Recent reviews by CorpseGrind.

Continuing on with my first time ever all Souls games playthrough, we are coming to the "black sheep" of the franchise, as most say.

And honestly... I don't get it. I mean, I kinda do get it, but still don't. In most ways, it actually improves a lot from the first game. But there are some major issues in my opinion that really drags the game and the whole experience down. Lets go through it.

The good:

- Visually, it's a good looking game, even all these years later.
- Majula and the concept of the "main hub". It's visually beautiful and so calming, the music is just so relaxing and depressing at the same time, I just love it.
- Game is huge, and some of the zones are awesome designed (Earthen Peak Iron Keep, Black Gulch, Shrine of Amana, Heide, Lost Bastille, Drangleic Castle few examples). Some of the vistas are breathtaking.
- Weapons, armor (fashion mostly), spells, gameplay in that context and variety of choices.
- Power stancing.
- Some of the bosses are just awesome (The Pursuer, Looking Glass Knight, Flexile Sentry, Mytha, Smelter Demon, Velstadt, Vendrick, Darklurker). Both the fights and even some of their OST's (just listening to Velstadt OST as of writing this review).
- DLC's are for the most part so good and well made, having one of the best bosses (including the best one in the whole game, Sir Alonne, that fight is amazing and I wish I could replay it over and over without starting the game again).
- I love the story and history behind some bosses. Vendrick is depressing for me. Whole vibe feels like descent into madness, especially some of the npc storylines.
- NG+ being actually different and bonfire ascetics are genius idea!

So you would think, judging by the review so far, where are the issues? Well:

- Game is huge, but at the same time it feels bloated and overstays its welcome sometimes, because some of the zones are crap design vise and make no sense placement vise, it feels like they just put in as much as possible to make the game "bigger". It doesn't have near as much connectivity and the superb level design as first game, which is like peak for me.
- It's sad that armor is almost useless, might as well go naked, it will be easier. It's purely cosmetic. It barely made any difference when I took damage with or without it.
- Movement. This one is for me the biggest reason why game sucks. When I first started to play, I immediately felt something was wrong. My character was moving like it was floating, it was super janky at first. I got used to it eventually, but yeah, it's not good.
- ADP as stat is just pure garbage and total waste of time and souls. I won't talk about it because there are youtube essays about it and why it sucks so feel free to check those out.
- Hit boxes are sometimes horrendous, even if they help you out sometimes, it's still stupid.
- Some of the bosses are just ass: Executioner's Chariot, The Skeleton Lords, Belfry Gargoyles (literal repeat from the first game, just add them up to 4 at the same time!!!), Royal Rat Authority, Old Dragonslayer (lol), Covetous Demon (lmao), Guardian Dragon (mob acting as "boss"), Demon of Song (cool design at least), both Dragonriders, Prowling Magus (mob trash fight), Giant Lord, and final boss Nashandra sucks so hard it's not even funny. The others I didn't mentioned are ok.
- Crown of the Ivory King DLC has one of the worst bosses and run backs I've ever seen in a video game. It's so bad that I never actually played it, I heard stories about it, saw the video and said "f*** that!". Ain't wasting my time on that. While we are at it, 2 more runbacks in DLC's are almost as horrible (Smelter Blue and Alonne). You can add there Elana run back IF you don't find the nowayinhellyoucanfindthathiddenbonfirewithoutguideorwrittenmessage. Absolute bonkers.
- Now this is regarded to SOTFS edition, but they added BUNCH of enemies in all of the zones, and some of them make ZERO sense why are they there at all. Zero thought put into the design, just make it "more = harder" I guess.
- Lifegem. I know, don't use it then. But why put it in the game as unlimited item to buy? I mean, yeah I have no problem with it being in the game as limited item, but to add npc that can sell it for unlimited amount for dirt cheap + you can stack them up to 99, is nuts and makes the game super easy.
- If you are coming from the first game, you will not like the Estus flask overall system (need shards to have them more, slow HoT instead of instant heal, can have up to 12 max). Was off put at first, but I like it now, it adds to the challenge.
- Actually, I take back the controls... The worst, I mean the absolute worst part about this game? The insufferable, annoying and awful Dark Souls II "defenders". When you say you don't like something, and they'll write an essay of actually why you're wrong, it's the best game ever and say in the end "git gud". I'm lurking subreddits daily and I see them often, cancer.

Yet again, I had fun... crazy, right? I actually had so much fun, that I bought the ORIGINAL version and completed all the achievements AGAIN (this time much faster because I was experienced). This game just has something in it, I can't explain it. It has problems, but as an overall package, it delivers in my humble opinion and I recommend it to everyone!

Finally, after all the Elden Ring hype, I was tempted for a longer time now to jump into Souls games. So what better way then to start from the beginning?

This game is... almost perfect! It's actually frustrating how it's almost perfect, it's really close to perfection, but some tiny bits keep it from being one of the goats in my opinion.

The good stuff:

- From the very beginning, you have a short tutorial section on basic stuff, but pretty much most of the stuff is not explained, it's left up to you to explore and figure it out, by either paying attention to the world or npc dialogue.
- World. It's amazing how everything is connected. All the different locations, containing different enemies and bosses, secrets, how it's semi open and not linear. Just love it, best part of the game.
- Gameplay. Now I only went with knight class and full on melee, but it's so rewarding and satisfying when you learn WHEN to hit and when you get the rhythm of it.
- Npc's are weird and hillarious sometimes.
- Soundtrack is just lovely.
- Most of the boss fights are good and engaging.

Now for some annoying stuff:

- While it is true that mostly it's good that games are not holding your hand all the time, feels like this game goes to the total opposite. Honestly, most of the time I was googling or searching on Reddit where to go or what do to next. Npc's do tell you what to do, but if you didn't pay attention or skipped dialogue, have fun figuring out what to do, because there is no quest log, npc's won't repeat you what to do, nada! And there are some baffling things you need to do to active/get something (getting into DLC is prime example of w t f). All this for a newcomer might be off putting, but please don't give up like I almost did.
- Run backs! This is honestly my biggest gripe with the game. There are some parts where run backs are horrendous (Anor Londo, New Londo, Crystal Cave being the worst). It's not bad for the first few times, but after 5th attempt or more, it gets mind numbing...
- Sometimes questionable hit boxes happen, which can be annoying.
- While most boss fights are good, some of them are just bad and super easy, even for the first time.
- Inventory system is clunky, and a little confusing at first.
- Personal frustration, but F*** F*** F*** Anor Londo bow knights! Lost my mind on that section.

That's pretty much it. The world and atmosphere alone makes it for me, all the other positive things are just icing on almost perfect cake! 100% recommend it for everyone. You will die a lot, but it gets much easier as you get stronger and learn the game's mechanics.

And remember...

Don't you dare go Hollow!

Well, this one was a long time coming.

One of the best games ever made (according to most at least), 13 years later, still getting re-re-re-re-re releases, yet this is my first time ever getting into it. So how was it?

It was... good... ish. I'm sorry lol but let me explain.

My first encounter with Elder Scrolls was Oblivion. I've played it religiously, even had a world map printed out and on the wall next to my pc, where I would mark all the locations I've been, that's how much I was addicted. Loved it. And that is my biggest issue with Skyrim, it just felt to me all the time like I was playing Oblivion, but kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ version in some ways. There was an overall feeling of "been there, done that".

*THIS WAS ME PLAYING SPECIAL EDITION, WITHOUT A SINGLE MOD!*

Stuff I liked:

- World. It's big. Like, really big. Loved exploring all the caves and dungeons. Really well crafted world, it looks like a ton of effort went into it.
- I really dig the setting and overall themes.
- Soundtrack, like Oblivion, is just amazing. "Dragonborn" is chills all over the body, "Sovngarde" hypes you up for the last battle like nothing, "From Past to Present" makes roaming through Skyrim so magical, "City Gates" makes you feel welcomed in each city, "Steel on Steel" answers you a question on why you can't fast travel... You get my point, I can go on and on. Soundtrack in my opinion is like 70% of the game.
- Some of the quests and story lines are good and fun, ex. getting all the Daedra artifacts, Dark Brotherhood questline etc.
- Shouts are fun to use (some of them at least).
- Paarthurnax <3 (if you kill him, you suck! ♥♥♥♥ Blades!)
- Signature jank is there and sometimes hilarious stuff happens, I hope it stays the same in ES6.
- Lots of options for crafting and stuff, which is nice.
- DLC hub zone. And villain is good and miles better than the main game one.

Now for the not so good stuff:

- While I've praised the caves and dungeons, there are some dungeons that are huge and super long, but mostly empty. You'll get like one section, and with like 2-3 enemies in each hallway, some times none. Yet you walk endlessly. It gets boring and repetitive.
- Main cities are kinda small and not so populated, compared to Oblivion. I mean, Imperial City alone can act as 3 cities here easily.
- Combat. I mean, for Christ sake, combat is like 90% of the game and yet they made it so simple and boring. I'll admit though it is kinda fun to go archery and stealth, but rest of it is just lame.
- Dragons are the new adition, they are fun to deal with, but sometimes frustrating because they either won't land at all or land 3 miles from you. And they'll happen to spawn the least you want them and they force you in combat.
- Main quest is nothing special, especially the main villain. His fight sucks, it's basically a regular dragon fight, no unique mechanics or phases.
- Some minor bugs, but was surprised that there weren't many as I've expected.

That's pretty much it. Like I've said, if I hadn't played Oblivion before, if this was my first ever ES game, I would probably liked it a lot more. But I can see why people love it and praise it, it has its moments, and when it all works, it absolutely freaking works! But sadly for me, been there, done that!

I still 100% recommend it to other 5 persons that haven't played it yet. Especially if you are fun of RPG games, you'll guarantee enjoy it.

This is such a 2002 game, in every possible aspect! I have a little nostalgia for it, but it is super rough. It has something in it though, lets call it a "rough gem". For how many good things it has, it has triple the bad things.

Lets start with the good things:

- Rayne. I honestly think she's one of the most popular, niche game protagonists ever! She's badass.
- It's super satisfying to chop Nazis, gibbing is awesome, especially when you turn the cheat for extra gibs.
- It looks nice, levels are decent looking.
- Overall mood and schlock and weirdness of it, they don't make games like this anymore.

Honestly, that's about it lol now for the bad stuff:

- While Rayne is awesome, voice acting is ass! Not just her, but everyone in the game is just horrible. I was surprised this was Jaina Proudmoore!!! She sounds like she isn't even trying, it sounds like all was done in one take.
- While it is fun to chop Nazis, it gets boring super fast. At first it seems like a hack and slash game, but no, it's more like an action game. There are no combos, different moves to use (you do learn and get some upgrades on moves throughout the game, but there isn't any indication or something to show the progress). I was literally just spamming button while Rayne was doing different stuff.
- While levels are decent looking, I can't fathom why they choose to start the game as literal dark, muddy swamp. It sucks. It gets better later, but the start can throw some people off.
- It is super janky, cutscenes are janky (while live action ones are actually not bad), controls are rough at first, especially the platforming sections.
- Gameplay is literally slashing and shooting. Like I've said, it gets boring super fast, and if you are playing on Hard difficulty, enemies are like sponges and you barely damage them, so I mostly skipped some sections where there were tons of enemies, that's how boring the combat became.
- Enemy variety is nothing special, I especially despise the flying spines that come halfway through game. Annoying as hell.
- Last boss fight is pure garbage, and some sections in Act 3 are big BS of how difficult they are (on hard).
- Story is meh, the twist near the end is super cringe and you just don't care about that side character, even though game wants you to care.

Might seem to you that game is horrible, but I still recommend it! Sure, it is super cringe at times, sure it is super janky at times. If someone came into my room and saw me play this game, would I be embarrassed? Absolutely. But it has its moments when it all clicks, and it shows its greatness at times at what could have been if it was more polished and thought out!

SHEVAAAAAAAAAA!: the game

What a fantastic mod!

What's more insane is it's free, but could easily be sold as an expansion. If you're a Half-Life/Portal fan, play it. You'll enjoy it, I loved it.

Also, Wilson <3

Man, this game...

I thought it was a PS4 exclusive that came out like at the beginning of PS4 era, but no, this game came out in 2019, so not long ago! Yet barely anyone talks about it. My friend played it on PS4 when it came out, and that's when it was the first time I heard about it, but forgot very fast after. It came on PC not long ago, so I decided to finally give it a try.

Let me say first it's one of the most underrated games I've ever played. I can't believe it was not so well received when it came out. Too many people are sleeping on this, and it's sad. Because so much attention to detail went into this game, they are missing out. I would honestly give up on industry if I was working on this game and to see it end up being badly received.

So, the positives:

- Visually it looks superb. Especially all the weather effects, it's so immersive. The raining, clouds, fog, snow, bright days... It all looks realistic. I was running it maxed out without any issues, very well optimized.
- Story. I was actually shocked that it took me around 20 hours to complete main story, it is long. In its core it's not something unique, but the characters and plot twists make it up for, which brings me to the best part...
- Characters and voice acting. My God, one of the best voice acting from the main cast I've ever witnessed in a video game form, especially the main cast. Deacon (you) is awesome, what I love about it is that, even though he's war veteran, he's not a typical "hollywood action hero" that has no fears or weaknesses. For example, when you are going to destroy the nests of the Freaks, he will try to pump himself up with words, but you can see he's still scared as f***, even though he killed tons of them by that time. After killing the Horde, he will sound exhausted and almost dying out of breath. All of this stuff adds to the immersion and character. There are tons of details like this, when he's talking to himself, when he's about to face the enemy camp, he will be super pissed and angry, ready to kill em all.
My favorite bits though are with him and O'Brian, interactions and voice acting is so natural, gripping and totally believable. Even after playing the campaign for the 2nd time, I still watched some of the cutscenes, that's how good and well they are made and acted.
- World. A huge map, with 5 different zones, all detailed and perfectly made. It really sells the world apocalypse has happened. Man, it must took the developers A LOT of sleepless nights to craft this. Thank you, you made hell of a job!
- Gameplay. It's crazy immersive, the need to refuel your bike, to repair it, to craft items, search every car and junk for parts. Shooting is fun, lots of tools to ambush and defeat your enemies. I especially love the Horde, it's super fun and tense to deal with them. I remember when I was driving my bike, going through woods fast, and out of nowhere I stumble upon Horde, panicking super hard and running away from them, and they all start to chase you like were poking a bee hive that attacks you. Moments like this are reason why this game is superb!
- Freaks. Basically 28 Weeks Later zombies, that run fast and sometimes in huuuuuge pack called the Horde, where there can be from 50 up to few hundred of them. Their growls are super sick, and like I said, dealing with Horde is great. And they are not your regular mindless zombies, there is a bit more to them, but I'll leave that unspoiled.
- Sound and sound design. Soundtrack is great, but all the sound effects and how well they are placed and used is what sells this.
- Challenges are hard, but fair. And fun, most of all, especially when you nail that gold medal.

But, as most of games, it's not perfect, so here are some of my issues:

- Story. While I did praise it, it is a little too bloated for my taste. There are a more than few sections where you literally just slow walk and talk, or the riding with bike, but at a much slower speed, just to follow character that usually talks random stuff. I get it, it's for the story and character development, but why not make it a skippable cutscene? Even first time playing, I got annoyed by it, I would rather watch a cutscene, than be forced to control character that moves like a slug, just to be "ImMeRsEd" I guess... Now imagine playing it again because of the achievement. Ugh..
- Saving. So, it's kinda weird and dumb, so let me break it down. You can save everywhere, BUT you need to be either near bike or bed. You CAN'T quicksave, except only on bike (wtfff?). Ok, I kinda got used to that. But the most annoying thing is there are a lot of missions which will have dozen of checkpoints, those are the kinda main "more important" missions and you can save in them whenever you want, no need to be near bike, BUT when you load that save, it starts from the first checkpoint of that mission. So, if you are lets say near the end of that mission, checkpoint 10 for example, and it was a longer mission with sections of walking, running, talking etc. and you need to go somewhere suddenly, so you naturally save a game. Next time you load, you will start from the beginning of that mission and you need to do all that walking, running, talking again... Maybe a dumb complaint, but it's so annoying. Why not let me save whenever I want? Why do I need to be near bike or bed when in open world? Why not allow me to save near enemies? That's taking immersion too far on expense of the player being annoyed Imo.
- Side missions. Now personally I don't have that much issue with them, but they get repetitive really fast. There are finite number of them, it's not like totally mindless farm, but still they get old.
- A few minor bugs happened, and I had a few game crashes.

Overall, I really love this game, it's a long one, but the story and characters are gripping, you always crave for more and to see how the plot will develop. It's crazy how no one talks about it. Even if you don't want to try it, at least go watch compilation of cutscenes on YT, it's like you will watch a mini tv series. You won't regret it. It's super polished with much attention to details. Really sad we probably won't ever get a sequel.

Deacon out.

This game is fantastic!

but f*** Rockstar for that level 50 grind!

Short, but gorgeous looking, perfectly voice acted and with gripping story game. Loved it!

So, after playing and finishing this, I just realized that Crysis is honestly lame game. Not just this remaster, but the game in general. And I've finished it 4-5 times at least since it got out. 2007 I was super impressed and obsessed by this game, but 15 years later now and I've changed my mind.

Game is super short (it should have at least 10 more levels, because you can literally finish some in few minutes), AI is terrible (this is not just remaster issue, game has been known forever to have ♥♥♥♥♥♥ AI), not much variety with weapons, enemy variety is lackluster (korean soldiers, nano suit variant, 1 small alien variant, 1 medium alien variant and big boss at the end, that's literally it!), it seems open but it's linear (I don't mind linearity, but with this game it should have been more), story and characters are super generic with nothing to grab you and hold your attention.

The only semi-good thing I would give it is the nanosuit, its voice and badass design and functions. And of course the visuals still hold up to this day (even though remaster has made it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥).


I don't get why people are giving good reviews to it, or why it hasn't faded into obscurity, because literally the only thing that's ever been known for are the visuals and it was a meme before memes (Can it run Crysis?), but that's not gonna work for me sadly.