Recent reviews by Draindog

Game has been out for three years. The game still runs horribly for some reason. In fact, at launch I was able to play it. The performance seems to get worse and worse, and now they're charging for DLC. I wouldn't mind buying DLC... if the game didn't run so poorly that it's barely playable. It's disappointing because I looked forward to this game, was excited to play it when it released, enjoyed it for a while and then the game become a laggy mess. I gave it a couple years before coming back to see if it's playable yet and sure enough, it isn't. I'll update this review next year if it's functional by then, I guess.

Disallowing comments because I already foresee someone saying it's a hardware issue and that it's somehow my fault. It's not, I have a good computer. I can run most games well. This is one of the handful of games I own and play that is just horribly optimized and doesn't run well.

Solid game. Fun, cinematic gameplay. It's marred somewhat by a litany of bugs that, for me, the gameplay still makes up for. I do wish that steam had a "tentative" recommendation, so just... i dunno. I recommend the game, but do be aware there's a lot of bugs - some game breaking - that you need to watch out for. Some can be avoided by specific actions, others are out of your control. At times, this game is gonna make you mad when you clip through the floor, die, and lose all of your samples with no way to ever get them back because they're under the terrain. But it's not something that's going to happen every mission, or even most of them in my experience.

Fairly spoiler-free ramble. Tl;Dr? Buy it! It's great.

Not perfect, but an incredible game I've played a bunch and continue to even now. I really love Larian's games and this is almost as close to perfect as I think one can reasonably get. I have some gripes, though it's really just with some of the decisions made in development that resulted in a rushed character that never really seemed to feel finished with me. That, and I kind of prefer the original concepts for the party members. There's something to be said about trying to appeal to people initially over artistic integrity. Shadowheart's far too nice and far too judgmental of "evil" actions for a character who was, initially, fairly cold, because people didn't like her being harsh and rude. Wyll's initial character wasn't as liked so they completely rewrote him, leaving him feeling kind of empty as the story goes on because I guess they didn't have enough time or inclination to COMPLETELY refit his story, and it does result in an unsatisfying conclusion to his arc for me.

I feel like if they had been able and willing to spend some more time fixing up some of those story beats, and didn't cave to some initial dislikes of characters who i think are fair to start off abrasive (like Lae'zel, who's one of my favorites!) then the game would have been just that LITTLE bit better, but it's still amazing and I'm not here to whine about what could have been... though the werewolf companion that got nixed would have been really cool (not because of my profile picture, i just think they could've played off one of the other companions really well lol). Still, It's a beloved game for a reason! It's fantastic! Try it! I've beaten it a few times and, just like D:OS2, I see myself coming back again and again. I have a couple runs going on even as I write this. Can't wait for Larian's next game. If things carry on as they are, I'm sure it'll be another great one.

Game was utterly ruined by corporate greed. Will never buy from this developer or publisher again.

I'll keep it simple. Great game, great mechanics, fun to play, but for some people it's just going to run badly. I have 32 gigs of RAM. People used to say "oh that's way too much," but this game eats that up so whatever who's laughing now. That's fine. But despite having a 3060, I can barely run this game on low graphics - but only after about five minutes of play. Before that, it plays smooth. It just... slowly gets slower and slower. Doesn't seem to be using more memory - initially I thought it had a memory leak - so I'm not really sure why. I recommend it - it's really fun. But honestly if you don't have a REALLY good computer - and I mean like REAAAAAAAAAAALLY good - I'd wait for a while. I don't know if it's poorly optimised or what but this is the only game I have that my PC struggles with this badly, and I have a lot of games. And it only got like this after the first few missions, so I really have no idea why it suddenly started dying on me.

TL;DR Tentatively recommend. I love it when I can actually play it, but after a couple minutes it becomes so laggy that I have to quit so it has taken me multiple days to get through the fourth mission. Other people don't seem to be having that issue, but it's worth considering that the game IS running this poorly for some people.

kinda boring and impossible to see anything

Despite the genre of deckbuilding roguelikes being really saturated, I have to say that this one really stood out. That said, all of the things that made me love it are pretty subjective and I can't get into them without spoilers. To give my opinion concisely, if you like card games then give it a try. If you like mysteries and horror too then that's even more reason. I'd recommend going in as blind as possible for maximum enjoyment.

After playing this for many hours, I'll be honest. I don't really know if I like this game. The combat is okay, the story is fine, but most of my playtime is spent either in a loading screen or stuck constantly freezing to continue loading the game every seven steps. My computer is not bad, it's able to run most every other game I play perfectly. Yet when it comes to this game, it's unplayable. I've heard that the game never used to be like this and when I originally played it, it was nowhere near as bad, but whatever Ubisoft did has ruined any enjoyment I could have had. I've tried all the fixes that I found online but nothing works and I just give up trying to play it.

I can't recommend the game because of it's abysmal performance issues but if I could guarantee that you won't receive them, I'd recommend it if you enjoy open world games. The environments are beautiful, at least they were before I put the graphics down as low as possible to attempt to avoid the game's constant loading mid-game. The combat is more proactive than the previous AC games I have played, instead of being purely reactive. It's fun enough and doesn't require much brainpower to get through it. I just wish that I could actually play it instead of having my willpower sapped when I get stuck in Sparta, edging my way down one street for half an hour. All in all, I no longer really trust Ubisoft when it comes to buying their games. They're rarely optimised and barely playable nowadays. If they ever fix the issue, which they almost certainly won't, I'll give a more favourable review. As it is, I can't bring myself to play any more. I could actually be playing a game with my time instead of waiting to play one.

Fun with friends but the community is horribly toxic and it makes the game really hard to enjoy. The PvE is fun but the PvP is incredibly unenjoyable due to how awful the community is. Basically, if you play this game you're going to be stuck with manchildren who just want to throw slurs at you. There is some skill to this game but a lot of it is learning how to exploit the game's mechanics to play in a way that doesn't feel intended at all. If you want to explore islands with your friends, too bad. One of you has to sit on the ship and not play the game to ensure your ship doesn't get sunk in 2 seconds while people scream the n word at you and tell you to uninstall because you're new. While I have some genuine issues with the game's design, I can get past them to enjoy the gameplay loop. It's the community that makes this game a hard no for me. Sea of Thieves is marketed as a PvE game with PvP elements but 99% of the people you will meet are just toxic and vile people who seek out people to attack them, even if they have no loot or emissary flag, just to ruin their fun. If the game was actually balanced, reworked in some way, or a purely PvE mode was included to allow new players to actually play the game then it would be a lot more fun.

As it is, I can't recommend this to a NEW player unless you have multiple friends who have already played for a long time to literally babysit you until you figure out how to play decently enough to actually defend against people or you have someone to sit on the ship, not actually play the game and immediately sail away the moment you see someone even slightly sailing towards you on the horizon. If you've been playing the game for a long time and you already enjoy it, then I don't need to recommend it because you already own it. If you don't own it and the above criteria aren't met or don't sound fun, I really can't.

Tl;Dr: Don't buy this game if you won't enjoy a 90% pvp experience with some janky mechanics and if you want a community that doesn't suck then this game is NOT for you.

Seems like a relaxing little game, but the PC controls are frustrating and clunky to use. If you have a controller it's probably a fun thing to play with friends but the keyboard controls make this anything but fun.