Recent reviews by Alessondria

If they do another DLC that needs to be free to make up for the terrible reception of this $30 DLC. But they won't because the old Bethesda is dead now.

Could not log in with my existing funcom account and would not let me create a new one with my preferred email. Contacted funcom support and they did not reply back to me in days. On top of all this the launcher ALWAYS gives a fatal error on every start. An issue that has existed for nearly 10 years.

Three major strikes for me before I could even make a character. I'm not dealing with this.

Uninstalled out of 5

Summer Sale 2024. After spending my cash on the items I wanted I had exactly $3.21 USD leftover to pick something else out (this came to $3.20 USD for me). Looking through the list I saw this one, which has been on my low radar for years because of the praise from steam friends. I noticed the dev commended to EVERY SINGLE steam review. Even after all this time.

Huge plus. Instantly bought.

Space sims of all types are my fav genre. Every time I get a new space game I instantly ask "How's the mining?" and then deck out into a top tier mining rig as fast as possible. Most games are lacking in space mining, some are just a means to an end but a few have a deep robust system that feels like the mining IS the game.

I went all fangirl when I saw Splattercat's 2nd review about this game. I was overjoyed but reserved because they constantly repeated "realistic" and "complicated." But then saw this on sale for a steal of a deal so I just had to buy it.

It is a bit jarring to get into and learn but after a short time the basics made sense. There's so much to learn about this but holy gawd its a dream. The game is all about mining and a run does not even take me ~1 hour like they do (for me) in Elite! Plus there's lots of extra hidden stuff. Keep adding new things. I became so impressed I paid full price for one of the crew image DLCs without regrets.

The music is so so so good. I give this a glowing 'oh dude that's RAD' outta 5

EDIT: And since nobody f*****g reads, I like BDO. I don't think YOU should get into it.

Okay let me start this down vote by explaining this this is not a bad MMO at all. Not even close to a bad game. The problem for recommending this is two reasons: there is TOO much to do that is far to rich and everything is slow. Graphics are amazing. Atmosphere is great. The Life skills are fantastic and the combat is extremely pleasing.

But this is a Korean grinder MMO with some western redesigns. That combat? You'll need to kill like 15,ooo for a daily. Life Skills you will never to grind daily for hours and after about a year you'll start to be at a good place. The pearl cash shop overcharges, like 1 good outfit for 1 character can cost $50 up. Dyes are all RNG if you buy them and there's tons, or you can buy a sub-like unlimited dye kit (for the duration) that has all the colors.

There is a VERY loyal fan base that plays this for like 8h a day and they stream it all, mostly because there is always a drop campaign going to watch for 2-6 hours a day. They give stuff away though. There is forced PvP so someone can gank you while you are AFK fishing outside of a town unless you just prevent leveling at 50 for that character. Speaking of, this game is all about playing alts. Each class is gender locked and only has skills and weapon for THAT class so you can not break free of your roles in this.

This game IS fun but after I have it installed for a few days I begin to see this game is your entire gaming job. Does it have to be? Yes and no as you can just play for fun. BDO is not good for casuals that want the 1 MMO character that can do a bit of everything. This game is a JOB so I would personally recommend against serious play to this unless you're cool with that. But in a few months I am sure I'll forget all of this and reinstall it to play for a few days or a week lol

I was pretty salty at the idea there was only about 30 different rifts in this DLC before I really got into it. Then I saw they were multiple choice/ paths for each and felt it was pretty decent. Then I realized the rifts can give special events in a chain (some just story, some a lot more) per a species' trait! Then I learned about the most cool feature this offers which is the tech, edicts and astral relics this DLC can add. I wont spoil anything but they do give you VERY delicious effects.

Yeah the price is crap (and ALL the dlcs should be 1/2 of what they charge out of sales). But outside of that, I'd say its totally is worth it if you like that one DLC that adds digsites.

I give this at its listed price a 3/5 but but it on sale.

Let me start by saying I am an old gamer and enjoy the older Bethseada games like Fallout 3, Oblivion, Skyrim and even Morrowind and Daggerfall. Elder Scrolls is the peak game for me in lore and setting and of course the mods. Fallout, I never 'got' and really could never get into any Bethseada ones other then 76 (go figure).

That out of the way I 'get' starfield. Its got great bones and most don't realize how many variations of things there are, such as ship parts and POIs, which expand as you level up. There are, of course, mods that dramatically add up to a hundred new POIs.

The big thing is in Starfield there is next to no choices that matter. There are a few mass effect big choices that impact things but all quests are really linear with only a few offering 2 paths that don't impact a ton save unlocking pirates. Other that that you CAN do everything in 1 playthrough.

The gameplay itself is a dumbed down version of Skyrim and Fallout 4 which was dumbed down from older titles. The previous games worked when they came out for many reasons but in 2024 they are not going to appeal to the majority of gamers under the age of 30. Other that that, I see each system in Starfield kind of separate. You can quest but you don't have to. You can build outposts, but you don't have to. You can hunt but you don't have to. You can do or not do anything in the game other then the main quest. Many of these systems even offer a 0 interaction alternate method for completion.

This and that fact you can instantly go from anywhere to anywhere in seconds (to me that's a huge plus) really kills all sense of immersion for everyone. Your ship is a focus but its not used mush for most things other then combat which is either nails hard or laughably easy.

I personally love Starfield but I totally get the blow back. The biggest thing is they really don't update this. Over a year its been out there's only been a VERY few fixes and additions where they are clearly focusing on PAID MODS and releasing $5 mini quests.

The modders usually carry BGS but I am not quite sure this will have a strong influx of good mods even a year from now (outside of some PAID mods). I do not recommend this but I am not a typical gamer so I adore this, flaws and all.

In summary, they need to give the entire procedural POI system attention. Hire modders to add 5 versions of each and add 100s of new ones. They need to expand quests to have consequences and even have a faction system where if you do X you can't do stuff for Y in that playthrough. They need to work on making new game + better outside of more damage numbers. The ability to save homes and outposts (including contents) between NG+ and a way to save and share ship builds. The bones are good but for the average gamer its going to be a 1 or 2 out of 5.

After a few weeks of playing this I will leave my thoughts in an updated review. Bottom line my PERSONAL score is full marks but this is a niche style of game I would not give a full recommendation to most of my gamer friends yet I will totally gush about it to!

First off, this gave has been around for almost a decade. For any live service game that is a good sign to me because it says one single thing: loads and loads of content. Now, with a game like THIS (being turn base, solo, text/ dialogue/ story) that means an absurd amount of it. Translation to actual game play: if you played this every day, all day and really milked as much as possible out of it each and every week, then managed not to die, your character would actually be seeing brand new content many many many months in.

This game is live service meaning you need to maintain connection to the net to play it, and has OPTIONAL $$$ purchases (no lootboxes or dlc story conent really) yet you honestly don't ever have to pay them money to enjoy this. A few paths might present a quick access route for credits (the in game currency) or you can use credits to refill your action amount, which will refill naturally. Restrictive to play free? Nope. Pushing you to pay? I don't see that, no.

As I mentioned and you likley saw this operates off a action timer, which is a little like energy for a mobile game. I've come to learn that most actions once you get established don't cost actions. It costs 1 action to draw 3 cards, and those cards can take me the full 10 mins it takes to recharge 1 action to read them completely! There have been days where I started to play at full 50/50 actions as a free player, read everything as it came up, go slow, and then about 4 hours later I was down to my last few actions. Sure you can not read stuff and burn em in 15 mins but the game is a living reactive immersive story novel you craft as time goes on.

The last thing I will address is death. Your character can die. For good. But you also are warned if a type of action you take COULD be fatal. Also you could get beat up over and over then perish from injury. The game has a few 'health' type values you need to juggle and doing certain things can keep those in check, which you can discover by playing. A game I might compare this to would be the survival craft game Don't Starve as you have to really figure many things out on your own. DO and DO NOTS. Yet death is a mechanic you can avoid if like me you detest enforced permadeath.

There were some really ODD game mechanics I had to learn which took me a few days each. I felt they were not intuitive as a life long RPG fan. In game time, the inventory/ storage system and how to get dressed/ equip stuff. You have you consumable stuff like food and cheap booze but also a few things can be used such as rumors for various things in your inventory. Some conditions like moods can be selected to be equipped as set time buffs (which I believe play off number of turns, not actual time). This system felt very clunky, even slow to grasp. Even now it feels a bit strange, though I understand it.

What this game does bring to the table is immersive storytelling. I feel like its MY story not just the same thing anyone experiences. There are many options for who you are, what you are like, choices you make, who you side with and how you choose to go about playing. Unlike most immersive games there isn't one or three game loops but this seems to have dozens or even a hundred. Playing this my friend watched me stream it and commented about how I seem to have unlocked a lot but I feel like I caught 1 small fish in a lake stocked with trout.

I would recommend this to a chill mature or older gamer that finds joy in the journey. Enjoys learning a robust game with pretty vast setting lore. This game is really designed to be play for months or even years, so keep that in mind. There seem to not be any negative side effects to putting this down for weeks at a time, unlike other live service games that try to tether you to maintain daily play. But to those that might wanna give it a go? Its free. Its well written. Despite the quirks I would give this rating a 4.5 out of 5

EDIT: I forgot to mention something. While this game is steam exclusive I believe it takes up 0.5% of my CPU on high loads as a background process. My system has crazy amounts of ram so the 1.6gb overhead it has is no concern to me. That's pretty low anyways. In windowed mode you can resize the thing into a tiny box, which is what I do on my 2nd screen. Once in a while I'll glance over to see what my action rate is (xx outta 50) so that's why I have a pretty high play time for being so new.

I do enjoy this game. I have a few problems with its core design.

1) The made a whale hunter. Sure you can play this for free but you will not be able to do most things, such as the events, in the limited time they offer them. Prices for things in this game are on the absurd side. I'll give an example... VIP status (which is like your sub) is $25 a WEEK. That's $100 a month plus they basically have a battle pass in this for the current season to get top tier extra rewards, they charge you for premium crates (upwards of $50) and you can outright but just about every in game currency in small quantity for $5-10 ... and THEN you have your typical mobile gatchas which you can pay real money to get more. Of course you can pay for them...

All of that would be 'okay-ish' with me for a FREE experience, but that leads me to my next point:

2) This isn't really a daily pop in and pop out game. There's actual substance, boobs are the reward which I really like. What I dislike and why its a deal breaker for me? I have to really keep this thing up all day and baby sit it every few hours just to maintain the basic gameplay loops it has (on the free side). A new day turns over and I need to sink a good hour in it to get the basic stuff done. That's too much of a time-sink for this gamer and likley an unrealistic ask for casual gamers.

I wanted a fun and sexy little side thing to run on my 2nd monitor that isn't resource demanding whiile Cookie Clicker is going. Something I can kinda do when I play my MMO, do work, research, or watch movies. Can I realistically see myself hardcore playing this for even 40 mins a day? No. I simply cannot. If I had an extra budget of $5,ooo to blow on whale hunting games I do not think I would put it in this one either.

I was looking forward to this becoming 'my thing' but after 7 days of seeing how the gaming loop plays out? They need to redesign this to respect the players time if they want it to last. Also, if anyone spends $10,ooo USD on this (which I think might actually be possible) they deserve the right to be left outside with no laptops or phones for a week.

I give Shelter 69 a whale out of 5

Call of Obsurity blew me away. This sound track is so good. I mean this composer is so good.