Recent reviews by Jeminai

better than ashes in every way. very replayable, visually stunning, intuitive gameplay and systems. consistently challenging & entertaining.

how do i put this...
its a great game that will keep you going for ages. the learning curve can be a bit steep but you will figure it out way before even trying to make sense of the lore.
just know, "The Grind is Real"...

visually stunning, weapons, combat and movement are excellent and intuitive, also a true ninja experience (especially if u master Ash). you wont find better customisation of armour, weapons and all related colours in any other game.

raids & any real endgame arent a thing instead additional content to this game expands the universe but basically just ups the ante on weapon, gear, systems & mob difficulty.
now... most reviewers declare that its free to play with nothing but cosmetics in the store, this both true & misleading, if u want to use a weapon or frame u just grinded ur a** off for, you're either waiting 24hrs to 3 days or paying to instant craft on most items with ingame currency you can buy IRL or trade. yes you can play the trade market as an obsession but when u add up the amount of "plat" you're gonna need, the grind can be overwhelming & thats even before wanting those awesome skins for ur favourite frames. (or ofc sink real money into it to achieve epicness before dying of old age).

i was writing a positive review then realised i had more negatives to say.
i would suggest you buy this on sale cos it is worth playing BUT!

on 2 occasions u can come across game breaking bugs that prevent progress whats abysmal about these is that the developer clearly didn't give a damn about fixing them as they have been there for years. (basically u have to change you fps settings, load from a save if u have one & any number of other suggested tweaks to get mechanics to rotate/switch). at times you might feel you're doing less puzzle solving & more trying to figure out what the devs meant you to do with janky mechanics.
some traversal of obstacles is not intuitive, you can attempt and fail a jump only to do the same thing and succeed or ofc defy physics. i played without the visual clues but some jumps that appeared too far would magically work and others would get u killed by invisible barriers.

stealth combat is pointless as mobs will find any kills on the ground and basically know where you are, though you can give them the run around but then why bother when a shotty 1 shots them.

the progression system, skills & gear are mostly pointless. theres really no need for poison gas cloud arrows. stun shots, perception/time slow herbs cos again a shotty pwns them though the fancy kill animations are fun they arent necessary.

highly polished visually, very few visual bugs but they are there. pretty good story & the voice overs for all collectables is nice and not entirely boring.
imo this game is very close to an earned "AAA" label but falls short from evident neglect.

Archery: CHECK
Story: CHECK
Open World: CHECK
Difficult: CHECK
3rd Person: CHECK
Natural Splendour: CHECK
Scifi: CHECK
Post Apocalyptic: CHECK

pretty much my ideal game. excluding 1 aspect, i abhor timed trials.
Buy it.

Firstly...
i played this at launch on an 8yo gaming laptop with low settings & consistent frame lag and it was mostly bug free & still enjoyable. recently revisited and honestly found more visual bugs with a decent rig (most of which have been reported years ago still exist, like lagging on opening menus after a while) but the basics of this game havnt changed much. its a good story and engaging for the most part but my only 2 consistent gripes is limited content & lack of difficulty.

Its strengths are immersion, story & atmosphere which is why when those things are gone its like hitting a wall. i wanna keep playing but once the story is done it feels empty, Ideally you would grind to some kind of endgame then a new grind/story opens up with stuff to do... but not this game.
it makes you wonder why bother with a build i cant implement to any benefit moving forwards. so i guess you could say its good enough to want more but leaves you hanging.
visually stunning, combat/stealth is fun even though its way too easy on hardest settings.
its still worth the experience, buy on sale.

(ps. love riding bikes in this game but the fancier the car the worse they are to control).

Addictive, intuitive and polished. Vampire mechanics make sense and feel more well thought out than just standard game mechanics.
bit rough solo PvP, not totally easy on solo PvE.
dunno about group PvP but looks fun.
progression is satisfying and keeps you interested for a while.

though i would recommend this game to others i STILL have to say the most lasting & memory of the game is...
of the hours i have spent in this game, 30% of them could be attributed to falling asleep in front of the computer while trying to level logging. its a very long & mind numbing grind.

if you live outside of local servers this is pretty pointless even if PVE is all you wanted. the server issues have consistently cut short my play time each day & has now pushed me out for 4 days. im not saying high ping players are being blocked/pushed out but we are more likely to DC and then be put in a que (by que i literally mean "come back some other time", that never comes). so maybe aim for a low pop server (likely leaving your friends on another server) to get some use out of this game. at least until those servers get full and you're ousted again. this review is not a "review bomb" its an honest consumer take. very bad state of affairs for those having to deal with it.

Do NOT play this game, even for nostalgia. unless bugs that riddled the OG at launch are what you're nostalgic about. literal game breaking bugs that were noted 6 years ago still exist. i get there are no Devs but i still think its criminal that this now gumball machine of a game can exist on any platform when its basically just ingame purchasing systems with the carcass of an old game nailed to it. at least you get a gumball for your effort IRL.

id have enjoyed this more if not for the motion sickness that started at about 70% though the game. due to the headaches and nausea replayability is impossible.
visually great, story was a bit meh but progression systems were ok. missions got repetitive and i recall a race that felt unfinished and frustrating.