In this Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – The Lord of Nothing DLC Impressions article, we’ll be going through our thoughts on the game’s fifth DLC. What’s new in this adventure, who do we meet, and what kind of challenges can we expect to face? Let’s find out here!

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Lord of Nothing DLC Impressions

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Lord of Nothing DLC is an expansion for the CRPG based on the Pathfinder tabletop game. It is also the fifth and final DLC for the game.

Lord of Nothing picks up the unfinished story of Through the Ashes DLC, where you lead a group of Kenabres survivors into the realm of Sithhud. This time, you have a higher level cap (yet still retain the vibe of a small folks’ story), more class archetypes, more powerful weapons, and a charming new companion.

Just like its predecessor, Lord of Nothing features a standalone survivalist adventure, which only connects to the main campaign after you beat it while also potentially adding an extra encounter for your commander in the main campaign. The team of Kenabres survivors (the group you controlled in the previous DLC) continues its focus on a smaller scale, mid-level range adventure compared to the main campaign. You can import your characters from the end of Through the Ashes DLC, or create a group of new ones (in that case, you can choose the ending of Through the Ashes DLC). 

The Lord of Nothing

The DLC is divided into several mini-campaigns (or areas), and you face different enemies and environments in these areas. You must conclude the story in one area in order to advance to the next.

In the Lord of Nothing DLC, there are no endless demon hordes to slaughter, but several smaller yet well-crafted battles and encounters with very limited resources. This forces you to carefully plan, strategize, and calculate your next moves. You need to make your potions, items, and spells count. You will really need to plan your moves beforehand, otherwise, the whole team is doomed. The experience is challenging and entertaining at the same time. 

However, this might require a lot of saving and reloading due to the minimal number of rests and the composition of story companions (1 bard, 1 thief, and 1 sorcerer, with no tanks). Additionally, spell-casting builds feel a bit underwhelming. It’s best to play your main character with a tank or melee-focused build or rely on hirelings. The downside is that hirelings cost gold, and the resource is far more valuable in this DLC than in the main campaign. 

A Different Approach

Another issue is that magic weapons are much rarer in the DLC. If your character or build happens to rely on certain types of equipment, or you prefer certain types of weapons but there’s no good drop, then you will likely have some tough times.

Lord of Nothing encourages you to sneak past enemies to conserve your supplies in certain areas. However, placing a six-member team in these spaces feels frustrating. Luckily, only a part of the new areas have this issue. You can mostly just choose to focus on excellent combat strategies instead. 

Three’s Company, and a Story

The DLC also introduces a lovely new companion – Penta, a charming Android who accompanies you in the realm of Sithhud. Honestly, I wasn’t aware that androids were a thing in medieval high-fantasy settings, but the writers clearly nailed it. She’s really vivid, and detailed, and the voice acting is top-notch. In the end, you wish there could be more of her even in the main campaign.

Lord of Nothing’s story is also overall quite good. The cliffhanger left in Through the Ashes is resolved with a satisfying end. Without delving too deep into spoilers, one extra thing worth mentioning is that although your characters are still capped at medium levels (Level 10-11). 

Depending on how you play the DLC, you can have up to five endings. Some of these endings lead to very satisfying and complex fights for your main game characters in Act 5.

Puzzling Powers in the Lord of Nothing

This time you gain a story-related power called Shard Powers, which adds more flexibility to your character builds, and it does have an impact on the overall narrative. They function like the mythic powers in the main campaign, but each time you pick a shard, you need to decide which team member to take it. Also, absorbing shards brings your character debuffs. The more you take, the more debuffs you get which adds a nice way to balance things if you can really afford to get new powers. 

Also, there is good news for the players who hated the puzzles in the main game. There are still secrets here and there, but only one really difficult puzzle and you can skip it if you’d prefer not to wrack your brain over it. So no more mind-boggling experiences like exploring the Enigma. And there are no game-breaking bugs I encountered in my playthrough, which is a good improvement for Owlcat studio.

The new 15 archetypes (or subclasses) also add an extra layer to the already rich combat systems of the main game. Some of these archetypes come from official Pathfinder materials, while others are homebrew but still interesting to test. Now you can have more builds to explore for the enthusiasts.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the DLC feels satisfying. It provides a good quality of 10 to 20 hours of playtime and lets you experience the fight against demons from a different perspective than the commander. You certainly don’t want to miss this DLC if you are into CRPG games, especially if you have already played Through the Ashes.

Lord of Nothing was released on November 21, 2023, for PC and consoles. It retails for $12.99, and will of course require you to already own the base game. 

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In this Warhammer Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin Review, I want to talk about my first impressions of the game. I’ve been playing it on and off for the last week or so. I want to tell you what I like about the game, what I don’t like about the game, and whether I think you should spend money to buy this game or wait for a sale. If you’re a Warhammer fan, this is probably a game that you’ve been keeping an eye on.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin Review

What is Age of Sigma Realms of Ruin?

So first, let’s talk a bit about what Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is. This is a Warhammer RTS and it plays a bit like an RTS but it plays a bit like a MOBA. When I first thought of Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin, when I first saw the gameplay and I heard of a Warhammer RTS, immediately my thoughts went to Dawn of War. Now obviously, Dawn of War is in the 40K Universe, it’s a bit different, but in terms of tactical real-time strategy, that’s sort of what I was expecting from this game.

I love the Dawn of War series. Obviously, Dawn of War 1 is my favorite. Dawn of War 2 was not quite as good, while Dawn of War 3 we don’t talk about. I will say for the faults that I find with Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin, I really like the tactical nature of combat. Characters move slowly, they have abilities that you can use, and fights aren’t over immediately so there is room for maneuvering. Elevation plays a big role, the direction your troops are facing plays a big role, and the way they’re positioned is important. So there is a big tactical nature to combat.

Resources and Currency

So first, let’s talk about one of the things that I really loved about the tactical nature of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin. The abilities of units are tied to two resources in the game that you use to generate units with. You have to decide, do you want to spend your currency to win this fight that’s in front of you, or do you want to spend your currency to create more units? So maybe you spend your currency and you win that fight, but then you can’t create any more units and then you lose the next fight. If you don’t spend the currency and your units die, but then you generate new units to replace them you’d really win.

Making tough decisions in combat about when to spend your currency to gamble it on winning that fight, is it better than creating new units or upgrading the units that you have? I think it’s a really, really cool concept and I really enjoyed how that played out throughout the game.

Audio, Sounds and Voice Acting

I also really, really enjoy the sound effects of the game. The voice acting is top-notch, and the sound effects of the game are top-notch. It really immerses you into that Warhammer Age of Sigmar Universe where you feel like you’re inside the game and you’re part of the campaign. I wouldn’t go out all the way to say that this is a triple-A production because it really doesn’t feel like a AAA production, but it’s somewhere between AA and AAA when it comes to the sound quality of the game.

RTS or MOBA

Let’s talk about some of the things that I think players should be concerned with if they are RTS fans, Dawn of War fans. This might not be an issue for some of those players, but the game plays more like a MOBA than it does a real-time strategy. What I mean by that is there’s no real base-building element in Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin.

Unlike Dawn of War where you would create your buildings and create your units from those buildings and create defenses, etc., and build resource generators, there is not a lot of building in this game. You generally have a headquarters that populates on a map at a certain point and then you can create towers on top of certain areas of the map that are either defensive or generate resources. Forces are coming at you and you’re sending forces out and it’s kind of this seesaw tug-of-war battle pretty much through any map you’re doing.

Even campaigns feel like they are dictated by this mechanic and it seems like they built the campaign around MOBA mechanics rather than created a separate mode of game mode for multiplayer and created the campaign separately. They’re sort of weaved together in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin campaign. I’m not a huge fan of MOBAs in general and if you played Dawn of War 3 then you know that that’s kind of the direction Dawn of War 3 went.

This game doesn’t feel exactly like Dawn of War I in my opinion, but it does kind of have that MOBA concept mixed into it that I’m not really a fan of. I prefer the base building, I prefer that sort of element of the game. But if you’re someone who doesn’t mind not having base building and your sole focus is tactical combat, then that won’t be an issue for you.

Factions and Units

Another issue that I found that I had problems with was that there’s only four factions available in this game at launch and there is not a ton of units per faction. I found myself, you know, six seven missions into the campaign like already starting to feel like, ‘Is this it? Like, when are the cool things going to happen?’ and it felt like I’d already unlocked most of the stuff that I would be using throughout the campaign.

I just thought Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin doesn’t feel like it was fully done. It feels like it needs another four factions or so, or three, you know, somewhere to have a good seven or eight factions, especially since there’s a huge multiplayer element of this game where they’re really encouraging people to play one-on-one or 2v2 in terms of multiplayer modes to have more selection of units and more variety of gameplay.

I know they are planning to add more factions to this game in the future and I don’t know whether those will be paid or not. I highly suspect they will if you’re familiar with any of Warhammer business models. They typically have factions added as an expansion of some kind that then cost you money. I’d expect that to be the case here as well, so it’ll probably cost you more money than the $54 or whatever it is right now on Steam for this game. Probably what should have been charged $54. I don’t think that playing, paying $54 or $59.99 or whatever it is locally for you is a good value for what you’re getting from this game unless you plan to play multiplayer a lot.

I would personally recommend waiting for those factions to get added to the game and then buying like a Gold Edition or sort of bundle that comes at a similar price it is now to really get that value out of it. And again, that’s only if you’re probably going to play a lot of multiplayer and you like MOBA gameplay. If you’re someone who really likes Dawn of War or you like RTSs in general and you like that sort of base building and then fighting mix, this doesn’t really have that in this game.

Realms of Ruin is Challenging

One thing that I will add is that Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is quite challenging, even on like normal game mode. There’s four difficulties, even on like normal I was getting my butt whooped pretty good at the beginning. Admittedly, I’m a little bit rusty at RTSs. You know, there are not a lot of RTSs out these days, there’s not a lot to choose from and that’s one of the reasons I was very interested in this game.

I love, love RTSs. They’ve kind of gone by the wayside in the last decade or two and every time a new RTS comes out I get excited because I’m like, ‘Oo, I love Starcraft, I love Warcraft, I love some of these games, Age of Empires.’ I love these sort of real-time strategy games and I really wanted to see how this one was. I’m a huge fan of Warhammer and frankly, it’s fun but it’s just not quite right up my alley.

I definitely finished the campaign of this game because I like Warhammer so much but I don’t think if I had to buy this game, which I got the code for free, I don’t think I would have paid full price for it and would have been happy with the price for one playthrough because I probably won’t play multiplayer. But if you plan to play multiplayer and you’re like a big PVP Warhammer person, you might really appreciate this game a lot more.

So that kind of wraps up my first impressions of the game. What do you guys think so far? For those of you who played, there was like a demo or a beta I think back in July of this year. For those of you who played it then or who played the game, what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.

Want more Reviews? Be sure to not miss out on Remnant II The Awakened King DLC Review and Lords of The Fallen Review 2023.

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It’s been almost three months since Remnant II was released and Gunfire Games has been working tirelessly to provide an even better experience to their player base. Not only have they pushed a couple of balance patches and improvements over the past few months, but they also put together a brand new DLC.

The Awakened King is the highly anticipated DLC and serves as the first of three DLCs that Gunfire Games has promised to their fans, with the later two coming out sometime next year. In this in-depth review, we will be covering The Awakened King’s story and setting, the latest additions, and more. Most importantly, is it worth picking up? Let’s find out.

Remnant II The Awakened King DLC Review

Story and Setting

The Awakened King DLC builds upon the existing lore of the biome of Losomn where the worlds of the Fae and Dran merged, throwing both sides into an ever-growing disastrous conflict. In the past, the Dran were peaceful creatures. However, they have now evolved into group-minded creatures that can be easily provoked into madness and they are willing to do anything to protect their kind.

On the other hand, The Fae, once an organized and highly respected race, have lost their sense of direction. They are now tormented by an insatiable craving for the life force of the Dran, which has made them hostile towards them, seeing them as inferior beings.

In the base game, the Traveler was involved in the Fae’s internal conflict where the One True King had been forced into a long slumber by traitors. He has now been awakened, angry and violent, and threatens to bring chaos and destruction to the already ravaged world.

You as the Traveler will return to Losomn to determine the situations of both sides and unravel the deeper mysteries revolving around the One True King’s purpose and rampage of revenge. As a player who loves the world of Losomn in general, my curiosity about how the events would unfold was extremely high.

The moment I set foot into the new area, I found myself eagerly wanting to explore my surroundings and determine the situation of the land. Right off the bat, I met new NPCs who provided me with useful information about what was happening or how to progress. Eventually, I met returning NPCs as well.

My first few hours in the DLC were filled with excitement, as I was eager to know the answers to my questions regarding the story. As I dived deeper and ultimately reached the ending of the DLC, I found the conclusions a little bit underwhelming, even after exploring both outcomes.

Gameplay

One of the highlights of Remnant II: The Awakened King is the introduction of new items, Weapons, Armor, Mutators, and Trinkets. Players can expect to find powerful new weapons and gear that will aid them in their fight against The Awakened King. Each of these newly added items is worth checking as they offer unique effects that can further bolster existing builds.

Not only do we have a lot of new toys to play with, but the greatest addition that the DLC provided is a new archetype, the Ritualist, offering a new playstyle and abilities to experiment and tinker with. A DPS Archetype that mainly relies on status effects infliction, I can already see the potential of it just by looking at its kit.

Additionally, the DLC raises the Trait cap to 85, allowing players to further customize their builds that strengthen their overall prowess. This adds another layer of progression and depth to the game, giving players more reasons to continue playing and exploring.

Players can now expect a static overworld or general area that is full of secrets. During the player’s first playthrough, the DLC will set itself to a One Shot Mode. This mode will let players undergo a pre-determined layout and set of dungeons, intended for a first playthrough. The caveat is, that it can only be accessed once. Hence the name.

The developers were clear about this as they wanted to experiment and effectively convey the story through having a static-level design. I for one love this feature, as they can freely give their efforts and focus on improving certain levels in a much more detailed way. Also, I love the fact that I can remember the locations of the available dungeon openings in the overworld. Looking for an unexplored dungeon in a randomized space felt like a chore in the base game.

On the flip side of things, players who love to have a randomized experience can still enjoy the DLC. After clearing the first playthrough, the overworld will remain the same however, the contents of the optional dungeons will be randomized. After the One Shot Mode, expect to have previously explored optional dungeons in Losomn appear in the DLC area.

Along with new areas, a new set of enemies and bosses has been introduced in the DLC. Although there are only a handful of new enemies added to Remnant II, each of them is distinct and they should not be taken lightly. Each new enemy type has its own strengths and weaknesses for you to figure out and during my time, every enemy kept me on my toes, and letting my guard down in most cases resulted in my imminent death, especially when playing on Apocalypse.

As expected, I found the major Bosses interesting and well thought out. I was given the opportunity to fight two of them and they rewarded me with shiny items and a satisfying experience. There were lots of exciting mechanics for me to figure out which led to engaging and fun encounters.

Design, Audio, and Visual

Let’s talk about Design, Audio, and Visuals. As with the base game, The Awakened King features great visuals and atmospheric-level design. Although I did not notice any improvements in its overall graphic fidelity, one can clearly see that Gunfire Games put a lot of effort into level design and progression. Especially on the DLC’s overworld or main area.

As Bloodborne fans, we all know that Losomn was somewhat inspired by it, so we can’t help but want to see more of this world. And the DLC did a great job of granting this desire, expanding my favorite biome.

Each section is distinct and intricately crafted, making exploration satisfying and immersive. I can clearly picture the sections I’ve been through during my first playthroughs. From the perilous docks of Forlorn Coast with an ominous lighthouse on it, newly designed sewers, and inner slums where danger lurks on every corner, to the city street’s plaza that will offer anyone a nice view of the towering castle.

The overall level design offers a mix of the staggering amount of open environments which I appreciate with tight corridors and spaces that keep players on their toes. Coupled with strong and immersive ambient sounds and OSTS that will set anyone’s mood to the right tone.

Voice acting on the other hand is no slouch. A high quality of voice acting can still be expected which adds life and defines the characters of the newly added NPCs in the DLC.

The developers did a great job of presenting their new world and I can’t help but think about what the next areas of the upcoming DLC look like.

Performance-wise, I have not encountered any game-breaking bugs that halted my progress or ruined my immersion. Although I experienced some stutters even with the latest drivers installed, though these subsided after a couple of game restarts, and generally the performance was pretty smooth. I played the game with the following specs, RTX 3060, 32 GB RAM, and a Ryzen 9 7950x, the game’s performance is averaging between 80 to 100 FPS at 2k resolution.

Replayability & Pricepoint

The Awakened King offers more hours of loot hunting and satisfying areas to explore which are full of secrets. Expect three to five hours on each playthrough according to the developers. But be reminded that you need to play with subsequent playthroughs to get everything that the DLC can offer.

One can easily get more than 10 hours of game time depending on your RNG. Your mileage may vary greatly because of this. Personally, my first playthrough took 6 hours and the second one took 4 hours. Having two subsequent playthroughs done, I felt that I had barely scratched the surface and wanted to dig further.

Having a price tag of $9.99, I believe players who will get the DLC will get their money’s worth if they decide to seek out everything that The Awakened King has to offer. However, players who want just buy this DLC for the story or play it as a one-time thing are encouraged to wait for a sale.

Final Thoughts

Remnant II: The Awakened King offers a substantial amount of new content and enhancements to the base game, and the new areas, items, and NPCs provide a fresh and exciting experience for players to enjoy. The increased trait cap and new archetype add reasonable depth to character progression and offer new playstyles to explore that can be enjoyed for dozens of hours. For the fans of the series, this is a slam dunk.

If you enjoyed this review be sure to check out more of our Reviews in Lords of The Fallen Review 2023 and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review. You can also check out our Remnant 2 guides.

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In this Lords of the Fallen Review, we take a deep look at the Lords of the Fallen 2023 release, that resets the stage for the IP and aims to put Hexworks and CI Games on the radar of souls fans. How does the game compare to Lies of P? How long is LOTF? What can you expect from story, performance and gameplay? Read on to find out.

Lords of the Fallen 2023 Review

Genre: RPG
Developed by: Hexworks
Published by: CI Games
Release date: October 13th, 2023
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5
Price at time of review: $59.99-69.99

LOTF Review – Story and Setting

The story of Lords of the Fallen is set in the same universe as the original game, and takes place about 1000 years after the events of the 2014 release. Adyr, the God of the Rhogar, or “demons” by human perception, has been imprisoned and sealed away to protect humanity by the followers of the God Orius. But no prison can hold off a God forever, and the wards are weakening.

Preaching their righteous ways, the Hallowed Sentinels aim to restore the corrupted beacons that lock away the demon god. As a lampbearer, gifted with the unique capacity to step into the world of the dead and return, you are called to assist them in this task.

A setting like this is not unusual for RPGs, however, I found the overall world-building to be extremely interesting and well thought-out. In Lords of the Fallen, there is a massive, complex and intriguing world to discover, which appealed to the fantasy reader in me. Additionally, I appreciate that the Hexworks committed to the Dark Fantasy theme and crafted their world and stories to create a consistent atmosphere that carries throughout the game and motivates you to explore and investigate.

The story is told by means of some short cutscenes, dialogue with NPCs, item descriptions and the player-activated “Stigmas” that let the player relive moments in time. Combining all these elements, you will find a convoluted but interesting story with some exposition flaws. It is not difficult to piece together what has happened, and the events that have led to the situation of each NPC can be quite moving, but there are some unfortunately clumsy moments that take away from the intrigue and make it feel more “like a video game”.

There are choices to be made in how to approach some NPC questlines, and ultimately several endings to discover, each with its own roleplay consequence. This element brings the story on par with other souls-likes and ties the exploration and gameplay into a meaningful experience, though the endings of the game leave a lot to be desired.

Gameplay in Lords of the Fallen

Gameplay is the most important part of any souls-like, and Lords of the Fallen brings a good amount of genre-fitting innovations that help it deliver a great experience.

Lords of the Fallen Exploration

Exploration is one of my favorite parts of most games, as I really enjoy discovering what is around each corner, gathering all equipment and items, figuring out NPC progression Quests and ultimately uncovering how the developers tie everything together in their game world.

In this regard, Lords of the Fallen delivered, for me, a truly phenomenal experience. The world inter-connectivity is amazing, and the use of verticality is so exceptional that it puts similar non-Fromsoftware titles that have attempted it to shame. Not only can you find multiple shortcuts, turnabouts and surprise secret pathways in almost every corner, but the size of the world is quite mind-boggling. For comparison’s sake, I loved the world design of Dark Souls. This game has a similar flow, but it is probably two or three times the map size of Dark Souls. And you can see this entire world as you explore, which adds a wonderful feeling of immersion.

On top of this, the whole world was designed twice, as there’s the Umbral realm that can also be explored, has its own set of enemies, its own set of unique pathways, and is layered on top of everything. You spend less time in Umbral, as there are too many enemies and you only need Umbral for specific portions of progress, but the fact that it’s always there and ready for your visit is impressive.

Tying up the size and exploration are of course the NPC questlines and treasure pickups. In this regard, I felt that there was a very good progression of unlockable trainers, storylines and loot to reward me for actually checking every edge of the screen.

LotF Combat

The combat of Lords of the Fallen is unfortunately somewhere the game should have shined, but does not. This is not to say the combat is bad, but it lacks a degree of polish that other developers have mastered, and Lords of the Fallen lags behind a bit in this regard.

There are intriguing ideas like Wither Damage when you block, which is similar to Bloodborne’s Rally mechanic, or dodges in and out of range of enemies replacing a roll. The damage mechanics are simple and easy to understand, and the weapon movesets have good combinations with their R2 attacks into the combos.

However, for the entire game I could not shake the feeling of “floatyness” that you get when you overstep forward as you’re swinging, which eventually puts you behind an enemy and forces an awkward 180 turn to continue attacking. There’s also a horrible issue with the lock-on camera, that will prioritize things that are in the middle of the screen rather than your closest enemy. This means that if you’re fighting several enemies in melee range, your aim may suddenly switch to a distant archer, and you’ll start swinging at nothing and become wide open to attacks from the mobs surrounding you.

Another disappointing aspect of combat was the lack of enemy variety. This is something that may not be a deal-breaker for most people, but it does eat into the long-term enjoyment of the game. There are somewhere around 40 enemy types, which is a bit above what Demon’s Souls had at launch. The difference is that you meet most of these early on, and then they are used in most areas of the game, whereas in the FromSoft game you only encountered each type in a certain area, giving you distance from them as you teleport back and forth. Lords of the Fallen is also a much larger game than Demon’s Souls, so you really feel the lack of enemy variety by the end.

There are things that the combat does well, however, and they should be noted. Magic and throwable item management is actually well implemented, with powerful spells and items that give buffs to yourself and allies or deal damage, etc. The treasure distribution means you can use these frequently and almost with abandon, but still have to keep an eye on your usage in order to replenish between fights. Additionally, the combat style with different weapon types does change how you approach the game, so you can look forward to changing your character’s focus and redoing your builds.

Classes, Builds & Itemization

Lords of the Fallen launches with 9 default Classes, and players are rewarded with an extra 4 classes for completing game objectives. The extra classes can only be used in a new playthrough, but their equipment can be found in-game as well. Classes work like they do in the Souls games, in that their only role is starting equipment and initial stat distribution, but players will find that the game is rather big and their wanted loot may be many hours from the start, so the choice can be important to match your gameplay and not have you wasting all your Vigor buying armor.

Itemization for Lords of the Fallen follows a simplified Souls formula, with stat requirements and scaling that apply to weapon categories, armor weight classes and items to deal with damage types and buildup status effects. The game has 15 Weapon categories featuring 180 unique weapons, 3 different Spell types with 60 unique spells, and I think I have counted 90 Armor sets with really awesome fashion opportunities. This is without including the multitude of throwable Items and Consumables that can be used to enhance your combat experience.

All of this together means that the game gives a decent amount of options to create unique and interesting Builds, however there may be some shallowness to these due to Enemy weaknesses and resistances, which are sort of a rock, paper, scissors format.

Coupled with this is the absence of infusions or skills on weapons, as upgrades are a linear progression that simply improves the attack power and scaling of your weapon. Thus, you’ll find yourself using consumable items to buff into different damage types to compensate, which may get in the way of your dedicated cosplay, as your paladin may have to use Fire rather than holy to take on many enemies.

To balance the above, weapons and shields do have Runes that can be slotted and change several aspects from scaling to grievous strike damage or even mana or health regen on kills. These effects play into a build by doubling down with other effects you gain from Rings, Amulets and consumables, but it may take players a while to get into them as runes are slottable only with upgrades and players must find them in game.

Lords of the Fallen Review – Design, Audio and Visual

Lords of the Fallen is an absolutely gorgeous game that makes excellent use of Unreal Engine 5 and a very talented design team that has given the world a unique and appropriately grim look and feel. This is probably the best-looking souls game to date in terms of fidelity, if you don’t include the Demon’s Souls remake, and it is infused with distinct personality. As I climbed to high peaks and towers, I truly enjoyed taking a moment to look back and see the entire world I had explored in beautiful detail.

LOTF Bugs & Performance Review

Unfortunately though, Lords of the Fallen suffers from a couple of performance issues and several bugs that might detract from the experience of players. While the start of the game was rather smooth and I could sustain over 60 FPS at 1440p on a 2080ti, late game zones had some drops into the 40 FPS realm that were quite annoying in combat. Devastatingly, the issues in these areas were doubled in multiplayer, and I had to face many challenging fights against groups of mobs with a blighttown-level 20 FPS.

However, there have been continuous patches during the review period, and these things have only gotten better since then. A patch pushed just yesterday addressed many performance issues, and these later zones now perform much better, though still have some FPS dips here and there, though not to the same degree.

There are also some minor but annoying bugs that popped up during the preview period, including menu clicks not working, an item popping in and out of existence at the hub, umbral enemies becoming invisible but able to attack, and a random teleport back to a lamp while in the middle of a level. None of these were game-breaking, but they did give the feel that the game was not as polished as it should be, and perhaps could have used a bit more time in development.

Audio & Soundtrack

Lords of the Fallen has a fitting and impactful music score that I very much enjoyed. Idling in areas did not live up to the magic of some other RPG tunes, but the boss themes were powerful and delivered that intense crescendo that I crave during these difficult fights.

I have seen a lot of commentary regarding the sound effects and sound cues of the game, but I personally found them good enough, with nothing out of place and nothing outstanding. There was, however, one thing that I did find annoying and that was the “buzz” of Umbral, a high-pitched sound that made me want to get out of there as soon as I could every time. I do know the devs have announced they will be working on this aspect, so we’ll see what they do with it.

Voice acting is truly a mixed bag, with some incredibly good deliveries by several outstanding actors, and some truly bad miscastings that unfortunately ruined some NPCs for me. There’s not really much more to say about it.

Pricepoint, Game Length & Replayability

My first Lords of the Fallen playthrough took about 50 hours, and I didn’t find or do everything that was available in game. There are still zones I haven’t visited, Bosses I haven’t fought and NPC questlines I need to further explore. This is before you factor in NG+, that lets you continue playing with your existing character.

Replayability

The replayability of these games comes in several forms: different Builds, continuation into new game plus to unlock different endings, and multiplayer. There’s a serviceable variety of builds to work with and those who like to tinker and re-roll will probably find a happy space here. New Game plus will also give completionists a progression path to keep challenging themselves.

Multiplayer is something that I actually love, and it is something I extremely enjoyed, even through performance and technical issues that were being worked on daily. The implementation of coop play in Lords of the Fallen is absolutely fantastic. You can summon random players, use passwords, or simply use your friends list, and you will find very few barriers and can pair a starting character with an endgame one.

Your summoned companion will stay in your world until they choose to leave or you kick them, meaning you can actually continuously play the entire game with your friends without the need to keep resummoning them. They will get enemy drops and Vigor, they can use all your services including the blacksmith and upgrades for the lamp and healing. But they won’t get any treasures or boss remembrances and thus will be locked out of some gear progression, unless you opt to drop them items they may wish to use.

Something I particularly liked about coop is that, while enemies are harder and can become more challenging, if your summoned partner dies you can simply bring them back from a ghost right where they fell, or from the checkpoint without resetting the level. I very much appreciated this as it felt like we were in it together. Of course, if the host dies…well that’s that.

All in all, I’m not sure how multiplayer performance will pan out. We had good days and bad days with no FPS issues sometimes, and other days where we had terrible FPS drops and rubberbanding. With the recent patch I can say performance is much better, but because we have not had as much time to test it, it’s really hard to say what sort of multiplayer experience each player will get…

Pricing

And this brings us to the ever-contentious pricing. When considering a game’s pricepoint, we take into account the amount of content available, the experience impact, and the value of purchasing a game right away versus waiting for patches or a sale. Lords of the Fallen is a content-complete game with some very well-done aspects, and a mild lack of polish in others.

For me, even with its issues, I had a great time with the game, and even though I have completed the game on PC, I have purchased a Playstation 5 copy for myself and intend to play again with the community. This is because LOTF delivered in exploration and atmosphere, and because I have seen the developers patch the game quickly and effectively based on feedback, so I think they will continue along that line and end up with an excellent product.

Final Thoughts

Lords of the Fallen is the first soulslike to deliver a truly enormous and intricately interconnected world with addicting exploration and a significant variety of discoverable loot that makes you want to find every secret the game has to offer.

While lacking in combat polish and struggling with framerate and netcode in a couple of areas, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, I’m ready to play again, and I feel like any Souls fan looking for their fix is going to get something out of the game.

Whether you buy it now or wait for further patches, if you enjoy the Souls genre, Lords of the Fallen is a game that I would fully recommend. No other Souls-like to date has so thoroughly mimicked the Souls formula, and I mean that in the best possible way.

The post Lords of The Fallen Review 2023 appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review, we’ll be taking a look into the eagerly awaited Cyberpunk 2077 Expansion: Phantom Liberty. Developed by CD Project RED, this expansion offers a completely new and somewhat independent chapter that focuses around espionage and political intrigue. The Expansion is accompanied by a huge 2.0 update that we discuss in another video, so I recommend you check that video as well to if you want to know more specifically about those changes.

*Note: This review contains mild spoilers about the beginning of Phantom Liberty, including the settings and motivations that get things in motion.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review

Genre: RPG
Developed by: CD Projekt Red
Published by: CD Projekt Red
Release date: September 26th, 2023
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Price at time of review: $30.00

Phantom Liberty Review – Story & Setting

Dogtown

Phantom Liberty is set in Dogtown, which in a ruined part of Pacifica and falls outside of Night City’s jurisdiction. This city-within-a-city is controlled by Kurt Hansen, once a high-ranking Militech soldier, and now an arms dealer that rules over Dogtown with the help of his own gang called the Barghest which also act as the local police. The only way in is through a heavily guarded gate and only people with clearance may pass.

Dogtown feels completely different than any Night City areas, with massive walls that enclose the district, and a complete lack of order, other than the Barghest law. You’ll often see people being executed on the streets and armed convoys that escort arms deal contraband.

I really like what CD Project Red has done with the district, as you can feel the constant pressure that Hansen’s dictatorship has on its citizens and how they have adapted to live under such conditions. The atmosphere is top-notch, and whenever I went back to Night City, I felt that I was going into a completely different game.

In order to unlock the DLC content, you’ll first need to complete the “Transmission” quest from the regular game.

Main Story Progression

For me, the best things about Phantom Liberty is its main story and the overall pacing of the plot. Once inside Dogtown everything escalates very quick. At the beginning, you’ll be rushing for your life without time to think about your next move, but after the initial mayhem is over, things calm down, and you find yourself playing a slow game of espionage, where pieces are turned one at a time while also having some free time in-between missions.

This was great, as I never felt that I had nothing to do. I was able to complete the side-missions while waiting for the main plot to advance, and as soon as I was finishing those side missions, the main plot would return and hook me over and over again. You’ll slowly meet new characters and delve into their pasts as you get acquainted to them, giving you both empathy and distrust once you get to know their motivations and drives.

Similar to the original story, your decisions will have little to no impact on how the main story develops, except for a big choice you’ll have to make towards the end that will have a big impact on how events unfold. One of the twists I love about Phantom Liberty is that instead of giving you various characters to distrust and then force you to make a choice between them, you feel like there are a couple that you do trust, and you have to decide between them. It was refreshing to find myself having to decide between people I appreciated, instead of just deciding between the lesser of two evils.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review: Gameplay

Relic Perk Tree

The Relic Perk Tree is a unique Tree that uses “Relic Points” instead of Perk points. Some points are unlocked by playing the main missions of Phantom Liberty, while others can be acquired by finding hidden Militech Terminals scattered across Dogtown.

The Relic Tree is composed of 9 distinct unique perks that massively boost combat performance. The upper part of the tree focuses on the Arms Cyberware, providing specific boosts for Mantis Blades, Gorilla Arms, Projectile Launch Systems or the Monowire.

On the bottom left, there are two perks that allow you to quickly exit combat even while spotted, which is a great help during espionage missions.

On the bottom right, we’ll be able to unlock a perk that allows us to detect vulnerabilities of enemies, which act as weakspots that we can shoot to deal more damage and create a small EMP AoE.

I personally enjoyed the cloaking mechanics in combination with the Vulnerability system, but I think most users will have a ton of fun with the Arm Upgrades, as they unlock new and varied playstyles.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Missions & Exploration

Side Quests and Gigs

There are numerous Side Quests and Gigs scattered around Dogtown, which range from helping locals with personal stuff, to performing some Corpo espionage on hidden facilities. I really enjoyed completing the different Gigs, each feeling unique and with lots of very notable characters, and you’ll find many Iconic Weapons by completing these as well. I would say tough, that these are very straightforward and provide little choices regarding how you complete them or their general conclusion, which is something I also disliked from the original game.

General Exploration

While Dogtown itself is rather small, you can still do a lot of exploration thanks to its infrastructure. There’s a ton of abandoned buildings where you can parkour to find secret stashes with equipment. Having said that, exploring Dogtown was one of my least enjoyable parts of the DLC, as its mostly a destroyed wasteland and requires you to constantly jump between different platforms to reach your destination, which I often found somewhat tedious.

Open World Activities

There are two repeatable open world activities that were introduced with Phantom Liberty, which are Airdrops and Courier Missions.

Airdrops

Airdrops come in a couple of different formats, but the main objective is to defeat the enemies and reclaim a stash of goods. You can identify them by spotting the pink smoke or by watching the drop land. You’ll often spot these while traveling from one objective to the next and I highly recommend you complete them as they are short and provide you with handsome rewards.

• Retake: A small encounter with a few enemies.
• Shootout: enemies are already swarming the drop zone. To claim the supplies, you’ll have to take them out.
• Ambush: The drop zone seems empty, but enemies will appear as soon as you pick up the loot. Take them out and escape to claim the cache!
• Grab: It’s your lucky day; you got here before anyone else could have a sniff. Enjoy your loot without any strings attached.
• Custom: These come with dedicated narrative elements and backstory so you can learn more about the players of Dogtown and feel more immersed in its seedy dealing

Courier Missions

Courier Missions are marked with a car handlebar on the map and their main objective is to retrieve a Car to a specific location. Similar to Airdrops, there are a couple of different variants, and they can be refreshing if you need a break from regular missions or just feel like driving.

• Unique: Two unique, non-repeatable story missions.
• Chase: Enemy vehicles spawn nearby and start attacking.
• Timer / No damage: Quick and careful; these variations are all about driving ability. You must either deliver the vehicle within the time limit, or avoid damaging it to receive a bonus.
• Hacking: using special tech, you’ll need to hack the enemy car first in order to retrieve it.

Design, Visual & Audio

Visuals and Performance

I haven’t played Cyberpunk 2077 since its original release and I must say that I was impressed by the visual and Performance improvements. I played on a computer with a 2060 Super, a Ryzen 7 3700x and 16 GB of RAM with a 1440p resolution monitor with everything set on Max, and without Raytracing, averaging 60 fps at all times. Load times were great, and I never experienced any type of frame drops or stutter.

Audio & Soundtrack

Cyberpunk soundtracks are amazing, and Phantom Liberty improves on this aspect by adding three whole new radio stations with new and unique songs. I really enjoyed hearing the new playlists while I drove through Dogtown completing different missions.

When it comes to Audio, I don’t have much to mention, as it’s fairly similar to the original game. I do want to point out the amazing voice acting and that all missions and sub-missions are completely voice-acted, which adds a ton to the immersion and the experience in a fabulous way.

Bugs

While I didn’t experience any game-breaking bugs, I did find numerous bugs during my playthrough. These were mainly related to NPCs not spawning in their right position, NPCs that were duplicates standing next to each other and I also experienced some script glitches during one of my main conversations with the local fixer which broke the amazing immersion I was having.

Bugs have always been a hot topic regarding Cyberpunk 2077 and while it has come a long way from its release, you can still expect to find bugs during your play through.

Replayability & Pricepoint

I think players can expect around 20 hours of playtime which is a lot for a DLC. While the 30 U$D might seem a lot, I think players are getting there money’s worth, thanks to both the amount of content and because of how polished it actually is.

It’s not only about the amount of hours of gameplay that you are getting, but it’s also about the quality, and this is where Phantom Liberty really shines. I never felt like I was wasting time or messing around while playing, but instead I enjoyed every minute of it, which is very important when it comes to determine how valuable a product actually is.

There isn’t much replayability value other than watching the alternative story development, so I think for most users it will be more of a one time thing. The Airdrops and Courier Missions also add a little replayability, but I think most players will get tired of them rather quick, so it shouldn’t be a deciding factor. Last but not least, the level cap will be increased to 60 by owning Phantom Liberty, providing a little more leverage for users that want to experience the endgame of the regular story.

Final Thoughts 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty does an amazing job of immersing you into a completely different and unique area of Night City with memorable characters and a very well driven plot and setting. There’s no doubt of the passion that CD Project Red has put into this DLC, and I really look forward to what they’ll bring to us in the future.

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In this Lies of P Review, we will share our impressions of the game after playing a complete playthrough. This soulslike has been highly anticipated by the souls community and managed to get the spotlight in Gamescom 2022, winning the “Most Wanted Sony PS Game” award. Does it live up to the intense hype? Read on to find out!

Lies of P Review – Pinoccio Souls

Genre: RPG
Developed by: NEOWIZ Games, Round8 Studio
Published by: NEOWIZ Games
Release date: September 19th, 2023
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, and PlayStation®4
Price at time of review: $59.99

Lies of P Review – Story & Setting

In Lies of P, you play the role of the puppet “P” in the Belle Époque-inspired city of Krat; a once prosperous capital that has collapsed into ruin as a result of the Puppet Frenzy, leaving Krat with bloodsoaked streets, murderous puppets and a mysterious plague. In this dark and bloody re-imagining of the 1883 children’s tale, P must fight through in order to find his creator and become human. 

In order for you to fully understand the world that you play in and the characters that you meet throughout your journey, you will have to seek and read letters, notes, newspapers, posters and books scattered throughout the game. Similar to the Dark Souls Series, item descriptions and dialogue with NPCs will give more exposition behind the lore of the land. However, unlike the Souls Series, the story can be experienced and understood without having to put in the effort of reading into every description that you find. 

Krat perfectly depicts a once prosperous city that has fallen into ruin with its beautiful architecture and complete chaos layering the exterior. Debris coats every surface on the city, empty carriages and corpses litter the streets, and all kinds of bloodthirsty puppets roam around, using anything from Candelabras to Rapiers as weapons. Locations that you visit outside of Krat are not quite as memorable as the time you spend there, but all areas are connected by a sense of isolation and a desolate atmosphere, making every encounter with an NPC feel special. 

Overall, the story of Lies of P successfully engages players with a fresh take on a classic theme, but it unfortunately does not deliver completely and stumbles over the finish line, so it’s not the strongest point of the game.

Lies of P Review: Gameplay

As expected from a souls-like, Lies of P excels in its gameplay, meshing the now-familiar mechanics with different combat systems that give the gameplay further depth. But does it differ from other Souls-Likes enough to be interesting?

Level Design

Lies of P is divided into different areas with multiple checkpoints. You finish the area by killing a boss, then go back to Hotel Krat, and continue on to the next area. There are no instances where you go back to an area you already completed after unlocking something in the main quest, so the game is quite linear in this regard. However there are many times when the player will be able to choose between multiple paths. Some optional paths will lead to Items or NPCs, and other times it leads to unlocking a shortcut. I was never lost in this game, and always had a clear direction of where to go or what to do. There is also a surprising amount of verticality in this game, which is paired with Dark Souls levels of fall damage, meaning gravity will yet again be the nemesis of most players.

Combat

The basic gameplay loop inside of an area is what you would expect from any Souls-Like. You find a Stargazer checkpoint, go through the area killing Enemies and using Pulse Cells (healing potions), unlock a shortcut/find another Stargazer, go rest to get back pulse cells and repeat. Once you get to a boss, you unlock a shortcut or a Stargazer and can spam attempts as long as you like. 

Combat is meant to be aggressive and agile, with iframes on dodge, perfect parry mechanics, magic spells that enhance your attacks or actions, and health recovery from offensive actions. Your dodges are tied to your character carry weight, so you can expect to manage your equipment to avoid “fat rolling”. The controls are responsive and I felt like I had a good handle on the character, and whenever I died I felt I had made a mistake rather than it feeling cheap.

The game features Weapon swapping, but it felt somewhat clunky as it was a slow swap that didn’t make much sense during combat, and each weapon added to your total weight so it made more sense to just equip one.

Enemies

In terms of enemies, there is a decent range of enemies for you to discover and learn as you play the game, but it will sometimes feel like you face the same 3-4 “easy” enemies when you aren’t fighting minibosses or bosses. Enemies do have unique movesets and weaknesses so you can test your skills versus different kinds of foes that will attack you in different ways.

A sore point for some hardcore fans may be the encouragement of utilising Spectres in the game, which are AI that help in a Boss fight. You are never forced to use them, but 1 boss fight in particular feels impossible to beat without it. 

Overall, the combat of this game goes past what is expected of the standard souls-like formula, and gives players a huge amount of freedom to build whatever they want.

Build Customization

Lies of P has made excellent use of multiple combat systems to add spice to the soulslike combat formula. You start the game off by choosing one of three combat styles between Balanced, Strength and Dexterity, then go on to R1 spam a bit, level a bit and make the weapon stronger. This is where Lies of P applies its own twist. Not only are there 30+ weapons in the game, but most of them have “Blade” and “Handle” components, and each has a unique Fable Art (special ability) bound to them. You can disassemble these 2 parts and assemble different weapon parts together to create any weapon you want.

Weapons

The weapon’s Blade will determine its overall damage and will be upgradable, and the Handle will influence the combat pattern and stat scaling. You can make any kind of ridiculous combination, like a giant Hacksaw Blade on a tiny Rapier Handle or a Chef’s Knife on a massive Pipe Wrench. I found myself spending hours testing all different kinds of combinations to find the perfect weapon for my playstyle, which I was able to carry over for my entire playthrough. This mix-and match system is truly a lot of fun, and opens up an abundance of possibilities for builds that may feel overwhelming at first, but you will open up once you begin to understand the things you want in your weapon.

Another important but not as successful system that adds to the combat is Legion Arms. This is like Sekiro‘s prosthetic arm and it allows you to swap your arm out and gain specific combat abilities. I was honestly a bit disappointed with the options of Legion Arms, and never really found myself relying on them for anything. I tried every single one but the one that felt the most powerful ended up being the beginning arm, Puppet String, which felt anticlimactic. However, I can definitely see some players being able to master this system and utilise it much more efficiently than I did.

Lastly, build customization is wrapped up with the P-Organ System. The build depth when you combine this feature with the weapon assembling feature is amazing. The amount of upgrades P can get to his combat through this system makes you feel in full control of what kind of playstyle you want to have. You will genuinely feel a sense of progression and empowerment as you progress through the story and this system.

Design, Visual & Audio

Graphically, Lies of P delivers a polished product with solid visual fidelity, and that is pleasing to the eye. The game runs on UE4 and it had good performance on my 3090 (AMD Ryzen 9 5950X) with a solid 200 FPS at 1440P on the “Best” quality setting, that never dropped below about 150 FPS. I did have a few crashes here and there during important boss fights or cutscenes (around 5 times in the 35 hour playthrough). I also encountered no bugs.

The game’s art style is satisfying, and the design of enemies felt well-suited for the world and atmosphere. Weapons have a wide range of interesting attack patterns and animations, and the Perfect Guard mechanic feels amazing to pull off. There’s also good environmental variety and the levels take you to different biomes including, of course, a poison swamp.

The voice acting is mostly good. I really very much enjoyed most of the cast, but there was one NPC that got on my nerves and it felt off-putting. Thankfully that character has a limited a role and it won’t be disruptive to your experience.

One point I did not expect this game to excel at was music. There are some points in the game where I caught myself stopping near music sources to hear it out. Records are also available as collectibles which can change the lobby music of Hotel Krat, which was already memorable and fantastic.

Replayability & Pricepoint

In my playthrough, I combed through almost every single waypoint in the game to try and find everything, but I still managed to miss some stuff simply from the choices that you make in the game. This took about 35 hours of skilled gameplay, and I certainly can see things I have yet to discover, so of course your mileage may vary.

There is a heavy emphasis on the importance of your actions and I could definitely see myself trying out new options I hadn’t tried before in a new playthrough, but maybe only 1 or 2 more times before I exhausted all the possibilities.

The real replayability would come from the innumerable amount of builds you can make and the fun weapons you can try out. I could easily see myself sinking maybe 50 more hours into this game before I exhaust the most interesting possibilities in the story and the builds.

Given these numbers I would debate that the price point of 60 dollars is fair, but not exactly incredible value like for Elden Ring or Monster Hunter given the amount of hours the average player will play for. 

Final Thoughts 

It is unfortunate that the first impression that most people will have of this game may be tinted by the perception that it’s simply a “Dark Souls Copycat” due to its heavily inspired UI and gameplay. As a result, many will gloss over this game as just another Souls Like, when in reality Lies of P takes that inspiration and adds many layers of unique aspects that deliver a fresh and unique experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time running around the intriguing setting, fighting different puppet monsters and unveiling the mystery behind all the events that lead to this point. Exploring to find interesting things was great, and the surprisingly catchy music was a treat. NPCs were likeable and I formed some attachments to them, Bosses gave a huge adrenaline rush whenever I got close to beating them, and there were some hard choices to make in the game that pushed my brain to the limits. 

Overall, the experience is extremely solid and not just “another soulslike”, with some real passion put into it by Neowiz which makes me excited for what we will see from them in the future.

The post Lies of P Review appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Starfield Review, we dive into the full release of Betheda’s most ambitious project to date, and tell you if it was worth the 10 year wait. With many fans disappointed by the Studio’s latest releases, everyone is wondering if the game will actually deliver on the quality that made Bethesda famous. Read on to find out.

Starfield Review

Genre: RPG
Developed by: Bethesda Game Studios
Published by: Bethesda Softworks
Release date: September 6th, 2023 (Early Access September 1st 2023)
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Xbox Series X/S
Price at time of review: $69.99 – Free with Gamepass

Starfield Review – Story and Setting

Starfield is set in a universe where humanity has conquered space travel and spread across what is known as “The Settled Systems”. It is the year 2330, and around 20 years before the start of the game (2310) the 2 largest factions in the Settled Systems, the United Colonies and Freestar Collective, engaged in a bloody conflict called the “Colony War”. Today, the major factions enjoy an uneasy peace, but the Settled Systems are still pretty dangerous. There are plenty of human threats out there, like the Ecliptic Mercenaries, Pirates of the Crimson Fleet, Violent Spacers, or even the Fanatical Religious Zealots of House Va’ruun.

Bethesda has done a good job of creating unique factions and fleshing out their histories and actions, providing world-building that will set the proper stage for your adventures. If you are a fan of sci-fi and want to get an idea of how this was approached, think more The Expanse meets No Man’s Sky rather than Mass Effect.

Companions

Since this is an RPG, your character will take on the role of an explorer, and travel the galaxy in pursuit of its secrets or riches, fueled by your own curiosity, righteousness, maliciousness or even greed. Along this journey, you will find Companions and recruit crewmembers, giving you the opportunity to experience their backstories and hear their takes on Locations, history and current events.

Overall, the story of Starfield sets off in typical RPG fashion with a blank slate of a hero that you fill in, and a variety of options to become whatever kind of character you may fancy. That is, fortunately, where the “typical” part of the story ends, as I have to say I was incredibly surprised by the originality of the story itself.

Story Experience

I went into this game 100% blind to what may be awaiting me, with some basic knowledge of what was revealed by Bethesda. I thought I had it all quite figured out for a good 20 or 30 hours, and then it all took a leap that sent the game in a really fun direction. Whilst I usually prefer fantasy to sci-fi, I have read a considerable amount of methaphysical sci-fi, social science fiction, space operas and space westerns. I feel like Starfield has a bit of all of them, and all in the right amount, and it made following the main story a very enjoyable experience that was worth traveling the universe to complete.

While not perfect or mind-blowing, and featuring some unfortunate narrative clunkiness to comply with gaming mechanics or gaming moments, this is a very enjoyable ride for those seeking to experience the story and universe itself.

Gameplay in Starfield

Starfield’s Gameplay is at the same time so similar and so different to so many other games that I find myself having a difficult time explaining it. My preferred summary for this is that there’s a little bit of everything, and a whole lot of little bits. How does that all combine and does it create a congruent experience? Let’s find out:

Starfield RPG Mechanics

Most people will be playing this game to engage with its roleplaying mechanics, and to interact with this universe in their own unique way.

The game has a decent character creator with many options, but I found them a bit weird and could not really create exactly what I wanted, perhaps because the interface itself is not intuitive and I got tired of accidentally rolling back changes I had made. You’ll get the expected physical customization options alongside the opportunity to pick a background, which gives you your first 3 Skills, and some Traits that give you both benefits and demerits based on your choices. The variety of backgrounds and traits is nice, although I did find that I had no idea what would be good or wouldn’t based on the vague descriptions. Since these cannot be changed, if you want to know, we have a beginner guide that goes over the best backgrounds and skills.

Once you’re out in the world, your character development will come from two sources. One is skillpoints, that allow you to unlock more skills and complete challenges to power them up. Other is roleplay, where you slowly develop your personality and relationship with companions to create your impact in the world. You will also be able to customize your Equipment and Armor, install mods on them, and purchase and customize ships based on the activities that you like doing. Overall, I felt like my character was always progressing in some way, and there was always something to do to polish or improve.

Starfield Quests & Exploration

Exploration and Questing is the main focus of Starfield, and it will be the core of your gameplay. Discovering new locations, responding to distress signals, or being a space pirate are all viable paths for you, and you will slowly engage with each aspect and learn how it works and how to master it. It is incredibly overwhelming when you begin, as you’re bombarded with information on what you could be doing, and dozens of Quests and activities pile up on your mission log. I found myself having to purposely take a deep breath, relax, and pick just one thing to do and learn at a time.

Once I got into the groove of the controls, that unfortunately are somewhat lacking, I was able to get into my preferred rhythm for exploration gaming. I gathered quests and activities at a hub, then set off for another system and completed objectives, gathered new quests, completed those, then returned to the main hub to progress the story. Along the way, there were hundreds of small “distraction traps” or “Shiny object” moments that conspired to lead me astray, and thus my play hours slowly extended deeper and deeper into the night.

The slowly forming addiction of scanning planets and “landing just once to see what’s in the surface” simply demonstrates that the exploration of new worlds and locations can be very compelling to those who, like me, enjoy open world games. I had some reservations about how it would all work out given the sheer size of the game, and the mention of “procedurally generated” that usually means “copy pasta”.

Planets

Thankfully I felt like the planets and their exploration fit the universe and made logical sense, much like Mass Effect planetary adventures. Scanning, mining and creating outposts is a side activity that can consume hundreds and hundreds of hours, but it’s entirely skippable for those that are not interested in it.

Questing

What everyone will surely be interested in is the questing, and it is very good. I really, really enjoyed the depth of interactions and opportunities of intervention. Quest storylines are well crafted, have opportunities for persuasion, bribery, intimidation, theft or righteousness, and weave into the world and events seamlessly. Your actions affect the characters and world, your perception of the world and other’s views on you. It’s all done quite well and you’ll find it a lot closer to the excellence that was Mass Effect.

Starfield Combat

The gunplay and combat in Starfield is probably one of the weaker aspects of the game. Lacking the pause-and-dismember features of Fallout, free-gunning on low gravity systems against floaty targets while you yourself jump around and without a cover system was not quite my favorite activity.

Weapons & Mods

There’s a good variety of weapons and mods to customize the experience, and you can opt for mines and frags or even close quarters with a hatchet or sword, but overall the combat was something I wanted to get done with and not what I looked forward to.

There are some later game mechanics for combat that do spice things up and add to the fun, but it wasn’t enough to make me actually enjoy going into conflict. Perhaps it is all my fault because I didn’t roll a stealth archer, but we’ll figure that out when we get around to making builds.

Ship Combat

Ship Combat is on a similar vein somewhat mediocre, with confusing controls and a lot of turning around that can be very overwhelming when you start. I eventually figured out what worked and what didn’t and leveled up my ship parts and skills to a point where it became a lot smoother. Your lack of skill will make your ship feel bulky and unresponsive, which is an initial turn-off, and eventually you will realize that ship combat is simply “ok” and does not change much from one encounter to another.

You can also buy a wide variety of ships that will act very differently in combat, and can upgrade parts and even design your ship to look one way or another. All this tinkering does enhance the overall ship experience, but the core combat remained “just ok”. There are some exceptions of larger ship battles that happen for some optional small side quests, and those can be fun due to the “intergalactic warfare” feel they bring about.

Starfield Review – Design, Audio and Visual

Starfield has a “pragmatically futurist” design that gives the game a feel of realistic or mundane sci-fi. There’s no shock and awe at the technology you’re using, it’s ancient history and owning a ship is not dissimilar to owning a boat in the real world.

This approach to remove the player from the concept of “final frontier” to “backyard” works well within the game to match the more mundane nature of your activities. After all, you would not be able to access or use these amazing tools just to carry out a mission to plant some documents on another planet.

Most of the spaceships you use are the “clunkers” of The Expanse, with wire chairs, small bunkbeds and tiny messy galleys. The cities you visit will go from feeling like The Citadel to Cyberpunk to The Wild West, with factories, mining outposts and utilitarian facilities speckled about.

This design philosophy carries over the game’s UI, and in my opinion does leave something wanting. It is extremely simple and clean, to the point it lacked personality, and at the expense of needed features like a mini-map or better inventory tools.

Graphically, the game is beautiful and the cutscenes are actually gorgeous. The in-game renders of activities and such are of course lower quality, but given the amazing expansiveness of the content and incredible amount of options that can pop up, I feel the graphics are at the very top of what can be expected out of even the best developers.

Starfield Bugs & Performance Review

Performance-wise I found the game runs well on both of my computers, meaning my “gaming” dedicated rig with a 4090 handled the game flawlessly on mostly ULTRA settings, supporting FPS in the 90s consistently and sporadically over 120. My more modest 3080 ran well if with some lower fidelity. The FPS was considerably lower on the 3080, going on 45 or so and not really going above 60 on ULTRA. Reducing graphic quality improved this, of course, so plan to play on High or such if you’re in this range. There was minor texture pop in here and there, but it was not a persistent issue and I did not feel pulled out of the game from it.

Bugs & Glitches

I didn’t encounter crashes or game progress bugs, which was a very big relief as many recent releases have been plagued by such issues. What I did find are numerous instances of graphical glitches or small bugs that are typical to the fallout series: camera zooms into NPCs head when they are talking and the conversation is had from an unviewable angle, or the NPC keeps walking as it talks to you, or doesn’t turn to see you. A guard in the main town did a “My planet needs me” fly out into a ledge. Other characters or companions may get stuck in pathing and stop following you and then reappear by your side, or may get in the way of you and an objective button that you can’t reach because they are in the way.

These are all minor complaints and not the kind of issue that is when a quest doesn’t progress or an item crashes your game. Of course, I cannot be sure of all the possible combinations of possible issues so we’ll have to see what happens when more people get a chance to play with many different configurations and try out every level of each skill, etc.

Controls

Besides that, my only other complaint is one I would not have a good solution for. The game has so many systems and subsystems that I found the controls both complex and insufficient. There were too many things and menus to access or browse individually, without giving me some quality-of-life features that I really wanted. There are too many systems to learn management of via different controls, which is simply a function of the many sub-activities of the game.

Audio & Soundtrack

The audio and soundtrack for the game, on the other hand, are flawless. Each and every interaction you have is voiced, and voiced well. You can even overhear entire, convincing conversations as you walk by bars or hangouts. The music and tunes are a perfect match for the theme and setting and expertly set the mood for your adventures.

Pricepoint, Game Length & Replayability

Usually, when we talk about open-world games, we bypass the replayability option as the experience itself is so expansive that most people would simply go through it once and be done with it. Starfield is one of the rare games where, given the many choices and opportunities for player agency, there’s value to both explore extensively and reroll.

Replayability

Starfield is a truly massive game that can mean thousands of hours of gameplay to those who want to deeply engage with the abundant systems made available for the player. Exploration and Outpost management, which will surely be enhanced by the community via mods, are one of those time-sinks that people can truly get lost in, much like the CAMP of Fallout.

But even ignoring outposts and the Scanning and exploration of the hundreds upon hundreds of worlds available, there’s an incredible amount of customized and engaging content to get through in the form of extensive, interesting and rewarding quests.

There are some activities that simply amount to “buy this person a coffee”, or generic repeatable missions to hunt down a pirate fleet and destroy them, or deliver cargo to another planet. However the vast majority of quests are actually contextual to the world and provide depth and nuance to where you are and what is happening. The faction quests are well defined, well done and I really wanted to see where they all went. The rewards for completing them also felt interesting, giving me options I did not have before and changing my standing with the world as I worked my way to the multiple endings. All in all, I spent 70 hours with my main character that was (mostly) gunning the main story, and another 30 on a secondary character that was messing around with mechanics and outposts and checking out what different choices did.

Pricing and Game Pass

So having played about 100 hours of the game, and given I don’t feel like I’m done with it yet, Starfield’s asking price of 69.99 feels justified, and it seems like an outright steal to get this with Game Pass as you’ll be getting incredible value for money.

Final Thoughts

Starfield is the game that Bethesda Game Studios needed to reassert themselves as creators of fantastic gaming experiences. Clearly a work of passion and the product of a decade of hard work, Starfield will surprise the naysayers with its good performance and relatively minimal bugs.

Delivering a solid story experience with fantastic graphics in an incredibly expansive universe that is free for the taking, Starfield is sure to become a favorite for many gamers and join the ranks of titles such as Mass Effect in the pantheon of sci-fi gaming.

For more reviews be sure to check out next Blasphemous 2 Review and Atlas Fallen Review – Buried Treasure?.

The post Starfield Review appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Armored Core 6 Review, we’ll be taking a look at the fresh reboot to the Armored Core series that is developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco. Should you play Armored Core 6? Is it a Soulslike game? What’s new in Armored Core 6? We’ll discuss all of these and cover more!

Armored Core 6 Review

• Genre: Action, Adventure, Shooter
• Developed by: FromSoftware Inc.
• Published by: Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., FromSoftware Inc.
• Release Date: August 25, 2023
• Platforms: PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Series X|S
• Reviewed on: PC (Steam)
• Price at the time of Review: USD 59.99 – 69.99

STORY & SETTING

Armored Core 6 is set in the future where we find humanity has built a civilization on a remote planet called Rubicon 3. It is on the planet that humankind discovered a sublime substance known as Coral that was heavily used as a source of energy and the advancement of technological research. This ignited a catastrophic event known as the Fires of Ibis, during which a sea of Coral was set ablaze and the planet’s geography was irrevocably burned, bathing its surface in lethal contamination.

Fifty years later, conflict once again arises as signs of Coral are detected on Rubicon 3, where corporations, mercs, and independent groups try to take the substance into their own hands. No matter what the purpose is for their desire for Coral, one thing that is understood by all parties is that Coral is valuable and that finding it is worth killing over.

Jumping to the present timeline, you take control of an independent mercenary, identified as “C4-621”, employed by the mysterious Handler Walter. And as a faithful “hound” you focus on completing jobs for different corporations and embark on a peculiar journey that ties into the core of it all, Coral.

Whether you’re a veteran of the series or completely new, you may find the setting itself really interesting, or get curious about the many events and factions. The muted tone feels appropriate for the series and it emphasizes the amount of destruction that continuously grows as you progress. And as a whole, these factors immediately reeled me in and left me wanting to know what happens next.

You should not expect a narrative focused experience out of this game, but Fromsoftware have done a good job with world-building and setting, giving the story an excellent background to develop and follow its unexpected twists and turns. This is mostly achieved by sustaining good pacing with gradual progression, something that is often not done well in action games, so it’s quite commendable.

GAMEPLAY

AC6 – AC Customization

AC Customization is for me one of the most appealing parts of an Armored Core game, and I was not disappointed. The game encourages build customization to overcome obstacles and challenges, and it’s done in FromSoftware’s style of “learn and adapt” gaming that has become so addictive to me over the years. Assemble your AC > Start the Mission > Observe the situation > If you fail, reassess your build > Win and start the next mission.

The customization options in AC6 are fantastic, and aren’t merely cosmetic. If you are someone who hasn’t played an Armored Core game or has little experience with FromSoftware titles, it will take some time for you to wrap your head around the mechanics but it is such a rewarding experience to have your mech come together as you want it.

These customization and adaptability options give you the opportunity to approach different missions with different playstyles. Whenever I do a mission, my default is often to opt for a lightweight AC capable of quick maneuvers and mid to close-range combat. However, if I hit a wall, I’d find myself in a bubble where I’d have to think of a new strategy to win by assembling a new mech, which really appealed to the build-maker and tinkerer in me.

There is a considerable amount of Frame parts and weapon units you can use to construct your AC, and each one has a major component in making your gameplay experience feel unique. From assembling a nimble AC, a hovering mech that can rain fire and brimstone, and even a tank that is equipped with explosive units, the number of builds seems endless and I am sure many players will be spending most of their time assembling an AC and sharing it to help the community.

And if you’re wondering, yes, you can change the visuals and cosmetics of your mech. You can add an emblem, use a pattern, and even customize the colors for each part of the unit. Additionally, once you’re settled with your build and its look, you can save it in the AC Data where you have access to 4 “accounts” with 40 slots, rounding up to a total of 160 AC builds you can create.

AC6 – AC Combat Mechanics

There has been an ongoing discussion about whether AC6 is a soul-like, or Souls is AC-like. I did notice some fans worried that FromSoftware may change a lot of the core elements of the game to attract the souls audience, but I am happy to report they have not. The game maintains its original structure from the Armored Core series with some innovations from the studio’s later title. Either way you can expect to see recurring mechanics such as limited healing, supply stations for checkpoints, and over-the-top boss battles.

Combat in AC6 is fair and punishing at the same time, I say this because unlike in older Armored Core games when you failed a mission, it would cost you to repair your mech and resupply. In AC6, although there are still expenses that affect your total income after completing a mission, you are free to quit, retry missions, or restart at checkpoints as much as you like without having the need to spend your COAM, and even switching up your AC build. As far as the “punishing” aspect, as expected from FromSoft, the boss battles are breathtaking, rewarding yet challenging even to the most skilled player.

Another thing I want to point out, and I’ve mentioned this in our last video is that the controls and overall combat are just great, and this is what FromSoftware continues to deliver consistently. This is something important for fast-paced games, especially for AC6, and I’m really glad that the features of how I imagined controlling a mech translated well to the controls. It just looks so awesome when you activate an assault boost and fly around, evading and firing weapons.

When it comes to weapons, you’ll have an arsenal of offensive and defensive Units that can be equipped on both hands and shoulders. From rifles, machine guns, shotguns, pistols, bazookas, melee weapons, and shields, you’ll surely have a great time tinkering and mixing different units that complement your build. Additionally, players will also gain access to OS Tuning where you spend OST Chips to improve the AC’s general stats and unlock extra skills.

AC6 – Enemies and Exploration

Beyond the different builds and fun tinkering, AC6 features a good mix of Enemy classes and boss encounters, each having its own unique moves, status effects, and unexpected events that keep you on the edge of your seat. As I progressed through the story, the difficulty of enemy encounters and missions kept intensifying and it was a satisfying experience, especially when I found myself overcoming formidable battles.

When it comes to exploration, the game is not open-world. It could have been developed that way, but according to Masaru Yamamura, the maps you explore during missions that are designed in a huge 3-dimensional space feel right for an Armored Core game, giving players different ways to maneuver around the area. There’s also a bit of variety here with the map levels. Sometimes you’ll find yourself out in the field where you can move and fly freely, while there are some areas where you are pitted within confined spaces that have less vertical movement.

I’m glad that the areas are designed differently in accordance with the Missions since it challenges you to reassess your builds not just in combat, but also in your surroundings. There’s more to just making it from point A to point B and fighting different mechs, you’ll also discover loot bins containing parts and units that are not available in the shop, as well as some lore items, and some special encounters.

AC6 – Combat Difficulty

AC6 in my opinion is not an easy game and I stand by what I said in our previous video that “the skill ceiling for this game is much higher than Souls games” and “mastering will take a longer time to do for an average player”. There definitely is a feeling of satisfaction and excitement when you overcome a difficult encounter, but at the same time, for some, it can actually feel taxing and you may think that the goals are just chores you need to complete.

If I’m being honest with you, some of the bosses in the later chapters took me more than 3 tries to defeat. It felt tiring, and sometimes, it got me tilted. But the success of FromSoftware’s difficulty is that I just didn’t want to give up, I had to rethink my strategy and create a build that worked for me. In the end, it felt all the more rewarding to overcome that challenge.

All in all, AC customization and understanding the mechanics of the game are the keys to winning. Armored Core 6 is not just a title where you shoot and blow up mechs, it’s much more than that, and its charm lies within learning and adapting your mech to the different situations of the game.

Armored Core 6 Review: Design, Audio, and Performance

AC6 Review – Design

Everyone knows we are enthusiasts of soulsborne and fans of FromSoftware, and if there’s one thing we know, gameplay is king for this developer. That is not to say they neglect design elements, as they have a very talented team that expertly weaves different aspects.

I really enjoy the artistic direction of FromSoftware in general, and it’s really good in AC 6: The visuals of mech action, the details of combat encounters and the presentation of really epic Boss battles matches an excellent delivery of combat. 

That said, and despite us being huge fans of the developer, I do not want to be biased and turn a blind eye to aspects that could be improved. The levels of the world would probably be much enhanced by better visual fidelity, as there are some sections where it was really noticeable to me to be flying over structures that had none or poor textures or very limited visibility in general. 

Since I assume a lot of people may still be hung up on our previous video, where I made a 20 second comment about how I really wish FromSoftware would continue to develop their graphics to match their industry-setting standards for combat and gameplay, I’ll be very clear:

AC6 is an excellent game, the combat is fantastic, most people will play it exclusively for that reason, and it’s smart of the developer to make sure this is 100% delivered on. But I also believe FromSoftware is a successful and capable team, and as a fan I always want to push them to improve – they have conquered the combat and gameplay frontiers, graphical fidelity enhancements are a technical hurdle they can easily overcome as well. There are many games adapting cutting-edge gameplay with high visual fidelity, notably Devil May Cry 5 and Bluepoint’s Demon’s Souls. I am completely confident that the Fromsoftware team has the talent and budget to achieve similar results, and so I will continue to encourage it. 

I truly appreciate the visual art style of the mechs, the different AC parts, and even the boss designs that looked phenomenal and really takes you right to that mech battle feeling you’re here for, but there was definitely room or an avenue for improvement that would make me drool over not just how bad-ass my mech looks, but also appreciating the beauty of the surroundings and visual effects.

AC6 Review – Audio

Diving into the audio department, the music and voice acting were a delight. The BGM reminded me of Cyberpunk 2077 which had influences of futuristic punk rock, synth, and a touch of retro electro. The heart-pumping and intensifying tone was perfect for AC6 as I found myself bopping to the music and adrenaline immediately started to rush when it was time to fight against formidable bosses. As far as audio effects, it was well-balanced, you could hear audio cues even with the powerful music, each weapon sounded appropriate for its type, and the sound effects of mechs boosting, flying, and shooting left me satisfied.

When it comes to voice acting, the performance of the actors was excellent. You can’t really see the body language of a character but instead, you get to hear their interactions through their comms. And this, in my opinion, is a difficult job to express emotion and project the character through voice work. Each dialogue and character was fully realized, there was an element of nostalgia, and the delivery felt natural.

AC6 Review – Performance

Taking a look at the performance of the game, there weren’t any issues on the PC version I played. I was running on a 3060 GPU and I had consistent FPS that was always above 60 frames whenever I was doing missions. Loading times were fair, there were little to no texture pop-ins, and overall movement was smooth, and combat inputs translated well.

Armored Core 6 Review: Replayability and Pricepoint

AC6 – Replayability & Online

Traditionally, Armored Core is a series that has a mission-based structure where you hop into contained maps, and it’s still the same case in AC6. It is linear when it comes to story progression but you have some sort of freedom to choose which mission to start and you get to pick “Decision” type assignments, missions that conflict with your potential clients, each having different goals and becoming unavailable on your current playthrough. In order to complete and unlock different endings, you’ll need to play through the game multiple times and choose the other set of decisions along the way.

New Game Plus

Armored Core 6 also has New Game Plus cycles where it carries over your Arena Rank and acquired equipment which saves the player the trouble of having to do everything at zero. The difficulty remains the same on subsequent playthroughs but extra features unlock in the Arena and alternate paths become available in Missions.

Arena

Apart from the Missions, there is also the Arena. It is a simulation where you fight against an AI-controlled mercenary AC registered on Rubicon, each one having its own unique combat style and difficulty. This is a definite plus to replayability if you haven’t paid attention to it in your first playthrough because you can unlock the opponent AC’s preset build that you can try out and you get rewarded for it as you climb the ranks.

Co-op/PVP

If you’re wondering if there is co-op, unfortunately, there isn’t. AC6 won’t have the option to “call a friend” or “summon” a random player to aid you in difficult missions. You’re gonna have to go at it on your own. However, if you want to be competitive, there is a PvP mode called the Nest. The Nest is a game mode where you can fight against players online in 3v3 or 1v1 custom matches, and it is the perfect place for players to show off their AC builds and skills. The PvP crowd for these games has typically been incredibly tight-knit, so you will probably see activity for a very long time. 

This is something you’d expect from FromSoftware, and I’m quite happy that there is a variety in both single-player and PVP modes that add a layer of excitement, encouragement to experiment with new builds, and give reasons for the player to go for another playthrough to unlock other routes, secrets, and endings. 

AC6 – Pricepoint

In our previous video, we mentioned that we estimated a first playthrough would take about 50-60 hours, but this will highly depend on the skill level of the player. In the first chapter, you’ll experience missions that would take a minute or two to complete, but as you progress, the missions exponentially become longer, and enemy plus boss encounters become harder. I expect you could theoretically finish a campaign run in about 20 hours, but I did spend over 50 hours to get there – be it because of boss challenges or maybe I spent a lot of time tinkering with builds cause it was just so much fun. 

Armored Core 6 on Steam has a pricepoint of 59.99 for its Standard Edition while the Deluxe Edition is 69.99. Considering the amount of content you’re getting, the uniqueness and quality of the experience, and the solid foundation for replayability, it’s a game worth spending on, especially for fans of the series and for those who are looking for a good mech game.

Final Thoughts

Armored Core 6 is without a doubt a great entry to the series and it shows that FromSoftware has maintained the charm and structure of Armored Core while perfecting the combat and smartly weaving new ideas. Although the visual fidelity is not as striking as I wish it would be, the overall delivery of amazing gameplay and an excellent soundtrack more than makeup for it.

The post Armored Core 6 Review appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Blasphemous 2 Review, we’ll be taking a look at the sequel to the 2019 title by The Games Kitchen, a small but dedicated studio from Spain. Blasphemous 2 is an action platformer with strong metroidvania origins and a very unique setting. Should you buy Blasphemous II? How does it compare to the original? Read on to find out.

Blasphemous 2 Review

Genre: Action Platformer
Developed by: The Game Kitchen
Published by: Team 17
Release date: August 24, 2023
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
Price at time of review: $29.99

Blasphemous 2 Review – Story and Setting

Blasphemous 2 is a sequel to the 2019 platformer Blasphemous, and follows the story of the same protagonist “The Penitent One”, in the same world. Much like the first title, obscure and convoluted lore surrounds each and every element of design and serves as fuel for a vague plot motivation.

The Locations you visit and NPCs you meet are however entirely new, and if you spent time reading the description of the Items you find around the world, you will slowly uncover their stories and backgrounds.

With a brutal but enticing world setting and an introduction that gets to Berserker-levels of nonsensical, many would be fooled into thinking that the world of Blasphemous is incongruous and the story a simple excuse for gameplay mechanics. This is a shame, as there’s actually a significant amount of thought, world-building and ingenuity behind the lore and story design, and it deserves to be uncovered.

Whilst I did find the narrative of the story itself to be somehow clumsy, the depth of the world and its inhabitants kept bringing me back to try and tease out more details and lore about specific, isolated instances. Each little surprise reigniting my interest and deepening the mystique of the title.

Gameplay in Blasphemous II

As an action platformer or metroidvania, Blasphemous 2 follows familiar mechanics and uses common concepts to deliver a fun gaming experience. You will jump around and kill enemies with different attacks, powers and weaknesses, and you will find power ups, key items and Weapons that unlock further progression and exploration

The gameplay loop is simple: pick your starting weapon, then defeat enemies to earn marks to upgrade its capabilities. Explore rooms and find special upgrade items for your health or passives for your overall character. Delve deeper and find hidden NPCs, learn magic spells, and continue ever forward in the maze of the map.

Blasphemous 2 Combat

The combat of Blasphemous 2 is, in my opinion, greatly improved from the original title. You will be able to select a starting weapon from 3 unique archetypes: A balanced Sword, a heavy Ball and Chain, or dual Rapiers for speed and agility.

As you play and defeat enemies, you will earn “marks”, that can be used to unlock further powers and movesets for your chosen weapon. These add another level of depth to the game and improve traditional metroidvania combat by enhancing features such as parry/riposte, and allowing you to perform powerful chained combos and follow up moves.

You will also find special magic spells that can be used to devastate enemies, but the cost is high at the start of the game and if you die often you will eventually find yourself unable to cast these spells until you spend money absolving your Guilt. Later on, magic becomes a core part of the gameplay as it becomes easier to regain fervour to cast spells and you obtain very powerful spells.

Overall, the combat mechanics of Blasphemous are fun. It’s not at the level of Salt and Sacrifice or Death’s Gambit, but it’s fun if you care to delve into the mechanics and explore how to best use each weapon and counter each specific enemy type, of which there’s a decent variety and not all of them feel entirely cheap!

Blasphemous 2 Map & Exploration

Your initial choice of weapon will also determine your first steps in the world, as each weapon is used to interact with the environment to unlock new areas. Some areas need two types of weapons to be explored, and others need three types. So the first task of all players will be to find the other weapons and add them to their arsenal. Following that, players will have to discover new traversal abilities to progress through the game.

The game provides some simple guidance as to where these are located by marking the first 3 boss objectives – and the weapons are found nearby them. But on your way to these markers, you will find many intriguing rooms, and shortcuts, Discover strange items that you must bring back to town and have a best guess as to who in town may be interested in them.

Discovering each NPC and their function is a big element of entertainment in the game, as you feel as if your exploration is truly helping you piece together a puzzle of the why, how and when of what’s going on. This can be very rewarding if you can be attentive to detail. You may enter a room in the field and find a random NPC that needs a specific item. The game will not tell you what the item is, or that you have to find it. But if you do and bring it to the NPC you obtain a reward. Returning to this room later will give you a completely different, 180-degree perspective of what you just witnessed. Bring your reward to a third NPC and unlock a special item. And on and on!

Blasphemous 2 Review – Design, Audio and Visual

Blasphemous 2 has a very unique design that has been well realized and delivers the artistic direction of the game in an uncompromising manner. This daring approach to design can have its fallbacks, mainly in that the excessively Baroque feel of the world can make the player numb to the world itself due to the constant bombardment of complex symbolism.

Graphically, the game is pixel-focused and as such is not setting any new technological records. This can be an issue for some, but the overall feel of the game is well suited for this design, and it adds to the nostalgia feel of those who enjoyed Castlevania, or any other retro metroidvania titles.

Performance-wise I have run into no issues whatsoever when playing. There has not been one crash or bug, no save or progression issues. No missed frames or slow-loading screens. But I did run into some controller issues on the PC version – namely the map not popping up from its supposed key, and some slowness when swapping weapons that can make platforming sections a bit tricky.

Audio wise the game gives a basic and serviceable score, albeit a forgettable one. This is not the main focus of the game, and I do appreciate it is actually very well suited to the setting they have chosen, but you should not expect to have the soundtrack of this game on your wishlist.

Pricepoint, Game Length & Replayability

Blasphemous II has a rather extensive map that will take many hours to fully explore unassisted. It’s a very Skill-based game and this will make your game time vary greatly, but I think it’s safe to assume you have at least 30 hours of content to get through. A super-completionist unassisted playthrough where you explore every corner and read every item will give you more than that, but you may lose interest or it may become a bit too overbearing to keep up with the world and its bizarre inhabitants.

This makes the 30 USD (some discounts around at the time of writing so sometimes 25 usd!) price a very good point for the game, as it would come in at 1 USD per hour of fun, and these are hours of actually engaging and intriguing metroidvania exploration.

Final Thoughts

Blasphemous 2 is a complex game that eases you into its many secrets with promises of simplicity, only to enthral you with its mysteries and feed you an obsessive need to see “just one more room”.

With fun and engaging combat mechanics, and very rewarding exploration and puzzles, it is a great improvement over its predecessor that proves that small and dedicated studios can and should focus their efforts on passion projects.

If you enjoyed this review check out more recent game releases such as Atlas Fallen Review – Buried Treasure? and Baldur’s Gate 3 Review Impressions Hands-On Spoiler-Free.

The post Blasphemous 2 Review appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Atlas Fallen Review, I’ll be taking a look at Deck 13’s brand-new action-adventure game. What is Atlas Fallen? How does it compare to The Surge and The Surge 2? and is it worth your time? I’ll be covering these and more in this review.

Atlas Fallen Review – Story and Setting

Atlas Fallen takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been oppressed by the malicious power and influence of the Sun God, Thelos. A world that was once known to be a place where humans and wildlife prospered, has now turned into a desert of destruction ruled by Thelos and overrun by deadly Wraiths.

The story begins as you take on the role of an “Unnamed” human, a brave slave, who stumbles upon an artifact known as the “Gauntlet” that gives unimaginable power to manipulate sand with the help of a mysterious entity. Now as a Gauntlet Bearer, you set forth on a mission to destroy Thelos to save what’s left of humanity and to free the world from his corruption.

The pacing of Atlas Fallen felt appropriate and the story was relatively straightforward. Cutscenes show you the right amount of content that easily helps you understand the lore and backstories of notable characters, which includes secondary quests containing additional narratives, and this is further expanded by reading and listening to journals that you find scattered in the world.

However, the story is not original or dare I say, groundbreaking. The tone of the story is familiar and I couldn’t help but compare some moments to the game: Forspoken just because of some similarities to it, like how the protagonist comes across an empowered gauntlet that houses an entity you speak to.

While it did succeed in reeling me in for the most part, I do believe that more could have been done in the way of exploration, including a bit more variety. There is no real motivation to continue exploring once you’ve completed the main story, other than some side quests, which are not extensive.

Atlas Fallen Review – Gameplay

Deck 13 is a developer known for The Surge and The Surge 2, games that both have exceptional gameplay and combat, and if there’s one thing that stood out to me, it was this. However, Atlas Fallen features basic character creation, 3 Weapons, armor sets, various trinkets, and an easy Crafting mechanic, which left a lot to be desired.

Character Creation is pretty simple. You choose from a limited number of visual presets and alter some facial features like shape, size, and color. Personally, having any character creation at all is better than none, but it’s a pretty bare bones character creator, and you shouldn’t expect a lot of detail.

COMBAT

You’ll probably compare Atlas Fallen’s combat features to other games you’ve played but that’s not a bad thing because there are some unique ideas that players will find enjoyable. The core element of it all is Momentum which is presented as a blue gauge at the bottom of the health bar.

It is divided into three segments and it starts to fill when you are fighting. This is called Ascending which determines your effectiveness in battle as it will exponentially alter aspects such as the physicality of your Weapons, Moves, Stats, and Skills. Ascending is only a temporary effect that is maintained in combat, but if you stop fighting or take specific hits, your Momentum starts to deplete and removes all the effects you’ve gained through ascending.

What’s great about Momentum is that it gives the player options on how to strategically approach combat. The reason why I say this is because as you “Ascend”, you start to power up, but at the same time, you take more damage. And with that, the game puts you in a tug-of-war situation of choosing between risk and reward. Is gaining that much power worth it or is it better to play it safe?

Momentum

But there is more to Atlas Fallen than just Momentum, and there is a decent amount of RPG customization that allows the player to create different builds by choosing from a selection of Armor, Perks, Essence Stones, and Idols. Armor is what it is, this mainly provides defense and each can be upgraded to increase the Power Level, Stats, and unlocks Perks which are Armor Trinkets that grant passive effects.

Armor

Unfortunately, Armor is limited to equipping a full set and it is not divided into different pieces, and I was quite shocked to see that there are only a few in the game. I wish there were more because I personally did not fancy some of them, aesthetically, but if you’re worried if you can customize your clothing, there is an option to visually change them through transmogrification, dyeing parts of the garment, and equipping cosmetic items.

Essence Stones

Essence Stones are active and passive skills that also correlate with Momentum. There are 100+ Essence Stones that you can find in the game, each having its own unique properties, and these are divided into three tiers that specialize in 5 categories. Each tier level of a stone corresponds to the first, second, and third segments of the Momentum gauge, meaning you can only equip Tier 1 Stones with the first segment of your Momentum.

How it plays out is you can equip 1 Active Stone and up to 3 or 2 Passive Stones per tier, and you will need to build Momentum and reach the position where the stones are placed for their effects to work. As long as you are able to maintain the progress of Momentum, the effects of the stone will always be active. I personally had fun trying out each Essence Stone and it allowed me to try different builds that work best with the weapons I used.

These stones are easy to find as you can locate them in many ways such as loot, enemy drops, quest rewards, or by crafting. I appreciated the variety here and I foresee that people who play this game will spend most of their time hunting down an Essence Stone that fits perfectly for their playstyle, and I can’t wait to see the different builds that people come up with.

Idols

And finally, there are about 20 Idols you can find and these are also trinkets that change the effect of your healing ability such as adding an extra charge, increasing the amount of health gained, and more. Overall, despite the lack of some itemization like Weapons and Armor, and the distinct gameplay similarities in some areas, I appreciated how you can experiment with different combat tactics that lie behind simplified mechanics.

WRAITHS

The primary enemies you fight in Atlas Fallen are Wraiths, monsters formed by sand and created by Thelos. And while they sound cool, they were rather lackluster as a whole. Fighting Wraiths is similar to the monster mechanics in Monster Hunter and they are divided into different types: Lesser, Greater, and Colossal.

Lesser Wraiths are small monsters that are usually seen in a pack while Greater and Colossal Wraiths are huge beasts that pose more threat and require you to destroy their body parts to make them vulnerable. The only difference, you can’t carve their parts for items, instead, you are rewarded with specific Essence Stones or Fusion Materials that are guaranteed drops when they are defeated.

Wraiths are also categorized into two groups, Regulars and Elites. Most Regular Wraiths commonly spawn in the world while Elite Wraiths are limited activities that you hunt down in specific locations. When I discovered that there were these elites, I was excited to fight different-looking monsters, but what I found instead were just slightly stronger versions of already existing ones, which was disappointing.

And while it is challenging when your first encounter a new wraith to be sure, over time you will fight them almost everywhere and you will easily learn their moves, which eventually drains the excitement and challenge from facing them. Variety is what’s lacking, and I really wish there had been more enemy types.

EXPLORATION

Let me begin by clarifying that Atlas Fallen is not an open-world game but it features a semi-open world that is divided into four regions. It’s important to set this expectation because some have previously mentioned that it is. My initial reaction when the world opened up was “Wow, there is a lot to do here” because you can find different activities, side quests, errands, platforming, and secrets, all that can easily distract you as you explore.

And that’s good! This means there’s something that you can expect to do other than complete the story, however, here’s where it fell short. If you finish the main campaign before doing all the side quests and exploration, even though you can go back and do them, there is no real reason to. There is no difficulty mode unlocked or a New Game Plus mode, so you lack any real motivation to do this. And this can make an already shortish game feel even shorter.

I loved the sand surfing mechanic though, where you get to swerve and glide through the sands. The movement was smooth, and even the abilities that I eventually gained that unlocked more platforming piqued my interest as I was able to discover intriguing locations and handsome rewards.

Atlas Fallen Review: Audio, Visual, and Performance

AUDIO

I’ll start off by commending the voice acting in the game. All the NPCs are voiced differently and I enjoyed the conviction and emotion exuded by the NPCs, including whenever I listened to an audio log in the journal.

When it came to the background music, each area had a specific tone that felt appropriate, and I admired how it quickly shifted to a battle theme whenever I’d encounter a wraith. The sound effects were also good though, some of them like running on pavement didn’t quite sound right.

Additionally, occasionally whenever I was on the menu, I’d get an audio jitter that was distracting, or sometimes the battle music would stop while in the heat of the moment. These are probably bugs though, and should get sorted out soon.

VISUALS

The world of Atlas Fallen is gratifying to behold, and it surprised me with how “alive” it felt considering that the game takes place in a semi-open world that is completely filled with desert sand, remnants of structures, and whatever is left of flora and fauna. I found myself wandering around the ends of a map to find any secrets and to observe how each area looked different because it changes depending on your progression of the main campaign, side quests, and overall gameplay. 

Visually, the game looks good, even though the entirety of the world is covered in sand and ruins, I appreciated the presence of vibrant colors coming from the mountains, trees, and even the sky. Each Wraith looked unique and it was designed well since it features a mixed inspiration of both creatures we know of and alien lifeforms.

What struck me most are the visual effects of the weapons and skills coming from the essence stones. I could see how smoothly my weapon transformed as I ascended and it was satisfying to watch the different effects like summoning a tornado, releasing a thunder wave, calling a massive hammer from the sky, and ultimately performing a flashy finishing move.

PERFORMANCE/GRAPHICS

Atlas Fallen is developed using Deck 13’s in-house engine “FLEDGE” which was the same engine used in other games they’ve created such as The Surge 2. Playing on this engine, I did not have any issues with its performance on the PC, and I ran consistently above 60 FPS on a 3060 GPU, the game didn’t crash, and loading times were fair.

But there was texture pop-in which was distracting and disappointing. Lords of the Fallen and The Surge 2 had great graphics that had little to no pop-in, but I suspect it may have something to do with the more open-worldish nature of the game, and having to load more assets at once.

Atlas Fallen Review: Replayability & Pricepoint

Atlas Fallen is a linear game but doesn’t completely limit the player with regards to which order you complete side quests and activities, but you are still bound to a straightforward path to reach the end. However, you can still return to the other biomes and clear out the additional content at your own pace after completing the main story if you desire.

But I’m afraid to say that, upon completing the main story and side quest content, there’s nothing left it has to offer but to join a friend through online coop or experiment with creating different builds using a variety of Essence Stones. There is no New Game Plus, as I mentioned before, and Weapons and Armor are extremely limited, so there is no real reason to play Atlas Fallen a second time.

For 49.99 USD on PC via Steam, the price is a tad bit high for the amount and quality of gameplay you are getting, and I’d consider 39.99 USD a much better price to pick this game up at.

Final Thoughts

Atlas Fallen caught my interest initially with its unique core combat feature (Momentum), easy-to-understand mechanics, and visually appealing effects, but it wasn’t enough to completely impress me as I found myself constantly comparing it to other games it was clearly inspired by, but that it didn’t really innovate on. A lack of itemization in the weapons and armor department also move the game away from the RPG space a bit, and more into the action realm, which I don’t think was a great move.

I generally had a good time playing Atlas Fallen though, as I experienced its smooth combat and pleasing visuals, and I would consider recommending the game to players who just want something simple and fun, or to those looking for a decent coop game. However, I’m not sure I can recommend it at its current price, especially when there are just so many better games available.

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