Nioh 3 is sub-average graphics and story nicely getting wrapped up by good exploration and solid gameplay. Unlike with Nioh 2 Team Ninja actually listened to feedback this time. They replaced their terrible linear mission-based level design with an open world and they made the crappy KI pulse mechanic where you have to do a quick time event to regenerate stamina optional. In fact, most of the mechanics in Nioh 3 are now optional which makes the gameplay so much more enjoyable. And there are so many effects, weapons, moves, mechanics, armor... Discover stuff yourself instead of getting forced to, just go out and kill some demons, thats where Nioh 3 is at its best. Unfortunately there are still the bad PS3-era graphics, the embarrassing PS2-era story and cutscenes, the overall jank, etc etc. This game doesnt have a single great boss. They all range from ok to annoying to really easy and the npc bosses are all laughably bad where you either stunlock them or they kill you in one combo. Yeah there is still a lot to criticize. But unlike Nioh 1 and 2 which I abandoned after a few hours Nioh 3 is actually a playable game. Surely not worth $80 (+$40 Season Pass lmao) but for budget price its ok. I beat it in around 70h and did almost everything so there is a good amount of content here. Decent Asiaslop. 6/10
One of the best and scariest horror games I have ever played. Great graphics, solid gameplay, FANTASTIC sound design and music, great level design, interesting premise for the story. Nothing to criticize except some minor missteps in the last few levels of the game. My first SH but surely not my last! 9/10
Writing this while credits are rolling, this is definitely a good game. Lumina city is way bigger and more interesting than it originally seems, the new battle system is great fun, and the characters and quests are surprisingly good. After Legends Arceus send you in the lonesome wilderness this game is the complete opposite, which is very much appreciated. 8/10
The Dark Souls 2 of indie games. Yeah Silksong isnt bad, but its worse than its predecessor in all points. Worse levels, worse combat, bare bones upgrades, terrible bosses and platforming. The game is four times as big but only half as good, making it an absolute slog to play. 6/10 I will never play this game again
Yeah sadly this game isnt that good. Levels are the best aspect of it, they are huge and very DS1 inspired. Graphics would be good if not for the terrible performance and image quality on PS5. Weapon and build variety are ok, armor selection is good, but the bosses are the worst part of the game. All off them have incredibly poor timings so you have to basically cheat the combat system by spamming special attacks with hyperarmor. There is no other way. Wuchang is not great, but as a budget price game with a lot of content it could ....aaaaaaand it got censored. Chinese gaming lmao, insert social credit meme with John Cena eating an ice cream in Hongkong. Dont buy this.
This game is the definition of modern aaa slop. Its a giant amount of low effort content nicely packaged in good visuals and performance, accessibility options and live service junk. Good time waster and bug free, but nothing more.
Gameplay is a significant upgrade from MK8, the open world is fantastic, there is lots and lots o stuff to unlock, also this game can be insanely beautiful with graphics better than most PS5 games while running at flawless 4K60. Knockout Tour is such a fun mode. 10/10 instant classic and it will probably sell a bajillion copies like MK8.
While there are some big problems like missing 2 player coop, voice chat, pings and a few wonky mechanics the overall experience is incredibly intense. Nightreign is pushing way past the skill level required for the "regular" Fromsoftware games. It forces you to become a speed runner, optimize your runs, and then be REALLY fast and efficient. Also there is also not a single game like this. The gameplay loop is fundamentally unique, and the final bosses are some of the most difficult Fromsoftware has ever made. Great game but it wont get going for everyone. 9/10
Generational JRPG masterpiece. Turn based combat surely isn’t for everyone but this is probably the most exciting turn based combat to date. The story is great and very emotional, the characters feel like real people with superb voice acting and facial animations all around. The world is super creative and intriguing and the visuals put many AAA games to shame. Music is also the best since the NieR series. And all of that made by 30 former Ubislop devs as their first indie project, for budget price? 10/10 masterpiece all around. Super excited to keep playing!
This is another Gamecube "masterpiece" hitting Switch in its late life cycle, and again it turns out to be overrated. Compared to Paper Mario Origami King (a game often hated by TTYD fans) this game has worse levels, way worse side quests, and worse bosses. Story, writing, music, and the general vibe are equally good though if not better. There is too much ancient jpg formula garbage here which a Paper Mario game doesnt need, so Nintendo rightfully cut it out in future entries and I dont understand why people want it back. But unlike Metroid Prime or Mario Sunshine this is still a good game today. Not the best game of all time like some people claim, but solid overall. 7/10
A fantastic game with some flaws in its story and performance. But MH World was one of the best games of the PS4 generation and Wilds is even better in a lot of things on a fundamental level. It is just missing the 3 years worth of updates World received. So right now we have a great 100h game which is just the foundation for a 500-1000h game that will come in the future. If Capcom can keep it up this will be an almost incomprehensibly great game. Worth it already. 9/10 and likely 10/10 in a few years.
Its a good game, visually impressive, lots of bosses. Lots of experimental stuff. Sadly it doesnt run great and loses a lot of steam towards the end. Still very solid for the first ever chinese AAA game. If GS takes the right feedback they could deliver a truly legendary sequel.
Great game. Fantastic graphics and visuals, good combat, good story, really scary a lot of times. Its just a little too script- heavy, especially at the beginning. But other than that this is the definitive current gen horror game. 9/10
Yeah of course the Sonic kiddie fans are overrating this game with 10/10 reviews. But as someone who thinks most Sonic games are garbage I can say the critics are right. This is a good game. Sonic Generations was and still is the best game in the franchise apart from the racing spinoffs. There still is a fair amount of junk in this game, but unlike in other embarrassing entries like Sonic Boom or 06 the good stuff actually outweighs the bad stuff. Nothing in this game is average. Its either fantastic action with great visuals and music or horribly designed trash with zero thought put into it. But that makes it kinda fascinating. And for a remake this is actually a great package for a fair 49,99 price. 8/10
Despite the Links Awakening Remake graphics this is a way more modern game with lots of inspirations from open world BotW and TotK Zelda! Perfect game for fans who started with Zelda on the Switch. Great graphics, huge map and amazing sandbox gameplay which is very rarely seen in a 2D game. Possibly goty. Nintendo still got it after over 40 years!
A solid, high effort attempt at a Soulslike that sadly makes a few missteps along the way. You can clearly tell number 1 priority for the combat of Lies of P was to not make it feel janky. This is a difficult challenge even for most AAA studios, but the devs succeeded at it… with the cost of the combat also not feeling very impactful. The main character is a cute feminine boy and he hits like one. Lies of P has many weapons but balancing is bad with the Wolong crossover glaive being the best weapon in the game by a mile, and you get it right at the start so you dont need to use any other weapon ever. I dont like the parrying and I dont like how the stagger system works. Upgrades are solid. The Monster Hunter esque weapon durability and repair is a terrible feature though and shouldnt be in the game. Bosses are unique and creative but mostly not very challenging. Levels are good until they get too cheap with instakilling you with fall damage and status buildup. Arts style is solid but graphics are last gen and the skyboxes look terrible. Cutscenes look all great though. Story and characters are mostly not very interesting, music is ok, the overall amount of content is good, and there is a sense of polish everywhere. Lies of P is a good game but its one of the less interesting Soulslikes I played. 7/10
For a $35 indie game made by a small developer this is really impressive. First of all I love the setting. Bleak Faith Forsaken has a really unique atmosphere when exploring this nightmarish, oppressive "megastructure" made by corrupted AI. Its like an even darker version of Rubicon from Armored Core 6, but you are just a tiny solider and not a giant mech. Combat isnt great though. Its basically Dark Souls 1 but worse, with a fair amount of jank. But there are a lot of interesting design decisions around it. Bonfire checkpoints are far apart from each other, but when you die you dont lose xp. And you can create your own makeshift checkpoint anywhere. You only have a very limited amount of flasks to heal mid fight, but all of them get replenished after you kill an enemy. So as long you dont die you never run out of healing. Also there are some really fun and op abilities like special attacks, power armor or spawning a clone of yourself. So the combat of this game is more on the methodical side and not as hard as other Souls games, with lots of armor and skill customization an weapon variety (AND CAPES!!). I really like how big the exploration focus is. Music is great, and some weird graphics and repeated assets are actually playing into the setting of the game. Performance is stable enough at 4K60fps with lots of options and even alternative render modes like pixel art. Overall a really solid attempt from a small team that deserves praise. I would like to see what these guys could do with a bigger budget. 8/10
Probably the best Adobe Flash Player game of all time. Also probably the most expensive Adobe Flash Player game of all time. Challenging gameplay, tons of content and enemy variety, great style and music, and what feels like infinite ability options that change your character in the most grotesque ways. All of that.. for $60 AAA pricing? Wtf? Yeah sorry this is too much. All around great game but the responsible executive should get investigated for corporate sabotage. 8/10
Great gameplay, wonderful music, impressive graphics at 4K60fps, interesting level design, great attention to detail, good quests, a huge world to discover. Stellar Blade is the best game of the year. You can really see the devs put lots of passion and hard work into this game. 10/10
Behind gorgeous animations, music, art style and sound design lies a hack n slash game which is just... kinda average? Slow and some questionable design decisions here and there. And the reddit type humor is embarrassing. But its a good game for $30 I guess
I have over 300h in Splatoon so I wanted to see how this game is. Tldr: Its garbage. Foamstars is entirely made of ripped features from other games. The gameplay, modes and maps are from Splatoon, but its also a Hero Shooter like Overwatch and it has a Battle Pass and an Ingame Shop like Fortnite. There is nothing original here. But lets not criticize the game just for being a ripoff. Splatoon has a great concept and isnt available on PlayStation, so why not make a Splatoon game for non Nintendo players? Well you certainly cant do it like this, because Foamstars is worse in almost every **** only aspect where Foamstars clearly outclasses Splatoon is in its graphics. Solid 4K60fps cant be topped by any Switch game, Ill give Square Enix that. But thats it. They copied the Plaza Hub from Splatoon but its empty all the time which is quite sad and embarrassing. Why? Probably because this game is a hero shooter with 8 heroes and doesnt have a character creator. Customization is also very limited with most of the skins locked behind micropayment with $45 for a bundle WTF. So the devs probably had to make the Plaza empty to avoid a clone army situation where every player looks the **** movement is much clunkier than in Splatoon and players take way too long to kill so everyone is just piling on each other all the time. Its chaos with no rhyme or reason. But what about the worst aspect from Splatoon, the bad netcode which often disconnected players from the lobby. Is it fixed here? This is a ps+ launch game so online must be good, right? Right? Well, ITS EVEN WORSE HERE. If a player disconnects from a match, if he times out or ragequits it doesnt matter, the whole match just ends for all players and nobody gets anything. Yes Im not kidding. This is probably the worst design decision I have ever seen in an online game ever. Makes the game completely unplayable for me. In summary, this is a terrible, predatory game. It has some aspects that might make it enjoyable for some people, but these aspects are just lifted from Splatoon. Everything else is just bad. I would give this a 3/10
Great game! Evil West is like God of War but Kratos has a revolver. And a rifle. And a shotgun. And a flamethrower. And a machine gun. I really like this game :D You are playing an edgy cowboy ram ranching his way through hoards of vampires, werewolves, leech monsters and giant demons, using a wide arsenal of steampunk enhanced weapons. Core combat mechanics are actually better than GoW and upgrades make a huge difference, completely transforming the way you play the game. There is a fair amount of AA jank here and there and the story is what you expect from a game like this, but nothing is too outrageous and cut scenes can be skipped. The only huge flaw of Evil West is the image quality which is kinda bad, most definitely in 60fps mode but even in 30fps mode. Which is a shame because the graphics are beautiful and the gore is actually very detailed. But other than that, great game! Cant wait to replay it on highest difficulty! 9/10
Deathloop is one of the most tedious games ever. There are just four small locations which you grind again and again, with very little things changing. Gameplay is the same all along. Its average at best and unbearable at worst. Enemies are never a danger until they swarm you in absurd numbers. The real danger are traps that are very hard to see and they can instakill you. After every successful mission you have to reconnect to a server which gives you a long loading screen. But if you fail a mission, too bad, you have to manually skip a full in game day in one of the worst menus ever in a video game. Opening the menu during a mission is a bad idea since its also very laggy and can crash the game, probably due to the terrible server of this game. The story is a confusing mess with an unsatisfying ending. Its so much random, irrelevant garbage you just stop caring. The immersive sim elements are arbitrary and often illogical. The puzzles are basically all "click on every random prop until you get the code then enter it somewhere" and the game does a super poor job at visually highlighting stuff. Its mind numbing. Deathloop has some of the worst puzzles I have ever seen (shoutout to Fias reactor). At last the online invasion mode is broken and barely works even with good connection. Overall there isnt anything good here besides the art style and the music. Deathloop is somewhat creative, but its not good. 3/10
Im disappointed. Never played the original RE4 but I liked the RE2 Remake and RE8. RE4 is vastly different, and sadly to me its a bad game no matter how you slice it. RE4 is not a good shooter because the mechanics arent good enough for that. Wobbly aim, flimsy recoil and hit boxes, its basically the same gameplay as RE2 with a few new weapons and gimmicks. But in that game you always fight very few enemies in tight spaces where every shot counts, not waves and waves of throwaway hordes in open spaces. Shooting is unpleasant up close and straight up doesnt work at longer ranges. RE4 is not equipped to be a fast paced third person shooter, but it goes that route, and the result is often terrible. RE4 is also not a good horror game because with so much "action" its not scary at all. Zero tension, very little atmosphere, you dont have to worry about anything. Just spam your unsatisfying guns and ammo is everywhere. Games like Bloodborne or Tomb Raider or even Callisto Protocol combine action and horror much, much better. Lastly the game doesnt even look "that" great. Character models look like wax figures and the graphics are pretty much last gen with extra steps. A lot of crossgen games like God of War or even RE8 look better. RE4 wants to be a jack of all trades but its simply not good enough at anything. 4/10
Expect difficult gameplay, goofy armor sets, and plenty of close-up feet shots. This really is the Dark Souls of UE5 games. Corrupted saves still need a fix though.
Writing this for people who played AC6 and may be interested in older AC games. Yeah... dont make that mistake. Armored Core: For Answer ****. Even if you view it accordingly, as a PS3 game released in 2008, AC4A is nearly unplayable. Horrible frame rate, controls, graphics, the tech is so bad, its way below even the infamous Dark Souls 1.00 version. Genuinely hard to believe the game is running on the actual PS3 hardware and not on a build in N64 emulator or something. Fast gameplay doesnt work well with unstable 15 fps. There is no way to farm money which hampers the sandbox customization aspect of the game. The gameplay puts a huge focus on airborne combat but you cant seamlessly take off while boosting around. You have to come to a complete halt and then boost upwards to fly. This game tries a lot of interesting stuff but everything is heavily flawed. Problems with the lock-on, a crappy UI and balancing issues are expected of an Armored Core game. But the giant machines have a cooler design than in AC6, and the mission structure is better, which are the only actual positives I could find. Old Fromsoftware games have something alluring to them but its better to stay away most of the time.
So I heard a lot of bad things being said about this game, and I didnt buy it, but now its on PS+ so I though "yeah lets give it a try". And to my surprise the game is way better than I expected. Callisto Protocol has great graphics, is scarier than many other horror games, good level design, and the combat is actually good and not the most horrible thing in existence. Tense, challenging, solid weapons and upgrades, at it really has a lot of weight to it. Imo better than the combat in the RE2 Remake for example. The only two problems this game has is that the auto-lockon is too aggressive which leads to some frustrating moments, and that certain enemy types are getting reused way too often. But other than that its a good game. Very solid for being the first game from a new studio. 8/10
Vampire Survivors is just great value for this low price. You cant really complain with 100+ hours of solid gameplay and progression for 4,99. And the music slaps. Perfect game for spending gold points.
What looks like a half-hearted effort to justify the price of NSO is actually a really fun and well made game. Great level design with a high learning curve, great mechanics, great progression, the net code works without any problems, and the music is still a masterpiece after 30 years. Play it while it lasts!
With the Souls series Fromsoftware took old design philosophies and made them fun again. With AC6 they are demonstrating that some things are better left in 2004. They tried very hard but there is no saving for this game from being a mediocre slog. Mech games need a completely new approach.
So let me get this straight: Activision deliberately let false rumors spread that there will be no new CoD in 2023 and MW2 would get two years of support, only to bait and switch and sell the second year of the live service separately, pretending it to be a full game. There is no reason for MW3 to exist except for greed. It is literally the same game as MW2, both games are fully interchangeable, same graphics same everything, and all your weapons and unlocked stuff and paid skins from MW2 will carry over. MW3 is the second year of MW2 which was supposed to be FREE but they decided, yeah our players are idiots anyway, why not charge full price again instead. I will not buy MW3, and no this isnt a boycott, there just isnt much incentive to buy MW3 if you already played MW2. All weapons and skins carry over so there will be no reason to grind the game because I already did that in MW2. I would just play it from time to time and for that I can stay with MW2. Also the announced changes to the gameplay dont look to great either. Like wtf they want to increase all players HP to 150 in regular multiplayer, so MW3 will be the most casual camping simulator CoD ever where everyone is just trading kills and aggressive plays become impossible. MW3 is devaluating this game. My original review for MW2 was 7/10, pretty alright and the multiplayer is more of a 9,5/10 to me, but in hindsight this all feels like a big scam now. Disappointing.
The story seems good at first but takes a nose dive after the first few missions. The world is beautiful but too small. Side quests are all Ubisoft fetch quest trash. Parcouring never feels as smooth as it should and the combat is one of the worst I have seen in a video game. Old Bethesda games are better than this. The gore is very over the top but if you die you lose story mission xp? Wtf? + Graphics + Gore - Story - Quests - Open World - Combat Dying Light is average at its best and hot garbage at its worst. And the game is rarely at its best. 3/10
The Surge was a good game if you could stand the slow start and the Eurojank, and the second one isnt much different. Some things have been added like side quests and zip lines but overall this is the same gameplay experience with the same strengths as the first game. Good level design with a lot of verticality and even some changes and evolvement over the course of the game. A unique lock-on system that lets you choose between more damage or better loot. A solid leveling and upgrade system and a huge variety of weapons. The weapon scaling was removed so you can experiment a lot more. The bosses are a bit better overall. The healing system saw a huge improvement. And the game doesnt start as slow as the first one. Sadly the devs did nothing to improve the technical shortcomings of The Surge 1. The game looks better in some areas but worse in others so its roughly the same. And yeah of course there are some bugs and crashes and massive jank sometimes. Making a game with good tech seems impossible for German developers. I played the game on PS5 from the start and it has stable 1440p 60fps here but I can only imagine how bad this game must run on a PS4. Dont play this game on PS4, the first one was terrible there and this seems as bad or even worse. Overall a solid sequel. I you like Souls games and dont mind your character clipping through the ground sometimes when doing a finishing move you should play the first game and then this. 8/10
Remnant is a weird mix of Dark Souls, Fortnite, Fallout and some other games. It took me 14h to beat and I can say its kinda.. average. The guns arent too bad and the selection of weapons is alright, but as soon as enemies get right in your face they dogpile you which can be really frustrating. Almost every encounter in the game is like this: One big enemy and lots of trashmobs rushing at you, so you have to constantly backpaddle to avoid getting overrun. This is the main source of difficulty in this game. Some bosses are alright but most of them are really easy... until they summon another load of trashmobs and the game turns into a clown show again. I seriously doubt the developers of this game know how to make a boss that is difficult, great to fight and just ONE entity. The upgrade and ability system is fine though, and the levels with huge optional dungeons arent too bad either. The graphics are ok but there is some lack of style and inspiration here and there and the whole game is quite blurry on a 4K screen on PS5. Also the loading times are very long sometimes. Overall an average game. Its not the best or worst Souls game and I had some fun with it. 5/10
A great game hampered by live service garbage. Animations, mechanics, graphics, art style, performance, music etc are all top notch and the campaign is a great addition as well. But then you have this suspiciously small roster, a fkn battle pass, a Fortnite style ingame shop, and a pointless Capcom account you have to create to play online. Announcing dlc characters before the game even releases is nothing new in 2023. But the rest is. How much of this game do you actually get if you only pay full price once? Right now I dont know if I can recommend this game despite its qualities.
The best Open World game just got 100% better, 100% bigger, and like 1000% more vertical… don’t play TotK if you are scared of heights xD For everyone else, yeah of course this game is an absolute masterpiece and a great sequel. I didn’t expect Nintendo to add this much new stuff. This isn’t like Horizon or GoW where they added a few new things and the rest of the game was more or less the same. Endless possibilities, endless skies, the only limit is your own creativity. Fantastic exploration in the best Open World to date. The best physics system in the industry. TotKs gameplay makes other games look like a tech demo. Best looking Switch game. What they achieved on this small machine is mind blowing. Great image quality, great attention to detail, and probably the best use of LOD in a video game ever so you can look across the whole gigantic map all the time at a stable performance and without any noticeable pop-ins. TotK is a technical masterpiece. Nintendo has done it again. They made the best Open World game with BotW and now with TotK. 10/10 and it raises the bar even higher.
This game is very good, and very unique… while there are some inspirations like Okami and especially Korok Forest from BotW Cereza and the Lost Demon is pretty much its very own thing. Great combat where you control two characters at once (works great with the Joycons AND with the Pro Controller), great Zelda- like mini puzzle shrines, great exploration. Nothing feels too easy or too hard or too long and the game constantly keeps throwing new stuff at you which can be very surprising. The graphics are beautiful, fantastic storybook art style with one of the best color palettes I have ever seen in a video game. Great story. Great voice acting. Great music. Also this game is still in 1.00 version and doesnt have a single technical issue, which is worth mentioning in 2023. Cereza and the Lost Demon is a gem. The only problem is that it is 60 full price which is a bit too much considering its essentially an indie game and doesnt push any technical boundaries. I bought this together with Zelda Tears of the Kingdom via an NSO voucher which might be the best way to get this game right now. So buy it now or wait for sale and then buy it. Its really that good! 9/10
- In the first couple hours the game is straight unplayable - Combat is clunky trash - Graphics are from 2007 +/- Some quests are good but most of them arent - The world isnt very interesting - There are N64 games with better cut scenes and presentation + Better graphics and fps on PS5 - Lots of bugs and wonky tech Elex is basically TES IV Oblivion with some Sci-Fi sprinkled in but worse in every point. Wouldnt recommend. 3/10
This game is fantastic work from a remake perspective, but as a modern release (which it kinda is now) I would recommend RE7 and RE8 over it. While the overall quality is very high some game mechanics are outdated or just plainly weird. Still had lots of fun. Also Capcom please fix the unstable 40-60fps frame rate in raytracing mode. Raytracing actually makes a huge difference in the PS5 version and I would still highly recommend it. Its really like those rtx on memes and not a useless feature which is barely visible. 8/10
Boring, frustrating, badly aged slog **** with 3DS level graphics. People are straight up lying when they say this game looks good. 90% of the gameplay is backtracking and the rest is fighting bullet sponge enemies with super outdated combat mechanics and solving terrible artificial roadblock puzzles. No immersion. So many Gamecube games are overrated and this is another one. Im very disappointed. Metroid is good in 2D but this doesnt work in 2023. Definitely wont buy another Remaster or Prime 4.
The best dlc I have played in a long time, and one of the best homages in video game history. You can really see that the developers are big fans of the IP and the dedication they put into this. Smash Bros Ultimate did a similar Castlevania themed level in 2018 but this is even better. 10/10
God of War 2018 was a 10/10 for me but Ragnarok feels like playing the second half of the same game. It is almost shocking how little they did in nearly 5 years besides making new dialogue and cut scenes for the story.
While being almost unplayable on PS4 due to its horrible tech (ironic for a sci-fi game, it crashed every ten minutes or so) I would recommend this game on PS5. The improved graphics and frame rate make the better parts of this game shine very bright. The best aspect of this game is the level design, with lots of interconnected paths, verticality, hidden areas, optional mini bosses, paths you unlock later in the game, its all you want from a Soulslike. It even changes some enemies later in the game to keep things fresh and to progress the story, yeah they did a pretty good job at Fromsoftwares environmental narrative. The only negative is there are too many tight corridors where you cant fight. Speaking of fighting, combat is mostly solid although its off to a slow start. At the beginning you do too little damage and take too much, you have to farm for your armor and weapons, and you have WAY too little stamina which makes the combat seem far more clunky at first than it actually is. But from the middle of the game onwards I was speeding around like in Bloodborne which is great. There is still some jank and bad hitboxes but nothing too infuriating. Most bosses are good and the final boss is the best one. Enemy variety isnt great and some enemies (fkn grasshopper bots) are way too overpowered when you first meet them but its never boring due to the innovative lock-on system which lets you choose between doing more damage or going for better loot and finishing moves. Crafting and upgrading is great as well. There are no builds but you can level your weapon category scaling and leveling up remains interesting throughout the game due to the expanding plugin system ala NieR: Automata which makes you experiment a lot. The world is great, its a gigantic dystopian industry complex in the desert with many terrifying secrets to find. Somewhat similar to DS1 with its huge backdrops. Graphics arent too bad either which is largely due to a whole lot of visuals looking straight out of CoD Advanced Warfare. I dont know if thats a good or bad thing :D It took me nearly 18 hours to finish this game on a completely blind run, which is a good lenght for a Soulslike. Had lots of fun but Im not too bad at these games so other people may take longer. In summary this game a solid attempt at Souls. Its still somewhat AA Eurojank with a terrible PS4 port but you can clearly see the dedication and understanding of the developers. 8/10
Pros: - Best story of the open world game genre. After seven years this game is still leaps and bounds ahead of most of the competition. And the games that can compete with Witcher 3 in terms of story lack the great presentation (Fallout New Vegas for example). - Interesting multi- faceted characters with way more depth than in most other games. They make big budged productions with Hollywood actors look bad in comparison. Even random npcs are far more convincing than main characters of aaa games released this year. Witcher 3 is being carried by actors and animators and they did a fantastic job. - Great quests with branching paths that challenge your morality. And its not always grey, sometimes you can decide wrong, sometimes there are multiple paths to a good ending, and sometimes all you can do is pick one bad thing or another. The writing is always great. Questing in this game is so much fun because you never know whats going to happen. - The world and its lore is based on Middle European fantasy instead of British fantasy like most fantasy games. Grimms fairy tales instead of Tolkien. Its way more sinister, terrifying, weird and ugly and thats great. - Great music. It really ads to the atmosphere which is often creepy and bloody. Also its not some generic “cinematic“ orchestral score. This music will stay in your head forever and never leave. - Gwent is the best and most complex mini game I have ever seen. Its really fun hunting for cards to become a master duelist. Cons: - Crashes, bugged quests, bugged npcs, bugged music, this game sadly has a lot of immersion ruining errors. The developers could have fixed this a long time ago but they didnt. - The rpg customization ****. Loot scaling is poorly done, you are often swapping gear and nothing really sticks. Crafting is useless, and even unique quest rewards are throwaway stuff. Which is sad considering there are many different and unique swords and armor sets…. or not, because every sword has the exact same move set. - Abilities are generic and none of them has any impact on quests, except the upgrade for the Axii sign which you can get right in the first story chapter. This game has hundreds of different weapons, armor, materials, upgrades, but all of it just makes the game worse and more complicated. They should have went with a much, much simpler system. - Combat **** as well, its not challenging even on highest difficulty and in most fights they just throw multiple mobs at once at you and you have to crowd control them. Not fun and the bad scaling is causing some unfair fights in the early game. But the worst enemy in the game is the horrendous lock on system. - The open world lacks diversity. All areas are a green land with lots of trees and very little variation besides that. Conclusion: This game is great but sometimes less is more. Cdpr should have focused even harder on what makes it worth playing, eg the story and characters, and cut down the cluttered rest of the game. Witcher 3 is one of the best story games of all time combined with an open world game thats more average than good. 8/10
Once you learn the cluttered combat mechanics you realize its not worth it anyway. This is a Souls ripoff but without all the things that make Souls games actually fun and enjoyable. Huge enemy hp and damage is what makes this game difficult, nothing else. Even the guides I read after uninstalling this game after like 5 levels say all boss fights are "patience" fights that take way too long and one mistake can kill you. There are no advanced strategies to deal more damage, no build minmaxing, no risk versus reward mechanics, no specific weaknesses, nothing. Every boss is the same, you wobble around it for nearly ten minutes and chip down his gigantic health bar that is bigger than the Ancient Dragons one from DS2. Its super boring and frustrating. The randomized loot grinder system where you get every piece of equipment like 50 times but with slightly altered stats is completely destroying any exploration... or so would I say if this game would have exploration in the first place. Nioh 2 doesnt have an interconnected world or open world like Soulsborne or Elden Ring, its just levels from a level select screen. And you cant even exit them properly and try a different level or just go back to the "hub". Really Team Ninja? This is downright pathetic! They copied a series which is famous for their world design, especially Dark Souls 1 and Elden Ring are absolute masterpieces in that regard, and completely dismissed it. Nioh 2 gameplay is walking around in areas that look like they were made from background assets of DOA stages, with level design similar to Dark Souls but in the most basic and formulaic way. You kill the same few enemy types over and over again and click on every shiny thing that pops up hoping you find something with slightly better stats. If you miss anything it doesnt matter at all. And at the end you get stuck on the boss because they take forever to beat. Some people are claiming that Nioh has way more gameplay variety than Soulsborne but this is totally false. Those games have dozens, if not hundreds of weapons with unique move sets. In Nioh every weapon of the same class also has the same moveset. No variation whatsoever. And considering that you make your build for one specific weapon class your gameplay will be more or less the exact same for the whole playthrough. Just with a slightly different skin. Also there is no magic or pyromancy and bows are just gimmicks. There is just melee and nothing else. All of these problems were also present in Nioh 1. They have learned nothing. Yes there are some basic improvements like a character creator (the first game didnt even had that) and PS5 performance modes but overall this is still the same bad game that is way worse in every single point than all the Fromsoftware originals. 3/10
This game would be great if it wouldnt have poor graphics and performance issues. The open world exploration is fantastic. The world is huge and vertical and it has actual level design like Botw or Elden Ring. Not just a flat round area like Horizon or Witcher or Assassins Creed, this style of open world design is outdated in 2022. Speaking of outdated, yeah the graphics are still like a 3DS game and the performance is bad. Pop ins are terrible and the framerate is very unstable. This might be better in handheld mode but its still not acceptable for a 60$ game. At least the game doesnt crash or has broken quests. This is absolutely the right formula for the main series but Game Freak needs to hire better programmers asap.
