Recent reviews by sQui_rreL

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TL DR;
The melee combat is beyond clunky. It's like the game was made purely from a mage's perspective. Like the developers were all mages and everything else was an after thought.


Nothing is balanced except magic with little melee bones tossed in here and there. It's incredibly challenging to fight with melee to the point where it isn't about being challenging, but it's not even 1/4th finished. A unity game made in 5 hours would be better from a combat perspective. There are also frequent clips in the map where the terrain wasn't even sown together. Like the developers just couldn't be ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Otherwise, the game is interesting and will be a foundation for much better games to come. Shame the developers are lazy and only play with magic.

Flawless - 10/10

Remove dogs and I'll remove my negative review.

Seriously, it's one of those "how the ♥♥♥♥ did this make it into the game" moments. Zero external testing and only internal testing on tier 3 and below?

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Originally posted by author:

Feels like the alpha side project of a highschooler who got a ton of great artists onboard.

While playing on the hardest difficulty, here is what I noted in 8 hours:

• No reason to build a base
• AI worse than original game on launch
• Building system the same with added complexities that do nothing for the game but add something to showcase on steam store for clicks
• Combat even more clunky than before
• Dismemberment *removed*
• Progression very easy on hardest difficulty
• Feels like a running simulator
• Map is larger but feels more empty than before, no personalization just copy paste
• Constant attacks a nuisance
• You are given a bot that follows you around in the most glitchy way possible, like some half baked mod

There really isn't a way the devs could salvage this mess. This release is about their complete departure from the core concepts of the original game, and the lack of information leading up to release is because they recognize internally it just didn't come together. It seems like most of the work done was spent on art and making the graphics / engine seem better, but ultimately it just felt... wrong. Zero atmosphere, poor excuses for gameplay.

Lazy game design. Everything just feels copy and pasted. Voice acting is sub par at best.

Very unbalanced, and the devs have basically cashed out. Not well thought out and very little development.

COULD have been a 9.5/10 or even a 10
Since there's no option to post something that's both positive and negative, I'm putting it into the negative section so people can be more informed, and potentially the devs will see it.

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About me: I played Darksouls 2 and 3 all the way through, and I'm a huge fan of the "one" difficulty game - like Elden Ring. It's a great way to have a shared experience, both in triumph and tribulation. I love COOP games, and I love a challenge.

PROS, CONS, and SUGGESTIONS below.

• Perfect music. Great ambience.
  
• Insane lore. Magical environment. Incredible story.
  
• Stunning amounts of content. I've been playing over 100 hours, and I still have endless amounts of mystery to explore. Haven't felt the ability to beat the main story yet, or even where to go.
  
• Visual fidelity is remarkable
  
• Game runs very well, but reminder it is indeed 60fps capped.
  
• MOST MAIN boss fights are challenging, but not impossible. Mechanics are well thought out. Radahn is the exception, and he ruins the game for most people. Really lazy design.
  
• Plenty of items to go around.
  
• COOP took a huge step in the right direction with this game, but it's still really flawed. I'll explain more in the cons.

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• 60 FPS cap in 2022
  
• PVP was never balanced, and to make things worse - continues to be a horribly laggy experience somehow over peer to peer. This is largely due to the fact that initial testing for this game took place within a single week period, and the testers were limited to the first two zones of the game.
  
• Magic is incredibly broken, even post update. Lost 1.5 points alone for how unbalanced this part of the game is.
  
• Katana's are incredibly broken, and constantly stun + apply bleed. Something is glitched with them.
  
• Bleed mechanic continues to be incredibly broken.
  
• Second half of this game was meant to be played exclusively with magic, faith, or katanas if you're lucky. WORST BALANCED SOULS LIKE GAME EVER RELEASED. Period.
  
• Intro to the real game is weird and clunky at best. The intro itself is fine, you die and appear in the world. But the first world boss you encounter in the real world should not be located right outside of spawn, that's just needlessly cruel for a cruel game - considering how controversial horse mechanics are, especially to the new. Add this with no clear direction, and a lot of players will feel so aimless and destroyed, they just close the game without giving it a proper chance. Horse bosses feel extremely gimmicky and it's not what you want to introduce the player to right off the rip.
  
• If you DON'T run the game in windowed mode, and have a monitor above 60hz, the game will feel extra worse. I won't explain why in this review. Default is fullscreen and no one seems to know this little trick with souls games. Disabling VSYNC also a must. If done properly, you will have no tearing and a menu that runs above the cap - with a seemingly smoother and more responsive experience ingame.
  
• Respec is almost impossible. You better think 10 levels ahead and plan out your character without having any idea what's in the game already, because you need to kill the 2nd main boss to get access to it - and then find limited rare consumables. I've only found 2 in my 60 hours of gameplay and I can't imagine finding more. Not really possible to try out the different weapons as the requirements need to be met to try their abilities, and you would often need to respec to do so. - Edit, I found where you get them but it's very far into the game. Unfortunate. It's almost balanced as it is, but the quantities are extremely limited until you get 4 in one spot after around 80 hours if you play the game slow like I did - I only took 2 or 3 tries on most bosses in the game and did all the content I could getting to this point. I'm not sure how to get more after this, though, but I suspect they can be crafted somehow using the tears found in this new area.
  
• LOTS of re-used assets in completely different biomes or regions of the map - especially the catacombs, or monsters. Environment as well. There's enough variation that this isn't a huge complaint, but if they wanted to take this game to the next level, this would be an idea of where to start. It seems like this is the first time the studio attempted such an open world style of souls like game, so I understand it's a bit awkward.
  
• Buffs/Debuffs are not explained. Ever. There's no menu that explains your active statuses, you just see them by your health without explanation.
  
• Game controls are extremely awkward for PC, but can be made better. UI navigation cannot however. Lost 1 whole point for this alone in my review. Unacceptable for a 2022 release.
  
  

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  SUGGESTIONS
  As always, I will update this as I discover more about the game. Leave a comment if you have any information I don't seem to know. Thanks.
  
  
  • Remove 60fps cap, make 120 at the very least. Complete unlock if possible. I don't know the restrictions or reasoning behind 60, but I'm sure there's a good one.
    
  • Re-Work UI controls to be completely 100% PC friendly
    
  • Add more variety for side dungeons (catacombs)
    
  • Balance Katana/Bleed effects
    
  • Display active status descriptions within the equip menu, or underneath the item's ability description even when it isn't active
    
  • Re-Work large side bosses/monsters with how they interact with melee, ranged, and magic
    
  • Re-Work range (archery) completely. It's an absolute joke and very clunky.
    
  • Re-Work magic. It's incredibly unbalanced and very broken compared to every other method when fighting literally anything. It should not be a go to option over everything unless the player just doesn't feel like using it.
    
  • Re-Work Faith. Most abilities provided under the faith category are borderline useless, useless, or there's the few lightning strikes that are actually good - perhaps even broken.
    
  • Provide higher tickrates of multiplayer, possibly through steam servers or obscured P2P. Players should be seeing the same action, no gaps between players locations. I see players essentially teleporting on a daily basis because of how laggy multiplayer is. Not sure what the solution here is, as I don't know the limitations the studio is working with.
  
  Overall, it's a must buy game and incredibly fun. Just bear this in mind when you consider buying the game.

Complete lack of PvP balancing - it's just stun lock after stun lock, and only certain classes should be played. Dungeons can easily be solo'd on hard mode, and there isn't anything harder... complete lack of coop, because there's zero need to ever play coop.

[UPDATE]
343 is truly one of the worst studios of our time. I'm really disappointed that they didn't release one full game for 60$, because instead, they found a way to milk the same release twice. 60$ for a campaign and they made multiplayer free to play, with the only incentive being battle passes that they milk the community for. End result? - No one will play the campaign and the halo franchise will fade even more into obscurity, whilst the multiplayer will go largely unplayed with a complete lack of incentive / grind...

But hey, the studio gets to milk the same game twice.
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TL;DR - Worst halo yet. 4/10, It's really hard to hate a free game, and they somehow found a way to make me hate it. They have the formula for success in halo reach, and continue to refuse to use it and just make it modern out of complete arrogance. 043 has a feedback loop they created by pushing out all the original fans and developers, and then have no basis for feedback that actually pertains to people without stockholme syndrome.

- Looks incredibly bad for a new, modern engine.
- Players should not be highlighted, it makes everything look cheap
- Hexagon assets around the map signifying the "rebuilding" process of the ring, again, make the game look cheap and dated. It doesn't look good. All the loading screens featuring this make the game look even cheaper.

- Feels like I'm on ice skates at all times
- Zooming in feels ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up and not halo like at all
- Feels simultaneously responsive and unresponsive at the same time. Very disorienting. Higher FOV helps but it still feels fundamentally bad.
- Melee just feels like ass.
- XP is ass, free to play model demotivates completely by under valuing personal achievement, instead favoring battle passes. Games are played more when the player can achieve rewards through gameplay, not their pocketbook. This is not a game made out of passion but purely to try and desperately copy the fortnite model.

- Incredibly roundabout, indirect, needs to be more to the point - like halo reach.
- Very confusing
- Cluttered
- Looks like someone didn't know what they were doing, really ugly in general with simultaneously too much and too little information at all times.

+ Great throwback to the original soundtrack when you first launch, but after that, it's new and not halo like music
- Menu/ingame soundtracks are not halo-esque at all, and honestly detract a huge amount from the experience. It's just not halo.
+ Weapon sounds are ok

DIFFICULTY PLAYED ON: VETERAN/NIGHTMARE
OVERALL RATING: 5.5/10

GRAPHICS: 7/10
- Default settings for some graphics card users are extremely sharp, and using superfluous technologies ontop of one another.
- No dedicated fullscreen
- Game looks like it was made in 2016/2017.

GAMEPLAY: 6/10
Truly, the best way to play this game by far is speed running with almost infinite stamina and avoiding all confrontations possible, contrary to the original intentions of the game and it's developers of making the players (And referencing them) as "Cleaners". The irony is incredible. The SMALL moments of glory make this game worth playing, but it's irritating as hell to see how much they ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up this game.

MECHANICS: 3/10
- Only rewards speed running
- You can get near infinite stamina
- SP, or supply points, are your currency for cards and skins. All must be unlocked sequentially.
- SP is gained statically based on people alive, predetermined by difficulty and mission with small variances in rare challenges that are often impossible on higher difficulties.
- Silent scaling based on the # of people in your lobby
- Many guns are flat out dead content, such as the beret 50 cal and most SMGs/Pistols
- Spamming barb wire is your way to victory, and it looks certifiably autistic.
- Playing slow and methodical, like you would in real life, punishes you severely with special spawns