the game I wanted to play...

It's not Wasteland 2 in any way. It's a "neat" and "pretty", streamlined, polished and dumbed down game marred by a poor story, uninspired writing and an interface that looks much "nicer" than it is to use. A game that is frequently playing it far too safe and that isn't what a Wasteland game should be at all. It feels more like an X-COM game that way.

Somehow the move from Wasteland 2 to Wasteland 3 feels as if an innovative and creative underground guerilla development team turned into an insecure corporate stud that lost all of it's edge, quirks and unique qualitites after they got shaved, washed, polished and dressed up for the corporate world of Microsoft.. That or it's a completely different team of developers wearing suits.

- In Wasteland 2 you could run around like a stripper.. You could even mess with the default clothes. Can't do that at all in WL3. It's all so tidy.
- In Wasteland 2 you had a ROGUE element which made your companions come alive... Doesn't exist in WL3 and it killed all the companions.
- In Wasteland 2 you had initiative rolls, that gave you extra turns... doesn't exists in WL3.
- In Wasteland 2 all guns were usefull... They all suck in WL3, especially assault rifles, with extremely short range and they have levels... Like it was designed for a massive grind... Which is really odd in such short game without a shared stash across your characters...
- In Wasteland 2 mods could be reused... In WL3 they are consumed and lost forever, which does not exactly promote modding...
- In Wasteland 2 even the game panels had a fallout feeling... It's all gone in WL3, which is just "neat" and "pretty".
- In Wasteland 2 there were frequently more than one solution... In WL3, any other solution than the one that works is a total bust.
- Pathfinding sucks. Use a molotov cocktail and watch all of your animal companions burn in the next turn as they completely defy animal nature and run into the fire. OMG, it's lame!!

And in return you get...

+ Extremely useful animal companion, that scale way above your level and get ten times as many hitpoints, resistance and damage, but takes forever to finish their moves and attacks, which only serve to highlighten the lack of a "SPEEDER" option on combat moves.

+ Tons of skill points, perks and uh... things that doesn't feel like it's makes a difference... And then you've got guns with levels.. And mods that you should probably keep until you get your end-game gun...

I am quite disappointed about this game and in the end it was really hard to finish it, because it just feels like too much of the same repetitive work for nothing and the end game made very litte point. There are a few surprises along the way, a few remnants of a glorious past, but it's too little and too far apart to stay afloat in an otherwise dull and repetitive experience.

Tried to replay it and failed several times. Progression is just too linear, too little variation and it's just too repetitive and boring. Dialogue doesn't do the work any justice. It doesn't feel like a CRPG at all and considering the theme there is very little point to support that notion. You've got a mission and a goal and you are Desert Rangers.. Going nuts feels totally out-of-character. There are lots of attributes, skills and perks, which are hampered by a very linear progression.

There isn't a single choice that leaves you with a sense of shame, regret or remorse. The only way that this game would is challenging at all is in regards to your limitations and that only works if you are completely new to gaming.

Pretty much every enemy is a total psycho clown and every cult is meh. It's not even funny.

Totally not worth €60. I got it for €30 and I still feel like I got cheated.

Years ago, I was playing solo and treating the game like a single-player which was great fun but after completion of each class I have completely lost interest. I installed it again on Steam and unlocked a ton of achievements when I linked my account.

Whether or not you like MMO, there are still 8 formidable stories to be had, one for each class, that combined with very detailed, interesting and chatty companions adds up to 8 amazing single-player games in the same general style as Knights of the Old Republic and KOTOR: Sith Lords, romances included, but unfortunately no three or four-somes ;(

Dark side recommended, especially agent and force user.

For some odd reason, Bioware is still very monogamous...

The intro is quite impressive and facial animations are spot on, but the gameplay is severely lacking, in fact everything that would have been interesting and challenging to do is done by cutscenes. The game is like playing a slightly interactive movie, mostly being a passive spectator to every bit of dialogue and every bit of action which is more complicated than point and shoot. Every now and then there is small window of opportunity where you get to do all the tedious things like burn a few cobwebs, running to a point, crawling through a tunnel or shooting a few people, that you are not really supposed to shoot...

It doesn't say anything about being an Action RPG and it most certainly isn't, there is no dialog at all, no choices, but it's tagged with both Adventure, Exploration and Open World and a lot of other things, but it's neither one of those. It's a story driven game filled with neverending cutscenes with no interaction. I stop somewhere and people start talking to me, but I have no part of it at all. I am just a mute spectator with a name. Kind of like Freeman in that other boring and forgettable game called Half-life 2. I wonder if "Artyom" is the russian name for "Freeman". Perhaps I am being too hard on HL2, because in that game you could actually click on people to make them follow, stay or something else, which you can't do at all in Exodus. It's a very strange gameplay with zero interaction. It's boring and inescapably so. There is also a moment of realization, that I am not actually part of the game at all: I am standing in front of Anna and she start moving forward, pushing me constantly forward backwards... Never a nice word like "GTFO Artyom!!" or "Stop pissing me off!!". It's all just "Blah-blah-blah-lame-lame-lame-blah-blah-blah-ultra-lame-zzzzzzzz-blah-blah-blah-zzzzzz-blah-The End".

Coming from a post-apocalyptic survival game scavenging for resources to this world feels extremely weird and confusing in the beginning. I've got a shotgun with two bullets, that I waste shooting shadows, that were just part of the background like an ominous omen of bad things to come. There are lots of closed suitcases and various containers that look untouched that I would like to check for loot, ammo or whatever, but they are all non-interactive as if they are just part of the decors or the wallpaper. Too much surface and too little substance and no variation and this is apparently all that it is in every way for instance this shotgun has no alternative attack or use of any kind and I don't even have a knife. Once I run out of ammo I am dead in the water and that's where I am. The lack of alternatives is killing me. 30 seconds in and I need to restart the game?! That's a really piss-poor design. Perhaps I should just play this for the story, but it sounds too boring.

Action is also a big word for a game where you are not supposed to kill anything or it's really completely a massive waste of time that will get you nowhere. From the intro: Suddenly I am at clearing of a kind and bear-like creatures appear out of nowhere and they just keep coming. I can only shoot and I still don't have a knife. I can't kick or bash or push them away. Just shoot and reloading is slow. I die once and the next time I find an elevated ground of sorts and I shoot them all in the head, but I guess they must be immune to headshots or I'm shooting blanks or something else is supposed to happen. They are not phantoms, because every hit hurts, but apparently I can't really kill them which is evident from the lack of corpses piling up. Every creature I kill just disappear. Hm?! Eventually I die and reload. Next time I am back I notice there is a stair up to a door. I run up the stairs and push E to open the door and what follows defies everything I've experienced so far. Suddenly I have a knife and I can fight without pushing any key at all and corpses start piling up on top of me and then it's obvious that it's a cutscene and a pretty long one, of Artyom being rescued and dragged back to safety and it goes on forever.

It's like one of those kind games, where you need to go pixel hunting for that one piece of the puzzle that is interactive. All the puzzle pieces looks completely identical, but there is only one that works. Once you are past the "intro", which is apparently the Moscov level the game becomes more "rich" in loot. The intro really doesn't sell the game nor prepare me for the outrageously long and non-interactive cutscenes that begin every chapter, each and every time you play or replay it.

It's definitly not the kind of game you play for hours without end. It's full of incredibly long and boring cutscenes with no other form of entertainment and there is not even any sexual content of any kind you can't even ask your wife to show some boob. It's so incredibly dull and uninspired. It would have been really nice in each and everyone of those cutscenes with an overlay showing a bit of Kung-Fu Panda, Penguins of Madagascar or the latest addition to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

There is no doubt that the game is a technical marvel in regards to facial animation, but that's all it is.

The gameplay is extremely simple and primitive, slow-paced action game with clunky controls. Artyom can't really jump, run, strafe or crouch in a way fitting of a fast-paced action game. You can't really dodge bullets by fast movement, strafe, jump or crouch, because Artyom is too slow. It's not that kind of game. It's also not really a combat game at all, because the AI is so piss-poor that the game have to resort to shooting through walls, roofs and floors with aimbots and wallhacks to be challenging at all. The only kind of tactic that really work well at all is to sneak around, turn off lightsources and distract or snipe the enemy. It's kind of like playing Thief, but clearly as a cheap and retarded ripoff without tactical shots, can't kill lights from a distance and can't shoot knockout bolts.

On replay of the TAIGAN level I got tired of the constant moonwalking and decided to turn the game into a total kickarse mayhem and managed to run around, from cover to cover and knock out all the forest people, which was a huge mess, because the controls to do that frequently failed to work at all, or the game crashed (a lot), like they frequently fail to work in all regards, when you move too fast for the hotspots to catch up and flash the interactive "E" and why the hell do I have to do that at all, because you can NOT select "fists" (knockout) or "knife" (backstab) as your main weapon. Something to do with piss-poor programming, clunky and unresponsive design and too many threads struggling to find the right frown of maniacal glee.

Something else is very unsettling. All the knocked out enemies look dead with blank empty staring eyes and after awhile their "corpses" simply vanish. The AI only got three modes: patrol, combat, surrender and thanks to ZERO interaction you can't negotiate in any way. It's easy to forget that it's just a simple story-driven epic fail of an action game with zero interaction, because of the graphics and facial animations. It's just completely unbelievable that all the development time was spend on superficialities and virtually no time at all was spent on actual gameplay, substance and interaction. Every cutscene where people talk to Artyom and get no response feels incredible retarded and it happens all the time. The level of retardism is immense.

Finished the game in 40 hours, killed everything hostile, one team member joined GUIL and I got the "good" ending. Tried out different things afterwards, but stopped doing it, because every chapter starts with a cutscene that last an eternity, every time!! Click Play to go AFK?! No freakin' thanks!!