Recent reviews by latenightnomad

I REALLY want to like this game but unfortunately I have to leave a negative review, at least until it gets fixed.


You can tell a lot of love and care went into the world and the devs clearly had a lot planned with how many features there are, but unfortunately everything just feels sub-par and it lacks the polish for a game with a $60 price tag.

- While not unplayable, it's buggy and I had a lot of technical issues. My frame rate would absolutely tank in certain areas and I got stuck in elevators on multiple occasions. AI would just break at times and enemies would stand there doing nothing. It runs, but it is far from perfect.

- Weapons overall are seriously lackluster. There are about 6 or 7 weapon types in the game ranging from polearms to colossal hammers. This in itself isn't a problem, but every weapon of that class shares the same moveset. Are you using a curved sword? Well when you find one... that's it. There's no point in experimenting because you already know what they all do, so you just go with the highest damage option and call it a day. And this game doesn't have weapon arts or skills of any kind, either. So essentially, every weapon functions exactly the same apart from stats and elemental/status effects. Speaking of those:

- Elemental damage and status effects are cool conceptually but I just didn't feel a need to play around them at all. Raw damage from weapons and Lines (Enotria's versions of spells, basically?) was enough to get me through all of the game without much effort. And I've read from other people that some bosses are basically resistant to all effects anyway! Again, the idea there is cool, the developers clearly had a "trump" system in mind where Effect 1 > Effect 2 and so on, but it all just feels so unnecessary.

- The game's locations ranged from perfect to, you guessed it, lackluster. Quinta is the first major area you tackle and it's wonderful. Tons of hidden items, puzzles (or at least platforming), lots of things to do, there's nothing bad you can say about this area. Fast forward to one of the later areas (which I'll just call "Lit" to avoid spoilers) and things are a lot more linear by comparison. Lit also has a lot of ridiculously frustrating design choices, and I think this is where the devs started to phone it in. See that roof over there next to the platform you're on that you can clearly reach with a jump? Well haha, you're stupid, there's an invisible wall there, now you fall into the water and die. See that little pier down there with boats leading around the corner? Well you can jump on the pier (and can't get back up) but when you jump on the boats, you phase through them and fall into the water and die. It's all so frustrating especially when the first area was SO good.

This is just how Enotria was for me overall, unfortunately. The opening moments were STRONG and offered such a fun and unique experience, but the game peters out massively midway through and never finds its way back.

Enotria should not have been released in it's current state. This is a late-stage Early Access game. I paid $60 for this game and now I have to wait a year for the developers to complete their roadmap to get the "full" version of Enotria, and that's simply not fair.

Let me preface this by saying that I currently have about 5,000 hours and play both sides fairly equally, this is not another one of those negative reviews from someone who got tunneled out or bullied by a SWF. This is a review from someone who absolutely loves Dead by Daylight, plays it almost daily, and even makes videos about it.


• The game occasionally fails to boot.
• Very poor in-game performance with constant frame drops and stutters.
• Rick's face in the lobby looks very off, although in-game it's passable. Michonne's audio levels are way off, her breathing is obnoxiously loud and it gets even worse when she coughs from something like Plague's sickness.
• In one of Michonne's voicelines, you can literally hear a BHVR employee comment on the VA's performance.
• The loading screen has a random metal beam on it, probably a result of one of the highway signs on the new lobby.
• The reworked Streetwise allows you to get items with infinite charges on it, breaking the game. Still no killswitch, by the way!
• You can use Blood Rush and Sprint Burst to Sprint Burst forever. No killswitch.
• Every staircase or slope in the game will randomly hinder you by 60% (or more) while moving up the right side of it. How the hell does this even happen and how did nobody notice it?


Nemesis' whip animation has been broken since release and doesn't play for the survivor. Survivors will teleport a few metres from where they were downed. Knight's orb fails to pass through doorways and vault locations at random. Dracula's wolf form fails to do the second pounce attack randomly. New invisible walls are added for ranged killers like Deathslinger, like the one under the snow cat on Ormond. And speaking of Deathslinger, he's still got the shot validation and insta-ADS bugs!


• Med-kits are still the strongest items in the game by far with no changes in sight. It's okay though, because we nerfed Franklin's Demise!
• Maps like Haddonfield and Badham still exist, being both imbalanced and unfun to play on.
• Clown changes appeared on the PTB and everyone, from survivors to Clown mains, hated them and wanted them reverted. So what does BHVR do? They push the changes to live, and now Clown is one of the most braindead/obnoxious killers in the game. What a surprise!
• Knight changes got added to the PTB and were thankfully reverted before this patch dropped, but it begs the question: What the hell is BHVR smoking? Why are killers like Trapper and Myers rotting in the depths of F-tier, but Knight, a middling C-tier killer, is getting his power nerfed?
• This is the one personal note I will end on: Fog Vials are insanely obnoxious to be on the receiving end of, there's nothing fun about an infinitely-rechargeable item that artificially extends chases and promotes W-keying.

Honestly can't recommend this DLC which is really unfortunate considering For the King is one of my favorite games to come out over the past few years. I love IronOak Games and the game they created, but this DLC just isn't good. Going over it in pieces:

Classes: The Astronomer and Gladiator are cool classes with pretty unique skills, too. Having more classes is always a plus. 8/10, I feel like this was a great opportunity to add a dedicated Speed/Thief character rather than another mage.

The Campaign: The campaign itself (also called Lost Civilization) is wholly unique and challenging, but it leaves a bit to be desired. I give it a 6/10, not because it's bad, it was just 'meh' overall. The wave events get a little overwhelming on higher difficulties, but aside from that there's just nothing to write home about.

Additional Items: The items that this DLC adds are fantastic. They can be found in every other campaign and they fill some niches that just weren't good before (looking at you, Speed builds.) 10/10, without a doubt the biggest plus this DLC offers.

The worst part of Lost Civilization by far (and the sole reason why I do NOT recommend this DLC) is that the rest of your campaigns will be infested with tanky, high-damage Golems and enemies who apply status effects every other turn.

Are you a casual player who likes doing Apprentice runs on Into the Deep? Too bad, you purchased Lost Civilization and now you have a chance to run into Golems who can two shot your entire party or make you burn all your Godsbeard in seconds.

Are you a competitive player who likes to run Hildebrant's Cellar? Too bad, you purchased Lost Civilization and now each floor has Disease Cubes or Disease Corpses who infect you each turn. Hope you stocked up on Panax or got lucky enough to get a Disease immunity item.

Are you trying to complete Journeyman or Master difficulty with friends? Too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bad, you purchased Lost Civilization! Now Panthers will spawn which bleed you! Or you'll get Boas that constantly poison you! ....or you'll get Stone Queztals that petrify you! And the Disease Cubes, Disease Corpses, and Golems from before, too!

The balancing in this DLC is atrociously unfun and it needs to be looked at. As it stands right now, if you enjoy For the King, do not purchase the Lost Civilization DLC until changes are made. Sorry IronOak games, I love you guys and all you've done, but this one is just horrible. Please fix it.

_________________________

Edit: And I want to clarify because this has been sitting in the back of my head ever since I wrote this review, I love difficult games.

The issue is not about the difficulty of the Lost Civilization campaign, it's about the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ artificial difficulty that the DLC itself adds to every other campaign.

I've nearly 100%'d the game twice on PS4 and PC. I am incredibly familiar with the game and it's pathetic that I even need to address the 'git gud' comments. That's not the issue here, more specifically, I am not the issue here. This DLC just isn't fun when it comes to what it adds to OTHER campaigns.

I think I'm in love with the idea of this game more than I am the actual game itself.

Let me just say upfront that I have no complaints with the art, music, character design, concept, or "vibe" of Spiritfarer whatsoever. The developers knocked it out of the park here and for those reasons alone, I'd recommend the game.

I'd be remiss however if I didn't mention that this game feels like a chore to play at times. It feels more like a resource management game than anything else, with the "good" bits of the game (interacting with the colorful cast of characters) being locked away behind tedious and time consuming tasks. One moment I get to talk to Gwen and read her interesting dialogue, then I have to sit on my boat and wait 6+ minutes for my ship to reach its destination with nothing to do in the meantime.

To keep it short, the gameplay of Spiritfarer is lacking. But if you can look past that and focus on what this game does well (which is almost everything else) then you'll find a gorgeous work of art, one of the most beautiful games I've ever played.

9/10, really solid game from start to finish.

 For The King has an incredibly unique artstyle, challenging (but fun) gameplay, and a good amount of replayability between it's 5 campaigns/gamemodes. This game is most enjoyable when played with a group although solo runs are still possible and enjoyable as you can control 3 party members at once.

To keep this review short, this is a phenomenal game that needs more love. I would highly recommend it.