Recent reviews by Wide Lenin

Hekki ALLMO, sisters.

Very quite good.

Fun, flashy combat. Interesting gear upgrade progression mechanic, colourful and interesting world to explore, cool mystery at the center of the plot.

Personally I just love it because of the Age of Exploration tech level. Not enough games let me hold a sword in one hand and a ye olde pistol in the other.

Suffers only from overly quippy party members, and being dragged into the culture war by absolute weirdos.

Maybe not the best game, but it was made specifically for *me.*

Update: Near the end! The last explorable area is really rushed and buggy. Combat is still fun. Some of the story beats feel very at-odds with one another with one major choice upsetting a character that, up until that point, made the outcome of that choice seem like the very thing they're striving for.

This is very much a mid-market game. I recommend it still! If your $80 CAD isn't a huge hit to your wallet or a first person fantasy RPG is something you need in your life this moment, pick it up. Otherwise wait for a sale and a few bug fixes.

If you love uncovering the entire map and doing all the side quests, beware the Sporeking in the last area. You can pick up his bounty item twice. If you pick it up twice, you can't submit the bounty. Worst bug I've encountered, set me back an hour.

Shameless review for the awards challenge but I quite like it. Слава Україні!

I have two complaints.

Not a fan of the setting undergoing Sci-Fi-ification via elf tech. I like Bellara fine enough but her dialogue makes her sound straight out of a crystalpunk magitek world. Dragon Age has always been bonkers but personally hearing the phrase "we have to deactivate the artefact" rubs me up in the same way as people "firing" bows in pre-gunpowder settings.

The second thing is the quippiness. DA has been quip-happy since 2, so I expected it, and it isn't deployed in an insecure Marvel sort of way, but there are periods where its non-stop in the early game.

Other than that, the combat's great, character creator's great. Underdog provides spicy combat moments, though I feel like Nightmare might be the way to go. Unless you're not here for the gameplay, then hey, Storyteller is cool too. I love the facial animations personally, feels like after Myfaceistired Effect Andromeda and Anthem, the studio has dialled in expressive faces without getting too stylised. The game looks good too, beautiful environments, though I wish there was more reason to explore than just to pick up gold and the occasional crafting material.

Lastly, disclosure, I have a nice PC. I worked to make it nice, and have been increasingly annoyed at games coming out DEMANDING I use upscaling and frame generation for the game to not run like absolute ass. And this one doesn't. Runs smooth at ultra everything with no cheap attempts to hide garbage optimisation behind DLSS, FRSSFESFESSFS, PiSS, and Whatever ElseSS.

I like this game.

Its great! But do yourself a favor and play this after Owlcat's next game drops. As of right now, the final act is a buggy, unfinished mess that's a bit of a slog to go through and pales in comparison to act 2.

If you don't want to wait, in its current state the combat is really fun and encourages you to get a grip on the class system. Its easy to break this combat in half, easier than even in Pathfinder since the lowered number of classes but heightened options per class means its much easier to figure out the underlying engine driving stat interactions and end up with the adventuring party equivalent of a Magic the Gathering infinite loop algorithm deck.

The world writing and stories in this game are great and immersive. The companions are fine. Don't expect frequent conversations or slowly developing stories or relationships, each character gets one or two scenes per act at best.

Dialogue options are some of the most interesting out of any cRPG. Given that you're dealing with a universe that's so grim-dark that it sometimes feels insecure of itself, it gives you some real over-the-top dialogue choices. Its also an RPG where playing a more stereotypical hero is refreshing, given that you're trying to be a hopeful champion among a swath of bloodthirsty zealots. Giving in and rolling with the absurd zealotry is just as fun. Haven't tried heretic options yet, but even if they're mid, you're still 2/3 on alignment quality.

The ship combat is an unavoidable nuisance but you'll end up steam-rolling enemy encounters eventually. Try to blitz torpedoes and get a colony event that gets you a powerful lance weapon early.

Colony management is borderline vestigial compared to the other games, but you're not really here to play Kingmaker so its fine.

The loading screens are endless while doing space exploration given that, unlike the Pathfinder games, loading into a map from the overworld doesn't load you into a character level but a ship level, which will sometimes then require you to navigate to a planet and load to a character level. It gets a bit tedious when you're catching up on any last tasks before the next act starts.

Overall, I had my fun with it. Captures and conveys the setting of 40K like nothing else if a little lacking in interesting characters. Except for Pasqal and Abelard. Never let them leave your party. Never.

The devs destroying the economy to milk their customers is not "off-topic." It is a core part of game design. If the game design is predatory, if it punishes its players unless they pay money to make the problem go away, it is bad design. And last I checked, writing a review calling out bad design is absolutely not "off-topic."

Yes, yes, yes, all of my yes.

The characters are to die for, the art is gorgeous, the story has so many interesting moving parts all acting together. You can only influence so much of the story at a time, leading to events occurring that are simply out of your control. Plenty of wonder and tragedy and the bitter-sweet stuff in the middle. I can't recommend this game enough. It'll be living rent-free in my mind til I'm gone.

100000/10, needs more dogboy.

Something something "game bad because only x hours for y dollar."

Its Dead Space but more. If you liked Dead Space, you'll love Dead Space but more. There's more to do, more to find, and the entire ship being traversable without a loading screen adds to its enormous scale. They even tie it in more with the events of 2 and 3, so here's hoping we might get a 3-make with the nonsense EA forced Visceral to shove in there at the time removed.

Good game. Get it if you can and if you want more Dead Space. Play the original if you're strapped for cash and get this on sale.

Definitely a On Sale type of buy.

Its not Dead Space, and Striking Distance deserves the flak for releasing a terribly stuttering game, even if they did patch the performance to a mostly good level within a day.

I've found the reaction to this game being "awful" and "the worst thing ever" and even just "bad" to be overblown. The combat is meaty and satisfying, just takes some getting used to. The hardest difficulty is punishing enough to contribute the horror missing from the rest of the game. Its not scary, its just intense. But that's fine! The game has plenty of atmosphere, and fights are tense, its just no Ishimura.

The linearity is severe, and you're often roped into combats you can't get out of or around. Your tool set is very limited and there's little to experiment with. But you do get enough tools to at least have your own strategy when it comes to different fights. You might blast enemies from range to disable ranged bastards, then move in to smack zombies about with your stun baton. I personally yank the biggest, ugliest thing I see and throw it off the map and then charge into the biggest meat pile possible.

The character controls stiffly, but not in a way that seems unintentional. Again, the combat takes some getting used to, but its manageable and suitably tense. Your strikes are heavy, you commit to each attack or evasion, and there's no elegant Dark Soulsing through an enemy's hit box with i frames. You're a clunky meat man fighting clunky zombies, not a grim fantasy boy with a great sword and 120 stat points in strength and a snappy dodge button.

Story's a bit of a wash, though. Half-way through and you basically only know two characters, and "get off the moon" never stops being your main objective. No twists or turns early on. Levels drag a bit, too. Few chapters, each long as hell. But the combat arenas vary enough, and its always fun to walk into a green-grey industrial room and leave it sticky and crimson.

I'd say picks it up on sale. I had a good time with it, but it tried to sell itself as New Dead Space. It ain't new Dead Space. Its something different and executed clunkily, and I commend Striking Distance for trying something new. But this ain't Dead Space, don't go in expecting it to be.

Buggy, rough, but fast and fun. Culture progression is enjoyable, and picking a path that makes a humorless history buff's head spin is always a plus. Balance seems to change with every playthrough though, especially in regards to influence and the features you spend influence on.