Recent reviews by Tamaster

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Set in a medieval fantasy world where monsters and magic are common concepts, Vendir puts you in the shoes of a lower class peasant, living a miserable life in a city ruled by a tyrannical king. Without much preamble on your origins or situation, a hasty chase involving some friends has you on the run from the law, and quickly exiled from the city. Outside, madness and misery are even more predominant, so you’ll have to find a way to survive, and eventually fulfill your manifest destiny.

The writing of both the main story and both main quests is on average level, at best, leaning to the mediocre side. This is partially due to the AI translation of all dialogues. Certain quests and NPC dialogues are legitimately fun or more nuanced, but in general nothing is remarkable enough to compose a hooking framework for story and characters. Your companions have little in the way of interaction and opinions, mostly following you as battle minions, but with no personal development and no dialogues about their personal predicaments.

Its medieval fantasy setting is grim and gritty: the concepts of misery and ruin are well-delivered by the bleak palettes and ruined state of the environment, people and locales you’ll visit. Most denizens are in pain, suffering or have some kind of trauma - just like in real life! And will ask you to aid them. Locations are distinct enough, but few are truly remarkable enough to stand out on their own - they all kind of blend in into the same mish-mash of decaying medieval countryside.

You’ll explore the world on foot, with optional fast travel at fixed carriages, or by using a consumable you can cheaply buy at vendors. Most places and persons of interest will be auto-marked on your map as you explore, however quest givers won’t be, same for certain interactions - keen-eyed explorers will be rewarded for their efforts. With its fixed isometric perspective, it won’t be hard to spot chests or other interactable items, such as resources to gather to then use in crafting. There are some secret interactions with unmarked NPCs and items, which can lead to interesting developments, but rarely to worthwhile rewards. The presence of many invisible walls make exploration feel more limiting and tracked than expected in a RPG. Exploring will also lead to random encounters with enemies, as customary for the genre.

Fights play out in a turn-based fashion, with each character having one action to use a single skill. You can freely choose who acts in which order, as there’s no turn queue. Your foes can do the same. The maximum fight size is 4v4, with some battles having multiple waves of enemies consequently. There’s a vast array of skills, attacks and moves to choose from, ranging from DoT to debuffs to support, other than the good old damaging ones, each with various elemental types your enemies might be resistant or weak to - or also be made weak to thanks to debuffs. The depth in combat is of a good level - the various class skills can be combined in clever ways to stack multiple effects and then use the right skill to deal devastating damage in a single strike, something that becomes almost mandatory to defeat tougher optional enemies. Enemy AI has a decent level of cooperation between one another, with support characters acting as they should to buff their DPS and tanks and keeping them alive, as expected.

Bosses are, usually, tougher versions of normal enemies that mostly don’t have any special move or unique conditions to their fights. Some do, but rarely. They’re tough and rewarding in terms of XP and item drops, however they could definitely have been more nuanced. Brutals, optional bosses found throughout the world, are by far the deadliest variant of them all, and not only the best equipment, but also respecs and tailored gear may be needed to defeat some of them.

Your whole party gains the same XP and levels at the same time. Gear doesn’t have stat requirements, but instead often gives stats so that your characters can have better scaling with their weapon and abilities. A vast branching skill tree allows specialization for you and your companions, in classes like the support-oriented Witch Doctor, the beefy Warrior and many more. Remember: you can always multi-class and take two branches to make a more flexible character, and if a build turns sour, you can always respect, although later on at a specific NPC. Equipment is color-coded by rarity, and unlike other RPGS, not quests nor enemies will be your main source of good gear - merchants are, so get to it and farm as much coin as possible from random encounters, don’t skip!

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Without much preamble, Smalland drops you in the wilderness as a tiny elf-like creature, the Smallfolk; you’re tasked by an injured comrade to find out why insects and garden critters have been acting up strangely lately - from there, you start your quest to set things right.

The worldbuilding has you explore various biomes, although for most of your time you’ll roam lush forests and damp swamp caves, with the desert only being a late-game area. The level of detail isn’t terrible but not great either, as it’s clearly noticeable that many parts of the map are unpolished, without clear landmarks to give them their own identity. It’s fine, but never feels spectacular, also due to the graphics which are a setback from current industry standards, Indie productions included.

Writing-wise, don’t expect a rich story or witty characters that will stay in your mind: it’s serviceable for its purpose, but nothing more. It would’ve been cool to understand what happened to the world in a larger sense, however there won’t be much information at all about, well, anything. In general, there isn’t much elaboration on the main story: at times it feels quite cobbled together and confusing, since as it goes, it will give you several tasks that seem disjointed from one another in terms of narrative.

Initially you’ll explore on foot, but after some time you’ll access wings to glide your way around from high places, such as trees, and later on even get flying mounts. There’s no form of fast traveling, unless you disable item drops on death and suicide to get back to base - which we did, to not add even more to the backtracking issues. The map is enormous, and at times difficult to navigate due to the presence of both invisible walls and items without collisions that will make you fall to your demise, or under the map in some cases. Notably, bases can be teleported instantly between claimable trees, so that you can easily move your main area of operations.

Despite these issues, exploration is worthwhile to progressively map out and locate resource-rich areas you can mark, find unique boss enemies and special mounts not marked anywhere, and even cool unique locations; the latter don’t have any special loot mostly (some do), but are a welcome change of scenery from the usual copy-pasted forest biome you’ll soon get accustomed with. The heightened vision of Smallfolk automatically highlights resources and enemies with a toggle mode, very useful in dark places and also to know each critter’s weaknesses and statistics.

Most insects in the wilderness will be hostile; there’s a good variety of them from cute, harmless ladybugs to horrific cockroaches and gigantic spiders -some inflict poison, some other negative statuses and have different attack patterns you’ll have to learn. Both dodging and blocking are possible, with perfect parry being essential to stun your foes for several seconds. All enemies are weak or resistant to specific damage types, so having several weapons with you is a good idea. Fights don’t have a lot of depth mechanically, but are enjoyable for what they are.

Bosses are often-unique variants of seen mobs, which sport their regular attack patterns in addition to devastating special moves that can even outright instant-kill the unprepared. They drop unique materials to make the best weapons, and while some of them are quest-related, others are hidden deep in the wilds. They don’t feel as epic as bosses should, more like amped up recolors, but they're distinct enough to not be just a copy-paste.

You can build anywhere outside existing settlements, be that for a utility bridge to cross difficult terrain, or for outposts to task shelter during adverse climate events. It’s still best to build your main base on a Great Tree, that not only shields it from dangers, but also allows it to teleport instantly to another tree, other than giving you a height advantage for gliding. There are several workbenches specialized in crafting foods, metals, weapons, tools and everything else you’d need to survive the wilds, other than a vast assortment of walls, containers and decorations to make your base shiny if that’s your thing. Crafting is very slow, but it can be set to be instant in the lobby options - trust me and do that.

Your character will gain Xp from quests and defeated foes, each level grating three attributes to spend and improve your stats. Other than Strength to improve your damage bonus %, which is great, the other stats are miserable to invest into, with minimal gains in stamina or health even after many levels are put into them. What’s the point of having 30 more max HP, 10 levels worth of points, when foes will hit you for 40 or 50 damage per hit? The scaling of attributes also doesn’t impact your ability to use any tool, and there isn’t a perk / skill system compounded with them.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Space Engineers doesn’t have any kind of story or background lore whatsoever. It’s a pure sandbox that puts you right into space, on a planet, or wherever your selected starting scenario would, without any further explanation. From there, it’s only up to you to set your goals and what you’d like to accomplish. Perhaps you’d like to visit all those distant planets, build a monumental space station, a flawless industrial complex, or the mightiest battleship to sail the stars with. You can do all of that. Granted, some of these scenarios have actual objectives, like surviving waves of enemy attacks, but these are exceptions to the otherwise-freeform formula.

This is a double-edged sword that on one side grants complete player freedom, on the other removes the incentive granted by pre-set objectives and goals - such as quests in most other games. I can definitely see people simply not knowing what to do because there isn’t a target set for them, an endgame goal. Furthermore, there isn’t really any guidance past basic controls and item descriptions: figuring out how stuff works involves a lot of trial and error, which can be part of the fun, but also becomes frustrating at times. Google is your friend.

Visually, the style is rather minimalistic and clean: it’s well-suited for the type of game it is, especially for a hard sci-fi setting such as this. Planets are impressive technically, with their huge render distances and beautiful light effects, however they do take a toll on performance for all but the beefiest machines.

The vastness of space is yours to conquer - first you need to get there though, at least in Survival mode, that usually has you start with minimal equipment on a randomly-generated planet or asteroid. There are no limits to how far you can go or how deep you can dig: everything is destructible and fully simulated. That being said, there won’t be much of interest around in the vanilla game: apart from you, your eventual co-op partners and some AI Space Pirate ships going around, there won’t be any landmarks to discover or secrets to find. Exploration is strictly utilitarian: find that resource, a trading station, that mineral that doesn’t naturally occur on your starting planet and so forth, but never really exciting. Sure, it’s realistic, doesn’t mean it’s exciting. Once again mods come to the rescue, and can vastly expand upon this aspect.

The bulk of gameplay in SE is orientated towards building a base, be it stationary or mobile, and acquiring the resources to expand it to your heart’s desire. For that purpose, a wide array of components is available, some simple enough, others quite complex to figure out. Pistons, hinges, motors, conveyors, cargo containers, turrets - the works.

You’ll be able to progressively unlock new technologies and expand your possibilities while starting from mostly scratch. It’s extremely satisfying to see the fruits of your labor come true, but that will take a long time under default settings: the realistic simulation means everything takes a long time to manufacture, assemble, gather, refine, especially in solo. These settings can be adjusted and tweaked, and of course modded if needs be, to suit your gameplay needs. Or you can just use Creative mode if you just want to build stuff without worrying about the grind, which is something a lot of players do. Production, energy and storage pipelines can be built and largely automated, albeit the game not giving you much tutoring on how to accomplish that. Figuring it out is part of the experience.

Tiered tools and progressively better technologies will see an incremental increase of your production capacity over the long run: the first few hours on any Survival game are cumbersome, but once you get the hang of it, there’s a particular catharsis to it. Of course, it needs to be your thing, let’s not pretend Space Engineers isn’t a niche game, because it is. At least, in its vanilla state.

Fights between players and AI or PvP use an arsenal of weapons both automated, manual, ship-mounted or hand-held. Rockets, missiles, miniguns, assault rifles, even railguns. The dynamic damage system on terrain and structures means every hit could damage critical components, disable ships, cause internal damage to a hostile force. It’s really cool to look at an enemy ship detonate into dozens of individual, physics-enabled pieces after being shredded by an autocannon, it’s really daunting to repair your own while everything is on fire and you are getting pummeled into paste by an angry pirate frigate you just happened to stumble onto. Despite this premise, combat is quite simple, and despite it enabling the configuration of custom weapons and even AI-drones to help you multiply your numbers, it mostly remains a DPS-trade between vessels, racing to disable the cockpit or the main reactors as fast as possible. It’s an afterthought, an add-on, and clearly not the main beef of the gameplay.

Want to know more about the franchise? Here is my Dead Island 1 review.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Writing-wise, the main story is on fair levels: it doesn’t have the grip or appeal of other zombie-themed titles - say, Days Gone to pick one, but it’s not complete crap either - a couple turnarounds are even decent. Certainly, it’s dragged down by the raw amount of cringe, unrealistic dialogues and situations most characters will find themselves in overall; it’s Dead Island, not Dead Rising… right? The first chapter had a much-darker theme, more mature side / main characters, and felt more plausible. Lore-wise, some of the documents and recordings being quite interesting; a genuinely-good diversion from the slaughter.

The level of detail in each location, be it a centerpiece or just a side-area for some obscure quest, is excellent. It shows that the devs put great effort in making them shine. Looking around you can truly realize the minute attention to detail put into them by the designers. Overall, the demolished cityscape, plentiful gore and zombie presence give out a good apocalyptic feel, but it’s still way too sunny and colorful. For whatever dumb reason, no human enemies will ever be encountered, as opposed to DI1 - as if humanity would suddenly become fraternal during an apocalypse. Yeah, right.

This on-paper open-world proves highly formulaic and guided in its evolution. As opposed to titles where you’re able to explore freely from the get-go, in DI2 you’ll be highly “on tracks” for most of your playtime: oh, you wanted to explore that place? Locked by a quest! Only to then be open by sheer magic even if nothing really changed except your quest log. It feels artificial and frustrating, especially when you have to clear all the zombies again. Fast travel is only available from fixed points, an archaic design choice that bloats gameplay, by forcing you to backtrack quite a lot to and from locations that don’t have any.

You’ll find many containers with a variety of components, weapons, and the occasional blueprint. Some of them are on your way, but others are instead off the beaten path, or even in secret areas. They all get marked on your map if you get close enough to them, like everything else, however to open them you’ll need consumable items (Fuses) or to find specific keys. Finding them is a chore as often there’s no hint whatsoever… only to then open these ‘unique’ containers to get randomized weapons you can get anywhere else. This is a waste of time, unrewarding and just stupid design. Maps, in the form of tourist flyers, don’t always seem adequate in conveying the layout of a location.

The crown jewel of DI2 is, without doubt, its combat system, which evolves threefold with melee weapons, guns and a vast array of active skills and consumables. You’ll be able to employ both makeshift and real weapons to dismember, pummel, crush, burn and deflagrate the undead. The gore and physics systems at play here are second to none, surpassing even both Dying Light games in this regard. It’s supremely satisfying to see the weight of a two-handed hammer stagger even large enemies, swords cleave bodies in half, and explosions shred zombies into piles of gore.

A fairly deep, but intuitive system, based on parries, dodges, stamina management and elemental weaknesses / immunities further widens the approaches at your disposal, by using the plentiful hazards (fire, electricity, acid…) to your advantage. In that regard, there’s an excessive amount of hazard surfaces, especially later on, which make melee engagements quite frustrating. Not that it matters if you lose anyway, since there’s no death penalty whatsoever - not even for money. Cash you’ll need to buy materials, blueprints, consumables and even arms from the numerous traders, other than repairing weapons and equalizing them to your current level - all of which is fairly expensive, so that would have been a good penalty for death. Guess casuals would have cried too hard! It’s sad that bosses are, save for the final one, just reskins or recolors of normal enemies.

Your character can be equipped with cards, which grant active and passive abilities that define your playstyle better, and allow you to specialize to an extent. There isn’t a deeper ARPG-like progression, or any skill tree, so don’t expect too much depth. These cards are often obtained from exploration or side-quests. This and gear level / modifications, obtained in the same way, are the only two forms of progression, other than your base level which will scale most enemies and also their drops, color-coded by rarity.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




After Earth became an unlivable, overpopulated war-torn mess, a generational ship was built to reach Proxima Centauri in many, many years; an habitable planet was found - a fresh start for humanity… or rather, another Earth to screw up. Of course, the to-be colonists also screwed up the ship itself with power struggles and misery - just in time for your sorry ass to be born into it. Starting out as a literal nobody in the bowels of the ship, you’ll have to find a way not only to survive, but thrive.

The main story starts off soon with a sort-of deus-ex-machina that puts -you- of all people on the right track for something amazing. Despite being a bum living in the gutter. That’s a great stroke of luck, but hardly feels realistic given that people far more skilled could’ve been hired. Even so, the writing is overall competent: companions have depth, although not as much as in other RPGs, quests feel plausible and have a marked action-consequence factor, the optional lore is interesting to delve into.

Visually, CSH isn’t a spectacle nor needs to be one; top-down RPGs rarely have the need for mind-blowing visuals, especially for a target audience that mostly cares about gameplay and writing above all. Iron Tower knows, but still they did a -great- job with the fully 3D environment, models and art direction.

The ship is divided into several major sections, most of which are locked out until you progress further in the main story in a partial, conditional open-world fashion. You’re free to explore each once you get there, although many locations will be barred behind skill checks, lockpick or computers for instance - to open doors - quests, specific items and even conversations.

Exploration is interesting, but is also highly formulaic: you’ll need to do things in a rather specific ‘order’ to then be able to backtrack and solve those skill checks initially too difficult - if they are still available, since the world doesn’t revolve around you, as it should be. You also will not be able to do everything in a single run - it’s designed that way.

There are a lot of secrets, from unique items unlockable at traders, to secret passages discovered only via perception checks, to hidden bosses and more. A lot of such shenanigans are tied to achievements as well, for those interested. You’ll never know when you’ll stumble upon the next secret or interesting interaction.

Fights play out in a turn-based fashion, with APs used for both movement and other actions. You’ll be able to position your party beforehand in a small grid, so that you can have the best formation - it only matters to an extent, since enemies will be quick to flank and outmaneuver you if given the chance. Death is common and losing fights is easy - most foes will be at your same power level when met and in many cases superior in both numbers and skill.

They can literally do everything you can, if not more. Smart usage of precious, finite consumables, careful build planning and strenuous optimization of loadouts are fundamental to just have -some- chances of winning; and you’ll get your ass kicked half the time anyway. Oh and don’t use pistols, or shotguns, or blunt weapons, because rifles, blade weapons and SMGs are just straight upgrades - yeah, that sucks, but what can you do?

A fairly deep system of weapon-contextual attacks, aimed shots with diverse debuffs, DR ratings and passive perks, cover calculations and opportunity attacks comes into play at every move. It takes a while to get used to it, and frankly in some cases, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. It works, but I always felt there are hidden mechanics at play that I haven’t the slightest idea about. Numbers are everything - the crappiest thugs CAN overwhelm the most elite units if they outnumber you 5 to 1. That’s why solo runs are complete ass.

Bosses, especially optional ones, are inhumane ordeals that will often test the limits of your sanity and of your alcohol tolerance. If you don’t drink yet, you’ll start when a 15-meter worm wipes your party for the 35th time in a row, trust me.

Your character won’t get stat points by normal means; each level you’ll get one perk to specialize your build further - also, no skill points; those are gained by actually doing stuff and getting better at it. You’ll become a master lock picker after you lockpick a hundred of them, pay someone to teach you, or find lost technology that does that for free. Same for every other skill. It’s a solid system that promotes specializations, and almost every check has an option to tell a specific companion to do something, so they become the specialist you want, in due time.

Skill checks are almost always repeatable after failure; it’s always “you can” or “you can’t (yet)” - rarely there will be things you can screw up and never have a second chance at. It’s forgiving, almost too much in contrast with the general “punishing” design philosophy of these devs, but it’s good for meaningful backtracking, and doesn’t detract from the experience.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Cutter Slade, former soldier and protagonist of the first Outcast, is brought back to alien planet Adelpha by a mysterious force believed to be the “Yods”, intangible deities that chose him as the Ulukai: a sort-of messianic figure of local lore, destined to lead the tribes towards their true destiny.

From this rather unoriginal and quite literal deus-ex-machina, you’ll be then-introduced to a series of characters that are rarely remarkable, be them friends or foes. Exceptions apply, however don’t expect a roster of well-written and memorable characters, because you won’t find them here. Slade himself is the prime example of one-sided, flat gung-ho military man with a marked tiredness / depression in the way he acts - in part justified by his own lore.

The plot itself is the emaciated, more-magic version of James Cameron’s Avatar, where a bunch of pre-industrial tribes manage to stay head-to-head with a space-faring, militaristic opponent through the raw power of friendship. Magical! Is it a good story though? No, it’s not; reason why I watched a TV series on a second screen half the time during cutscenes.

The worldbuilding is quite excellent: Adelpha really does a good job in conveying the ambiance of an alien world, particularly in the amount of detail and density of its environments. Lush forests, deserts and stormy mountain peaks are all available and well-diversified, while villages have been minutely-crafted with great care - also the reason why performance in those places is absolutely terrible even on top-tier hardware.

You’ll explore Adelpha with the aid of your integrated jetpack, which will at first enable to boost above ground, and later on also to glide in the air, jump multiple times and gain altitude quickly, enhancing Slade’s mobility tremendously.

Anytime, anywhere fast travel is available after you repair the Stargate-like portals called Daokas scattered in the world, which also double as “spotting towers” to highlight nearby POIs. The world is extensive in size and full of secondary encounters, secret collectibles, respawning enemies and harvestable materials to either sell or use in crafting and upgrades.

It’s enjoyable to navigate this stunning-looking, alien dimension; an attentive eye and curious attitude will often be rewarded positively. A system of markers and trackers ensures a good amount of guidance for quests and tasks, although sometimes you’ll have to find things on your own, which is good. There are well-hidden collectibles that are either related to achievements, or have tangible rewards such as unique weapon modules if enough are collected and brought to specific NPCs.

Slade will at first be equipped with a relatively weak energy pistol, and then gain more tools of the “trade” both from Human technology and custom-crafted Talan weaponry, other than straight-up magical powers from the local gods. While these are all interesting in their own accord, skills and Talan-made gizmos aren’t as good as plain old firepower: the weapon customization system allows you to combine modules to grant traits to your otherwise-generic guns.

Split shots, electrified bullets, ricochets, explosives, charged sniper beams - all of it is there and can be combined together for maximum lethality - too much in fact, since some broken OP combos can obliterate enemies in seconds… as if the game wasn’t easy enough already. Your foes deal considerable damage, but their AI patterns are slow, predictable and clunky and their aim is garbage - anyone remotely decent at shooters will make quick work of them all. Dodge, take cover and headshot your way to victory. You’llalso be able to improve the Talan gizmos for better effects by completing specific tasks, too bad they’re all underpowered trash you’ll never use.

Bosses aren’t much better, since half of them are the same copy-pasted “elite” enemy, while the other are unremarkable weaklings you will probably steamroll if you did a bit of secondary stuff beforehand. The final boss is tough, but just doesn’t cut it against a fully-upgraded Slade and all his magic.

Slade’s guns, shield, melee implement and jetpack can be substantially upgraded with Helidium variants, colored gemstones gained from enemies, the environment, missions, chests, tasks. Pretty much anything. The more stuff you do, the more upgrades you’ll be able to unlock and, in turn, gain more mobility, better resistances, more module slots to make custom weapons, additional skills that allow completing previously (almost) impossible challenges and tasks.

The crafting system allows using foraged ingredients like meats, herbs and enemy parts in making potions and consumables - something I didn’t find very useful at any point since it’s really not worth the trouble, the basic healing fruits and plants will do just fine for the few times you’ll ever be in a pinch, if any.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




This prequel to Nier Automata is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has regressed to pre-industrial civilization levels, since most of the land is infested with Shades, murderous shadow monsters that attack people on sight. In this perilous setting flows the tale of Nier and his sister Yonah, the latter befallen by an mortal disease known as Black Scrawl, her brother desperately seeking a cure by traveling the lands fighting shades. In a sort-of ‘manifest destiny’ way, Nier will come in contact with unlikely companions, and prove to be the pivotal center of massive changes to his and everyone else’s lives.

Despite initially appearing like the generic ‘worried brother’ anime stereotype, Nier proves to be a well-written character; the same goes for his companions and antagonists, many of which are interesting and have unexpected - but plausible - changes of mind, or of character, throughout the adventure. Even lesser side characters’ stories feel meaningful and rich in pathos - so long as they’re part of the main plot, forget the puny, generic side-quests probably written by an underpaid intern. The worldbuilding is also high-quality, with a mysterious, genuinely puzzling world where many things aren’t at all what they seem - the same goes for people and even foes.

It’s a shame this narrative goodness had to be eclipsed by an amount of filler worthy of the most bloated shounen anime.

The world outlays in a semi-open fashion, with some areas being more or less far-reaching, and fully traversable with little in terms of invisible walls or artificial progression blockers. If something isn’t accessible yet, there’s an organic, real reason for it - you’ll need to progress the main quest to gain access to most other areas and, importantly enough, to the late-coming fast travel system. With respawning, randomized loot pickups and enemies, in a ‘JRPG-like’ fashion, areas are suitable for repeated grinding, which becomes mandatory for weapon upgrades and side-quests. There aren’t many cryptic secrets, since map layouts are clearly defined - at most you’ll find an optional weapon in some random chest, but that’s it. Towns are safe areas filled with different shops and many NPCs, some of them with quests - in all honesty, they’re only useful as shopping hubs.

Nier will initially have only swords at his disposal, but from halfway through also gains access to spears and greatswords. He also has the inseparable Weiss at his side, a magical book capable of unleashing spells and imbuing Nier’s gear with passive enchantments, words, literally torn off the bodies of dead foes. Each weapon category has several combos and attack types, however none of the weapons have anything different except base stats, appearance and sometimes speed: this means each spear will have the exact same attacks of any other, same for swords and greatswords - what remains is finding the one with the best DPS. This makes combat much more repetitive, since the “best weapon” is only one, and you’ll use that or worse version of it.

A system of dodges, parries and counters is in place to reward good timing and reflexes - a bit too much so, since parries are very easy to pull off and extremely powerful, while the dodge i-frame interval is generous. Enemies, save for few exceptions in specific areas, don’t damage Nier too much even on Hard, and the easily-obtained consumable buffs and healing further empower you and prevent death - you’ll be able to simply pause the game and use buffs / healing as long as you have any left, without any animation or delay. All of this makes combat, including bosses, way too easy and forgiving to overcome. Despite the options it provides on paper, it never really gains a new depth at any point, given that most spells and even Word passives aren’t worth using save a select few, further diminishing the actual variety.

Nier will level up after enough XP is gained; this makes him stronger in many ways, none of which is customizable, however. What you can control is what weapons you decide to upgrade, and what Words to use in each of them to grant them passive buffs - same for spells, which however can’t be upgraded. There’s a decisive malus when facing enemies far higher than your level, namely a damage malus on Nier which makes your foes enormous HP sponges - this diminishes once the level gap is reduced, but since you can’t know an enemy’s level, good luck with that. Weapon upgrades may also change their appearance in some cases, but not their function.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Starting as a miner nobody on a remote planet, your run-of-the-mill ‘deus-ex-machina’ starts when you happen to stumble on a mysterious alien artifact that, coincidentally enough, seems to attune to your person with yet-unknown consequences. MAGIC! It’s the same trope of Skyrim’s Dragonborn, only much less cooler because this time you have a rusted piece of alien metal instead of dragon souls sniffing. And you’re dubbed ‘Starborn’ not long afterwards, because Bethesda writers have a LOT of imagination. From there your journey through the stars starts yadda-yadda-ya - use the Force, Luke, and so on. Boring.

Everything from locations to quests, characters, companions and villains feel terribly generic, underwhelming and soulless. Not once in my nearly 70 hours have I said, in my head, ‘now THIS is interesting’ - or cool, or deep, or mysterious enough to interest me. That’s not going to happen, because trying to please everyone with cookie cutter narratives and character designs ends up pleasing NO ONE.

The world looks cool, and is visually fantastic in its details, especially out in the wild. Interiors, ships and general indoors locations, save for a few, feel generic and same-y, and don’t have the same level of interactivity seen in previous Bethesda games. They even removed the gore system everyone loved. The attempt at a ‘late-hard-sci-fi’ universe fails miserably, because it’s not nearly gritty enough, and doesn’t take itself seriously enough, to be fitting for a true ‘hard sci fi’.

You’ll explore the galaxy using your ship, jumping from system to system, able to land on pretty much any planet that has solid ground. Once disembarked, you’ll proceed on foot and, if you have the right perk, move faster with the aid of a jump pack for additional jump reach and better mobility. Reaching most locations is a tiresome affair, since your running speed will be very slow compared to the distance you’ll have to cross - with very little of interest between you and the next map marker.

Forget all the interesting random encounters of Fallout or Elder Scrolls, those won’t happen on these barren planets. Points of interest range from small outposts to multi-layered facilities, often filled with enemies, containers, loot, locked doors, terminals with lore - the usual. They’re interesting to explore the first time around, however the massive amount of copy-pasting will make them tiresome soon, since very few truly unique ones exist outside of questlines.

Exploration is compounded with a surveying system allowing you to painstakingly scan all resources, animals, elements and flora of each planet and then sell the data for a pittance - that’s not worth doing and takes ages. There are some secrets in the form of hidden locations discoverable only by reading specific documents, or hidden containers inside POIs, but they’re usually underwhelming - exceptions apply.

You’ll be able to use a variety of weapons that either deal physical, energy or EM (stun) damage, and also modify them via workbenches - same goes for armor parts. There are rarity tiers that add passive properties, although most of them are gimmicks not worth grinding Legendary Enemies for. The problem with weapons in Starfield is that they feel too similar to one another, and even ‘unique’ named ones are just normal guns with pre-set modifications and affixes, none of them is TRULY something one of a kind you can’t find anywhere else, powerful and sublime to look for.

Combat gunplay is fine, somewhat on the same level of Fallout 4, but less dynamic, with worse AI, and less gore / impact feel from shots. All enemies you’ll face feel the same, behave the same and LOOK the same because 90% of the time everyone wears spacesuits, even while inside. Except in cities. Companions are brainless meat-shields only useful to carry additional cargo, and the enemy AI is so dumb you’ll have a cake walk if you use a stealth build or just use basic cover. You’ll eventually acquire special powers due to your “chosen” status, which are memes I never really found useful. I’ve fought a total ONE unique boss in 70 hours in a specific quest, the rest were just oversized / renamed / reskinned generic enemies over and over again. FillerField.

Companions are one sided-flat and cringe in most cases. They don’t really seem to react to your personal dispositions in meaningful ways, or to your actions, and when they actually do, you can always persuade them to stick with you for the sake of the plot - God forbid actual freedom of choice. Remember how in say, New Vegas, companions ditched you if you behaved against their values or beliefs, or allied with a faction they hated? That’s not going to happen here, and there isn’t even a Faction reputation system to begin with.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Billionaire Edward Puffton has gone missing on a mysterious island he recently purchased, so you, as part of a private security force, are tasked with finding him and discover why comms have gone dark. Of course things don’t go as planned, and you soon find yourself, alongside your eventual co-op teammates and the inseparable AI-powered companion Kevin, stranded on the very island you gotta investigate. From that point on, you’ll have to fend for yourself in the wilderness, under constant attack from savages and unspeakable abominations, while enduring the weather and survival needs.

The enormous island is visually spectacular: forests are lush, caves are dark and creepy, cliffs windy and barren. Even if largely dominated by nature and native outposts, you’ll also find man-made structures such as bunkers and construction sites, albeit sparingly. The cycle of seasons is dynamic and directly impacts flora, fauna spawns and also survival difficulty, with harsh winters being especially brutal.

With its simple premise, the story isn’t SOTF’s fortè, but does the job, especially when compounded by the many optional lore pieces you can find around. Bordering on ‘à la X-Files’ sci-fi at times, but mostly dominated by a dark splatter / horror mood, the narrative isn’t Oscar material, but is also not terrible.

You’ll initially move on foot on the large island, a GPS always available to display your position and also any important location you might spot or find info about on acquired lore pieces. Faster means of transportation will become available at some point, but all of them have certain drawbacks such as fuel or inability to be used everywhere.

Generally speaking, exploration is rewarding due to the sheer number and amount of resources you’ll find on a generic stroll between camps, outposts, caves, bunkers and random loot containers that periodically ‘magically’ refill. All marked POIs always have a unique tool, key item or weapon in them, alongside a unique layout and usually threats to deal with. Careful exploration will be rewarded, as there are many missable items, blueprints and weapons hidden in remote, but not impossible-to-find, locations of the world.

Unlike in the first game, this time around you’ll have access to a roster of guns and other ranged options, other than several melee tools. Fighting native incursions and raiding caves packed with Lovecraftian abominations isn’t easy, and you’ll likely die many times before figuring out each enemy’s unique attack patterns, behaviors and weaknesses.

Death penalty is minimal regardless of difficulty, in fact you’ll respawn alongside your gear at a short distance without any downside. Enemies hit like trucks, and without armor you’ll die in a few hits even on Normal difficulty, let alone harder ones, which I tested in my second playthrough. Having a teammate to help even the numbers is helpful, since your companion Kevin can’t fight, and those who can, can’t be commanded to act consistently. Combat is gory and has very good weight behind it, with dismemberment and decapitations being a regular event.

There are a couple bosses found in major locations, which however, exceptions made for the final one, are little more than reskins of normal enemies, just with much higher damage and health pools. Even the final unique boss is not very strong, and with the resources you’ll have by endgame, it will be little more than a pushover.

You’ll soon need a place to shelter yourself, deposit excess loot (there will be a lot of it), plant crops, dry meats, and do everything else in order to survive the next oncoming winter, or the next savage horde knocking at your walls. You’re free to build anywhere on the island, with a freeform system that allows creating customized buildings using tree logs - a system that is fantastic sometimes, but can be a real pain in others due to how it works, and there isn’t any real tutorial for it, either. Of course building closer to savage camps will lead to more incursions, while building closer to caves will have more abominations ruin your days. In either case, your base will come under attack by stronger enemies as days go by, with a roster of traps and defenses to help you fend them off. Yes, everything can be destroyed if you get overrun - don’t let it happen.

Survival needs include sleep, hunger and thirst. They won’t kill you, but instead reduce your maximum stamina to the point you’ll be unable to perform most actions without being exhausted. Staying decently fed and rested will be vital to not become an emaciated cyst flatlined after a single axe swing. Generally, this isn’t a hard task: clean water and basic foods aren’t hard to come by with some basic tools found in early game; after that it’s a downhill course. Dungeons like caves are usually more than enough stocked to prevent it, as well.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




I don’t think Robin Hood needs much introduction; a valiant hero, perhaps anti-hero in a way, that became a synonym for the struggle of the downtrodden against the oppressors. This title remixes his classic folk tale to a more ‘gaming-friendly’ one, having you in charge of managing the Merry Men, Robin’s gang, as they run from the law and set up a base of operations in the fabled Sherwood Forest. Some iconic characters will be present, like Marion or Little John to name a few, however the acting and writing don’t nearly do justice to them at any point. This isn’t a narrative-heavy game, but not for the lack of trying: there’s an extent of lore and background to each quest and event happening in the world, however they all pass on as unremarkable by either poor writing, genericness, or plain clichés.

The world is massive, and dotted with many endless locations that are worth exploring. On paper, this sounds great, but as the adventure progresses, all its good looks and lush vegetation aren’t enough to mask the repetitiveness of not only activities, but also places, enemies and just about anything else. The amount of recycling in this game would make the most fervent ecologist look like a newbie.

Sherwood and its environs are massive, and you’ll explore all of them… only on foot, because in all his thieving prowess, Robin can’t, for the life of him, get a horse to ride around. Nevertheless, you’ll stumble upon ruins, enemy camps, villages and even full-fledged castles manned by the Nottingham Sheriff’s minions. Getting close enough to a point of interest will reveal it on the map, and you’ll be able to fast-travel around using signposts and stable masters, paying respectively nutrition or gold as cost for your travels. Because yes, you’ll have to manage survival aspects like food and water, which are anyway trivial given the abundance of supplies found anywhere - why even add them, if they’re a non-issue at any point?

Robin’s Hunter Sense, an upgradable active skill that highlights enemies, animals, resources and interactables, is a boon to know exactly what you have laying around, however its cooldown, even after upgrading it, remains too tedious for its own good. Mostly in ruins, you’ll find simple logic-based puzzles that often entail inputting the correct sequence of either blocks, notes, symbols or whatever else to open a gate that leads to treasure. Despite the variations on this baseline, you’ll always have to do the same thing: figure the order of -whatever- to open a gate - same archetype, slightly different execution, but after 20 or 50 it becomes a slog regardless. Less puzzles but more unique unto themselves would’ve been a better choice. Secrets are as well present, but often trivialized by the all-seeing Hunter Sense.

Not only Robin’s legendary bow mastery will be at your disposal, but also his flawless swordsmanship and uncanny stealth capabilities. With diverse skill trees and associated abilities, you’ll be able to specialize in the playstyle you like the most, in order to clear hostile camps, dungeons and encounters. From specialized arrows to advanced sword skills and lethal stealth takedowns, the ways to solve situations are numerous. All of this sounds exciting, right? Well, it would be, if not executed like an absolute train wreck.

First of all, melee combat is jankier than the worst Eurojank titles. Gothic 1 feels smooth in comparison to this garbage, to make an example. You’ll either stunlock enemies in a flurry of sword attacks until you run out of stamina, or get stunlocked in the same way by five brutes gang-banging you - blocking is stale, and riposte is useless since you can’t actually follow-up a perfect parry with some kind of rewarding counter, despite the game stating so. Animations and combat flow are the lowest indie-tier trash you can imagine. Ranged isn’t much better, being a kiting game where you’ll try to headshot everyone while running in a circle, at least until your bow breaks for the 27th time in two hours, because weapon durability, like Breath of the Wild has shown to all, is a really fun mechanic.

Stealth is fine when it works, but it rarely does. X-ray, eagle-eyed foes will be able to spot Robin from miles away and from debatable angles, unless he’s in one of the conveniently-placed blue bushes around most camps and forts. Running away to reset enemy aggro and try again is common. Forget quicksaving, as this game still uses ancient fixed save points as if 1990 never passed. You’ll eventually get depression from fighting the grand total of THREE enemy archetypes in one of the exciting ways described above.

Your camp can be freely built and upgraded with a set of utility buildings, using the resources you get from the world or have your men passively acquire. Structures act as progress gateways that give you new recipes for weapons, armors and utilities once upgraded. Regardless of what you choose to craft, all swords and all bows will feel the same, play the same and no other weapon will ever be available. The grind of resources to craft vital utilities, in particular repair kits later on, will soak up a lot of time which becomes filler, while managing your stocks is a cumbersome work due to a crafting interface worse than Minecraft’s early alphas.