Recent reviews by Triton

TLDR: I have mostly playing this game in co-op with a friend, and we are having a great time.

The Good:
There is a lot to do in this game, with a clear progress system. V-blood bosses are a great way to get the player to continue to go out and explore areas they might otherwise avoid. Boss fights in act 3 are an especially well done, with new mechanics and interesting themes.

Base building was really well done , they nailed a great balance between a sculpted curated world with interesting things to do, and having many plots of land where you can build large elaborate bases. The castles actually feel worthy of a vampire lord when built out.

The world is really well made, and each region is unique and fun to explore. many games go a procedural and they are less for that.

Mehs:
Combat seems to heavily favor ranged over melee, unless you have very specific blood types. The reason for this is that the only way to get damage mitigation is through specific blood types, which means having to dive heavily into the prisoner system to be able to utilize. where as with ranged you can kinda ignore the blood system.

They copy Valheim's no teleportation with specific rare materials. I hated this in Valheim, and find it to be a boring way to force multiple bases and to make "expeditions" out to the far reaches of the map. You can turn this off if you are clever, and we found the game much more enjoyable without it.

Some abilities you get seem straight up useless. Frog form stands out, you think it will get you access to several locations you've see in the past that you couldn't make it up, but in reality its only for accessing the back entrance to specific locations you've already been to.

Blood percentages are also all over the place, thematically you would think the further along you get into the world and enter tougher and tougher locations, the average blood percentage would increase. that is not the case, you seem just as likely to run into a high percentage in the early game as you are in the late game. So really all you can do is set up an intense prison system and use that to constantly keep good blood around.

The Bad:

Act 2, Holy crap act two is a slog of horrible pacing. Some bosses are near impenetrable walls, some go down like they are nothing. the bosses are boring compared to act 3, and I felt like i was hitting my head against a wall with some. Especially compared to act 3 where the bosses are generally fun and interesting.

Pacing in general, and the core game play progression loop seems broken. For example after act 1, you need specific tables to research upgrades to make you stronger. You think these tables would be the first things you unlock in each act... nope they are deep in the act and require you to take on very difficult bosses to acquire. Once you acquire it, you think you would be all set to level up your gear and be all the more stronger.... nope. all the new gear you researched cant be made without killing even tougher bosses to acquire the recipes to make those ingredients. In the end, there is no way to out gear a boss, you HAVE to basically learn every move and formulate a strategy to take a boss down... which in itself is not a negative, in fact each boss having very strict patterns and attacks that can be abused is a positive. However it means this game requires From Software levels of boss preparation and attempts. So only a narrow play style is allowed.

Lastly, my biggest issue is the cool down on the dodge. 8 seconds is extreme, in some bosses fights miss using your dodge can mean death. In general all the fights are built around this, so if timed right, you will be fine. However there is nothing more frustrating than being stuck in the path of a bosses attack, and seeing the cool down time on the dodge mock you as your health goes from 100% down to 10% to even 0%.

I know it seems like I have a lot of complaints, but they are minor, and I still intend to play this game, especially into its final release. For its price, its well worth the cost.

Is good

It's better than you remember it.

Good game, Highly Recommend it.

The Good
- Great Lore
- Great Graphics
- Plays well
- Ashtray maze
- Good Story

The Bad
- Gun damage is to depend on getting good mods which are random. Its easier, and more effective to just throw stuff all the time.
- Enemies will randomly respawn in areas you've cleared. So when you are trying to track down the one collectable in the area you haven't found, it gets annoying.
- Check point placement can suck sometimes.

The Meh
- Most upgrade trees are unnecessarily long. there is no reason for some abilities to have that many point, outside being a point sink. would have been nice to see service weapon damage as a tree, but its not.
- Really hammers modern/mid level hardware. I averaged 30-50 FPS with a 1070ti in 1440p
- I think they over explain the lore a little to much, ruins the atmosphere, but this is a very minor issue
- Could be 20% creepier in my opinion

Overall
The bad points are easy to ignore, and I feel like this game flew under the radar for me. It was easily a not so hidden gem that I think everyone should play. I hope there is a sequel.

If the Doom Slayer can commune with the dead, be resurrected, run with infinite energy, and have his gospel prophesize the future. Then either the Slayer is God or could kill God, and I don't care if there is a difference.

A friend bought this game for me when it was on sale. turns out this was exactly the game I was looking or at the time. my friends all played, and got destroyed at the same time. Slowly we got better at game. Eventuallly we were able to beat the game and unlock characters, which only added to the awesomeness of this game.

I would recommend this game at a $10 I would especially recommend this if it is on sale.

Get some friend, get destroyed, get gud. enjoy this game.... screw magma worm.