Hexen-Slayer

"Project Warlock is a first person shooter that fans of Doom, Hexen and Wolfenstein cannot miss" is what the summary text of PROJECT WARLOCK reads and that is the problem: it mixes everything, present, medieval and sci-fi and that just doesn't work. Stick to ONE theme! The graphics are "old school" with a cartoonish look which I did not care for. The level design is poor as well. There are other "old school" shooters out there that do a far better job as WARLOCK like DUSK, ION FURY, APOCRYPH or WRATH: AEON OF RUIN. 3 out of 9 (Bad)

THE BARD'S TALE IV has a great Gaelic score and a pretty interesting combat system. And that is all the good I have to say about THE BARD'S TALE IV! Graphics are outdated and the game world appears lifeless. Most NPCs stand around and don't do anything but wait for you to walk on by and talk to them. The game is very poorly balanced with some enemies being too easy and some supposedly low or mid level encounters being way too hard. Then there are the horrendous loading times of several minutes: the game is not up to date on a technical level to justify such loading times. Not even close! Quests are tedious and require traveling back and forth long distances with the occasional death and long loading times. Puzzles are extremely bad - I ended up disabling them. BARD's TALE IV does not deserve to bear the name BARD'S TALE, it's an insult to the superb original trilogy. Do yourself a favor: the original trilogy got a superb remaster, buy that instead. You'll be glad you did. BARD'S TALE IV however is a 3 out of 9 (Bad).

OPERENCIA: THE STOLEN SUN is the poor man's LEGEND OF GRIMROCK II, despite being priced about the same ($20). I fell for all the glowing reviews on Steam. The first impression is good: it does things quite differently than your average dungeon crawler, with a different art style - which was too cartoonish for my taste. The party banter seems like a great idea, it takes the party banter from BALDUR'S GATE to a whole new level, then it goes overboard and it gets tedious. i ended up skipping most of it because it gets in the way of wanting to finish something and they just don't want to stop babbling. The controls are not optimal: mouse aim and 90 degree step movement do not work together. One or the other! OPERENCIA: THE STOLEN SUN has a decent combat system - for the most part - but like in BARD'S TALE IV: BARROW'S DEEP an interesting combat system alone is not enough to save an otherwise lackluster game. The combat is badly balanced: special attacks are overpowered while standard attacks do next to nothing. Combat drags on forever, too, since player characters and enemies have hit points in the hundreds, which gets tedious quickly. 4 out of 9 (below average)

This is more DULL SOULS than DARK SOULS, as the creative heads of From Soft all went to make the outstanding BLOODBORNE, it seems they left the graveyard shift to throw together this abysmal sequel. I don't get the "professional" reviewers, this one has a higher metascore than the original and it is so much worse in EVERY aspect! - level design: gone is the level design with the clever connections and shortcuts, this is as linear as it gets - enemy design: copy & paste Ornstein. You fight like 4 variations of him within the first hour of the game. Many other enemies and bosses are copy & paste jobs as well. No boss really is memorable - atmosphere: lacking! The dark and sinister yields to a lighter and brighter world that does not hold the candle to DARK SOULS I, it doesn't even come close! - clunky combat: what the hell did they do to combat? It feels awfully clunky compared to DARK SOULS 1 & 3! Something is just off with the jerky movement. - terrible port: mouse & keyboard controls are terrible - unplayable. Graphics have not been improved either. As lazy as ports get - DS 1's addictive gameplay: gone! DARK SOULS was addictive. You died and died and died and died some more, yet you kept coming back. DARK SOULS II? Never finished it. Never will. There's no motivation here. Everything you see in DARK SOULS II you've seen in DARK SOULS I, just much much better - bad gameplay mechanic: if you die, you lose a portion of your max. health. This stacks, unless you use a limited resource. For people who are already struggling this is an unnecessarily frustrating mechanic Bottom line: of the DARK SOULS series this is by far the worst. The "Enhanced"? Edition known as SCHOLAR OF THE FIRST SIN doesn't make it much better. DARK SOULS III is just slightly better. Of the two I recommend NEITHER. Stick to DARK SOULS I, the Remastered version is the one to go, that's the version that should have been released in the first place. IF you should get DARK SOULS II then the SCHOLAR OF THE FIRST SIN is of course the one you want to pick up. 4 out of 9 (Below Average)

The good first: the dark setting and the atmosphere are really good! It is even darker than DARK SOULS. Unfortunately that's about it. The rest is a blatant copy all the way down to the controls and explaining lore by item descriptions. Unlike DARK SOULS, MORTAL SHELL hasn't mastered this technique yet. They did manage to add a little twist to the hole class system: shells. You literally wear classes like skin (or shells) and you can switch these during the game. Enemies yield "glimpses" which unlock some lore about the shell and serve as level ups. So far so good. Another addition is the "hardening" mechanic, which briefly turns the player into stone - this game's version of blocking. Otherwise the game offers nothing new. Tar serves as MORTAL SHELL's version of souls. Now I'm not really a fan of the "SOULS" game mechanics of respawning enemies and repetitious dying. Unfortunately for me there are very few "dark fantasy" games outside the "SOULS" games that nail the atmosphere. If you're a fan of this "new" genre you might hold MORTAL SHELL in a much higher regard. Enemy variety unfortunately is also lacking - as are the 7 bosses. Yes, MORTAL SHELL is a rather short game. Stone me, but I liked LORDS OF THE FALLEN better. 6 out of 9.

GRIM DAWN is by far the best DIABLO clone out there, yes, better than DIABLO II & III, better than TORCHLIGHT 2 and PATH OF EXILE. GRIM DAWN has a unique atmosphere and setting - post-apocalyptic fantasy with guns - unique classes (occultist, necromancer, etc.) and allows for dual-classing. The maps are hand crafted rather than procedurally generated - and you really can feel the difference! Levels are not endless mazes trying to create the longest way from A to B, they feel like real places. The entire map is one whole open world, the only loading screens are some interiors. Monsters are varies and well-designed. Despite no randomized levels, GRIM DAWN never gets boring - I've spent 1000+ hours in this game, longer than in any of this type, and I just started a new playthrough. 9 out of 9!

Not really a fan of strategy games, but this is my favorite. Forget X-Com, this is the ultimate strategy game. Set in the Warhammer world and based on the tabletop game Mordheim, MORDHEIM: CITY OF THE DAMNED consists of several skirmishes with permanent consequences for your warband - no saving and loading if you don't like the outcome. Your warband gains experience and each member is valuable, they are not expendable cannon fodder. Should they fall, they may gain permanent injuries. It is a hard game and has no "easy mode" or even difficulty settings. It can be extremely frustrating. Stone me, but I liked the HEARTS OF STONE DLC better than the base game and the BLOOD & WINE DLC. It had the better, more impactful story and most memorable characters. A more light-hearted sub-plot takes Geralt to a wedding with an old friend of his before embarking on a Faustian tale of gloom and doom. Unlike most RPG quests, these are well woven into the story and sometimes the side quests are even better written and designed than the main quests. That is especially true for the base game. MORDHEIM: CITY OF THE DAMNED nails the gritty dark Warhammer atmosphere, the environments are just beautiful. The game controls in 3D 3rd person POV which I like, the only downside is the controls which were designed with consoles in mind. 8 out of 9

If I wanted platforming, I'd play Super Mario. Platforming have no place in a 3D action game. Original DOOM knew that - they did not even include a jump button which was the right way to go. Also, what's with all those colorful icons and flashing lights? It's irritating as hell. You also must kill enemies with "glory kills" otherwise you will be out of ammo and out of health. This is their new "ground breaking" game mechanic. I found it annoying. Constantly you have "low ammo" and "low health" flashing up in bright colors. Sure, graphics are stunning, but what good is it if you cannot enjoy the vistas because you are constantly bouncing around like Mario on steroids. Enemies are not scary anymore, they have been degraded to a parody of their former selves and look cartoonish: shoot a grenade into a cacodemon's open mouth and he'll gulp like a cartoon character before exploding. When you glory kill enemies, their eyes bug out like in Looney Toons. This is not DOOM anymore, it's a farce. 3 out of 9 (Bad)

The final entry in the DARK SOULS series is out of ideas. It's not the train wreck that the horrible second installment was, but it's not really good either. There are notable improvements over the sequel in the enemy design - no more fighting 4 similar bosses, this has been somewhat reduced. The ridiculous amount of bosses has also been drastically reduced, which is much better (DS 2 obviously ran out of ideas, so they just copy-pasted a few bosses in each corner). Bosses now have 3 "stages" and change their patterns in each stage - this was carried over from BLOODBORNE.. I can't say I'm a fan of this, but I can see why die hard DS fans might applaud this. You will be revisiting Lordran and some areas of DARK SOULS 1, you will also fight a few old enemies. Whether this is good or bad you will have to decide for yourself. The complex level design of DARK SOULS 1 and its originality aren't here, but it is a step up from part 2 nonetheless. Die hard fans of SOULS games will probably love this entry, I did love the original DARK SOULS and my favorite out of these "type" of games is BLOODBORNE, but I wouldn't consider myself a fan of the "SOULS-genre". If that applies to you as well, you might want to pass this one. Something worth noting: the mouse + keyboard controls are still terrible, so don't even try playing this without a controller! Visually this is of course the most impressive entry in the series with some just marvelous vistas to behold. The art style is just gorgeous. Then it takes a step back with rather outdated textures. 6 out of 9 ("Above average")

Not impressed with this game at all. Didn't care much for the characters or the plot, and neither bosses nor regular enemies were memorable or well designed. They also should have excluded the puzzles: they are not fun but rather just stretch the game artificially. Loot is supposed to be fun - here it's a chore. 3 out of 9

LORDS OF THE FALLEN is one of the better "Souls-like" games. What sold me on this was the the dark atmosphere and architecture of the game world - in this I think it surpasses DARK SOULS II & III, but that is just my personal opinion. I also like that your player character - which is a fixed guy named Harkyn, you can only choose his "class" - does not prance around like a ballerina when not choosing the agile rogue as a class. The heavy armor of the warrior or cleric really feels like heavy armor instead of a tutu. The game also benefits from not being overly hard to ridiculousness (NIOH / SEKIRO) and does make for a better choice for those less experienced in this type of game. As I said, the world design is really good. The bosses however are rather OKish (nothing to write home about but solid). Some are like mini puzzles and require Harkyn to do something special to beat them. The "Souls" game mechanics are in place here as well: "portals" replace bonfires but the "souls". There are three classes to choose from (warrior, cleric or rogue). Then you choose the "magic type" which works as a sub-class (basically you can choose warrior and select cleric magic, or go full warrior, full cleric, etc.). Simple but good. Graphics and sound are decent, the voice acting is poor. The characters (player and NPCs) are underdeveloped and one dimensional. Harkyn has zero personality, he is never really fleshed out, neither is the story, which the developers never really made anything out of, which is a pity and a missed opportunity. With a really captivating story LORDS OF THE FALLEN could have been so much more. 7 out of 9 ("Good")

So... Obsidian made another BALDUR's GATE. I personally never was a fan of the COMMAND & CONQUER style combat system with optional pausing. Either go turn-based or go DIABLO-style. TYRANNY offers more of the same. Sure, this time you supposedly play the "bad guy". OK... what really **** in BALDUR"S GATE / ICEWIND DALE / NEVERWINTER NIGHTS was that you never really were given a real choice - choose the "good" option and get experience or choose the "evil" option and get no experience, be under-leveled and at a major disadvantage. TYRANNY has some serious issues: 1) Devs: In TYRANNY you have so many choices! And they matter! Really? I never could tell! You spare someone - they either kill themselves or attack you and you are forced to kill them anyway. Brilliant! 2) TYRANNY main campaign takes about 20 hours to complete. Compare that to PILLARS OF ETERNITY (40 hours) or BALDUR's GATE II SHADOWS OF AMN (70 hours!) and that is just pathetic. Devs: " But it's designed to be played through again! Sorry, that is not acceptable. Multiple playthroughs are a bonus and not an excuse to put out a short campaign. 3) Time limit. The first quest has a time limit. If you're like me and you want to explore every nook and cranny in this type of game that can be an issue. This is a serious faux pas! 4) Combat is bland. I already mentioned my personal dislike for the COMMAND & CONQUER-style combat system. That aside, in TYRANNY you'll encounter mostly two enemy types: humanoid armored enemies and humanoid unarmored enemies. The unarmored enemies take less damage from bludgeoning weapons but are susceptible to bladed weapons. With armored enemies it's the other way around. You will constantly get the prompt "weapon ineffective", so you'll constantly be switching between two different weapons. Oh, you only have swords? Well, you're screwed then! 5) With a game this short, surely they have all dialogues fully voiced! NO! Just as in PILLARS ? BALDUR's etc. only a few lines are spoken, then you have endless novels to read. If I want to read, I have tons of books here. I'll give the game a plus for the setting (Bronze-like era) and the conquest theme. It's not a terrible game by any means, just average. With so many games with the same engine out there, PILLARS 1 & 2, BALDUR's GATE I & II, ICEWIND 1 & 2, PLANESCAPE... this comes just as yet another BALDUR's clone. Therefore I give it a 5 out of 9 (AVERAGE).

KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RE-RECKONING is not really a remaster, but just a slightly polished reissue, and at $40 (or $55 for a special edition) a seriously over-priced one. I wasn't really impressed with the classic edition when it came out in 2012 either, despite some big names like R.A. Salvatore being involved, the world was just way too bright and colorful for my taste, monsters looked rather cuddly and not scary, it felt more like a Zelda game (I prefer "dark" fantasy). This reissue (it's too little to be called a remaster!) polishes some textures and adds a bit of lighting here and there, but it still looks like a product of the last decade: the game world is mostly empty, some textures are rather blurry, and the terrible PC controls and inventory management have not been touched at all, it was clearly designed with consoles in mind and then lazily ported over. The inventory system is complete garbage and combos in combat are atrocious to execute with mouse & keyboard that it's actually easier to just left-click your enemies to death DIABLO-style. And that's a pity, because combat really is KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RECKONING 's strong suit. Unlike THE WITCHER 3 and DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN 2, owners of the classic edition do NOT receive a free upgrade to the new version, they do get a 50% discount (at the moment), which still is too much. The classic edition was average at best. this "reissue" is below average" it looks very outdated, controls are terrible and quite frankly if you own the classic edition there really is NO reason to purchase this game again: that bit of extra polish could have been done in a mod (I'm not into the modding scene, it might already have been done, check nexus). If you don't own classic edition you might want to pass this one by as well, there are far better RPG options out there, some of which a lot cheaper by now!

Another just average (semi) open world RPG. Another (semi) open world RPG that does everything Ubisoft and Bethesda games do: a little bit of RPG elements (leveling, skills, crafting, party), a huge map full of question marks and fetch, go there press e & kill x quests. It does everything adequately, but excels at nothing. The sole outstanding asset of the game setting (17th century colonialism) which is unique. Graphics range from serviceable to good: environments are often times beautiful, but then you wander into town and see repetitious textures, copy & paste house interiors and the same character models in different clothing. Then there's the semi open world: semi open because it's not a huge inter-connected open world like SKYRIM, but rather sevreal small areas connected by travel points (to a much smaller scale comparable to THE WITCHER 2). Sounds & voice are serviceable as well, nothing special, but still good. The exception are the voice actors of the player character (you get to choose between a male or female); they are outstanding. The game feels very much like DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION (but it is much better than that one, and unlike INQUISITION this one has a day and night cycle!) with a pausable action-oriented combat system that has a DRAGON AGE-like skill bar with cool-down at the bottom, but mostly unimpressive and as basic as it gets. Just average (5 out of 9).

HATRED has a superb art style - mostly black & white with red (BLOOD), orange (explosions) and red/blue (cop car cherries) - I love it! The gameplay is simplistic but difficult: you run amuck and kill EVERYBODY. Yes, it's an amuck simulator if you will: amoral, violent and nihilistic. You go around killing - it's a twin-stick shooter, so what did you expect? HATRED is a very difficult game: you are constantly swarmed by enemies (cops shoot back, it takes place is the US and not the UK), most of which can shoot you before they come into view with dead eye precision. The only way to regain health is by performing an execution - but they trigger randomly and you have no influence on it. The gaming press ran the game down because it's politically incorrect (although in 2020 U.S. now that might change) and all victims are innocent. Unfortunately the press is incapable of disregarding politics (which is why THE LAST OF US II got all 100%s and 10 out of 10s and this has a 43 Metacritic score). HATRED is challenging and it is fun. Is it the greatest game ever made? Far from it. But for a twin-stick shooter - what can you expect? I love the art style in particular, far away from the bright neon colored comic book graphics as in DIABLO 3. HATRED is the IDEAL game for blowing off steam!

This game was released in 2018 - it's been 2 years, it's still an unplayable buggy mess. The devs have announced a sequel - and this garbage isn't even fixed yet! Expect crashes, quests not to trigger, area transitions not to trigger, also an error in the encumbrance system had all my items gain weight overnight - dropping the entire inventory and standing butt-naked didn't change anything (no affliction, 16 strength fighter). Even if all the bugs would be fixed, this is average at the very best. PATHFINDER: KINGMAKER is basically a BALDUR'S GATE / ICEWIND DALE / PILLARS OF ETERNITY clone with a tacked on kingdom management system - which I disabled since I had zero interest in that kind of things. If you played the mentioned above games, why should you play PATHFINDER: KINGMAKER? You shouldn't! First off, the COMMAND & CONQUER combat system with pausing is obsolete. Either go DIABLO-style clickfest or go DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN 2 turn based combat (which would be my preference), but this combat system is garbage. Secondly, events with time limits are an absolute no-go! The first task has a time limit, run out of time: game over! Three: include the ruleset! Former RPG games of the 90s like EYE OF THE BEHOLDER had in-depth description of the D&D ruleset (on which PATHFINDER is based), even though that game only used a very simplified variety to them. Here you better have some knowledge or you're poop outta luck. Graphics and art style are ugly. Add terrible voice acting (Linzi, shut up!) but at least it has the typical "only every first line of each paragraph voiced" novel-length dialogues, so you won't have to put up with too much of it (Linzi ended up not in my party anyway). Sound effects and score are serviceable, but nothing more than that. Character portraits are a joke! Only a handful to choose from and not one was visually pleasing. A repetitive gameplay loop (especially if you've played the afore-mentioned games) with a copy & paste job of the HUD had me wanting to uninstall this garbage after only a few minutes. If you must play one of these COMMAND & CONQUER-RPGs, pick BALDUR's GATE II if you must, or PILLARS OF ETERNITY I & II to get the best of this type, but avoid this bugged, boring and bland BG-rip-off like the plague (you'll be glad you did!).

BLOODBORNE is the best "Souls/Borne" game out there. While I did enjoy DARK SOULS (1), I never could get into its sequels (especially the terrible second one). I don't consider myself a "souls pro" - not even close, I never got past Ornstein & Smough - but I managed to beat every single boss of BLOODBORNE, including the optional ones. BLOODBORNE is hard but it definitely is doable. The best part of BLOODBORNE is the atmosphere and the world design: it borrows from Gothic horror and H.P. Lovecraftian Cosmic horror, but not in a cheap way, oh no, it does it in the best way possible and has enough originality to not be just a knock-off. I will forever remember my first climatic encounter with Father Gascoigne as the best fight ever in a game. It looks and sounds great and has a terrific soundtrack and unique voice acting. BLOODBORNE is the only reason I bought a PS4 - and I did not regret it! I've put 500+ hours into the game.

Stone me, but I liked the HEARTS OF STONE DLC better than the base game and the BLOOD & WINE DLC. It had the better, more impactful story and most memorable characters. A more light-hearted sub-plot takes Geralt to a wedding with an old friend of his before embarking on a Faustian tale of gloom and doom. Unlike most RPG quests, these are well woven into the story and sometimes the side quests are even better written and designed than the main quests. That is especially true for the base game. I don't give 10 ratings - since there is no perfect game - so this is my highest rating a 9.

I regret buying WOLCEN: LORDS OF BOREDOM, which is probably the worst hack & slash game out there. Sure, it's got good graphics (good, not great), and a new twist on a skill system, also doing away with the classes, but all that doesn't change the fact that WOLCEN is BORING. Hack through bland enemies in gauntlet labyrinthian levels, switch your loot, return to store to sell obsolete items, rinse and repeat. Let's face it, this genre needs some innovation, the same old - same old is not gonna do it anymore, and just a different class system is not enough. Even the HUD is hardly distinguishable from that of DIABLO and its clones. Paired with tons of bugs and bad controls (try hitting a mobile small enemy like a rat with a pixel-big click window) I got sick and tired of this game halfway through. Avoid WOLCEN: LORDS OF BOREDOM like the plague!

The developers of UNDERWORLD ASCENDANT should be banished to the underworld. I've played indie games made by a team of one that are far superior to this. UNDERWORLD ASCENDANT should be ashamed to use the name UNDERWORLD, as the ULTIMA UNDERWORLD games, being almost 30 years old created a far more believable and immersive underworld than this. This is lazy programing: the game world consists out of a handful of levels which you will revisit over and over and over and over again to do quests - not given to you by NPCs, no, you just rip em off a board. The typical fetch x or kill x chores. The areas you revisit reset. Locked doors are locked again, enemies are back and puzzles need to be solved again. The physics system is the most primitive thing they could get to work, it's also glitchy as hell. The art style is terrible - neon lights, bright colors, feels more like Tokyo than an Underworld. Then there's tons of bugs. Well, at least it has to have a great story, right? No! You dream and awaken in the Underworld, and have to kill its prisoner Typhon. Yeah, brilliant, right?! UNDEROWORLD: ASCENDANT is one of the worst games ever made.

HORIZON ZERO DAWN is just an average open world game. It features the same open world tropes that we've seen in other games from Ubisoft to Bethesda. Unremarkable NPCs have quests for you, that they are incapable or unwilling to do themselves, so they just wait for some random stranger to walk by to do it for them. Once you've finished their tasks, it's goodbye, never see ya again. These "quests" are your average quests that we've completed several times before in just about every open world game before, usually find x somewhere, fetch x here and bring to me or kill x. Early on Aloy, the player character finds a device called a focus which is this game's "detective/witcher vision". Yeah, yeah, yeah, same old, same old. Crafting is as tedious as ever, too, collect x amount of x to craft x... it was interesting the first time they had this, now it's just tedious and I wish developers would EXclude crafting completely. There's your obligatory skill tree, nothing new here either, a basic stealth system - same mechanics as always, yada yada yada. So the bottom line, HORIZON ZERO DAWN is a patchwork of mechanics from other games, with tedious and boring missions, unmemorable NPCs and an unnecessary skill tree. It does everything other open world games do, but there's nothing it does extraordinarily well or completely different than others. I actually got bored playing this and most quests were chores. Only recommended for die hard fans of the open world genre.

ELDERBORN is yet another DARK SOULS clone, only in first person point of view instead of third. The gameplay mechanics are the exact same. Take away DARK SOULS' superb level design, dark fantasy atmosphere and exquisite storytelling and add a bright neon color palette and you have ELDERBORN. The graphics reminded me of UNDERWORLD: ASCENSION (and that is NOT good!). The souls mechanics are here, too: every enemy can kill you in a few hits, you need to manage your stamina - so far so good, those are good mechanics. But then you have the stupid mechanics where enemies are rooted into a fixed location, once you rest (fountains are ELDERBORN's bonfires) they all respawn. Not a fan of this! At least they did away with the "souls" system. This game is average at best. I did not care for the graphics and art style.

QUIT USING YOUR CUSTOMERS AS BUG TESTERS! Wasteland 3 has more issues than Fallout 76! Fallout 76 got ripped a new one, while Wasteland 3 gets almost universal praise. In this current state the game is unfinished and virtually unplayable - hence a 0. Crashes, crashes and more crashes - to add salt to injury the loading times are inexplicably long: this is not a state of the art game that would justify such loading times! Seeing this game, I can't but wonder, what took the devs so long to make this? Quality testing? Hell no! Stunning visuals/ cutscenes? Nope, still the same as in Wasteland 2! Seriously, InXile, what the ef did you do in those years??? It feels more like a Wasteland 2.5 . Groundbreaking new game mechanics? You wish! It even does not have that much tactical depth to it: there are no factions! Two different enemies (mutants & raiders) don't fight each other, but both attack my group. Hell, even classic DOOM had monster in-fighting! The camera has issues as well and don't get me started on the botched stealth system. Graphics look badly outdated, I personally did not care for the cartoonish style. If you have Wasteland 2 - stick with that one and avoid Wasteland 3 like the plague. Re-fkin-funded!

WARHAMMER: VERMINTIDE 2 is a hack & slash fan's dream come true. 3D hacking & slashing does not get any better than this. The only downside is, it's co-op. I would prefer a single player version of the game, but at least you can enter a private session and the three other characters get played by bots. These act fairly well - I had no issues with pathfinding or the AI in general. You have the choice between 5 characters: a soldier, a dwarven and an elven ranger, a witch hunter and a mage, each of which has another 3 sub classes that unlock with levels. I preferred the DLC Grail Knight who is heavily armored but may not use any ranged weapons. But what character you choose comes down to personal preference. The game is better balanced than it's predecessor which **** if you played with only bots. The AI has been improved significantly and being grappled by one of the special enemies now no longer is a death sentence. As a matter of fact on the easiest difficulty setting this game is playable without much tactics - simple hack & slash with the 3 other bots holding their own. The graphics and fantastic, each map is very detailed and looks like an actual medieval town or castle complete with narrow cobble stone alleys. The architecture is just amazing! Weapons feel real and have superb feedback. Butchering hordes of ratmen feels like the lawnmower scene in Peter Jackson's Braindead with blood and guts flying all over - it makes DOOM look like a kiddie game. The environments look breathtaking and nail the WARHAMMER grittiness. Also, the enemy design is quite good with a good variety of ratmen and well more ratmen and then even more ratmen. OK, there are also chaos troopers, but the main focus is ratmen (Skaven). The sound and music are really good, too. swords or hammers striking armor actually sounding like it rather than someone beating a trash can with a stick, but what steals the show is the voice acting: my favorites are Tim Bentinck as the witch hunter and Alix Wilton Regan as the elven ranger. WARHAMMER: VERMINTIDE 2 is not a typical RPG in the style of SKYRIM. Think of it as skirmishes in the style of the WARHAMMER board games: you start a mission that has a clear objective. The map is NOT open world, they are maze-like and areas are blocked off, which is not always done in the best way, but open world would not have worked here. (You still can get lost and exploration is definitely possible and rewarded). It plays like LEFT 4 DEAD but with medieval weapons, and I personally prefer VERMINTIDE 2 to any of the LEFT FOR DEAD games. Character customization is limited but it's there: said 3 sub-classes per character, then there are Talents, 3 of which are unlocked every 5 levels up to level 30. Per tier only one may be active at any given time.

Bioware's games get worse with each new release, DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION hits rock bottom with a terribly sterile open world that feels dead and ugly character models. An "open world" without a day and night cycle? Really? NPCs just standing at a fixed location or the occasional NPC running back and forth between point A and B? Seriously? The map spawns templars and mages randomly that fight each other, Bioware was so lazy that templars and mages only have one character model each. Apparently the engine also has problems with heights, as enemies that are on a higher or lower elevation than the party don't take note of you. Finally the RPG elements have been further dumbed down, attributes are now leveled up automatically, you only get to pick the skills out of 3 skill trees for each character class. Each class is limited to a set of weapons: a mage can only use a staff, for a warrior you need to choose at the beginning if you want to use a sword & shield or a two-handed weapon, for a rogue you need to choose at the beginning whether you want to use a bow & arrow or dual wield daggers. Want to play a warrior who dual wields swords? Well, you can't! Character models are among the ugliest I have ever seen, with female looking butch rather than feminine. The story is so bad, once again focusing on templars vs. mages, the same thing we've been through in DRAGON AGE 2 and to some extent in DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS. Apparently all creative heads have left Bioware leaving only SJWs behind. Bioware thought it more important to put SJW elements in the game than to create a believable open world: you have a transgender character here, with another character coming out to defend that vigorously. Somehow that was more important than a day & night cycle or NPCs that don't just stand around like trees. DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION also lacks atmosphere: the world seems to brightly colored, enemies don't look menacing at all and gone is the dark fantasy setting from the original. DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION also looks and plays like it was designed primarily for consoles and then ported to PC: the HUD is over-sized and butt-ugly, cluttering up most of the screen with huge character portraits, health bars and worst of all, constant mission objectives taking up about one third of the screen. Bioware, have you ever heard of IMMERSION? No, guess not, just gay romances and trannies, eh? Then the controls are terrible as well: to pick up an item, you have to stand a pixel away from it at the most, wait for a tiny circle to appear, then right-click inside this tiny circle, then select from a loot menu. Click outside the tiny circle and the character will move away. Oh, yeah, walking is bad, too, somehow the characters "overshoot" when you try to walk on a ledge. The camera angles are the worst, you feel unnecessarily distanced from your characters, then the "tactical view" is horrible to control and unhelpful. This game was made for consoles only, mouse & keyboard controls will give you cramps! There is nothing positive about DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION. Absolutely nothing! DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION does deserve a reward: WORST RPG ever made. And no, that's no exaggeration, it really is that bad! This is definitely the LAST Bioware game I'm ever gonna buy! They announced DRAGON AGE IV - well, they can shove that where the sun don't shine!!!

I really wanted to love WARHAMMER: CHAOSBANE. A hack & slash game with excellent visuals set in the Warhammer (Fantasy) world, what could go wrong? Well... quite a few things... THE GOOD - art design & style: I love it! The graphics look great, the gothic style is fantastic and the effects look magnificent. - skill system. You unlock skills by level, both active and passive and you can mix and match these skills. Each skill comes in 3 upgrades unlocked at higher levels. Each skill also costs a certain amount of skill points to "ready". Your "readied" skills cannot exceed your skill points. This system is new and quite good. - boss fights are really cool! THE BAD - repetition. This is something that most games in this genre suffer from. DIABLO, GRIM DAWN, and all other DIABLOesque games are fun for a while, but then the endless cycle of random labyrinthian levels with endless hordes of cannon fodder and even more loot gets boring. And this goes for all three DIABLO games as well as for my personal favorite in the genre, GRIM DAWN. WARHAMMER: CHAOSBANE suffers more from it because each chapter only has one tile set. You end up doing 5 dungeon runs with this tile set, then beat the boss of the chapter before being ushered into the next chapter with a new tile set. That is very poor and lazy design! - enemies. There are basically 3-4 enemies in the game. This number is boosted by reskins only. Then there are 4 bosses. Yes, only 4. In a game such as this variety is king. Enemy variety is an absolute MUST - a dead HUB: between "missions" (which basically are dungeon runs) you need to run around the HUB and talk to different characters to advance to the next "mission" and collect your reward. The quest givers are found in different buildings. Why? To stretch game time? - no store system. Yes, you read correctly. You do not sell obsolete items, you DONATE them. Instead of gold you get a sort of "experience" to unlock passive abilities - voice acting. Atrocious. Just atrocious. Especially the elf girl made me cringe - story: the story is poor. Couple that with the horrible voice acting, I ended up skipping ALL dialogue just to get back to killing (don't worry about missing mission details, in modern game fashion you have a mini map with GPS and constantly on-screen mission objectives - seriously overpriced! The regular version of CHAOSBANE costs $50. The Magnus Edition costs $70. To be honest, $50 is far too much for what is offered here. This is a $20 game MAX! AND THE UGLY: - there are 6 active and 4 passive skill slots. 4 further passive skill slots are only available to those who bought the more expensive Magnus Edition ! Bottom line: WARHAMMER: CHAOSBANE is a painfully average game that could have been so much more. The devs had a gem of a license, the WARHAMMER universe is rich and has so many monsters and classes to choose from and the devs only use 4 monsters and 4 bosses? Then there's the most stereotypical character classes: a sword & shield soldier, a dual wielding dwarven barbarian, an elven mage and an elven ranger. Where's the witch hunter? Nah, we got an additional class, the dwarven inventor (yawn). The game's main campaign clocks in at about 10 hours (I beat it in 9 because I skipped all the dialogue and played on "easy" to try to get to a more interesting chapter - which never came. Wait for a very deep sale for this one. It is not worth more than $20. There are several BETTER alternatives available which are cheaper, too: DIABLO 1 + Hellfire expansion are available for $10 on GOG. GRIM DAWN is available for about $25 (+DLCs extra). For $55 you get the entire GRIM DAWN package which offers more content and definitely more variety than CHAOSBANE. And PATH OF EXILE is completely free to play.

Once the DISAPPOINTMENT wears off, this is actually fun! After being very disappointed at its initial release I actually played through HELLRAID completely. I still wish we'd gotten what we were promised in 2013/2014, I still wish Techland would cancel DYING LIGHT 2 in favor of a full HELLRAID game (we really don't need another zombie game set in the present day, but we really could use a modern day successor to WITCHAVEN), but apparently this is the best we're gonna get. Unfortunately it kind of is just a stripped-down demo version of what HELLRAID was supposed to be. HELLRAID offers dark fantasy hack & slash, and it is refreshing to have a dark fantasy hack & slash that isn't either a DIABLO or DARK SOULS clone, so that's a plus. What HELLRAID nails is the atmosphere - few games come close. The Gothic atmosphere, the creature sounds and design all are top notch. What I did not care for however is that no gameplay mechanic were added. This is DYING LIGHT with a new paint job. They basically ripped the skin off 2013's HELLRAID and left the soul behind. It plays like DYING LIGHT. Many game mechanics of DYING LIGHT don't make sense here: parkours and scaling walls feels out of place, the limited durability of swords and weapons, while yes, a makeshift club or ripping an iron bar off the wall would have a limited durability, for a sword or mace crafted by a blacksmith to break after a few swings - let's say that blacksmith has the wrong job... For HELLRAID weapon degradation should have been ditched entirely given the maximum playtime of a run of only 60 mins. Instead I would have liked to see some additional gameplay mechanics like SHIELDS, ARMOR and maybe BLOCKING?! Nope, not here. CONTENT is also a problem - or the lack thereof. Basically it's three levels in which you are locked in arena-like rooms (think 2016's DOOM) and have to combat swarms of enemies before the next room unlocks. You collect three "keys" and fight three final rounds before the ultimate boss. All that can be done in 30 - 60 mins. (no exaggeration!). Why not, at least make the dungeons randomized? I mean REMNANT: FROM THE ASHES was able to do it? It would have added a LOT of replayability. Lastly am easily fixable gripe is immersion - or the lack thereof: the player character wears his street clothes from DYING LIGHT and his w r i s t w a t c h (Braveheart anyone?). How about some medieval armor??? How about a better HUD and menu? Something medieval with a Gothic font instead the sci-fi based DYING LIGHT one??? This is just immersion breaking and lazy. Also I did not like that HELLRAID is not accessible through the menu. You are forced to play through the entire tutorial. Dear devs, some of us do not enjoy DYING LIGHT and were "forced" to buy it just to be able to play HELLRAID which should have been a standalone game in the first place! We don't really want to be forced to play about an hour of DYING LIGHT just to get to play HELLRAID! And finally the simplistic combat. Left click to swing. That's it. You have to unlock a heavy swing before you can hold the left mouse button to smash some skulls. Like I mentioned before, shields and blocking would have been a must. Now I know this sounds like a negative review and my original rating was a 4 out of 10, BUT I really fell in love with this game. It is fun. I've played through it more than 12 times already. I still wish they'd give us a real full-length standalone title one day, and hopefully they will (which is why I ended up buying HELLRAID *TWICE*, once on Steam and once on GOG. It's not a 9 or 10 out of 10. I'm torn between a 6 and a 7.5, but in good faith that there'll be some UPDATES in the future I'll settle with a 7.5 ~ 8.

Once the DISAPPOINTMENT wears off, this is actually fun! After being very disappointed at its initial release I actually played through HELLRAID completely. I still wish we'd gotten what we were promised in 2013/2014, I still wish Techland would cancel DYING LIGHT 2 in favor of a full HELLRAID game (we really don't need another zombie game set in the present day, but we really could use a modern day successor to WITCHAVEN), but apparently this is the best we're gonna get. Unfortunately it kind of is just a stripped-down demo version of what HELLRAID was supposed to be. HELLRAID offers dark fantasy hack & slash, and it is refreshing to have a dark fantasy hack & slash that isn't either a DIABLO or DARK SOULS clone, so that's a plus. What HELLRAID nails is the atmosphere - few games come close. The Gothic atmosphere, the creature sounds and design all are top notch. What I did not care for however is that no gameplay mechanic were added. This is DYING LIGHT with a new paint job. They basically ripped the skin off 2013's HELLRAID and left the soul behind. It plays like DYING LIGHT. Many game mechanics of DYING LIGHT don't make sense here: parkours and scaling walls feels out of place, the limited durability of swords and weapons, while yes, a makeshift club or ripping an iron bar off the wall would have a limited durability, for a sword or mace crafted by a blacksmith to break after a few swings - let's say that blacksmith has the wrong job... For HELLRAID weapon degradation should have been ditched entirely given the maximum playtime of a run of only 60 mins. Instead I would have liked to see some additional gameplay mechanics like SHIELDS, ARMOR and maybe BLOCKING?! Nope, not here. CONTENT is also a problem - or the lack thereof. Basically it's three levels in which you are locked in arena-like rooms (think 2016's DOOM) and have to combat swarms of enemies before the next room unlocks. You collect three "keys" and fight three final rounds before the ultimate boss. All that can be done in 30 - 60 mins. (no exaggeration!). Why not, at least make the dungeons randomized? I mean REMNANT: FROM THE ASHES was able to do it? It would have added a LOT of replayability. Lastly am easily fixable gripe is immersion - or the lack thereof: the player character wears his street clothes from DYING LIGHT and his w r i s t w a t c h (Braveheart anyone?). How about some medieval armor??? How about a better HUD and menu? Something medieval with a Gothic font instead the sci-fi based DYING LIGHT one??? This is just immersion breaking and lazy. Also I did not like that HELLRAID is not accessible through the menu. You are forced to play through the entire tutorial. Dear devs, some of us do not enjoy DYING LIGHT and were "forced" to buy it just to be able to play HELLRAID which should have been a standalone game in the first place! We don't really want to be forced to play about an hour of DYING LIGHT just to get to play HELLRAID! And finally the simplistic combat. Left click to swing. That's it. You have to unlock a heavy swing before you can hold the left mouse button to smash some skulls. Like I mentioned before, shields and blocking would have been a must. Now I know this sounds like a negative review and my original rating was a 4 out of 10, BUT I really fell in love with this game. It is fun. I've played through it more than 12 times already. I still wish they'd give us a real full-length standalone title one day, and hopefully they will (which is why I ended up buying HELLRAID *TWICE*, once on Steam and once on GOG. It's not a 9 or 10 out of 10. I'm torn between a 6 and a 7.5, but in good faith that there'll be some UPDATES in the future I'll settle with a 7.5 ~ 8.

Once the DISAPPOINTMENT wears off, this is actually fun! After being very disappointed at its initial release I actually played through HELLRAID completely. I still wish we'd gotten what we were promised in 2013/2014, I still wish Techland would cancel DYING LIGHT 2 in favor of a full HELLRAID game (we really don't need another zombie game set in the present day, but we really could use a modern day successor to WITCHAVEN), but apparently this is the best we're gonna get. Unfortunately it kind of is just a stripped-down demo version of what HELLRAID was supposed to be. HELLRAID offers dark fantasy hack & slash, and it is refreshing to have a dark fantasy hack & slash that isn't either a DIABLO or DARK SOULS clone, so that's a plus. What HELLRAID nails is the atmosphere - few games come close. The Gothic atmosphere, the creature sounds and design all are top notch. What I did not care for however is that no gameplay mechanic were added. This is DYING LIGHT with a new paint job. They basically ripped the skin off 2013's HELLRAID and left the soul behind. It plays like DYING LIGHT. Many game mechanics of DYING LIGHT don't make sense here: parkours and scaling walls feels out of place, the limited durability of swords and weapons, while yes, a makeshift club or ripping an iron bar off the wall would have a limited durability, for a sword or mace crafted by a blacksmith to break after a few swings - let's say that blacksmith has the wrong job... For HELLRAID weapon degradation should have been ditched entirely given the maximum playtime of a run of only 60 mins. Instead I would have liked to see some additional gameplay mechanics like SHIELDS, ARMOR and maybe BLOCKING?! Nope, not here. CONTENT is also a problem - or the lack thereof. Basically it's three levels in which you are locked in arena-like rooms (think 2016's DOOM) and have to combat swarms of enemies before the next room unlocks. You collect three "keys" and fight three final rounds before the ultimate boss. All that can be done in 30 - 60 mins. (no exaggeration!). Why not, at least make the dungeons randomized? I mean REMNANT: FROM THE ASHES was able to do it? It would have added a LOT of replayability. Lastly am easily fixable gripe is immersion - or the lack thereof: the player character wears his street clothes from DYING LIGHT and his w r i s t w a t c h (Braveheart anyone?). How about some medieval armor??? How about a better HUD and menu? Something medieval with a Gothic font instead the sci-fi based DYING LIGHT one??? This is just immersion breaking and lazy. Also I did not like that HELLRAID is not accessible through the menu. You are forced to play through the entire tutorial. Dear devs, some of us do not enjoy DYING LIGHT and were "forced" to buy it just to be able to play HELLRAID which should have been a standalone game in the first place! We don't really want to be forced to play about an hour of DYING LIGHT just to get to play HELLRAID! And finally the simplistic combat. Left click to swing. That's it. You have to unlock a heavy swing before you can hold the left mouse button to smash some skulls. Like I mentioned before, shields and blocking would have been a must. Now I know this sounds like a negative review and my original rating was a 4 out of 10, BUT I really fell in love with this game. It is fun. I've played through it more than 12 times already. I still wish they'd give us a real full-length standalone title one day, and hopefully they will (which is why I ended up buying HELLRAID *TWICE*, once on Steam and once on GOG. It's not a 9 or 10 out of 10. I'm torn between a 6 and a 7.5, but in good faith that there'll be some UPDATES in the future I'll settle with a 7.5 ~ 8.