Tomo
Junior Member
Posts: 3,255
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Post by Tomo on Feb 27, 2024 8:55:05 GMT
Elden Ring (PC) . And as much as I want to give it a perfect score during most of the early and mid game. This is the way in every one of their titles. The final areas are nothing compared to the early areas, almost as if they are rushed. Interesting that you say this about all of their titles. I started with Elden Ring and found this to be broadly true, then played Dark Souls but I've abandoned it after about 50 hours. Got to the castle with all the magicians and ice monsters and just couldn't be arsed anymore.
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Post by pierrepressure on Feb 27, 2024 9:21:18 GMT
Pikmin 4 - 9/10
I've had an absolute blast playing this, I don't think I'll ever get bored of collecting the treasures. It has that typical Nintendo charm most will be familiar with, I'm not usually a fan of strategy games but it's pretty light in that regard. I urge anyone who hasn't played Pikmin before to give it a go, it has a gentle difficulty curve to ease you in and is probably one of my favourite switch games of all time. Massively recommended!
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Duffman5
Junior Member
big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
Posts: 1,332
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Post by Duffman5 on Feb 27, 2024 9:53:32 GMT
LISBTS ( ) PS5 (+) Hours: 12ish It was ok, maybe 6/10
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Tuffty
Junior Member
Posts: 3,426
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Post by Tuffty on Feb 27, 2024 10:28:37 GMT
Tekken 8 - 9/10
Fighting games are something I've always had an interest in but never gotten fully commited to. VF4 Evo and VF5 were two games I was fully invested into thanks to it's excellent tutorial and unboarding systems. So I have some experience but not a lot, was never really into Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat or DOA and when I did tip my toe into DBZ Fighterz or DNF Duel I quickly pulled out once I realised how ill equipped I was to deal with the online players who were able to combo 80% of my life away after I misjudged a block. The only other game series of note I've had some experience with was Tekken. It appears that finding and retaining a playerbase for fighting games is now dependent upon online play and how well the game supports players of all skill levels. Fortunately with 8 coming out, the game does a remarkable job in accomplishing it, with some hiccups.
The fighting itself is more or less what you've come to expect from Tekken over the years, aggressive gameplay where you pressure an enemy to making a mistake and giving you free reign to lay down some air juggling combos. The aggressiveness is turned up significiantly with new mechanics in place like the heat system, opening up new moves for characters, chip damage on block, regaining grey health on hitting and a new heat finisher move to lay on some damage. Fighters have 1 use of the heat gauge every round so you're incentivised to use it. While you do feel helpless sometimes if an opponent is comboing you to the ground, it never feels quite egregious as other games and you have the ability to comeback pretty well. There's an expansive roster of 30 characters, some if not all with over 100 moves each. While that sounds daunting, the game does do a decent job with it's tutorial in teaching you sample combos and punishment techniques. The new Arcade Quest mode acts as a tutorial of sorts allowing you to learn via a light hearted story of aiming to become the no 1 Tekken player. The replay system is perhaps the most impressive, where the game will replay any past matches you had against opponents and pause at key moments to tell you what you could have done in this situation and even allow you to take control of the character and put it into practice. It's a remarkable learning tool and I'd encourage using it as even getting the most savage beatdowns from online killers can be treated as a learning experience. You can even do battle against your own ghost which learns from your movements and allows you to practice against yourself, you can download ghosts of other players too, allowing you to practice against good players and learning character matchups.
If it all sounds quite robust then well, it is. But it could also be better. I do wish it would go into more depth on each character's playstyle. Learning as Asuka, the move list says some moves puts her into a Naniwa Gusto state and I'm left here thinking on what that actually means as the game doesn't explain it. In addition, some of the combos it tries to teach you aren't properaly annotated, some require a dash inbetween moves which isn't explicitly stated. I've heard SF6 is better in this regard, VF4 Evo remains undefeated in my eyes, but if you're hesitant about jumping in I really would suggest giving it a try, it does go about as far as it can to help which is appreciated.
What adds to it's success is that it's pretty robust with single player modes. Arcade Quest is pretty plentiful while also offering ghost battles, Tekken Ball, Arcade mode, character stories for each character and a story mode. The game's story is pretty outlandish at this point and this was after last paying attention to it from 3 which had a giant ogre creature and a farting dinosaur. It's pretty typical shounen anime in delivery, but it's pretty enjoyable and constantly escalating towards a pretty satisfying ending. Each character has a little time to shine, though I wish it was more, there's a good cast there I'd like to see more of. I know the character customisation is farly lacking compared to past entries, but it's still robust enough to make some good looking characters or freaks of nature.
With all of that in context, I've no issue saying it's the best fighting game in a long time for me. All of the above has led me to play a few ranked matches each night and have now progressed up the ranks that's forcing me to learn other character matchups better now. It's an experience I do enjoy and one I wouldn't have gotten terribly far in if not for the fact that the game was great. Haven't even mentioned the fact that the game is quite gorgeous and the soundtrack is pretty decent too. Even if it's not for you, the game celebrates the series with the Jukebox mode, offerinng each past game's complete soundtrack available to use in game. I didn't think I could like a fighting game as much as VF4 or VF5 with with T8 it's the closest it has ever been. If only Brian Cox was in the game as a fighter as well I'd give it a 10
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Post by theguy on Feb 27, 2024 16:43:13 GMT
RavenlokI had my eye on this and then completely forgot about it until Duffman5's post here. Figured with the short runtime I'd give it a playthrough. It's alright. Visually it's quite impressive, with a mix of animated style and voxel based visuals. It even plays a bit like a 2D rpg but in 3D. There's a good range of locations and even if the areas are fairly linear, they certainly look the part. The world is probably the standout feature of the game. The gameplay, however is just a bit too simplistic and lacking any depth whatsoever. You've one attack that you can just mash with the occasional dodge. The first half of the game is particularly dull because of this, especially because the game decides to throw you a bunch of mundane quests at once. The second half fares better, there's more variety and number in enemies and fun bosses, a few more gameplay ideas and with the extra combat abilities you have, it's a tad more interesting. But it's a bit like going from a Kit Kat to a Kit Kat chunky. It's still just a Kit Kat and over 8 hours I'd like something else too.
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drakesmoke
Junior Member
We gotta talk about that ride kid. Next clue to the case!
Posts: 2,728
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Post by drakesmoke on Feb 27, 2024 16:55:07 GMT
Robocop Rogue City.
It’s very hard to score. As a Robocop fan, it could veer from 6.5 - 9/10 depending on where you are in the game.
It’s so lovingly done, but as much as it gets the visual atmosphere soooo right, the sound can really let it down and I’m talking there mostly about the voice acting. Robocop, Lewis and Reed were notably awful and you get the feeling at times the script was translated to English.
The little bits like the news reports are totally on-brand but just fall flat, and some of their content should have been funny but the delivery killed it.
But it really does look like Robocop.
Graphically the dynamic res thing going on is a crapshoot on Series X. There were times it got so low it looked like a filter had been applied. I can only assume that the coding isn’t brilliant because it isn’t doing anything I’d expect to really trouble the console. This really marred the final boss encounter.
Some bad difficulty spikes too which only became doable when assigning ability or weapon upgrade points to the right places (hint - you’ll want strong critical damage for the end).
The game also outstayed its welcome a bit. It could have been a tighter experience without a doubt.
But again, it’s a Robocop simulator and there were, as a fan, 9/10 bits there, and bits I will never forget.
As I gave this a sliding scale for fans, for people not bothered about Robocop I think they would rate it between 5-7.
A true love letter to the first two films that could have been an actual classic had more money been thrown at it. It may be a cult classic though.
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Post by pierrepressure on Feb 27, 2024 17:02:42 GMT
Robocop Rogue City. It’s very hard to score. As a Robocop fan, it could veer from 6.5 - 9/10 depending on where you are in the game. It’s so lovingly done, but as much as it gets the visual atmosphere soooo right, the sound can really let it down and I’m talking there mostly about the voice acting. Robocop, Lewis and Reed were notably awful and you get the feeling at times the script was translated to English. The little bits like the news reports are totally on-brand but just fall flat, and some of their content should have been funny but the delivery killed it. But it really does look like Robocop. Graphically the dynamic res thing going on is a crapshoot on Series X. There were times it got so low it looked like a filter had been applied. I can only assume that the coding isn’t brilliant because it isn’t doing anything I’d expect to really trouble the console. This really marred the final boss encounter. Some bad difficulty spikes too which only became doable when assigning ability or weapon upgrade points to the right places (hint - you’ll want strong critical damage for the end). The game also outstayed its welcome a bit. It could have been a tighter experience without a doubt. But again, it’s a Robocop simulator and there were, as a fan, 9/10 bits there, and bits I will never forget. As I gave this a sliding scale for fans, for people not bothered about Robocop I think they would rate it between 5-7. A true love letter to the first two films that could have been an actual classic had more money been thrown at it. It may be a cult classic though. Worth a crack once it drops to 25 quid?
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drakesmoke
Junior Member
We gotta talk about that ride kid. Next clue to the case!
Posts: 2,728
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Post by drakesmoke on Feb 27, 2024 17:15:27 GMT
pierrepressureIf you love the first two films, absolutely. If you’re not arsed, wait until it’s cheaper still or on Gamepass or whatever PC/Playstation people have. Just realised how that looks. ‘Lynn these are PlayStation people!’
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Post by Samildanach on Feb 27, 2024 19:39:54 GMT
Horizon Zero Dawn I ended up enjoying this game immensely from start to finish. So much of this game was damn good; take the vistas for example, one mission has you taking a long journey starting out in your mountainous snowy home land before crossing a wild west like region and then into a jungle zone with a golden city perched on a large rocky spire above it. I did that mission without any fighting yet remained in a state of wonder at the wonderful and changing countryside. Open world games set in cities bore me after a while (e.g. Assassin's Creed Unity being dropped without bothering with most of the side quests) but put me in the great wild and I can't get enough of it. Combat/gameplay was pretty decent, not perfect but at least much better than the Witcher 3 which has an equally stunning world; and the story was surprisingly fantastic with well acted characters for the most part. Had me hooked till the very end, and what a thrilling climax it was too. The enemy repertoire was good but not quite varied enough to stay fresh for all side quests, but that would be my only complaint. I've yet to do play the Frozen Wilds expansion, but it is probably wise to give it a rest so the combat doesn't get too stale. Well up for the Forbidden West too when I get to it (in a few years!) 9/10
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Post by peacemaker on Feb 27, 2024 20:19:14 GMT
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robthehermit
Junior Member
Subjectively amusing
Posts: 2,405
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Post by robthehermit on Feb 28, 2024 15:36:04 GMT
Starfield. 750 or so hours. I'll be generous and give it 7/10.
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hicksy
Junior Member
I'm good for some but I'm not for everyone
Posts: 1,549
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Post by hicksy on Feb 29, 2024 15:07:40 GMT
Starfield. 750 or so hours. I'll be generous and give it 7/10. 750 hours? Blimey! I salute your patience!
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robthehermit
Junior Member
Subjectively amusing
Posts: 2,405
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Post by robthehermit on Feb 29, 2024 15:14:51 GMT
More masochism than patience. It's not Bethesda's finest hour and if ever a game was in need of Cyberpunk style overhaul it's this one. Pretty much everything is undercooked.
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apollo
Junior Member
Posts: 1,493
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Post by apollo on Feb 29, 2024 16:54:02 GMT
Alan wake remaster
The game really need a real remaster, they improved the graphics and upped the resolution (on 360 it was not even 720p) but the gameplay needed tweaks and quality of life improvements. Like getting stun locked by some taken shadow that pops up behind you and the dodge move is a bit shit. Add in Alan gets out of breath after 10 second jog as he is lazy bastard
Its not really unplayable but the game destorys any good memories of the release back in the day.
5.5/10
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,169
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Post by malek86 on Feb 29, 2024 17:07:15 GMT
Strider (PC)
A standard metroidvania. It's quite slick and well done, but not exactly memorable, except maybe for the crazy amount of sword swinging you'll be doing. In the end, the game might have been more interesting as a standard action scroller. Should have had some kind of fast travel option too. But well, what we got wasn't bad at least.
7/10
Now I'm not sure if I should go back to boomer shooters, or go for something entirely different and play through the Splinter Cell trilogy again. I also have this kinda itch to replay Assassin's Creed 4 for whatever reason... even if I already rinsed it for 50 hours several years ago...
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Post by simple on Mar 4, 2024 15:46:22 GMT
Resident Evil 4 Remake + Separate Ways
I always used to say RE4 is my least favourite of the properly good RE games and this probably hasn’t changed that but I did enjoy it a lot more than the original version. Mostly that’s down to the improved controls meaning you can play it more like an action game.
Good stuff: action, atmosphere, monsters, set pieces. Bad stuff: the castle and island are both still probably longer than they need to be after the village is such an effective build-up and I still think this is where RE stories start getting really silly.
But it is a lot of fun to play and I’m a big fan of all the RE Engine era of RE games. I think it for all its the most faithful of the recent remakes in terms of how it plays I think it improves every part of the original that I liked while retaining most of the things I didn’t. That’s just a taste thing though, its really a very very good game.
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Post by rhaegyr on Mar 4, 2024 15:49:36 GMT
Resident Evil 4 Remake + Separate WaysI always used to say RE4 is my least favourite of the properly good RE games and this probably hasn’t changed that but I did enjoy it a lot more than the original version. Mostly that’s down to the improved controls meaning you can play it more like an action game. Good stuff: action, atmosphere, monsters, set pieces. Bad stuff: the castle and island are both still probably longer than they need to be after the village is such an effective build-up and I still think this is where RE stories start getting really silly. But it is a lot of fun to play and I’m a big fan of all the RE Engine era of RE games. I think it for all its the most faithful of the recent remakes in terms of how it plays I think it improves every part of the original that I liked while retaining most of the things I didn’t. That’s just a taste thing though, its really a very very good game. You surely must have missed Code Veronica!
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Cosmopolitan
New Member
Font Geek is a stupid name
Posts: 231
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Post by Cosmopolitan on Mar 4, 2024 16:05:06 GMT
Sleeping Dogs DE (PC) I somehow became quite obsessed with this. Completed the story, cop jobs, camera hacking, etc., even 100%-ted all collectibles (never done that in an open world game before). Very much enjoyed most of it. In case some don't know it's a sort of mix of GTA driving/shooting/running and melee fighting, where you work as an undercover cop in Hong Kong setting. I think it is quite unique and the melee/karate fights are pretty well done imho. Just basic, not too complex, but satisfying. I wish they made a sequel. 9/10
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Post by simple on Mar 4, 2024 16:06:34 GMT
Ah, shit you’re right CV did come out first I stand corrected. That general era anyway. I’d been very invested in the Racoon City story so tiny Napoleon, medieval fortresses, Norman Batesing your sister and opera singing leech men all felt a bit daft compared to “secret science lab does bad science”.
Although I hadn’t watched much anime back then so maybe it all would’ve felt more normal if I had.
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Ulythium
Full Member
Lily-livered
Posts: 6,784
Member is Online
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Post by Ulythium on Mar 4, 2024 16:10:35 GMT
Sleeping Dogs DE (PC) I somehow became quite obsessed with this. Completed the story, cop jobs, camera hacking, etc., even 100%-ted all collectibles (never done that in an open world game before). Very much enjoyed most of it. In case some don't know it's a sort of mix of GTA driving/shooting/running and melee fighting, where you work as an undercover cop in Hong Kong setting. I think it is quite unique and the melee/karate fights are pretty well done imho. Just basic, not too complex, but satisfying. I wish they made a sequel. 9/10
This game absolutely deserved a sequel. It's a crying shame Square's insane expectations got in the way, and a studio full of talented and committed people ended up being shut down.
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Post by theguy on Mar 4, 2024 16:23:30 GMT
Sleeping Dogs is one of my favourites from the 360 era. Iirc they split it off into some shitty MMO, which was all the craze at the time. Don't know if anyone played it, then it got "sunsetted" and the sequel never came.
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Post by rhaegyr on Mar 4, 2024 16:27:37 GMT
Another one here who would like a Sleeping Dogs sequel - the original was a class act and a very unique perspective.
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apollo
Junior Member
Posts: 1,493
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Post by apollo on Mar 4, 2024 19:09:38 GMT
The sleeping dogs studio really got screwed over, this video is worth a watch
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Post by Samildanach on Mar 4, 2024 19:49:55 GMT
Bit of a random selection of shmups this time, mainly due to Arcade Archives sales and new releases that piqued my interest. I do get back to my current time-line shmup by the last game and have told myself not to keep dabbling with the older shmups for now, as I'll never get to the really good stuff that is in '93 and beyond!
Rabio Lepus (Arcade) Sep '87 Video system's first shmup (of Sonic Wings/Aero Fighters fame) and their only horizontal shooter as far as I am aware. It does contain their bonkers humour in spades as you fly a rabbit thorough space stations, asteroid bases and finally the planet surface to rescue the King and his bunny-girl daughter/wives. Yeah. It's very rough round the edges in all ways but oddly fun with the amount of destruction you can dish out. Not being too excessively difficult (until the last couple of stages) also makes it very pick-up-and-play. 3/5
Last Duel (Arcade) Jul '88 Capcom's slightly experimental racer/shooter hybrid is a reasonablely fast-paced fun shooter where the levels alternate between handling a bike on a sky-high road before converting into a ship for a more traditional shooter level. It's a lot of fun, despite the road levels being a bit too quick to give you time to react to dangers and I stuck with it for a while. Ultimately it doesn't do enough to make it more than a 3/5 nowadays, but it was probably one of the better ones of its time.
Hellfire (Arcade) Apr '89 Toaplan's first horizontal shooter and, while it gains points for its tactical gameplay where your ship can cycle between different shot directions, it loses points in its rather hum drum presentation. Put some time into it to learn when to use each shot types and one can get quite far, but, oh boy, level four suddenly is a massive difficulty spike! I'll never get good enough to beat that on one credit, so eventually the boredom of beating the first three levels repeatedly got to me. Still, a well designed game, generic graphics aside. 3/5
Master of Weapon (Arcade) May '89 Taito knocked it out the park later on with Rayforce, and this game can be seen as it's predecessor... unfortunately without most of that other game's brilliance. The visuals are fast moving but too repetitive as are the enemy types, the music is almost all awful, and the difficulty is poor, with sections going from boringly easy to suddenly unfairly difficult. It's not a total waste of time as there are some flashes of brilliance and the bosses are suitably weird and creepy; but this is one of Taito's misses of the 80s. 2/5
Zero Wing (Arcade) Oct '89 What you say! Toaplan's second and final horizontal shooter and the one that I have a lot of fondness for having played it on the Megadrive as a child. The arcade version is even better (other than not having the Megadrive's top tier music) with fancy parallax layers in the background and a much higher on screen shot count from your ship, giving you a bountiful stream of destructive power. There is little point using anything but the homing shot and the tractor beam mechanic is massively underused (other than stage 4 if you want the secret bonus points) but at least you can just concentrate on avoiding walls and killing everything. Like Hellfire it absolutely could have done with some boss music, but a lack was typical of early Toaplan. Lots of fun, even if it is rather too traditional in design to stand out amongst the best of the genre. 4/5
Air Zonk (PC Engine) Nov '92 Many love this game and state it as being one of the best on the system, but I was a bit non plussed. The graphics, while nice and cartoony, edge sometimes into the too basic in some sections. The gameplay is wacky fun but goddam spoilt (for me) by my biggest bugbear of Air Zonk moving far faster diagonally than horizontally and verticallly. As a result I find him far too imprecise and slippy to control and my enjoyment factor drops off a cliff with any game like that. Saw it to the end by credit feeding/save state spamming and later rolled my eyes when the final level gets you to re-fight previously beaten bosses. I can definitely see why people hold it in high esteem, as there is lots of variation in the levels as well as weapons you can use, plenty of big inventive bosses and fantastic music; so I'll give it another 3/5 as any lower would be taking my personal issues too far for a clearly (mostly) well designed game.
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Post by RadicalRex on Mar 4, 2024 20:36:15 GMT
Dark Souls Remastered (PC)
To think I called Elden Ring uneven... when Dark Souls is good it's amazing, but when it's bad it's just horrible.
Some areas--especially early ones--are so intricately designed it's breathtaking. So complex, so intertwined, so varied, so condensed... and that's even before we talk about the revelations how they keep connecting back to other areas, especially to Firelink Shrine, which surprised and amazed me even though I'd already heard of it. This is some of the best game design I've ever seen, even Elden Ring struggles to keep up (Stormveil Castle probably being closest).
But there are also quite a few areas that I find very mediocre, repetitive, boring. And then there are some that are so bad it's mind-boggling. A good example for this is Demon Ruins which feels like it's slapped together in one hour, giving some serious "my first Doom map" vibes, but it's far from the only horribly rushed area. There are so many mid and shit areas that it lessened the overall experience considerably. Much of the time, especially in the mid and end game, I wasn't playing anymore because I wanted to, just out of an obligation to finish it. And that sucked.
In terms of gameplay mechanics and combat, it was pretty fun for the most part. It felt very similar to Demon's Souls, yet somehow considerably better, and I'm not exactly sure why that is. Maybe it's fine-tuned, maybe it's because of the enemies which are a little less braindead and more engaging, and well probably a lot is because of 60fps. I started with the soldier class thinking it's the safest bet to not make a wrong choice, but with time ended up reducing my equip load further and further until I was using the ninja flip ring at all times.
If anything, my main gripe there was the restrictive movement when locked on, e.g. how you can dodge in only four directions and only run forward. I understand that rolling diagonally towards enemies would make them even easier overwhelmed, but at least I'd like to have the option when dodging away while trying not to roll into walls or pits. It's not a deal breaker or anything, again it was fun enough overall. In my wet dreams Skyrim and Witcher 3 have combat like this.
Boss fights were a bit of a mixed bag too, for different reasons. In terms of style I loved them, many of them were downright poetic, full of beauty and sadness. So unique and memorable, well I guess everything in this game is memorable. But to be honest, gameplay-wise I didn't find any boss fight a lot of fun, although most were ok--with some exceptions, especially that one.
Sadly on another bad note there's Miyazaki's punishment fetish. This seems to be considered an essential part of the Souls experience, Miyazaki himself said it's intended to be a masochist experience (and I believe he was only half joking), and it's probably the main thing that I don't like about this series. I'm not masochist apparently, I do get a kick out of a good challenge, but I don't get a kick out of being punished and tortured. In the end, even when facing brutal challenges, I play games to have fun, not to be inflicted pain for no reason.
The thing I hated most were the boss runbacks which Miyazaki seemingly has an unhealthy obsession with. It was ok a few times, but as I went on it just kept getting more egregious and insufferable, hitting an absolute low with Bed of Chaos which is just cheap instadeath followed by a 2 or 3 minute runback over and over again. And for Seath, stealing your money and humanities and giving you another 3-minute runback wasn't enough, so he also puts curse on you so you respawn with half health. Dude. Stop.
Thankfully most bosses didn't pose much of a challenge so I could beat them in 1-3 attempts, if they were on the level of Elden Ring bosses I'd probably have abandoned the game. I'm so grateful that Elden Ring toned down the whole punishment thing, one of the main reasons I love that game so much and like Dark Souls considerably less.
Special mention to Tomb of Giants. While the whole masochism thing was on a somewhat (if barely) tolerable level during most of the game, Tomb of Giants drops all pretence and just blatantly smears shit in your face. Also has the most egregious runback, thankfully I beat the boss on my 2nd attempt, I was literally shaking with anger at that point. As far as I'm concerned, the whole area was some of the most atrocious game design I've ever seen.
Finally, I really don't like that there's no soundtrack outside of boss fights. Many Souls fan will again say it's supposed to be like that and that sets it apart from other games, but honestly I felt much less mood and atmosphere than I would have with a good soundtrack. For an extreme example, play Quake with and without soundtrack to see just how much that can enhance the experience. Or turn off the soundtrack in Elden Ring, would you want to play it like that? Especially bad areas like Demon Ruins would have been made much more tolerable if there was at least an engaging soundtrack. Overall it's not a deal breaker, but it still lessens the experience as far as I'm concerned.
Oh, I almost forgot. I heard great things about the DLC, but I beat the final boss before knowing it's the final boss, and I didn't know that immediately starts NG+ with no chance of returning. So now I'd have to play through another time to access it, and now I'm really miffed because this means I may never get around to playing it.
So how do I even rate this game? At times it's a 10/10, at others it's a 0/10. As amazing as the good parts are, I think they don't make up even half of the game. There are just as many mediocre parts, and on top of that some really terrible ones. Overall I can't in good conscience give it a high score. But I will give it a little bonus for the great times that I definitely had.
7/10
Well, onwards to Dark Souls 2 SotFS. Hopefully they learned from their mistakes and ironed out the kinks. Can't wait to find out!
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Post by JuniorFE on Mar 4, 2024 21:54:42 GMT
RadicalRex FWIW Seath should only halve your health on death if it's his crystal breath that kills you, his other attacks should be more normal. Not that it helps now, but still. It also sounds like you didn't use spells at all, which is not a mistake, per se, if it's not your cup of tea, but you did kind of limit yourself, especially since Pyromancy has no stat requirements in the first few games. Something to consider for DS2 perhaps. Speaking of, I do think you'll enjoy DS2 more, as it does fix a few of your gripes. I'll put a few mechanics behind spoilers in case you want to go in completely blind: Your combat movement is more free, for one, you can roll in all directions and should be able to freely sprint even when locked on.
The runback to a boss is also less punishing. There's more bonfires around on average (and warping between bonfires is unlocked from the start). There's also quite a few shortcuts you can unlock if you know how, probably more than in DS1 (and there's maps in the wiki as a last resort), plus enemies stop respawning after you kill them about a dozen times, so you could, in theory, slowly kill everything in your path again and again and have a free path to the boss.
Finally, Scholar of the First Sin added a lot more NPC summons that you can use when human, to the point where I'm pretty sure almost every boss has a summon if you know where to look (and they can make the levels themselves easier, too).
Of course, it's not all rosy. For one, enemies not infinitely respawning also means your grinding is limited (although there is a covenant, accessible from the hub and cancellable at any time through an NPC also there, that, as long as you're in it, restores infinite respawning at the cost of also making enemies stronger).
Your Estus Flask is also weaker than you might expect, it's slower to consume and your health increases more gradually. You'll have to get used to having other methods of healing (consumables or spells). Your torch is also much clunkier to use and also doesn't have infinite duration anymore, although on the flipside it's also much less necessary on the whole (there is one boss that can be made easier by using the torch outside its fight, but AFAIK no areas as bad as the Tomb of the Giants, for instance)
Finally, aside from one death knocking you out of human form (thus removing most NPC summon signs - some are still available), each death slowly saps your maximum health, up to a maximum of 50%, until you use a Human Effigy (the humanity equivalent) at a bonfire to become human again. There's a ring that mitigates this, capping the reduction at 25% of your maximum health, but you need to get it first... In theory, you could slowly clear out an area's enemies little by little (since they don't infinitely respawn), and only become human again when the path to the boss is empty, but it gets tedious. There are a couple things that I won't put behind spoilers, because not knowing them will just sour the experience for you unnecessarily: Poise is much more important in DS2, and the only way to increase it (besides wearing heavier armour, or maybe certain spells) is levelling Endurance and Adaptability equally. If you have 20 END and 40 ADP, your Poise will be lower than if you had 30/30, for instance. Perhaps even more importantly, there's a stat called Agility, which is again raised by levelling Adaptability (and, to a lesser extent, Attunement), which makes many things you do just... better. Your dodges have more invincibility frames, you consume items and cast spells more quickly... It helps a lot. In short, regardless of what your build is or what other hints you read, remember this: make sure to keep your ADP (for Agility and Poise) and END (for Poise and stamina) up to date. You'll have a much more enjoyable experience.
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Tomo
Junior Member
Posts: 3,255
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Post by Tomo on Mar 4, 2024 22:33:19 GMT
Agree with most of that Rex.
I did abandon it last year after about 50 hours. It just became too dull and life is too short. Elden Ring is vastly superior.
I also bought DS2 and DS3, but I'm not sure I can be arsed with them tbh.
Sekiro though, now that's a stonking game.
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JonFE
Junior Member
Uncomfortably numb...
Posts: 1,839
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Post by JonFE on Mar 4, 2024 22:49:10 GMT
Tomo I'll put it in spoilers so that a certain fellow forumite won't hear it (right away at least) but you may skip Dark Souls 2 as it ain't that good, but do not skip Dark Souls 3, 'cause its worth a shot
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Post by Samildanach on Mar 4, 2024 23:02:33 GMT
You'll be pleased to know that the excellent DS2 dlcs can (and should) be played AFTER you beat the main game's final boss. NG+ won't start until you request from a major NPC.
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Post by JuniorFE on Mar 4, 2024 23:20:58 GMT
Tomo I'll put it in spoilers so that a certain fellow forumite won't hear it (right away at least) but you may skip Dark Souls 2 as it ain't that good, but do not skip Dark Souls 3, 'cause its worth a shot Your requested level 256(!) DS2 character is waiting for you btw
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