Recent reviews by Velociraptorius

Dragon's Dogma 2, like its predecessor, is a curious case. It's a game that is ridiculously good in some areas, where it feels like it trounces the opposition without contest, and aggressively mediocre in some other areas. Dragon's Dogma 1 was very much a "diamond amidst all the rough" situation, but it was understood back then that the game's shortcomings were due to the fact that the developer team did not receive the resources necessary to produce the game they wanted to produce. However, with the sequel, the developer team broadcasted the message that this IS the game they wanted to make. So it's a shame that the sequel seems to have only made meaningful improvements in the areas where the first game was already strong, whereas the areas in which it was weak, have largely remained weak.

Let's start with the good. The first main draw of the game is the combat system. It is excellent. It has been further refined from the first game and augmented with real-time physics to produce what is easily the best video game experience when it comes to fighting large monsters. While there have been a few questionable regressions from the first game (reducing the character ability slots from 6 to 4 and removing some classes (or vocations, as this game calls them) altogether, overall the combat is a big step forward. The controls are responsive, the animations are excellent, every hit feels impactful and it all looks extremely cinematic, while being done entirely in real-time. I have played a lot of action-adventure games in my time and nothing I've played would top this.

The second main draw of the first game was the pawn system - the loyal companions created in their entirety by you and other players, up to three of whom can join on your adventure at a time. The pawns captured the hearts of many in the first game, and second game improves on that area as well by giving them much more personality and room to express it this time around. Ironically to their lore as soulless beings with no free will whose only purpose is to obey the Arisen (the main characters), the pawns feel more alive than companions from most RPGs I've played. As a result, few, if any other singleplayer games come close to the fullness of "going on an adventure with friends" feeling that Dragon's Dogma 2 provides.

Another area where the game was improved over its predecessor is the looks, of course. The game looks gorgeous, although it takes a beefy PC to see it. The world is also much better this time around. Dragon's Dogma 1 suffered from a very bland world design, making exploration feel like a chore at times. And despite the world being much larger in the sequel, I must compliment the designers of Dragon's Dogma 2 because in my almost 120 hours of playtime I have never got bored of exploring the various nooks and crannies that the differing landscapes of the setting's kingdoms offered. The world is beautifully, intricately and immersively constructed, with a pleasing verticality to a lot of areas, and quite a few "how the hell do I get up there?" headscratchers to be found.

And now, for the not-so-good. Dragon's Dogma 1 suffered from lackluster NPCs and it's sad to see that Dragon's Dogma 2 did little to improve that area. Despite the game making an effort to fill its towns with NPCs, all of whom look unique and are assigned a name, most of them lack a personality and are reduced to uttering generic lines. Which is to be expected in an RPG of this size, but the problem is that most MAIN characters have paper-thin personalities as well. Some of them appear interesting in concept, but the game heavily underutilizes them and simply doesn't give anyone enough time in the spotlight to shine, which is a shame. It's even more ridiculous with the game's barebones "romance" system where the NPC that the game thinks you're most fond of will end up as your character's "beloved", with you having little say in the matter, and believe me, that system can miss wildly by choosing someone you barely even spoke to just because you happened to complete a quest they were featured in.

Another weakpoint is the story. While the overall plot is not necessarily bad, it does feel like whoever was responsible for writing the story of Dragon's Dogma 2 wasn't told what kind of game this was going to be. Dragon's Dogma 1's story understood much better what kind of game it was. Its main quests sent you on epic monster hunts, castle sieges and other scenarios that made use of the fact that the game's main strength was combat. Whereas a large portion of Dragon's Dogma 2's story focuses on political intrigue plots and its quests send you sneaking around restricted areas and talking to characters who can help you resolve those conspiracies... as if forgetting the fact that this game has neither stealth, nor conversation systems in place to make those scenarios come alive. It's just sad that most of the main narrative quests felt like chores I had to endure before I could get back to the actually fun part of the game which was exploring the world with my pawn buddies and fighting monsters. There is some decent storytelling to be found in some of the game's sidequests, and I was also pleased that the game doesn't shy from enforcing negative consequences on you, particularly if you put off a timed quest for too long, and was also pleasantly surprised when some of the side quests affected the main narrative, which felt rewarding for taking my time to go off the beaten path. But that still did not save the main narrative which disappointingly ended just as it seemed to get interesting.

Another problem with the game is its difficulty scaling. Some decent challenges can be found in the beginning, unfortunately the game gets much too easy much too quickly, especially if you take your time to thoroughly explore and level up before progressing into new areas. That coupled with the lackluster enemy variety (something the first game suffered from also and has not been improved in the sequel) means the game does get quite repetative after a bit, although at least for me it never ceased being fun.

You might notice that it does seem like there's quite a bit of negativity to be found in the game. So why then do I still recommend this game? Because, plainly put, when it's good, gods it's good. There's nothing quite like it, literally. Having just finished my first playthrough, I intend to take a break and play something else for now, but I'm already feeling the effects of withdrawal as I miss jumping into the satisfying gameplay loop. I know I will again, it's only a matter of time. And who knows, maybe by that time they will have improved some of the game's shortcomings by way of DLC, something that was done for the first title. As a fan of the first game, I badly wished that I would have been able to wholeheartedly recommend the sequel for anyone and everyone as a true masterpiece that we Dragon's Dogma fans know it COULD be. Alas, in its present state, it only achieves the same niche successes as the first game did, and so will not have the same mass appeal as something like Baldur's Gate 3. Even so, I would urge everyone to give the game a shot and you might just find that it happens to scratch all of the right itches for you as well.

Alright, Sony has withdrawn their contender for the worst decision of the year award, so this review is turning positive.

As for the game, it's good. Great even. It's a horde shooter and it's easily one of the best in the genre. Despite the ridiculous satirical premise, the game stands out on immersion. It also features emergent cinematic gameplay with few, if any peers that can match it. The gunplay is excellent and it's plainly clear that this was made by people who know and understand guns, so if you're into that sort of thing, it should satisfy. The enemy types across the two factions are varied, fun to fight and even after over 100 hours played, haven't got boring. Neither did the planet environments to fight them on. And there's a steady stream of new content to keep the game from becoming stale.

Look, I could go on, but plainly put, this game didn't get as popular as it did on an accident. It did so because it's a genuinely well made game, crafted by people who knew to prioritize fun gameplay above all else. And they delivered.

Would I recommend this game? Yes, absolutely. I played it for 200 hours in early access, have almost doubled that number by now, and have no intention of stopping there. I think the single most impressive thing about this game is not only how absolutely jam-packed with content it is, but how none of it, not a single thing, feels like filler. So many RPGs nowadays have huge open worlds filled with vast swathes of nothing, padding the game's runtime with meaningless collectibles, soulless "kill X of Y" quests or hundreds of generic enemies to be fought in order to get to the important stuff. Meanwhile in BG3, everything you see and do feels meaningful. Every location explored, every enemy fought, every quest handed out, all of it has a purpose. The game does have a large scope, but it never loses that "lovingly handcrafted" feeling that is usually exuded by smaller games. It took me, something of an obsessive explorer, 160 hours to complete the game once, and I feel impressed to say that in all those hours it didn't lose my interest once - which is no small feat for an RPG of this scale. And even then I know for a fact that there's so much left to do. There's yet places I haven't explored, characters whose lives I failed to save, questlines I didn't complete, intentionally or no. I've yet to see what kind of story playing the game on the opposite end of the moral spectrum will tell, or how playing from the perspective of one of the game's 7 Origin characters, rather than a custom character of my own making, would change things up. In conversations with friends who are playing the game I'm still hearing about things that I managed to, despite my obsessive poking around, miss entirely. And that makes me eager to dive back in, which is exactly what I'm doing. And due to how this game doesn't feel like wasting my time with aforementioned meaningless padding, the idea of replaying it doesn't feel as daunting as it usually does with big RPG titles.

Another area where this game sets itself apart from its isometric CRPG peers is the cinematic presentation. To say that it looks beautiful is an understatement. Never have character models in RPGs looked this good up close. And it's not just how they look, it's how they're animated and voiced as well. Not just the main characters - literally everyone in the game in which almost every NPC, of which there are hundreds, can be talked to and has something unique to say. It is astonishing that none of that feels like it was mass-produced - no animation feels like it was recycled, no voice line feels like it was phoned-in. It just makes the world come alive in a way that is perhaps unprecedented for a game of this genre. And the world itself is no slouch. Even though it's made to be explored in isometric perspective, the environment is detailed enough to very much still look great when the camera comes in close for conversations and cinematics, and all of it, from rocky patches of wilderness to deep, dark caves, to otherworldly landscapes of other realms, to the cobbled streets of the titular city of Baldur's Gate, oozes that handcrafted personality.

Could the game still use some additional polish? Yes. But don't listen to the naysayers who liken this to incomplete games plaguing the game industry of today. This is not the case for Baldur's Gate 3. It very much is a complete experience from start to finish. It's just that the game's first act (which was the one in early access for three years and therefore obviously afforded the most polish) sets the bar so unbelievably high (a 10/10 rating doesn't feel like it does it justice anymore), that the game's own last act struggles to catch up to the standard it set for itself. That being said, Larian has a track record for polishing the final acts of their games post-launch and now that player feedback is coming in for more than just the early access areas, I'm sure they'll do just that. Any further improvements they make will set to elevate the game ever higher, but what we have already stands head and shoulders above most everything else in the video game industry. The amount of content you get to experience for the asking price honestly feels like a bargain.

I don't know what else to say. Well, not truly, I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs discussing various areas of the game, but it quite simply feels unnecessary to do so. As a longstanding Dungeons and Dragons fan, this game was the closest I came to a video game replicating the feeling of playing a DnD session with a good DM, and it does it all with peerless cinematic presentation for its genre. It is DnD distilled into video game form that is just pure bliss to experience. Fair warning though - this should come with a label warning against addiction. I haven't got this sucked into a video game in nearly a decade. 160 hours spent of a single playthrough and I'm still left wanting for more.

I'll begin by saying that I fully recommend Fallen Order to any Star Wars fans, as well as fans of action/adventure genre in general. It is most definitely a good game, and a step in the right direction for Star Wars material in general.

With that said, here are the details. Where gameplay is concerned, Fallen Order shines brightly. It doesn't exactly break any new ground, in fact, it plays like a love child of 2018's God of War and Uncharted 4 wearing a Star Wars skin, with a bit of (unnecessary) Dark Souls elements sprinkled on top (more on that later). You play as, you guessed it, a Jedi. Gameplay is divided into two major parts - exploration/traversal and, of course, combat. Traversal employs a variety of environments, many of which require you to use the character's Jedi powers to successfully complete the platforming sections. There are also a few environmental puzzles sprinkled throughout, some of which were decent headscratchers, but for the most part, exploration is not a difficult affair. It plays smoothly too, personally I only experienced caveats a few times, such as the character failing to grab onto a zipline or a rope I jumped towards, but as the game doesn't punish you harshly for failing the platforming sections (if you fall headfirst into a bottomless pit, the character does not die and instead just respawns at the beginning of the platforming section with a bit of health deducted), so those several hiccups didn't impact my overall gameplay experience much.

Now the meat of the matter - combat. The game allows you to choose the difficulty of combat with explanations given on what each difficulty level is supposed to entail. I did my playthrough on the Jedi Master difficulty, which was recommended for players familiar with action/adventure video games, who desire a challenge. And for the most part, it delivered exactly what was promised. The main character, while a Jedi, is still at a learner level when the game begins, limited to basic lightsaber attacks and a single Force ability - slow, but you will steadily unlock new abilities as the game progresses (both automatically and by investing skill points in the character upgrade tree). The game has various enemy types, and it likes to mix and match them in order to constantly challenge your approach and tactics in every encounter. While this is no hack and slash where you can tear apart groups of enemies without effort, it is still possible to fulfill your Jedi power fantasy and really dominate encounters, though the game makes you earn those moments with skill and timing. Speaking of big moments, the boss fights in this game were very satisfying, with each enemy having their own unique feel. While I didn't find them as frustrating at times as, say, the Souls series bosses can be, each still required several attempts to overcome, while providing a challenging, but fair fight.

Now, since I keep mentioning the Souls series a lot, and this game certainly borrowed some good influences from it, here's what I didn't like about it - the respawning system. The game has meditation spots akin to Dark Souls' bonfires, and if you die between those save points, you respawn at them, while the enemy that killed you gets to keep your experience points, so you need to make it back to them and hit them in order to get it back. Now here's the problem: Dark Souls series is known for many good things, but cinematic gameplay is not among them, while Fallen Order aims for a cinematic gameplay akin to 2018's God of War - with seamless transitions between gameplay and cutscenes and a continuous experience. So there's absolutely no reason why the game couldn't have had a traditional checkpoint respawn system, especially since the Souls-esque system doesn't really add to the challenge, as this game isn't exactly stingy with save points - personally I never felt pressured to find a save points the way Souls games often pressure the player, and every boss fight had a respawn area right next to the boss room, once again, raising the question as to why the game couldn't just respawn me in the boss room to begin with and cut down the waiting time. And another unnecessary borrowed detail from the Souls series - the "door does not open from this side" way of barring you from areas. Only difference is that in this game I have a lightsaber - which should mean that doors open from whichever side I wish.

Now, of course, being a Star Wars fan, I have to talk about the Star Wars side of things. With this being the first story-driven Star Wars game in a long time, it comes with large expectations in terms of story and presentation, and for the most part, this game delivers. It's set between the Prequel and the Original Trilogy era and you play as Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan and a survivor of Order 66. As far as Star Wars protagonists go, Cal doesn't exactly break any new ground, nor is he perhaps the most interesting of characters, being your standard goody-two shoes, but he is well acted and while I found him quite boring in the beginning, he grew on me by the end. At first I thought that his "getting cut off from the Force" arc was just a cover-up for a gameplay mechanic as to why the player has to re-learn the basic Jedi abilities, but Cal's arc gets deeper and more explained as the game progresses and by the end it felt like he did grow as a character. The same can be said for the game's small cast of other characters, each of which have their own character arcs that decently come together. The game's overall story is equally decent, telling its own, fairly compelling tale, while remaining respectful of existing lore, with more than enough references to different Star Wars mediums sprinkled throughout. With regards to presentation, the game looks and sounds gorgeous. The graphics are beautiful, the environments of each planet are oozing with Star Wars atmosphere, the sound is great and the music is as good an attempt at capturing that John Williams feel as I've ever heard.

The only major problems that I think this game has is longevity and replayability. There's plenty to explore and the game encourages you to return to planets previously visited in order to access previously blocked off areas with your new powers. However, the collectibles in the game itself are... lackluster. There are many, many lightsaber parts which allow you to extensively customize the hilt of your weapon, which is nice, but Cal himself barely has any options for adding your own personal touch. You are limited to a total of 5 recolorings of his basic outfit, and a bunch of different ponchos you can throw on top, but with regards to costume variety, it leaves a lot to be desired. You can also repaint your buddy droid and the ship you fly around in, but I didn't find that to be a big incentive to 100% explore each world. Personally, the most interesting thing for me to discover were the lore tidbits, which tell you about each planet and their inhabitants, as well as the stories that transpired within. Still, after the game is done, there's very little incentive to play it again, at least not immediately. This is no RPG and Cal is a predetermined protagonist, with you having no input on his personality, or his abilities (the ability tree is not very extensive and will likely be nearly maxed out by most players by the end of the game, so playthroughs are not going to vary because of it). It took me, a slow gamer who likes to explore off the beaten path, around 40 hours to complete the main story, and then several more hours to return to each planet and grab most of what I missed and after that, barring an immediate replay from the start, I felt like I had seen everything the game had to offer. Still, I would say it was certainly worth the time and money I spent on it.

The best way to sum up Divinity: Original Sin 2 is that it's like playing Dungeons and Dragons with a good DM. If you've ever played D&D, or just like RPG games, whether in video game or tabletop form, you should absolutely give this a try. If you don't like RPG games, you should still give this one a try. If you can escape Fort Joy without getting hooked on the game, then you can safely say it's not for you. But I find that hard to believe. You'll probably get hooked. Just like I did. This game is a treasure, a love letter to old-school RPGs. Even if you've never played one, this definitely deserves to be your first one.

Right. First off, this review will not be aimed at singleplayer. The GTA series has been consistently delivering quality singleplayer content since it was born and this game is no different. If you've been living under a rock for the past few years and haven't yet played through the GTA V singleplayer, go ahead and pick it up. It's certainly a good time and worth the money. If this game only had singleplayer, this review would be positive.

Now, on to the real reason I'm writing this. Really, this is a review for the pseudo-seperate game within a game, the GTA Online. And that game I most definitely can't recommend. So if you're about to drop 60$ for this game's multiplayer, I urge you to reconsider for the following reasons:

1) You won't be able to afford anything (unless you pay more $).
When you start this game, you'll start out as a rank 1 grunt with no car, no safehouse and no weapons. And the thing is, you're gonna need all that stuff in order to do things. And the good stuff in this game is pricey. You want to be able to compete in races? You're gonna need those top tier cars, son. You want to do heists? You're gonna need a high-end safehouse. You want to take part in the game's free-roam missions with your friends? Be prepared to drop millions of in-game cash to even get started. Yup, you're looking at seven-figures expenditures just to be able to adequately take part in the game's activities. Even not getting shot to bits in the game's deathmatch modes or being able to defend yourself in free roam from griefers will require the upper-crust weaponry, and those things have hefty pricetags as well. Now this wouldn't be a problem if the game rewarded you adequately for, you know, playing, but the pay is meagre across all modes. There is no good, fast way to make cash. The only way is to grind. And that is precisely what you'll be doing... unless you are prepared to drop more of your real life cash for the so called "shark cards". But bear in mind, while the biggest one of those gives 8 million in-game $ and costs as much as the game itself- that's not a whole lot of money. 8 million USED to be a lot of money when the game launched, yes. Back then the priciest items in the game cost a million at most. But the prices have gone up, however, the rewards for in-game modes haven't. Nowadays, Just about everything good costs several millions. 8 million will get you maybe 3 items if you're aiming for the top tier stuff. That is 3 in-game items for as much real life cash that could buy you another game. It is unacceptable and the opposite of fun, intuitive video game design. It speaks of greed and it forces players to grind the things in the game that pay moderately well and ignore everything else.

2) best hope you're patient, because you'll be doing a loooooooot of waiting.
I'm not overexaggerating when I say that GTA Online has one of the worst online match joining systems I have EVER seen in my roughly 20 years of playing video games. It is indescribably terrible. The load times are atrocious and there are SO many loading screens. So much so that it is not uncommon to have to wait 10 minutes in order to begin a race that could take 3 minutes to finish. And that's if you get lucky and your loading screen doesn't hang up, or kick you out of the session, or you don't get frozen in one of the post-game screens or run into many other issues that plague this game. This system originated in the console version and it was poor even by console standards, but it was ported over to PC without changing a thing. Not. One. Thing. It is inefficient, it is slow, it doesn't work properly almost half of the time and it is a disgrace to have this thing in a triple A title, much less one that still costs 60$ after 2 years.

3) the gameplay itself is less than satisfying, unless you're a griefer.
GTAO free roam is a big part of the game. Everyone spawns there at first and many things happen in it. That said, watch your back there, especially if you're a new player in the low ranks, because there's so much stuff that the experienced players can do to you that you can do nothing to retaliate against. Jets rule the skies and with the in-game law enforcement having no way of taking them out, they zip around freely, killing people and destroying valuable things, while being next to impossible to punish, unless you have a jet of your own (the surface-to-air missile launcher is a joke that will only shoot down a jet if it's piloted by someone with half a brain). On the ground, there are plenty of vehicles that are bulletproof and are just the favorite tools for griefers to kill new players with. And the best part is, if you blow up someone's armored vehicle, you may have to pay for it, even if said person has killed you 5 times in a row and the only way for you to stop him was to blow up his bulletproof car. Now, of course, you could just ignore free roam, but some of the most fun and best paying activities are part of free roam serves and, you guessed it, they are ripe with griefers who would like nothing more than to take their disposable jet and destroy your 2 million dollar shipment of goods that took you two weeks to grind, just for the heck of it.

Seriously, take my advice and do not buy this game if you're new. The only reason I can still play it and have fun is because I have managed to get a high level and a decent amount of money back when the game first released and it wasn't such a chore. I couldn't imagine starting over from scratch and two of my friends who have fairly recently got the game could attest to that.

To start with, it can be said that Dark Souls 3 is most certainly the sequel that the original Dark Souls deserved, but didn't get with Dark Souls 2. While I did enjoy Dark Souls 2, I, as well as an overwhelming majority of people who played it, thought there was something about it that felt off. Something that didn't quite capture the spirit of the original. Well, I'm not done with the game yet, but I can already tell that Dark Souls 3 definitely does capture that very spirit, as was expected with the series' creator Miyazaki back behind the creative wheel.

Most mechanical changes from DS2 are reverted and anyone returning from DS1 will feel right at home. The weapon movesets are instantly familiar, the backstab and riposte mechanics and animations from DS1 are back as well as a lot of other things. Whereas DS2 attempted to make many changes, DS3 seems to have taken the "if it's not broken, don't fix it" approach. Which wouldn't be a bad thing if not for a few unnecessary, unpleasant changes. More on that later.

Most things that can be said about this game are good things. Coming from a Souls fan at least. The brutal, unforgiving gameplay, a trademark of Souls series is back. If you liked the previous instalments, you'll love this one. If you didn't, this one won't pull you in either. In some ways, however, DS3 raises the bar. Most bossfights now have two phases, meaning they can surprise you mid battle after you thought you had them figured out. In fact, some regular enemies occasionally manage that as well. I was pleasantly surprised continuously throughout the game when some trash mob I had previously killed dozens of times suddenly pulled off a move that I had never witnessed him do before and took me off guard. Thus, the game does an excellent job of keeping you on your toes, even while exploring zones that you already passed.

Speaking of zones, Dark Souls 3 provides some of the most visually awe inspiring setpieces I've ever seen in a video game to date. While the world building is not as intricately intervowen as in Dark Souls 1, which I still consider to be the pinnacle of world building achievenemts in video games, Dark Souls 3 instead compensates for it in size. The zones are larger than I've ever seen in a Souls game yet and, quite frankly, it's more than a little intimidating- remember, this is the Souls series, where around every corner someone or something is trying to kill you. Thus, the game constantly makes you feel humbled when you enter a new zone and see it sprawling before you, often spotting the enemies you'll have to fight your way through.

The art of the game is spot on. Dark Souls 3 looks a lot sharper than any of its predecessors, as well as maintaining the jaw droppingly gorgeous artstyle that constantly tops itself by throwing more and more jaw dropping views before your eyes. Nothing quite matches the feeling of fighting your way through a zone only to reach a high point and be able to see the entire zone sprawling beneath you, knowing that you have conquered it. The sounds are great and the music, oh lord, the music. Dark Souls series has never lacked for a good soundtrack, but DS3 somehow manages to raise the bar once more, with this game's OST being my definite favorite so far.

Now for the criticism. Well, more of a nit picking, really, as much of what I will list is very much a matter of taste. But I did not like some changes that were made and thought them unnecessary. More precisely, the removal of a few things that were in the previous titles. First, the ability to improve armors is gone and it begs the question why. Used to be, you could take a piece of armor you liked and constantly improve it through the game, making it your own. Gone is the ability to do so as the armor stats are now static and remain so throughout the game. Another questionable thing is the apparent removal of poise. While the poise stat is in the game and is tracked, it had its function removed for some reason. You can no longer tank hits, not even from the weakest enemies in the game while wearing the best armor, without staggering. It's, quite frankly, an odd decision. I always admired Dark Souls series in particular for its variety of playstyles. You could opt to be as dexterous or as tanky as you liked. With the apparent removal of poise, such variety is limited as it's no longer worth to give up the ability to fast roll in order to put on heavier, sturdier armor. Speaking of rolls, I was also baffled by the removal of the mid-tier roll. In previous games, you had the fast, agile roll, the medium, regular roll and the fat roll for those who got too overcrumbered. As it stands now, you either roll very quickly or clumsily. Makes me miss the medium option. Though that's less about functionality and more about aesthetics- the fast roll just looks a little nonsensical when you're wearing plate armor.

So much for the nitpicking. Apart from these points, neither of which is game breaking and, in fact, I wouldn't have listed either of them had I not played the first title, this game deserves the highest of praises. If you're a Souls fan- buy it without hesitation.

Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is, plain and simply put, amazing. The game world is overwhelmingly, mind boggingly huge. No other open world game I've ever played felt like that. In recent memory, Skyrim, GTA V and Dragon Age: Inquisition all felt gigantic in size as well, but the Witcher 3 tramples them all. Moreover, as far as medieval fantasy RPGs go, this feels like the most realistic, living, breathing world of all. It feels like if you turned the time backwards some 800 years, this is the sort of thing you would find in medieval Europe- minus the monsters and magical oddities, of course.

No matter how huge the world map, it would feel useless without things to do, of course. And this game excels in that area as well. The map is filled with points of interest, and, while real distance seperates them (you won't be able to spit and hit three point of interest markers in your vicinity as you could in Skyrim, for example), so far, nothing I've seen feels like filler. Unlike GTA, which tries to extend its longevity by having an absurd amount of minigames within the game (The Witcher 3 has one excellent card game and some side activities like horse racing and fist fighting), or Dragon Age: Inquisition, which had you running around the map collecting hundreds of pieces of collectibles, hoping they eventually lead to something interesting, Witcher 3 instead adds to the game with sidequests- each being a smaller or larger story by itself, fully voiced with quality (a vast improvement over the previous Witcher titles) voicework. And, of course, there's the main story. I've played for 33 hours already and, from what I gather, I've maaaaaybe been able to complete a third of the main story (at best, it's hard to tell how long it actually is), and I haven't been going out of my way to seek extra activities. I've already felt more than content with what I had in my quest journal. But, intentionally or not, I have also ignored so much, I bet there would be enough material to spend 30 more hours in the first zone alone- of which there are three, by the way.

Speaking of technicalities, the game is, of course, graphically impressive (and demanding, I'm pulling off 40 fps with everything maxed on a rig that is barely half a year old, running a GTX 970), however, it is not the visual spectacle that was shown back in 2013. A shame that, but people speaking of "downgrade" are not lying. The dip in quality is particularly visible on foliage and water, both of which look sub-par when compared to the amazing quality of the character models. As for gameplay mechanics, the combat is simple, but satisfying. It looks great and feels responsive, but be warned- it can be a challenge even on normal difficulty levels. Geralt may be advertised as a killing machine, but he only lives up to that name if you can pull it off. Careless swordplay will result in many clumsy and dead Geralts, even if you are fighting something as mundane as a pack of wild dogs or ragtag bandits.

Lastly, this paragraph is for the fans of the original novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. As a fan of the books first and the games second, I can tell you that CD Projekt have done a terrific job of capturing the atmosphere created by the writer, and brought many of our beloved characters to life. But that is no surprise, for they have been doing that since the first game. Word of advice- if you are just now getting into the game, do yourself a favor and read the novels first, then play both of the previous titles. Witcher 3 IS undoubtedly a stellar game on its own, but it can wait that much, for you will only make this final chapter of Geralt's story that much more satisfying for you if you know full well what's at stake here.

The final verdict? Why, 10 out of 10. Who would have thought?

Where do I start... I love Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior almost as much as I hate it. I might as well start from the good.

The idea of the game is good and the formula improves upon its predecessor, but this one is targeted more for fun, rather than the competitive experience Medieval Warfare was. The class roster is well rounded and everyone is guaranteed to find a warrior that fits their playstyle. The combat system is essentially the same as in the previous game with some improvements- as in, the blocking now works more reliably, the combat seems faster, less clunky and more exciting, with a far better flow to it. The game also looks and sounds great: the models are detailed, the enviroments are pretty and the sounds are particularly well done- both the combat and the voicework, which, considering it wasn't done by proffessional actors, is nothing short of amazing.

Now the bad. This game is a buggy mess. It's not on the verge of unplayable, but you WILL get killed in combat due to game errors, and it is extremely frustrating when that happens. All sorts of things can happen- swings going through perfectly placed blocks, hits not registering even though the weapon clearly passed through the enemy, getting hit out of range while clearly seeing your opponent miss, animations can desync, making you receive damage without ever seeing the swing that delivered it, etc. Also the maps, while decent looking, have all kinds of objects with invisible hitboxes that you can get stuck on while moving, or your weapon can hit plain air and cancel the swing, costing you a fight. It happens and it happens frequently and it is extremely annoying.

Then there's also the balance issues. The weapon roster in this game is impressive, yes, but it's terribly balanced. There are some weapons that just triumph over others and in certain cases there's just no reason to pick an inferior weapon. The classes that seem to have a somewhat balanced roster of weapons are the Samurai, Viking and Pirate. The rest, however, have a superior weapon in their loadouts that generally makes the rest obsolete and rarely seen in high level gameplay. Which is a shame. Also, some weapon mechanics are unbalanced to the point of seeming broken- the Ninjato stab and the Spartan shield bash particularly come into mind. The former is riddiculously fast compared to any other attack in the game, which means you either guess right or you die, because there is simply no time to react accuarately, while the latter seems to have no reliable way to block it, again, relying mostly on luck. Both seem cheap, easy weapons to wreck an opponent with and stand out in constrast to the other weapons.

And the final problem with this game is that there is almost no developer support. While its predecessor, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare gets frequent upgrades and balance patches, Deadliest Warrior, with all its issues I've mentioned here, has been that way from the start. It has been over a year now and none of them have been addressed. There hasn't been any attempt to balance classes, fix the multitudes of bugs, or even add something new, save for a few cosmetic items. The votekick system, the autobalance and the chat post-match have never worked propperly and still don't.

Therefore, my final verdict is this. I can't in good conscience recommend this game to everyone. The only reason I play it myself is because I am a die-hard melee combat fan and both Chivalry games are currently the best the multiplayer game market has to offer in that category. But they are far from GOOD games. They can STILL be extremely fun to play- otherwise I wouldn't have dedicated almost 600 hours split between both games and counting. But at other times it can be an extremely frustrating experience and a constant disappointment in the regard of what it COULD be, but isn't, mainly due to apathy from the developer side. If you are, however, seeking a multiplayer melee combat game, then this is the best bet for now. If not, then there are far more well made and supported competitive multiplayer games out there and you should skip this one.

The best way to describe this game is "could be great". I have played it for the whole year it's been out now, and that's exactly the same thing I said about it when I tried it out for the first time. Why "could be"? Because this game is held back from achieving its full potential by the multitudes of bugs that plague it. A year ago I was hoping it would be fixed. But here I am, a year later, still experiencing the game in a state that could only be excusable for a beta, or a game in its first month of release.

That's not to say it isn't fun. The combat mechanics are simple to grasp and easy to start, yet offer loads of room for improvement. There's a decent variety of choice. Between the game's four classes and lots of weapons to pick from for each, everyone is bound to find the playstyle and loadout that fits him. And the visual customization system allows you to add a personal touch to your warrior. The graphics are pretty, if you've got the system to see them, because the optimization is some of the worst I've seen in any video game ever. There's a variety of game modes to choose from, and while there aren't many maps, most of them being recycled for different modes, the existing ones are well made, albeit with the occasional enviromental bug here and there. The sound is absolutely superb, especially the voice acting, which, coming from a non professional cast, makes it all the more impressive.

In short, you probably won't regret buying this game. It may not be perfect, but it offers the best immersive medieval combat experience for multiple players currently on the market. Just be prepared to experience some deaths that are entirely not your fault, but rather, atributed to the game's flawed state. But as long as you can look past that, the overall fun you get from this game will sure compensate for it.