solokuhn

There is not much content here to begin with and what you get is disappointing. DK island should be a great throwback and it is but there are no real reasons to explore, all you get is 5 bonus levels which we already seen on the main game. As for the emerald rush it's just a rogue lite for collecting gold and in reality it lacks what makes that genre interesting and the speed it often has. Overall skip this... which is a shame considering the base game is amazing

Nine Sols is a Metroidvania that hits all the right notes, keeping me captivated and engaged until the credits rolled. It boasts a charming art style and a gripping story while introducing a unique combat system that feels incredibly responsive and satisfying to **** me, the standout feature of the game is its combat. Playing Nine Sols is an absolute joy—parrying is eternally satisfying, slashes feel impactful, and the talisman mechanics are a delight to use. This is further elevated by the exceptional boss designs, which push you to truly master the combat mechanics before letting you advance. These bosses present fantastic challenges, encouraging you to refine core combat moves without demanding perfection in execution, striking a great balance between difficulty and accessibility.That said, I do have a few minor criticisms. The checkpoint system could be improved—some bosses and mini-bosses have checkpoints that feel too far apart or are preceded by loading screens, which disrupt the pacing by adding unnecessary downtime. Additionally, the story could have been slightly more streamlined and less dialogue-heavy. At times, the dense dialogue detracted from the pacing, though it did help maintain the story's air of mystery.Despite these small issues, I must say that Nine Sols is one of the best games I’ve played recently. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and I’m glad to have had the chance to immerse myself in such a fantastic game.That said, I do have a few minor criticisms. The checkpoint system could be improved—some bosses and mini-bosses have checkpoints that feel too far apart or are preceded by loading screens, which disrupt the pacing by adding unnecessary downtime. Additionally, the story could have been slightly more streamlined and less dialogue-heavy. At times, the dense dialogue detracted from the pacing, though it did help maintain the story's air of mystery.Despite these small issues, I must say that Nine Sols is one of the best games I’ve played recently. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and I’m glad to have had the chance to immerse myself in such a fantastic game.

Excellent game, the story was incredibly engaging and both the combat and puzzles were very satisfying. I have to say I had a bit of trouble with certain difficulty spikes and the game not completely explaining some of it's mechanics but that didn't subtract from an amazing experience. Combat is some of the BEST that you can experience, it honestly is incredible that the devs managed to create such a big and incredible game with deep mechanics.

Horizon Forbidden West falls short as a follow-up to Guerrilla's initial success, "Horizon Zero Dawn." The game grapples with establishing its unique identity and crafting an open world that, though visually stunning, contradicts and mars the gameplay experience. While the storyline ambitiously expands, it suffers for it, becoming less focused and burdened by an extensive cast that leaves players detached and uninvolved in the overall narrative. Despite its flaws, the gameplay is the saving grace that held my interest until the end. Combat, in particular, often offers moments of exhilarating engagement. However, a myriad of issues plague this aspect. Likely due to the developers' focus on the open world structure, the uniqueness of Horizon's world—battling colossal mechanical dinosaurs with primitive weapons—gets overshadowed. The level design, immersive and inspired by real-life environments, ironically hampers combat fluidity. It's far too easy to become ensnared in terrain, limiting mobility and frustrating the overall experience. Melee combat, in particular, feels cumbersome and unpolished. This is a missed opportunity, as a symbiotic relationship between melee and ranged combat could have been deeply satisfying. Further combat-related concerns persist. Engaging the mechanical beasts one-on-one is an uphill struggle; they tend to amass in groups, often near other packs. Alerting one often triggers an alert for the rest, resulting in chaotic, protracted battles devoid of respite or the chance to secure vital loot. Stealth as a combat mechanic feels monotonous and formulaic—hardly innovative given its common presence in open world games. This also extends to combat against human foes, which feels repetitive and uninspiring. Regrettably, mobility lacks variety and intrigue. Much of the time, you'll find yourself walking or riding mechanical creatures, contributing to a considerable portion of the game feeling mindlessly traversed. Climbing mechanics are clunky and unrefined, a consistent issue throughout the gameplay. The storyline is a convoluted mess, replete with excessive dialogue and an intricate plot revolving around immortal humans who left Earth. It veers drastically from the already imaginative premise of Zero Dawn, severely affecting narrative coherence and world believability. It seems as though the writers struggled to harness the captivating world previously established. Dialogue comes across as juvenile, characters remain underdeveloped, and gameplay feels disconnected from the plot's essence. This discord undermines the world-building established in Horizon Zero Dawn, introducing flaws that undermine immersion. Scaling back the story's stakes could have mitigated these issues, as not every game requires a world-saving narrative. The game's redeeming qualities lie in its exceptional graphics, sound design, and music. These elements converge to create an immersive atmosphere, elevating the overall gameplay experience. Notably, the endgame—seeking out formidable machines for enhanced weaponry—echoes the gameplay loop of Monster Hunter, albeit underexplored due to the plethora of competing game elements. Side quests often lack allure, trapped in a formulaic structure that necessitates halting progress, enduring mundane dialogue, and engaging in repetitive machine battles. This content, while explored, fails to captivate as effectively as similar endeavors by other studios in the open-world genre. "HFW" underscores the significance of thoughtful planning. The inaugural "Horizon" game embarked on a daring journey into ambitious open-world design, enhanced by captivating storytelling and innovative mechanics. Regrettably, Guerrilla Studios missed the opportunity to build on this strong foundation, expanding the game into a sprawling sandbox. Consequently, the content feels uninspired, and core gameplay mechanics remain unpolished. The enchantment has waned, leaving a facade of style without substance. I earnestly hope that Guerrilla regains their stride in their next endeavor.

One of the most exciting indie games I've played this year, the game is focused on tight FPS platforming with guns that can be discarded to give you a particular boost: double jump, forward boost, directional boost. These mechanics are polished almost to perfection making you look for the fastest way through a level whilst mowing down all the demons as fast as possible. The gameplay is intense, and you find yourself looking after the next shortcut or perfecting your mechanical skills, but unfortunately the only thing to balance this level of intensity is poorly written dialogue between characters and meaningless rewards for collectibles. If the dialogue was better, and the characters were better written out this could have easily been a masterpiece, but unfortunately the lack of contrast to an exciting and demanding gameplay is non existent and it hurts the overall experience.

There has been a lot of praise for this game for righting some wrongs from other Star Wars franchise games. However I do not consider that it does enough to become a great title with it's lacklustre, unimaginative and bugged gameplay. Fallen Order continuously takes elements from other games, this is not necessarily a bad thing but where other games with similar gameplay have pushed and refined gameplay, Fallen Order keeps on coming short on the aspects that it explores. Combat can be at times interesting but it doesn't feel polished or memorable enough. There isn't enough enemy variety, there are only a handful of notable boss fights and the gameplay can feel sloppy or unresponsible, especially when the game just throws a big number of enemies your way as a way of escalating difficulty. Parrying is one of the main aspects of this game, but unfortunately the game doesn't understand that once you break someone's guard you should be able to deal significant damage so all of that risk that you took finally pays off. All you get is some stagger time to damage an enemy after you've successfully parried their attacks for long enough. Platforming is another aspect where the game tries to emulate games like uncharted or metroidvenias but falls flat. The upgrades feel like things that could have been implemented from the beginning of the game and don't really blend well together. We see time and time again the need to wall jump, double jump and slide but it's never done in a way that is challenging, fun or intresesting. Just modes of traversal to get you from one point to another. Finally I wanted to note a lot of technical aspects that I experienced whilst playing this game in the base PS4: Clippings FPS drops (significant enough to hinder gameplay) Crashes Bugs (including T posing, enemies floating, enemies fighting each other) All of them had a significant enough impact that it affected my enjoyment of the game. In conclusion, Fallen Order feels like a game that uses all the correct elements from other genres trying to blend something unique but falls flat on every turn. I still feel like Star Wars fans deserve better than a Dark Souls/Sekiro clone that isn't even bold enough to refine or experiment with the gameplay or take a stance on it's difficulty. Reviewed with a base PS4 in Jedi Master difficulty.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I was pleasantly surprised with Tunic, the main look of the games immediately shows you that it's main inspiration is the Zelda 2d games but after playing it for a few hours I realised that it had a lot of elements from the souls series as well. However Tunic goes beyond it's influences and crafts itself it's unique and adorable world with a high level dose of nostalgia; offering players a good level of lore and secrets while charming you with a retro feel and it's clever puzzles. In my opinion this game was designed around it's booklet, which is one of the main collectibles that you can find, in this beautifully drawn booklet you find how the game works and all the mechanics relevant to gameplay. After some reflection I realised that the game is a metroidvania were the key to progression is the knowledge that you gain about the game, from simple things as figuring out when you are invulnerable in a roll, to figuring out how to level up, the game gives you small bits and pieces of information for you to slowly make your way to the credits. As much as I appreciated this mechanic in the game I did encounter some frustrating bits, this frustration was mostly due to how combat can at times feel unreliable. Dodges and guards do not always grant you safety as you'd expect, and the ever moving camera during boss fights made the hitboxes unreliable, I often took hits when I wasn't expecting it. This would be fine if the game was of a Zelda type difficulty, but the game throws at you quite difficult and challenging boss fights which made the frustration even worse. Apart from the boss fights the combat was mostly simplistic but functional, keeping you entertained but not feeling like the biggest focus of the game. Apart from this small gripe, I do have to commend the game on it's artistry, music and level design. All of it was of the highest quality and the level design really shines with a particular emphasis on 2d worlds with 3d details that contain secrets and corners akin to games like Fez or Captain Toad. Another element that made me want to keep playing and get to the finish line in this game is it's pacing, the game did an excellent job for a metroidvania, I never felt like I had to massively backtrack or find my way, often times the path forward was quite clear or explained simply enough in the booklet. Props to the devs in making a game with such a great connection to retro games, but giving you all the ingame information for you to complete and 100% the game in a fun and slightly challenging manner. I finished the game with it's true ending, took me around 14 hours to do so.

DLC's can often be pointless cash grabs, but in Crosscode's case this DLC just adds more to an already incredible game and gives us and Lea and new place to call home. The DLC took me around 15 hours to complete and added quests that could have been completed mid way through a fresh new gameplay, in my case I had a save file ready to explore what was waiting after the main story had finished. Crosscode DLC delivers on all of those promises that were never finalised in the main game, from the Raid, to the Kulero temple to an impressive amout of great and engaging questslines that never fully finished. It even adds a whole new area to explore and a place where lea can call home. The main attraction here is the final dungeon which the devs finally completed, this is a massive one with many different levels, mid bosses and an incredibly challenging final boss. As always crosscode presents you with plenty of challenge, from the puzzles to the enemies crosscode DLC is up to par in terms of difficulty and presents great puzzles and enemies to defeat. If you liked crosscode, there are no doubts in my mind that you will enjoy this DLC, and for new comers it would be a great idea to get the whole game and it's DLC because it only improves an already outstanding experience.

There is so much content and love put into this game that it baffles me. It's a great game that balances really well combat, exploration, puzzles and story. If you ever have the chance to play this game please do! A couple of recommendations though: Make sure to play it on PC with mouse and keyboard, the aiming is much easier and the puzzles become simpler. Don't focus only on the main story, try to get the chests in the environments and do the side quests, all the optional content is of high standard and compliments the story really well.

Your enjoyability of this game will depend on a few key things: If you've previously played persona 5 or persona 5 royal you will enjoy and understand the story in a much more meaningful way. If you like action RPGS and don't mind that persona 5 strikers has an overhauled combat mechanic were turn based gameplay has been removed in favour of action orientated combat. Finally if the dating simulator and confidant are key to your enjoyment of persona 5 then it might be that persona 5 strikers is not for you since it lacks these features. HOWEVER I do want to say that persona 5 strikers is a great game and any fan should be advised to play it. My review is now below if you want to read it. A Trip to Remember Persona 5 strikers changes a lot of things for the phantom thieves, your school, schedule and confidants are absent, but you get the chance to go on a road trip with all your friends. Never has a game been more on the edge between a sequel and a spin off, but strikers delivers were it counts. The combat is entretaining and challenging, just as you would expect from a persona game, the only change this time is that the combat is in real time and you fight hordes of enemies. There was a time were rumours of persona 5 was being developed as an action RPG instead of the turn combat system that we got, and I feel that a lot of the ideas for strikers were taken directly from the attempts the developers did during that time. Combat is smooth, responsive and fun. Giving you plenty of depth whilst keeping the simplicity of the persona series. Of all the action rpg games I've played, the gameplay of strikers is definitely up there with the greats. Only issue that I had was ocassional camera control problems, were it was difficult to track the enemies. Additionally another small problem that occurred during gameplay is that the screen can be filled with effects during intense combat. However this never was a longstanding issue and I enjoyed my 40 plus hours I spent whilst completing the game. The lack of confidants is a bummer and I do wish that we had more of a chance to spend time with our faves, however the game does deliver on the emotional character development and arcs of previous persona titles and I was roped from the first hours up till the end of our long road trip. I would like to say that persona 5 strikers is not for everyone, I would not recommend this game if you haven't played the past persona 5 games, but for everyone else I think you owe it to yourself to experience the game. Get a demo and try it for yourself, see if this game is for you. There is plenty to love and to do in Strikers and I'm sure that those persona fans will appreciate a final send off for the phantom thieves.

It's impossible to separate the different aspects of Haven; the music, art style, graphics are beautiful and compliment the story perfectly. The game tells you from the beginning that this is not a challenging game. However as Furi's difficulty ties directly to the story, Haven's easy to grasp gameplay and mechanics are connected to Haven's main focus, the relationship between Yu and Kay. When you are right for each other nothing feels impossible, but it's not a breeze either. I enjoyed my time with the game thoroughly, and enjoyed getting lost in a lovely relationship between two people fighting for freedom. My only gripes with this particular game is that I would have welcomed more depth in terms of it's gameplay, both the movement and the combat could have been enhanced ever so slightly so players craving a challenge could sink their teeth into some optional content (available only to those who will go to that length), however I do think that the fact that this is not present in the game was intentional since it might not relate to the core aspects of the story.

I will try and be objective here: The gameplay and overall atmosphere is great, some characters and quests are really interesting and some locations are just jawdropping. However there are a lot of flaws in the game itself: places often feel empty, locations look interesting but often don't hold anything of relevance for the story or the world they inhabit. Power armor introduction feels a bit rubbish and regardless of your playstyle you are forced into encounters were violence are shooting is mandatory. All of that would score higher if it wasn't for the bugs and crashes. In a pc sitting in the 99% percentile at pc benchmark I encountered every bug and crash imaginable almost making me quit the game in numerous ocations. Examples: Game crashed when opening it, spent an hour fixing this issues Game crashed when fast traveling to the institute which is essential for the main story, spent hours troubleshooting this. Long loading screens, we are talking minutes not seconds. I have an SSD and it still can randomly take more than 3 or 4 minutes to load an area. Brown face glitch. Quest glitches which prevented them from finishing. Sudden deaths. Needless to say this is the main reason why the game scores so low.