Recent reviews by Ziggy

Takes about 9-11 hours to do a complete play-through.


The Good
• Graphics look pretty good. Even on older hardware it is pretty easy to max out the graphics settings and still get a steady 60 FPS, other than a few key points in the game where heavy lag is inevitable.

• The map design is pretty good. One of the few times you can actually have fun while playing this game is when you have a new section of the village to explore.

• This is the first Resident Evil game where inventory space isn't a massive issue. Key items, treasures, and crafting ingredients are all stored in their own sections (with unlimited capacity), so you don't need to spend half the game running back to an item storage box.

• No adaptive difficulty.


The Bad
• There is almost nothing in the game that is "horror" outside of its very excessive use of sound effects. The few attempts that they do make at horror are really poorly done and just seem really low effort.

• There aren't really any puzzles in the game, which is supposed to be a staple of Resident Evil games. The two types of "puzzles" that the game does have are either just pick up an item then take it from point A to point B and use it, or read a note that is directly next to the "puzzle" for the exact solution to it.

• The writing is some of the absolute worst in the series. The way they try to connect a story involving werewolves, mech soldiers, and people with super powers with Resdient Evil 7's story feels, as you'd expect, very forced.

• The characters in this game are introduced and discarded so quickly that none of them have any depth. They only give you a tiny bit of background information on each of them, usually in the form of a bit of text on a scrap of paper somewhere.

• The combat in this game is not fun at all. The developers clearly wanted to make a DOOM-like game, not a Resident Evil game. You're constantly fighting hordes of bullet-sponge enemies, making any progression in the game very annoying and tedious.

• Hardcore difficulty doesn't seem to be much different from normal difficulty except enemies are a bit more bullet-spongie. This doesn't really make the game harder (especially with the ridiculous amount of ammo that is available), it just makes it more annoying and slower to get through the game.

• There are several times in this game when it lags very heavily regardless of how good your PC is or what your graphics settings are. Certain characters have special effects or attacks that will lag the game very heavily. There is also a very noticeable lag spike for just a half-second every single time an enemy dies, for some odd reason.

Takes about 8-10 hours to do a complete play-through (not including DLC).


The Good
• A much more serious story compared the really silly stories of the previous games.

• Graphics are really impressive, particularly for how well the game runs on lower-end hardware.

• Map design and creepy atmosphere are really well done.

• The game does a pretty good job of making you feel anxious/uneasy at many points throughout the story.

• HDR lighting is really good if you have everything set up correctly. One of the few games that isn't afraid to have the game be really dark.

• Madhouse difficulty is really fun. It's just the right difficulty and gives you just enough ammo to get through it. It also changes the way to progress through the game enough to make a second play-through fun and interesting.


The Bad
• For most of the game's bosses it is unclear what you need to do to defeat them. It is often a matter of trial-and-error, just dying several times to figure out what the game wants you to do.

• The game has an adaptive difficulty which makes the game easier every time you die. This can very easily destroy your save game by making the game completely trivial as you die several times trying to figure out the method of solving a puzzle or defeating a boss. There is no way to disable this terrible, game-ruining feature.

• As with all Resident Evil games, your inventory is extremely limited which results in about half of your play time just being you running back to an item box constantly to store items you've picked up or retreive items that you had no way of knowing you'd need. There is absolutely no logical reason for the inventory to be so ridiculously limited.

• The "scary" elements of the game are typically nothing more than cheap "jump scares" and scenes that are so ridiculous to the point that it's just impossible to be immersed into the game at all.

• Cutscenes cannot be skipped. Cutscenes related to boss fights need to be watched through entirely every time you attempt to fight them.

• As with all of the recent Resident Evil games, there is an awful black vignette around the outside of the screen that is intented to make the game look darker/scarier, but it fails to do that and instead just makes the game look uglier. Third-party tools are required to remove it.

Takes about 30-35 hours to do a 100% play-through (including DLCs).


The Good
• Map design is actually pretty good. This game doesn't rely on very long tunnels to awkwardly connect different parts of the map the way the first game did. Zip lines make connecting different areas of the map much neater and quicker for the player to get around.

• Quest log keeps track of your current goals - both main story and side quests. It can occasionally be a bit too vague, but it really helps a lot to let the player know what they're supposed to be doing.

• The story in this game actually informs you of what your objective is, unlike the first game. Although it is possible to deviate from it and accidentally skip chunks of the story, eventually you will end up finding an NPC who gets you back on track. Unlike the first game, this game does a pretty good job of preventing the player from not knowing what they're supposed to be doing.

• The limb-targeting system is a very nice way to mix up the combat. Going after specific parts, either to acquire new gear or to get parts for upgrades, keeps combat fun and interesting.

• A very large number of armor sets and weapons give the player a lot to collect and many different builds to try out. As someone who likes to collect every item in games like this, it was almost a bit overwhelming at times how many armor pieces or weapons I was trying to keep track of.

• Partial set bonuses and full set bonuses for armor help make different armor sets feel more unique. Paired with the game's implant system, it allows for various different builds and play-styles, significantly increasing replayability.

• The story is actually kind of interesting.

• If any DLC packs are owned, they are integrated into the game very seamlessly. This includes the gear packs, which just add additional enemies into fitting areas who have the new items equipped, so they are obtained the same way any other piece of equipment is. The story DLC also fits in seamlessly to a part of the game where you would naturally be in the area that it takes place in.


The Bad
• The game has a bad habit of just surrounding the player with a number of enemies as a way of trying to make the game difficult. Enemies don't really get a whole lot more difficult as the game progresses, they just tend to be in bigger groups. It would be much better if they could just make individual enemies that are challenging to fight on their own.

• Many of the late-game bosses feel much easier than the early-game bosses. The final boss of the game was one of the easiest to defeat.

• Hitboxes aren't great... There are occasional attacks that clearly miss the player but still do damage. Not nearly as bad as the first game, but could still use improvement.

• When you die you start with no heals and have to recharge them by fighting a bunch of enemies. This takes a few minutes to do and is very annoying if a boss takes multiple attempts to defeat because you can't just go straight back to the boss.

• Recharging healing injectables by dealing damage to enemies makes the game too easy. With certain builds it can often feel like the most efficient strategy for many bosses is just to tank their attacks while constantly healing and attacking relentlessly to recharge your heals. It also takes away the suspense of being away from a medbay for too long because you'll almost never be low on heals.

• Camera is sometimes annoying, getting stuck in awkward places. There is nothing preventing the camera from going through objects or walls, completely blocking you from seeing anything. Because the right analog stick is used to target limbs when locked on to an enemy, you have absolutely no control over the camera to adjust it.

• There are way too many shortcuts back to the medbays. It feels like you can't go more than a few minutes without finding another shortcut back. This makes the map a lot more annoying to navigate at times because there's such a ridiculous number of paths out from the medbay you lose track of what leads to where.

• For both the main quests and side quests it is very easy to accidentally skip large chunks of them. For side quests it is possible to start them half way through, completely skipping the first half, but NPCs will still act as if you didn't (for example, acting as if they asked you to do something for them).

• The limb-targeting system is still very frustrating to use. I often spend more time trying to get the very finicky system to target a specific limb than I do actually fighting the enemy. Occasionally the game will randomly switch to targeting a different limb as you are attacking an enemy, even if you don't touch the right analog stick at all.

• The lock-on system in general has a number of issues. It will almost always try to lock-on to the enemy that is furthest away from you instead of the one that is two feet in front of you and in the center of the screen. Sometimes it will even lock-on to an enemy that is behind you and very far away instead of the one you're looking at. Sometimes it will just randomly remove your lock-on for no explicable reason.

• There are a few parts of the map that look like they should be safe to jump to but just instantly kills the player if landed on.

Takes around 25-30 hours to do a 100% play-through (including the DLCs).


Positives
• Some pretty neat ideas in the game. One of the only souls-inspired games that doesn't just lazily copy the leveling system of Dark Souls. The leveling system in this game is really clever, and surprisingly pretty well balanced.
• When it actually works correctly, the limb-targeting system is a very nice way to make this game's combat unique. You can target parts you need to upgrade the equipment you have, or target parts that you want to take from the enemy to equip yourself.


Negatives
• There is absolutely no logic in how the player is supposed to progress at several points in the game. You will completely explore an entire map, end up either at a dead end or back at the start of the map, and have no idea what to do next. Sometimes doors/paths are inexplicably now open in previous maps and you are just somehow supposed to know that you should go to a random point in the previous map, which you've already explored, in order to progress.
• Despite the amount of dialogue, cutscenes, or available NPCs, the game makes absolutely no attempt to communicate to the player what their current goal is. About half the game is probably spent just wandering around aimlessly in maps that you've already fully explored several times trying to figure out what you're supposed to be doing now.
• You'll often hit switches and have absolutely no idea what they do. The game makes no effort to communicate important information to the player.
• The combat system in this game is completely broken. An attack will miss you by a very large distance and the game will still say you took massive damage from it.
• The combat system is deliberately designed so you can really only take on one enemy at a time, so of course the developers make it "challenging" by constantly surrounding the player with enemies that just relentlessly attack in a group.
• Often times the game will not register that the player has pressed the dodge button, or will dodge in a different direction than the player said to, of course causing the player to then take a lot of damage or even die. Other times it will do the dodge and successfully avoid the attack, but just say that you got hit by it anyways.
• The limb-targeting system is very frustrating to use. I often have to spend more time trying to get the game to lock on to a specific limb than I do actually fighting an enemy. Targeting a specific limb is usually very finicky, and after you finally do get the limb you want the game will often just snap back to another limb because the game doesn't have a dead zone set for the right analog stick.
• Enemies are often very poorly designed, and the bosses feel like very little effort was put into designing their attacks. The developers have no clue how to make an enemy challenging properly. A lot of times they just rely on surrounding the player with enemies or boss fights with a bunch of unavoidable/sporadic attacks. Boss fights often feel like a gear check, making sure you have enough meds to tank all of the unavoidable hits long enough to drain the boss's health bar.
• The game will occasionally stop rendering the visuals of enemy attacks. For example, if an enemy is using a flamethrower it would make the sound of fire being sprayed, but no fire can be seen. Many attacks in this game rely on these types of visual effects so this can be completely game-breaking when it happens.
• The map design in this game is the absolute laziest I have ever seen. Many areas of the map are awkwardly connected by long tunnels. You probably spend around 30% of the game just running through these horribly designed tunnels because the map designers didn't want to find creative ways to connect the maps like From Software does.
• Every map is a labyrinth. The game has way too many shortcut paths going back to the same locations, and it makes navigating the maps an absolute nightmare, particularly so if you take a short break from the game and then come back to it (seriously, good luck figuring out which of the 50 paths out of the medbay area is the one you're supposed to be on - you'll just keep circling back to the medbay over and over and over and over, losing your mind).
• A lot of issues with the camera not being where it should, being difficult to control, or finding a way to jam itself up against an enemy or wall so the player cannot see what they're doing.
• Game randomly crashed several times.
• The game has a lot of issues with the Steam overlay. It's very slow to respond and multiple times it caused my graphics driver to crash (causing my PC to freeze up until the game eventually crashed).
• Playing in fullscreen mode has a lot of issues with alt-tabbing, but playing in borderless windowed mode causes frame rates to be very unstable and the game to lag severely in areas where it would be very smooth in fullscreen mode.
• The story for this game isn't interesting at all.

Takes about 15 hours to do a 100% play-through, or closer to 10 hours if you just want the core story.


Positives
• The first chapter (of the game's three) has an interesting story with twists that keep you interested in what will happen next.
• Unique methods of story-telling that aren't typically used for this type of game.
• A large amount of background story to find for people who take the time to explore the areas and read through everything.
• They finished the entire game before releasing it. Episodes are released a week apart rather than months apart.


Negatives
• As with all of Dontnod's games, the ending isn't satisfying and the final choice makes no sense in relation to the game's story.
• So many choices have very short time restrictions for no reason before the game just makes a choice for you. The timer bar is very small and hard to notice.
• Very easy to miss important things because you say or do something not knowing it will force the story to progress and lock you out of an area or interaction.
• Characters always react to long pieces of text immediately when they're opened, before you have a chance to read them.
• Characters sometimes interupt themselves or each other for less important or less interesting dialogue because they are scripted to walk around and talk about certain things after set amounts of time.
• Characters allow very little time to explore an area before they start their constant pestering about moving on to whatever you're intended to do to progress the story.
• It can often be difficult to find the exact place the game wants you to stand or point the camera to interact with something.
• Even though the episodes are not sold individually and were released only a week apart, the first two episodes still have post-credits spoiler videos for the following episode.

A pretty decent puzzle-platformer. You have ten seconds to complete each of the game's 100 levels (70 unique to this game plus all 30 levels remade from the first game), but the goal is to figure out how to complete the level in the shortest time possible. The challenge in this game comes from trying to figure out how to navigate each level in a short enough time to get a three star rating, while also having the platforming skills to pull it off. If you're not into the puzzle element of figuring out how to complete each level the game does have a hint system that will show you the intended route to take.

The platforming does feel a little loose and inconsistent at times. There are times where it seemed like I wasn't getting hit by a hazardous obstacle, but would die from it anyways. You also keep a little bit of momentum when you try to stop, which can sometimes feel like you're sliding on ice or something, and that does get kind of annoying. However, once you get used to this, most of the levels are timed tightly enough that it does feel satisfying to complete and get a three star rating.

It'll take around three hours to complete the game if you're moderately experienced with difficult platformer games.

Most of the game's difficulty comes from mechanics that don't work quite right, inaccurate hitboxes, unfair RNG, and just bad level design. I have died so many times because the game wouldn't allow me to grab a ledge or a hook even though I was in the correct placement for it. Some levels even intentionally exploit the fact that this grab mechanic is so poorly designed for added difficulty. The hit boxes are also very off for some obstacles and enemies, causing you to die from seemingly nothing at all at times.

The game's story is terrible. The writer is the type of person who thinks they're being really funny just by using a bunch of swear words. There aren't really any actual jokes in the game, but it is clearly trying very hard to be funny anyways. Fortunately there aren't many cutscenes and all of them can be skipped.

The game has a pretty decent amount of content and plenty of secrets to find. It could've been an amazing platformer game if the developer spent a bit more time getting the mechanics to work right and relied less on RNG for some levels.

The story levels only take a few hours to complete. If you're experienced with difficult 2D platformer games you can probably 100% the game in around 15-20 hours.

• Map design is pretty good.
  
• Able to warp between bonfires from the beginning of the game.

• Many unnecessary changes to the combat system from the first game that just overcomplicate things.
  
• Too many stats on gear, can be a bit overwhelming at first.
  
• Combat feels very slow-paced and dodging feels very sluggish.
  
• Ranges of many enemy attacks are longer/wider than their actual weapon model, causing the player to frequently take damage from attacks that shouldn't have hit them.
  
• Dropped inputs seems to be an occasional problem.
  
• The game will frequently switch the target I am locked on to for no apparent reason, often to a target that is further away or in a completely different direction.
  
• Maximum health is reduced on each death.
  
• No offline mode. Unlike the first game you can't avoid PvP by just staying in hollow form.

Not necessarily a bad game, but it generally won't appeal to the same crowd that Dark Souls did. Too many changes to the combat system make it just not fun to use, in my opinion. Way too many new stats for the player and gear, which aren't explained well and really just overcomplicate things.

The combat in this game doesn't feel nearly as fluid as it does in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls or Dark Souls 3. In Dark Souls 2 the combat feels very sluggish (specifically dodging), which can make it difficult to control precisely.

Not a game I would recommend to fans of the other Dark Souls games.

• Absolutely amazing map design.
  
• Melee combat system is really good.
  
• Player is rewarded for exploration and patience.
  
• Bosses are generally well-designed.
  
• Feels very satisfying to finally kill a boss after several unsuccessful attempts.
  
• Many different paths in the game take you to where you need to go, but differ in difficulty.
  
• Decent variety of gear makes it possible to play through the game with different types of character builds.

• Locked at 30 frames per second (and you really feel it in this game).
  
• Some enemies have broken hitboxes.
  
• Game seems to have an issue with occasional dropped inputs.
  
• Some buttons on the controller occasionally stopped working, requiring a restart of the game to fix.
  
• Some magic attacks that the player can use are very overpowered.
  
• There are several ways to cheat in this game, and none of them are marked as cheats. Possible to completely ruin your experience by accidentally using them.
  
• One of the late-game areas is in a very unfinished state because the developer's were unable to finish the game in the time allotted.
  
• No offline mode. While PvP can be avoided by not going to human form, there are still other online features that may not appeal to everyone.

While this is one of the funnest games I have ever played, it is also a somewhat broken game. A decent number of my deaths in this game were caused by things beyond my control, such as broken hitboxes, dropped inputs, game mechanics just not working right, etc.

The fact that the game doesn't explain anything doesn't just make the game harder, it can actually make the game way too easy. There are many ways to cheat your way through this game (start with the master key, drake sword, overpowered magic attacks, using bows to kill enemies outside of their aggro zone, etc.), and none of these things are marked as cheats. It's very easy for someone to think it's fair to use these things and completely ruin their first play-through of this game because of that.

No subsequent play-throughs of this game will ever feel anywhere near as satisfying either. The two things that make this game fun are exploring new areas and learning how to take down new types of enemies. Once you've done both of those things the game loses a lot of its appeal and its difficulty.

Overall a very, very fun game to play though, despite its flaws. If you're interested in playing this game but are put off by its reputation for being a difficult game I recommend you give it a try. The game isn't nearly as difficult as people make it out to be. It's a game that requires patience and persistance to get through, rather than skill.


Note: The time on record for me for this game is not accurate due to being required to play with Steam in offline mode. As I said, there is no option to disable PvP in Dark Souls so putting Steam in offline mode is the only option for people who PvP does not appeal to.

• A fun game overall.
  
• The harder difficulties can provide situations to challenge experienced FPS players.

• Very short story. (~10 hours)
  
• Too many cliches made the story boring and predictable.
  
• Ridiculous amount of health and armor pickups often make even the hardest difficulty a joke.
  
• Enemies are generally very dumb. It often takes them several seconds to react to something.
  
• Poorly placed checkpoints can cause some missions to be skipped or unable to be completed.
  
• No anti-aliasing options or support for downsampling.

Worth a play-though if you can get it for a decent price.