Recent reviews by JoeRyudo

For a long-time Dragon Age fan like me who has been rather accepting of the many changes this series has gone through, this is a really difficult thumbs down to give.

There's amazingly well-written reviews here that perfectly illustrate the main issues I have with this game, that end up making it overall a decent RPG, but not a GOOD Dragon Age game, so I won't repeat too much. I'll just add a few things that jumped out to me as highlights and "lowlights":

Technical:
- Vastly improved fighting system from Inquisition. The Action game/ARPG fan in me was 90% happy with the changes. One thing I very much disliked at the start was the fact that in Underdog difficulty as a warrior focused on DPS (Lord of Fortune), trying to go through the game with 2H weapons only feels pretty much impossible. There's some situations and some attacks that pretty much will dictate that you NEED to switch to 1H weapon and shield to do well and survive the encounter, which sucks because it takes away player choice to fit a gameplay vision the developers have balanced around.

- The parry and dodging system is lacking. With how aggressively large enemy groups behave, I should really able to cancel pretty much any animation into a dodge or a parry as long as I don't get tagged and there's clearly moments when I'm not able to. It's like they looked at good character-based action games over the last 5-10 years, implemented a bunch of the good stuff and left out the defensive options that would make you feel like a badass on the battlefield.

- The game and cutscenes support the Ultrawide format: Good stuff for a game with beautiful visuals like this one, from elaborate characters (amazing hair tech, the best I've ever seen in a game) and customization details to amazing-looking landscapes and set pieces.

World-building, story, characters:
- *Big Sigh*.... Not trying to repeat what others have said but even with an open-minded approach, not having characters choices that I've built since Dragon Age: Origins factor in is a big downer. If we're being real, this is a huge downgrade of the experience it could have been. I understand the counter-arguments and agree with some of them even. I realise (or probably not to a certain extent) how much work goes into factoring these choices, and after Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem, I understand that Bioware sort of needed a quick, simple, no-fuss, no complexity "win" and to just put the game out and show that they can make "good to decent" games still after years of silence. It kinda feels that Dragon Age was the sacrificial lamb to achieve that in a way, which sucks. Recent interviews with the game designers show that they have not abandoned the idea of making use of our past choices in future Dragon Age games, so it seems we all sort of agree on the subject...

- Characters, oooh boy... There a review by user "moon" that says your Rook feels like a life coach at the lead of a support group and it's exactly that. Characters are not allowed to have real conflict, your Rook is not allowed to be a jerk if they want to. If I'm being honest, I'm not really the type to RP a jerk in these games, but even I am annoyed that I'm not allowed to be if I want to. I feel like some of the interactions with characters who go through very difficult issues that some could relate to (I'm obviously talking about Taash here, but this applies to other characters too) are presented to me as a player and to my cast of other characters, but the decision of how I'm going to handle it has already been taken for me and for others. The sentiment is certainly coming from a good place, but taking away the choice and any possible avenue of even measured debate or differing opinion (or even to make the choice that the devs would like to lead me to, but by myself!) from my character is just wrong in a role playing game based on player choices.
I hate to possibly feed silly trolls with my comments, but I feel like having a team dynamic for your main cast that would reflect real people's relationships in a fantasy game is massively important to help characterisation and help the player feel like they're a part of a breathing world. And in real-life, sometimes you have to work with people you disagree with to achieve something important.
If anything, having to work with people you might disagree with to achieve goals that are more important than your disagreements (like, I don't know, saving the world ?) sends a STRONGER message than working with only like minded people with no possibility of real conflict or disagreement between them. This is just my two cents, but I think they've missed the mark with that one and it's a rather important mark to miss in such a game.

- It feels like there's a whole personal chapter missing based on your choice of faction/origin story that you selected when you picked it at character creation. I'm a Lord of Fortune that had to go in hiding after a job gone bad.... and that never gets any play ? Where's the sidequest based on my past ? Why bother making me pick an origin story which should cause an enemy faction to seek personal retribution against me if you don't do anything with it ? All that does it make me feel disconnected from this world. It's so frustrating because this should be a no-brainer!

- A special mention for the ending: besides the final cutscenes (which are just a succession of moving pictures and voice overs), it was well executed. The revelation of what happened with Varric lessened my frustration of how he was so lacking throughout the game, so.. you get a pass for this particular one Bioware.


Conclusion:
- The ending was fine and it helped my general impression of the game... But feeling that "it was fine" after finishing a Dragon Age game is not how I should be feeling. I should be feeling that I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters, I should be feeling a bit emotional... but I don't. And I can't recommend this game to a Dragon Age fan at full price given that.

On a big discount and with lowered expectations, this is going to be a good-to-decent experience. It just isn't a good Dragon Age game.

From the perspective of someone who hasn't played the original and is generally not good with horror games, I thought it was a terrific experience. Spooky and tense setting, very well written story, interesting characters, better than average combat, beautiful music/visuals and the right amount of creepy sound effects.

I think some parts were a bit too long (backtracking a place in the overworld isn't fun or engaging at all for me). In some occasion the stutter gets really awful, even when armed with patience (the latest patch addresses that pretty well though). And finally, the ending I unlocked In Water left me feeling a bit hollow and a bit robbed, but I suppose it's appropriate for this game.

It was definitely thought-provoking, which is what I wanted from this game. I hope they remake the others now, I enjoyed it a lot.

For a balanced review and a measured take on this game:

The short and sweet of it is that I find rating this game difficult. Whether you'll recommend it or not truly depends on how smooth your experience progressing through the game was.
I wish I could give it an "Average" rating, but all we have is thumbs up our down, so...

On the one hand it really delivers on the premise with an interesting mystery to solve, a whole star system to explore, a great soundtrack and an above average story/narrative. Story Spoiler: it's one of these games where the ending is kinda left to your own interpretation, at least the ending I got was like that and I'm really not a fan of these narratives.. BUT it's far from the biggest offender, to be honest.
The feeling of discovery is real and I understand why people say "go in blind" because some moments would have been ruined for me if I had watched them elsewhere first (such as discovering the location for the DLC).

On the other hand, something really left a bad taste in my mouth during my experience.

Without going into spoilers, I came across 2 elements I had to figure out to progress the game which I struggled with, even after feeling like I explored everywhere I could for clues. The fact that you have a 22 minutes time loop to contend with means that upon not progressing and reaching the time limit, you end up having to return to the initial spawn and make your way back to your destination again.

I don't have an issue with the loop as a system as it stands and I even understand why it's there technically speaking, but when you're struggling to progress in the first place, it only causes frustration to have to go back to scratch while feeling like you can't make progress. I think the open "world" nature of the game means that you sometimes won't come across the clues before you come across the corresponding problems you need to solve. To be honest, this problem isn't limited to Outer Wilds and is a general puzzle game making/design challenge.

In the end I had to look up a guide to figure out what I needed to do and went from "How the hell was I meant to know that ?" to a few hours later upon finding the clue "Ahhh... that's where it was".

You could argue it is a player-issue, however the point of a puzzle/mystery game IMO shouldn't be to cause endless frustration and friction to the player, but to balance challenge and enjoyment, and I think the game would have been better served by having some sort of feature in place that acknowledges "Okay, I see that you're stuck on this as you died/looped 5 times here... let me offer you an extra optional clue so you can progress". Even after that event and finishing the game, I still had a bad taste left in my mouth from this part of the experience.

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Also, a nerd pet peeve of mine is this game keeps referring to the star system it is set in as "Solar system" and the star as "our Sun". This isn't the Solar system... it's a different planetary system. "Solar" is inherited from "Sol" which is an alternative name of our star.. and this isn't our star. I thought the game would have a clever reveal or way to explain this but it doesn't at all.
I think they wanted to simplify this whole thing for the average Joe, but I just found it irksome.. especially when the game is centred around space exploration... Not heavily factoring this in my rating but it's a bit of a weird choice.

Anyway decent game (amazing at times), but I was disappointed with my experience of it, and I think the puzzle design could use a fair amount of work for it to truly live up to the hype it received.

Played until Chapter 4 (latest available currently) and it's very impressive. The writing is very good and manages to mix a dystopian context with a healthy dose of humour and endearing characters. There's a lot of mystery surrounding the story and I can't wait to see where this ultimately leads. Big props goes to the music as well, the soundtrack is amazing.

The Chapter 4 seems to have opened the possibility of branching story paths and some measure of choice for the protagonist, which I hope pays off in different endings in the final iteration of the game (because so far it has been fairly linear). Even with the few conversation choices I was able to make, they lead to a game over and reset, so I hope it goes in that direction in the next chapters.

This is one to keep an eye on.

Fun game, (if a bit on the short side) with good puzzles, fun characters and a good story. One of the few I really wanted to get all achievements for. If you like Ace Attorney games (same director) there's definitely an influence there and you'll probably enjoy this one too.

It's a good time.

As a Bad Company 2, BF3, BF4 old head, I decided to skip the launch of this one when I saw the shoddy state it was in. I couldn't believe they'd screw up a launch again as bad as they did when they launched BF4.
For context, I hate the Battle Royale craze (borefest, IMO) that basically every other shooter subscribes to these days, and that means that without a proper BF game I've basically been left without a modern shooter to enjoy.

1 year later post-release, I went in during a free weekend period with the lowest expectations and honestly it gave me good enough vibes that I thought "£17 isn't so bad, I might enjoy this on the side".

A couple of weeks later, and dammit... I like this game a lot. I understand how people are still sour about the launch state, but I'm talking from my perspective as a new buyer and the state of BF2042 in Season 3 right now is a blast man, I can't lie.
The Conquest and Rush modes are just as fun as I remember them; the new maps have apparently been reworked since.. I like most of them!

I dislike the Battle Pass crap (old head) and the specialist stuff and how it works along with the loadouts is honestly super confusing sometimes.
Other than that progress and weapons / attachments unlocks works the same as previous BFs and they're unlocked as you get kills with the selected weapon (no paywall for the classic stuff basically). So basically you're rewarded for your time investment in a specific kit, and I'm happy this hasn't changed. You can also play old BF3, 1942, Bad Company etc.. maps and classes which is just a fun trip. The game's good right now.

I don't know if it's worth full price, but I know that if you've liked relatively recent BFs, then you'll get your money's worth buying this on a deal. There's fun to be had if you can look past the history of it and give it a chance.

So if you're curious about it and having a hard time justifying the purchase to yourself based on the launch state (which is basically how I felt), then wait for a discount and consider it: there's a fair chance you might enjoy it as I did.

The game definitely has issues that other detailed reviews have gone into such as the predatory microtransaction model (not a lot of ways to earn a new unit without shelling out), the game disconnection penalties (though I think this will get fixed in the future), the fact that a leaver in Casual matches does not seem to trigger matchmaking to get a replacement team member and either shuts down the match if it's early or let you go 5v6 if it's partway through the game... in CASUAL MATCH.

They clearly inspired their model on OW, but there's some weird user experience decisions basically.

What works though IMO is the gameplay / shooting mechanics and the style of it all (the mechs look and feel great to pilot). It's undeniably fun to play in a group too so definitely a fun romp. Not sure how much staying power it will have but if you need a break from OW and the like, it's a nice change of pace.

Overall I enjoyed my time with the game and I was impressed by Eidos Montreal's showing. There clearly was a lot of love and care put into this game and it shows. I hope the rumours of a sequel turn out to be true because I think they could really put out something special by building on what they have right now. There's a lot of potential here.

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- The visuals => Art direction, graphics, (facial) animations are all top notch.

- The story => The Guardians are newly formed and don't trust each other yet, resulting in an entertaining mix of conflict and humour. The story gets personal and and yet manages to bring in galaxy-level stakes while nailing emotional and humorous moments in line with what we're used to from the movies.

- The sound => Music, either the excellent selection of licensed tracks or original soundtrack is really strong. You can't really do a Guardians game without a 80's playlist going on in the background and I like how they committed to it.
The voice acting is top notch and though the movie is a clear inspiration, this is great work. Emotions are really well conveyed and I was surprised not to see well-known voice actors' names in the credits. Looking at and listening to some characters talk, I really felt like I was seeing an actual person express themselves. Good stuff.

- Drax & Gamora => Special mention for these two characters and the writing behind them, they carry the game.

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- There are a few minor bugs that can affect the experience (character models being stuck in places,..) that should really be fixed by now (thankfully reloading the last checkpoint is relatively fast and the game auto-saves often).

- Story-wise, there's one particularly whiny central character who really, REALLY needed to have their "rising to the occasion" moment happen about 3 hours earlier than it did in the tale. Even with a lot of patience for that character, I got really annoyed with their whining at some point and it felt like that they were used as a plot device for unnecessary drama. They eventually have their moment and come around, but it took way too long to happen.

- The gameplay fighting-wise isn't really that exciting, but I'd argue it depends on your expectations. If you see this game as a pure character action game like a Devil May Cry where you're a one-many army, you'll come out disappointed. This is really more of a "team management action game" where you're not expected to just do your own thing in your corner, but rather use team abilities that work well together.

- Yes, it's a shame that you can't control other team members than Starlord. I hope a potential sequel will fix that, but it's not quite a dealbreaker either IMO. I think the combat shines when you have a plan for which abilities you want to use in which order, and you execute your plan with a badass soundtrack (Motley Crue's "Kickstart my heart" comes to mind) playing in the background.

- The abilities' skill trees are too small (if you're like me, you'll get all the abilities and have nothing to spend EXP and components on way before the game ends).

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Judge for yourself, but I'd recommend it if you're looking for some chill 20-hour single player romp with a strong overall story, endearing characters and kickass soundtrack =).

Very fun arcade Ace Combat-style shooter with a cool story. Extremely impressive when you consider that there's basically a team of three people behind this game.

It starts as a very addictive horror-themed card battler game / roguelike, flips its own formula on its head and in my opinion sticks the landing really well.

Probably the most fun I had on a game recently.

A fair warning though: the game's pace slows down and its artstyle "evolves" halfway through the game, which can be jarring to some people.
Stick with it though and you'll experience deeper gameplay mechanics and a shocker of a story conclusion.

It's good sh*t.