Recent reviews by FrontlinerDelta

All of the frustration of an extraction shooter except because the enemies are bots, it's doubled frustration and less satisfaction. It's actually harder to extract in this game when it has soulslike "traps" everywhere even on the "tutorial map" that prevent you from making progress. And since there's no PvP element to it, the satisfaction from a 'good run' is much less.

Good idea, bad execution.

So mote it be.

Super addicting if you like roguelites, coop, and of course FromSoft games. Closest analogue for how it works would be Ravenswatch. 3 days (each day equivalent to 1 Ravenswatch chapter but much shorter time wise), 2 of which are spent on the open world with a shrinking BR style zone that pushes you to confront a boss. The zone resets once and you get a second day to gather more gear, runes, etc. At the end of day 2, if you defeat that boss that night, you will go to a new zone where you will face that run's nightlord. Each of these is a boss tuned for 3 people and, frankly, each one is designed to mimic the classic "FromSoft" style of feeling like you'll never beat it until you finally do and "git gud".

I only had one friend interested in this so we had to always queue with a third. It was not bad. I also ended up playing much more than my friend and so played a lot with randoms and solo. Randoms *can* be a bit of a mixed bag but I've had more capable teammates than incapable and most of my wins have been with randoms. I have not had any wins solo yet but did manage to make it to the nightlord multiples time even before the solo buff. So if your concern is having people to play with, I think both solo and with randoms is totally viable, though solo is pretty rough due to most fights being designed around 3 players.

This game also fixes one of my issues I've always had with FromSoft games outside of Sekiro; that mastering the game still mostly just has you doing little dodge rolls and plinking away with your bread and butter. While that still exists here, each class has an ability and ultimate and these are moves that are on par with the badasss maneuvers you usually only see the bosses get to do in a typical FromSoft game including a full on transformation into a massive beast that has it's own moveset.

While the content can seem a bit light at first, as far as I can tell most of the base game Elden Ring stuff is here with some returning Dark Souls stuff. As you kill nightlords, the game adds more modifiers, story bits unlock, you can unlock character specific runes (meta upgrades that persist between runs) that actually unlock unique moves/skills for some such as Wylder who gets a rune that allows him to get a flaming sword attack after using his grapple hook.

The other great aspect to this formula is: I've only really played Elden Ring twice and only once did I finish it. Having a format like this means you can play through as a Strength barbarian with colossal weapons and get "endgame" stuff that would take 15+ hours to reach normally but here it takes only 15 minutes. Then next round you can play a full Int/Faith caster, then an Arcane/Dex samurai. The variety makes each run feel fresh just by changing class.

If you get easily frustrated though, this also might cause you more grief than joy as reaching the nightlord successfully can often take upwards of 30 minutes so you can't just "go again", you have to run the whole gauntlet each time.

Though, after the first weeked, I'm already finding most groups are capable of reaching the nightlord with a little bit of focus and strategy, even with random teammates. Ping the map, stick together, and maybe check out some tips online (the typical FromSoft obfuscation exists here but with a time limit) to help know what to prioritize one each day and you'll be golden.

Super interesting concept, definitely makes some fumbles though. There's not much to review about a puzzle game without spoiling a lot of the puzzles so I'll just say this:

The roguelike elements are my favorite part but also the source of my frustration. With a roguelike, having the random elements and "making the best out of what you're dealt" is a big part of the draw, however a lot of puzzles are tied to combinations of rooms and even placing them in a connected way. This is fine and there *are* some ways to tip the odds but I think the meta progression is too little, instead of each run helping you get further the next time due to more resources or knowledge, it tends to feel like the game is adding more complexity but is HYPER stingy with more resources.

But the concept, art, and puzzles are fun and intriguing enough that I'd still recommend this pretty easily. It's got room for improvement but it's such a fun idea and it really is pretty addicting to keep "trying again". The pacing/meta resource progression could have just been handled better.

I did go into this with some serious reservations about the removal of glory skills (or at least, they're certainly not as bespoke for each enemy as they were in Eternal) and the constant talk of it being slower...

But it's really not slower, it just has more of a rhythm to the combat than the frenetic dashing and platforming of Eternal. And while I do miss the bespoke glory kill animations, the melee attacks still feel nice and fit that "rhythmic" gameplay this Doom is going for more. You are still fast with a charge, you parry, you melee, you shoot, dodge, etc. And it's all very deliberate but punishing if you "fall out of rhythm".

In other words, I think the game plays better than it looks. Not that there's anything wrong with how it looks but the feel of Dark Ages is certainly unique and I think so far, I do actually prefer this to Eternal's frenetic pace.

Absolutely excellent. Not normally a fan of the JRPG style but it's so well done here and with the addition of parries and dodges like a more action based system, i found it engaging. The visuals look great, the voice acting is excellent, and the music...the music is truly phenomenal.

All with a story that is intriguing, well-paced, and has lasting impact.

There are some minor irritations I have with the game, some things don't work great, some mechanics/secret bosses are honestly more gimmicky than interesting but these are such small flaws and they don't impact the main story in any meaningful way which is just a great experience and I'd highly recommend experiencing it yourself.

Fixes every issue I had with DD1. While most really liked the meta game of DD1, I find it a bit grueling and didn't enjoy managing so many different teams. I like the focus on one team having to adapt to a myriad of situations and the change to a token based combat system feels MUCH superior to the old, more RNG focused one. Visuals also add a lot of nice flair and the newest update adds a bit of a "halfway" point between DD1 metagame and DD2 metagame. Also recommend all character dlcs, each have a lot of flavor and are very fun.

Really fun twist on the They are Billions formula but with extra factions to choose from and two heroes for each faction. Being able to play coop is really nice though it seems to need some additional balancing. The engine does seem to have some odd floatiness to it which is more pronounced in coop and makes micro a bit difficult but overall, very fun game.

Weird balance and super APM ai even on easier settings make it irritating rather than interesting.

Solid sequel. Only minor complaint is the AI art for the technology screens. It's mostly fine but the thumbnails of it on the overall research screen is a tad hard to read and figure out at a glance.

Otherwise, updated visuals, more distinct playstyles for each race, the orbital mechanics (which are not a gimmick but actually quite interesting and really change up the game), and nearly all of the content that Rebellion had, this is exactly what I wanted in a Sins sequel. Couple that with a big engine update that seems to never buckle even with hundreds of ships on screen, all shooting simultaneously, it makes great use of modern hardware. If only Supreme Commander would get this treatment.

With the promise of more ships and an expansion for a fourth race, this is an easy recommendation for those of us who played Sins 1 back it's release over 16 years ago.