Recent reviews by Counter-Life

Overall an excellent game, however some veteran players might be put off by the somewhat more streamlined AC building/stats.
The game still very much feels like an AC game, but it's faster paced due to the lack of camera turn speed limitation and the way energy regenerates when you're on the ground.
Boss fights are more like in a "traditional" video game and are very spectacular and varied.
The areas are very nice looking and mostly rather spacious, unlike in previous games which had much more indoor areas.
I haven't played that many AC games, but this game has the hardest boss fights of the ones I've played, by far!

The performance is surprisingly good, definitely a huge step up from every previous Fromsoftware game, even though it's still not perfect.

Overall an excellent game, but some AC fans might not be a 100% satisfied with some of the game design changes.

This game has the production value of a 7/10 PlayStation 2 title, but this is also where its charm comes from.
It's terribly optimized, as you probably expect from a Team Ninja game at this point, but the gameplay is quite good, with the moment-to-moment combat being the main selling factor of this game.
It also features the best main character of the franchise, so that's a bonus too.

Get this during a sale if you can deal with the poor optimization and don't hate Diablo style loot.
Also play it on Hard, the "Action" difficulty is way too easy.

One of the better survival horror games I've played in recent memory.
Takes heavy inspiration from the more well known franchises of the genre and mixes it with some nice world building (Eastern German weeb cyborgs in space get transformed into hideous creatures by some unknown cosmic entity, or something like that) and a weird story that is hard to follow, but keeps you interested nonetheless.
I think I maybe understood half of what was going on.

The gameplay should be familiar to players of old school survival horror games, including heavy amounts of backtracking due to the limited inventory space and a large amount of puzzles you need to solve.
The aiming is wonky sometimes, which can be frustrating.
I also encountered a bug where one of the weapons didn't function as intended (I guess).

Anyway, this game is worth the 20 bucks, you could also grab it during a sale if you're unsure.

An overall excellent mod that will keep you entertained for at least 6 hours.
The overhauled gunplay is very welcome and the new weapons freshen it up even more.
This mod also features enemy types that are new to Half-Life 2, with some making a return from past entries.
Map design ranges from decent to really good, some maps are too dark and lack sources of light, while others fall into the "bland corridor" category. The better maps are designed with interconnectivity in mind and feature small puzzles which are very much in the vein of Half-Life.
The writing and snarky remarks of the main character might not be to everybody's taste, but either way you can tell that the devs were very passionate about this project and put in a lot of work.

Great DLC!

A solid entry, but often feels too much on-rails or scripted.
The first three mini-bosses are basically all the same fight with a tiny gimmick being different each time.
The plot/writing is really nothing to write home about, it largely feels uninspired and is filled with typical horror genre clichés.
Particulary one plot "twist" is just a huge cop out, and past that point the writing becomes even worse.

However, from a gameplay perspective the game is very much entertaining.
During some of the more open ended sections of the game the exploration and survival horror aspects really shine, even though it has to be said that they are nothing groundbreaking.
The environments really radiate with atmosphere when you're just exploring around.
Furthermore, the game's length is much more appropriate this time around compared to RE7.

Overall I do recommend this game, but it isn't anything mindblowing.

PS: Standard difficulty is too easy.

Nioh 2 had a fairly rough launch on PC, and the game still has issues, but as of the latest patch I can safely recommend the game.
Nioh is often described as a "Souls-like", and while there're many elements that it adopted from that genre, you realize that it's more its own thing the deeper you dive into the game.
Like the first game, the game combines excellent melee combat while also doubling down on RPG aspects.

Positive aspects:

• 11 weapon types, each featuring a huge movelist
  
• Stance system and Ki management feel very rewarding
  
• Excellent character creator
  
• Huge amount of build variety
  
• Much better human bosses compared to the first game
  
• Tons of content, on average people take around 100 + hours to finish the first playthrough
  
• Yokai Skills (allows you to momentarily transform into an enemy Yokai and use one of their attacks)
  
• Better enemy variety than the first game
  
• DLSS support (decently implemented)

While the game is filled with content, this sometimes works against it.
You'll be busy managing your items and equipment very frequently.
This combined with the grindy, RNG driven aspects of the loot can be a huge turn off for some players.
Additionally, the PC port of the game still suffers from a few issues.

Negative aspects:

• Very grindy and RNG heavy, worst offender being the special Boss Skills
  
• Repetitive areas in some side missions and during very late game
  
• Item quick-selection menu could've been improved
  
• Some elements are poorly balanced (Kasha's Yokai Skill being arguably too strong for example)
  
• Even on capable hardware, particle effects can cause FPS drops (this has been heavily improved since release, but is still present)
  
• Atrocious LOD popin in some scenes, with no option to change the LOD range
  
• Game doesn't accept most custom resolutions
  
• Particle "vomit", sometimes the screen is just littered with too many particle effects
  
• Story is not very well written overall.
  
• The English dub is...not very good (stick to Japanese VA + subs)

As you can see, Nioh 2 is far from being a perfect game, and it's sad to see that Team Ninja still hasn't figured out how to make a proper PC port.
However, if you can look past the games' objective shortcomings and can accept its grindy nature, you're looking at one of the best ARPGs ever made.

Slay all...

Good game with a lot of content, especially if you do all the optional things.
Has tons of jank when it comes to physics, movement and animations, so be prepared for that.
Grab it during a sale.

Beautifully drawn sprites, cool and varied stages, good amount of characters to play (with old sprites/characters being unlockable) and they didn't chicken out on the difficulty.

if you're looking for some beat 'em up action, especially to play with friends, then this is for you.