Recent reviews by bl_5ca

What a pleasure to play in a lively environment, a perfectly mastered narration and really endearing characters, it's teeming with details, the humor is present without being heavy. The Russian dubs are excellent and a super quality soundtrack's awesome. The gameplay is simple but effective, graphics level, I love the artistic direction, it's very fluid on pc, very few bugs. The dialogues between the characters reveal a lot of very interesting information about this universe and for the older ones, a lot of nods to the 80s and 90s. The very correct lifespan (finished in ~23h without rushing me, searching everywhere), the chapters follow one another well, we don't see the time passing. Difficulty level, the normal mode is really too simple, the difficult mode is recommended to put a little challenge. Not at all disappointed, it's a good big surprise for a game I wasn't expecting, it's really fun.

WE DIVE TOGETHER OR WE WONT DIVE AT ALL!

A must-play. Beautiful story in a growing relationship of a father-daughter dynamic in an apocalyptic setting. The combat is basic, but works for the type of game and the stealth is engaging because of the tense atmosphere and dangerous setting the game takes place in. You meet great characters along your journey, the emotional beats satisfy, and the ending is brutally poetic.

The game's art direction and world building are some of the best we have ever seen. Everything feels like it comes from a world of magic from architecture to enemies to the countryside. The game mechanics are very good as well, including the crafting systems, level designs, and most importantly, the combat, which manages to flow quite well despite being entirely range based. The diversity of spells that can combo off one another allow you to take a unique approach to fights, plus the combat potions can help change your strategy to a significant degree. Perhaps the thing the game does best is how it invites you to explore the world and castle. There are dozens of puzzles tucked away in Hogwarts, secret passages, statues with secret functions, treasures to be found, and moving paintings all over the place. The side quests around the castle aren't fetch quests by any means, they usually task you with searching for something and, well, fetching it, but the process of finding the object is almost always a pleasure because directions are vague. For example, you might be told to search in "high places". Hogwarts Legacy also has a really unique way of contrasting your time in the castle, which is fun, exciting and wondrous with the open world exploration which is more mature, harrowing, and dangerous. There are poachers and monsters all over, hamlet's are being broken apart by grief as the goblin rebellion hurts literally everyone, even goblins. So if you are a Harry Potter fan, this is the game you have been waiting for. I definitely recommend it!

An overall enjoyable experience
Pros:
1. Main campaign is lengthy and engaging
2. Fast paced responsive combat
3. Feeling of accomplishment as you build up your character into a powerhouse with God like powers
4. Enjoyable for both, solo players and teams
5. World tier system is a nice touch
Cons:
1. Combat gets repetitive after sometime
2. Endgame is quite grindy
3. Sometimes no amount of strategy will slave you and you will die anyway

I found Absolution to be thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. The plot basically revolves around Agent 47’s attempts to try to keep a young girl out of the hands of the agency and other nefarious characters. As video games go it’s fairly well told but it only really serves to provide some sort of link between each of the twenty or so missions. Reading reviews and forums I’ve been lead to believe that Absolution is more action orientated than its predecessors but, having played through on a couple of difficulty settings, I can categorically confirm that it is far from just being ‘another third person shooter’ as some want you to believe. Admittedly it is possible to shoot your way through many of the levels on the easier settings (the AI of the enemies when they come under fire isn’t great and they’ll often stand out in the open) but it is far more satisfying, and you are awarded a better score, if you can complete your objective without being spotted and Absolution provides plenty of alternative ways to eliminate your target. For those after a so called ‘pure’ Hitman experience the hardest settings make it all but impossible to just run and gun allowing anyone to tailor the game to their specific requirements. Perhaps the most controversial new features is ‘instinct mode’ which allows you to see through walls and predict enemy paths for example. For me this is a great addition as it prevents the long periods of waiting behind cover watching enemy patterns found in many stealth orientated games. The amount of uses is limited depending on the difficulty setting so again anyone after a more traditional stealth game only need play on one of the higher settings. One area in which Absolution did disappoint is that, in trying to be more cinematic; a few of the assassination and other important events take place in cut scenes. This is particularly frustrating when you’ve made your way through a level undetected only to have control taken away from you just in time to see Agent 47 be ambushed and knocked unconscious. All in all this is a largely successful reboot and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

A decent little way to spend an afternoon. In the grand scheme of simulation games, this one feels a bit simple and reductive. It strips down and simplifies the art of game development as a means of streamlining the experience, but in doing so, it cuts out a lot of the replayability and the players ability to create their own success stories, due to the fact that what is or isn't successful is determined by a set of hard and fast rules discovered by doing sales reports on prior titles. If you buy it on sale, you'll have a fun couple hours naming your games nasty sex puns or something, but I don't find too much entertainment value beyond that.

An excellent fantasy game with a nicely drawn fairytale world. Fidget, the "Flying Squirrel", the protagonist's fighting friend, is one of the most charming characters I've seen in games. By the way, Dust, Fidget and other main characters were voiced by professional actors. And you can feel it even if you don't understand English fluently and watch subtitles. The actors perfectly convey the feelings and mood of the characters. The fantasy plot has a Japanese theme, although it is not fully typical Japanese. The gameplay is pleasant, the levels want to explore. I will note only a few small disadvantages: 1. There are a lot of monsters in this game, which are quite easy to kill, but time is wasted on it. Moreover, when you leave a game sector, and then enter it again, all the monsters appear anew. So you can accumulate experience and some bonuses, but it's not very interesting. Fortunately, it is not necessary to kill all monsters. Instead, you may jump and fly over them. There are more interesting monsters in the game, but they are in the minority. 2. There is no complete level map. There is only a primitive scheme with squares. The map would not be superfluous, since you have to run there decently. But there is also a plus - train your memory! 3. I would also make an alternative secret ending in this game. The one that I saw, nevertheless, does not quite correspond to the hero whom I recognized during the game. However, everything is not fully disclosed there, and perhaps we will see some sequel (the main author of the game, Dean Dodrill, promised to return to Dust's story, but by that time he had not yet decided when and how it would be). Despite its minor flaws, the game was one of the most enjoyable for me in recent years, and deserves the highest rating.

The camp management gameplay and rogue like gameplay aren’t the most in depth or unique but they are both fun and together work really well along with a very cute art style has its bugs and issues but it’s still a blast

Great medieval game, nice combat system if you're ready to learn it. The game has some issues though: tons of bugs each and every patch (couple of them were game breaking), archers are very annoying, no custom servers (only FPS, no archers, etc.) and very ethically questionable in-game chat. It also might be very challenging for new players. Still, the game provides a unique medieval experience with some humour here and there (lots of Monty Python references and such), quite funny reddit community and some players just goofing around. There is something in this game that held me in for 30+ hours