Recent reviews by Xes

A fantastic, rogue-lite, horde-slayer similar in the vein of Vampire Survivors, with it's own genre; "Survivor-like"

For those unfamiliar with the genre, the basic concept is to kill Mongolian hordes of monsters and demons, level up to get upgrades to your stats, weapons and abilities, and then survive as long as possible until you die or beat the final boss. Once your character dies, the run ends and get gold based on how much you picked up and your performance. Said gold can then be used to upgrade your stats for the next run and purchase items/potions you've acquired in the halls. Slowly, but steadily, you'll get stronger, unlock new classes and abilities, and make runs more chaotic and fun.

Now onto the review:

Absolute banger of a video game; has a great dark fantasy aesthetic with a simple yet pleasing set of visuals. Streamlined progression system based on acquiring items, potions and gold in your runs, which you can then use for future runs. Each class has it's own weapon and set of traits that let you personalize your play-style each time you enter the battlefield. Combat is very simple but also very satisfying when you take out 30 enemies in a single swing when you started out taking out one enemy in five hits. It's also incredibly intense the further you make it in the run, ESPECIALLY near the end.

A good variety of classes, play-styles and items is fantastic for an early access game; especially one that's released not so long ago. Beyond the content, the game feels rigid without many, if any technical issues. Haven't had any game breaking issues nor crashes so far in the 12 hours of play. The only complaint I've had is that the game can take a hit on performance once you dealing damage to 100's of enemies at once, but that only happens for me near the end.

Overall, fantastic game for a fantastic price that'll easily leave you hooked and satisfied. If you're at all a fan of Vampire Survivors, Diablo or PoE, I'm sure you'll fit right it. If not, this is a good entry to start your delve into the genre. I have good faith that they'll do right by this game and give us a grand experience once they've finished the game.

So, as a not too avid fan of this sort of game, I can genuinely say that I enjoyed this game. PoE being my only other experience like this.

STORY
Nothing too incredibly complex nor great, but it is still a good narrative, and combined with the humorous dialogue and lightheartedness of the characters, makes for an enjoyable time. Your companion Katarina is a joy to be around, often trading jabs and jokes with you during your adventure.

COMBAT
If you've played Diablo or PoE, this game won't be much of a surprise. You have two weapons, skills that enhance you strikes and abilities that correlate to that weapon, passive perks, auras, and tricks; as well as skills and abilities of your companions to aid you in battle. My go-to set up was focusing on guns with heavy AoE to tackle large groups of enemies, while I made Katarina be my suicide bomber that decimated everything when she would die.

Combat can feel a little clunky, but it becomes something you learn to embrace and becomes quite fun as you get the system down. I touched melee at the beginning of the game but felt too clunky for me to focus on, so I went the route of the gunslinger and found myself not dying as much LOL.

Now, I'm not sure if I was perhaps building wrong or perhaps it was just the difficulty (Hard) or even how the game is supposed to be played, but there were times I would have to run around the map being chased by massive groups of enemies, slowly whittling their health down because they would just do so much damage. Run, shoot, run, shoot. It was still enjoyable nonetheless, but felt kind of silly. Oh, and expect to die a lot. I think I spent more on revives than I did buying gear.

GRAPHICS/AUDIO
For a game almost reaching a whole decade old, the game honestly stood the test of time and still looks quite fantastic. The overall style and design of the game still looks great even to this day. Lighting and effects look quite good, and really come together with the world design to create a great tone and setting of the game. And the textures still look great on a 1440p monitor.

Great sound and effects as well. Music fits the games identity to the T, and gives the game a unique flavor that I love. However, you might find yourself tired of a few scene tracks after a while of hearing the same song in that zone for an hour.

OVERALL
Great game, no terrible game-breaking issues or bugs. The game is pretty challenging (at least on Hard), but it feels good when you finally defeat that mob of epic monsters who have continuously ravaged you for the last seven deaths. A goofy yet serious story and cast of characters that make the game a joy to play.

If you like Diablo or PoE and want to try something short and sweet; this a game definitely worth trying. Took me about 16 hours to complete, so the game isn't very grindy whatsoever either.

Originally played this game on the PS3 back when it was included with PS+. Can definitely say that I did not get very far, reaching as far as Canneroc before quitting because my mind was young and so was my patience. Years later, I've returned to complete the game after receiving the game through Humble Choice and deciding to give it another go.

From what I've heard, Kingdoms of Amalur was originally supposed to be an MMORPG before being mismanaged by 38 Studios, who eventually went bankrupt before they had a chance to fully realize the game. Being relegated to a singleplayer action RPG, the game still retains some elements of it's MMO nature. Despite this, the game functions and progresses very well despite some of the bland and/or grindy parts.

STORY
Being the first and only success from the Gnome's Well of Soul's project after being killed in battle against a supernatural foe, you are revived as the Fateless One. A being who can change the fate of yourself and others, as you are no longer bound to the reins of destiny. The Tuatha, a rogue and corrupted faction of the Fae is vying to eliminate and destroy all of mortal kind and bring upon an eternal winter upon the world. As the only one with this phenomenon, you are tasked with bringing down the deranged leader of the Tuatha and bring peace back to the kingdom.

I would have to say that the narrative is well crafted, fully voiced acted and flows quite well. Most main questlines have morality decisions that can shape the outcome of the rest of the game or the rest of the quest. There are also quite a plethora of faction quests, side quests and tasks (I.E collect this or that) to complete that give EXP and rewards to further advance your character. With the Re-Reckoning edition, enemy levels and EXP scale with your level (with a limit) which helps to let you play the game at your own pace without being underleveled or overleveled. Finishing major plotlines award you with "Twists of Fate" which give permanent bonuses for the rest of the run.

DLC - Have not touched the DLC expansions except for Teeth of Naros (which I didn't even know was a DLC)

COMBAT
The combat system is a lot of fun, is quite fluid and has some semblance of a combo system that I really enjoyed once I understood it. If I were to compare it to another game, I would have to say the original Darksiders is a fairly good comparison. My biggest gripe with the combat system is that the camera is quite terrible at times, especially if you're fighting an enemy up a hill.

You have the ability to equip two main hand weapons and four spells/abilities, most of which you can chain into each other. For example, I went for a longsword/longbow combo; in which I used the longsword to combo them into the air, used the longbow to juggle them a few times before finishing with an ability. As you level up, you can unlock new moves to further diversify your moves.

LEVELING
As you gain exp and in turn levels, you are able given two types of progression to upgrade. First, you have your talents such as blacksmithing, alchemy, mercantile, etc which help you create better armor or potions or give you better deals on buying and trading. I personally went with maxing mercantile first so I had a massive cache of money in case I needed armour or potions early game. The crafting systems themselves are pretty simple; gather materials throughout the world or shops, bring them to a crafting station and combine them to create your item. Collecting said materials can be a slight bit tedious though. Certain reagents for alchemy can be found either in a shop in limited quantities or found out in the world as you explore, and you will probably need a lot if you plan to avoid buying your potions/armor.

Secondly, you are given three points per level to progress your class. You have three skill trees to progress, Might, Finesse and Sorcery, and you are given free reign to level them however you wish. You are not bound to a single class and spending money allows you to completely respec your character if you find out that you want to try a different build mid-playthrough or change something up. As you gather points in the three different sections, you are then able to choose a class card that corresponds to what you are leveling up. Get enough points in might and you get a card that gives you bonuses to damage/resistances. Or if you cross-train into Might/Finesse, you can get a specialized card that gives best of both worlds.

Other than that, leveling and progression is quite similar to playing any other MMO or RPG. Kill/quest to level up, fighter tougher battles, get better gear until you face your final foe.

GRAPHICS/AUDIO
The game is quite beautiful if not a slight bit outdated, but it's to be expected of game that came out a decade ago. The scale of the world is massive, some areas have massive castles and monuments. Certainly gives you a sense of grand scale and I tend to love that about games nowadays. As said before the game is completely voice acted, with lodestones that give general lore or stories about the area that you're in. The voice acting can be a little... bland sometimes and not always matches the tone of the current event, but it's far better than some game's I've played.

The game's music is phenomenal in my honest opinion, almost on a theatrical scale. Very mystical and instrumental that immerses you into the world and sets the tone of each area you visit. I would check out the soundtrack on YouTube if you're curious.

OVERALL
I loved every minute of the game, and despite not playing the Fatesworn DLC, I've heard that it was well-receiving and a worthy piece of content to delve into. If you're a big fan of games like DMC or Darksiders as well as a person who likes singleplayer RPGs/MMO's. I definitely give this game a thumbs up.

The latest installment of the Mafia series that takes a few pages from the Mafia: Definitive Edition and expands the formula into a open world type game. A lot more reminiscent of the GTA and Saint's Row series but set in 1968. Cool vintage cars and gorgeous scenery makes traveling between missions and objectives enjoyable.

Once again, taking from Mafia: Definitive Edition, the game's story and atmosphere is wonderful, uncensored and truly immerses the player in the setting. The game truly not shy away from the bitter reality of the times; murder, death, imagery of nude women (The game literally has collectible playboy magazines/pictures with full nudity), and many racial slurs and insults. However, it does so in a way that feels appropriate and really sets the tone of the political and racial atmosphere of the late 1960's.

The open-world is gorgeous, quite expansive and a joy to drive around in. As you progress through the game, you slowly begin obtaining safe houses from the rackets that you take over, providing a place to escape enemies or replenish some supplies. However, the world doesn't contain much more to interact with outside of mission objectives. There is a set of twelve races that you can complete to unlock customizations, earn cash and if you finish first in each, you can unlock one of the best (if not the best) car in the game. Beyond that, there are a few sets of collectibles to grab. Those include, playboy magazines, nude paintings/pictures, album covers, hot rod magazines and repentance magazines; all of which can give you a small insight into the popular media of the times.

Now, a small gripe with the open-world nature and the gameplay loop is that the game can become somewhat repetitive. The main story is comprised of capturing rackets throughout the city which is done so by causing "damage." Once you've done enough damage, you hunt a certain person down, capture or kill him, then take over the racket. Each district will have two rackets which you must do before you can go after the man in charge of the district. There are ten districts in the game, so approximately twenty rackets in total to capture and the mission variety in each racket are pretty similar, with some having different objectives based on the racket. So yes, the gameplay loop can be a little repetitive but the mechanics of gunplay and stealth I believe are competent enough to outweigh that. However, each district boss mission will be different and will slowly progress the game's story and unlock new content.

Gunplay and gameplay mechanics are really solid, once again taking inspiration from Mafia: DE with the gunplay but also expands into the stealth genre with stealth takedowns, whistling to attract attention and enemies losing sight of you if you remain hidden long enough. Cover is your greatest friend and using patience to wait out the AI enemies will prevent many, many annoying deaths. As you progress, you will slowly start unlock associate benefits based on which underboss you assign to your districts. Some will give you more health, others will let you call in a squad to back you up or call in a car in your garage whenever you need one. Make sure to use them, cause I always forgot to use them and they can be really useful in tough situations.

The DLC that comes bundled with this edition is quite good. I did not do the Faster, Baby! one, but the Stones Unturned and Sign of the Times are great storylines to go through if you find yourself burnt out a little from the main story. The extra wepaons and vehicles you get from the other packs are quite useful early on, especially the silenced sniper and silentium, which I used throughout the entire game.

Finally, the game has it's fair share of bugs and glitches unfortunately. Some of them are quite funny, but others can be frustrating and will sometimes need to reload the last checkpoint to fix it, but overall quite solid game.

Overall, the game is definitely a step in the right direction for the Mafia series, If, or when they decide to create the next installment of this game; I hope they can make the main story a little less repetitive, even if it makes the game a little shorter. I loved the main story missions, but I got a bit burnt out sometimes playing through the rackets.

Another excellent game in the Mafia series, despite it not being as exquisitely remastered as the first game. The game has more of a focus on a open-world setting with clothing, gun and restaurant shops you can use to lose your wanted status, replenish ammo and health respectively. Driving feel relatively the same, but the cars are generally faster as the time period is further along.

Voice acting is superb, graphics are still quite good but not as good as the first Mafia Definitive and gave me some stutters here and there. Story is still really great, but less fleshed out character development and less memorable ones. About the same length as the first game as well.

Overall, I give the game a "definitive" recommendation and if you liked the first game, you will definitely love this one as well.

I've never originally played the original Mafia (nor the series in general) and recently got the game through Humble Choice. All I can say is that the game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masterpiece for story. The graphics are great and vastly improved over the original, voice acting and motion capture greatly improves the cinematics and story to the point that this could easily have been it's own standalone movie.

Story is a bit short (~10-12 hours), but it's definitely sweet and there is a free-roam option to explore the beautifully recreated town of New Heaven. Collectibles for achievements after you've finished the game. If you're an achievement hunter, i'm sure you can finish it in probably 20-30 hours.

Overall, a wonderful game and an even more impressive port.

If you loved any of the older city builders such as Sim City 2000 or Sim City 4, you will absolutely adore this game. Colossal Order did something that EA could not; recreate the joy of it's ancestors. With a well-designed base-game and amazing mod-support (including workshop) that allows you to add functionality, depth and visual design to your city at will. Hell, you can even design your own buildings and assets with the Asset Creator.

However, it is not without it's flaws. The main downside to playing this game is how... "empty" the base game is. Granted, for only $20, the game is more than worth it's price; but in order to have access to a lot of the more in-depth (IMO more fun) aspects of the game, you have to shell out a good bit to get access the main DLC. However, they are well worth it if you find yourself enjoying the vanilla experience. Which leads onto my next talking-point: Mods.

Mods are absolutely a godsend for this game. The unmodded experience has a lot of little peeves you'll find that can make the game feel restricted and/or rather annoying to play. Sometimes snapping curved roads to each other can be troublesome, or you accessing city info is a little tedious to do, or perhaps you don't want to have to manually destroy abandoned buildings. And they're all super easy to install since it all goes through the workshop. Subscribe to what you want, enable it in-game with the Content Manager and you're all set.

My all time recommended mods would be TM:PE (which you can better control traffic issues), Move It! (move things however you want), and Loading Screen Mod (which improves load times and helps find errors in mods). I recommend watching videos or reading some "Best Mod" articles to find out some very helpful mods to create a better experience for you.

Gameplay is a lot like many city builders so I won't elaborate too much. You start out in a empty city with nothing more than a connection to a highway. You'll start building the framework of your city with roads, securing a water source and creating electricity. Once that has been established, you'll zone for citizens, shops and industrial areas to bring people in. As you begin growing, you start unlocking new city services and expand upon existing services. The main goal is to make a city that people want to join and expand while keeping them happy while they're here.

Graphics is not the greatest by far, but you can find mods that can enhance color and lighting that can make the game look gorgeous despite the limitations of the engine, Assets can also go far into creating a stylized look for your city. Once again, I would recommend watching some videos to find some that'll cater to you.

Overall, if you loved any of the Sim City and/or City Building games, I would HIGHLY recommend this game as it is the epitome of city building games at the moment. Give it a try with the vanilla game (only $20) and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

A surprising gem that I had picked up God knows when, but had only just played through it.

If you're into rock, metal or want to try out the genre; this game will be perfect for you. It has plenty of good-ass songs that'll get you hooked.

Story is actually well-written for a comedic game like this.

Graphics are quite "bad" only because the game is close to a decade old, but supports modern resolutions (1440p/4k).\

Gameplay is a strange mixture of Open-World Hack n' Slash and RTS-styled battles which is a very interesting combo. It is well executed but the RTS elements might get a good bit repetitive near the end of the game.

It is a great game despite it's age, I loved it, and I'm pretty sure you will too! It's really cheap so you can't really go wrong.

Having never played any of the Bioshock games (but owned all three), I felt that it was a good time to play it since I recieved it for free since I had the games.

I can definitely say that it is a very challenging game, even on moderate difficulty. You will find yourself struggling against even the grunt AI if you find yourself unprepared/surprised. Ammo, Health and EVE (kind of like mana) are finite, so managing them adds another layer to that difficulty.

Story is great, lovely plot twist near the end, great ending(s) and a very well-fleshed out tone/mood. The game will make you think, as a lot of philosophical and economical elements are consistently thrown at you, nobody is really good or evil.

Combat is fairly basic, you slowly gather guns as you progress and each have their own use. You also gather a type of magic that can be very useful based on the situation. And you shoot. Not much to it.

The game is pretty much linear, no side-quests aside from a few secret rooms/areas that you can find.

Overall, the game is very fun, intriguing and engaging. Prepare yourself for a challenge.

[2016/1/1]

Let's get to the point. The game has a lot of promise and potential. I love the concept, the art and the design, but it has not reached that potential as of yet. The game has the city building (basics) pretty much down, but lacks most of the RPG/RTS features and deeper management aspects as of the moment. Beyond that, the game doesn't have very much to do once you get the buildings built and supply/production chains established, which is why the game is not at its peak.

I am still recommending it because I've noticed that the developers are very active, appreciative and humble, implementing user ideas/suggestions and being very open with their community. I also feel that the game has a lot of potential to be something great.