Recent reviews by wcis

Unfortunately, this DLC is a big let-down in my eyes.

I loved the base game, believe me. It was so strangely calm and enjoyable to go through all the levels, and clean all these buildings and vehicles. The game felt fresh, and rewarding. It was amazing to play it in the evening, after the long day at work. Simply to reset your mind.

This DLC is the opposite. They are throwing you at boring, huge vehicles, with an absurd amount of small details, and with a very weak power washer. It feels tedious, non-rewarding, and discouraging to play.

If this is how they want to extend the “length” of their Story Packs, then it’s a no-go for me in the future. I had high hopes, because I love the Warhammer universe, so it’s very sad to see what they pulled off with this DLC.

Wait for a significant discount.

You know I dreamed about you
For thirty-one years before I could play you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for, for thirty-one years*

After 50+ hours, I can honestly say that for me, personally, it's the best, most polished RPG ever made. Amount of unique interactions, events, or ways to solve problems, boss fights, and quests is simply outstanding. You can feel the love of those who invested their precious time into shaping this beautiful world. And for that, I thank you! I'm sure it's one of the games that will be remembered forever.

P.S. I also sincerely hope it's only the beginning of Larian's cooperation with Wizards of the Coast!

*Inspired by one of my favorite songs - “Slow Show” by The National.

Final Fantasy VII is like one of your favorite books – you can read plenty of others, but it will be extremely hard to find something equally good.

This is what I have written in my review of original FF7, and this remake is bringing all these memories to life. I literally can’t stop smiling while playing this game, seeing how they have recreated scenes we all remember. And you can feel that they have approached this remake with a lot of respect to the original game.

Visuals are stunning – they brought the city of Midgar, and all our beloved characters, to life. You know what to expect from music – I had goosebumps while hearing Tifa’s Theme before Seventh Heaven for the first time. Battle system is new, and it’s very dynamic, but I feel that it really suits the game. It simply takes some time to get used to it.

And even though it’s only a first chapter, I’m okay with this. I’m happy for every hour in this beautiful universe. I just hope PC players won’t need to wait for the second part for so long. Let us all enjoy this masterpiece wherever we want, from day one.

Next stop: The end of the world

Death Stranding is truly one of the kind. The story and characters introduced in the game are fascinating, the presentation of its world is captivating, and the gameplay is… strangely addictive.

This game was created for a very special type of person. A person who likes loneliness. And I love how it’s creating this sense of being lonely, while on the other side it’s making you feel that there are plenty of others around you. Sounds familiar comparing it to our times, right? And that's probably this game's greatest paradox. Especially that our main goal is to restore Chiral Network, which is essentially the Internet.

There is one more aspect of Death Stranding which literally stole my heart. This game has many special “moments”. Moments, in which you’re about to deliver something, you’re all alone, the world around you is beautiful, and suddenly the perfect song starts playing. Everything about these moments is absolutely perfect. It’s like an art hidden under the shell of a video game.

It’s definitely not a game for everyone, but everyone should give it a shot. Like I've stated above, it’s truly one of the kind. Death Stranding created its own micro genre, and you can’t compare it to anything out there.

Side note: I am playing Death Stranding mostly on Steam Deck, and the overall experience is great. There are moments when I am loosing frame rates, but in general, I wasn’t expecting it to play so well on this device.

9+/10

Age of Empires 4 reminded me why I love strategy games. It’s a great step forward compared to beloved AoE2, especially regarding the pace and the overall quality of the game. Of course, currently, it's missing many important features, mostly for content creators, but the beginning of AoE4 is still far better than anyone could expect. After finishing all campaigns and playing 30+ skirmish games with all available civilizations, I can’t wait for more, feeling the same as 20 years ago, when I've played AoE2 over, and over again. And I guess it's the best possible recommendation.

Freebird’s games are one-of-a-kind. They approach modern problems in a very subtle, yet powerful way. Making you question your decisions, place in life, or helping to move forward when you are on the crossroad.

Impostor Factory wasn’t as touching for me as To the Moon, which is my absolute favorite, but still, it was a great experience. These few hours it will take you to finish Impostor Factory is the best way you can invest in yourself while playing video games. It won't be an exaggeration if I'll say that it's one of the games that can make you a better human being.

Give it a shot! And best of luck ahead, dear Reader!

FINAL FANTASY XIII is one of the games people either love or hate, without a middle ground, mostly because of some of the design decisions introduced in this title. Personally, this game got me hooked from the very beginning. The story might be confusing at the start, but if you are catching up with datalog, it’s actually very interesting. Characters are great as well - every single playable character is different, and in the second part of the game, you can shape your party in any way you want to, with the team members you prefer.

Gameplay-wise, the majority of FF XIII is extremely linear, and this is the biggest problem for most of the players. It might sound strange, but I kinda enjoyed it. We’re living in an age with a huge amount of “open worlds”, or games that are giving us free hands, and it was actually something different, refreshing. I could fully focus on the story, characters, and the world of FF XIII, which is beautiful, because even today, after so many years, this game looks great. It’s also worth mentioning that the second part of the game, after reaching Gran Pulse, is more open. You can freely explore some areas, do side missions, or even ride chocobos!

The second piece related to the gameplay, which is dividing the community, is Crystarium - progress system introduced in FF XIII, which is somehow based on what was proposed in FF 10. You are developing your characters first in three, and later on, in six different roles, expanding their Crystarium by unlocking new skills, and improving parameters like strength or HP. If you are interested in only beating the game, you won’t need to grind CP - you can naturally progress with the story, and if you are not spending points in a weird way, you’ll be good. Other than that, I can say that the only downside of Crystarium is the fact that you’ll spend a few hours there. Upgrading all characters is time-consuming, and you are forced to do this because the maximum amount of stored CP is limited.

Switching to cool things, the battle system introduced in FF XIII is one of the best in the franchise. Encounters are very dynamic - in most of the fights, you’ll be forced to switch paradigms in order to change skills used by all party members. It’s also very satisfying, especially during boss fights, when you need to be really good in adjusting paradigms, using skill, etc. in order to beat the most difficult opponents.

As in almost every entry of the franchise, if you’re interested in having 100% in FF XIII, you need to be mentally ready for the grind. You’ll grind plenty of items that are sold for Gil (it’s not given after encounters), catalysts, etc. This part of the game will take you around 30h after beating the story. Personally, it took me 94h to fully complete this game.

Important note: Square Enix is known for its bad PC ports. Before playing the game, it’s strongly advised to read some guides on how to improve the performance and stability of the game. It worked like a charm for me - FF XIII was running absolutely great, and I had no crashes.

To summarize this review, in my humble opinion this is one of the best Final Fantasy entries in the franchise. If you can accept their design decisions about linearity and the infamous Crystarium, you’ll enjoy this game a lot. It has a great story, amazing characters, a captivating battle system, and visually it’s simply stunning, even today.

9/10

Among everything that has been said about the beautiful art style and interesting gaming mechanics, I feel like Okami is truly shining in something else - its story and characters.

But, first things first. You’ll play as Amaterasu, goddess of sun and everything that’s good, in her form of a white wolf. Your ultimate goal will be to vanquish evil from the land of Japan. On your way to achieve it, you’ll explore many different areas and clean them from corruption, look for treasures, play some mini-games, fight with plenty of enemies, and even solve simple puzzles. During your journey, you’ll meet several other gods that will teach you their brush technique - special abilities used to draw shapes on the screen in order to execute a certain action.

Yes, Okami is quite long for an adventure game, but thanks to its story and characters, you won’t really feel it. You’ll venture through different parts of mythological Japan, constantly meeting new, really interesting characters with their own background and motives. The story itself will grow, explaining new things, and putting yet another layer on what you already know.

While still talking about the story, there’s one more thing worth mentioning - Okami is really well-written. You’ll enjoy it, sometimes you’ll be sad and you’ll even laugh after reading some hilarious lines from Issun - a sprite that will accompany you through the whole journey. There are moments when the game is not taking itself very seriously, and it’s fitting it perfectly.

Okami is bringing a lot to the table, packing an interesting story with a beautiful art style and unique gaming mechanics, but don't expect the best dinner of your life. If there is something that could work better, it’s the difficulty level, which is not really challenging (it’s almost impossible to die), and the way they reused some bosses - it wasn’t really fun to go through the very same boss fight for the 4th or 5th time. You also won’t like it if you’re not really interested in Japan and its mythology, as the game tends to be very… specific.

If you’re interested in getting 100% achievements, be ready to invest around 50 hours. There’s no grind involved, but there are many collectibles tied with the individual achievements, and you’ll need to find them all. The game is also very clear about its point of no return, so you don’t really need to worry about missing anything.

I have received it for free, but it's definitely worth its current price tag.

8/10

Edit: Found typo.

Heavy Rain is an interesting psychological thriller, which focuses on the narration and history of all four playable characters. You won’t find any fast-paced action in here - gameplay is similar to the one known from Telltale games. You’re exploring new scenes, interacting with the environment, initiating dialogues, solving puzzles, and reacting to Quick Time Events, which are very common in this game.

What’s different in comparison to Telltale games is the fact that Heavy Rain is doing an amazing job in building the story, and in making it actually different according to your choices or failures. By failing at some point you can even make your characters die before reaching the end of the game. The story itself is very mature and at some point, quite surprising.

I’d say that Heavy Rain is closer to an interactive movie than a real video game. If you haven’t played a similar game before, it would be best to take a look at the first chapters on YouTube or somewhere else. This style of gameplay won’t suit everyone, but if you enjoy good thrillers or you want to experience a really well-written story, you can definitely give this game a shot.

Heavy Rain was originally released as exclusive for PS3, so it's better to play this game using a controller. It's possible to play with a mouse and keyboard, though, and it was how I played. In general, I didn’t have trouble playing, and the game was reacting really well to the mouse movement during QTE sequences. Only in a few cases, I was feeling like it’s not seeing the mouse movement properly.

Pros:

• Really well-written story. If you won’t see any spoilers before playing, you’ll definitely enjoy it,
  
• Multiple endings and real consequences of your choices/decisions,
  
• Interesting setting that feels “real” - it could be your city as well,
  
• Well-written characters - they have their own motives, and it’s easy to “like” them,
  
• ~10h of gameplay, which is just fine. If you’re interested in doing all the achievements, it will take ~20h,
  
• Three different difficulty levels that affect the complexity and speed of QTE.

Cons:

• Mouse controls could work better,
  
• In many cases, future consequences depend on Quick Time Events, and not tough, moral decisions,
  
• You can’t skip credits in a normal way, and if you’re interested in doing 100%, it’s pointless to see them for the 4th or 5th time.

Summary

If you like good thrillers, it’s a must-play for you. If you are a big Telltale fan, you'll enjoy this game as well. If you want to try something new, it might be a really good choice for a few calm evenings. If you’re looking for a fast-paced action game, you should pass, as HR is completely different.

8-/10

Edit: Formatting.

Supergiant's opus magnum.

It's amazing how much content is in this game, and how enjoyable it is. There's nothing to wait for, just try it - it's the essence of gaming.