Neue Rezensionen von Ellenriel

Fantastic game, good devs. Hella fun and hopefully without Sony's needy hands on it 24/7 now, it will stay that way.

I want to like this game, I really do. However there's a few flaws that I personally find very annoying if just bad. So I can only like this game, for give or take the first 60 hours of play and pure explore.

Despite the frame hiccups, crashing and frankly.. boring stuff. Its a good game, but I would say only from the start to mid-late game. The later parts of the game, those are bad. The amount of enemies that are recycled to just be stronger, harder hitting or bosses that have been turned into nothing but the next mob is rather disappointing. I can understand it for some mobs sure, but others it just seems off.

Some bosses are nigh-immune to some damage types you do, bleed is effective against just about anything that isn't stone and might as well cheese every fight with it. And if not bleed, frost works just as well.
Magic well... Its more or less busted unless done wrong, both against players and bosses. Does it make one a glass-cannon? Yes, but if you can just finish off a boss within the next 10 seconds with a single spell or maybe three, it takes one out of it.

Flying enemies are a pain for melee users, especially early on when one has very little knives or such against them. So it feels like one almost should find a bow quickly at times, which some people don't want to spec their build into.
Faith is useful sure, but it will be useless against some enemies, magic hurts everything and everywhere, aside from one area really. So what to go for? More or less anything works. Its just that bleed/frost will overshadow just about anything in melee and Magic just murders after a bit of building and certain spells. And one will find that out fast.

Sound, world, graphics are really good. Weapons and all have good feedback just like the previous games of From software. Movement is.. Good, if one flaw. It remembers the inputs one does at times so if one panics, which one will do. So one roll becomes two and you get hit, its something that I mind more on a personal level, especially since it will mean a lot of your deaths to panic inputs. So on that note, is rolling good? Yep, against players its still amazing, but just about Every enemy has a roll catch, which means that panic rolling, which is good against players works. But panic rolling against bosses will just get you killed, so your mindset will be different on those which can be a little frustrating. Not to mention your horse which works fine, but can't turn on spot which makes sense. Yet if you want to get off of it, you can sometimes get pushed off of Torrent the wrong way and fall to your death.

Leveling works fine, stamina is fine along with the health pool... Until late game, where basic enemies just hit one with a sword that appears to have the weight of a house. So even with high defensive gear and high hp, the average mob just hurts. Hurts massively.
Makes sense? A little bit, if it makes one feel that going pure damage, non-bleed/frost is a bit of a handicap.
So you will likely respec your character, once or twice.

Without spoilers, I can recommend this game to anyone who liked the other Fromsoft games, just don't expect to run through the game without a few annoyances here and there. As overall, its still a good game. Just with flaws, its Not Perfect. Sometimes a little lazy. Everything else holds it together well like the world and combat. Just not in the end-game in my book.



Spoilers ahead.

The Red Wolf in the Academy, Commander O'Neil, The Ancestral Spirit, Magma Wyrm. These four are bosses, which get re-used either as mob or an upgraded boss. Its upsetting, it makes these bosses feel like a joke or fraud, these are but a few of many in the game. It feels a little lazy. I know making enemies that are engaging is difficult, but at least try to hide it a little bit.
The physick for a custom healing/buff item is fine, except it can basically make magic busted if done right even against higher end bosses. It makes a build more interesting and it can help in a fight or invasion if one knows what to do. Since you have to work to find the buffs that you need.

Faith, it works. Is it anywhere near as busted in damage as Intelligence magic? No. I do get it, as Faith is usually a healer/buff kind of thing. And their buffs are great, along with the heals. If allowed time.
But as this is spoil territory, the final boss does NOT care about holy damage. It has a 75%(?) resistance to it. Meaning that final boss will just be nigh-unkillable for said build, making them have to farm/respec Entirely just for the very final boss, only to possibly spec back because it was their personal build that worked everywhere else.

So health almost seems useless at times with the damage enemies do, almost as if telling one to just grab a shield and stay behind it. Assuming they don't break your stamina bar almost instantly.
Call me bad, as I won't consider myself a pro. But I also very much enjoy making builds that work well enough despite not being meta. Yet if everything a bit meta (at the moment) just defeats it without even much of a hint of effort feels painful to one's ideas for builds.

Like I stated beforehand, the game is good, its enjoyable for a long while. Some bosses may be frustrating as is normal with Fromsoft, yet if bosses get recycled like your next limited edition game suddenly coming out next week to be not-so limited is what that feels like. Lazy if not annoying.
And thats what the end-game feels like to me. If my 25+ Nightrider Glaive has to attack a late-basic mob for over 15 times it makes it feel weak. While a 25+ Uchigatana can kill same late-basic mob in 5 hits because of bleed? It feels a bit wrong, I'd be more scared personally of a huge glaive then a folded sword.
The last few bosses are fine to some degree, the final-final one is in my book just boring as its a cat & mouse fight. But overall, end-game feels more like a hassle and pain than fun.

So with all that said, do I like the game? Yes, but only for the first half. The latter half I just slowly die down more and more with my excitement as enemies just become walking tanks, my weapons that aren't bleed/frost feel weak and magic is just seemingly too strong with some bit of building. Faith only feels good in some ways and tanking. Well, you'd better invest in stamina and a good shield instead of health. The bosses can just one-combo you if you panic roll, which one will more often then not do if remembering your inputs for said rolls. Because it just feels more and more lazy the further one goes... Which is a big shame.
And thats what I feel and think about this game, the end. Is just a shame.

Again not often do I write reviews, aside from games that really grab me and are highly interesting. Armello is another one of those I'd say. Its a highly interesting grid-board game. Featuring betrayals, money, magic, combat, evil plans and many other interesting ways to win or sabotage.

So the game has one bit that you always have to take heed of, night and day. Turns and information. All information is open. The enemies' equipments, stats, their position on the map. (If not stealthed) And even with all that info, what you decide to do can be planned very carefully. But the same goes for your opponents, they see just as much.

With all this info, its an open field race for the crown of Armello, the king is slowly dying and the simple yet beautiful visuals of the game help it greatly. It looks friendly, but under all that lovely colourful and fuzzy looking friends, there's nothing but betrayal, sabotage and death to get the crown for yourself.

The ways to win are more then one and because of that, its what makes it so interesting. Every character as well has different stats and a certain playstyle. But even then, you could win in a way you didn't intend to.

All in all, this game is alot of fun. No match will ever be the same, as the board changes always. The guards will hunt you down with a bounty, and whenever you'll get one yourself or set on your head remains to be seen with how your friends (or AI) will do.


My say, get this game. Its more then worth the 20 euro's (dollars) especially with friends to race for the crown.

Only under the last minutes, will you truly see your friends' true colours. And whenever your plan came to its completion.

Ah yes, the little bag of secrets that is ICEY. I cannot sing more praise to this game purely because it caught me so off guard as it did, why? I bought it on a whim expecting close to nothing. What I got? I got a big smile and a bunch of surprises.

So, ICEY is nothing too unique regarding gameplay, its a fancy sidescrolling platform-fighter. Where you as ICEY beat and slice up big baddies and small minions of mechanical (or not) into tiny bits with your katana. The fighting feels very on point, combo's are plenty and the dodges and shield/hp seem all fair. It feels nice and balanced yet flashy enough to make you feel like you're actually doing something. Rather than just moving a little blade a bit fast.

The atmosphere, fantastic. I cannot say it any better than that. The music, the narrator, the enemies, ICEY herself. Everything brings the entire atmosphere in the game to a very good point of where you quite feel like doing things for ICEY.

The one note I do have, is that the game is a bit short as-is and while its true that some things are a little bit used more than once, I personally feel its not by choice. As its a little experience that will at least grant you a laugh or reward for being patient for once.

From the simple bit to where you then ask, why should I get ICEY if its not that special? Well, thats where ICEY is different from the usual sidescrolling fighter/platformer. Its secrets and little.. I suppose I'll call them agitations for a better lack of words. Is what makes ICEY great. It draws power from the narrator which tells you what to do but.
Then what?

That question right there, is what ICEY answers. The little "Then what?" for following the instructions and instead do as You want.
Its rare that a game like ICEY caught me so off guard as it did, I was for once bent on finishing it 100%, just to see what surprise was in store for me, and I can say.

I'm not disappointed a single bit.

If you're looking for a little fancy game to catch you off guard by being patient and thinking you're ahead of the game? ICEY will make you think twice on that.

(I know it did for me at least, every time.)

So, in the entire time that Path of Exile's extreme skill customization was a nice change to the Diablo 3 habits of hand holding style. With Diablo 3 and Path of Exile now being moreso known as the top two of these kind of games, there's in between Grim Dawn.

Grim Dawn for one, has the same customizations like the old Titan Quest, you don't have any skills to start with and you have no class, you make your class by progress. What makes that so special, is that there isn't a single class to choose from, one character can specialize into two paths(You don't have to).
Surely not all will be fully suitable for another, but it takes a little curve in knowing what to choose and why. Rather then a path being chosen for you, you can make yours from scratch.

Along with this in terms of skill customization, the game features a nice amount of loot, along with the entire factions offering you their items for trade as well, given you are on their good side. As for the looks of the game, its like the name suggests. Its grim, dark and grimy. Nothing in this world is given to you on a silver platter, and don't think you'll be quick to make friends.
Along with the nice bit of gunpowder skills and weaponary given to you, it gives another feel to the usual magic and swordplay world that is like PoE and Diablo 3, the combat is nice and beefy, strikes feel like they hit hard and enemies are plenty, either to be vaporized by magic or chopped to bits by a gaint sword.

Having played this game a fair bit, I can say it bring back the old feel of Titan Quest, in a new and fresh setting, unlike the PoE and Diablo 3 universe.
I can surely say, to those that enjoyed Titan Quest back in the day or want something different from the two big boys that are Path of Exile or Diablo 3 to check out Grim dawn, its not done yet, and its not perfect. But its a really nice change of pace and well done so far I can say.