Recent reviews by Zan

An objectively troubled expansion for an otherwise brilliant game series. On a technical level (jobs, graphics update gameplay) the Dawntrail expansion is excellent, the dungeons and raids may be the best so far in the history of FF14. On the flip-side the story is shockingly bad, riddled with poorly written characters, plotholes, childish themes, recycled elements from previous expansions but done poorly, no emotional connectivity, glacial pacing, more visual novel (even in FF14 which has always been talk heavy) and your Warrior of Light reduced to a baggage carrier for the writer's fanfic main character.

If you're a story-skipper you'll have no problems but it's hard to ignore the story in what is supposed to be THE premiere story-based MMO. Let me be clear this isn't just about it being a change of pace, a holiday expansion, its just shockingly bad writing, there's a difference, the quality is sub-ARR. Anyone YMMV but be warned, this is not the FF14 expansion you've come to expect since Heavensward. Waiting for 7.3 or even 8.0 is a legitimate option.

Straight up dopamine injector. I played until 8am the other day. Somehow the mashup elements have all been properly linked together to form a coherent game. Guaranteed fun and requires little in the way of computer grunt to run.

Well balanced and good combat feel

Mixed bag. The tutorial is non-existent so you'll need to Youtube to work out how to play.

Two main criticisms: First is that the snowball effect pretty much because absurd after the first 10 rounds or so. If you get left behind at this point it's pretty much a quit out. Secondly, for an auto-battler where you do spend a lot of time doing nothing but watching the games are VERY long if you're playing later rounds, match lengths are waaaaay too long.

Where to start on Evolve ... I think this will be a polarising game; forget all the whining about day one DLCs the haters are idiots, who cares about some skins its a non-issue with people trying to find something to be e-angry about the most important thing comes down to "is this game fun?"

You'll also hear people whining about content, that it doesn't have some great long campaign, or NPCs ... or crafting ... or fishing. Its not that type of game. Chess, after all only has 6 unique pieces on an 8x8 board. Evolve is built like any older arena based game with a single simple core where the real game is not just the popping skulls but map knowledge, movement and lots and lots of tactics, etc.

I think the main point to take away about Evolve is that it is BRUTAL and unforgiving, both sides need to play well or you will get slaughtered. Many new players will definitely get discouraged by coming in and being torn apart, especially in no-mic pug games (this game is 100x better with a mic and a bunch of friends).

After all the above disclaimers though, I have to say this game is really sucking me in. The vein-popping rage of losing to a L3 Wraith is offset by the oh yes moments after pulling off a sweet win. The atmosphere and the sense of hunting is fantastic, running through pouring rain avoiding carnivorous plants and trying to out-think the monster player is incredibly engaging. A 5 round match of Evacuation mode disappears before you know it and you realise you haven't looked away from the screen for anywhere between 30 mins to almost 2 hours. Every round you learn a little more and become a little better.

So ... if you have low tolerance to failure and just want a super straight forward game of shoot heads then I would seriously suggest that this game might frustrate you. If you are prepared to think and have a certain level of fortitude then this is an absorbing, rewarding game.

Do not be fooled by this game, if you are buying it because you enjoyed Sacred 1-2 and other Diablo-esque isometrics you will hate this game. The classes and world are familiar and the combat is actually fairly decent and dynamic, however the game has changed from an open world explorer with massive character customisation to a linear scroller with almost no customisation and no loot. Some of the pathways and environments are so linear you almost have no room to move your character.

The best way to describe the change is what happened to Dungeon Siege going from 2-3, the disconnect is exactly the same. The open world with quests has become set "missions" in a bound area which you complete, get a score, cash reward and a lackluster item.

Its very pretty, production values are high, fights are fun but it is NOT Sacred.

Oh yes, it has hands down the most painful and embarrassing NPC voice acting and scripting I have heard in a game in, well, as long as I can remember. I seriously considered playing with no sound so I didn't have to listen to the idiotic banter. You feel bad for these little digital people being forced to recite lines that would cause George Lucas to kill himself.

If you have never played Sacred or Diablo and are around age 10-12 and want to bash things, you will probably like this game. I however regret the purchase. =(