elusive_HA

KCD 2 is currently the pinnacle of immersive RPGs, this generation’s red dead and Skyrim (but without magic) The level of immersion achieved is spectacular. The expansive worlds, bustling towns with npc routines and the sheer amount of varied dialogue is impressive. The side quests are very good with twists and most are relevant to the plot. They’re also meaningful. NPCs mention what you’ve done for them if you see them later as an example. The main story is very good, the structure is doing smaller missions leading to major set pieces keeping you in awe. Audio and performance is good. The music is good for epic moments and has catchy tunes when in taverns ect. The game is a solid 60fps except for battle sequences. As of writing this review most bugs have been fixed however there are some issues which can be extremely annoying, for example when your whole inventory disappears when storing items in chests (this is quite rare though), few mission bugs where I couldn’t fight as the game thought I was holding a body even though I wasn’t. This is pretty much gta in the medieval era (if you want it to be) with the Bethesda backbone. KCD 2 is the best rpg made so far on the level of Skyrim, cyberpunk and others 10/10.

This game has the structure of Alan wake 2 where its focus is more on finding consumables and fighting enemies. The execution of the combat side of things is quite lackluster. Fighting normal enemies near the beginning is fun but later on it’s just unplayable as there’s no effective evasion system, and the parry mechanic is just dumb for the later enemies especially bosses. The story was ok but was hard to confirm certain theories as you’re playing because of the constant switching between realities I’m assuming and sometimes you feel you don’t know what’s actually real. The story was not great either. The only pros are the art direction which gave a very silent hill vibe and fidelity is pretty good.

Hell Is Us perfects its tone by crafting intricate, impressively detailed environments which captures the game’s dark nature. It’s honestly one of the best detailed semi open worlds I’ve ever seen. The game sets up an interesting story and characters but then loses focus until its conclusion. Unimpressive boss battles and a fustrating gameplay loop hinders its score and unfortunately outweighs its pros. The focus of the game is to complete mini puzzles in between exploration before a major puzzle before the end of a story mission. There are also a lot of requests you can complete for npcs which some are puzzles themselves. Now this probably comprises 40% of the game, the latter is exploration as you would do in a normal rpg. The no map and journal feature is a great concept which pushes the player to think, however the major reason why this review has such a low score is because of the very weak execution of this idea. Exploration is usually carried by you the player trying to remember where everything is, npcs ect. Now you can just make notes to remember where things are. This gets tiresome with the amount of stuff to remember, and keep track of. The game gives you no sense of point of no return so things are so easy to miss which is very unforgiving. the idea that there’s no map despite having a very technologically advanced device and even a ‘map’ in your own vehicle is quite immersion breaking. My resolution to this is to have a very vague map sketch in your pda ‘journal device’ and then as you discover stuff it slowly maps out itself. You can then add your own notes in your pda in game about these poi’s which make things a lot more organised. There should’ve been a system where you couldcreate your own quest journal in your pda with a system to track your findings which you put yourself instead of making notes on paper. The info you have in your pda is not as useful and is only okay for keeping track of the main objective. Again there’s no warnings before leaving an act which is also a major reason for a low score, as for completionists like me it’s frustrating to thoroughly explore everything myself then turn quests in not expecting for the world to progress. Combat in general is actually quite good mainly due to the dualsence feedback on ps5 but boss fights are quite bad. Again not much of an issue for me as exploration seems to be the primary focus on this game. They could’ve elevated the combat even further by adding an ability on your weapon to fuse atleast one more glyph type. New combo chains could’ve been added but overall combat is good imo. Story set up is quite interesting but falls apart during the meat of the game by focusing too much on other fantasy concepts which don’t really tie in to the whole vibe of this game. In the game you learn about the extreme and harsh realities of war which touches depressing themes from affected npcs. Mixing this with sci fi elements does not work. The tone which the devs were looking For absolutely nailed it by environmental story telling. Most areas depict horrific consequences of war which parallels most things happening today. The devs do not shy away from presenting depressing themes of suicide and destroyed families. Overall it’s a great game for people who don’t get frustrated by being disorganised wand don’t care too much about missing things on their first playthrough. Puzzles are great, combat is good but overall the game is just about remembering where things are 90% of the time instead of just 90% puzzles instead it’s more like 40%, and don’t forget about the combat sprinkled in the middle.

Probably the worst story game I’ve ever played. The whole premise is basically the protagonist reliving the cringy high school stuff you did and that’s it. None of the characters are interesting they’re just cliche characters you would see in a 3/10 highschool drama on Netflix. No actual plot development either. The only praise are the graphics and cool camera system but honestly it’s no where enough to make this game good whatsoever, however I’m sure tape 2 will aim to answer most questions in tape 1.

A generational masterpiece with the best art direction I have ever seen since elden ring and honestly the best turn based combat system you can ever experience right now. Now I specifically commend the art and combat highly as every area you explore is so unique and each environment sort of sets the mood for each biome you encounter. The combat is essentially real time parrying, shooting and dodging mixed with turn based elements. The combat really shines with the skill trees and combat perks you can collect and which can really diversify your builds and create satisfying combos. It’s literally the best combat system I’ve seen and really feels akin to a souls like. The souls element comes from the high difficulty in bosses where precision parrying is mostly required. The only criticism with this are the parry windows which are highly unforgiving but really it depends on skill level. The only thing preventing this review getting a 10 is unfortunately the story. Now the story sets up amazingly where as the player you’re already asking a million questions. Who is the paintress? Where did she come from? What led to this messed up world where people die younger year by year? Near the middle the story sort of throws you off the main questions and instead puts its focus on cryptic messages which don’t make sense and focuses alot on the character development now don’t get me wrong that’s great but the story started to lose focus on the main questions about the paintress, the fracture etc and instead some other characters who you’ll meet. There are interesting twists but it all boils down to focusing on some random characters who you don’t even bondwith that much in the story (not talking about the party members there are other characters who you’ll find out). Exploration in the over world is phenomenal and level design is good. A map function could be implemented, for example after you fully explore a dungeon that dungeon would then be fully charted on your journal which you can then go back into and find all the missing collectibles. Overall this is a generational RPG and is probably the best turn based game to date 9/10.

Review - This is a solid RPG with fun minigames, exploration and progression seems rewarding. The bloated content, poorly paced story and repetitive content/environments hinder its score. Most side quests don’t add to the story/world building except from a few in the end game. Combat is exhilarating but some bosses/combat challenges can be straight up bs. The story mainly focuses on character building and constantly gives flashbacks to the previous game. The story would resonate more with those who have played remake and actual interesting plot development is lacking. Only thing which kept me going is the exploration and combat, it’s a good RPG but not excellent.