Recent reviews by Innocuous

If you are a fan of Paradox's RPG styles such as Pillars of Eternity and are a fan of Obsidian's writing style, there is absolutely no reason you should not be playing this game at least for two or three playthroughs.

The Gameplay: 7/10
While not exactly breaking any new ground in the combat system, it has a pretty atypical range of talent trees to pick from in order to specialize the character to your limit. I have a lot of fun with physical builds, but unfortunately you need a LOT of armor penetration lategame, and it doesnt quite seem that maces or axes seem to make up for it.

Magic is the name of the game here. Spellcrafting is fun, unique, and diverse. It could honestly use a bit MORE spell diversity due to the range of magic schools they have, but the suite you are able to find and unlock are pretty damned nifty. My only gripe is that Atrophy is essential yet boring. You don't get the feeling of wasting away your enemies, blighting your foes, and rusting away their gear that you do with the other schools of magic.

Stealth: Stealth is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. This is definitely not a game that manages the system well, but there is one companion that utilizes it incredibly well, but is not unlocked until midgame. There's a TON of flavorful rogue abilities that mesh into archer/pugilist territory, but for the most part you will not be having your Hero be a rogue by the time you have your second, third, or fourth playthrough.

STORY: 11/10
This is clearly an Obsidian lovechild. An entire world of lore ready and able to explore if you so feel like delving into it through multiple playthroughs, and plenty of interesting characters along the way. Some of the characters are written as if they are ran by their compulsions, but for the most part they all generally have good endings if you play them properly. Every Archon is interesting in their deviousness, their customs, and their ambiguity. They are clearly written depending on your actions throughout the campaign, and it is rarely to have the same ending twice with any Archon if you play with an emphasis on exploration. Tyranny starts you out with a small chunk of a warfront, and the end of the game lets you realize just how little you know of the world you've been thrust into, and the foes you are facing. This is a bloody masterpiece of setup, and I certainly hope we get to see more of Obsidian and Paradox working together to keep expanding this wonderfully tasteful universe.
Archon Tunon is my husbando.

Criticism's: No matter how much you try, some characters and factions are just genuinely unlikeable. This is a major callout to New Vegas, where it is quite clear one faction got a lot of the love and support compared to the other, and instead of diverting the lore into delving into the finer aspects of each faction and how they operate; they clearly just capitalized on that distaste and ingrained it further and further the deeper you go. Sorry Chorus, you are just utterly unlikeable in any respect and that is my opinion.
The companions, while suffering similar pitfalls at times, generally in the end make up for it.
Another bit of a complaint, and that is... The main storyline is so short! Right when you get to the apex of your power and you begin to make your massive, world-shaking decision... Poof. It's over. Like a hit of heroine you are given an exemplary high and left wanting more; another familiar symptom of Obsidian Entertainments stellar writing team. If you have not given Tyranny a shot and yet you have played games such as Pillars of Eternity or Fallout: New Vegas, I have to ask you; what's stopping you?

tl;dr
Combat system flags at times, exceeds in others. Spellcraft is varied and limited. Melee scales well but only with proper builds. You will almost exclusively depend on Balric and Lantrys, or you will be healing/tanking for their replacement.
Story is absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ phenomenal. There is nothing to say except that the depths of evil and tyranny are fully explored, and this is peak Obsidian writing.
10/10.

A fun and thrilling visual novel with surprises around every corner that can leave you in suspense.
If you have never played a visual novel before, this is a satisfactory intro to the VN world.
You'll learn to not leave Sayori hanging after a date, make sure Yuri isn't being a bleeding heart at a few pep rallies, enjoy some quality time with Natsuki's dad, and play some video games with Monika.

Overall a fantastic novel for all.



i have been completely and utterly robbed of all will to play video games thanks to this visual novel
i just want to lay in bed and not think about anything for a couple of days
Sayori why

I'm not going to lie. This game has a very Borderlands/Anthony Burch-tier humor style in its writing, and at some points it can be grating. And yet at other points, it can be fun and fitting. I consider it its lowest point in terms of story, which is sad considering the amount of effort Gearbox goes to force its humor in your face.

There, now that my one major quirk with the game is taken care of; lets get on with the good parts.

Hero Selection:
Pretty damned amazing. You start off with a sizeable roster that is pretty varied in roles. Almost feels moba-ish, in which there's support, tanks, and DPS. Many of the characters in the game need to be unlocked, not from a paywall but from an achievement/challenge perspective. Usually it's pretty simple: Level your account to hit the rank needed to play the character, or do various secondary challenges (Kill 50 players, get Silver medals on all story missions, play five times as one faction) in order to unlock them.

PVE:
Story writing aside, I have quite a few complaints with how the mission roulette is set. You either have to play with a band of four people you know in order to select a mission you need to complete (Saboteur or Heliophage come to mind), or you need to solo queue and hope one of the three randomized missions that pops up is one of the few you need.
Thankfully Gearbox countered this by letting you play a private session where you're able to select which story mission to progress from, where you're gated to the highest level mission you've completed. As of this review, I have still yet to complete Saboteur and Heliophage because I have no friends (kill me fam).

PVP:
What an absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. This is where class balance is shown to not have been a major consideration in Gearbox's head. Many heros perform underwhelmingly in PVP, while others can pretty much solo every class without a challenge.
And what PVP modes they do have, they don't have a really intrinsic guide on what the bloody Hell you're supposed to be doing. Sure they give that mini-tutorial at the start of the match, but all the intricacies of the map are just left to the players best guess.
Of all the PVP matches I've played, it's usually been either an hour long standoff in the middle of the map because their healers are just blatantly keeping everyone topped up forever, or its an absolute stomp because one team is missing a healer or tank.
Solution: Buff everyone.

TL;DR: The game has a wide selection of heroes to play, a decent loot system, a subpar PVE storyline, and absolutely craptastic PVP. Still a lot of persistent bugs and glitches that need to be ironed out as well as a major rebalancing of PVP. It is indeed still one of Gearbox's better releases if compared to Borderlands or (god's sake) Aliens: Colonial Marines.
A good note is that it's less 'meme-y' than Borderlands, if that kind of humor makes you cringe.

Extremely limited roster.
Hilariously short character stories (Two fights and done)
A mass amount of characters released as DLC when they very well could have just come with the game.
This is modern gaming at its finest.
Save your money and just go buy SF4. You'll get your moneys worth with that.

The only game I can't stop laughing at.
Surprisingly difficult if you go for a good ending, excruciatingly difficult when you go for a bad end.
This game is 'unique' to say the least, with a well-written plot and storyline where every action you take determines the absolute outcome of your role in the plot.
I absolutely recommend this game.

A fantastic tribute to Super Smash Brothers with a lot of intricate and complex mechanics that draws from Smash, Melee, and Brawl.
I see a lot of potential in the games future with the neat and interesting characters they're designing (Love the Stag Beetle myself) and I'm hoping they add an interesting roster in the near future.

Right now my only complaint seems to stem from the option menu myself: I use controllers and arcade sticks for my fighters and I do not currently see any easy way to customize controller setup without messing around with the default keyboard settings. I hope this issue is addressed by the developers, because it is actually extremely fun to play. Until the Devs allow a different controller scheme setup, I'll be forced to adapt to the wonky controller setup. Still; overall its incredibly enjoyable.

Also, add tripping.

Darkest Dungeon is at its greatest and its worst; a game of futility.
You start out attached to your menagerie of characters (Plague Doctor is mai waifu), but then it becomes certain that no matter how great you make your gems and heroes amongst heroes, all becomes naught before the wrath of RNG.
Heroes wither to mental afflictions from delving your grandfathers mansion.
Rewards are range between lackluster and stupendous depending on how large your balls are.
This game will test your mental resolve, as you will watch yourself from being a shrewd and meticulate tactician to a cruel and ambitionless leader, sending pawn after pawn to the meatgrinder and loony wagon in the hopes of keeping your coffers filled.
Remember to not attack the little pig.
Not recommended for bipolar people, but absolutely recommended for everyone else.
Voice Acting: Stellar.
Music: Stellar.
Gameplay: Heavily RNG, but there are ways to get around it. Requires a bit of in-depth tactical knowledge in order to get deeper into the mansion. Requires God's blessing in order to get to the center. Pretty good in short bursts.

When I first bought Starbound in Janurary, I had high hopes for the game.
The races were interesting, the environment was bright and detailed, and the building system was decent for the most part.
I am not recommending this game for the following reasons:
-It is now May, and the last official update was made in February.
-The combat system is stagnant and repetitive.
-Building needs to be fleshed out even more.
-Many of the proposed 'features' that Starbound advertises have yet to come to fruition, and the devlogs on the official site have been silent since March.

I loved this game when it came out, but sadly it is a dead and hollow husk now that the developers are simply leaving to stagnate and rot.
I do not recommend this game, and after nearly five months of silence I would enjoy a refund. A game that no longer gets worked on has no place in the Early Access.

Highly recommend getting this alpha.
It's a bit buggy right now, but it currently shows a lot of potential unlike other early releases I've seen so far.