Recent reviews by Dollmaker

Its a cute game, the game clearly takes inspiration from the likes of Stray and Goose Game, i wouldnt say it manages to live up to either though.

Most of the game is centered around platforming and doing side activities, such as catching birds or breaking stuff, theres a few quests that have you travel around the city and solve some puzzles to complete them, which is when the game is at its best.

The movement could use some work, more specifically the jumping, which i think could use some polish, but the game plays well for the most part

Like i said, earlier, this game doesnt really do much to stand out compared to its two main inspirations, it doesnt really have the charm of Stray or the puzzle variety of Goose Game, but its still a game you can play for a few hours, it isnt very long, maybe around 4 hours if youre going blind and try to do everything.

I would still recommend it if its your type of game, but i still firmly believe Stray is the better "Cat game" with Goose Game having better puzzles.

7/10

A flawed but good Souls-Like

I would say one of the strongest points of this game is its story and characters, while the game has a plot to follow, most of the backstory of its characters is told through the Vestiges, which are like flashbacks of sorts, allowing you to learn more about the various characters in the game, which are pretty well told, i felt invested and grew to like them.

Its artstyle is also pretty good, obviously being anime, but for the setting of Revenants (vampires) dealing with monsters and such on a ruined world, it works, with the designs being very detailed.

A surprise was the Character Creator itself which gives you quite a lot of freedom with the hair and cosmetics, far more than ive seen in any game ive played, with enough effort you can make a lot of hairstyles and add cosmetics such as bags, gloves, hats, glasses, etc.

Now the combat, its alright, one of other strongest points of the game is the Build Diversity, the game uses skills/spells for making your build, with the Blood Codes being what determines your stats, once you decide on a Code, you can start applying skills that fit best with said Code in order to make a build, such as using several long ranged spells, buffs, debuffs, or weapon skills, alongside the Blood Veils (Armor) and weapons, you can take on several roles, spellcaster, tank, melee, support, gunner, etc, its pretty fun, while you start sorta limited at the beginning, as you progress through the game you unlock far more options.

One thing though, the game has you travel with an AI companion, throughout the game you unlock more partners you can swap from, yeah... keep them, trying to play the game solo significantly increases the difficulty, and it shows the game was clearly balanced around having the AI at your side, this becomes extremely apparent with the Invasion mechanic and a certain duo boss.

While the OST is good, i felt there werent enough themes, which is a shame, but still enjoyable.

Now to some negatives i have to mention:

The Depths, these are mini dungeons of sorts, and the only real reason to do them is to obtain certain Vestiges or upgrade materials, all around, they pretty forgettable.

The dmg of enemies, at times the dmg some enemies and specially bosses can do is excessive, to the point you can get one shot fairly often, this becomes noticeable worse in NG+ difficulty, where just about everything can one shot you, i reached a point where every single attack from a boss was an insta kill, and if im being completely honest, the bosses and some enemies are polished enough to be allowed this kind of dmg, with some attacks not being properly telegraphed, regardless its doable.

The invasions, no, its not what you think, no bad red mans here, anyway, this is a mechanic that appears on all levels, in certain spots youll get invaded by an horde of enemies and these things are... bad, any smart Souls player knows that its generally a bad idea to agroo too many enemies, well this thing throws that out of the window and bombards you with several enemies at the same time, surviving these can be rough, and almost infuriating in some cases, whats worse is that the reward you get out of them isnt really worth the effort, in some cases you can use all your heals just to survive, and you basically just get Haze for it (equivalent of Souls, aka money)

The DLCs... dont bother, all 3 of them are just poorly balanced Depths maps, leaving retries aside, you can complete these in like 30 mins each at most, the actual bosses at the end of them are notoriously obnoxious and can easily kill you in one hit, on release it was even impossible to complete the last one due to a bug, a good way to describe the DLCs is that it felt something done out of being forced to rather than passion like the main game.

Anyway thats that, Code Vein is a pretty decent game if youre a fan of souls game, with this one having a spin on it, being the Skills and Codes system, allowing to make your own playstyle, while it has a few flaws here and there, i enjoyed my time with it, and would recommend it.

I give it a 7.5

Overall, its a fun indie game of luck and strategy.

In short, the game is what the name says, a game of luck of shooting the opponent with a live or blank round, or yourself for the opportunity of skipping the opponent's turn, the order and amount of ammo are randomized, so you have to be careful with your choices, you can get an edge with the items the game offers, which can affect the odds of the game, such as Magnifying Glass to know what the current round is, or Handcuffs to get double turn.

Its easy to learn and ironically, addictive, with each match being different from the previous one, adding replay value.

Its artstyle really complements its charm.

This game could greatly benefit from a multiplayer mode where rather than the Dealer (AI) you duel another player, which might be on the horizon, who knows.

Theres only 2 negatives i can mention at the moment, the Double or Nothing mode, aka endless, this mode introduces new items that i personally think kinda break the balance of the game and make it lean too heavily on RNG, to the point a round can end on the very first turn, this is made worse by the AI of the Dealer that seems a bit TOO good, to the point it appears hes blatantly cheating, making optimal decisions that would require information that he shouldnt know, and very rarely making mistakes, ever, which makes this mode kinda unfair in its current state, but with some balance tuning it could be really good.

Overall its a game i can easily recommend, its simple, good and fairly cheap, making it an easy buy.

8/10

So Dragons Dogma 2.

Lets get this out of the way, the game's optimization is inexcusable, its like really bad, so if youre hung up on risking this, you might wanna wait until theres a patch that fixes the frame rate issues, or at least for a discount, cause this game is kinda too pricey.

Anyway, now the review.

Its more Dragons Dogma, if you liked the original, you'll likely like this one as well.

The combat was improved and feels smoother, being more polished from the original, the enemies were somewhat expanded on their behavior, having new attacks and way to deal with them, such as being able to walk on top of large enemies without needing to cling to them, which allows the usage of skills, while some new enemies and bosses were introduced, some were sadly left out.

The Vocations themselves were reworked, with 4 skill slots instead of 6, but several previous skills became part of the basekit tools, like the healing spell for Mages, Warrior in particular saw a significant improvement on its flexibility which was one of its biggest issues in the previous game and each vocations has brand new skills to work with.

The new Vocations are also fun to play, each one with an unique gameplay style, going full anime as Spearhand, an unique tank-support role as Trickster, or a jack of all trades as Warfarer, being a literal DIY vocation.

The world itself is fun to explore and navigate, with the inclusion of Oxcarts helping to travel big distances, and the Campsites helping to take a break in the middle traveling, allowing to recover, change skills and even gain a buff by cooking.

The story is a... mixed bag, the first game's story was just ok at best, and it isnt much better here unfortunately, it arguably has a way better start, but it has a really rushed middle, and okaish ending, the sidequests can be fun as well, but some felt unfinished or cut short.

The pawns were greatly improved, their AI seems far more helpful during combat, and will often notify you of points of interest, you can also hire pawns that have quests set up by their owners, like killing a specific boss enemy for some reward, you can do the same yourself of sending your pawn with a quest to accomplish with a reward for the player that does it, they also became A LOT more chatty, but now interact even among themselves, rather than the player only.

Overall, i think the game itself is good, but it feels like its incomplete, like there could be far more to it, hopefully a future DLC will address this, cause i see real potential here.

But again, the optimization of this game is awful with no way to defend it, which that alone brings it down a lot, hoping the optimization patch comes out soon.

Due to this, i have to give this a 7/10

I see now why people consider this the best of the 4 games, it definitely deserves the title.

Arkham City is a significant improvement over its predecessor, Arkham Asylum in several ways:

Combat: Arguably its more prominent upgrade, the combat as been expanded greatly, Asylum only allowed to use 2 gadgets mid combat, City allows for nearly all of them, greatly expanding your options, theres also new enemy times to further expand it, and it feels really smooth to play, unlike Asylum that was more stiff, boss fights were also considerably better for the most part, with this game having arguably the best boss fight in the franchise on a game of "cat and mouse"

Stealth: While not on the same level, it was expanded as well, with more dangers to deal with, such as mines around the area, enemies being able to look for you on gargoyles with thermal vision and even the ability to hinder the Detective Vision, making these sections harder and more interesting, making you having to rely on your tools a lot more to compensate the upgraded enemies.

Map: Second most significant upgrade, City goes from the corridors and room from Asylum to an open world map, and the way Gotham is presented is stellar with its Gothic design, neon lights and covered in snow, to compensate the size of the map, Batman's mobility was also expanded, with him being able to dive allowing to quickly reach the ground or use it to boost his speed and altitude, he also gets a new tool being the Grapple Boost, allowing himself to launch himself after using the Grapple Hook, for speed, overall, travelling the map feels good.

This game also allows to play as Catwoman in the story mode, and her gameplay is different from Batman's but still good, and in challenge mode Robin and Nightwing are included, all 4 characters having their own tools and styles, which allow for lots of replayability in these Challenge Mode.

Despite its gameplay being nearly flawless, City still falls short in certain areas, primarily the story, its a bit of a mess and sometimes unfocused, since it deals with two plots at the same time, which have no real connection with one another, which can affect the pacing.

Some side quests werent that great either, one in particular being the Acts of Violence, which is just saving random people getting beat up, and nothing comes from it, or Bane's that kinda ends on a whimper.

And Riddler... yeah this is where it starts getting bad, and it gets worse every entry, youll expend some time finding all those trophies.

Regardless of these issues, overall, City is still the strongest Arkham game, and definitely a game i recommend to anyone.

9/10

The game that started it all.

Despite being the first of the 4 main titles, Asylum still holds up to this day, even if its the shortest of the titles.

The overall ambiance of Arkham is good, with its gothic and decayed environment, the graphics do show aging, but still looks good.

The VA performance is stellar, specially with the titular character, Batman and his nemesis the Joker.

Combat is the least varied of the games, but holds up for the most part, you can really go all out on a group of enemies, using some of your tools to help you, such has the Batarang and the Batclaw, with some enemy variety to spice things up.

If theres one weakness to the combat i should mention, its the bosses, they're just passable at best and pale in comparison to what came in future titles, they also overuse one particular boss, or mini boss i suppose, being the Titan Brute, so yeah, this is the one glaring weakness of this game.

Stealth is not as expanded upon like the future titles, but its still fun and offer good variety on how to handle your opponents, with each gadget adding another way to knock them out.

The story and lore is good as well, a lot of the collectibles offer insight into the personalities and backgrounds of the many characters in this game, such has the villains, which is fun to collect... for now, yeah anyone thats heard of this series have heard about the Riddler Trophies, they arent as bad in this game, and the riddles themselves can be fun to decipher.

Overall, its a good way to start the journey of the Arkham series and become Batman.

Hopefully Rocksteady will remember the roots of this iconic game series after that insult of a follow-up.

Anyway, the game is fun and i recommend it.

8/10.

SA2

Overall, an improvement over its predecessor, SA1 DX.

The physics feel considerably better in comparison, making the gameplay better in general.

Graphics while technically inferior, look better in comparison, the DX graphics of SA1 just dont look great.

Story wise is solid, being just as good as SA1, better in fact, this is helped by the improved VA performance, Music no longer muffles the dialogue either anymore, which is another plus, a weird thing is that the characters have a tendency of interrupting one another.

Sadly, this game still suffers from jank, which did got to me at times, this was AWFUL with a mission for Rouge on Egg Quarters that requires picking bombs (which btw this game never tells you is even possible nor is needed anywhere else but this mission) but its far more bearable compared to SA1, after all, nothing beats the awful Big Fishing stages.

Despite its flaws, this game aged better than SA1, and its a far more enjoyable game in comparison

That is, if it even runs, yeah this game does NOT like modern software, you'll likely need a ModLoader to run this game at all, which i highly recommend.

Anyway, flawed, but fun.

7/10

A classic game, and i have a soft spot for it from being one of my childhood games, unfortunately, this game did NOT age well.

Its not that surprising, this was Sonic's introduction to the 3D era, the camera is AWFUL and the physics can be janky at times, specially noticeable with certain characters.

Sonic is probably the most fun to play out of the roster.

Tails was lazy, he basically just reuses shorter versions of Sonic's levels and due to his power, he breaks them.

Knuckles is fine, a simple treasure hunt mechanic.

Amy is SLOW, this is easily her most noticeable problem, getting speed on her can be inconsistent.

Gamma, pretty straight forward and has the best story out of the characters.

Big... freaking Big... his fishing game is TERRIBLE, theres no defending this, the camera doesnt help, his mechanics arent properly explained, and its overall a massive turn-off compared to the rest of the game, hes also even slower than Amy, making traversal a hassle, by FAR the worst part of the game.

Story wise, it was fine, pretty good at times, but yeah, a product of its time, its not particularly complex and the VA isnt the greatest, doesnt help that the game has a tendency of putting loud music alongside cutscenes which can seriously muffle conversations between characters.

Eggman's model is awful as well btw, SA2 definitely fixed that.

Still, despite all these issues, the game can still be enjoyable, would i recommend it? hard to say, like i said, the game didnt age well, if you wanna play it, you gotta be prepared to deal with some of this jank, but you can still have some fun with it.

Hopefully this alongside SA2 will get a remake one day.

I give it a 6/10

Wasnt expecting much when i first heard of the game, to the point of lacking complete interest over it, but after some time and seeing videos about from youtubers i follow, i decided to give it a try, boy was i missing something.

This game almost gives nostalgia vibes with its old mission/level design, no open-world, no dozens of mechanics to learn, no crafting, no nothing, just missions and your AC (the mecha) which you can modify extensively, its a breath of fresh air to be able to just play the game that doesnt overcomplicate anything.

Like mentioned, the AC can be modified heavily to fit different playstyles, from being close/medium/long ranged, to using missiles, energy weapons, being a tank, being fast, a balance in between, being able to remain in the air for long, etc, lots of parts to play with, which are largely obtained from the shop ingame, you earn "Credits" by playing the missions, allowing you to buy a multitude of parts to modify your AC, allowing lots of replay value.

If you like a game where you wanna build your war machine and go blow stuff up, this is it.

The game is well optimized from my experience, and largely didnt ran into any bug, the game art direction is also really good with how it portrays a devastated planet thats being exploited by greedy corporations, typical of Fromsoft, it sells the post-apocalyptic and depressive vibe really well.

Balance wise, i would say its ok, the game can be hard, but i wouldnt consider it one of Fromsoft hardest games, some bosses can be rough tough.

Writing wise, it surprised me, the plot is really down to whats essential, not relying on spectacle or the like, but just the writing and its characters which are REALLY well written, and also acted by the VA, you never get to see anyone personally, they're just voices, but the writers and VA did a fantastic job at selling each and everyone of these "Faceless" characters, specially the most unlikable one which you'll recognize right away when you meet him and the way the game handles the build up of the third and final ending was interesting as well, which does require playing the game at least 3 times to truly complete it and get the full story.

I enjoyed this game far more than expected, this is made better by its OST, which you should give a listen to, personal favorite being "Rusted Pride", in conclusion, its simple, replayable, has good writing and characters, and good OST, and like i said earlier, if you wanna make a war machine and destroy everything in your path, this game is perfect for you.

I highly recommend this game.

9/10

A really charming and entertaining game.

Cult of the Lamb is a mix between a City Builder and Rogue-Like, and it surprisingly does both sides pretty well, the combat side is fun and highly replayable, it can be challenging even at the lower difficulties, so caution is advised, the city building aspect is what you expect for the most part, you gain followers for your cult and you gotta make sure to meet their needs in order to keep them loyal and happy, which can be harder the larger it is, specially when it comes to keeping them well fed, you can customize your Cult with several buildings, which can help keeping it going or being simple decorations.

As you go through the game, you unlock several things that can affect your run, one being the fleeces which will have a different effect on your Crusade, such as increasing magic dmg at the expense of HP and Melee dmg, or making you run faster and having more HP while being unable to roll.

The other thing is the Doctrines, every time you unlock one you get to choose between two of certain categories, this will affect how your Followers behave and react to things, such has making them accept Sacrifices rather than being afraid of it, or making them Cannibals lmao, later on in the game you get the ability to obtain the ones you missed, so feel free to go with what you wish.

Overall the game is pretty good... sadly, theres one issue i couldnt ignore, bugs, yeah the game bugged for me on several occasions, for the most part it was visual bugs, so it didnt affect me much, but on other times it did cause me to have to reset the game to fix it, and it could be frequent at times, which did got annoying, despite this, the game is still fun and worth to play.

If it wasnt for the bugs i would give it something higher score.

8/10, definitely worth.