Recent reviews by r_darkstorm

It's a little bit like if the Sims had a baby with Witcher or Skrim, but also it's nothing like that at all. Did you like Valhiem? That's cool. It's not like this, except all the ways that it is. What if NMS was only on one planet and it was also medieval Poland is probably the closest, honestly. And it's real good y'all.

The Valley feels like an extended tutorial with an interesting questline to play through. The Oxbow feels like a living world you also inhabit along with the NPCs. Overall, the game feels like it was made by people passionate about making a good game.

The graphics are acceptable and performance is buttery smooth with a decent gaming rig. I see a stable 60fps maxed out while running a 2060 RTX GPU, 10th gen i7 CPU, 16gb RAM and a 500gb SSD. Devs do a good job of patching bugs as they crop up and have so far done an excellent job at meeting scheduled milestones.

This is a game worth sticker price and then some, and more than worth it on sale. Definitely in my personal top twenty games of ever.

It's the best Life is Strange since the first one. And this one doesn't have you hunting down beer bottles in a nightmare.

After seeing 2.7 million subscriber count YouTuber CallMeKevin play this on a video, I wanted to try it for myself. And it was free, which was right in my budget.

It's so good. It's interactive art more than it is a game in a lot of ways, but it's stunning and the visuals are overall really fun. Took me less than an hour to play all the way through, and I have no regrets on how that time was spent.

9/10

Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Where we goin? Where we goin? Where we goin? Where we goin? Huh? Huh? Where we goin? Where we goin? Lets go space!
Hey. Where's space? What's the holdup?
Space? SPACE? SPAAAAAAAACE! SPAAAAAAAACE! YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAA!
Ba ba ba ba ba ba space ba ba ba ba ba ba space.
I can spell it! S... p... ace! SPACE!
What's your favorite thing about space? Mine is space.
Star. Star. Star. Star.
wanna go to earth wanna go to earth wanna go to earth. Don't like space. Space too big.

SPAAAAAAAAACE!!!

It was the prequel I didn't want, but preordered anyway. I ended up beyond pleasantly surprised.

PROS:
Chloe ♥♥♥♥♥♥' Price
Arguably better storytelling than the original (as of Episode Two)
Pretty, like seriously pretty
The "Talkback" challenges are fun, more fun than some of the rewind puzzles of the original

CONS:
The voice acting is seriously stilted in places
Deck Nine doesn't display the same attention to detail as original developer DontnoD
Characters that aren't Chloe fall flat, instead of having the "life" that they seemed to in the original
The progression of Chloe's various relationships is ridiculously fast to the point of lacking all realism

Most of my gripes with it are so minor and petty that I can't help but recommend it to fans of the original. If you loved Chloe, especially if you tend to lean bae > bay, this game is worth it. ESPECIALLY if you rode the Pricefield ship and wanted more of who Chloe was when Max was gone.

Is this the greatest, most original game you'll ever play? No.
Does it have groundbreaking gameplay? No.
Is it innovative in amazing ways? No.

In fact, it's a type of game that's been done before, many times, with no real change in format. But it is what it is, and it's FUN. The ability to upgrade and unlock slots and perks is a nice touch, as is the multiplayer options. Mainly, it's a fun, fast-paced, shootemup.

9.5/10 Would recommend (especially on sale)