Recent reviews by Wulfric

The amount of bugs in this game would be far more enraging if I didn't have friends like Uzboz the Maniac, his incoherent babbling and completely unhinged homicidal behavior really make me reflect on what I may look like when I get angry at video games.

To Golbaz the wanderer, I really am sorry for hitting the wrong button and kicking you out of my army, I am even more sorry for attempting to crush your will to force you back into my army, but accidentally decapitating you instead, It was especially painful to do after hearing your speech about the torment of the shame I put upon you...really, I am sorry.

To Tucloc, I honestly didn't know the uruk I sent you to kill was your blood brother, It wasn't until right before the fight I discovered this fact as you explained to him how much it hurt to follow my orders, I promise I did attempt to brand him as well, but because Mazbad the Feral decided to ambush me right then and there, I accidentally got him killed in the fray...you had every right to betray me, and you didn't, so I thank you.

And finally, to my dear Ungoth the Bard, thank you for all the wonderful tunes you sang to me as we did battle together, and I avenged your death by turning the uruk who killed you into a slobbering, piddling mess, he is now my most loyal (and disturbing) assassin.

Great 3-5 dollar pickup and Just long enough to get its point across. It has an interesting detective system that is more about rewarding correct answers than punishing incorrect answers, which would probably work better in a game with harder puzzles to solve but hey, it will keep things moving if you arent very good at these games.
The main character is unlikable at first blush (looking like a backup dancer for lady gaga and talking like a guy who's auditioning to be a hard boiled detective in a community theatre play) but he ends up being something of a "heart of gold" type character that can grow on you, while everyone else is either bland, irritating, or dead.
The gameplay outside of the investigations is lacking, lots of interesting ideas, but execution leaves things to be desired. I really dreaded when demons were prowling about, but unfortunately the dread was less "I'm spooked" and more "I dont want to deal with this ♥♥♥♥"....which is a bit how the main character acts, so props for that I suppose. I will say though, it was really intense when the demons were after you in a few early segments, less so in late game where your "hide" options were so limited it felt like a particularly noisy game of carosel if you were ever spotted.

The story is, of course, what will make or break a detective game and this game does alright. Its not exactly revolutionary and it works out just about as you would expect, but I have to give them credit for fooling me twice into thinking they were being entirely too obvious with their killer/herring setup by adding an extra layer to the reveals. The ending is not really original in its concept (being very similar in its setup and payoff to a particular novelist's more well known works) but it does narrowly miss what could have been a quite generic murder mystery and opts to juke your expectations even after youve put together the biggest pieces of the puzzle.

Shame these guys closed, I think the concept could use a more refined sequel.

Pros:
-Hunt down the asses
-Be Templar
-Restore order
-Black flag but better
-Snow is comfy
-Ship battles in blizzards are sick
-Hahaha these assassins think if they board my ship they win, but actually they just took away their biggest advantage (superior ship and firepower) and worked instead to their great disadvantage (my hatred of assassins and the desire to purge them all)
-I once had a glitch during a fort battle that caused my ship to capsize, I swam through freezing cold water, and reached shore with a tiny fraction of critical health left. I proceeded to remove every single croissant in that base with extreme prejudice and explosive firepower until the fort was mine 10/10
-Put on the Royal Irish Regiment uniform and take out hippie assassin bases
-The Kenway GOAT is back

Cons:
-You work with the british
-Your ship has a lame ass british flag on it
-You cant sink british AND assassin vessels
-You dont get to personally cripple achilles
-You have to play as an assassin for the first part
-He makes his own luck
-Cant beat up Connor
-Cant beat up Arno
-No DLC where oldman Shay just demolishes Connor and Arno
-The last mission was an oopsie

The mission:
"disarm unexploded ordinance"
The difficulty:
"Very easy"

The game:
Enemy spam, no ordinance to disarm, get knocked on ass, die, second life, die, 10 second load screen, try again, enemy spam, no ordinance to disarm, get knocked on ass, die, second life, die, 10 second load screen.

Yeah I'd love to like this but you cant just tell me to do something in a game and just uh...not put it in there. Or, as I suspect, hide it for some reason while I'm getting wave-after-wave of enemies on top of me, in an extremely low difficulty mission I'm supposed to be learning the game in.
In other words, this is a highly realistic american military simulator.

My force feedback wheel Finally feels right, DR and DR2.0 both work, but arent as helpful, after tweaking with the settings WRC actually lets me feel out the terrain.
That aside, its what you'd expect, after 2 hours I havent found anything that really stood out other than the new "rally school" option.

Runs like ass, ships fly like ass, dumb-ass EA launcher, and hearing women "oof" when a stormtrooper gets killed is cringe-ass.

I cant actually progress the story because that SCUMBAG Thakrakk "the tongue" keeps poison spearing my ass in a crowd fight and no matter how much I brutalize that RAT he refuses to DIE and I've made it my personal mission to ignore the premade revenge story and spend the next 13 hours HUNTING DOWN THAT PUKE AND TORTURING HIM IN EVERY WAY I CAN MUSTER

THAKRAKK I WILL BREAK YOUR MIND, WILL WILL REGRET THE DAY YOU STUCK ME WITH THAT DAMNABLE SPEAR YOU COWARD

Its not so much a mess anymore, the MC is not terribly interesting but he does the job, the combat and movement are unrivaled in the series....it looks quite damn good as well.

I played BDO on the original korean beta tests, I gave it a second chance after initial kr release, and dropped it again. After the NA release I was told "no, its really improved" and tried it once again.
This game does not provide the action of the titles it imitates. This should be abundantly clear in gameplay footage, and also be quite obvious to the average gamer because having the combat of a game like Vindictus in an open world is impossible, we simply do not have the technology or internet infrastructure to make that a reality. However, its alternative is a frustrating middle ground between Vindictus and Guild Wars 2. You cannot play on a razors edge, and you cannot play even remotely casual, the combat boils down to spam clicking to create combos that don't mean a damn thing, and fooling yourself into believing that you are playing a game that allows you to dodge an attack by simply not being hit by it.

The fact that you have to pay an entry fee before the game lets you in to cash shop is another obnoxious feature, and the fact that you can find "Pay 2 Win" guides is fairly ridiculous when PvE isn't the advertised draw.

However, If you have only intentions to PvE, you don't mind an open world that exists only as one massive farm, and you can disassociate the appearance of the game with how actual action games perform, then It might be worth checking out...but only on sale for 99c.