Recent reviews by Nudhul

Game's not even done and they want you to pay more for the "full" experience.

A game that feels like it's trying to be a western action-RPG in all the worst ways. Shallow characters, one-dimensional combat, fetch quests and NPC ping-pong; FFXVI makes for an extremely tedious experience.

Relegating all of their resources to that godawful canceled ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game nobody asked for, CA then goes on to threaten their customers and condemn them for requesting that CA actually gives attention to their flagship series which is badly needed.

Damage has been done. If CA were trying to destroy themselves then they've done a marvelous job. You deserve the bankruptcy looming over the studio.

The game itself is fun and fairly similar to D:OS2 in how combat works, albeit more balanced and refined. Sime aspects could be ezplained better, though.

The writing however, takes a step back from Larian's previous game. Dialogue is weak and some characters talk like they have a deadly twitter addiction, using leftist buzz words which can rip you right out of any immersion you may have felt.

Not just that, but the manner in which a lot of things are described is anachronistic. For example, a journal you can find describes a poison as disrupting a hag's gut flora, forcing it to disgorge whatever they recently consumed. Baldur's Gate 3 takes place in a magical high fantasy setting where steampunkish clockwork automatons are the cutting edge of technology, so why is some random monster hunting aware of microbial life, let alone speaking of it in a modern taxonomical structure? It gives the impression that Larian hired fanfiction writers to creat the game's script rather than anyone with a language degree.

Overall I think the game has more ups than downs. There's a lot you can do and interact with in the world. It would take thousands of hours to see every single branching variation you can follow, offering tons of replayability. Just try not to be turned off by the reddit and twitter essence seeping through which plagues many modern game releases if you can help it.

This game has serious performance flaws even on the lowest settings (which can't really be adjusted much in the game menu). If constant stuttering and low frame rate weren't an issue, then you have a generic story with mediocre characters who aren't given enough development for anyone to care about them. It's like they were meant to be more fleshed out, but someone forgot to add it to the game, which causes some of the character drama to fall flat as a board.

The gameplay itself is fine, but nothing noteworthy. The monsters are your basic gobblygoos that die when you shoot them enough. Half way through you are introduced to a new hazard in the form of mutating enemies. After taking damage they have a high chance to sprout tentacles and if you dont shoot them immediately the enemy will mutate into a stronger form. From what I saw every variant mutates into the exact same form, which just a tougher version of the One Who Hits You. Any sense of danger or urgency you might have is quickly deflated when you realize they don't have any new tricks to throw your way. When a monster mutates, you basically just have to kill it twice.

Some aspects of the game are a neat homage to Dead Space such as the goop on the walls and floors, while others feel way too much like its spiritual predecessor in that they are nearly one for one reproduction (Oh look I get to kill monsters while riding on a big mining vehicle. Have I done this before?)

In summary, the game is a very generic monster shooter that tries to live up to its roots, and it very well could have if enough time had been given to make the story interesting and the game itself more enjoyable, but someone at the office saw the first draft and figured that was good enough.

The protagonist talks way too much. There is enough oil and matches that only a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ could run out of light and there's so much sci-fi focus that it feels as if I'm playing a game about ancient aliens. There is no real consequence if you run out of health/sanity. You simply go through a short cinematic segment before waking up a few steps from where you "died", with the monsters apparently satisfied and gone back to their den.

Despite taking place in 1937, the protagonist is in an interracial relationship and the expedition has an openly gay couple. Only one person on the flight charter takes issue with these, but the way it's set up makes me feel like the only reason he exists is for the devs to wag their finger at him. There is no depth to him aside from being a mean 'ol racist. Ironically, the portion of the game with him in it is the only interesting part.

The game lacks subtlety and fundamentally misunderstands why something might be frightening. It's a classic case of forgetting the first rule of a good story: Show, don't tell. If I had to guess why, I'd chalk it up to pink hair west coast lobster people being on a dev team, as they seem to have issues grasping any topic deeper than a petri dish, and parts of it stink of revisionist fantasy morality. Overall this is a big step down from Dark Descent and I would advise waiting for a discount or skipping this one entirely.

Yes

If you can suffer through Skyrim's game mechanics and the wide swing in VA quality (some of it is downright professional, and some of it is obviously a dev's cousin reading lines with no context), then you will enjoy a plot comparable to Planescape: Torment or Mask of the Betrayer.

Why are there so many effing d*kes in this game?

If Junji Ito made a video game, this would be it.