Recent reviews by ArahorPlays

In 2015 this was the bullet in the chamber which would spark a tidal wave of many upcoming open world sandbox, survival, crafting games. The sheer popularity when it came out in early access was massive, and it only costed roughly 25€ at the point too which you got lot of gameplay for.

During it's early access time the game was delivered with gigabytes of updates weekly, sometimes multiplie times a week. It's fair to say that the developers had a lot of passion for their creation and wanted it to be as good as possible, which I think is always a good thing when it comes to games.


You start the game with making your own character, the customization options are not the best ones out there but there is just enough to get by I suppose. There are some extreme sliders which can make some rather, uhm... unique characters.

What really shines in this game is the way all the dinosaurs/creatures work, each dinosaur usually have their own purpose/role, like an Ankylosaurus who are good at mining metal and has higher yield then a pickaxe, while a Trike can farm berries better then picking them by hand. The point of many dinosaurs are that they are Quality of Life upgrades that can help you gather materials more and faster to advance up to stronger items or saddles for other dinosaurs.

The game does have a quite steep learning curve, you will be spending your time on websites that will calculate taming rates and on the wiki page A LOT to get an understanding on how to approach each dinosaur, without proper preperation you might end up dying and losing all your stuff in the process, or you might end up killing it instead of putting it to sleep. Planning and preperation is key and personally this stage is the most fun in ARK, when you sink hours into gathering resources for your first tame, and once you have all you need you start that nerv wracking journey, knowing that failure is not an option or you can be back on square one.

You can play this game in PvE mode and PvP mode, same as singleplayer and multiplayer, there are also different kind of material for your building needs, living in a thatch house wont do you any good if a T-Rex comes by, living in a metal house will provide enough defense against most threat out there but if you are in hot enviroment then you got to sort out your temperature or you will get hyperthermia since the metal house will be like an oven, there are structures and clothes and other things that can help against this. And of course, you can build your place somewhere inaccessible for dinosaurs to reach.


As far modding goes in ARK there are many mods that can spice your gameplay up and there are a bunch of QoL mods that helps/improve the overall gameplay experience. There are also total conversions that can flesh out the entire end-game experience if you want that too. While the vanilla experience is good (as long it has some higher rates, my personal preference is x3XP, x4H, x7T) I think having some mods can only make it better.


- Genesis - I could never really start liking Genesis, the thing I love with ARK is the exploration, gathering, building. With Genesis they added some kind of store you could buy resources from, I felt that it took away a lot of purpose of the game and the overall map design/creatures that came with the expansion did not appeal to me at all, it just felt like a train that had been derailed.

+/- Extinction - I can't really say if I like this expansion or not. Overall map design is okay, was kinda fun to play. It had some interesting engrams and some of the tames that were added with this expansion were quite nice, not all of them though. Although, It just did not feel like ARK "should be", it should be about dinosaurs and such, not some high-tech robots or so.

+ Aberration - Very mystic map, good map design and overall challening. The creatures that were added with this expansion were quite fun and some have it's purpose, you need some special dinosaurs to be able to take them with you down in the radiation area or they will take damage and eventually die. The engrams that came with this expansion were also not too bad.

+ Scorched Earth - My personal favorite of the official expansion maps. Beautiful map, need to take care of the heat or it will kill you, especially in a heat wave, you need to find sources of water, one of the things that were added in this expansion were water veins, where you can place down a water well to gather water, which is nice in a desert climate! Deathworms are roaming the outskirts of the map, making it a highly dangerous area to be in unless prepared, the dinosaurs that were added here are a nice addition, while the

Wyverns are the fantasy touch here they are also quite fun project to plan out since you need to avoid being killed by them and dive down in their nest with a flying mount and steal one of their eggs to be able to raise one on your own. Oh, and watch out for sand storms.

(Extra) ++ Ragnarok - While not being an official map, I cant leave this one unmentioned, It's one of the biggest maps out there and personally the best map out there, it has all the biomes pretty much including a desert for deathworms.


If you are interested in a survival open world sandbox game then this game might be for you, if you are a casual like myself and just want to carebear in PvE then that's totally fine. Or if you want to team up with a bunch of people in PvP to destroy other peoples bases and killing all their stuff then that's for you too. If you think dinosaurs are interested too then that's also a plus.

This game is extremely unforgiving, there is a ton of trial and error. You can lose everything in a matter of seconds, so patience is a good virtue to have. The overall challenge is fun however, especially ones you get the hang of it.

It can be feeling VERY overwhelming at the start since there are no tutorials that tells you what to do what so ever.

At it's core it was released with the Vortex campaign, a map featuring all the new races (High Elf, Dark Elf, Lizardmen, Skaven) and then Tomb Kings, Vampire Coast got added later including some other lords/factions.

Not long after launch they released the Mortal Empires campaign, which is the map from Warhammer 1 (Old World) put together to the Vortex map from Warhammer 2 (New World) so It became a huge massive map with all factions from Warhammer 1 and Warhammer 2 together as well, this give a longer gameplay experience in my opinion compared to the Vortex campaign, I wont say that this is essential to have fun in Warhammer 2 since the Vortex campaign can be a blast too.



Now while this game has a decent amount of DLCs I would not recommend all of them, this is all a personal opinion of their gameplay mechanics. For example, I personally don't find Tomb Kings worth it, but I would recommend The Warden & The Paunch since it brings a good faction mechanic to the table (specifically for the Broken Axe faction).

Even if you only own the base game you can still have a +250 turn playthrough without a doubt since all the base factions are trying to win the ritual for the vortex which takes quite some time. Each base faction works differently and feel kinda unique to play, that just might be me but I can feel quite a difference between playing as High Elves who can focus on a steady front line with a strong backline and Lizardmen who are more in the defence approach with a weaker backline (stronger artillery, the little they have) but they have access to some heavy monsters that make that up. Regardless their playstyles feel quite unique to them.



This is Warhammer 2's party piece.

Like Total War: Warhammer, Warhammer 2 has a great modding community with tons of variety, it's almost like entering a candy shop as a child, there are tons of flavours that can most likely satisfy everyone in one way or another.

Do you feel that some faction are too weak? No worries, you will probably find something in the workshop that will sort that out.

Do you feel bored with how some faction/unit looks? It's okay, everyone needs a polish from time to time, you will find that in the workshop.

Do you want to have a mod that completely overhauls your gaming experience, reworking most factions and their units and fleshing them out even further compared to vanilla? Workshop got it.

For me, this game has to be played with mods for it's best experience.



+ The Warden & The Paunch - Great faction mechanics and fun lords to play.

+ Imrik - Once he gets some levels he becomes a true beast, completely insane.

+ The Shadow & The Blade - Deathmaster is the only melee assassin legendary lord in the game iirc, which can be quite tricky since you cant really just charge into the enemy wall but if you utilize him "correctly" he can be extremely deadly and if you want to have your own secret spy network, well here you have it. Malus also brings some nice things to the table with his unique faction mechanic.

+ Repanse de Lyonesse - Quite strong, as bretonnian It's a lot about cavalry, she was not remarkable on the field in my opinion but she was not the worst too.

- The Hunter & The Beast - Neither of the lords and their mechanics are just good enough. One of the greatest weakness Warhammer and Warhammer 2 has is that the lords that are ranged damage dealers are just not on the same level as a melee or a mage lord, not even close. Markus is no expection, he just does not have that "wow" faction that some other lords have. While I enjoyed Nakai quite a bit he is also not really on par compared to Kroq-Gar, and being a horde faction, you kinda want that faction to be real strong, It's always situational in a strategy game, you can run full tier 5 unit setup and still get demolished if you meet your counter part.

+ Gor-Rok - Good lord, starts with Kroak which is more then amazing and makes his beginning like a breeze.

+ The Prophet & The Warlock - Ikit is no doubt one of the strongest (if not the strongest) skaven legendary lord out there, and one of the most fun to play in my opinion. It brought some weapon team units to the table that are quite amazing and his faction mechanics with his nuke bomb can wipe out multiplie armies (yes armies) if they are within the blast range.

+ Tiktaq'to - I call him the VR-Lizard, I like him because of that. Apart from that he is okay, can boost some flying units pretty hard.

- Curse of the Vampire Coast - While I like some lords that came with this DLC I just can't help it but they are one of the least factions that I play. They feel quite weak early on compared to other factions that are on the same tier as you. Their faction mechanic are quite special, it wants you to travel around and collecting pages pretty much, which can be hard to focus on if you end up being in war with multiplie factions.

- Lokir Fellheart - I have tried to grasp his playstyle but every time I play him i kinda wish that I were one of the other dark elf factions. He does not really bring much unique to the table, FLC though. +1

+ The Queen & The Crone - Both decent lords, Alarielle are a good support on the field and have a nice campaign mechanic while trying to unite the high elves. Crone Hellebron can be extremely deadly, I once saw her in a siege battle with Sworf of Khaine and she was dominating everything that clashed with her, she did not drop health fast and she was just cleaving through everything in her path, her Blood Voyage is a nice touch too.

- Alith Anar - It might be fun to assassinate some lords with his faction mechaninc, once or twice. Then when you find out some of your targets are like 20 turns away from you it kinda loses is value. He is also a range damage dealer lord (which i mentioned above what I think about that) and personally I don't think the voice fits his character, If I understand the lore he should be quite gloomy/dark and his current voice just does not appeal to me at least.

- Rise of the Tomb Kings - Probably my most disliked faction, some lords can be quite deadly when high level, but I'm no fan of their faction mechanic, I find it rather boring, also when I played them at release, they were heavily limited on how many units of each type you could have or so, which made them quite a pain to play. I played one long playthough with them and I kinda never looked back after that one.

- Tretch Craventail - Mediocre at best, nothing really special about him, just a Queek lite version rat. No unique faction mechanic, just being a rat up among dark elves.


Don't let the amount of DLCs put you off from buying this game. You don't really need them all UNLESS you want to play said faction/lord from one of the DLCs. If you pick it up on a sale, It will fetch you many hours for your money.

I've played this game since 2007 autumn (way before it was added to steam) I know that i clocked over 6-8k hours of it on xfire when i played it as most, that does not include the time i was also off-xfire and my steam hours.

But to be fair i probably got over 10k hours in this game. I've seen it from it's early release to it's current days.

Since i live in the EU i started playing this game when the EU part of it was run by Codemasters.

My first memories of the game are probably some of the strongest memories i got from any game out there, it had a enourmous depth in the game world, i remember running around in Ered Luin and questing (this was before they added quest trackers, so you actually had to READ the quests to get directions of where to go - this was a key thing for a immersive exploration that this game world deserverd.)

As you crossed borders in the game the music tune changed to something bit more dramatic or peaceful, i ran around for hours just exploring casually, stumbling across named mobs that dropped "rare" crafting materials. At some quest you had to group up to complete them, it took some waiting time but it was a lot of fun doing so - some even remained grouped and decided to quest together after these instance quests. An easy way to develop friends in the game at a early stage.

Once the first area was done you were to set off to Bree, the current main city of the humans back then (while Rivendell was for elves, Thorin's Hall for dwarves, The Shire for Hobbits) My first time i did this i had no clue about fast travelling, this was my first MMO after all. So i ran through the entire Shire and Western Bree-Fields, this is nearly the size of two maps and it did take some time doing so, but it was amazing!

I later tried out all classes and i got very attatced to being Captain, i raided and did high lvl instances with it. Carn Dûm being one of the best instances ever in my experience, it was massive and it took a decent amount of time to do it not to mention the loot you could get from it and the challenge it gave. (this was before GlobalLFF was born and way before world chat was born, so you had to use map chats to recruit people + no instance finder was there)

The raids was Rift and Helegrod, both were amazing, Rift being 12 man while Helegrod was 24. There was also open raid bosses out in the world that could drop thropies, a fun addon.

So, why dont i recommend this game after the experiences i've had with it?

Well it all started with Mines of Moria, Turbine added something called "hope gear" (later renamed to radiance) this was something crucial for Moria raiding, without it you would die nearly instantly since your morale would be -80% at worst or so. This could be considered "tiered gear progression", you need to achieve tier one to be able to raid in tier two (tier one being instances). But the major fault here was the "Legendary Weapons". This eliminated all other weapons in the game more or less, crafted weapons became completely useless, normal weapon drops? Useless that too. Classes that could dual wield had a purpose to get a normal weapon, but your main focus were placed on Legendary Weapons.

At a start, legendary weapons was a massive grind, massive RNG. You wanted it to be perfect, so you had to be lucky when you "identified" them to see your legecies on them (legecies being stat boosts like boosting certain damage on skills, crit damage, cooldown rate etc etc) and the maximum legacies was 4 when you identified them + 3 reforges after you would be on 7 legacies, then you had to be lucky that you would be given the right legacies. (back then there was no store to buy legacies off, if i remember correctly you could not farm other legendary weapons either and deconstruct them for their legacies to put on your main weapon, the legacies you were given were then ones you had to live with, if you did not like it then you had to start over on another weapon).

This entire system was extremely time consuming, and it became very crucial at certain points in raiding.

Turbine later decided to trash the radiance system in later Mirkwood i think or early Enedwaith. This was a GOOD move.
But the legendary system remained as a plague and even exists today, every update, 5 levels extra, our legendary weapon was uselss and you had to upgrade - endless gear treadmill at a maximum level.

But then it came, the major issue. And there are only three words for it.

Free to Play.

At this point, many of us lifetime players were very uncertain at this, microtransactions was a thing too since the store got added at the same point. This was added with Enedwaith or Ost Dunholt raid.

So what happend after this is how i could call it "the huge war between the casual players and the raiders" - raiding gear started to became non unique since everyone could get them easily, turbine eliminated the true challenge for raids and gorup content. Suddently you could not see the difference between a decent raider and a shire potato farmer.

They added skirmishes with Mirkwood, this became a massive disappointment, now it's a forgotten content, entirely.

In the end, the casuals won this war. We raiders got more or less not wanted anymore, our voices was not heard. And of course, if your major playerbase are casuals then you develop more things for them, add more pay to win items in the store to please them, you could be working 20-40 hours on your first age legendary weapon, grind those legacies, max it out, make it perfect. While the guy next to you could spend 40 euros and max it out from store within 10 minutes by buying the legacies he wanted and relics even.

Turbine started to revamp the old areas we had in Shadow of Angmar. Making it more easy for new players, ruining the immersive feeling in those areas and instances, eliminated exploration entierly and made questing linear, it became like following an invisible red line through the maps, more dead then alive.

They butchered the first instance, by splitting it up in three wings, it became faster to complete, but the feeling died with it too. They butchered one of the most glorious mid lvl instanced called Fornost, and that was my final straw. I personally dont find it funny to have one major boss in each instance due to they simplifying them. The old dungeons had many minor bosses you could run into (sure you could get lost many times but you will learn local direction as time goes by, now a hamster could do it)

They ruined pvp by adding "Audacity" a specific pvp stat, that killed many builds since we were forced to wear pvp gear (that was mediocre compared to our raiding gears). Turbine have never been able to balance pvp beteen the Free Peoples and the Servants of Angmar. (freeps and creeps)

Most balanced was during Shadow of Angmar, and even then it was not entierly perfect either. We was promised a new PvMP map in 2008 i think, we got it 2015 - and i don't think they worked on this for 7 years, if you have seen it with your own eyes you can see for yourself that 7 years work was not dedicated for this.

LoTRO's reputation has sunk entierly, most of us that loved this game is waiting for it's killing blow, the announcement of the servers being closed so it will die with some dignity and honor, but thats too late now since everything is gone.

Many new players, those who began after f2p might still love this game - they never got to experience it's true glory.

Now LoTRO is just a p2w exploited game. The developers have run out of ideas and just sprinting to reach mordor then end it. They copy paste old structures in new content (minas tirith got the wall textures that are around isengard, the white city, with a black obsidan wall protecting it - call it what you like, but thats not acceptable.

I highly advice you to stay away from this game, it's not worth your time, trust me.