Recent reviews by The Last Leviathan

Man, oh man, I have been keeping my eye on this game ever since the teaser trailer in 2017. The level design, the gun-play, the combat design, it all feels (to me at least) very akin to the 2010's era of FPS shooters that so many of us consider to be the greatest feeling shooting/combat mechanics & gameplay of all time. Given that the developer(s) have previously worked on games like Gears of War and Bulletstorm, it comes to no surprise that the core elements of gun-based fights feel as good as they do. Are some runs repetitive? Sure. Could each run be more randomized and challenging? Perhaps, i guess that's up to the perspective of each individual player, which is my horrible segue into my talking points on what could be changed & added to EA and possibly full release:

**possibly minor spoilers(?) ahead**

1) Each of the classes should have more benefits, characteristics & gameplay alteration for unique and re-playable saves/profiles i.e Borderlands, Hades, Elden Ring. At the moment, it's only stat based differences which can easily be increased as you progress through the game, making choosing a character type essentially pointless to put thought into unless maybe for speedruns, in my opinion.

2) Adding more environmental & ability chaining combat like Bulletstorm could elevate the core gameplay to such a fun level of engagement and coordinating fights.

3) Demonic Weapons should have Mysterium or stat altering changes based on class & level, where you could choose buff/debuffs as you reach a specific level of trials with the weapon. Given that the Demonic Weapon is suppose to be an extremely powerful and almost BFG level weapon, i think there could be some balancing done to make it significantly more strategic but just as if not more powerful than the base version of the weapon but with added debuffs to balance it out.

4) Just a QOF change; A stat percentage increase to show the difference of your base level equipment and their differences with each Mysterium upgrade would be nice, as seeing the numbers as you upgrade it could make you plan out your runs differently as I presume the devs will add more challenging enemies and scenarios.

I think overall, this game in its current state is incredibly fun, its responsive, and just a real joy to play. Although i do think $40 is slightly overpriced, i'm very glad i got it and can't wait to see where this game goes and see how it grows.

I'm not jumping on the bandwagon because of the battle pass changes, but neither Respawn nor EA even remotely care about making healthy changes to keep the game sustainable for the players that have dedicated thousands of hours of their time to the game. The general mechanics of this game is what keeps us coming back, but season by season they continue to spit in the face of their fan base and ruin any enjoyment in this game. Even the "arcade" modes are not enjoyable anymore. Went from playing for hours and hours to barely being able to stand playing for 30 minutes. It's just a sad waste of caring developers in the name of corporate, executive profit.

You could imagine that a licensed game coming off the blazing coattail of Fury Road would just be an easy cash grab, but thankfully that isn't the case. While the combat is very derivative of Arkham's Freeflow system, your punches, tackles, slams, stabs & shotgun blasts feel weighty. The level and character design is top notch. In such a large wasteland with landscapes akin to Thunderdome and Fury Road , the emptiness between strongholds, camps & survey areas hold the haunting memory of humanity that has long been dead. The debris and destruction physics are superb as well, where car explosions still hold their intensity through small encounters while traversing through the lands or attacking a convoy.

The story, while seemingly simple, doesn't feel out of place in the lore and world of Mad Max itself. He is selfless to the elements that remind him of the old world, and ruthless to the new world around him to ensure his survival. Personally, i wish that the vehicle fighting was more dynamic and had as much focus as the customization. The melee combat, while it is nice that it feels heavy when you hit, the slow animations can sometimes lead to counters not registering and has the same issues that come from Arkham combat clones like Shadow of Mordor , and even Arkham Origins for that matter. The 'Top Dog' camps are incredibly repetitive, and with only a handful of these encounters, i wish that they had spent more time making them feel more rewarding and more challenging.

At a time when Warner Bros. were pumping out these licensed games, and being in competition with heavy hitting games like MGS5, Fallout 4, Witcher 3, Bloodbourne, Arkham Knight, Dying Light, it's easy to see why this game did and has gone under the radar for so many people, and with elements that are standard in open world games, which can put a lot of people off from them, many of those standards work so well in the world of Mad Max. Even though at times it can be a bit of a grind, the art direction, sound design, customization & vehicle combat are easily worth the current cost of the game, in my opinion (even more so on sale). If you enjoy open worlds, driving fast, or anything post apocalyptic, this is should be an easy pick for you.

This is a contender for possibly the best game remake made to date.

Shockingly, Motive/EA expanded on the original without sacrificing the quality of the story and content that has already been established and known for. It's not solely a graphical rework, which they could have easily done and still tacked on a AAA price tag. Sometimes, it stays too faithful to the original and refuses to let you skip long cut-scenes and dialogue after multiple playthroughs, and certain engagements feel outdated, but not in a way that is intrusive or cumbersome to your experience.

I only ran into a few bugs and issues, but nothing that ever took me out of the immersion and intensity.

Everything from the atmosphere, audio design, & voice acting is incredibly well made, again which is surprising coming from EA. I only hope that they give Dead Space 2 the same treatment.

I think that this game has a lot of potential to be a serious contender against some upcoming PvE/PvP experiences. While the PvP needs a fair bit of balancing and adjustments to abilities and doesn't do anything to re-invent the wheel that CoD has established for over a decade, the PvE is where this game really shines and has a lot of promise.

At the moment there are only 2 co-op missions and one 'Expedition' rogue-like campaign. I personally think the Expedition mode has the best experience of the game overall, with the co-op missions provide an enjoyable grind for weapon leveling but falls victim of repetitiveness with each playthrough. With 8 operatives to choose from with varying abilities, it's able to keep you engaged and the more you learn how to use each operative better, the more time you sink in and want to keep seeing how well you can perform with that character.

So far, i have had a really nice time playing. For it being in EA, there really is not too much i can personally complain or find major issues with. I hope that the team is able to implement tons of features and new modes, for both PvP and PvE, that can sustain itself for a long time. In this media space where titles are so focused on eSports focused PvP experiences, it's nice to see a new game that has focus on being fun instead of shifting aggressively towards a competitive scene *cough Gears cough*.

With a soundtrack provided by the excellent Andrew Hulshult, Prodeus provides you with satisfaction in the most important aspects of an retro arena-style shooter, gunplay and movement. You never feel too overwhelmed or that you're under performing in the areas you shouldn't. Prodeus is a fantastic homage to classic FPS and i highly recommend giving it a shot.

You remember how Borderlands 2 felt like it was leagues above the original in terms of gameplay, mechanics, and story? Well, Borderlands 3 exceeds 2 of those elements.

First, we'll get the worst out of the way:

- Narrative & Character Development -

*minor spoilers*

The main antagonists, The Calypso Twins , are a parody of streaming culture and fall prey to the cliches of a brother/sister dynamic. Stereotypical power struggle, annoying bickering, and cringe-worthy jokes and dialogue that make Claptrap feel genuinely funny (more on cringe-worthy in a minute). You can find dozens of reviews here on Steam and on YouTube that absolutely destroy Ava, and the criticism is deserved. They attempt to make her a Mary Sue near the end as they lay waste to a fundamental character (who i believe is also going to *somehow* return in a later DLC). While some have criticized the lack of Salvador, Axton, and Kreig, i strongly believe they are going to be making a return in DLC 3 & 4, since Gaige returned in DLC 2. Returning back to the main campaign, however, the writers seemed to have been stuck in 2012. The humor and characters are revolved around the humor that was relevant 8 years ago, i mean there is an achievement called Bye Felicia , a 4 year old meme. I think the writers may have felt pressured to stay with the humor that everyone adored instead of taking a risk and evolving, leading to most of the campaign nearly drenched in cringe-worthy writing. While i feel like the starting characters have their charm and quirks that get worked out over the time of a playthrough, NPCs such as Vaughn, Rhys, BALEX, Clay, Ember (DLC 1) and Lorelei are either one-dimensional or riddled with outdated humor.

However , there are characters that are genuinely endearing and engaging to listen to and watch. Wainwright Jakobs, Typhon DeLeaon, and Timothy Lawrence (DLC 1) offer entertainment among the bad characters, as well as returning beloved characters we remember fondly from previous titles. Where this entry may lack in story, with some rather insulting wastes of not only certain characters' potential substantiality but their lives, it makes up in gameplay.

- Mechanics & Gunplay -

If Gearbox can do anything right, it's improve the way Borderlands should feel with every title. BL2 felt like it was a major improvement, so much so that i remember in the height of its release i was so content with how it felt i couldn't imagine how they could have made it better, yet they have. A simple slide mechanic makes traversal feel twice as smooth, a slam attack that can cause great damage to groups of enemies, and adding verticality which benefits many playthrough strategies. These mechanics can even have significant advantages to your character build as certain artifacts and class mods will add elemental damage or boosts to sliding or slam. The weapons, while i believe BL2 reigns as having the best overall collection of legendary weapons, shields, and grenades, still delivers interesting legendary drops that encourage you to farm and grind for that perfect weapon that fits your build. That's a formula i believe Gearbox knows not to alter too heavily; The connection the player has to their build and customizing it to best fit their play style, making the player desire to hunt for the best gear they can get. There are always ways to deal more damage, heal faster, move quicker, and that's through heavy farming and investing the time into your character. The amount of unique combinations of weapons, shields, grenades, class mods, and artifacts i feel rival that of BL2 and we're only halfway through the DLC cycle. If Gearbox follows the same model as they did previously, the last DLC will redeem itself not only in the overall story arc and character development, but with gear as well (referencing Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's Keep ).

- Bosses & Enemy Variation -

I agree strongly with swani24 , that there are too many bosses with immunity stages. It takes you out of the engagement of the fight and you're left annoyed, waiting for them to get out of the stage. It takes you out of farming certain bosses and is my biggest complaint about the bosses. Certain bosses benefit from using certain builds against them, which i believe encourages you to play more co-op matches. Where in BL2 it felt like it was better to have more people to simply drop more loot, here it feels like the bosses are designed to have advantages for certain characters and use strategy. The enemy variation feels just as great as BL2 , and secret/mini bosses feel just as rewarding as main bosses.

Optimization could have been better at launch. Sifting through the settings and getting the right configuration can take some time, however i highly recommend using DirectX 12, as i personally have found much less stuttering issues using it.

Overall, through the horrible writing, occasional performance hiccups, and boring characters, i found myself enjoying this game a lot more than i thought i would. The gameplay is just simply fun, and keeps you wanting more and more loot. I would definitely recommend this title, not for the story, but for the general experience and gameplay.

The best word to describe this title is disappointing. I highly enjoyed the other two titles in the series, particularly enjoying Last Light's art direction and design. The landscape felt vibrant and rich though engrossed in a bleak and washed out Russian world, full of intrigue and terror. Metro Exodus lacks all of the charm from its other games.

The voice acting is embarrassing , followed by equally horrendous writing and character development. Artyom has fully recorded dialogue in the loading screens yet has nothing in-game. Why even go through the effort of including that dialogue when it doesn't serve any purpose than to deter you from the loading time? It was a huge missed opportunity to make Artyom feel like an actual character. The development of the characters are shallow and insulting being the 3rd entry in a successful series basing itself on atmosphere.

The lands in which you explore always feel barren. Not in an explorative way, rather environments that feel like they didn't invest the time in fully developing. While visually beautiful and cinematically engaging, it fails to deliver anything substantial or rewarding. Spending significant time scouring through caves, buildings, makeshift HQs, shipyards, containers, will often lead to exhausting wastes of time. Your time spent collecting materials for ammunition or health packs feels almost like a slap in the face. There is very little incentive to investigate and explore, which is what this title is suppose to embed itself in. While the rewards you receive for upgrades to your weapons and armor can be very useful, it never feels like it

The most engaging aspect of Exodus is the gunplay, and even that falls short. The weapons feel off-balance, clunky, weak, and hollow. There is no weight to a shot fired from a shotgun or heavy pistol, the pneumatic weapon feels like a water gun though it deals a great amount of damage. However, the customization and upgrades for the weapons are well thought-out and offer some benefit to the exploration the game encourages you to do, however the time and energy you spend to receive stocks, scopes, barrels, clips, and other upgrades leaves a bitter taste in your mouth once you apply said upgrades.

The levels are overwhelmingly painted with shades of dull greens, reds, brown and grey. Some areas of the game are rich with depth and tincture. While the architecture and design of landmarks are gorgeous (if you have a PC strong enough to get stable fps at ultra, let alone with ray-tracing enabled), the layout of the levels feel as if the developers started an area with a design in mind, and then abandoned it to work on another area, and leaves the levels feeling incomplete. The desolation never feels engaging or alluring like in 2033 or Last Light , but rather off-putting and lazily thrown together.

I wish i would have enjoyed this more than i did. Every hour i spent playing it felt like a chore to play. I hope that if you consider purchasing this title that you find much more enjoyment out of it than i did. I am a supporter of Deep Silver and would more than likely purchase another Metro title if they released one. While i personally felt the experience was lackluster, i want you to have a better one. The Metro series is deserving of your attention and time.

This is truly an evolution in the first person shooter genre. This is not a game where you can stick to one weapon and destroy every enemy. It forces you to utilize your arsenal to the best of their abilities, making you an even deadlier slayer. It makes you focus on spacial awareness and needing to invest in understanding character movement and combat flow, which seems to be the biggest difficulty among players going into this believing that it's going to be just a simple shooter. This is far from simple. The UI can be a bit daunting at first, especially with understanding runes, armor upgrades, weapon upgrades, and so on.

The story, while rich with lore in codex pages and exploring more of the UAC, Argent energy, and the invasion of hell itself, falls very flat in many instances. Plot holes and open ended sub-plots (hopefully to be answered in DLC to come) leave a rather unfulfilled exploration of the universe of Doom.

However, with even a rather thrown together universe, the gunplay makes up for this tenfold. The diversity of challenging enemy types, the rapid movement, the energetic chaos of the soundtrack, the satisfying sound design, the graphics optimization, and everything you want from an FPS, Doom Eternal delivers plus some. It is difficult, yes. It's a challenge. It's an evolution in the approach of the genre.

If you're feeling perhaps skeptical or worried about the challenge, play Devil Daggers ($5) , or Amid Evil ($20) , which may help you with the difficulty (i just like giving a highlight to those games when i get the chance).

I highly recommend this game. Listen to the soundtrack, and if that doesn't get you in the mood to hook into a demon with a flaming chain and blast it away with a shotgun, i don't know what will.

- Approach With Caution -

I personally have no issues with playing at sub-60 fps. I'm still trying to find settings that are balanced between enjoyable framerates and detail, and that is a caution i would air to anyone wanting to play this port of the game on a mid-tier PC; you're going to be spending quite a bit of time optimizing the game. With that said, i average about 50 fps, sometimes dipping into low 40s.

I've only had one crash so far, but i would not be surprised if it happens again knowing it's a consistent issue for many others. The persistent issue for me is audio. Dialogue, music, and sound effects will crackle more often than i encounter a graphical or performance issue.

I've barely even begun the main missions, and have essentially only started scratching the surface of what's left to explore. What waits for me is a mystery i don't know if i look forward to discovering, however so far, it hasn't been as awful as other's experiences. The photo mode has been so much fun using, and overall i've had an enjoyable time playing.