Recent reviews by Lakalaba

Let me start by saying, I am an 80's baby. TMNT was massive hit during elementary school, and I fell in love with the games. TMNT (1) was a beast for game play and unfairness. Then again, I played Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2, so those that have played it know. TMNT 2 was absolutely amazing. That was one of the games that shaped my youth, including Mega Man series, Mortal Kombat (including the cheat code for Sega to include blood), Sonic, of course Mario Brothers. I was/am completely hooked on video games, and these early games have shaped my experiences and expectations.

So, when my brothers suggested this game, I looked into it, and decided to give it a good "college try".
There will be some pros that are also cons, and I will explain.

Pros:
It is beautiful for the platform and engine.
The fighting styles are pretty unique for each turtle. Leo is my fave, Ralph is a very, very close second.
Plenty of power ups, which mix and match, causing you to become a walking war crime.
Seriously, power up synergy can be completely overwhelming for the baddies.
The voice acting is really good.
Multiplayer makes it a lot more fun (because the enemy won't fully agro on you alone)
Ninja stars are boss.
You get to play as your favorite Ninja Turtle.

Mixed
It gets repetitive with the enemies, there's only so many ways you can introduce the same enemies.
Power ups are hit or miss. Some runs, you absolutely go ape, some you completely fluff.
The scrap system needs some work. Sometimes you are swimming in scrap, sometimes you are starving for scrap.
Pacing can be either great or too slow depending on your power ups.
Mastery upgrades can be complete hit or miss.

Cons
At times, there can be so much going on, that you cannot spot either the enemies (especially the mid bosses) or yourself.
Some mid bosses hit considerably harder that actual bosses, making you drain your lives.
Some enemies and mid bosses attacks are cheap, no avoiding them, or you have to wait 5 seconds or more for the AOE to clear before you can actually attack them. Looking at you mutated toads, large rats, and fire spinning ninjas. Large rat poison is no joke, and they are tanky as all get out.
Power up RNG. It is a complete craps shot. There have been times where I got nothing but coins and dragon tokens for 6 levels when I have already maxed them both out. Absolutely garbage. This includes mastery.
Power up linear path. Sometimes you get nothing but Ooze, or Fire, or whatever, locking you into a garbage run.
Too much dialog at times, where it seems every single player/NPC has to add their two cents.

Overall, it is a great game, but the most frustrating part is the RNG with it comes to power ups and the vendor.
I have bought the DLC right before I decided to post this review.
If you love TMNT, I would recommend it. If you like a good rouge type game, would recommend. If you are hoping to come into this game and steamroll every single level while looking for an easy time, you might not enjoy it.
While nowhere near the same level as Dark Souls, you cannot just hack and slash and come out on top. A bit of strategy and skill is required.
Final note for improvement, and I know others might disagree, but I would like guaranteed power ups every level and a way to focus the power ups you want.

I have to say that I thoroughly love this game. Not just because of the game play, which I absolutely enjoy, but because the devs had enough foresight to not only make an amazing game, but to include and encourage mods.

Do you like strategy/building/upgrading/total imagination with birds eye view games, while totally deciding if you want world peace or create a massive army to take over the entire world? This may be for you.

Farming? Check. Crafting? Check. Base defense? Check. Exploring? Check. Raising animals for possible consumption? Check. Leveling your pawns? Check. Raiding neighboring towns/villages/bandits? Check. Cannibalism? Check. I could go on.

The ability to adjust the game to your playstyle is absolutely second to none. In my 35+ years of gaming, this Rimworld adjustment of difficulty is legit. And I mean truly adjust. Not that bland garbage where everything but absolute max difficulty is about the same. Where max difficulty is lazy coding, like certain FPS games when you shoot one bot, every other bot within 1 KM finds you and turns you into Swiss cheese.

The vanilla game is downright awesome. Amazing even. You want a relaxing paced game? You got it. You want it to be more challenging? Boom, settings. You want to play a game that stresses you out, thus having nightmares because you thought you were tough enough to defy the devs when they can play god and absolutely wreck everything you built and dared to dream about? Here you go. They tried to warn you.

Did they release new updates that break all your mods? No big deal. Go to the game’s properties and then betas and roll that Bisquick back. They allow you to roll back the version to allow you to enjoy the mods from a previous iteration!!!!! If that isn't love for the players, I don’t know what is! And honestly, I want to know what love is. I want you to show me. (lyrics)

The devs totally did. And I truly appreciate it. Thank you!

BTW, I bought this game after watching a friend play it for about an hour.

When the game came out and I was trying to simply log in (HOURS AT TIMES!!!) was bugged as all get out, I played on.
When there were bugs when I was trying to advance the campaign and got stuck (STILL A THING TODAY!!) with the only option to continue was to log out and log back in, I played on.
When i couldn't play with MY friends because of connections issues, even to the point where you were permanently down or invisible and couldn't play, I played on.
When there was a timer on expeditions that was requiring perfection (looking at you Boom Town), I played on (BTW, I could solo everything but the final one before this fiasco of a patch).
When you had to grind endlessly for that ONE SPECIFIC PIECE OF GEAR needed to complete your load out, hoping that you would get it (even when I noticed that you got more legendaries upon the first and second attempt of the day then dropped off after that!), I played on.
When playing with your friends, and they were the host, your procs wouldn't proc properly (NECROMANCER WITH BLIGHT ROUNDS) because of (gasp) bugs, I played on.

I have played this game before it launched because I pre-purchased it. Absolutely loved it. I was willing to forgive the bugs

Then the newest update launched (DLC)

AND YOU TOOK MY BONE SHRAPNEL II AND MADE IT ABSOLUTE GARBAGE!!! PROCS ON CRITS INSTEAD OF KILLS???!!! SERIOUSLY??!!

Now you have the audacity to require us to purchase the recent DCL (which is hot garbage according to the reviews) in order to actually survive the game at apoc level 14, maybe 13 (I stopped trying)? Forget it.

I enjoyed the game up until the most recent update. Over 300 hours, and honestly, I did give it a good chance. Too much change if you aren't willing to fork over the money for the DLC. What the hell is this, Destiny 2??!! (I have thousands of hours in that game and have stopped playing it about 18 months ago entirely because of the massive changes and FOMO)

Please give us our original perks and bonuses back. I get balancing and all that jazz, but to change the fundamental functions of classes, mods, and guns perks is absolutely ridiculous.

Why would you change this game so much to the point where OG and committed players are angry and walking away?

(Yes, this an angry rant. Yes, I loved this game. Yes, I want to continue enjoying it)

I have played a lot of the Need For Speed games, all the way back to Hot Pursuit 2 on Xbox.

16.2 hours.

That is how long it took me to beat the game. I literally quit playing the game the moment after I beat the final "boss" and watched the end credits. I even went out of my way to knock out some boards, find a bunch of cars, and break a lot of barriers. No real career progression, no real "climbing up the ranks." What they have programmed is a bunch of lazy coding and cheap shots. This is by far the worse one of the franchise. Games should evolve and get better with time. Oh boy was I thoroughly disappointed. I was expecting at least 30 hours of content and actual game play, not this hot mess.
These games should be about skill, not rubber banding computer controlled cars that can accelerate beyond the bounds of physics. WTH is this, Mario Kart? Absolutely absurd.
I picked it up because it was on sale, even bought some of the DLC. Totally regret it. Not worth the frustration and lack of actual content.