nnlocke

Don't play on switch - low framerate and input lag issues. Dev needs to optimize game for switch - it just doesn't play well and you can FEEL the lag, even on single player. The multi-player experience is great, single-player loses some of that charm but is still enjoyable. Needs more classes/perks/content, but what's there is polished to a mirror shine. Play on Steam for a better experience

All of the positive reviews for this game are amusingly terrible bots. Let's look at this gem: "He can easily compete with the best games of his own genre." And from a different review: "His enormous difficulty reminded me of games like the Dark Souls." Also note how many positive reviews contain the same hilariously misspelled words ("budjet"). Not sure who is falsely trying to boost this game's score (although the publisher/dev would be a reasonable guess), but they're doing an absolutely **** job of it. Shame on metacritic for not doing something about it, just goes to show that review scores on this site are unreliable at best.

All of the positive reviews for this game are amusingly terrible bots. Let's look at this gem: "He can easily compete with the best games of his own genre." And from a different review: "His enormous difficulty reminded me of games like the Dark Souls." Also note how many positive reviews contain the same hilariously misspelled words ("budjet"). Not sure who is falsely trying to boost this game's score (although the publisher/dev would be a reasonable guess), but they're doing an absolutely **** job of it. Shame on metacritic for not doing something about it, just goes to show that review scores on this site are unreliable at best.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

YOU CAN PLAY USING ALL CARDS WITHOUT BUYING CARD PACKS. In caps for all the haters. The draft mode (both casual and expert) allows you to draft a deck from all cards with no requirement that you own any cards beforehand. I personally think draft mode is better than min/maxed crafted decks mode, and I say that as someone who HAS spent money on cards and has 95% of the card collection. Other than the initial cost, you DO NOT HAVE TO PAY (in casual). As to the actual game itself, I enjoy the complexity of the multiple lanes, the graphics are fantastic, but the balance between colors is a bit lacking at the moment (blue/green creep decks are monsters). This is to be expected since the game just released. The matches do run a bit long, so it's not as good of a 'pooping' game as Hearthstone, since it takes a bit and is fairly involved. Don't listen to the 'this is a cash grab' haters giving the game a 0. You do not have to buy cards to enjoy this game, and 0 is a stupid score to give - hell, at the very least the graphics merit a 1.

It's difficult to improve upon what has already been said by others. This is probably the best cRPG since 2000. Everything is incredibly polished, the game is LONG without being boring, and quests make sense in the context of each environment (something sorely missing in, for instance, recent Bethesda games). The combat system is clearly defined and rewards clever gameplay, while at the same time not giving the computer an unfair advantage. That said, battles will DESTROY you the second you don't take them seriously. I wasn't really all that impressed by DOS 1, but part of that was that I felt that my characters didn't have much personality, and that made it difficult to immerse myself in the story. The brilliant inclusion of origins characters brings this missing component to the table nicely, and the characters themselves are varied and interesting - they may well put you into dangerous situations, close off quest options, or open doors to new ones. From a technical standpoint, the voice acting is well above industry standard - I don't believe I've heard an awkward line in 70 hours. The graphics are highly polished, and most abilities and attacks work precisely as expected (a few occasional glitches aside). The story elements are well put together and flow nicely (even the "silly" quests), and include some morally ambiguous situations that you have to actually think about. Undoubtedly, this is a game that we're going to compare other RPGs against for years to come, a real lesson in maintaining old school mechanics without the old school baggage. A complete masterpiece, and if you don't think so, then cRPGs must not be for you.

Does not deserve the level of hatred it is getting from the community. Definitely some areas could have been improved, but it's incredibly fun. The weapon/armor modding system is fantastic, and I enjoy the legendary monsters (and gear). The perk tree is certainly different than skill points, but I don't know that it's WORSE, per se, just different. I think it's nice they tried something different (even though I don't agree with some of the choices) - if developers all made the same game over and over, we'd have nothing but CoD, Battlefield, and Madden clones, where no risks are taken and the same game gets re-released every year. A lot of people are complaining that 'this is not Fallout', however Fallout 3 and New Vegas were not really Fallout either. Fallout and Fallout 2 were isometric, slow paced, tactical games with a strong focus on dialogue and non-combat skills (though, to be fair, Tactics was pretty combat oriented). Everything from 3 onward represents a significantly different take on the franchise, and now this is a NEW direction for the franchise. Not perfect, but worth playing. 8/10, would pre-order again.

TL;DR: Interesting idea, but poorly executed. Let me start by saying that I appreciate difficult games. I am very fond of true roguelikes, and restarting a game multiple times doesn't bother me, as long as I can expect a different experience each time. AoD does not deliver this. What we have here is a very linear progression, but with artificial limitations force by the extremely stringent stat and skill points. There may be multiple ways of accomplishing an objective, however the end result is essentially the same. This model essentially forces you to choose to be either a talker, or a fighter - hybrid builds are invariably fatally underpowered. Generally speaking, since you have less skills to spread your points as a fighter, it is easier to build a strong pure fighting character than it is a pure talker - there are several different types of persuasion mechanics as a talker, which are sometimes tested at the same time. You might be great at disguise, but if the check called for disguise AND trading, you're screwed. There are crafting abilities as well, however your points are spread thin enough as it is, and sinking points into crafting can set back your progress significantly. Note that the above are all gameplay complaints, but I'd like to talk for a moment about the graphics and interface. Now, I'm not normally a graphics ****, but this game **** good. At best, the graphics are 10 years behind current gen. I think they would have been better off with an isometric view (like Baldur's Gate) than trying for full 3D. Additionally, the controls are very wonky, and the screens extremely bare. The setting itself is intriguing, and is the basis for what points I did give this game. There are interesting aspects to the story, but some of it is never fully fleshed out, and what is there is vastly overshadowed by the poor overall design. If it's on sale, might be picking up as a curiosity, but prepare to become frustrated with the game design quickly. Posts on the AoD forums suggest using console commands to make your experience more tolerable, which is an obvious indicating that the game is poorly balanced - if your own forums contain suggestions on how to modify the game to make it better, you have failed at game design.

Admit it - you've always wanted to act out one of those high pressure bomb defusal scenes from the movies. Now you can, and it's so super fun. The best indie title I've seen in a good long while. One player sees the bomb but not the defusal manual, while the other sees the manual but not the bomb. Tensions rise as the clock ticks down, miscommunications occur, and instructions aren't clear enough. For the low price, you're crazy not to pick this up. A huge win in my book, and legitimately deserving of the almighty 10.