Recent reviews by Rook

I can't believe this game stayed under my radar for so long. It is hands down the best motorcycle racing game experience I've had, and one of the top racing game experiences in general. There are tons of bikes, some decent customization, lots of tracks, great physics, tons of options, decent AI, and good sense of speed. If you are in to bikes like I am, this is a must have. Even if you aren't, it is still a fantastic racing game. Very much looking forward to Ride 3.

A must have for VR owners. It's a great workout, it's entertaining with friends, it's inexpensive, there are frequent updates, it runs well. Get it!

This game, to me, is an absolute gem. Games have gone soft lately, with hand-holding features, X-ray vision, and button mashing combat. It is such a breath of fresh air to immerse yourself in the role of Henry, and be surrounded by a game world that is this beautiful, and has this much thought put in to it.

There seems to be a divide out there on how this game has been recieved. Most of the complaints I hear about the game seem like people who don't like a challenge or just simply haven't bothered to figure it out. The lockpicking for example (I'm on a mouse and keyboard), is totally fine. Lockpicking is difficult in real life, and so it is difficult at first in the game, but like a true RPG, you get better the more you do it. Same goes for the combat, I absolutely love what they have done. You have to actually pay attention to what your opponent is doing, counter, and attack their vunerable areas, learning more tricks and combos as you progress. Same goes for archery, I shoot a traditional recurve bow in real life, and I can tell you that I did about as well my first time in the game as I did in real life. But you get better! That's the point! I understand though, this is a truely realistic RPG, not a whole lot of games have ever done that, so it's not something that everyone understands yet. For me though, it's exactly the experience I want.

What about the saving system? Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about. You save the game by checkpoints in quests, sleeping, or by drinking a potion called "Savior Schnapps". You can buy the potions, they aren't cheap, but making money isn't that hard, I made most of mine from selling looted armor and from hunting and selling the meat and hides. Or, for a lot less, you can buy or gather ingredients to make the potion yourself, while utilizing the unique alchemy system.

It runs fairly well, it made me finally upgrade to 16gb of ram from 8gb, but I was waiting for an excuse. The visuals are captivating, really one of the most beautiful game worlds ever made, with incredible detail from the far edges of the forest to the artwork inside cities. It could use some optimizing, but it runs fairly well for me with a GTX1060 and an i5-4460, with some delayed textures when moving fast at times.

Regarding bugs, I've experienced some minor ones, NPCs meshing together for example. But I haven't seen anything like what some people have been reporting, definitely nothing quest or game breaking, so I don't know what else to tell you there, other than to expect some patches.

The sound work is great, ambient sounds in the wilderness are fantastic, and the armour/weapon sounds are great too. The music is fun, and really well done, it defintely adds to the atmosphere, and adapts well to situations. A critique here for WarHorse though, the ambient sounds of conversations around taverns is distracting rather than adding to the environment, and some of voice overs really need the reverb and noise cut out of them.

I would highly recommend it, this game gets that x-factor of challenge vs. reward. That is to say, the sense of reward and satisfaction is up there with the best, in part from the challenge the game presents.