Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον bobexer

"Pentiment" is an excellent venture into a medieval German village, exploring the complex ties between the ordeals of everyday life, the uneasy relationship with the church and religion, as well as uncertainties surrounding the involvement of a secular ruler. The story spans across a few decades, when we get to know the actors, their motivations and relationships through time. In some cases, we actively shape how their lives will change, not always for the better.
The historical conundrum of who to side with is generally overshadowed by small-scale events, where we follow the adventures of a craftsman reaching the end of his apprenticeship, when a sudden death acts as the main source of turmoil. Solving the mystery is only part of the adventure, as we will later discover how our investigation and accusation worked out for the community. Some people benefit from it, others become bitter and disillusioned.
This approach to story-telling is excellent as we get to explore the significance of small events and are blocked from maximizing the playthroughs. It is rarely obvious what consequences follow certain actions and the time-pressure means that the player often needs to make best of the available time, not knowing whether it is the right thing to do. The forward time shifts mean that the effects of certain decisions will only become apparent after investing multiple hours into the game, which removes the pressure from thinking about immediate gains. I think this part of the game-design deserves special praise.
Of equal praise is the visual part of the game which tries to imitate the style of medieval illustrations. The unrealistic display of humans and events means that comedic parts are even more amusing, while dramatic situations do not overwhelm the overall vibe as too heavy (although it tackles mature problems). Combined with a unique form of dialogue delivery through stylized bubbles with personalized handwriting (or typesetting!), it manages to overcome the usual problems of dialogue-based games without voice-acting.
Last but not least, the sound. The vast majority of the game is devoid of any music, which I think, is supposed to inform the player on the importance of music during social events. The first time we enter the church in the game we can hear a friar singing, which amplifies the impression of entering a holy place. Music played during parties make the events even more special, as you realize that they were unique moments for people to listen to new tunes and reminisce the all-time favorites. Such tiny details make you, the player, think about the realities of medieval life and how different the modern world is.
Regarding the murder mystery and it’s solutions: I think it achieves the desired effect of making the player feel responsible for the fate of the different characters. It is discouraging that we don’t find out “the correct answer” but on the other hand, it does make you think about how easy it would have been to steer accusations towards individuals. This is perhaps the most grim part of the game, as small-scale disagreements could have quickly escalated to a very dark outcome.
I don’t think there are any major flaws, nothing that would overshadow the overall excellent impression. I would only say that if you are not a fan of reading and like action-packed games, this might be too boring and too slow for you.

I first made the negative review when I have been playing Divinity: Original Sin 1 for 66.3 hours. I’ve managed to finish it since then and boy oh boy, how my impressions have gotten worse. I will add that I’ve played it entirely in coop, which overall is a redeeming quality because I would never be as driven to finish it in solo mode.
The key problem with the game is that runs out of steam after approx. 50% of the game. Until then it offers a very unique, refreshing take on cRPGs due to a very light-hearted take on two adventurers solving a murder mystery. Solving the quest has multiple paths, some of them open up through experimentation with the physics engine, some of them through perks (animal speech), others through an open-ended design. The combat is demanding due to its reliance on the environmental rock-paper-scissors with area of effect spells causing complete mayhem on the battlefield. I was charmed.
Once you defeat a very demanding boss somewhere mid-game, Divinity Original Sin starts to run off steam and the only way to progress forward is through constant skirmishes interrupted with occasional dialogue. This is when the lighthearted goofiness meets a serious over-arching plot about saving the world from a complete cataclysm and the writing starts to juggle drama with comedy. In my opinion combining serious with silly is one of the most difficult styles and the game falls flat on its stomach. The whole game becomes extremely goofy and surprisingly convoluted. That also affects the attitude towards companions. I stumbled across their quests simply playing through the game and I was not really involved in the what and why was going on anymore. Don’t take this wrong, complex plots are something I do look for in a cRPG, but I’ve found it hard to be invested when everything is being mocked at the same time. As a result, I lost complete interest in the plot and played through it just to see how it all ends.
In the second part of the game combat became extremely tedious from the increasing asymmetry between what the players can do and what the AI can do. A typical example would be entering a small arena where one or two enemies are wandering around. The moment the combat starts they summon multiple allies, buff each other, and debuff your team so you end up scratching your head and thinking “Is the AI supposed to have good time here?”. I played on classical mode, which I believe stands for medium or normal difficulty but the asymmetry between the players and AI was just astounding. This also meant that stumbling into combat meant spontaneously discovering what sort of benefits the enemy gets on round 1, reloading the save, taking all the bonuses into consideration, and fighting through it. This is also not a problem but I expect cRPGs, or RPG games in general to be consistent about their world-building and its traits. You encounter enemies for the first time, learn their moves, and are better prepared for the next encounter until you discover enemies. Well, imagine my surprise when I noticed that enemies of the same type reroll their resistances and immunities, which meant that a really good strategy would fail upon reload or a similar encounter simply because the resistances and immunities have changed, so you need to come up with a new strategy or two possible strategies for the same combat. For me this was extremely frustrating because it reminded me of playing a table-top with a very petty Dungeon Master who plays the game to make it miserable for his players. And to be fair, the entire second half of the game is exactly that: a streamlined, linear adventure with minimal player agency. There is a mandatory sneak level, regardless of whether your party relies on a sneaking character or not. There are invincible enemies which sometimes require plot advancement to be destroyed, sometimes require destruction of an artefact, and sometimes require surviving some rounds of combat because the spell which triggers invincibility cannot be removed. You as a player are supposed to discover these solutions because they were completely obvious for the team designing the game.
This is also related to puzzle design, which initially is a really fun and novel approach to engaging gameplay but becomes an absolutely cryptic piece of guesswork in the second half of the game. Puzzles can be secrets (which is great, players are supposed to be rewarded for exploring) but often they are mandatory parts of the storyline (progression is locked until you work out a cryptic riddle, there is no way around it). I had to look up solutions online because some of the stuff was ridiculously cryptic. In one moment the game expects you to have a certain number of magical items. You are never told about it before, it is only mentioned that they are important but suddenly I couldn’t progress further because I didn’t stumble across 3 of them because the only way to discover them was to venture on extremely cryptic adventures which relied on certain skills being set high. It required working with a solution because otherwise I would have never guessed that I am supposed to destroy weird talking artefacts whenever I meet them. But my surprise peaked at the end of the game when I couldn’t open a door to the final encounters because I was supposed to know to set a corpse on fire! How and why is beyond me.
Which brings me to the finale where the game introduces a completely new mechanic – fighting alongside NPCs. By that time you have worked out most of the strategies, expect enemy asymmetry in terms of resistances, immunities, spawning of multiple mobs within one turn, having more action points than you but you are given an another challenge – making sure that your NPC allies don’t die. Surprisingly the all-powerful NPCs are barely useful as cannon fodder and occasionally good healers but overall, the play shifts from combating area of effects, inflicting beneficial effects to a kindergarten sort of the game just to see the end credits.
If you play all of this through coop, it will be fun, depending on how your couple dynamic can survive the onslaught of increasing linearity and asymmetric gameplay. The way the game wants to make you enjoy coop is through discussion dialogues between the two main characters, which is actually amusing. Occasionally, you will asked to persuade, manipulate or charm each other through rock, paper, scissors. This is an excellent idea until you discover that this is how all such checks happen throughout the game which means even with a good investment of points into social skills, you will still need to play a game of pure randomness because it is supposedly fun.
Wow. Just wow. I am really happy I finished this game, that I have seen the end credits of the probably uncanonical ending but I just couldn’t be bothered to aim for the best possible ending. For me personally, Divinity Original Sin 1 is the worst cRPG game I have ever finished. I absolutely cannot recommend it and the length of this essay should tell you just how much frustration I got from it.

It's a good entry level squad-based puzzle game where you need to sneak around and take out enemies one by one. What sets is apart from the Commandos series or War Mongrels is the equipment personalization for different characters (most of them have two weapons specializations) and the possibility of creating ambushes to take out some of the enemies with guns blazing. The latter is really refreshing, because you can have a more aggressive playthrough (although the odds of winning unexpected firefights are quite low). While its great because it doesn't punish the player for not following an intended sequence of eliminating enemies, it can make the puzzle solving bit undeveloped. Also, once you unlock a partisan who can whistle to attract enemies, the game became very, very easy.
The graphics are charming, the sound is nice, the setting is great but the story is mediocre at best. It is unfortunate because the setting asked for a very serious take on guerilla warfare but somewhere along the way it turned into a very generic set of expectable missions (taking out a bridge, prison break, etc.).
It's fun but I think it will appeal mostly to players who never played similar games. They will appreciate the flexible gameplay rather than a very constrained gameplay of Commandos or War Mongrels.

What ultimately blew me away was how the game transitioned from a high school coming of age story with time manipulation to an engaging character drama with difficult choices and unintended consequences. It’s also one of the rare cases where I anticipated the final plot twist hours before the end of the game and the script still managed to surprise me in the last few scenes. Graphics and slang have definitely aged but they both give it a unique, instant charm.
TL;DR hella good game.

I liked how the story of the protagonist can move you from a sense of despair over the past mistakes to a glimmer of hope that the future is always in the making. To keep you on the edge of the seat during violent encounters, all of this achieved with text and incredible voice-acting. And I think the way the ending uses the threads you followed throughout your game to tailor an ending encouraged me to experiment with different versions of the protagonist. I wonder how the other versions of redemption play out.
I really liked it.

I wish this game was never made because it would mean that 24th of February never happened.
It is as soul-crushing as you might expect. Good luck to the developers, I hope they stay safe.

If you haven't tried it yet, it is as good as everyone said it is.

It's an interesting spin on the tactical game like Commandos. In many ways it's a lighter version of what was offered in Commandos 2, in other ways it offers much more than a sequence of difficult missions set during WW2.
Let's start with the mechanics. Sneak around, eliminate enemies one by one, and avoid detection. While the game offers interesting ways in which missions can be accomplished, some of the characters seem overpowered, others require synergy with others, and some are of quite limited use. This balancing issue makes some of the challenges interesting but you tend to rely on some characters more than others. Limited set of skills and interacting with the world (collecting items, etc.) makes it seem much more limited than its older predecessor Commandos 2.
What really sets it apart is the story. You follow two Eastern Front deserters: Manfred (German) and Ewald (Silesian), who refuse to further participate in war crimes, and are looking for ways to survive. Throughout the game they are joined by other resistance members, in different ways victims and participants in the attrocities occurring on Eastern Front. The game doesn't shy away from gruesome imagery and themes, and characters often argue against each others involvement in difficult events. The story itself and the links between missions (really atmospheric animations) really set the game apart and adds a lot of narrative depth.
Some bugs here and there but nothing game breaking for me.
Full price feels a bit too high but with a discount it will give you a couple of intensive puzzle-solving evenings with a really interesting, if gruesome narrative.

Choices, choices, choices; consequences, consequences... you get the idea. Get it for the story and play with its mechanics. Absolutely amazing.

It would be a lie to say that it didn't feel tedious at times or that pursuing non-story important deliveries made the entire experience better. Despite how much I enojoyed the gameplay reduced to go from point A to B to get to C, I had to put the game away for a couple of weeks because it felt like a "job". I did come back though. And you should to if you put it away. You have to keep pushing.