Recent reviews by MjKorz

Best game in the franchise. A massive improvement in every aspect compared to Inquisition. A masterfully crafted dark fantasy narrative that does not rely on vulgarity to drive the point home.

Finished the campaign in 40 hours playing at a moderate pace without rushing anything or playing more than a couple simulation missions. The game run perfectly smooth locked at 60fps on a Ryzen 5 7500F + RX 7900XT setup in 1440p with almost every graphical setting maxed out except the draw distance (doesn't mean performance would necessarily dip below 60fps, just that I have not tested it as ultra settings do not max out the draw distance).

In terms of gameplay, Clans retains the mechanics of MW5: Mercs, but transfers the gameplay to a new, far more demanding engine with much more detailed particle effects. This is important in terms of gameplay, because all the highly detailed smoke, explosions and sparks flying everywhere make pinpoint precision aim at desired enemy components much more difficult simply because the target being shot at usually becomes heavily obscured by said effects.

Another change is the mechlab: it is both more restrictive and at the same time offers freedom of configuration not available in MW5: Mercs. Configuration is more restrictive, because Clan Omnimechs come with many components locked so you cannot modify every non-engine/gyro/actuator/life support/etc. crit slot. On the other hand, configuration offers more freedom in terms of achieving desired hardpoint combinations as you can swap Omnimech parts freely and can stuff more weaponry into these custom Clan configs relative to Inner Sphere mech variants with fixed hardpoints.

Armor deserves a separate mention, because in Clans you cannot configure your armor distribution and bodypart armor values freely: armor can only be added in 0.25-1.0t increments and each increment consumes a critical slot. This is a very significant change as now you may be forced to make compromises between weapons/ammo and armor not just based on total tonnage, but also based on the available critical slots in a particular location. The inability to freely redistribute armor between front/back also means you cannot simply strip all of your back armor and put it on the front. The end result is that most Clan mech configurations are significantly under-armored relative to the maximum theoretical amount of armor they could mount.

The story in this game is head and shoulders above anything in the franchise so far, it's an amazing clan slice of life that demonstrates many customs and behavioral patterns like no other game in the franchise has. It also has a degree of non-linearity, introducing a different set of endgame missions based on player story choice.

All in all, the game was well worth the full pricetag at launch. Unlike MW5: mercs, the experience has been 100% stable and bug-free. It feels like PGI really jumped out of their skin with this release and delivered a product above what would be typically expected of them and I know what to expect from PGI having played MWO since open beta.

Lorebreaking garbage that has you killing multiple genestealers early in chapter 2. The new companion voice acting is horrendous, holding long pauses between words in a sentence is not how you make them sound "mysterious" unless you're 12. Extremely overpowered gear obtainable early without being gated behind any combat like the 4-6 damage, 8 RoF Ripper autogun. Typical Owlclown garbage who have no clue how their own game systems work.

Finished the game as a lvl19 sword&board Officer, didn't hit level 20, because I skipped almost all random overworld encounters via skillchecks. Never felt underlevelled and that I needed to grind.

Best point of reference I have to describe this game is a less challenging Knights of the Chalice with somewhat less advanced combat system, except this game is drastically more story focused and features companions with unique personalities and proper characterization. While the combat in this game is quite enjoyable and offers plenty of tactical depth (adaptation of player tactics based on the situation at hand and the ability to create parties that focus on different tactics), I felt like the narrative, writing, characters, atmosphere and music were the real highlight. Multi-solution quests with alternative solutions being dependent on skills are present, offering meaningful consequences to your main character building choices: some skillchecks are so high (like the early 18 diplomacy check) that only a properly built and equipped main character can realistically pass them. In other words, the game is a complete roleplaying package and an amazing overall experience with the ending deserving special praise due to its impactfulness: you will either love or hate it, but you shan't remain unphased.

Felt like all weapon types were decently balanced. Swords allow you to inflict bleed which can deal serious damage/turn and are capable of AoE damaging attacks, clubs enable AoE stunning attacks that open enemies up for backstabs. Axes can be used to inflict injuries or deal more damage as well as passively debuff enemies with a fear effect on kill which makes enemies less likely to hit your tanks. Bows are extremely useful for hitting targets you cannot reach immediately with your melee characters.

There is a notion floating around that mages are weak and are not worth the party slot, but that's false. Both arcane and divine casters are amazing to have just for their buffs alone: spells like Diamond Form and Serpent's Grace make your tanks unkillable. In terms of offense, you get AoE stuns/poison while divine magic allows you to deal sublime damage which is incredibly useful in many specific encounters. Swarm of Gnats is another amazing offensive low cost spell that allows the arcane caster to support melee characters by both damaging and debuffing the melee capabilities of targets the melees are engaged with. While magic damage output does not seem impressive on paper comapred to martial damage output, it becomes extremely useful when fighting physical damage resistant and/or crit-immune enemies.

Class balance was well thought out: Armsmaster provides amazing straightforward value by being the best tank (free heal via Second Wind and Heavy Armor Mastery) and unconditional damage dealer while also having the tactical flexibility to effectively use both melee and ranged weapons. Officer can be just as good at tanking as the Armsmaster and provides additional party-wide buffs, but lacks two-handed weapon feats and since the ability cooldown is universal, Officer cannot self-heal and provide its active class-specific buffs at the same time. Rogue has the highest raw damage output potential against targets that can be backstabbed, but will suffer a catastrophic reduction in their damage output against backstab-immune enemies. Hybrid classes (Hospitaller, Champion) have very significant penalties to counterbalance their magic: partial proficiency in magic schools, lack of multi-attack for the Hospitaller, lack of resource-free self-heal (Second Wind), lack of Heavy Armor Mastery, weapon choices being limited to one type. Ranger is the exception to the hybrid class rule since he is undoubtedly the best ranged damage dealer, but ranged damage has its own tactical niche (hitting out of reach targets) while being unable to compete with melee in terms of raw damage output and utility (AoE stun). Full arcane and divine casters are amazing buffers and situationally amazing damage dealers. The only exception is the Battlemagos class which does feel rather weak: it does not get any spellcasting benefits relative to the Guild Magos, only defensive and martial ones and mages do not need any martial or survivability buffs due to abundance of consumables and being able to avoid getting attacked in virtually any and all encounters simply through proper positioning.

Food crafting system could've been fleshed out a bit more. You have this long list of craftable multi-component dishes, but the only difference they have is food value. Would've been nice to have some minor buffs for... flavor.

Itemization was rather unimaginative, but functional, offering the player gear that covers basic stat and skill buffs. The game has a unique item vendor that sells some artifacts with a unique combination of stats, a single magical quest dagger and a suit of armor, but beyond that I don't remember finding any unique gear.

Game showers you in consumables and crafting materials. As long as you have a character with high crafting skill, you can use consumables every fight without feeling like you're gimping yourself in the later game. In the endgame, I was storing over 200lb of cooked meals on my ship that could've been used for an incalculable number of rests and I had over 100 attunement tonics for my casters.

Scumbag developers who ban people for a mere mention of emulation. Do not give them any money. If you wish to acquire their games on steam, do so from third-party key resellers.

Mostly linear hack&slash adventure with very limited roleplaying opportunities that are reduced to stat checks, allowing the player to pay less gold for certain quest solutions. A couple of quests have multiple solutions that don't really change anything.

Character generation and advancement system is extremely primitive, consisting of 2 point stat allocation per level. Skills are bound to gear items instead of characters and can be swapped almost freely at any time.

Primitive little hack&slash adventure for a couple of evenings, but if you pick this game up in the hope of playing an actual RPG, you will be severely disappointed. Can't really recommend this to anyone, though: neither hack&slash, nor RPG enthusiasts.

This is a review in progress that I will update once I finish the game or at least advance some more.

Game has strong alignment-based reactivity. Different alignments solve quests in different ways and the behaviour of NPCs changes based on your alignment with NPCs reacting differently to player characters of different alignments.

Reactivity based on origins. For example: some quests are offered only to specific origins and your origin is quite often mentioned in dialogue.

Multisolution quests are present, especially the big important ones. Skillchecks seem to come into play quite often as well, offering different quest/encounter resolutions.

Game reminds of Age of Decadence far more than it does of Fallout or Wasteland, except the difficulty is not on the level of AoD.

This is the kind of game that has to be played multiple times to experience all the content. Judging the game's length on the basis of a single playthrough is either dishonest or completely ignorant since all good RPGs with actual Choice&Consequence and roleplaying depth work this way.

So far, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The only thing that might be a problem to some people is that the early game isn't really rich in combat encounters, but that's not the focus of any real RPG. I do hope that as the game opens up, quest solutions via violence will become more frequent, but we'll see.

A decent spiritual successor to the Infinity Engine RPGs: feels and plays pretty much the same as games like Icewind Dale 1-2 and Baldur's Gate 1-2.

Token amount of Choice&Consequence and replayability in general, good enough for two separate playthroughs: generous and greedy.

Decent characterization of party members: some have quests that span the entire game and feel like actual characters instead of just cardboard cutouts.

The most disappointing part is the fact that there is no post-game epilogue to show the player how his in-game choices affected the world and describe the fates of the companions.

Bugs encountered throughout the entire playthrough: precisely zero.

Overall, a pleasant experience for any Infinity Engine veteran. Recommended.

Buggy garbage, avoid wasting your money. Acts 4 and 5 are catastrophically bugged with many game-breaking bugs. Even some quests in acts 2 and 3 fail to complete properly (like Yrliet's and Argenta's personal quests) and these acts were part of the beta. Owlcat have yet again spat in the face of their playerbase by having another horrendously bugged launch just like they did with Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous.

Another horrible DLC from a developer who either does not understand or outright refuses to listen to what the playerbase actually wants. No one cares about puzzles in a roleplaying game and no one cares about utterly irrelevant sidestories focused on irrelevant characters that have no bearing on the main campaign. Accuse me of not having the right to speak for the entirety of the playerbase all you want, but I can see the reviews and I know where the discontent comes from.

Aside from the major complaints above, this DLC is horrible for two more reasons. First of all, it has barely any roleplaying depth: your class, race and other character building choices mean nothing. Secondly, this DLC suffers from a massive shortage of even the most basic equipment like unenchanted weapons, armor and shields. This, in turn, limits the number of viable character builds you can make. Want to play an Aldori Defender/Swordlord or a Tower Shield Specialist? Tough luck, no early dueling swords or tower shields for you, better play one of the pet classes or a monk.

Don't waste your money on this utterly inconsequential, railroaded side-story.