Reseñas recientes de Lars

TLDR; Verdict first, 8/10 game, needs more fishing!

Updated from early impressions Steam Review:
Now that I've finished a normal playthrough, time for a bit more thoughts!

I really enjoyed my journey through it, the fighting, the levelling and gear systems, the story and side stories, environments and world building is all top notch for my own tastes.
Edit: I should mention performance as well, Stellar Blade looks and runs GREAT on my 3080 even in the sweltering summer heat. I was expecting to sacrifice some eyecandy for this game but the only setting that gave me trouble was 4K textures

The things that didn't quite hit home for me was some of the puzzles, the logic based ones where you have to think are all fine but the acrobatics based ones aren't always great, as EVE is frankly ♥♥♥♥ at precision movement when it comes to standing on small boxes/rails, I died a few times on basic standing on stuff/grabbing stuff that I felt shouldn't be too hard to do successfully. There's a couple areas in the main story bits that are heavily focused on parkour and I will be honest here, not my favourite gaming moments.

The music doesn't quite get top marks either and if I'm raising my nose at it, being an omnivore and enjoyer of almost all genres, those who are not will almost certainly have moments of not liking the music. Its a real shame since the main composer is the same as the Nier games OST's which are beautiful, but on Stellar Blade while there's absolutely a lot of music I like a lot, it is also all over the place genre-wise and in some cases quality-wise as well.

And finally the fishing minigames while very enjoyable, I felt could have used more 'meat'. The fishing and catching was fine but its all a bit short, would have liked more progression on it and things to fish for. (I think DLCs will help a bit on that front for my new game+ attempt)

Overall though, despite the stuff that didn't quite work for me, damn good game if I may say so!

This game feels like Defender's Quest 0.5, not Defender's Quest 2.

If you're familiar with the first game, much of the DNA of it is still here, the core gameplay remains the same and while I think the story in the first game was both gripping while also having its lighter moments,this time around the story and characters just doesn't grab me like it did in the first game. That's fine, maybe its just a matter of personal taste.

However moving into the gameplay itself, it's pretty much the first game again with new pixels, most of the defender abilities are the same even. There are some new defender abilities and mechanics, but it is underwhelming considering this game was 10 years or so in development.

The final nail in the coffin for me was finding out how limited the optional challenges are and lack of side missions, which were a big part of the first game for those who really enjoyed it.

If you're not familiar with the first game, Defender's Quest 2 is good, really. You'll have fun with it. I just have a really hard time recommending it instead of getting the first game, as it just has more of just about everything.

I'm sad to have to not recommend this game as I'm aware of mr Doucet's hardships in the last years, and the hell the development of this game has gone through, we should really be happy it came out, at all. But as a sequel to a very beloved title, it falls short, I am sorry to say.

In initial EA this was in my eyes a promising but so far lacking entry in the Survivorslike genre.

<Fast forward one year, or so>

This is really fun! Since I last dipped my feet in proper on this game, there are now many more classes with surprising and distinct playstyles and limitations that don't even look like they should work in this genre of game (Hello Gunslinger) but it somehow does.

There is also a lot more meta progression now which is tied into beating Challenges, which also look like they have no business actually working in a Survivors like, but it somehow does. I'm nowhere through the list of challenges to unlock upgrades yet, but I can't forget challenges such as -100% movement speed (literally tower defense), only 'Tainted' upgrades (On paper, terrible upgrades) on levelups, or having to beat a survival stage with just 1 HP. I've had a surprisingly good time working out how to beat these challenges.

While I'm not 'Endgame' yet, I also want to mention that so far from the varities of builds of tried such as melee, auras, multihit projectiles or summons, they all get the job done (assuming a little luck with your upgrades of course).

I could gush on with more stuff I think this game does well, but I think it will suffice to say Rogue: Genesia is already a high quality entry into its genre.

I think think the only thing I can personally say I'm not a fan of is how long it takes to beat a run when you start doing the higher world tiers. 1 hour plus to get through a run feels too long even if it is broken up into smaller stages and opportunities to save and resume at your leisure.

Oh, and as an edit I need to mention that the Steam Store page for this game is terribly outdated, if anyone from the devs are checking in, I strongly suggest updating the videos, screenshots and Store page descriptions, and for the readers, there's quite a bit more going on than the Store page lets on.

A very well put together survivorslike with town elements from Stardew Valley set in a world of freak alien creatures known as Vtubers who fight and murder hordes of fans.. to save them! For FREEDOM!

So I first heard of this game on a Discord I frequent because of a mobile Gacha game I play, it sounded like it was a fun fan made survivorslike, and it was getting a release on Steam, and it was going to be free. I mulled it over for a bit but eventually on a dull Sunday I decided I'd give this a look myself, being a fairly dedicated survivorslike enjoyer, myself.

So here's my thoughts after a few runs:

TLDR: It's a little weeb. And its very good. Also, this is free, and there is a lot of game here

Pros:
- For a Holo-something fan game, the survivorslike gameplay is very solid!
- Abilities as well explained and work as you'd expect, the same goes for upgrades. Its clear and understandable, and you would perhaps think this is a given,but in the land of survivorslikes it is not. Take notes please, Halls of Torment.
- Each character I've played so far have very distinct playstyles, and they come with personal skill upgrades to tailor their style aside from the standard weapon and item choices.
- Deeper weapon evolve system than the survivorslike usual, with some weapons having multiple different but exclusive evolves that are completely different.
- 2D art and sound is phenomenal, for a fan project. I really dig the sprites and animations.
- Side game which I've just barely dipped into. It looks like Stardew Valley a bit, but I might be wrong. Even if I'm wrong I can still fish there, and steal fish from the other Vtubers, which makes this a 2023 GOTY contender.
- Its free ? Actually free though, not F2P. If there's a way to give my VISA details here I haven't found it yet. And this is not a demo, its a game.

Cons:
- It is a little weeb

Thoughts about Halls of Torment after playing Early Access for about 25h:

I've enjoyed this survivorslike a lot so far. It follows the 'standards' of the genre fairly faithfully, if you've played any other survivorslike you'll be instantly familiar here, but there's a few things here that make this game stand out from the rest.

First is the 'feel' of the game, it's retro, but its very authentic about it as well. The visual and audio style really brings me back to loved classics like Diablo and Baldur's Gate.

Second, the game feels tight. There's so far around 7 different classes you can play, and their all have distinct play styles, and at least for the content currently in the game, they're all equally viable. You can just pick which you like the most and have reasonable success with it, whether its a melee warrior, archer, cleric or spellcaster.

That said, after the hours I've put in I'm pretty much finished with what the game currently has. I didn't buy all the upgrades yet and there's still a few achievements I can hunt, but the game only has three maps and no difficulty or challenge settings, so at this point every run is pretty much the same. This game has a great foundation but for its 1.0 release I think it needs a little more flesh in the form of more maps and challenges for the more dedicated player.

I'm hopeful for more and eager to see how this game develops in the future, but if you're eager for a new Survivors like game and don't mind the gamble of Early Access, you can do far worse than this. I certainly feel like I've got my $5 worth already from this game.

I was a bit worried at first during the earlier builds of the game but the devs have really come through with a lot of content, making Army of Ruin in my book one of the top dogs of 'Survivors-likes'. Its a VERY competent entry into the genre and there is a lot to sink your teeth into here.

If you came here looking for options to your favourite Survivors game, I feel safe recommending this one.

This is really good

For old people: Its like Asteroids, but really, really good.
For middle-aged people: Its like Binding of Isaac, except its really good, and you also most of the time get a build going that works
For yung people: No battlepass, season pass, DLC in general or even participation prizes. Sorry!

Got a new pc a few weeks ago. i9-11900KF, RTX 3080, 32gb ram. What am I using it for? This game. Haven't even fired up Cyberpunk 2077 yet. Since finding this game a few days ago, this is what I choose to do.

Make of that what you will.

Addictive carcollectathon, beautiful visuals, cars handle superbly, and it is great fun racing with your friends.

...If you can get past the slew of annoying bugs and technical issues the game currently has. Daily challenges that just do not work. Performance degradation (game starts at 90 fps for me, after 2 hours of playtime its down to 30 fps). Online open world lobbies seem to be limited to 10-12 players, where in Horizon 4 you saw up to 70 at once per session, which leads into the next point, Horizon Arcade events which are required for seasonal challenges being IMPOSSIBLE to finish, since they need quite a few players to reach the goals. But 99 times out of 100, you're doing it alone.

I'm willing to have a little faith in the developers being able to fix these issues since Horizon 4 too was troubled at launch, but today it runs flawlessly. And despite the problems listed above, at its core, Horizon 5 is an incredibly fun playground for all things racing!