Recent reviews by Aeo

Finished this front to back, side to side during my piracy days. Really enjoyed my time with it.

Trying it now again tho is a different story. Can't stand the controls. Like using a gun but the barrel's 90 degree sideways.

did you hear that

Fresh out of a victory. Felt like I could finally run away from this game and I'm doing it while I still can. Another game and I'd be stuck yet again for that endless


I experienced all types of victories. Played all the map types and sizes that were included in the achievements. Learned all of the mechanics and the different approaches you can take in building your civilization. I'm at the point in the game where the next step to get more out of it is to amp-up the difficulty and get victories for the other civilizations.

But I think I'm done now. As good as this game is, it's kinda one of those games where the higher difficulties just comes down to optimizing your turn orders and following an almost formulaic decision making.

"Gotta build your military at least to X amount of Y units so you don't get ganked. Gotta have this amount of X number of cities by Y turn. If this, then that. If this, then that. Cut off your enemies' expansion. Just chop that bonus resources."

And more. Something like those. If I'm not playing any other games, perhaps I would.

Some would suggest to just play multiplayer but in the short amount of time I observed the community, I've already seen toxicity. PVP players belittling PVE players. PVE players saying PVP players won't last in Deity.

Like, really guys? PVP vs PVE toxicity in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CIV GAME? Troglies.

But yeah, I like the game. The general gameplay of it. The small bits and pieces of it, like how there's an animation and voice-over narration when you build a wonder. How doing or experiencing something boosts a tech or a civic. Love the quotes when you finish a research. Huge plus for the viewing of great works and how the great people's IRL achievements are incorporated in-game. And more.

I'm done tho. Y'all strategy fans should pick this one up.

Granted I have a weaker CPU, the size of the maps, player density and low number of elements you can interact with in both the city and open-world maps doesn't justify my CPU being on a constant 100% usage.

My PC working heavier than Bunny's GYAT is pushing me to give this one a pass. At least for now.

mercy's thighs

Sony left the group chat.

No. At least not yet. Literally just needs more work, more polish.

And marketing. Most regions are dead.

Plays and feels like Diablo 3. Action RPG but there's literally no weight in decision making on the player's side. Itemization too simple, stat allocation is automated on level up, skill tree and selection can be easily reset anytime using a measly amount of coins.

Art direction, graphics and storytelling are the only things that would justify maybe a fourth of the asking price.

Criminally underrated. Can't see how people talk about Last Epoch among Diablo IV and Path of Exile and not even mention Grim Dawn.

1,600 hours in. I can't recommend this. Can't be bothered to make a proper review so here's a few points.

1. PVE End-game is dog water.

- the most efficient activity is joining chest runs, wherein you'll join 20 or so people to get into an "elite area", zerg the place and loot the chests along the way. FPS drop ballroom, dps check race for drops. even if you do get unlucky and didn't get the desirable items, it still gives you way too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much for little effort aside from keeping your brain cells alive.

- dungeons, even with its mutators gets boring real quick after a few runs. it's just gear check and memorization. "in this room, this is what you'd do, you lure these guys, we pool them in this corner, use skill A, B then X and Y." you'd literally be just following a formula or a set plan for each room or transition. execute those properly 10 times and get gold on all levels. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it's even more challenging to find players to play with.

- some of the best gear is locked behind this: you go to a certain place, kill this one boss, wait for 6 minutes for it to respawn, 6 full minutes, do it again.

2. Patches are usually 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

- they be sending out a patch to fix one thing, and two things gets broken. three sometimes, when something they fixed a long time ago just comes back.

3. Optimization

- if you do buy this game, get to some of the towns. you'll know what I'm talking about.

- resource nodes seemingly going under the surface, or gets stuck to a wall. sometimes happens to NPCs and objects you need to interact with on quests.

4. PVP is meta-fiesta

- just type in "musket op new world" and read a lifetime's worth of complaints. it's not the same way now for sure, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, the balancing team of this game is asleep. takes way too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ long to address weapon balance issues.

5. Guilds

- there's literally no point to this if your company doesn't participate in influence runs and wars. if you're not interested in pvp, you can consider this feature deleted, aside from it being a storage for your money or another chat room for you and some people.

6. Cosmetics

- transmog is good ♥♥♥♥, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ what the ♥♥♥♥ are those things in the shop.

7. Paid expansion (which is alright and understandable but:)

- i'd understand that those who only got base game won't be able to access the story, "new" area and the next grind for progression. but the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ features? the mount? even the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ new weapon?


Can say a lot on the positive side like how they made changes in presenting the story, how beautiful the world is and the sound design. But again, can't be bothered.