Great concept, but with a truckload of flaws. Apart from the painfully slow loading times, the bugs with replays (freezing, crashing), the server issues (can’t log in, stuck at 95% loading) - the game design itself is deeply flawed. Meet Your Maker only rewards maps that cause maximum player death. This has lead to cookie cutter level design by users that are 90% killing floors. Users don’t have to ensure their maps are not impossible to complete, or (mostly) unique, so they are actually incentivised to create boring, repetitive, close to impossible levels. The most popular comment thread in a Reddit AMA with the developers spoke to this exact flaw, and there wasn’t one response from the developers around it. There are other issues around lack of diversity in traps and design capabilities that also lead to boring repetitive levels, an OP grapple, the fact that you can basically run through any level that isn’t a “killing floor”, but they pale in comparison to the “killing floor” issue, so not even worth going into detail. I love the concept, and was obsessed with it for the first day or two, but after a week of playing I’m done. Without a big fix to core level design incentives this game has no player longevity.
This game is actually a 6, but I’m scoring lower to balance out all the ridiculous (likely paid) 10 scores. Its style is delightful, art and voicing. But the story is is incredibly childish for a game aimed at an older audience. It tries to put weight on the only thing you actually control - A/B choices. But they hardly matter. Walk here, walk there, read this, poop joke, daddy beats mom joke. It’s not an adventure game. It’s an animated tweens story book that tries to be ‘edgy’ but comes off feeling lame and daggy, but worst of all - boring.
This game is utterly fantastic. It feels like a labour of love. So weird and so wonderful. I haven’t played anything quite like it before, and likely never will again.
Janky AF. Wanted to like it, plot has a good premise even if it’s completely unbelievable. But after a full day of playing I’m struggling to push on. Buggy, overly complex, boring level design, thin storyline… the list goes on and on.
This game came free with my Switch, and I am so happy it did because otherwise I might have skipped it. The game took me by surprise, it’s a great mix of RPG and turn-based strategy, with a cute little story mixed in. Everything seemed extremely well polished and tested. Nintendos take on XCOM. Most battles allowed for a range of strategies that so you could customise your play style and team. The battles were challenging with new and interesting enemies being introduced as you progress through the game. The world exploration between levels was a great way to progress in a not-so-linear format and presented puzzles and challenges along the way dispersed with little tidbits of extra story. Love this game.
I loved the original M+R, this follow-up is a poor imitation. It is far too easy, even on hard mode. Every aspect has been dumbed down and “kid-ified”. The original had the enemies on a more even playing field. This one has the heroes WAY overpowered in comparison. You don’t need really need to strategise power ups or ensure you have the best mix of heroes for the level. You can pretty much just blast your way through with OP abilities and endless cheap items. Really hope the DLCs add some needed difficulty and a strategic challenge. But I feel like this was the game they intended to make - which is a pity.
I don’t know what went wrong at Sidebar games - but this game is a dumpster fire of bugs, missing features and unpolished gameplay. I am so disappointed and saddened after the masterpiece that was Golf Story. All the ingredients are here for a potentially incredible game, but this current version feels incomplete and even after the long release delays it feels rushed. Many quests had me asking “where do I go?” or “how do I do that?” With no gameplay guidance or map. The additional sports feel both integral to the story and theme of the game, yet frustrating the mechanics of them feel like an untested unpolished afterthought. A patch is apparently coming soon, but there are SOOOO many bugs I can’t imagine it will fix them all unless they hire a team of new devs. If they can fix the game/quest breaking bugs (which are still numerous) and fix the frame rate issues with the next patch, I’ll edit this review score. Currently I can’t recommend this game, it is actually painful to play.
Why is it so hard to find a challenging, or at least ‘balanced’, strategy game these days? There is no point in using strategy in this “strategy” game. The AI is as dumb as dirt. And it is far too easy to level up your players and end up with a team that is near invincible, at which point you can spam auto-battle on each turn and just roll over your opponent. It’s such a pity because there is so much great customisation and thought that has been poured into the skill and character class creation. But what is the point when the AI just rushes head first in to each battle and throws themselves on to your sword? Hugely disappointing game.
Incredibly painful game to play. Taking in to account how old this game is - it’s still very, very, poorly designed. The story is great. Voice acting good. Artwork pretty good for the time. But the game design and puzzles are absolutely atrocious. I can’t count how many times I entered a screen just to end up running back to the same screen I just left because of poor directional design on travel. The puzzles are all stupid easy, or stupidly difficult because they poorly to communicated a basic premise - at best they are “go fetch” puzzles. And don’t get me started on hidden areas, I often had to run in all possible directions of every, single, area screen to find the next place to visit.
Patch 1.04 on PS4, and game is a broken mess.
The painful part is the potential for the game lies just beneath the surface of a sea of bugs. From not being able to adjust screen size so HUD fits on screen, to potato quality resolution and FPS, to crash after crash after crash. I am going to do my best to get a refund for this game. But really hope that it is fixed so I can go back to Night City and come back and change this review.
I love point and click adventures. They were the first games I obsessed over back in the days of Sierra. Interesting puzzles, cheesy humour, memorable characters, and surprisingly well thought through and interesting plots. The original LSL games fell into this bracket. This game does not. The plot is boring, and tries to tackle the idea that the world has moved on from the homophobic, racist, misogynistic world that this game was originally born in. Yet the game itself is all these things. And although, this is not completely unexpected, it’s self ignorance is just painful. Even if you ignore the games cultural blindness... it’s a TERRIBLE point and click adventure game. There are no ‘puzzles’ just back and forth trips to use item on other item. And A LOT of these ‘puzzles’ are completely stupid. They are either so insanely obvious that completeibgbtgevtask feels like a chore, or so completely obscure (no clues) that the only way to move forward is to test every single combination of items. I have no idea how this game is rated as high as it currently is - it is the sort of game that gives point and click adventures a bad name and buried the genre.
For everything that ME Andromeda gets wrong, they get something right. Unfortunately that's a lot of rights and wrongs. I find myself constantly saying, "wow, that's cool" and "oh, wow, that ****". Had they just focused on making sure that the conversations were just a bit more realistic (they're often strangely timed and unrealistic) and animations a little less weird and robotic (at times it feels like your talking to a funny-walking, nervous-shaking, often ugly, soulless doll). Had they got those things right, then they could have got a LOT more wrong and there would have been a LOT less complaints. For a game thats is so focused on drama and relationships, this is something that should have been looked at a lot closer, I'm frankly amazed it was released in its current state. Finally, and this is coming from someone only 1/3 through the game, the plot so far seems very thin and extremely similar to the previous ME's. All in all though, I think this could be the start of another great trilogy, as long as they don't pull a Phantom Menace, and listen to the feedback from the gamers and implement it in future updates, DLC's or the next instalment.
