Recent reviews by Eric Wake

Only seven hours playtime? (and most of that was spent in character creator)

How can that be enough time to even get an impression on a game, much less an MMO that's meant to be played endlessly?

Well... you know what they say about first impressions? Black Desert doesn't really make a good one.

That's not to say that Black Desert is bad. Or maybe it is, I dunno... after all, I didn't really play it long enough to find out.

But every single one of those seven hours was spent in boredom.

Look, MMOs are a serious investment. They require extensive amounts of time and money from players. Any entertainment product demanding that much had better be worth it, and I just didn't see anything in 7 hours playing BDO that convinced me that it is.

For all intents and purposes, BDO is a bog standard MMO that features all the trappings of every MMO ever. So if you want your MMO fix, you can already get it anywhere. About the only standout feature in BDO is the over the top action combat system - which is more akin to a fighting game with combos and everything - but which you can also get in plenty of other MMOs, like TERA.

BDO's other claim to fame is the extensive visual character customization system which is, ultimately, not that extensive... I mean, it's robust to be sure, but it's no more than you can expect from character creators in games like Dragon's Dogma or Fallout 4 and dozens of other examples. And it doesn't really lend much to the game, as like with every MMO now, BDO pretty much completely disregards any notion of roleplaying.

Because apparently, what passes for "roleplaying" these days is just having classes and skills; and the classes on offer in BDO are underwhelming, to say the least. First of all, there's a lot of them and they're all bizzarely gender locked for some ostensible reason. And in terms of combat, they're all going to feel the same anyway. The combo system is all sorts of clunky. And in the seven hours I played, I actually got to partake of combat hardly at all. Like every MMO, BDO has you going through the standard slog of following quests through a story too boring to be interested in. The moment I found myself skipping dialog and not even bothering to pay attention to the quest objectives was a moment that underscored how much I was playing yet another MMO.

And in that time I was bereft of any incentive to continue playing Black Desert Online. I have played MMOs before - hundreds of hours (and more money than I care to admit) in some. Almost all of them are exactly alike (thanks Warcrap) and I have no willingness to spend time on them. Why play BDO when I could be playing any one of dozens of MMOs just like it? Some of them even do the same things BDO does, only better.

Absolute Trash

NAMCO has completely screwed with every character's combo. Whoever you've played as in previous installments, you will be disappointed. They've completely screwed it up.

Most of the moveset changes make no sense at all. Talim, for instance, is supposed to be a light speedy combatant with rapid, fluid combos. Now she's a staggering, hit and stop heavy? WTF?

Cassandra used to be a spin off of Sophitia with a similar moveset to her sister. Very push forward. Very aggressive. Now she's a distance fighter with knockdowns?

The AI is pathetically cheap. It will straight up just input read after a while. Same problem as previous games but it's FAR more blatant here.

Oh, and ya know what makes the entire Battle Mode worthless? Groh. Yeah. This little stock standard animu emo git is clearly some developer at NAMCO compensating for his deficencies. This twit is the sort of character a 12 year old weeb dreams up in the margins of his school notebook after playing Final Fantasy for the first time. This absolute joke of a fighter has an answer to everything you can throw at it. He'll sidestep everything, interrupt everything with faster attacks and horizontals, combo endlessly, juggle you on the ground and can hit you at any range. When you face him in Battle mode, it is a NOTICEABLE difficulty spike. Because he's so horrendously OP. Certain characters simply will not beat him. Heaven help you if the AI has decided to start input reading.

The characters also look horrible. Skin texture looks like a bad budget children's morning CGI cartoon from the 90s. Faces are this bizziarre uncanny valley of big animu kawaii eyes, bulbous noses, big lips and odd proportions. All the costumes make the characters look like they're wrapped in latex. Every character looks WORSE than SCII from 20 years ago!

The voices and dialog are also horrendous. There are simply no distinctive callouts or taunts. The characters have no personality. It's all just generic animu stock lines. Cassandra used to have this bratty "you're not good enough to date me" demeanor. Now she just spouts the typical random animu stock callouts. They changed all the voices as well and none of them fit the characters. Cassandra now sounds like a husky fitness model instead of a bratty cheerleader. Astaroth has been given some articulate gentlemanly sounding voice where before he was the typical grunting, screaming strongman. Does NAMCO even understand these characters anymore?

Try making anything in the character creator. The results are hysterical. You don't really even have to try to make something look ridiculous. It's that easy.

The music is also utterly forgettable. Previous SC games had tremendously awesome orchestral scores. SCII especially. I still have the soundtrack for SC2 on disk. SCVI score is weak. The composers weren't even trying. It's like they just bought stock tracks from some music licensing provider.

Play Online because you are NOT getting anything fun or balanced from single player. Or if you do play against AI, play Groh because the developers with the broken parts are obviously very desperate for you to notice.

Straightforward, Boring, and Tedious.

XCOM2 is another unfortunate example of what happens when developers let procedural generation algorithms design their game for them.

Very little strategy involved. Not much opportunity to utilize unit tactics.

The biggest problem is the RNG for everything; from what random assemblage of tiles your current map is comprised of, to what events appear on the strategic map, to enemy unit composition and placement, even to what class your units promote into.

All this randomness makes it feel like you're just along for the ride having to make due with whatever random lot the game throws at you. For some missions, you can just get screwed from the outset. How difficult your playthrough is will be dependent on what random resources the game pulls for you early on.

Progression in the game is straightforward. So long as you choose the correct abilities to acquire on level up and can keep up with research and construction, you'll keep pace with the difficulty automatically. It's no brainer stuff.

The way the game handles stealth is all sorts of messed up. You start most missions "concealed," during which you can get the drop on one - one - enemy patrol. After that, every enemy will be alerted to your presence the instant you get close enough and they of course get their free scramble turn to get into cover. The fog of war makes it so that you can't know where enemy patrols are, so you just blindly blunder around until you run into them while the AI gets the privilege of ignoring the FOW.

Instead of being carefully planned and laid out, level maps look and feel like a random assortment of stuff. And that's because it is. There's random high ground, random cover, random hazards - none of which feels like it's ever in an opportune spot. There are rarely ways to negate any disadvantages you encounter.

In other turn based strategy games, I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment I get when I pull off some clever strategy and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I get when I pull off a series of clever strategies throughout a mission leading me to a flawless victory. XCOM2 doesn't permit this, as your real enemy is the RNG.

Every mission is shrouded in fog of war and there are no methods available to effectively navigate or make use of it. There is no way to plan for a mission because there's no telling what you might face. It's like every design decision was made to contribute to all the randomness, making what little "strategy" the game allows feel like tedium instead of careful planing and accomplishment.

Overrated. Nothing special. Fun for a few hours and then it gets dull and repetitive.

Hardly any progression. Most of the unlocks are worthless. Minimal build variety.

Plagued with balance issues that have been patched to make them even more unbalanced.

Mostly just griefers playing anymore.

And now the pricks at Soyny are pulling this forced account linking with PSN bs and with a single update announcement have completely obliterated every shred of good will this game had.

It's impossible to clap slow enough at that.

It's Elden Ring lite

Everything Outward does, Elden Ring does better.

Outward is more crafting oriented, though, but you're still venturing out to obtain new weapons and equipment for your build.

Outward doesn't have "experience" like ER/DS does. You only improve your equipment.

Everything else is similar. Explore the map. Delve dungeons. Defeat bosses and enemies. Go on side quests. Gradually migrate across the big open world until you reach end game. In Outward, occasionally you have to eat and drink because of "survival" busywork.

Is Outward bad? No. It works just fine. The combat is stiff and clunky compared to ER's smooth as glass, but it's still serviceable. Can you do better than Outward? Yes. Does this mean outward isn't worth playing on its own? No. You'll have an alright time.

Good game. Too bad it was made by Ubisoft.

Look, what people are saying about Ubisoft Connect - Ubisoft's external launcher - is all true.

If you have a problem getting this game to run because Connect can't recognize it as "yours" then you will have to deal with Ubisuck customer support.

You don't want to do this.

You really REALLY don't want to do this.

But go ahead. Do what I did. Buy this game regardless - or any Ubisuck game for that matter - and tell yourself, "Oh it can't be that bad." or "I won't encounter any problems. It'll be fine."

Game's pretty lame.

As a construction and management sim, it's perfunctory at best. I mean, it does everything just in the most boring and bland way possible.

There is no challenge. No variety. Every game is going to play out exactly the same. The game's basic loop is dreary and dull. Build some facilities, send scientists out to gather dinos and research, repeat. Occasionally deal with a sick dino or a breakout which shouldn't happen if you're doing everything right, which is easy. Occasionally there's a storm that makes you have to go around clicking on all the buildings and fences because pointless busywork is fun I guess.

The campaign is particularly lame. The number of missions doesn't extend past the single digits. Half of them are preschool levels of "difficulty." The rest of them are grade school levels of difficulty.

The settings are weird too. Like I had my first sandbox set to have a high rate of dinosaur collection opportunities. I was getting them every six minutes. So then I set it to low and I never received any dino collection mission. At all. So apparently the low setting is the same as the off setting?

Pleasing your guests is simple. Guests have individual needs but none of them are difficult to fulfill.

Dinosaur behavior... exists. Although there isn't a great deal of interaction beyond what you'd expect. Provide their needs, don't mix dinos that don't like each other unless you want them to fight and break out. It can be fun to pit dinos against each other but the novelty wears off and it's ultimately not worth it. Every dino has an appeal rating but your guests don't really care about it. One dino's as good as any other, I suppose.

You've got your basic smattering of rides and attractions, but nothing beyond what you'd expect. None of them are particularly interesting. Messing around with dino DNA isn't the novelty you'd expect it to be. It's largely if not entirely irrelevant except to eliminate bad traits that can affect certain dino species. You aren't going to be frakensteining mind blowing genetic super freaks of nature or anything.

Graphically the game looks alright, which is as much as can be said for it. Dinos look good. Buildings are nice. Terrain looks okay. I guess that's good enough.

The game also functions... so it's got that going for it. I mean, when you tell it to do a thing it does it without fussing or bugging out. So that's nice. Vehicles can get pretty janky though. I didn't know dilops could throw Jeeps 40 feet into the air.

JWE2 doesn't do anything new and it doesn't do anything well. I got it for $15 on discount and I still feel like I paid too much. I'm tempted to try for a refund, even though I'm past the play time.

Fun Tactical Turn Based Strategy - Easily holds up to the greatest in its genre.

A Current Year game that refreshingly eschews Current Year political correctness in favor of fun. You know? Fun? You remember fun don't you? Fun was what we had before inter-sectional liberal morons screamed at everyone and demanded that we all be as miserable as they are.

Aside from that, JA3 is abundant with charm and character. Clever, funny dialog and jokes abound - and not the cringe kind. The turn based strategy will give your brain plenty to consider. And the combat is suitably violent and graphic like the 80s action movies it's constantly playing homage to. Good voice acting as well.

If you enjoy turn based strategy, GET IT! If you enjoy fun, GET IT! If you're a perpetually offended sod, cry more :)

While this game wears its Fire Emblem influence openly, SoW:TNS certainly brings a unique feature to the TBS genre.

Like Fire Emblem, when two units engage each unit faces off and the result is determined by each unit's individual capabilities. But SoW takes it a massive step forward. The game is built around robust squad customization. Each unit you deploy on the field map is comprised of individual soldier units in combat. As in Fire Emblem, combat is hands off and determined by each combatants individual stats and capabilities.

Every squad is comprised of individual units that you can array freely on a 3x3 grid, with formations in the rear, front, and sides. Units in the back are protected from melee attacks by units in the front, only reachable by ranged attacks or once front line units go down. Such a simple basis lends itself to a ton of possible squad configurations.

You can have squads comprised solely by ranged units capable of attacking at a distance without reprisal. But if attacked in melee they'll be decimated. Or, you can configure squads with strong defenders up front capable of defending squishier units in the back. You can have mixed squads of infantry and cavalry, or all cavalry. You can have mixed squads of flying units and infantry, or just infantry. Throw in a healer or two if you want. Some units are capable of both ranged and melee, allowing for more versatility in how you engage. Rogues and assassins are ostensibly melee units capable of attacking enemy back lines, further increasing your options.

Additionally, each unit has unique attack patterns. Ranged units target enemy formations randomly, or generally according to orders you have set to concentrate fire on particular units or distribute it throughout the enemy ranks. Lancers can target 1x2 units laterally across a formation. Other melee units attack 1x2 vertically across the formation. Magic users target 2x2 units within the formation. The computer does a good job making sure that units attack in an order that maximizes the damage dealt to an opponent such that attacks aren't often wasted on empty spaces in the enemy formation.

The possibilities are vast and completely under your control. You can spend more time just configuring your formations than you do in battle. In addition to that, you can acquire hero units to command formations. Heroes come with unique abilities that affect the entire formation, strengthening the whole. You can equip any unit with unique weapons and artifacts, further strengthening and customizing your formations.

All that being said, however, the game's strategic depth ends there. On the whole, the game is pretty easy. And the reason why is because there is no rock/paper/scissors synergy between unit types. In Fire Emblem, for instance, lance wielding units beat swords, swords beat axes, and axes beat lances. So in Fire Emblem you have to take care that your attacking unit is acting with an advantage. There is nothing like that in SoW, meaning the deciding factor to most outcomes simply boils down to having the stronger formation.

Furthermore, most battles simply entail moving your forces against the closest enemy and letting them have at it. Few if any maps make use of strategic positioning and planning. In fact, most maps are needlessly large with too much distance to cover between units. So long as you can find a tile that provides an advantage to attack from, you're fine. Although attacking from anywhere usually gets the job done regardless.

This essentially means that 90% of the strategy in SoW is outside of battle, in your unit configuration. Actual turn based battles are largely a breeze devoid of much strategic thought or planning.

This is a different take on strategy but one that I believe leaves the game lacking. Many players will find the turn based battles rote and dull. The only thing that kept me playing was so I could get to the point where I could create the perfect formation with which to decimate my enemies.

Along the way the story is engaging with many likable characters. It's nothing that will knock your socks off or even leave much of an impression. The characters are likable enough but not particularly memorable. The story is entertaining albeit serviceable. It's good. But it's not great.

Fortunately the squad customization is enough to recommend SoW on its own.

DO NOT BUY - It is UNPLAYABLE

First, mouse and keyboard cannot be used. There is a glitch that will cause the mouse cursor to remain on screen outside of menus and screw up controls. There is no fix or workaround.

Second, there is an audio glitch. Audio will simply... stop working. That's it. No sound. there is no fix or workaround.

If you purchase this you are buying a DEFECTIVE PRODUCT that WILL NOT WORK. The developers should be doused in oil for this.

Furthermore, it is also an inferior Deus Ex anyway - and the last one ever made. Stick to Human Revolution and OG Deus Ex. Hell, even the oft maligned Invisible War is a better entry in the series than this.