Đánh giá gần đây bởi IndigoExe

I wish there was an in-between option for reviews. I'd say if you love The Witcher and want to see more of his story, get the game. If what you are looking for is a good gaming experience, go elsewhere.

I loved the first Witcher game, but I cannot say the same about The Witcher II. The only reason I continued playing is to see more of Geralt, despite any annoyances. When I started the game, the graphics were busted - the sky an intense white with blue edges. After consulting with Uncle Google, I found I had to go into the files and delete brightness to fix it (apparently a relatively common issue?! why?!?!). Even with that fixed, I found the visuals just a little too vibrant and saturated for my liking - I did get used to it eventually, though.

BAD MECHANICS
The default key bindings are awful and you can't change them easily in game, you have to go to the launcher and find it in well hidden settings. Why?! Still, some keys (inventory I or map M) cannot be rebound - and I consider those keys pretty inconvenient.

This game just has a lot of small annoyances. I sometimes found it a little tricky to collect loot, to stop at the right place to click on it. The maps are horrible. From an artistic view, they are very pretty, but they are so impractical, hard to actually use to get anywhere. The minimap on your screen rotates based on the direction you are looking in, it does not point north, which makes orientation harder for me (at least it does have a small arrow pointing north, but still).

Once during a game of dice, I lost despite having a two and my opponent having nothing?! I'm also unsure why they chose to change the design of the dice to be hard to read and you now also have to manually roll the dice at a weird angle - you can also lose the dice if you roll them wrong???

The combat in this game is a lot more complicated than it was in The Witcher I (and I really liked the simplicity of combat there). Now you have to press keys to parry or dodge at the right time, you can throw daggers and bombs, but I find it extremely hard to aim them. And of course you can still use five signs and give either fast or strong blows with your two swords. That's all way too much for me (and honestly most of the other mechanics take too much time to employ due to long animations, so merely swinging a sword ended up usually being most efficient), but thankfully there are many combat difficulties to choose from. So while I miss the combat from The Witcher I, I suppose this way might suit a wider range of players?

THE STORY

The story of the prologue is non-linear, jumping back and forth. Not something I appreciate much, honestly I didn't much like the prologue as a whole - which isn't good, you would really want the first couple hours of gameplay to hype you up for playing more. Here, the prologue is something to be suffered through to get to the good part.

Thankfully the rest is mostly linear, three chapters that each take you into a different region with new quests and monsters to defeat (though the third one is really really short). This is the part of the game I enjoyed most.

There is a major plot divergence going from first to second chapter, your decision completely changes your following experience - which means if you want to see it all (and to get all achievements), you definitely have to replay. Personally, I'm content with my chosen path and don't find it tempting at all to return to this game for a re-do. Be prepared for lots and LOTS of politics talk. It took me about 30 hours to finish the thing at a slow pace, unlike the 50 hours the first game had taken. I assume this is the consequence of having big divergence possibilities.

In chapter II, there were some random references to the Lord of the Rings and I'm not entirely certain what to think of them. I love LOTR, but here it felt like a weird jump away from the witcher universe. It would be different if the whole game had a light, humorous feel, with references to different works of fiction thrown all around, but here, I don't think it quite belonged.

Another little thing I found annoying sometimes - they would let you fight someone, you gloriously kick their behind into next Sunday, but then suddenly there's a cutscene with you being the one who got crushed like an ant. Come on! Either don't let me fight them, or make them undefeatable!

Very last thing to complain about - the very end I just came from! They tell you that to see the final epilogue you need to watch the credits. Don't. The credits are SO LONG, even if you hold LMB to speed it up, only for the game to show you the Nilfgaardian army invading. So stupid and not worth the time - I don't know what they were thinking, it's not like anyone will actually read the credits even if we are forced to wait for them to go by. It's just one final annoyance to make you upset as you write your review.

MODS
There are many mods available on Nexus Mods, which can improve graphics, adjust carry weight etc. There are ways to personalize some details you may not like, so at least that's a big plus for the game. I would suggest you use them to make the best of this.

I 100% recommend this to anyone looking for an RPG fantasy game with a LOT of story.

PRAISE:
The ammount of work that must have gone into making the plot, the details, the cutscenes with voice-acting (the cutscenes probably take hours all summed up! - but don't worry, if you don't have patience or it's a repeat experience, you can skip them). And the game is so much about your choices, your moral stance, and they matter for the progression of the story.
I enjoyed the fight mechanics of this game, it's quite different from what I normally see done and it suits the witcher well. Normal difficulty felt just right for me (I would say I'm pretty average in gaming skills).
It took me almost 50 hours to get through the game, so more than worth the money I spent on it. I was taking my sweet time though, enjoying all the lore and side quests. I'm sure you could be much much faster if that is more your playstyle.
Another thing I loved was how they handled the open-world aspect - there is a linear story separated into several chapters, and in each chapter you have free reign of a certain part of the world, but not the entire thing. It keeps things fresh and doesn't allow you to get completely lost in side-quests while the main story gets left for last.

SOME CRITIQUE:
There were a couple things I disliked - one being that it's relatively easy to miss a side-quest. There is no indication someone has a quest for you, YOU MUST TRY TO TALK TO EVERY PERSON in each chapter. Many will have nothing for you, but some seemingly random people will have a task for you, or an interesting interaction. On one hand, it feels immersive (love that), on the other, it's easy to miss things (and the completionist in me hates that). I wish there was some sort of indication that I have missed a quest before you progress onto the next chapter.
Sometimes it is not completely clear what you are meant to do. A couple times, I had to go consult uncle google, because I got stuck. Not too big of an issue with the internet at our disposal, still a little annoying.
And lastly, the amount of quests you do at the same time can get overwhelming. At one point I had about twenty active quests and that is a lot of multitasking. Would be helpful if you could at least sort them a little better in your journal. But that is a fairly petty issue.

Summary - get the game, it's great, with just a couple little negatives.

I would definitely recommend it, it's one of the better horse games on steam at the moment - although that is unfortunately a very low bar. Of course, you should wait for a sale.

You run a whole stable just by yourself, and you have a limited time each day (8am-6pm). Gotta keep the horses clean, fed and relaxed, then the remaining time you can use for riding outside or for making money. There are four main ways to make money, which you unlock gradually. Training young horses (this minigame unfortunately gets old fast and doesn't give much money - but you can stop doing it soon), massaging horses (very profitable and fast!), breeding foals and booking in guests. The first three you can do twice every day, guests arrive about every hour near you house and you just book in as many as you manage to catch. The goal of the game is to have 4 stars - you have to unlock all buildings, win all races, have 9 horses (the max).

If you played the previous title, this one has some incredible improvements - you can speed up the time! Also the whole stables are much smaller, so you spend less time just running around. Otherwise the mechanics are similar, you look from above and click and point where you want to go.

I do greatly wish there were a few simple adjustments and they would make the game so much better.
- I wish the races increased the skills and strength of horses (currently only free trail riding does that). Unfortunately you have no incentive at all to play the race courses more than the one time it takes to win them, which is a HUGE shame.
- The horses could need their hooves cleaned a little less often, so the minigame doesn't get tedious.
- The foal training should have less targets (4-7) and give more money. It really gets boring fast.
- When buying a horse, you should be able to see their exact breed.
- The forest riding area needs more obstacles for increasing skills. I felt like I had no reason to go ride into the woods.

A few relatively minor things, but would make the experience a lot better. I wish there could be a mod for those.

All in all, I enjoyed it a lot (I did spend 34 hours going through the campaign, because I got into roleplaying - thinking up whole personalities and backstories for my horses etc.). I think you could probably do it within 10 hours, but I strongly encourage you do some roleplay as well!

I definitely do NOT recommend this game for the price it is offered normally (15 euro?!), because for this price you can get so much more polished games nowadays. But if you see it on a 80-90% discount or as a part of such a discounted bundle, then sure. But seriously, if you haven't yet, go instead for the other title - My Riding Stables: Life with Horses - because there they got rid off most of the issues I see in this game.

The graphics are nostalgic 2000's, you control your character from above by clicking (except for when out on a ride. There are three different modes of game, each concentrating in a little bit different career direction - you can be an instructor, general stable manager or focus more on your own riding. You earn money by having guests, teaching at a riding school etc. The premise is pretty neat.

However, the main issue is time. There's a clock slowly running every day, guests coming, shows happening, it all happens at certain times of the day. But quite often you find yourself having nothing to do, just waiting until the time comes. You can't speed up the clock.
Another problem is how enormous your estate is. It would be lovely in reality, but in game it means facilities are all super far from each other. Therefore you spend a lot of your time just running between them. For example, it's a really long way to go from stables to the place where you can free ride, which makes me not really want to go there very often. In other words, it gets boring. The overall pacing is a little too slow, even for a chill game.
Also, some of the controls are a bit clunky, and that affects the overall experience too.

At first I liked many things about the game - the nostalgic old game look and way of controling your character from above through clicking, the beatiful large complex of buildings you own and most importantly the progression. You start with rodents and birds and then you have to pay and pass an exam to include cats, dogs, horses. You also have to unlock the other buildings, so you can have inpatients from each of the animal groups. Apparently you can also get a horse and ride it eventually.

So why am I not recommending this game? It's the actual vet part. The main mechanic of examinations is selecting the right area of the animal and going in circles or back and forth with your mouse until a bar is filled. Sometimes it's a little tricky because of how small the area is. It's something you do up to 6 times for one patient. Every day, you treat at least 12 patients. So this mechanic gets pretty boring and repetitive looong before you start unlocking more animals. This problem is made worse by the limited pool of health conditions the patients come in with. Already the first day you start getting repeats. The owner has the same story, you do the exact same examinations, get the exact same results, do the exact same treatment.
Some treatments are reasonable, but some don't make much sense - minor viral flu is apparently treated by disinfecting the head of the animal and then injecting antibiotics into their hind leg. 🤔

I think it would be a pretty nice chill game, were it not for that rubbing mechanic taking up half of your playtime. But unfortunately, you get bored out of your mind before you can reach the promising parts - the progression.

I would definitely recommend this game, BUT only to players with a lot of PATIENCE. If concentration and patience are not your strong suit, you will not like this game.

This game is for those who like the supernatural, solving mysteries and perhaps most importantly, for completionists and collectors.

The gameplay works like this: you arrive at a location that has multiple ghosts - the location can be as small as a family house or as big as a district. You must find each ghost and then it's mostly a waiting game - you just walk around aimlessly until you get EMF and temperature fluctuations, all the audio recordings of that ghost and a photo. Once you 'complete' the ghost, you can come back to exorcise it. That's it. Majority of time is waiting to get all the audio and the photo. Hence, you need patience and the desire to complete the job. You will get various clues that let you know snipets of the entity's backstory, which is by far what I like about this game the most - piecing all the info together. Personally I take it even further by writing a paper about each ghost, pretending I'm Conrad sending a report to the client...

There are definitely some flaws (at least in my eyes) - sometimes it takes just a bit TOO much time for the ghost to show up, or to get that one last audio recording, even if you have all the notes about the ghost (and they are very important to have or you might be waiting forever!). This is the first game I have ever actually fallen asleep during (though that could be also atributed to the new puppy and a little bit of sleep deprivation).
Another issue I have is with the equipment - for some reason you have a limited inventory, so if you want to bring any extra equipment (and there are a few items you can buy in addition to the basic stuff), you need two trips from your truck. Not that big of a deal with a small house, but when you are in an entire district and the ghost is far from your parking spot, it's just bothersome. IRL, I would have taken everything in a bag no problem.

So in conclusion - it's a scripted ghost hunting game, without replayability, but if you want to complete the whole game, it will take you many hours. I'm at 14 hours and nowhere near done (I am fairly slow though). If you like mystery, ghost hunting (particularly real-life, which this does mimic slightly better than most ghost hunting games), slow pace, if you have a lot of patience and the desire for completion, this is the game for you.

I enjoyed it thoroughly, can't recommend enough for anyone who likes this type of document checking game. If you liked Papers, please, Contraband Police and similar titles, you will probably like this too.

Not Tonight has quite ingenious gameplay, every detail is really well thought out. Nice progression, nice variability in the checking tasks. The story is 10/10, full of satirical humor. Also great music.

Full playthrough took me about 10 hours, it's pretty long.

You can get all achievements easily with two playthroughs, or if you follow a guide for your first time, you can get all but a couple that can be done fast by loading your save file on a specific day - also something I can't praise enough, you can very easily redo your last day or go back to any date from which you want to start over.

I absolutely recommend this game for anyone liking this genre.

You can focus on checking the papers of incoming people (and there are quite a few things to keep an eye on!), but there are many other things to do as well! You have to catch smugglers and defend the border post from raids once in a few days. There are side missions you can take for extra cash and fun. Most of these side things, you can freely choose to have in your game or not, depending on your mood.
There is a satisfying progression in the game, you get to gradually upgrade your post from something horribly run down into a nice and neat place.
If you play campaign mode, you get to learn the ropes gradually, starting from checking only a couple things. I liked the story (a couple places seemed a little illogical, but I still had fun).
There are quite a few interesting achievements you can strive for, I am currently enjoying collecting those.

All in all, I think the best thing about this game is how well balanced it is in terms of activities. There are various things breaking up the monotony. I would expect to be bored after 40 hours, but I am still very much into it.

You can spend HOURS lost in this game. Very satisfying cleaning, then choosing all the furnishing. There is a wide enough selection of items to put in the house, your freedom is relatively large. After a few houses, I do notice I tend to do the exact same things, but that is not unexpected.
My only complaint is that the buyers can be quite annoying in their wishes and sometimes when you are trying to make a house specifically for one of them, it might be hard to make them the top buyer. Other people keep wanting to buy it for more, despite having many negative comments about the house. To remove them from the top position, I have had to do some changes that I was not happy with (like removing all pictures or carpets or plants...).
Over all, I think this game is certainly worth your money, if you think this might be your cup of tea.

I do recommend this game if you enjoy survival games with a lot of exploration.
There doesn't seem to be much of a goal to strive towards, but you can explore a very large area with stunning views, many little dungeons, meet many different Pals.
You mainly capture or kill pals to gain materials and XP to unlock more items to use or build. You are allocated limited points, and you have to choose between different unlockables. You build up your base where many of your pals can be let out of the storage to work on farming, crafting, logging and mining... That is something I appreciate - you don't just have to have a huge storage of caught creatures while you only use five favourites the entire game.
I also love that the Pals have their unique personality traits aside from the traits of their species.
I would, however, appreciate an option to release pals back into the wild. You gain XP by repeatedly capturing pals of the same species, which I am not really a fan of altogether, one is more than enough. You then have to either just drop them (but they stay there in the sphere, just tossed aside) or sell them or... uhm, smush them together to make a stronger pal. I dislike every single of those choices almost more than simply killing them. An option to release them would make me incredibly happy. (I know it's a game, but I can still have some moral compass if I want! Lemme have it!)

Now of course I have to address the Palworld vs. Pokemon discussions, so here it goes:
If there is any comparison to be made between those two games it should be that Palworld is like a parody of Pokemon. Where Pokemon is all rose-tinted glasses (while being kinda messed up upon close inspection), Palworld is just messed up and openly displaying it. It took some of the best mechanics from Pokemon and put them into a different video game genre. A very normal thing to do in game development - aren't most games nowadays just taking bits and pieces of existing games and merging them into something new?
Personally, the only blame I find in Palworld is that some of the pal artworks are just TOO similar to existing Pokemon, beyond what can reasonably be explained off as similar artstyle and the concept of animals + elements. That would work if it was meant as a parody, of course. Which it honestly probably is, but they can hardly say that openly, now, can they? Once they admit it is a parody, that can provide a better opportunity for copyright infringement lawsuit. A parody would either need permission or be free - but there is hardly a chance a project of this magnitude could be made for free or receive permission. Which would be a bit of a shame. This is the Pokemon parody we didn't know we need.
Still, for the sake of author laws if nothing else, I am a little torn about them leaving those too similar artworks in game. They feel both wrong (morally) and right (they drive the parody feel). I would understand if they decide to change them, but probably wouldn't mind too much if they kept them.