Recent reviews by s1blyx-

While this game wasn't exactly what I expected, I’m still giving it a thumbs up. It’s definitely an acquired taste, even if you're a fan of Souls games. I first played it around 4 or 5 years ago, and it just didn’t click with me at the time. Since then, it’s been sitting installed on my PC until now, when I finally decided to give it another chance.

In essence, it’s a more simplified, 2D version of a Dark Souls-style game. Considering it was developed by just a two-person studio, it’s quite impressive.

My biggest issue with the game is the lack of a map, which would make navigation and backtracking much easier. That said, it’s manageable.

Overall, this was quite a bad and boring game. I was completely disappointed, especially considering how much I enjoyed HL Drifter.

This game feels like someone took the mechanics of a 2D world, with all the gameplay elements that work well in that format, and simply extruded it into 3D. It just doesn’t work without proper adjustments.

I couldn’t find a single positive aspect of this game. The gameplay loop is uninteresting, the combat is dull, and the enemies are equally uninspiring. Hitting enemies and button-mashing lacks any sense of impact or weight; there’s no feedback to make the hits feel satisfying. While the graphics aim for simplicity, they fall short, although that’s the least of the issues here.

I understand that this is an early access game, but it shouldn’t have been released in this state. It desperately needs a complete overhaul. I hope you will listen to feedback from players and do some drastic improvements to the game.

After 200 hours and completing both the main game and DLC, I can confidently say this is one of the greatest games ever created. If you're a fan of Souls games, you already know what to expect. If you haven't played any Souls games until now, know that this is the most accessible one. The shift to an open world also makes the game easier because you have more spots to farm and can freely explore other directions if you stumble upon a challenge that's too intimidating. You can always return later when you're stronger and more experienced.

I loved the sheer amount of weapons and playstyles you can do in this game. It really is something else. You can make pretty much every build viable and fun to play.

Although I prefer the more linear and Metroidvania-style level design found in previous Souls games, the open world in this game is still very well done. The scenery is beautiful, full of stories, and almost always offers something interesting to discover.

The DLC, on its own, is enormous. However, I must admit that I wasn't particularly fond of the bosses. In most cases, they are overtuned, and some of them are very poorly designed, like Gaius or the final boss. Despite this, it’s still a very enjoyable experience overall.

The game's premise is fresh and fun. It flips the roles by letting you play as a monster hunting humans. Controlling the monster, instilling sheer terror in your prey, and dismembering them is an enjoyable experience. The gameplay loop is straightforward: move through biomes, collect powers, unlock doors, hunt and eat humans, and escape.

However, I can't recommend the game due to its length. It feels stretched too thin for what it offers. After a quick while, the gameplay begins to repeat. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there should have been more ways to deal with enemies, especially the shielded ones, considering you’re playing as a terrifying monster.

Extremely fun and fast-paced or low-paced gameplay. There is no rush when playing this game. It’s poker, but with an exciting twists. What I love most is how laid-back the experience is - you can jump in, play a few rounds, have a great time, and then move on to something else.

Before playing, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I decided to try it because of the hype, and let me tell you, the hype was absolutely justified!

The good:
- Interesting and touching story
- Video an Audio representation, the game looks really good!
- Music very nicely follows the events and moments in the game
- Atmosphere
- Unique game in today's sea of copy-paste games

The bad:
- The game is too long, it should be half the length it is. It just doesn't have interesting enough game mechanics to carry it for so long.
- Stiff and very slow movement
- Checkpoint system is crazy bad

Overall, 70/100 game

I am writing a negative review because of the new, terrible UI and UX in the menu.

Here is feedback and a list of things that I think are very wrong with it. Hopefully, you will listen and act fast to improve it. If you do, I'm changing it to positive because the rest of the update and game seems fine.

• Most of the elements are too large. On the screen where you select your hunters, there is no reason to have such large cards and, even worse, a horizontal scroller to browse them. There should be no place for such a pattern in a desktop game. Give us a simple list view and that's all we need. Get rid of any horizontal scrolls in menus, at least on PC.

• When I'm in the lobby, the screen is filled with information, but almost none of it is actually useful for a match. You focused only on challenges and battle pass, and left out the most important part, the loadout. Why is that hidden behind a click? Why not show it immediately? The lobby screens are probably the most cirtical one in this update.

• What is a Random contract? It takes up so much space on the left side, but it says nothing. Remove it, rework it, just do something about it.

• The dark tribute modal is also useless. I can't click and open it, or it is not clear when I actually can do that. Please read Norman's book about affordances to learn something.

• In the lobby, the Action menu doesn't make any sense. It doesn't solve any problems. If you put loadouts in focus, we wouldn't need that button. Now it is just confusing to have it there. It doesn't have all the actions, it takes the space and attention, and it the end it creates more problems in the UX than solutions. I get the idea behind it, but then you need to commit with actions there and make it consistent across the entire menu.

• When customizing the hunter and equipment, it is not clear how to equip things. How should a person know that a double click equips it? To make things worse, you have that useless "Action menu" when pressing the Space button, but there is no option on the list to equip the items. Furthermore, the equipment setup screen is terrible because everything is in large cards.

• Add an option to filter out owned weapons and tools. It is very annoying having to manually scan through so many items.

• Remove the popup that shows up when we want to buy higher than allowed quantities of items. A small snackbar or something is fine. Or make the action disabled and just write that maximum amount has been reached.

• There is no point in custom health bar customizations. Just give us presets and that's it. It's not like there are endless possibilities. Also, make it clear that the HP bar can actually be customized. And make it so that "Esc" closes that modal. Also, improve the copy on those buttons. They are again not clear.

• What's the point of the "Gear" menu? If I can access that when setting up hunters, doesn't that item in the menu just create more chaos?

• The whole hunters screen is messed up on a multidimensional level. For some reason, an option to "Recruit hunters" is hidden behind a vertical scroll. And there is no way of knowing that. Loadout setup is wrong on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin. I still don't know how to save and manage loadouts. That screen should be straightforward and simple, but somehow you managed to complicate it to a level where it is easier to launch a rocket to Mars than to create a few loadouts. How is the "Copy equipped loadout here" action clear? Just how did you decide on that and test it? And then some actions are inside that confusing and useless "Action menu" and some are outside of it. Make it clear and consistent, please. Also, for QoL stuff, double-clicking on the loadout name should enter the rename mode.

• When in Lobby, I want to easily see the loadouts of my friends, without having to make a single click. Like I've said before, the party/lobby screen is filled with useless stuff.

• I know that you want people to buy the battle pass, but do you really need to show it in so many places? And then when I click on it, the term "Battle pass" is repeated on that screen alone like 6 or so times. And you don't show any meaningful information; instead, yet again we have a bunch of cards that we need to open.

• If you already want people to buy skins, at least make it easy to equip them. I still don't know how to CONSISTENTLY do that. If you already have that useless "Actions menu", add that option there. Here's an idea for upsell: you have those terrible, oversized cards, but you don't use the space on them. Add a small button/selector that informs the player about the equipped skin and clicking on that would open up the skin selection. I'm 100% sure that this would drive more skin sales than that confusing mess you did.

• What is the point of the Home screen? Its content is mostly the same as in the center menu. If you already have "Home", redesign it so that the actual game and playing is in focus. And again, ditch those annoying large cards and patterns where everything is hidden behind many scrolls and clicks.

• Improve the navigation and make it consistent. "Escape" should always take you a step back, always. If you already have Q and E to navigate the top menu, why not make it easier to open with Spacebar? That way we could navigate it fast with one hand. Improve the copy to make it clear how to equip something and how to interact with elements in different ways.

• What's with the process of quitting the game? Why so many clicks? Why does the Quit action open up the sidebar with another Quit button? Make it so that when Quit is clicked, a message appears asking if you are sure, and that's it.

• What was the reason to move the "Play/Matchmake" action to the left? I'm genuinely interested in the reason behind it. This is a minor thing, but it seems like a change just for the sake of change.

• What's the point of having the "Party" element available in all screens in the top right corner, but restricting people to manage that same party from any other screen except for the lobby screen? Make it fully interactive regardless of the entry point. Basics, people, basics. Nail them. If something is visible it should also be interactive, which also means that any further interactions should be avilable.

• Game summary was much better in the previous version than it is now. Now the whole experience is quite flat. And I despise end-game screens in 99% of games, but yours was actually okay before this patch. It actually felt like I've accomplished something, now is just an annoyance that I quit as soon as I can.

• On the "My level" screen, there is a word Prestige with a button attached to it, but it is not clickable. Instead, you can only scroll that. How should that be clear? And again, why is that not on the main Levels screen? Why make it hidden? To make it worse, there is again that infamous "Actions menu", but guess what, there is no option on the list to enter Prestige.

• Remove duplicate actions and menus across the whole menu. There are so many of them.

• Please, go to a drawing board, map out the screens and journey players can take, and then start designing the UI. Get the architecture and logic right before touching a single pixel.

I was in the mood to play something sci-fi and horror-like, and Callisto kind of fit that description.

To keep it brief, only play this game if you have the same itch I did and are fully aware of what you’re getting into. Otherwise, it’s best to skip it.

The kinda only two good aspects of the game are grpahics and sound.
Everything else is just bad. Story has it's moments, but it falls bleak and it is not concluded. The ending is locked behind an overpriced DLC. Combat is the weakes part of the game and extremly repetitive, same as the enemies you fight. Level desing is weak, with a lot of filler section like slow cralwing tghrough vents and similar stuff.

I don’t regret playing it because it scratched that itch I had, but it’s definitely a bad game.

I would be lying if I said that this isn't a good game. It is one of the best soulslike games with a quite unique setting. It has interesting mechanics and build versatility which fit very nicely into the world. Overall, it plays nicely, it's optimized, the world is interesting, the story is fine, the combat is quite good aside from a few annoying enemies, the weapons are fun to use, and some bosses are really well designed. Definitely a recommendation from me.

Nioh 2 is a very good game, but don't expect the Dark Souls style of gameplay. This game demands a faster, more agile approach and challenges players to master a multitude of mechanics. While the learning curve can be steep and sometimes overwhelming, the depth and complexity of the game make it a rewarding experience for those who invest the time to explore its intricacies.

The game boasts an impressive variety of movesets, weapons, bosses, tools, and mechanics. To truly enjoy Nioh 2, it is essential to go beyond just attacking with your primary weapons. The game encourages curiosity and experimentation, and it punishes players who rely solely on one weapon and button-mashing. Ninjutsu and Onmyo skills, along with KI management, are crucial components that enhance the gameplay experience.

Highlights of Nioh 2:

The Good:
• Fast and Engaging Gameplay: The speed and fluidity of combat will keep you on your toes.
• Variety of Weapons and Tools: The extensive selection of weapons and tools ensures that you can find a playstyle that suits you.
• Unique and Fun Boss Fights: Many bosses are distinct and provide exciting challenges that are memorable and enjoyable.
• Deep Combat System: The combo system and combat mechanics are highly engaging and satisfiying.
• Japanese Setting: The game's setting in Japan adds a unique cultural flavor to the overall experience.
• Balanced Gameplay: The game maintains a good balance, provided you utilize all available tools and mechanics.
• You can play as ninja or samurai :D

The Bad:
• Uninteresting Story: The narrative is not particularly compelling.
• Mediocre Level Design: Similar to the first game, the level design is underwhelming and does not compare to the high standards set by games like Dark Souls or Bloodborne.
• Reused Levels: Many levels are reused for side missions, leading to a sense of repetition and boredom over time.
• Game Length: Despite the deep combat mechanics and various playstyles, the game is too long. A shorter, more focused experience, with an emphasis on New Game+ runs, would have been more satisfying.