Recent reviews by Arth

Video version: https://youtu.be/eDnPlMSm9Wc

TLDR @ Bottom

Warframe is an addictive, fast third person shooter, with a movement system that is both complicated and rewarding to master. With a heavy focus on trying out new mechanics, like guns, or characters called "warframes" there's always something for a player to do.

With very little focus on cover and a large emphasis placed on movement abilities, combat remains intense and compelling. Instead of hiding behind a chest high wall, a player can jump forward into the fray, dodging bullets while returning their own in kind. Depending on ones warframe, it will take very few shots to end a players life. This focus on movement, is so unbelievebly fun, and directly influences ones own contribution, as this game is not a party game. Enemies do not increase in durability with players, or sponge bullets. Not only can a player complete an entire mission by itself, but completing for others is just as easy. Enemies are enjoyable fodder to most characters, so theres a clear emphasis on learning control.

While there are a large variety of mission types available, they aren't what's truely interesting or attention grabbing. Warframe has an intricate, yet simple item system. Every "planet" is a hub of missions. Each mission type has a specific set of rewards. Rewards range from pieces of a new character, "mods", weapon pieces, or crafting materials used to make characters and weapons. It's quite common to see players of different skill levels mixing together on multiple planets, collecting resources together. There's even more reward when other game mechanics are thrown into the mix. Mission types called sorties, nightmares, or "kuva" can spawn on planets randomly. These mission types alter levels they spawn on, making them harder, giving unique rewards while also giving a missions regular rewards. On top of this, some missions reward an item called a "relic". These relics can be opened through fissure missions, that also spawn on top of a regular mission. Relics will reward a random piece of rare equipment from a list associated to its type. All of these mechanics come together to create a compelling system of showering players with positivity. Each mission is progress towards a goal, lining up multiple mission types together, doubling the reward, and thus gaining new toys to play with faster, feels rewarding.

Players can customize themselves with the modification system. Each warframe, and weapon comes with mod slots. There is a maximum number of mods that can be added to it, and a maximum number of drain. Drain is subtracted from the weapons total number of slots. A player can combine any number of statistics, such as critical hits, status effects or weapon penetration to a weapon. Augmenting weapons in this way, lets players try out new playstyles. For example, adding penetration, or even larger critical hits to see massive damage numbers is really fun.

There's also the free to play (f2p) system. Warframes premium currency is platinum, unobtainable through the game inherently, instead platinum can be traded to other players. The regular currency "credits" is untradable, and players may not purchase some items from the in game shop with platinum, such as modifications (mods). These mods are spread throughout the game, with rarities and drop chances attributed to them. This system insures that player trading stays alive. The biggest issue though is that there is no in game reference of pricing for new players. They must either go to a third party website, or brave the in games trading channels to find others to trade with. This gives a bit of a predatory air to the trading system, as new players are more likely to pay more for items than they should.

The new player experience in terms of U.I isn't the best. Its pretty, but there are in some cases far too many clicks, clutter and aesthetic over function. The foundries icons in some cases are a little much. It takes time to learn the U.I, along with the game, when U.I should be intuitive.

Warframes come in all shapes and sizes. There are a mixture of spellcasting, melee and gun focused frames. These characters are generally quite unique from each other, and are hidden across the game inside quests and missions. Though character balance is all over the place. Some of the older characters need some sort of update, or rework to fit into new design, and some of the leading characters that are great, or excel at everything could use a little bit of down tweaking. There is real power disparity between characters that should be addressed. Certain characters can reduce others interactivity with a level, clearing it on a whim.

Overall, warframe is a really good game. There's a constant influx of new toys to play with and tweak. With an interesting modification and level system, players get to have fun just playing. The goal of the game is to just play, try things and have fun. I recommend this game whole heartedly.

TLDR:
Pros:
Fast exciting combat
Intricate level system
Intricate item system
Fun characters and weapons

Cons:
Character balance
U.I
New player trading experience

I play all games I review live @ twitch.tv/guudjah

Video version: https://youtu.be/FQSuKuCIExk

TLDR @ Bottom

Terraria is a 2d exploration and crafting game, focused on crafting and combat. Players start out with nothing but a guide, and over time create a small psuedo city for various npc's that inhabit the world, while exploring collecting resources and fighting large, tough bosses.

Progression is handled through several tiers of equipments, and splitting characters into psuedo-classes. Each class is created through obtaining specific sets, and accessories, adding unique bonuses to that class. Melee, ranged, magic and summoning are the four main classes. Players are free to mix and match accessories to create bonus combinations as they see fit. This adds some much needed depth to the game, and co-operative play elements, as players can specialize themselves to form parties for exploration and boss killing.

Classes are quite well balanced. Melee can take quite a bit of punishment to make up for being close to enemies, while magic and ranged classes can go down from a few stray projectiles. While the summoner class, the weakest of all in terms of durability, can utilize all other classes weapons to make up for their lack of ability to do active damage. Each and every class archtype is quite fun to play in their own right. Though as difficulty increases diversity of item choice suffers. Some of the end game sets are quite helpful in party play compared to others, such as being able to specialize a mage as a psuedo healer. Or maximizing defensibility as a melee class. Some mechanics added later far overpower their counterparts due to difficulty of content, which is sad as there is a very diverse item pool.

Exploration is quite fun as well, worlds can be generated as small, medium or large, which modifies how many chests, and how deep or large the world is. With every world being finite, a world can generate with insufficient loot for an entire party of friends, or for a single individual, as chests can spawn with % chances to drop loot unique to that one chest. Players may find themselves generating multiple worlds looking for specific loot in unique chests or areas scattered throughout the world, remaking several homes along the way. While this can be irritating worlds can generate with unique elements such as "biomes". A biome is a unique area, such as a forest, ice or one of the unique biomes called either "corruption" or "crimson". These two specific biomes, cannot spawn in the same world. Both corruption and crimson have unique drops and bosses attributed to them, so making a new world can be an exciting proposition. Also worlds will spawn with unique ore, however most ore is interchangable with others, making the variety a neat aesthetic addition, without mechanical depth.

The gameplay loop is quite interesting and compelling as players are constantly upgrading equipment, exploring, finding unique encounters, enemies and npcs, while progressing towards fighting the next boss. With plenty of bosses to fight, items to be found, gameplay always feels fresh and exciting. It's possible that the stalest moments are at the start of the game, as players are their slowest in both mobility and ability to dig. So it can feel like a drag at the start if one chooses to mine.

Bosses are fair, fun, and quite challenging. Every boss having a unique gimmick, and a complete disregard for walls, bosses are aggressive and powerful beings that will keep players on their toes. With the addition of "expert" mode, bosses have multiple phases that they activate when hitting certain percantages of missing life. These phases change up the boss fight, challenging players to stay focused. When defeated players are rewarded with unique items specific to expert mode. A great reward for taking on the additional challenge.

One of the biggest flaws of terraria as it has grown over the years is its ability to balance new content. Some items and sets added later in its lifespan dwarf all counterparts at that level of play. Such as the dungeon defenders items added through the tavernkeep. Some of those sets are far better than their counterparts, and easier to obtain. Some of the sets later such as the spectre sets ability to heal, is far superior to its alternative, as end game content is balanced with these sets in mind. Some end game "events" are giant hordes of monsters that last several minutes. These waves are chock full of enemies that fire multiple projectiles that crowd the screen. It's a huge explosion of enemies and projectiles that feels less like well designed content, and more like an equipment check. It's exciting to be sure, but nowhere near as fun as Terrarias regular content.

The modding community is quite active as well. There are several mods touting hundreds of items, several bosses and a new class. These mods are quite fun, if not well balanced, they can add a good few hours onto Terraria's already extensive time played. One of the biggest problems though is that there is no mod integration inherent in the game. Instead players are recommended to install a third party mod loader.

There has also been several large patches adding new content, such as the "events" and new bosses. These come with a plethora of items, from equipment to creativity tools. It is suprising at how well a 2d pixelated house can look. There are even accesories and equipment to help one make their house look as pretty and as perfect as they would like.

Overall Terraria is a great, game with an addictive gameplay loop. I would highly recommend this game at full price, and especially so on sale. Later patches have narrowed player choice slightly, however what has been added far outweighs what it removed.

TLDR:

PROS:
Great gameplay loop
Tons of items, and equipment
Difficulty options with rewards
Fun boss fights
Class customization
Hundreds of hours of replaybility

CONS:
Class customization narrows drastically
End game "event" content is shallow
Lack of mod integration
New items too powerful compared to pre-existing
Recreating worlds to find items

Game streamed live @ twitch.tv/guudjah for review purposes

Video version: https://youtu.be/jrZCLgRbCDQ

TLDR @ Bottom

Rogue Legacy is a metroidvania/roguelike that is fast, exciting, challenging, intense and simple all at the same time. Players first pick a character of three characters with randomly selected spells and traits. Then they are tasked with making their way through four areas, sporting unique challenges, enemies and a single boss. Defeating all four bosses unlocks the final area, after which the game resets to New Game+

Player progression is handled by a castle themed upgrade tree. Each point in an upgrade will unlock a new subset of upgrades, including passive character strength, new classes and new class abilities. Once unlocked new characters are rotated into the randomly selected pool of available characters and will show up on a future playthrough, while statistic increases are applied instantly. Characters are also further customized through blacksmithing and enchanting. The blacksmith lets players customize their passive statistics such as armour, attack and mana points, while the enchantress supplies a combination of active and passive benefits. Runes can give additional jumps, instant dashes both on the ground and air, or temporary hovering/flight.

Though the combat is inherently simple off the start, utilizing at most three buttons, there is no lack of intensity or skill requirement. Enemies fire barrages of bullets, some piercing walls and in general move towards the player. Attacking does not hold the player in position, instead players may glide backwards without turning while swinging at enemies. This allows for quick, fast paced spacing that can mean the difference between killing a foe, and getting smashed by a large overhead swing. Runes allow players to instantly dash in and out of combat while swinging, allowing players to chip down foes without ever being touched, or double jump through multiple strings of bullets. New spells are unlocked through characters, and class specific buttons further add to combat depth. Most upgrades not only keep combat fresh, but add new layers keeping the game fun and fresh.

One of the underdeveloped sides of Rogue Legacy include character traits. After each death players must choose one of three heroes, which admittedly is themed quite well. Each character is equipped with up to three traits, which aren't very interesting. There are memey traits, such as farting when jumping, abjectly bad traits such as inverting the entire game to be upside down. The best traits turn off traps, or make the player smaller allowing them to access unique tunnel systems. There's very little player interaction here, no incentivization to take negative traits, as there are no positive benefits to be had. So character selection sometimes degrades to two viable choices, and in some cases one. It would be nice to have a reason to select negatively traited characters other than under the pretense of challenging yourself.

With the inclusion of traits character selection issues can be further exacerbated by the stat upgrade system. Players may specialize their upgrades for a playstyle they enjoy, whether it be spells, physical attacks or the ability to tank hits. Through the randomly generated select screen it is entirely possible and frequent to get multiples of the same class, or classes of an opposing archtype, resulting in spell focused barbarians, or physically adept mages that don't even begin to compare to their counterparts. The character selection screen alone pushes the statistic upgrade system towards generalized upgrades, to compensate for the gaggle of barbarians that can show up at any point.

Map generation is pretty good with only one noticable flaw. As with all randomly generated maps, there are the occasional dead end, or odd path required to enter a new area, however they're few and far between. The biggest flaw is that some areas are a detriment to fall into, as they don't have the same security features as a player ascending to a new screen. Any player heading up will transition onto a wooden platform allowing them to assess the rooms difficulty before hopping in. Players taking the plunge can fall into spikes, on top of enemies and generally to their deaths on rooms that do not have a falling platform to halt their descent. This is particularly true in the last areas of the game as the player is mostly descending.

Bosses themselves are quite fun, though not as inherently hard as the levels before them. In most cases boss difficulty comes about by running out of resources, making them inherently harder as the player may make less mistakes. They're fun, fair and challenge different skill sets.

Each area remains fun to progress through after a boss is killed for two main reasons. Firstly are the chests. These grant players gold, blueprints and runes, with a limit as to each per area. Some come with unique challenges like wiping out a room, avoiding damage or platforming, others are intertwined with mini bosses that instantly unlock passive stat upgrades such as armour, or damage.

Keep in mind that grinding passive stats to offset skill, or enemy strength is a real element to this game. It's obfuscated really well, as the combat remains exciting, expect if you do particularly well in the first areas for enemies to go from a hit or two to 5-7 to kill.

Overall I highly recommend rogue legacy, it's mostly fair, exciting, and has a great overall design. Its flaws are annoying but not a deal breaker for me. I bought this game at full price, and do not regret it. You're looking at a 10+ hour main game experience, and that's where the meat of the game lies.

TLDR:

Pros:
Exciting fast combat
Evolving combat through upgrades
Fun bosses
Unique areas with progressively tougher enemies
New class unlocks

Cons:
Poor character selection system
Bad trait system
Players can transition downwards into taking hits

Entire game played live @ twitch.tv/guudjah for review purposes.

Video Version: https://youtu.be/MFZZs88lnXc

(TLDR @ bottom)

Vermintide 2 is a co-op, first person, melee action game that is beyond exciting when combat starts. With 15 available classes across 5 characters, paired with a good variety of weapons, there is no lack of variety in both playstyles and character choice. The game focuses on co-operative party play mechanics, such as a player being stunned by enemies until saved by an ally, paired with map objectives that vary. With maps taking anywhere from 10-25 minutes to complete replayability is quite high.

There's great variety to weapons as well, meaty slow weapons that clobber enemies off their feet and fast weapons that can slice through hordes. Each weapon is paired with its own attack string. A combination of attacks that can be cancelled at any time by blocking, or alternated with charged heavy attacks. Each weapons attack combination can have a different angle to it, with some weapons having sweeps alternating with thrusting attacks. Some weapons also have unique properties such as damage over time, increased cleave or higher charged damage. This makes weapon control not only key, but fun and rewarding. Cancelling attack combinations, maximizing damage over time while dozens of enemies are piling up on all sides trying to lunge in to nick at whatever sense of control you have left, leaving a sense of euphoria when combat ends.

Combat is handled through several enemy types: horde, ambush, special-elite, patrol, and monster. Hordes and ambushes spawn throughout a level at an adjusted timer. Every match it's a little different. With hordes focused on overwhelming a party through sheer numbers, while ambushes tend to attack from every nook and cranny behind players backs. Specials are a much stronger single enemy that attempts to ambush and disrupt players. Usually by stunning and damaging one member or causing a massive area of effect. Elites are enemies who show up throughout the level that take more effort to take down. They're usually strong against weapons without armour piercing values. Monsters are huge monstrosities that challenge a players party to survive, they are usually accompanied with mini ambushes. All monsters have huge health pools and unique attack patterns and gimmicks attributed to them that make fighting each one fun.

Classes add a degree of specialization, they just have a little too much power in their intended roles. There are all-rounder classes that do well in all situations paired with classes that do one role too well. If a player specializes in clearing out hordes, they can do that really well. Amazingly well even, to the point that most of their team will be ineffectual for the duration. While they do trade power in other roles, someone who takes a weapon and class focused on dealing with a horde will be utterly useless when it comes time to fight elites, monsters and bosses. Other classes can specialize in taking out bosses, taking out much larger percentages of monsters and bosses healths than other players. Vermintide is far more fun when players specialize for balanced play. When classes specialize, they remove interaction from other players, lower the excitement inherent in fighting off hordes of monsters, and drastically lower the difficulty of fighting a monster. All of which are the strongest aspects of the game.

Player retention is handled through the games item system. New players start with items that have a power level of 5. Each time the player levels up or obtains a loot box (by completing a level) power increases slightly. A characters innate power based on their level and weapons can add up to a total of 600 power. This takes quite a few hours to achieve. Each loot box contains a random weapon that can be white/green/blue/orange/red, with the players level effecting the chances of obtaining a higher colour, red being the highest and best quality of loot. Green has one value, blue has two, orange has two plus a trait (a unique weapon property such as a temporary buff), and red has two values a trait and maximum rolls on those values.

Each unwanted item can be destroyed in exchange for resources to craft new or randomize a weapons values or a trait again. Values include properties such as block stamina, or power vs specific enemy types. Some weapons and items require specific values to function or feel effective at higher levels in the game. This means a player could expect to spend large batches of time re-randomizing weapons and equipment to get the combination they would like. These values are also randomized, for example a weapon can have 5-10% power vs armoured. This can feel like a slog, and feels unwarranted. Red items remove the need to maximize rolls, but they're so rare, a player could potentially expect weeks in between each one.

The item system compounds a problem with new player experience. Power effects not only the damage a player does, allowing them to scale into higher difficulties, but also a weapons ability to penetrate and stagger enemies. A new player trying a weapon will hit less enemies and potentially not stagger enemy attacks, that they will be able to stagger at higher power values. Weapons can feel better at higher levels of power, causing the need to re-assess weapons at higher power. This is an arbitrary level of complexity that makes learning harder with no discernable benefit.

Possibly the most aggregious of issues though are the technical issues. There are bugs in how enemies behave, such as enemies patrolling getting stuck in doorways or enemies infrequently using ranged weapons through solid walls. These issues while rare can end a run immediately. Vermintide 2 is also quite CPU intensive, relying substantially on the hosts cpu. If the hosts computer is older, enemies may stay in place, fly in the sky, or lack the intelligence to attack, changing the quality of the game, usually making a level substantially easier.

TLDR:

PROS:
Fun, intense combat
class variety
boss variety
High replayability

Cons:
Skewed new player experience
Grindy and random item system
Bugs
Host reliant game quality

Intensity of combat, weapon variety, player interaction, enemy variety and map variety all make this game really fun to play. Combat can leave you breathless through sheer intensity, and it's a feeling few first person melee games can match. Replay value is through the roof, making the game enjoyable for hours on end. The item system and bugs do detract from the overall product, however I recommend it. Vermintide 2 scratched an itch I didn't know I had, I will continue playing it in the future.

Video version: https://youtu.be/BK95WhJa43o

(TLDR @ bottom)

Dead cells is a metroidvania/roguelike that feels amazing to play. Combat has a great balance between meaty slow weapons and fast dps weapons, that both utilize the inherent dodge mechanic really well. The game focuses on instead of choosing a character, building a loadout as you play. Each level has a plethora of weapons available, allowing customization on every run.

Weapons are unlocked through a combination of blueprints and a currency. Each enemy can drop a blueprint that you must then carry to the end of the level to add to a store, they must then be purchased with a cell resource also dropped from enemies. The only issue with this is that unlocks are permanent, and not all weapons are created equal, or suit your playstyle. There's a brief description of each weapon in the store, which is not accompanied by any detailed information, this can lead to purchases that dilute the item pool and make some runs feel like a chore.

Animations are great, the game looks beautiful, with no level overstaying its welcome, enemies have stylized telegraphs with an attack marker to let you know when attacks are about to be thrown out, keeping combat fair. The attack marker feels like a necessity, as the amazing animations, and enemy attacks have a decent amount of visual clutter. There are a plethora of projectiles, explosions and jumping enemies that can all happen at once and inside of each other. Also bosses have a colour scheme that is similar to their stages instead of using contrasting colours. It makes it a little hard to see what a boss is doing in the moment to moment when unfamiliar with their patterns. The attack notifier, and bright yellow weapons help, but isn't great. Especially on the last boss anyone with poor eyesight may have issues.

Branching paths help keep the game fresh, as players are incentivized to find new unlocks throughout the game. One of the more dissapointing aspects of the branching path is the lack of new bosses. This game has a total of four bosses, the first of which has predictable and slow attack patterns, leaving three interesting bosses for the rest of the game. When compared to fourteen levels, bosses seem lacking. There is mention of bosses in development though, which are sorely needed.

Statistic balance is a little interesting if not slightly flawed. As players progress through levels they get a guaranteed number of scrolls per floor. These scrolls offer the player choice between brutality, tactics, and survival. Each weapon is attributed a colour, or two colours (highest value stat is used). Weapons such as turrets fall into tactics, fast close range weapons fall into brutality, and slower/burstier weapons fall into survival. Tactics and survival both have aspects that represent their playstyle. Brutality is slightly more obtuse, as survival still does significant damage when mutations are factored in. Survival has healing, and damage on shield parries, a weapon type focused on giving players significant boosts based on timed blocks, crits/bleeds/invulnerability/etc. This gives a pretty large incentive to use survival, even moreso as difficulty increases and the ability to heal per run decreases substantially.

There's also a hidden modifier on stat gains that should be in the games U.I. Enemies scale with every scroll the player picks up. If a player chooses to level up all stats equally enemies will be siginificantly more powerful than if the player levels one or two statistics only. With survivals inherent ease of use and longevity theres some pretty strong incentive to use it every run, even as a secondary statistic.

Legendary weapons are really interesting, but inherently a little too strong, and reduce replayibility of the game. Legendary weapons have a chance to drop very rarely from enemies throughout the game, but are a guaranteed drop from bosses. Legendary weapons scale from your highest stat, meaning you can use a brutality weapon as survival or tactics/etc. Unless a weapon type drops that is absolutely contrarion to the players playstyle it will usually stay equipped until another legendary is found or the run ends. This both reduces customization and replayability of the game in the long term, as they're usually double the power of what players can find at the point one is obtained.

Last thing is that there is a time system inherent in the game. Specific levels have timed doors that lock after X minutes, with the first being two minutes. This is to incentivize faster play, and push players who have experienced all there is to experience in earlier levels through the game faster. For someone who likes to go through the entirety of a level and unlock all the secrets that it has to offer, this can be a little frustrating. Slower playstyles are rewarded on higher levels of difficulty however, with new rooms unlocking at higher levels of NG+

Dailies are handled by giving players a random dungeon and a time limit. Players must make it to the boss and kill the boss (which as of right now is always the same boss) within the time limit. This mode can actually be pretty fun, as scrolls increase all stats universally, with weapons being spread throughout all of the side areas. Players must make a choice at each branch whether they want to pursue score/weapons or just simply head to and kill the boss. This creates a pretty fun time attack/score dynamic.

TLDR:

PROS:
Fast paced responsive combat
Large assortment of weapons for run customization
Amazing animation and aesthetic.
Really fun daily system.
Fair and rewarding learning curve

CONS:
Lack of bosses
Bad weapon unlocks dilute the weapon pool
Stat system limits build creativity
Legendaries limit build customization
Branching path system is limited by lack of bosses

Even after listing all the negatives that I believe should be known before purchasting the game, Dead Cells is a really enjoyable game, if slightly flawed. I believe it is worth the purchase if one likes the roguelike genre.

This games predecessor is a victim of poor design that limited its potential. The game just didn't get the level of polish it deserved.

Darksiders 2, while a sequel gives most, if not all of the story of the first game from the outset. While there is little story to be had in the first game, it is good to know that you don't need to play it to keep pace with the current game. There are however bonuses for beating the original darksiders. These come in the form of sets for the difficulty and various achievements in the game and last you for the first act or so. If you are looking for a challenge I highly recommend not using these items as they are outscaled well past the third boss.

The story of darksiders 2 places you in a world, that is quite an enjoyable thematic experience. While it never surpassed my expectations the story is enjoyable. The characters never outstay their welcome, neither do the enviroments. Which are vibrant, colourful and varied. I was thoroughly surprised at how much detail went into this game.

From a gameplay perspective the game is enjoyable as well. Due to the intricate design of combat, I found myself varying my combo patterns based on the enemies I fought. Which most games fail to emphasize. By switching attacks mid combination you change both the attack that you will use and the speed at which you swing. The further into the combination the faster, or more varied the attack becomes. This combines with the inherent weaknesses in your secondary and primary weapons such as speed, power and area of effect. As a result you are rewarded for switching weapons constantly in battle by allowing you to overcome these weaknesses, alter your speeds and have your own combinations. While not perfect, this is leagues better than the original darksiders and better than most spectacle fighters I've played in recent years.

Talents are pretty fun to use as well, and never felt out of place or cumbersome to use. Every time I used a skill within a combo, or to distract an enemy it felt worthwhile. While each skill is individually quite powerful, it does not overpower the feel of basic combat. From summoning a pack of ravenous ghouls, to a flock of ravens or teleporting around slashing people you will still want to smack your opponents. This is achieved though the limitation of resources. Instead of having cumbersome cooldowns, your abilities are limited by how well you are doing in the fight. Hit more enemies, explode more enemies. It is as simple and as fun as that, great design overall.

The combat however is far from perfect. While the camera has improved significantly from the first game it still carries over some flaws. Such as not focusing the closest enemy, or allowing the player to quick tap for new focus targets. This causes the player to take hits unessecarily. Due to the right stick being used to cycle targets you will not be able to properly defend yourself or attack the closest enemy while trying to find your priority target.

Unlike the first game that uses parrying to counter attack, this game utilizes the dodging mechanic. While this feels far more responsive and intuitive there is a glitch or possibly a poor programming decision. If you dodge an attack from an opponent who you are not focused on, your character will instead attack your target. If you are at a distance this seems to do nothing but swing wildly in the air. It feels awkward and looks silly as a result.

There are also a few problems in the form of equipment. The game has a rpg-like system of loot, that adds damage, crit chance, elemental modifiers, etc. On top of this, there is a possessed weapon system that allows you to feed other weapons and armour to empower their stats. The game however never explains well enough that possessed weapons vary their stats based on what they're fed. So feeding an arcane based weapon to a possessed weapon will increase its arcane stats and make it arcane themed. Keep this in mind, as it is key to creating perfect weapons that will stay with you for extended periods of time.

While possessed weapons are fun and intricate in their design armour is not. Armour is a mishmash of random stats that you will look through for an extended period of time to find the stats you want. I personally went for an arcane build, and it took me over half the game to fill my equipment slots with what I wanted. While the speed will vary depending on what you want, it is nowhere near as fun as the possessed system and there really should have been something for armour as well.

Though possessed weapons and a stat system is enjoyable, it is very unbalanced. There are stats such as crit damage that are too powerful in comparison to their counterparts, and stack far too well. By the end of the game, most if not all enemies exploded within seconds of engaging them, and the difficulty as a result dropped hard.

The flaws within the equipment system causes the game to have a very sharp reverse difficulty curve. While there are areas that will be challenging as you progress. Bosses will become decisively easier, leading up to a very dissapointing end boss. Though this is made up for by the impeccable level design, and puzzle solving mechanics.

Dungeons in this game are fun. They very rarely hold your hand and the tools you obtain to complete dungeons are genuinely interesting. Well except for the gun of course, that is rarely used outside a few key circumstances. For example I never expected to be playing catch while teleporting around broken down ruins. With some fine tuning and attention to detail, there could be some seriously difficult puzzles created with these mechanics.

I expected to find those difficult puzzles in the dlc missions. Dlc missions however missed the mark. They are both forgettable, and unchallenging. They focus on one, possibly two tools, and present puzzles at a basic level, with a few trick solutions added for arbitrary difficulty. All in all I feel the dlc missions add very little, and are completely passable as a result.

While the game suffers from some minor bugs paired with poorly balanced equipment the game is fun, and there is plenty to do. There are sidequests, paired with optional dungeons and really fun puzzle solving mechanics. This mixed with combat that never achieves repetitiveness, I really enjoyed myself and whole heartedly recommend this game to others.

Darksiders is a game that piqued my interest several years ago when it first came out. Inspired by a genre I really enjoy but taken in a grittier, and more combat oriented direction. Which sounded like the best of both worlds. For a first outing the games designed at an okay level.

At a basic level the game is fun, and functional. Animations are nice, your character is responsive and combat is very rarely unfair. Though that level of fun is drained by decisions both small and large that really inhibit the game from obtaining its true potential.

While combat is fun at a basic level, it never really evolves. Basic enemies never challenged me to change my attack plans. Even when mechanics like blocking were added to enemies, launching them still bypassed it, which launching is part of the basic attack string. While in the air you are functionally invulnerable to all but a few basic enemies as well as enemies have no aerial attacks or grabs of any kind and as such they generally waddle in to get hit along side your launched target and die.

There are heavy and miniboss enemies that are littered throughout the game, but they are either forgettable and unchallenging or downright unfair and cheap. The unfair enemies generally have mistimed attacks that don't feel in line with where you should be attempting to parry. This means it takes far more experimentation to find out if an attack is even parriable in the first place, let alone get the timing right. There's also the problem that attacks really aren't intuitive as to whether they're parriable or not. A miniboss with giant exploding flaming hands can be parried, while An overhead slam with an axe from a skeleton is not.

The game also has issues with targetting. I seriously believe that if you are making a third person spectacle fighter, you really really need to have a good camera. When focusing on a single enemy the camera zooms in extremely close behind your character, so much so that you can't keep track of opponents behind you or to the side as well as you should. This means focusing for the most part is not what you want to do, as you will take free damage from enemies that you can no longer see.

There's also the problem of what the game decides you want to target. In my opinion hitting the focus button should prioritize the enemy closest to the player first and foremost, then allow you to cycle if you want someone else. This allows the player to quickly swap to the largest threat in their vicinity without the hassle of swapping targets. In the middle of combat I found it frustrating on multiple occasions using my right hand to use the thumbstick to swap between targets. With your right hand also being used to attack jump and evade, there is too much burden placed on you to control both the camera and combat at the same time. Thus I find it very unintuitive.

Bosses are for the most part are boring as well. They for the most part have sequences where you have to use a gimmick or tool you obtained in the dungeon to weaken them just to fight them. This is saddening, as fighting them face to face is what's genuinely fun. Not waiting X seconds to throw a bomb to knock the boss to the ground while running around in circles. Some bosses are actually genuinely fun, as they have no gimmicks attached to them, and that is where the game shines. But they are few and far between.

For the most part the tools you get are pretty nifty, they are fun to use and modify combat in a genuinely interesting way. With the exception of the horse, it just doesn't fit into the way the game is designed and feels shoehorned. The game has a very claustrophobic closed in feel, where you are progressing through tunnels and buildings, not wide open fields. Where you actually use the horse is in the one area it was designed for. That area is just designed for the horse, there's no reason for it to be so large, except to give the horse a purpose. One that really doesn't mesh with the rest of the game. You can't ride the horse inside, combat on the horse is unwieldy and riding it feels more like driving a tank than a horse. I'm not a fan.

The dungeons themselves have a great aesthetic design. I like how they look, I thoroughly enjoyed my time inside each one, as they all have their own flair. But the game, really holds your hand whenever you enter a new room as it forces you into a cutscene that slowly pans from object to object in the order you have to use them. The puzzles are basic as it is, to also show me where each piece is and the order to use it in turns each room into a really boring series of fetch quests. Grab a bomb from location A, bring it to location B.

The writing is mixed as well. While the main character and the only female character fall flat and into generic stereotypes. One being dark and edgy, while the other a perfect example of a damsel in distress. The side characters however are genuinely interesting. For example, the maker you meet called Black Hammer is by far the best character. He is not flat, one dimensional and his entire backstory is not revealed in one sentence. The same can be said of Samael as well.

The game could have really shined if it had more development time. At a basic level the game is functional and can be fun if taken in small quantities. Though it gets repetitive really fast, from both a combat, boss and puzzle perspective. If you really enjoy this genre there is fun to be had. Otherwise I would highly recommend the second game in this series or another game series altogether.

Like many others of its kind, Kingdom Rush is a td to its very core. There are not many tricks or gimmicks presented throughout the game, beyond building your towers, seeing how your solution pans out and readjusting said plan. The games progression comes in several forms. There are passive skills, tower unlocks, hero unlocks, new enemies, new armour types and more lanes. Pretty standard fare overall. At its bare bones, this game is both functional and enjoyable. Though it comes with flaws. I should preface this by saying that this game is a td, balance and design are key to an enjoyable experience for the player.

As you progress through the game, you'll get a new tower type or hero that will assist you on the current map, and will carry over to the next. With a level that is designed to be tackled with a specific tower or hero, this can conflict with the out of level passive trees. Each tree has a power curve that can potentially ruin or improve your experience. If you don't know what the level is you're facing, you can enter with entirely the wrong tree for the task at hand. If the game presented on the level selection screen information as to what the player both unlocks and will face, there would be no arbitrary difficulty added.

The passive tree's are not made equal. Some tree's add exhorbitantly more damage than others in all situations. The militia tree is particularly strong compared to its counterparts and comes with no real flaws or weaknesses. Without this tree being at max level the game can feel a little harder than it needs to be, increasing to downright impossible on some levels.

Towers as well have balancing and design problems. Some towers are just functionally better than others for all situations once unlocked. One comparison in particular is the difference between barbarians and paladins. Barbarians are meant to deal large amounts of damage in return for being very easy to kill. Instead their paladin counterparts take twice as much damage, deal more damage as a result and have a reliable AoE. The ranger tower for example does more damage per second in an area of effect than its counterpart the musket tower which albeit has a different design path. Intended to assassinate larger targets, instead it will frequently shoot fodder instead.

Being unable to control towers, to make them do what you intended them to do can be frustrating as well. Far too often the ranger tower will apply its poison on the same unit multiple times before switching, or paladins will completely ignore enemies a few feet away. This leads to an unnecessary frustrating experience as the game requires more precision and planning in later stages.

Heros as well are not cut from the same cloth. Some heros skills are just not helpful. Why would you wish to lock one enemy down for an extended period when you can cc several at a time or outright assassinate one or more enemies. The majority of heros are just plain weaker compared to the exceptional few who excel at the roles provided for them.

While these problems exist the game is still fun once you find what works. The game really kicks off when you beat the main campaign that presents a challenge and requires creative thinking.

Bosses are always a very tough and tense experience. There is a real threat of losing the level, as they all have mechanics that you will have to account for on the fly. Bosses never seem unfair as well. Tough but enjoyable all around. Enemies are in the same vein as well. They interact with each other and your mazes in enjoyable and challenging ways.

While there are flaws to the game that detract to your ability to control, or experiment within it I would still recommend this game. There are not only few td's, but even fewer are done as well. I enjoyed myself throughout, I suggest taking a relaxed or mellow stance while playing this game.

Bioshock, the spiritual successor of system shock is built upon a series based around thrills, horrifying moments and atmosphere. While the games suffered from balancing issues and some poor design choices, they are quality horror games.

Bioshock infinite however has stepped away from its predecessors leaning towards a very tense and story driven experience. Anyone attempting to play this game for horror, will find it sparsely sprinkled throughout the game, and very mild mannered at best. Overall I find this to be a great path to tread.

The presentation is impeccable. The visuals are amazing. From flying vehicles to the skyrails and islands you will explore, there's never a dull area. There has been so much thought put into what you see, that areas didn't feel the same as each other. Even the enemies look wonderfull, the vigor animations are a treat to watch. A word of warning however, prepare yourself for the execution animations. I feel they are out of place, and downright gory compared to the rest of the game. After executing my second soldier, I had to stop myself as it is just too visceral for my tastes.

The characters are amazing as well. It's as if they've figured out how to make a sidekick in a video game feel alive. Elizabeth is no damsel in distress. She will always be interacting, speaking with you and exploring the world. It will never be about following you, getting in your way or being generally useless. I came to really enjoy her presence, and as the game progressed I really wanted a good ending for her.

All of this with the story being the highlight of the game. It has been a long time since a story has not held my hand. That while giving you clues as to what's going on, it never directly shouts it at you through a megaphone as if you are a fool. It is intelligent, enjoyable and throughouly worthwhile. How it tells itself through character interaction, sights and sound just floored me. If at all possible avoid spoiling this game for yourself.

With all the good things I have said about this game, I hope you are still reading, as I'm about to explain what brings this game down. That is the gameplay. Bioshock infinite has a problem and that is, it's a game. A game that does not blend itself well with its story counterpart.

There is an intensity presented in the game for your characters. You feel that they want to escape. You understand the pressure and intensity that they are going through right up until you enter any of the games many shooting segments. To get to the point, the soldier A.I is downright braindead. They lack any reasoning skills and are generally bullet magnets, and sponges to boot. The worst part is that they are the main force you will fight for the entire game. Unique enemies will present challenges and intensity from time to time, but they are too sparse to make up for it. There will be segments of up to an hour of slogging through fodder just to get a brief respite. A moment where you feel and can empathize with your characters plight, as you will be forced to move, run and fight for your life. Then it will return to being a mundane slugfest.

The reason this problem exists is that there are several flaws inherent to the games mechanics. The vigors are poorly balanced with some outshining the others. There is little reason for variance as many of the vigors are just functionally irrelevant. Why throw a grenade when you can stun, increase damage dealt, reveal from cover and never miss.

The guns as well just don't match up to each other in power. I found myself clearing the entire game without reason to drop my guns in favour of others for any situation. Ammunition is plentiful, there are vendors sprinkled throughout the majority of the game causing me to never want to remove a weapon. Possibly if you could equip more than two there would be incentive to swap.

Between the enemies, the poor gun/vigor design and the enemy variety the game gets a very dragged feeling. I very rarely felt the intensity that my characters felt. Immersion was weakened for me due to the weakness of gameplay. I feel that poor design choices and lack of A.I for regular enemies really holds the game back. It could have been much better than it is.

But that does not stop me from recommending this game. Yes, the combat is pretty dull, yes enemies are bullet sponges. The story makes up for this, and it is really something you should experience for yourself. I hope more stories in games are this interesting, with characters that feel so... real.