Recent reviews by remilia

fantastic

Outer Wilds.

Many reviews speak on how you need to go in absolutely blind to enjoy this game. They are, mostly, correct. Many reviews speak on how you only need to go in *mostly* blind to enjoy this game. They, too, are mostly correct. I am of the opinion that none of these reviews really strike a balance between giving you the information you need to decide whether this is a worthwhile experience. This is, of course, my opinion. However, as it is my opinion, and as this is game is one of my favorite games of all time, I think I ought to write my own review, a review that strikes the balance that exists in my mind, a review that can really help you decide whether or not you would enjoy this game without spoiling anything. So, let's begin.

First off, what is Outer Wilds? It is an open-ended space exploration game. There is no combat. There is no voice acting. There is a lot of reading. There are no quests or quest markers. When I say open-ended, I mean *open-ended*. There are no levels, experience, or skill trees. That being said, there is progression within this game, but it is a unique kind of progression that you will have to discover for yourself. If any of that turns you off, do not buy this game.

Assuming you made it this far, it's safe to say you like space, and you like the idea of exploring it on your own terms. Good. Now let's talk gameplay loop. Ultimately, this game boils down to flying aimlessly, finding something that catches your eye, and exploring said thing while solving puzzles and reading alien space blogs along the way. Gradually the gameplay loop changes, but it changes in ways and for reasons I cannot say. At this point I could tell you, "Trust me, what that gameplay loop evolves into is suuuuuper amazing and awesome." It is, but I'm not a subscriber to the philosophy of "It gets good after X hours," so instead I will say this: if that initial gameplay loop I described to you sounds extremely boring, do not play this game. If it sounds fine, but like it would get old, don't give up yet. As I said before, the gameplay loop slowly shifts, and it shifts fast enough that it doesn't get old.

But of course, there's a catch. You see, periodically, *something happens* which results in you being relocated back to the spawn area. Naturally, the game is designed around this. Sometimes, at the deepest depths of exploration, getting back to where you were can be a bit tedious. Most of the time, however, it isn't that bad. Give it a minute or two and you can get right back to where you were.

Now you may be wondering why this periodic something occurs. Of course, I am not the developer so I cannot say for certain why they put it in, but I can make an educated guess. The first is [spoilers]. Oops, probably shouldn't put that in the review. The second is to keep you from getting too laser focused. You see, I have watched numerous playthroughs of this game (by streamers and friends), and I have noticed an emergent pattern here. Oftentimes when people get relocated, they don't feel like going through the effort to get back to where they were (early on, at least), and so instead of getting back to the thing they were exploring, they go explore something else.

This is good for reasons I cannot say. It would not spoil the story to tell you, but it would spoil the way in which you perceive the game. Trust me when I say: the periodic interruption can get frustrating, but it is important. Integral, even. Now of course, if the concept of a periodic interruption fills you with a primal rage, it doesn't matter how important or integral it is to the experience, you aren't going to enjoy it. In the aforementioned case, do not buy this game. In the case that it sounds like a nuisance, but one you could get over if it is for good reason, then do not give up. It is for very good reason.

Now if you have made it this far, you would probably enjoy this game. Love it, even. But if you have any lingering reservations, I suppose I can say this. If you are racist toward aliens, do not play this game. If you don't like roasting marshmallows around a campfire, do not play this game. If you don't like good worldbuilding, emotional stories, fun characters, clever puzzles, memorable music, glorious visual design, and games that tend to stick with you, AVOID THIS GAME AT ALL COSTS. In the off chance that those things sound appealing, I think this might be something you quite enjoy. :)

Legit the best rpg ever made.

Pros:
Great Combat
Graphics ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Sound/Soundtrack is very fitting and well made
One of the best stories in video game history (opinion), making it feel almost real with the amount of choices and the actual impact they have (fact)
DLC is a whole other subject on fantastic
Side quests are actually engaging and a good deal of the witcher contracts are more than just, "find thing kill thing get gold"

Cons:
Fall damage is a wee bit gay
Sometimes Geralt's hair will float above his shoulders, but its really only noticeable at certain camera angles
Gwent sucks fat ♥♥♥♥, luckily it is never(rarely?) required outside of the literal Gwent quests. Tip if you want to do it, get blue stripe commandos, dandelion, commanders horn, clear weather, and spies. Lots of spies.

Tips:
Don't play Gwent
Play on Death March
Use Quen shield (really use quen shield)
Don't look up where specific items are, just explore and eventually you will either find it or find a quest that leads you to it.
Use Witcher Sense in every building because sometimes there are random prints or scents that just start quests
Actually do side quests, in some instances they are very very impactful to the story
On the note of main story, think before you press a random dialogue option. The game doesn't always scream at you when what you say is important.
Final Tip: There's a side quest you find where there is a dead guy on the side of a road next to a mansion. Do that quest when you get it because if you leave and come back you will have failed.

TLDR:
It is a fantastic game as long as you don't play Gwent. 9.8/10

I haven't played Dishonored 2 for very long yet and I will update my review as I play it more but here are my first impressions.

Gameplay:

From what I have played the gameplay is basically the same as Dishonored but slightly expanded. One example is if you throw a target off ballence with a well timed block you can choke them out instead of having to kill them. All these things make for the same great gameplay that Dishonored acheived.

Audio:

The game sounds fine. The voice acting is pretty good. There isnt much to say about it. Although just so you know the dialogue subtitles are found in the AUDIO section of settings which I found strange but eh.

Visuals/Frames:

While the game isnt amazingly optimized (I play most games on medium graphics and on this I play very low) the frames are fine. I can't say much about the visuals because, again, I play on very low. What I can say though is that I don't know why anyone complains about the frames. I get a solid 60 while I see other people with better specs getting 15. My best guess is that they are doing something like using a second moniter which uses a lot of GPU, and as I stated before the game isn't very well optimized so you have to look out for that.

Story:

As this is a first impression review I can't say much about the story. But what I can say is that so far it seems very promising.

Conclusion:

While the visuals are porly optimized, my frames are fine and the gameplay is amazing. From what i have played the story looks potentialy great and the voice acting, subtitles, sound effects, etc are all very good.

P.S. I always find it funny how you can take a paragraph long review and put it into 2 or 3 scentences that cover pretty much everything you just said over like 14 scentences.

Take the difficulty of a NES game and amplify the difficulty by 2. This game is VERY HARD (not for the easily angered). I like how Meat Boy controls, the music is good, and the level design makes it your fault when you die. All in all this is an amazing game with very difficult levels.

My final rating is: 8.5/10