Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον Knight Mayfair

>Be Bethesda
>Starfield is a critical flop
>Decide to capitalize on that "good will" and shut down Skyrim Creation Club servers for a week.
>People get mad that they cannot access content that they paid for,
>Refuse to elaborate.
>Provide minimal updates during this time.
>Ban anyone from the Discord who suggests that the extended maintenance is to add in a mod marketplace.
>Regularly lock up the Skyrim part of the Discord server because people are mad their mods no longer work.
>Server Maintenance is done.
>It was actually being done to bring back the mod marketplace.
>Ram through an update to brick everyone's mods
>Wonder why people are upset.

The game on its surface is fun, charming, and engaging. With many unique environmental interactions and creative moves, you can fight with some flair and panache. There is a lot of humor in the game and quite a bit of lighthearted fun. However, even after a three-hour campaign, the mechanics can wear pretty thin. As others have said, the game tends to only increase difficulty by adding more enemies or having more and more waves in a room with rapidly dwindling resources.

The game, generally speaking, is not that difficult, but it can be incredibly frustrating seeing the mechanics interact. This is especially true with enemies whose stamina is instantly refilled if you mess up fighting them (e.g., you dodge when you should have parried, or they hit you). This is all good, but when you have 5 of those enemies fighting you, and you mess up an attack from one of them, all of them fully regenerate their stamina. While this really incentivizes the usage of the weakening mechanic, your opportunities to engage with it can run out in prolonged fights. These difficulties can be overcome with enough time and skill. Still, I think the final boss fight especially makes it really frustrating to engage with the core mechanics.

Still, these are just light frustrations on a fun and lighthearted game. If you want to feel like a swashbuckler who uses flair, panache, and the environment to outwit your foes, this is a fun three-hour journey for you. You will undoubtedly feel like a master duelist and a true swashbuckler as you swing off ropes to surprise foes and parry enemies for that perfect riposte. If that sounds like something you would be into, give it a shot. However, again, be warned, the main story is four chapters long and, at best, around three hours if you’re not that great at the game like I am.

The game is pretty good. Admittedly, it can be frustrating, especially with the game's number of bugs relative to just how long it has been in development. Performance can be a bit of a problem for many people. While D&D 5e is far from my favorite RPG system, it has been adapted very well to the video game format (though some of the changes they made baffle me a bit). Overall, it has been a great game with plenty of content. You will get your money's worth with this game, but dear god, do not go into the hellscape that is the discussion forum.

This game lives rent-free in my head. As a diehard fan of the first Dark Souls, when I first played Dark Souls 2, I hated it. The enemy spam, the janky AI, the agility system, convoluted mechanics, the enemy’s better tracking and wide-sweeping attacks, the lazy feeling boss design, odd hit detection, and weird movement were all flaws that were heavily criticized and fought over with this game’s release. However, in light of Fromsoft’s most recent release having most of these issues and being overlooked, I think this game has been unfairly treated over time.

The game set out to do things drastically different from Dark Souls 1 and, in many ways, created really cool and innovative systems that I wish had been ported over to Fromsoft games. The very dark areas with braziers you could light up were actually one of my favorite things about the game. I wish there were more areas where you could permanently change the world like that. By lighting the way or, in some places, using a Pharos stone to light up the area felt terrific. It was like you made real progress. Powerstancing was something that was super cool for the time and encouraged substantially more build variety and created a lot more build viability.

There were also quite a few exciting NPCs that traveled the world feeling far more like companions and old friends, though… NPC questlines were generally weak. However, there were indeed memorable and exciting characters that populated the world too. The story, though more convoluted, did very much sell the central theme of decay and a never-ending cycle that no one could escape. It was visually a very appealing game with definitely a lot of level variety but at the cost of borderline non-sensical world design.

I think Dark Souls 2 is a victim of the time. When it came out after the smash hit of Dark Souls 1, it was absolutely eviscerated by people for not only being different but also for the very valid criticisms listed above. Looking back at the game, I think I, too, was far too harsh on it when it came out and failed to see how unique this game was at times. I’m sorry, Dark Souls 2. Had I first played your game in 2022 rather than 2014, I am sure that I would have loved it much more than I did back then. However, in light of more recent games and their successes, Dark Souls II ended up being unfairly judged and discarded.

I know many will handwave away any criticisms of this game as salt or reply with “git gud,” but as a fan of Fromsoft games since Demon’s Souls, this game has felt like the most punitive and least satisfying of the games. While the setting is undoubtedly beautiful and there is a fascinating story and interesting characters, the design philosophy of this game is especially punishing. To put it mildly, this game feels as if the character has the moveset of Dark Souls 3 (with the additions of Counter guards and jumping attacks) while the enemies have the moveset of Bloodborne foes and the tracking of Sekiro enemies. Foes in this game are more punishing than ever with delayed attacks, enhanced tracking, and better AI. While this works, it feels like a bit too much in some instances. It feels like almost every enemy has some 2880-degree combo spin move, giant Area of Effect explosion, or some mix of both. In addition to these challenging attacks to deal with, enemy attacks are harder to read than ever, with many different combos having the same start-up or coming out incredibly fast. While this may be a product of the performance issues of the PC Port, some enemies feel as if they are fighting with a lag switch even if the game is not dropping frames or otherwise functioning normally. I have had numerous occasions where torrent your trusty steed will suddenly drop dead seemingly out of nowhere or instances where enemy health bars will strangely refill or moments where I will seemingly be ‘dead angled’ by attacks hitting me head-on.

These factors are compounded by the damage enemies can do. It is not uncommon to see some field bosses or more challenging opponents doing 900+ damage in an attack which is a death sentence for numerous characters, especially when these attacks are also fast swinging and usually accompanied by area of effect damage. Simultaneously the game feels very starved when it comes to runes. While numerous rune farming areas have been discovered, it is surprisingly disproportionate regarding difficulty and the number of runes enemies drop. Some of the easiest foes in the game that can easily be stunlocked and killed without difficulty will drop over 1000 runes. Meanwhile, literal giants that can, on occasion, pose a threat drop similar rates of runes. It feels bizarre and unrewarding to see genuinely challenging regular foes drop so few runes instead of the commonly farmed areas.

Speaking of being unrewarding, while this is probably a personal problem, I do not feel accomplished from defeating bosses in this game. I remember the hype of beating Ornstein and Smough, Gehrman, Pontiff Sulyvahn, and Isshin, the Sword Saint. When I power through and defeat a challenging boss in Elden Ring, I feel annoyed. Despite some of these bosses taking all of my skill and ability to beat a boss in Elden Ring, I do not feel the same excitement I did in previous games. I do not feel like I have accomplished something. It just feels frustrating. I am not entirely sure what causes this, but the game does not feel rewarding. Still, I will continue to play, and I will beat it. Perhaps once that is done, I will update my review and give a final score. However, this has been the least enjoyable of the Fromsoft games I have played for now. If you personally enjoy it, that is great and more power to you, but I have found the game unrewarding, annoying, and far more draining than any previous games. Rather than being left with a sense of accomplishment after clearing any milestone in the game, I remain left with a feeling of annoyance as if I have completed a tiresome chore rather than an epic boss battle.

Update: It is a shame I am not playing Salt and Sanctuary, for this review has been a lucrative salt mine.

Update 2: It appears this review has gotten quite a few responses! Welcome! As mentioned before, I will finish this game. Sunk cost fallacy or not, I paid for it, and I am far too deep to refund it now. As of the writing of this update, I am currently a level 90 pure strength build (I abandoned my original level 60 character after feeling like I had hit a wall with a two-handed quality build). At the moment, this character has hit a bit of a wall with Commander Niall. If this information helps with your headcannon about me, you are welcome!

Update 3/Final Thoughts: Now that I have become Elden Lord, I still stand by most of what I have said. While there are moments of the game I genuinely enjoy, bosses such as the Fire Giant and the Godskin Duo are pretty emblematic of this game's boss design and philosophy. Tedious, frustrating, and more of a chore than something that can give actual hype. While there are genuinely great bosses that can get one hyped up and good early open-world design that allows the player to roam around without being walled off, I think many of the bosses feel less like a test of skill and more like a war of attrition, a war that you can lose highly quickly. However, it is a war I ultimately won, a feat that, at the time of this being typed, .8% of players (on steam) have achieved. I abandoned my first character after over 20 hours of gameplay and managed to beat it at level 110 in a little over 34 hours after some experimenting. There are good elements of this game, the world is beautiful, the fashion souls are as great as ever, and the customization has been taken to the next level. At the same time, though, the boss design is, in my opinion, some of the worst it has ever been. Simultaneously, there are many reused bosses and enemies, even for a Fromsoft and/or open-world game. This has always been the case in Fromsoft games, but this goes beyond even the Dark Souls 2 Pursuer level of reuse. There is good here in the game and moments of hype and excitement. However, it feels especially punishing for certain builds and playstyles at the same time. You don't need to "git gud" to beat many of these bosses if you ask me. If you check in on any guide, the answer seems to be most of the time, you simply need to "git bleed" or perhaps "git spells."

Update 4 (seamless co-op mod): Since I first played this game until now, Elden Ring has had several significant patches and quite a few changes (real ones will know the pain of 1.0 Radahn). However, with the advent of mods, especially the seamless co-op mod, the game is substantially more fun. The co-op has been a saving grace of many Souls games, not necessarily because of how it can make things easier but also the fun community shenanigans that can occur. While I still think that, on its own, this is probably the weakest entry in From’s current line-up, the waves of patches that came in have made the game decisively better, and, furthermore, the seamless co-op mod has allowed something genuinely magical to come about. The game is substantially more fun and a lot more wondrous, in my opinion having a constant companion to play it with

FAQ/Q&A:
Did you try to adapt to Elden Ring mechanics?
Yes! I used consumables, the mimic tear ashes (which is borderline mandatory in some bosses), jumping attacks, Torrent, followed the advice of seemingly everyone on the planet and got a bleed weapon, and I even dipped into faith to take a helpful incantation. These items can certainly make certain bosses more manageable especially bleeding. Since we are getting to the point where bosses regularly have over 25,000 HP, max HP damage feels more and more mandatory to make the game feel more playable.

Will you continue to play the game?
I might. I am thinking about maybe playing a character that focuses more on incantations or sorceries. I also desire to help struggling players against bosses I have beaten and be a friendly summon that can hopefully make their game less frustrating. To be honest, this is the only real “grinding” that I enjoy.

No Maidens?
I rushed through the game (from a story standpoint, not an exploration standpoint), so I did sacrifice her to become Elden Lord.

Nat 1 rolling simulator.

Let me be clear. I love this game I really do but after trying to reinstall it I have an error about an invalid serial number. I contacted EA customer support about this and even though I can pull up the steam receipt with:

Purchase ID
Username
Date of Purchase
Price Paid
Name of game
etc.

I was told that's not enough and that if I wanted to get this resolved I would need to find an email confirmation steam would have sent NINE YEARS AGO. Given how I was a lot younger back then and using a much older now defunct email that email has been lost to time. I told them that and provided literally all of that other information but the support team told me to pound sand. Buy this game for a console or get it in some form of hard copy that can't get bricked by EA.

Update: Even after going to Steam and asking about this (which they very kindly went and gave me *my* CD Key for) EA Support then went on to claim that this Key had actually already been redeemed by some other account and that unless I could provide proof that I owned this secret account that that was not proof that I actually owned this game. This has been a seven hour saga of chaos that seems to defy all logic and reason. I don't understand how this can possibly make sense for anyone involved, I am seriously considering just deleting my Origin account and never purchasing anything related to EA Again. If they can brick this game for me who knows what else they'll disable?

It'll keep you occupied for a few hours.