Recent reviews by Cryomancer

You can play a panda throwing cherry bombs and dual wielding guns while your bird bombards hordes of enemies swarming you with rainbows.

10/10 pay the $3

TL;DR: This is one of the greatest games I have ever played. Elden Ring is a nearly flawless execution of an open world Souls formula. It is Fromsoft's magnum opus.

I've been waiting for this game since it was first announced. I've been a longtime Souls veteran and Fromsoft has never disappointed. This game is no exception. It's very rare these days for games to not only deliver on their promise, but to be just as good or even better than originally expected. At the time of this review, I've cleared the game with 8 different character builds.

Pros:
- The Souls formula is kept intact and has a few more quality-of-life changes such as shorter runbacks or the option to go somewhere else if you are struggling with a particular area.
- This game is massive and provides hundreds of hours of content. You'll frequently think you'd explored most of the map and then the map doubles in size.
- You can eventually go to any place you can see, and there will almost always be some sort of reward for getting there.
- As with most Souls games, there is tons of replayability via different builds
- This game respects your intelligence and very rarely holds your hand, which is a great thing. Too many modern games treat you like an idiot.
- If you are new to the Souls formula, this game gives you many tools to make this one of the most accessible entries in the series.
- If you are a Souls veteran, you might find some of the bosses to be among the most difficult by restricting yourself from using many tools.
- Powerstancing

Cons
- Several non-story bosses are reused a few times, sometimes with a new gimmick. Given the size of the game this was pretty much unavoidable.
- Apparently there were/are some graphical issues for higher end video cards, but I had never experienced it since I happened to have the recommended card. (GTX 1070)
- There's not much else to gripe about, this game is fantastic.

This is a faithful remake and expansion of an amazing game. If you enjoyed the original Half-Life, you will definitely enjoy this. There's not much more than can be said that hasn't been said about the original Half-Life. It's all there and more.

TL;DR: I enjoyed this game and recommend it for hardcore RPG players. Just be prepared for the beginning difficulty and lack of certain quality of life options.

I just completed my first playthrough of this game (without the DLC). The main thing that pushed me to try this game was that it was a lot like Fallout 2, one of my favorite games.

- I felt like I was playing a modernized version of Fallout 2.
- Loads of replayability. After beating the game with my critical sniper/crossbow build, I'm eager to try new builds. I especially want to try the DLC in my next playthrough.
- The amount of content is great for anyone looking to kill a lot of time. I heard the average full playthrough is about 100 hours, which is very close to what my first playthrough hit.
- The oddity leveling system was fun. As someone who explores and scavengers in all games, this system felt very rewarding to me.
- The world and lore is interesting. I would definitely be interested in a sequel or further DLC that fleshes out the world further.

(These are more detailed than my Pros because despite my enjoyment of the game, I couldn't stop thinking about my gripes with the game.)
- The learning curve in the beginning is quite steep. The combat encounters are difficult and certain mechanics are brutal for new builds. This can discourage some people, but personally it made me git gud. Getting over the hump is one of the most satisfying parts of the game, though. I call this a con because it was constantly frustrating for the first part of my playthrough.
- There is no option to respec your character. I learned this is an intended choice by the developer. The problem is that the dungeon that tests your build's viability is too far into the game to make people want to make a new character. I ended up save-scumming for hours to get through that dungeon and then fixed my build's problems with subsequent leveling. I see arguments that the ability to respec will make people respec every time they come to a new skill challenge, but I don't see why there isn't a one or two-time use respec option per playthrough to fine-tune build issues or learn from a mistake.
- Combat is almost always decided by who strikes first. I'm willing to entertain the idea that I may have had problems because I misunderstood some mechanics or that it was just the nature of my build. However, it seemed that if the enemy gets the initiative on you, you are likely going to die. They'll start off by stunning you and then you are dead after you pass your turn. This seems to happen either because of enemy strength or that they seem to have far more action points than you do.
- No companions. This wasn't a huge problem, but the game is balanced around solo combat. Companions would have prevented some save-scumming and made some extremely difficult combat encounters much more bearable.
- This is more of a personal issue, but I think the darkness precision penalty is too harsh. Someone in slightly dim light is a 60% chance to hit and only with night vision can I get it to 95%. The quick win-loss nature of combat combined with bad precision will make you want to save-scum every encounter.
- I'm also not a fan of the hard 95% precision cap. No amount of combat skill will get you beyond that. It feels like XCOM where you can miss 3 95% shots in a row. It's one of the most frustrating things about combat.

- Get a good idea of what you want your build to be before starting your character. There is a character builder that will help you do this. Because there is no respec option, you should be careful how you allocate your stats and skills.
- Always invest in stealth. No matter what build you are, stealth is a massive help in every single way. You can avoid many encounters that are difficult for your build and significantly increase your advantages in forced encounters.
- If you like speech-based builds in Fallout games, know that persuasion and intimidate are not nearly as good as those games. You can avoid some encounters or get more information with persuasion, but it's few and far in-between.
- Invest in crafting skills to craft gear that will generally be better than any other item you will find as loot.
- You have tons of tools and items at your disposal. Use them! You can always find and craft more.

Despite the problems I had in the beginning of the game, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. The overall gameplay was great, the combat eventually grew on me once my character could finally handle a few hits, and the world is interesting. I'm planning on taking a break from the game before I do another playthrough with the DLC.

This has been one of my favorite games since it has been released. Ive made about 9 characters so far with varied builds.

The combat feels smoother than the previous Souls games. Though, roll-spamming is less punishing than before. The areas are fun, enemies are challenging and interesting, the soundtrack is great, and as usual the difficulty is tough, but fair. There is loads of replayability with the many different builds and weapons you can try out.

This game is amazing. It's hard to beat the adrenaline rush of downing a difficult boss for the first time. If you are new, don't let the learning curve scare you, it's worth it.

UPDATE: My original review was pretty harsh due to the terrible launch and numerous issues Arkham Knight PC had. I have finally been able to play it so I figure it's only fair to update my review.

Arkham Knight is okay. Interesting story, combat and predator encounters are fun as usual, and the sidequests along with exploring Gotham is pretty cool. Overall the game is just ok though.

The biggest issue I have with the entire game is the overabundance of Batmobile related missions. It's a Batman game not a tank shoot-em-up. All of the tank missions just got super boring and repetetive as the game went on. The worst part is many boss battles against villains you were likely expecting to fight hand-to-hand either got replaced with ridiculous vehicle battles or just didn't happen. Surprisingly Arkham Origins and Arkham City were far better about their boss battles.

If you liked the Arkham series you'll probably enjoy the game. I've done my 100% of this, but I don't see myself replaying it again anytime soon, though. Would I recommend the game? Yes. Was it worth all the frustration at the beginning of launch? Probably not.

ORIGINAL: I'd like to preface this review by noting that I have played all of the previous Arkham games and thoroughly enjoyed every single one.

With that said, stay away from this game. I was one of the loyal fans who preordered way back before the initial release where most PC users learned that this was an extremely terrible port. On release day I was experiencing massive stuttering and some graphical glitch I could only describe as polygons vomitted onto the screen. When the game was pulled from the store, I hesistating getting a refund because I was sure there would be numerous patches to fix all the problems.

The interim patch came, and it did nothing for me. I was able to get a little farther into the game this time, past the diner, but the same graphical glitches and stuttering occured. The game was just completely unplayable. I thought "it's just an interim patch, the rest of us will get a fixed version when the full patch comes."

And now, today when I finally got to install Wednesday's patch, I am just in utter disbelief as to what this company has done. Not a single thing has been fixed and the game remains absolutely unplayable. I've been faithful from day 1 that this third and final game in the Arkham trilogy would be incredible, but my faith has been completely shattered.

I wholeheartedly regret making this purchase, moreso because all chances for getting a refund from where I purchased it are slim to none. My only compensation is that I get early access to DLC I can't play, items for TF2 which I haven't played in years, and free Arkham games that I already have. I get nothing except -$50. This game has done nothing but destroy my faith in a developer I loved and has turned me off of all preorders period regardless of whether or not I trust the developer.

Lastly I will say again: Please do not purchase this game. Do not support developers that willingly do this to their customers. Do not make them think that this treatment is okay. It does no good to make them think they can get away with shipping an inferior product as long as they get their payday. Support developers that care about their customers enough to actually put time into their games so that all of their players, console or PC alike, can enjoy a similar product. Please, stay away from Arkham Knight.