Recent reviews by Arcanine

Baldur's Gate 3 is the best CRPG ever made, and definitely of the best games ever made. Phenomenal writing, story, characters, world building, voice acting, and amount of detail crammed into this adventure is incredible. The sheer number of ways you can approach situations in and out of combat still blows my mind; I would absolutely love to see how Larian designed and programmed this game to accommodate for all of the different interactions and decisions you make along the 200+ hours it took me to complete the game and 99% of the quests.

While I'm not the biggest turn-based combat fan (or know the rules of D&D), the strategy of it encourages you to try and think outside of the box at times. This becomes rewarding when you successfully complete a longer combat encounter using a mixture of magic/items to manipulate the game environment to your advantage when zerg-rushing and left-click attacking might not be viable. The amount of replayability is insanely high; I dare you to try a fully evil playthrough after a "good" playthrough and see if you can stomach some of the decisions you'll need to make! It's going to be tough to try and top a RPG like this, but I can't wait to see what Larian is working on next.

This game makes use of a small set of basic Linux commands and places you in the role of a hacker taking on interesting contracts. It's a very simple game and even players without any Linux or background in IT should be able to pick this up fairly easily. There's a good amount of puzzles or problem solving required (using logic and the tools that you're given) to progress through many of the missions that feel rewarding when you figure them out. I enjoyed reading the many logs with older memes from 10+ years ago thrown in. The IRC chat and snippets brought back lots of memories from my IRC days as a kid in the 90s. There are some very minor GUI improvements that could be made, but nothing that is annoying enough or game-breaking. The game still feels very immersive even as a more arcadey "hacking" game. Recommended!

Lords of the ​Fallen is a solid​, greatly improved reboot of the original game from 2014 and I would highly recommend this game to Soulslike fans even in its current, slightly unbalanced launch state. I would consider this game to be a very good addition to the genre, however with some tweaks and balancing changes to game mechanics listed in my Cons section, Lords of the Fallen could easily rise to be one of the best games in the genre.

Pros:

* Fun combat. Attacks feel weighty ​and impactful (playing as a ​pure STR build​ with a Grand Hammer). It's always fun loading up a charged heavy attack and flattening an enemy into the ground. I do not find the combat to feel floaty like others have mentioned.

* ​Great level design. Oftentimes this game feels like it could belong in the Souls universe. ​You can tell a lot of work and care went into the design and world building. Many areas give the feeling that the game world is very large. Lots of "hidden" items to find if you take the time to explore every nook.

* Graphics ​and art design are ​very good. The game runs very smoothly for me ​and I haven't had any performance issues or a single crash (3070ti, i5-12​600k, 32gb of DDR4​, Samsung EVO SSD, latest drivers).

* The Umbral lamp and world is a cool gimmick. Staying too long in the Umbral offers a sense of dread​, anxiety and urgency.​ Lots of jumpscares to be had.

* Fun boss fights​ with some having varying forms of mechanics. Dodging is much more forgiving in this game compared to ​o​ther games in the genre such as Lies of P. Enemy melee attacks aren't locked on to your character as you dodge (ranged attacks can be a different story, though).

​* Bug-free. Ran into one bug in 25 hours of play where I fell through the game world, but that was it. I don't play co-op so I can't comment on the multiplayer issues other people are having.

* Lots of items, weapons, and armor to collect. You can recolor your armor using "Tincts" found in the game.

* Lots of varied enemy types that keep things interesting.

* I thought character movement was a joke at first, but I came to enjoy the Sonic the Hedgehog run speed and Olympic level dodge distance. It gives the feeling of being able to quickly close a gap or dodge away as quickly as possible.

Cons:

* Enemy density ​seems a little too high​, especially early game. The mob density adds some cheap artificial difficulty​ at times, and most mobs hit hard. Maybe th​e game was designed with ​mostly with co-op in mind?

* Enemy aggro range is ridiculously far at times. Ranged enemies can see you across the map and shoot at you with ridiculous precision​ making dealing with them feel like a chore. Be careful going AFK in certain spots, even at certain ​v​estige points.

* Vestiges (LotFs version of bonfires) become ​much more spread out later in the game. There's a mechanic that allows you to create your own vestige​ (only one at a time anywhere in the world) ​using a consumable in specific areas which sounds cool ​b​ut there are too many spots to do this that are really close together. ​I'm not sure how many times I've spent a vestige seed to find an actual world vestige being in farting distance​ of the one I just wasted a consumable on. ​I can appreciate a new spin on the bonfire mechanic, but it almost feels like it's a feature implemented that can allow the devs to not worry about the pacing of the game too much. It can take away that rewarding sigh of relief in Soulslike games when you finally come across a new bonfire after navigating through a tough area.

* Enemy AI can sometimes get stuck on objects in the game world or just path around swinging their weapons around at nothing.

* Picking up souls of​f of dead mobs is annoying (even though you can "suck" them all in using the lantern).​ The animation time to pick up the souls off your dead body is​ unnecessarily long.

​* Story seems like generic fantasy with a religious overtone. It has some big Blasphemous vibes which is very cool (especially within the armor sets and weapons) but I feel like it doesn't know what to do with the religious aspect of the story and tying it into the game world. I would have liked something darker in tone. I may also be too small-brained to follow what's going on as I am also playing a purely Strength hammer build. Lore found on items is locked behind having certain stats like Radiance or Inferno for some reason.

* Levelled up stats feel like they don't make much of a difference, especially early on. Dumping tons of levels into Vitality doesn't feel like you're getting a good bang for your buck​. Mobs hit hard, have a little too much health, and you'll be sitting with only 5 health recharges for a good chunk of the game.

* Shields appear to be a bit pointless to use as you end up taking more damage than it's worth. ​You're better off dodging, rolling, and parrying.

This is the first time that I'd actively disagree with the number of negative Steam reviews for this game that aren't performance related. Disregard all the tough guy Souls players who think the game is way too easy. It's not. The devs appear to be passionate enough about their game to improve on it and I'm hoping they listen to a lot of good player feedback to make their product better. It's good already, but it can easily be that much better. Hopefully this game does well enough to warrant some DLC or a sequel as I'd be excited to see where they go from here.

I was hesitant on buying this game as I couldn't really get into Doom (2016) but I had a hard time putting this game down. Once you get used to the super fast paced combat and what all the different weapons can do, it's a blast. The game does a good job rewarding you constantly with different upgrades and weapons making you feel more and more powerful as you progress. Combat, sound, music, and level design are all top notch for a roughly 15 hour long campaign (with replayability in the master levels, going back to collect missed secrets and upgrades, and multiplayer which I haven't touched).

My only issues are the large number of tutorials that pop up along the way that break a bit of the immersion and low ammo counts for most guns (even with ammo upgraded all the way) which forces you to switch guns very often and resort to using the chainsaw to refill your ammo reserves. It's a cool mechanic but I can see how it might be frustrating to some players.

Despite a rough launch and a crazy amount of bugs, this game is really fun. It's clear that this was released way too soon and could use at least another 6 months of polish and bug fixing. These guys have built a solid foundation to build upon and I hope they keep improving and adding to the game going forward. For $35, I think this was a fair price for the game. If you can wait, I suggest giving the developers some more time to fix many of the issues and picking this up on sale.

Pros:
+ Satisfying combat, fun abilities
+ Great graphics (some of the best ARPG graphics to date)
+ Great music, sound design, and voice acting
+ Difficult boss battles with mechanics (curious how many players quit trying to beat the Act 1 boss)
+ Decent story

Cons:
- Very buggy
- Input delay can be frustrating at times
- Skills need a lot of balancing still, certain skills make the game a cakewalk
- Loot is a bit underwhelming (maybe this improves the further you get into the endgame)
- WHY CAN'T I DODGE ROLL INTO BREAKABLES?!

Solid game for the price. If you've ever wanted a full Dark Souls co-op experience but mainly with guns, this is for you. There are a few bugs here and there, but nothing game breaking in my 26 hours played. I played through the entirety of the game mostly co-op with a couple of friends (moving back and forth between all of our worlds) and had a blast the entire time. You won't come across every single boss in your first playthrough, so if you're a collector, multiple playthroughs are required. Many of the negative reviews here complain about the last boss, but these people have no clue how to figure out the mechanics (which there weren't any complex mechanics prior to this fight) and is literally a case of "git gud." Definitely worth it!

Scratches the itch for a new modern Battlefield game that's focused on infantry combat with generally quick rounds that are fun and intense. I originally watched popular streamers play this on release and didn't find it overly interesting but decided to give it a try anyway and it quickly hooked me. The sound quality is top notch, every gun feels like it has weight to it, and kills are incredibly satisfying. The game forces teamwork to win and the community has been pretty decent so far. My only issue is optimization, but it appears the devs are working on improving performance if today's patch is any indication. Highly recommend this game.

I LOVE LIS GAME SPY IS MY FAVRIT CARITER

By far the best team-based, intense online shooter I've ever played. Every round in every match plays out differently based on random objective locations and team composition as every character has a different special ability and weapons that bring something to the team. Best played with people you know as communication in this game is crucial.

One thing to note is that this game has somewhat of a high learning curve; even under 200 hours played, I'm still picking up on mechanics that I wasn't aware of before. With a large map selection (15 currently with more on the way), it never gets boring, and all of the maps offer a ton of entry points to attack and defend against which always makes things unpredictable. Highly recommend!