Recent reviews by MonkeyMagicEden

Did I write this for a Steam achievement? Yes.
Do I actually like the game. Yes.

Near endless fun with the right friends.

A review? For the sake of stupid Steam Sale points? Sure is.

Sometimes you like a game enough to review it.
Sometimes you've already written a positive review for a website like DigitalFix and can't be bothered writing more but want an arbitrary Steam achievement.
This is a case of the latter.

A game that takes any expectations of being the nice peacebringer and tramples them deep into the ground as it explores the darker aspects of conquest in a world of excess violence and magical influence.

You'll have to excuse this pissy little rant, but I'm beyond waiting for Inexile to make this right.
It's been three months of waiting. Scratch that, I Kickstarted this game so it's been YEARS of waiting to play and finish this game. I wanted any review I wrote in reaction to it to be nothing but praise. And it would have been. Sadly, I can't do that and it's no fault with the game design itself. Sorry to Gavin and the other people who poured their creative heart and soul into this - the tech guys have failed you and soured a fan's opinion of your work.

There I was, at the end of a fantastically written and conceptualised game only to find that QA had failed spectacularly and left a game breaking bug in the closing moments. Battles were fought, companion conclusions found and the finishing line was in sight. I'd loved every second up until that moment. The writing had been fantastic, thoughtful and pushed me into viewing familiar moral quandry with fresh eyes. The gameplay was a nice mix of tactics and decision making, with unusual options for non-aggressive actions and conclusions that surprised.
And then it happened.
A load screen that I've since found out connects to a location called Oasis, right at the end of the game. The load screen popped up and never left. I waited. I reloaded. I validated the game cache in steam. I did everything I could and nothing was getting me past that load screen. I contacted Inexile over on Twitter and was told they were aware of the issue, that they were working on a solution and that I perhaps could revert to an old save file and un-equip a particular piece of equipment - a pair of rings that allow characters to share stat buffs. My last save before this moment? Five hours prior. I wasn't all that excited at having to slog through familiar territory, repeating actions so I could see the conclusion as I'd intended to. That wasn't my job, releasing a working product was their job. So I waited.
And I waited.
And I waited.
A patch arrived and didn't fix my problem. I asked Inexile about the issue again on Twitter. This time there was silence in response. Embittered by the farce so far but wanting to praise this game in the face of a lot of people complaining about the writing and gameplay I'd enjoyed, I thought I'd give them the benefit of the doubt, wait and see one more time.

So here we are. A major content patch and even a hint that my specific issue had been fixed in the patch notes. Has the issue been fixed? No. I'm still stuck on 49% on that same loading screen, still faced with the increasingly high likelihood that I'll have to spend hours replaying things I've seen before after months of holding plot points in mind. If QA had done their job and tested properly then I'd never have had this game ruined. It's as simple as that. And I get it, I might come off as overly upset about a game and life could be worse, but after a long wait, money gambled on crowd funding and a lot of positive talk in the aftermath of the game's release from Inexile, I can't be anything other than irritated by my experience with their product.

Is it a smart, thought provoking piece of media? Yes. Absolutely.
Could I confidently tell you that you'll be able to play as you like and finish the game without issue? No, I can't. At this point, I expect I'll never finish the game unless there's a fix in the next few days, I'll uninstall the game and put Inexile in a mental pile marked "Wait for a deep discount, buying their games on release is a pointless gamble".

You like music? You like games? You like games that use your music collection to create levels?
You like Audiosurf. You just don't know it yet.