Recent reviews by Zenel

A very well written experience. Has relatively little gameplay to it (mostly running around between dialogues), but the focus on the story and characters does pay off. Being leaner on mechanics makes sense. Discusses mature topics, with care and finesse those require. It's hard to say more without spoiling the plot, so I'll stop here. For my taste - well worth the time and money. Not all experiences should be valued based on crude duration/price ratio, and this is one of those cases.

A sequel to Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights, which I personally consider one of the finest Metroidvanias to come out. For the most part feels and plays like an even more polished version of the first game. Virtually no technical issues, smooth gameplay, largely fair enemies and bosses. Hilariously, mice pose a legitimate threat that doesn't quite feel intended, due to very short cooldown on attacks. But developers already rolling out patches fixing few issues game has.

Much like first game, mopping up map to 100% and getting the other (true) ending is relatively straightforward and well telegraphed to the player. An argument can be made for deep and obtuse Metroidvanias, but I for one prefer games that don't push the players to look up guides. Map is very informative on which rooms still have things to find in them. Traversal option upgrades are meted out in a balanced fashion, steadily throughout the game. With, perhaps, a bit of a slow start early on. Combat is baby skin smooth, with customizable difficulty you can change at any rest point and enemies well designed to properly display the incoming attack. Towards the later parts of the game bosses and enemies do get a fair bit more brutal with the speed of attacks though, but that's something a player can customize to their liking.

Visually and sound-wise the game is quite a superb 2D example, much like the first game. Good design, good style, gorgeous visuals without requiring an arm and a leg for hardware to run. Music is marvelous, sound queues are crisp and provide valuable feedback.

If there is a point to criticize... sadly, that would be the story. Don't get me wrong, I feel the story is well written and well presented. With just the right mix of direct story telling and indirect journals and pages to find. But I feel that compared to the first game, second one leaves somewhat wanting for more depth. Bosses especially felt less engrossing in their backgrounds, while in the first game many locations and their bosses felt like a chance to experience a short dark fairy tale. Certain plot poits are retreads of the original ideas from the first game. Which does seem intentional and warranted, but also takes away some of the impact that could be experienced the first time.
On a flipside - the story relevance to the first game is both there but also not big enough that one has to play/remember the first game to properly experience second one. Just the right amount of a nod and "Hey, I think I know where this is going" for veterans without compromising new player experience.

On the other hand, Ender Magnolia is a noticeably longer game, standing at around 20 hours of playtime to 100% with reasonable effort. Compared to about 15 hours give or take for Ender Lilies. The bigger scope doesn't feel like a bloat or unwarranted, at no point it feels necessary to grind enemies to be able to afford items you want. A definite step up without sacrifice in quality of content.

All in all - a strong recommendation from me if someone is looking to play an exceptionally well made and well paced Metroidvania. The obvious asterisk being - buying both this and Ender Lilies game. Because why not get two of the great games and support a developer with such high standards for releases.

A solid if a bit safe addition from Owlcat Games in cRPG genre. Overall it feels smaller scale and noticeably shorter experience than Pathfinder 2 from the same studio. Though it's still solid 60-100 hours of content without any additional content for a single playthrough.

Story and general writing is pretty good, though some story bits feel a tad rushed. The worldbuilding and characters might look awkward to newcomers to WH40k, but I do believe otherwise capture the general feel of the apocalyptic universe well. Say, what majority would consider "morally good" choices would indeed often be viewed as heretical deviations in the Imperium of Man. Companions are pretty well written, though I feel Pathfinder 2 had overall more quirky cast. There is no full VA, but what is present is also fairly good performance.

I think the combat and general balance is the highlight of this particular game. While by no means perfect, I consider this a noticeable step up from extreme rollercoaster of difficulty Pathfinder 1 and 2 presented to less experienced in the systems players (like me). The classes are sufficiently varied and leveling system, while somewhat unique of an experience if you come with D&D/d20 expectations, is pretty well suited for such games. Battles can be quite tight and fun experience, as long as the player doesn't abuse more disproportionate advantages (which are getting patched to be more in-line) and picks matching difficulty.

The new management system (a consistent at this point addition in Owlcat games) sees you upgrading planets for various benefits. Not a very complex system, arguably simplest to manage among the three games made thus far. On the other hand, it also doesn't take a lot of time to interact with, so I would argue it doesn't overstay its welcome. The space ship combat is made in a turn-based fashion, with player controlling a single ship (sometimes with AI controlled allies) versus generally several enemies. Again, a somewhat simplistic execution, but space battles aren't too overused either. The meat of the game is ground combat and dialogues with story, which are the strong points.

Graphics and music are competent if not mind blowing. For the budget (which is clearly lower than BG3) they're very much adequate, with rather beautiful artwork being used here and there.

Performance and bugs-wise - again, I think there is a substantial improvement over Pathfinder 2. There were some bugs on release, but the experience was much more playable than before. Especially at this point the game is pretty solid experience with little technical issues.

Overall I would recommend this game for any WH40k fan wholeheartedly. As far as cRPG fans go, I probably have to put this asterisk - I think Pathfinder 2 is overall bigger and better experience story-wise. But Rogue Trader is a very solid cRPG addition on its own and I would easily recommend it to anyone who already experienced Baldur's Gate 3 and Pathfinder 2.

A fairly unique addition to the resurgance of "boomer games" so to speak. Plays like a weird mix of Thief and old-school shooter. Weapons are fairly impactful and enemy design is pretty great. But unlike Doom-like FPS, in this case player operates in moderately sized open locations. Stealth and picking off enemy groups piecemeal is heavily encouraged. It is done through several deliberate design choices, such as fairly high level of threat from enemies (at least early on) and decent delays on most actions player would normally perform in combat. Healing, reloading and even shooting requires some methodical and careful decision making if done while attacked by a group of enemies. Which isn't to say more direct combat is impossible, especially down the line. But it bears appropriately raised chance of dying.

Now, despite there being punishment mechanics for death and additional scavenging (for gear, items, ammo etc) aspect, the difficulty felt rather mild. Resources quickly become rather abundant if care and stealth are properly utilized. Death, while potentially leading to debilitating debuffs and enemy respawn, isn't such a huge issue either. Not all enemies will necessarily respawn on every death. Even then it could be viewed as additional experience and/or loot to be gathered instead. And on-death penalties only present inconvenience early on, with several mechanics dedicated to either removing them or avoiding them outright. Perhaps some of the constraints could be made more severe (as an optional harder difficulty) in case developers decide to make a sequel.

All in all, I think most of the game holds up pretty well and on a good level. From visuals, to sound work, to enemy and weapon design, to story and voice work. That said, there are some elements that struck me as underperforming. For one, sleeping in bed for restoration (potentially respawning more enemies) didn't feel particularly useful in many scenarios. Rather quickly I gathered decent number of healing items, on top of various regeneration trinkets you start getting pretty early on. Some tweaks could be made to make sleeping a more prominent combination of upsides and downsides.
It also feels like it's way too easy to disengage from undesireable combat, severely lowering the stakes when player makes a mistake. Most enemies can't keep up with your running speed and even those that can will struggle to pursue player through more obvious obstacles, such as sudden elevation shifts (player jumping off or onto something).
Another critique I would level is that Chapter 3 felt somewhat bland in terms of storytelling, compared to Chapter 1 and 2, that had more engrossing side stories you could find through notes and exploration.

I think this is a careful recommendation, based on the fact that gameplay is rather unique, so it won't satisfy every player. If one wants a slower paced, more methodical FPS experience with a great deal of exploration - this is a rather great game.

A somewhat cautious recommendation in case someone is looking for a bit more classic dungeon crawler jRPG, with a few fun twists on the mechanics.

This game does a lot of things quite well in terms of player experience. There isn't a whole ton of cutscenes or VA work, but the story is written quite competently and stays fairly interesting throughout. Which not that many games manage to accomplish. You don't really get well written companions, beyond a few NPCs you regularly interact with. Aside from your main character, the rest of the party is entirely created from scratch by you. That might be a bummer for people who expect dialogues with companions, related quests etc. On the other hand - party composition is entirely up to you.

And not just that, to clumsily transition to gameplay. Game allows pretty insane respecing options. At any point in the game, you're free to redistribute stats or change class entirely (in the camp) or redistribute skill points (even in the dungeon). Classes don't quite possess huge lists of skills to choose from. And, in my experience, each specialization has pretty much one best way to play and invest into (each class gets a choice of two specs, one further enhancing original class, the other adding utility from the other class, both had something to offer) - that's still commendable option to allow players unfettered experimentation and even skill adjustment on the fly. The combat is a pretty classic turn-based ordeal, though with a fun twist mechanic of rotating through pretty substantial buffs regularly which does become more relevant on some bosses.
The dungeon exploration isn't as obtuse as some other games - secret doors are there, but you get a clear indication of their presence when bumping into the wall. As well as, usually, a hint of the secret room presence (for example, you can see it through the fence). The gimmick added is placing various "flowers" during exploration, which effectively add ways to progress forward (a door where the wall contains secret passage, a ladder to reach upper or lower level, etc) or certain convenience tools (a flower that disables trap damage and can be used for a heal, a monster spawn for easier grind in one place). Those traversal additions are in predesignated spots, so there isn't quite the "alter dungeon to your liking" aspect, but it is utilized well enough in the map design that it is a fairly good experience.

Music and sound work are pretty competent, though wouldn't call it amazing. Still good work, music does stand out between two. Artstyle is somewhat interesting and decently memorable. If there were negatives, I suppose I could name two. Two mechanics that are perhaps a bit overused make for an annoyance. Kidnapping removes party member for several turns/until consumable is used. You pretty much don entire party in anti-kidnapping gear as soon as it starts dropping to combat that, so it's an early game inconvenience. And then there is a worse form - instant kill attacks. Sadly, developers might've went a bit too ham on some normal encounter enemies sometimes having those. Just like it sounds - those are attacks that have a chance to kill character regardless of their health. And you can't quite revive party members in the dungeon, you have to go back to camp (or have fairly rare and pricy consumable on hand). Problem is that unlike kidnapping - there is no definitive solution to this problem. There is a class specialization that is immune to instant kills, most aren't. There is a Duracharge power buff that gives immunity to whole team, but you can only use it once every two turns at most due to mechanics. And then there are various passives, equipment and buffs that raise your odds of resisting the debuffs, including instant kill. But those are just that - lowered odds. Aside from the annoyance this poses however, combat felt fairly well balanced, perhaps on the easier side once you start hitting late game and get the chance to outfarm content. But most of the game felt fairly well paced in challenge. Word of advice - don't skimp on Constitution on party members. Bring it up to 15-18 at the earliest time possible and keep bumping it as you're progressing to around 25-28 towards the end of the game. Regardless of classes. A fair bit of deaths can happen due to RNG focusing + tank failing to block, which means you need buffer HP on everyone to survive one turn at least.

Another weird problem I had worth mentioning - gamepad while recognized in the game didn't work quite well until I manually loaded proper layout and restarted the game. So if you think your buttons don't work or stick is drifting hard - try that.

Is this game worth the full asking price? Hard question, competition at that price point is tough to beat. I picked it up at sale and I think it was worth that money at least. I did have fun and I would be looking forward to new games in that vein from the developer. Just... on the odd chance developer reads this - please don't make instant kill a random mob mechanic. It's generally not fun to deal with. It didn't really make game harder, just forced more returns to base while clearing certain maps.

After finishing both the base game and the recently released DLC - a rather striking level of quality and competence on display. The game is in the vein of older 2D scroller action-adventure Metroidvanias with leveling and myriads of items, though the world itself is a bit more compartmentalized than your typical later Castlevanias.

What was surprising for me was the story and writing. It's very solid, far beyond my expectations. I don't necessarily expect bad writing in such games, but this level was rather striking. The story is enticing and the invariable "let's revisit old locations" comes with great story gravitas to make it more engaging. Now, I would like to say that the story isn't that special or impressive. But frankly speaking, I mostly have superficial complaints about its writing. And what we got here was very much engaging, even when I was coming out of playing games like Baldur's Gate 3 or Pathfinder 2. The only complaint I have is a rather personal one - there are weird moments of horniness. It doesn't really ruin the story, but sometimes writing just gets... spicy.

Another surprising point was aforementioned level of competence and quality in gameplay design. So often I find myself thinking "Man, if only developers added X to the UI" or "Why does this game have no respec option" or "Why do I have to use 3rd party sites to learn things". Thinking while playing games from major companies with hundreds of people toiling in the trenches to make it reality and millions of dollars behind. And all it takes is just a competent game designer that plays their own game and knows what the player would want added.
There is grind, but there are many ways to make it much quicker and it doesn't take long to get things you want. Yet there are still ways to grow in strength more with less efficient grind, if you just like the grind itself. The game incentivizes regularly swapping weapons and armour pieces. The difficulty settings feel quite right. There is an endgame system that allows to scale weapons/armour/shields, so if you just like something - you can stick with using it. Pretty regular stream of new mechanics and systems going beyond what I would normally expect helps keep player engaged. Secrets are there but aren't either extremely obvious or too obtuse to find without a guide. Even then, the game provides handy sources of information that will tell you about certain collectibles you might've missed and region where to look for them.
To conclude - this is a game made by someone who extensively playtested it, that's the feeling. Amount of effort to polish is hard to gauge, but it's beyond what I've seen in most games.

Which brings us to yet another glowing point I wanted to add - the visuals and sound. Music in particular. Very stunning work from my couch. OST has some very memorable and impactful tracks, well paired with story bits they're meant to emphasize. The sheer quantity of tracks on top is just hard to believe. And while I wasn't as impressed with the visuals, I'd say they are pretty well made. And some of the boss designs are just amazing in my opinion.

All in all, I have one recommendation - play the demo. Demo is a great representation slice of gameplay. If you like demo - game is 60-100 hours of that, but more and better, with pretty engaging story on top. Cheers for providing demo too, by the way, another practice not regularly used by much bigger developers. Great work, easily in my top-5 of the games I played in the last few years. And for what it's worth - I'm extremely petty gamer, making to that top is quite an accomplishment. Very interested in seeing new games from the same developer.

Probably one of the best cRPGs made in the last decade or two. Though in close competition with Pathfinder 2 for that title, edging it out due to better budget, co-op capability and arguably more robust combat mechanics.

Now, I'll be prudent and state the necessary - the game release isn't perfect. Especially Act 3 had a fair number of issues (little in terms of game breaking though). But Larian is putting in honest work with regular updates and fixes. As well as allowing pretty solid modding scene to flourish that adds features smaller subsets of playerbase would want to see, but Larian wouldn't be able to get around to introducing.

Otherwise? Pretty stellar writing, which I would only criticize here and there in small details. And I tend to be very critical towards cRPGs. Great voice acting work accross the board. Probably most playable state 5E D&D ruleset ever was in. Larian made careful but very essential changes that resolve a lot of my gripes with the tabletop OG version of rules, without compromising the general D&D feel to it. Classes and subclasses are fun to play, and in case of experimentation - there is easily accessible respec feature player can get relatively early on.

Gameplay side is a bit of a mixed bag for me. While this is, as I mentioned, for most intents and purposes an improved 5E ruleset, it's missing a lot of elemental interactions Larian were well known for in their previous recent games - Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2. A necessary sacrifice to not diverge too far from the property, but one I still lament. There is also a certain rigidity to the leveling system 5E D&D sports, when compared to the Pathfinder ruleset, that broke off from more chaotic (and less balanced) 3.5E back in the days. Not necessarily a negative, depends on the person. I feel that Larian did decent enough of a job to give options to the players to have fun with the game.

Co-op feature, as per usual (since Original Sin 1/2) is still deserving of praise. Very unique and rare to see in cRPG and worth every bit of applause and then some. The way Larian handles the ability of players to act independently (at times over vast distances) is potentially game-breaking, but more importantly - least restrictive and most fun.

All in all - BG3 is probably setting up a new very high bar for cRPGs for years to come. It isn't a perfect game and neither I think this bar is unreachable. But aspirations are the driving force behind art. And I would say BG3 is the pinnacle of Larian's journey since their very first Divinity Divinity, many years ago. A testament to what a slow, steady and ambitious progress can achieve over decades. Despite hard times, despite occasional stumbling and less than stellar game. Pinnacle at least for now, I'm fully expecting Larian to get back to charting new horizons after the necessary break with making smaller scale and less ambitious games.

Builds upon solid if a bit rough around the edges foundation of Vermintide 2. Darktide features heavier ranged gameplay, both from players and from enemies, with ranged packs being arguably biggest threat. Classes available to player (currently 4) clearly take queues from Vermintide 2 classes as well, with somewhat reimagined mechanics. So devs can partially lean on the experience of balancing them from the previous game. Similarly, Elite and Special enemy types are also new twists on types we had in Vermintide 2, which in turn were inspired by Left 4 Dead 2 roster of Specials. While it might make it sound that Darktide is somewhat derivative in its gameplay loop design (which it is to an extent), it also means developers are not re-inventing the wheel and building upon solid foundation that proved compelling to a pretty substantial playerbase before.
Special mention goes towards sound and visual design of the game. Level design is very detailed and looks rather impressive and sounds and voice lines aren't behind in terms of effort put into them.
Another mention goes towards one specific issue that was largely fixed in Darktide compared to Vermintide 2 - now players aren't forced to switch classes if the lobby already has player with that class. Which could get aggravating for newer players, as game features pretty substantial in power progression system, separate for every character (and thus - class). Now though there is no reason to switch out of leveled character regardless of team composition. Now there is a somewhat weaker incentive of running 4 different classes, as each class can provide different passive buff to the team when standing close to allies. By no means an essential factor to consider in levels of difficulty majority will likely be playing at.

Current issues include some instability of the game. How much of a problem it is seems to be entirely dependent on case by case. In my personal experience, I would get a disconnection around once every few maps. With rare crashed to desktop. That said, game does have re-connection feature that mostly performs adequately, ifserves to alleviate only some of the negative impact. Hopefully developers can fix this eventually, but I would pay close attention to this potential issue if you're considering buying the game on release.

A somewhat barebones but mostly competent port of an otherwise outstanding dilogy. Ironically, it is best delivered as duo-pack of the games. Both due to the interconnected story between games and the way first game handles a good chunk as more of a tutorial. Luckily, all of it makes sense once player transitions to the second game and character setups start paying off quicker, while tutorial portion of the game is much shorter.

To those uninitiated in the Ace Attorney franchise - these games are rather curious take on the Visual Novel genre. Still focused on the story first and foremost, but making decent use of puzzle mechanics to keep player occupied and well stretched between dialogues. Being relatively late addition to the franchise, The Great Ace Attorney benefits from experienced and polished approach both to the transition from sprite work of early NDS games to 3D environment as well as pretty well handled gameplay mechanics that doesn't suffer from "moon logic" or overly prolonged puzzle sequences.

All in all, it is a great addition (if late in terms release date) to the library of the already avid Ace Attorney fans, but also a solid point to jump into the series for new players.

One of the few very well made Rogue-lites. A lot of quality of life elements that help combat the inherit RNG dependency of the genre and give player more control over the runs. Surprisingly good story and writing on top. Combat is more or less refined Supergiant's style arcade action, fluid and generally devoid of issues. And, as per usual, extremely well made dynamic OST.

Few rough spots here and there, mostly related to the genre they've chosen. As such - reliance of story progression on specific consumable item usage. Which is likely to force you to grind a bit in second half of the game, if you didn't behave in the predict by developers fashion.
Inability to clear previous difficulty remaining rewards by going higher difficulty, making some of the runs to "complete" clearing of difficulty feeling not as efficient with your time.
Very very odd choice of initial hidden aspect unlock. One weapon has a unique requirement for that unlock, very likely to be your first one to be unlocked and doesn't represent the requirements for every other weapon except itself. This one in particular is just bizzare, it's almost like it was designed to mislead the player until they go out of their way to google the otherwise used requirements. In a game that is otherwise very much inclined to hint and directly show the player the inner workings and benefits of items, quest chains and actions.

Overall still a very solid experience despite those few rough spots. And updates seem to be rolling out rather steadily, fixing some of the issues the game had.