Recent reviews by Palantiri

It is apt that this game is about puppets as it does little more than attempt to mimic it's betters. Unfortunately, it is just a hollow imitation that succeeds only in breaking up the boredom with frequent bouts of frustration. The graphics are nice enough though the world is as lifeless as the characters that populate it.

Where the game really falls apart is in the combat - an element that you will be engaged with frequently. The dodge mechanic, which seems integral to the game play loop, is at times unresponsive and at other times woefully inadequate, leaving you vulnerable and exposed to enemies that are able to pivot 180 degrees and track you mid swing. Recovery time is also hilariously slow, leaving you stuck on the ground, or reeling from a failed attack and vulnerable to the enemies following attack.

Your other alternative, the block/parry mechanic, is poorly implemented and overly punishing. Blocking takes off health and degrades your weapons, but the 'perfect' parry window is aggravatingly small and often results in you being pushed so far away from the enemy that you can't retaliate. Enemy attacks are typically long chains with little down time and seem impossible to interrupt, while your attacks will constantly be interrupted by even the most minor of enemy attacks.

Enemy design is largely uninspired with the difficulty coming from attacks that do large amounts of damage, clip through everything or make use of atrocious hit boxes to damage you when you should be safe.

Pass unless you have money to waste or enjoy being punished for no reason.

Curse of the Dead Gods has a lot of great elements to it that will keep you coming back for one more run. Combat feels really good and the diversity of weapons and affixes keep runs fresh while allowing you to tailor each game to your preferred style. The curse meter provides a great risk/reward system.

That said, the game is not without issues. Unlike Hades, this game provides a bit more 'exploration' in many of its rooms. Along with a slower base movement speed, this can make runs feel a lot longer than they need to be. At the outset the game can feel like a grind as you struggle through runs to acquire enough resources to unlock some of the better mods, and then at higher levels the game can feel like a slog as you spend time running through the same 'exploration' maps over and over.

As I said, combat feels really good - but I feel like there is a disconnect between enemy actions and the parrying window which can lead to a lot of frustration. At higher levels this will likely have you watching mouth agape as a masterful run comes crashing down for seemingly no reason. Likewise, due to the slower base movement speed, a lot of enemy attack spam and a slowly regenerating stamina gauge, you can and will find yourself overwhelmed and see your entire life pool lost in moments. While this may be in the spirit of the genre, due to the nature of the tools you are provided, this often times just leaves you feeling robbed.

The game is absolutely worth it if you like Hades and want something slightly different. It can take a bit too long to unlock many of the more interesting weapons and mods, exploration is tedious, and combat can be frustrating, but the core of the game is very solid and fun.

Stylish and sharp but ultimately all flash with no substance. The game feels very derivative after a very short amount of play time.

My negative review concerns multiplayer only.

Negatives include:

Very limited lobby system means that you can't choose to play any objective based games. There are multiple Slayer options, but any other mode is random.

BTB is virtually inaccessible. You can spend a long time loading into a game, or getting bounced out of the lobby, restarting the game or getting kicked due to a freeze. Whatever the case, you will spend more time trying to play a BTB match then you will actually playing.

Gun play generally has a good feel but the net code is very inconsistent. You can drop a players shield and then never be able to do enough damage to actually down them, or you will hit/get hit when aimed nowhere near the target. Players will teleport around, grenades will inconsistently explode, you will randomly run into a wall or fail to jump. And then the game will crash and you will may end up getting banned. These issues do not happen once in a while, but many times in a single match.

Due to a pretty weak map rotation, no choice of game modes, horrid net code, no BTB and an absolutely pathetic reward system, I would suggest passing until things are fixed, expanded and improved.

The Beyond Light expansion removes far more then it adds and that what has been added is very light even by Bungie's standards. Gunplay is still top tier, but there is just very little new reason to keep up the grind if you have been here before. If you are coming from New Light then this will be a sorry compromise for all that has been taken from you recently - best to move on to something else.

All-in-all this expansion feels like something that was thrown together to justify getting more money from the player base. The new mechanics don't seem to have been well thought out and the new weapons don't make up for what was lost. New content is largely just rehashes of ideas or areas with players expected to keep grinding the same few areas for marginal loot gains.

Pass until it is cheaper and skip the season pass as it currently adds nothing of value to the experience.