Recent reviews by Todd "God" Howard

Main Game:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a game that took 2006 by storm, offering the player the possibility of exploring the beautiful but dangerous province of Cyrodiil, located right in the heart of Tamriel. The Imperial City located right in the middle of Cyrodiil serves as the seat of government for the Empire in the Third Era. The game begins with one of the best intros in gaming, followed by the player being locked in a cell, some unexpected events unfold (as it is always the case in the Bethesda games), and the player is released into the magical and colorful province of Cyrodiil. The story is great at first, it hooks you up right from the beginning and it is good enough to keep you engaged, but as in all Bethesda games, the main story isn't as important as all the other elements in the game.

First, the good things:
This is a true RPG, with a mid-blowing amount of RPG elements ranging from your character's birth sign, its class, its main and secondary abilities, and an AMAZING leveling system in which XP is non-existent and your level/abilities improve the more you use them (if you run and jump all the time your character will improve its Acrobatics skill, if you use maces it will increase your Blunt skill, etc.), and you also get a system ranking your character passive abilities such as intelligence, personality (fun persuading game), endurance, luck, speed, etc. The lock-picking system is unique and fun to learn, working just as in real life with springs and pins. Side-quests have their fair share of ups and downs, ranging from the classic recover mission in a cave to quests in which you get sucked inside a painting or in which you solve a murder mystery in the classic whodunit style. The faction quests are where this game shines at its best, while the Fighters Guild and Magues Guild are good, its the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild what set this game apart from the others, the DB quest line is simply perfect, same as the Thieves Guild. You have dozens of factions, and you can get promoted in each one of them depending on your work and help towards them. The Arena quest line is so good, you start as a nobody fighting basic enemies and you slowly work your way up towards the reigning champion, dozens of monsters and of course, the infamous Adoring Fan. You can even bet on the arena results and watch the fights as an viewer, a really fun and innovative mechanic at the time which still is fun to engage in today. One of the things that set this game apart is the fact that it somehow feels bigger that its successor, Skyrim, even though the world is way smaller, the pace at which the game develops make for a much more relaxed experience. It is a game that definitely feels dated, but makes up for it with its amazing world, fun quest lines, great factions and mind-blowing DLCs.

Now lets get to the bad bits about Oblivion:
Exploration is fun at first, Cyrodiil is a province filled with variety, and since it is located in the middle of all the other provinces, you get to explore small parts and biomes of the 8 other provinces once you travel far enough, to the borders of Cyrodiil. First of all, while the game has a huge variety of content, ranging from all the different plants, enemies and monsters to the various cities and towns along the way, due to the technology at the time, most dungeons, caves and castles become repetitive way to quickly. I wasn't able to complete 100% locations as I have done with Fallout 3, NV, 4 and Skyrim due to the repetitiveness of the locations, which offer almost the exact same layout and enemies, making exploration unrewarding once you played enough. Same thing can be said for the Oblivion doors into the Planes of Oblivion, they become old way to quickly and are only good for farming Sigil Stones. Combat is clunky and enemies become damage sponges once you reach high levels, making combat boring since all you will be doing is spamming left click and occasionally block (unless you run a Magicka build which I haven't done.), specially goblins and gloom wraiths, they were a headache due to their blocking abilities and damage resistance even with my maxed out character. Being a 18 year old game, graphics, animations, voice acting and character models are outdated, but mods should be able to fix those issues. As in any other game using the Creation Engine, quests have their fair share of bugs, from the silly ones to the game-breaking ones, just make sure to press F5 every time you remember, may save you hours and a lot of frustration.

DLCs:

Knights of the Nine:
An interesting story-focused DLC in which the Hero of Kvatch heads out to find the Crusader's Relics. These relics belonged to a series of knights who were slaughtered by Umaril, the DLC main enemy. You find the souls of this knights in an ancient tomb, and vow to avenge their deaths, uncover the mysteries and power-struggle between the knights that led to the relics being lost in the first place, and bring them back to their owners (or keep them). It features new locations, amazing puzzles, as well and some sweet loot and some new items to have fun with.

Shivering Isles:
The jewel of the crown, Shivering Isles is as perfect as you can get with a DLC. The Hero of Kvatch travels to the Shivering Isles, the plane of Oblivion belonging to the prince of madness, Sheogorath, one of the most emblematic, unpredictable and loved Daedra lords in the Elder Scrolls franchise. From there on is pure chaos, the Shivering Isles live up to their name as the Realm of Madness, with a strange world with strange quests, strange enemies, weird locations and unpredictable dialogue which make this DLC feel like a fever dream straight out of Alice in Wonderland. The story is worth every single minute, being completely unpredictable, ironic and iconic. Sheogorath is fun to talk with, since you never know what is the next thing he is going to say or do, since he doesn't even know himself. You can play this DLC in 2 ways depending on which door you enter at the beginning, the Mania questline is more like a fever dream, representing the crazy, wild and colorful side of craziness, while the Dementia questline is dark, twisted and paranoid, representing the darker side of craziness. It is a must-play DLC which has to be experienced in order to fully understand it and grasp the vibe. It is the best content Oblivion has to offer.

Overall:
Main Game: 9/10
Knights of the Nine: 8.75/10
Shivering Isles: 9.25/10

Final Rating: 9/10

Same thing as its predecessor "Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter Reborn", this game provides absolutely nothing new except for a few achievements. This game is so bad it doesn't even have half the content the mobile version has. Everything from the gameplay to the graphics feels outdated and does not work right. This is just an excuse by the developers to sell the same buggy game again 6 years later and charge $15 for a game that is not even worth $5. The first game was okay but this is a ripoff.
Got it for free by owning the first one but it is the same thing.

2/10

Interesting game, feels like a story-rich walking simulator set during the black plague in the 1300s. You play as Amicia de Rune, daughter of a noble family in France, after the English invade France and kill Amicia's mother and father she is forced to flee with her brother Hugo to escape the Englishman, while facing plague rats in every corner, Hugo's disease, the inquisition who seeks to weaponize the rats for their interests and meeting friends and foes along the way. While the story is interesting enough to keep playing, and the first 10 chapters (out of 16-17) are somewhat innovative and fun to play, the extreme tediousness in combat, progression, and slow storytelling make the game extremely boring at later stages. It took me almost a year to finish this game which is shorter than 15 hours due to its tedious final chapters, specifically the last 2 chapters which feel more like a chore than a game. The final fight and the ending were disappointing and unrewarding. Achievements were the only thing I liked and I 100% the game. Not everything is negative tho, and while the game lacks better gameplay, is slow and tedious towards the end, it makes up for it with its stunning graphics, great voice acting, and (during the first half of the game) a very unique story and great atmosphere. Overall I think this game offers an interesting experience although it felt way longer than it was and most definitely won't be playing its sequel. I think it is not worth its full price but it is worth it if you buy it on 50% off or more.

6/10

Main Game:
You are a courier with a simple task, deliver a package. Simple premise it seems, until a guy named Benny shoots you in the head and leaves you dying on a cold night in the Mojave Desert. You wake up at a doctor, barely survive and embark on a new mission: find the man who shot you. Of course, being a Fallout game, doing so is but the tip of the iceberg. Fallout: New Vegas is an amazing RPG. It improves upon the already great gameplay elements of Fallout 3, and completely overhauls its RPG system adding tons of new elements. It is the best Fallout in terms of role-playing value, the perks, S.P.E.C.I.A.L traits and character choices have a tangible impact on the Mojave, with characters, factions and choices opening or closing to the player depending on his karma and previous choices. You can join any faction you want and play through the main quest with them. Whether it is the radical violence and savagery of the Caesar's Legion, the brilliant and ambitious Mr. House in his quest to reconquest New Vegas, the New California Republic in their mission to re-establish America as it was once known, or do your own thing and go independent with Yes Man. The world of Fallout: New Vegas is filled with thousands of things to do, from visiting the hundreds of locations across the Mojave Desert, completing hundreds of secondary quests making friends and foes along the way, meeting hundreds of interesting characters each with their own ambitions and backstories, simply explore the Mojave any way you want to, explore the hidden vaults and uncover more Vault-Tec mysteries, or do whatever you want, anyway you want to. Although it is better than Fallout 3 in many ascpects including gameplay, RPG elements, characters and quests, it is still inferior when it comes to atmosphere, exploration and sound. New Vegas delivers one of the best gaming experiences of all time, and although it feels a bit dated due to graphics and gameplay, it overshadows these issues with its amazing storyline and world.
9.25/10

DLCs

Dead Money:
Linear story-focused DLC in which The Courier is captured and must visit the Sierra Madre Casino with 3 other prisoners in order to open the casino vault and find the hidden treasure inside it. This is a story about greed and ambition, with well written characters and a great new gun (holo rifle). It was a good DLC but the holo enemies and the linear gameplay make it a bit tedious (plus the final minutes with all the gold bars).
8/10

Honest Hearts:
This time The Courier goes to Zion, a new place filled with canyons and tribals. You must decide the fate of the tribes with one of the most iconic characters in the Fallout universe, Joshua Graham, also known as The Burned Man. A man who used to be a legioanre for Caesar before he was burned by him and presumed dead. The story was average but having anew map to explore as well as new items and amazing characters made it a good DLC.
8.5/10

Old World Blues
The best DLC. The Courier is abducted and has his brain removed by the Think Tank, a group of scientists who abandoned their bodies and are now living inside robotic computers. You must explore Big Mountain and uncover its secrets, along with uncovering the truth of the Think Tank and doing whatever you must to recover your brain.
9/10

Lonesome Road
The elephant in the room, a DLC that was hyped in every other DLC, since every major character in the other DLCs talk about Ulysses (the main antagonist in Lonesome Road). He ends up being a dumb egotistical brat, with no redeemable value with the only purpose of trying to give the courier a taste of his own medicine, blaming him for something he didn't even do. Average DLC, very dissapointing.
6/10


9.25/10

Sons Of The Forest is the direct sequel and improved version of The Forest original game. It includes more content, more enemies (both cannibals and mutants, with the addition of demons), bigger map with more things to do, more items, better graphics, improved interface, completely overhauled building menu, better animations, companion system (2 companions in which 1. Kelvin, works as a dog who follows you everywhere and obeys orders and 2, Virginia acts like a cat and helps you but has her own routine and behavior)., and a lot of other great improvements
Considering at the time of this review the game is still on Early Access and hasn't been 100% finished, it is amazing the amount of content this game has. The premise of this game is the same as its predecessor, only that this time you are looking for a special operations team and uncovering the mystery of the Puffton family instead of looking for Timmy, although you will see plenty of Timmy in this game as well
On the negative side, there a a few things that do require fixing. The game crashes every once in a while which can be frustrating, the AI somehow feels worse than in the previous game, cannibals are more abundant but all they do is raid the base every 15 minutes, and random encounters become more of an annoyance than a scary or special experience due to their frequency, the slug ammo for the shotgun is completely worthless, the attachments fit in the dumbest ways possible (take the flashlight for the shotgun as a clear example of this), corpses despawn as soon as they are out of your FOV if you kill more than 2 enemies, effigies have no use whatsoever, getting stuck in terrain can happen randomly, and finally Kelvin can get stuck too (had to play the entire game with Kelvin stuck on a lake, unable to move even when given specific commands). Overall Sons of The Forest improves in every way over its predecessor, and it is an amazing experience if you haven't played the first one, it is easier than the fist one in every single way (combat, vitals, construction, item availability and resource management) but it makes up for it with better atmosphere and more content. Bunkers are AMAZING to explore and markers make cave exploration more intuitive. Completely worth it. Considering the way this devs work on their games, I am 100% sure the final product will be even better with tons of fixes and new content to be added soon.

9.25/10

This game is one of a kind. You play as Senua, who was schizophrenia (which makes the player hear voices during the entire game, sounds like a quirk but in reality it is very realistic and a core gameplay element), and must travel to the depths of Hel to bring back the love of her life to the world of the living, and kill Hela in the process. The gameplay is meh, not great but not bad either, the atmosphere is stunning, the lore is amazing with a heavy influence of Nordic mythology, and the audio is unique due to the voices that you are constantly hearing. The story gets better as you progress the game and it is both engaging and deep. A truly special game which is a bit short but delivers a great experience. Worth every penny,

8.75/10

Main Game: Even though it is a bit dated, Outlast still provides a disturbing and scary experience while playing it. The asylum provides an excellent map to crawl through while trying to uncover the mysteries that are hiding in every corner. It has plenty of grotesque and gory scenes straight out of a nightmare. The camera adds a lot to the story, both in terms of gameplay (managing batteries) and in terms of lore. There are dozens of notes spread all across the asylum that help you unravel the mysteries of the Mount Massive Asylum. The doctor scene is still one of the best in horror games.

Whistleblower DLC: A great addition to the main game, you play as a Whistleblower who is trying to tell the world about the cruel and wicked experiments taking place inside the asylum. Of course, it doesn't go according to plan and you end up running away from all the lunatics living inside the asylum. It is a neat addition to the main game although it isnt anything extraordinary.

8/10

Amazing story-rich walking simulator. You play as Edith Finch, who goes back to her old family house to uncover the mysteries of the Finch family, a family in which each and every member has died in a mysterious way. The game's graphics are stunning, the gameplay innovative and the storytelling is done in a really creative and immersive way. A great narrative experience. Completely worth it.
8.75/10

Fun puzzle platformer with a mysterious and sad story. Has really unique visuals and nice audio,

6/10

A fun, interesting, free, and short game about the feeling of eating pineapple on pizza. About 10 minutes long if you want to 100% of the game's achievements. Very unique and fun little time-waster

6/10