Bazza

The game is utterly incredible and epitomises the very idea of risk vs reward gameplay. You will die loads of times, but each time you will have made progress - not in a continual sense but in the sense that you will learn from your mistakes and become more proficient with each run. Things that seemed impossible despite countless attempts soon ease because of muscle memory and improving in segments. There is definitely a sense of injustice a lot of the time, as each run is randomised in terms of drops, items and 'biome' layouts, meaning you could either be heavily favoured or left short in change but all in all it's been executed beautifully. As for the sound effects and atmosphere - wow! You have to experience it to appreciate the level of detail in every sound and movement. Don't listen to the low scoring reviews - these are mostly by people with no patience and not giving the game a chance or understanding the risk vs reward elements. It's easy to p!ss on a game like this after playing less than a few hours but you just need to stick with it and it'll blow you away.

Over four years since release and the game does not get old. Art direction is gorgeous and still one of the best in any game to date. A ridiculous amount of builds to go with due to the vast scale of weapons and customisation with ashes of war and smithing stones- Want to have a colossal great sword on a strength build and still have the ability to use a side dagger/curved sword with parry? You can do that. Want to use a heavy shield and a thrusting sword and use magic? to whittle enemies down? Yep, that, too. Replayability on this game is almost endless - you can farm runes quite easily late game and max out tonnes of weapons at your leisure , experimenting with different builds and weapons and going to fight other players either in 1v1s or invading. Almost every playthrough you will find something you didn't in the previous due to the scale of the map and easily missing areas, caves etc. So much to explore and find. My first FS game was Bloodborne in 2018, then played Demon's Souls followed by the DS trilogy. Let me say this: I think anyone who says the original Dark Souls games that came before this are better, really are kidding themselves or are trying to be contrarian hipsters. This game does everything they all do but better and broader. The game is a masterpiece in every sense.

Combat is fun and rewarding; reave in particular is a very nice system that separates it from other Souls-like titles. Is it as good as Bloodborne? No, absolutely no way but given that the game was made by indie devs that are famed for the Worms series back in the 90s and early 00s, they've come a very long way and should be proud of this cult gem.

This game came out over 6 years ago, and I only started playing it last week. So far I've killed 4-5 bosses and am nowhere near finishing, but I can without a doubt say this is the most engaging, frustrating, brutal and soul destroying game I've ever played. You cannot just rush in and kill things unwittingly. It's a game where risk vs reward is off the charts, where you simply cannot afford to be complacent of cocky at any time, especially if there are hordes of enemies running at you, or during intense boss fights or you will be punished. When you die after a long run without reaching the insanely sparse 'save points', the game makes you want the earth to open up and swallow you. It's a painful experience but when you make it through, it's an overwhelming sense of catharsis and relief after a gut wrenching period. The atmosphere is also unbelievable, and it ties in beautifully with the unsettling gothic surroundings. You will jump out of your skin on several occasions when the game tricks you into thinking you're safe, but you seldom are. This game is free with PS Plus. I was in the middle of playing finishing my Mass Effect 3 playthrough when this interrupted it and the controller has been fused to my hand since. Get this game without hesitation.

There are too many issues in this game that you cannot ignore. One of my biggest issues is the joke of the checkpoints - I'm having checkpoints at times when I'm about to die. The mission where you have to get the flathead makes a checkpoint where you can get detected by the cameras and midway through killing one of the npcs - I have about 19 health when I start the checkpoint and sometimes even when I mash the shoot button I will still die instantly. This is just absolutely shocking and should not be released when this happens. Glad the keybinding issue was fixed fairly early as not being able to do this as a leftie would have docked the score a couple points down to 4. Graphics are decent but nothing spectacular. Game overall seems very convoluted with the power ups etc. Way too complicated - just make it a simple rpg where you level your characters like on Mass Effect. No need for all the ridiculous customisation. Gameplay is good when it works - 7 Graphics - 8 Ease - 3 Longevity - 9 Clearly there's a lot to do in the game which saves this from a very low score from me. Fix the crippling issues in game with all the bugs and the absolute joke of the checkpoint issues and it'll get an 8.

It really is the definitive experience for the first 2 games. How can it not be? Gameplay is identical to the originals with some improvements like the UI side bar being more polished and practical, and being able to queue troop and vehicle production. This was something the game was undeniably lacking in Tiberium Dawn and Red Alert. Being able to seamlessly toggle between modern and legacy graphics is brilliant, so you can see how far the series has come from its infancy to now. So many cool features too, like the jukebox and being able to go back and do mission varients which couldn't be done in the original. For example in Red Alert where you have to help Tanya escape there are 3 different varients, and when you complete the first one you can go back and do the other two. This wasn't possible in the originals so a lot of thought has gone into this. I'll likely be playing this game for the next 10 years. An absolute bargain at £18. So much nostalgia!

The game is quite simply a masterpiece. GRAPHICS - FFVII Remke has pushed the PS4 to its limits here, visually stunning, the lighting and character models and the backdrops, structures of all the sectors are gorgeous to look at. COMBAT - Ridiculously fun and engaging, doing a combo with Cloud, firing a few shots with Barret and then finishing an enemy off with an uppercut or divekick with Tifa is very satisfying. WEAPON UPGRADE SYSTEM - This is a nice little addition from SE for the end user to put more time into the game, and being able to revisit old, iconic weapons like the Gatling gun, Buster Sword, Leather Glove because of their own perks and customisation is a very smart move and gives more depth and choices when preparing yourself for different fights. QUESTS - I'm on chapter 16/18 and looking at the quest screen I have apparently completed them all. In my honest opinion a lot of them did feel very underwhelming and almost like 'filler' but hey, it's something to do and you do get some nice rewards for finishing them all. For me this is probably the weakest part of the game but still good fun. SOUNDTRACK - They've executed this very well, renditions of the original hold up good and there are some truly epic new soundtracks. My favourite being the Rude/Reno fight on top of the tower, man that track gets the blood pumping (sorry, hope this isn't considered a spoiler). MIDGAR - A lot of people will complain that the game ends after Midgar... well let me say this, I'm on Chapter 16 and I'm almost 40 hours in, so it's not like it's a shortened experience by any stretch - the city is absolutely huge and there are so many corners to explore in the game. If you take your time with the game, you should at least be enjoying 30-50 hours of gameplay which is good value. CHARACTER DIALOGUE - This is one of the highlights of the game - the interaction between characters like Cloud, Barret and Tifa is outrageously good and you can see a lot of work has been done, there's banter and they all have digs at one another, plus even the non playable characters have great dialogue. Great voice acting and the whole experience touches the heart. If you're a big FF7 fan like myself, you will not be disappointed by this; it'll touch your heart! Overall, the game does not disappoint. A beautiful start to something much bigger!