Recent reviews by Zeph

Unique little deckbuilding rougelite. Desperately needs some sort of undo button - I lost way to many good runs because of a misclick :/

TL;DR:
* A good game; not a great one
* Hews closer to action/adventure titles than a proper RPG
* Mediocre writing but it does focus on stories and themes otherwise absent from AAA games and that at least is a welcome change

Disclaimer: I am new to the Dragon Age franchise, having only dabbled with the older games

> The open world exploration part of the game felt weak and gimmicky: throughout my 60ish hour playthrough, I kept drawing comparisons between this and Assassin's Creed Odyssey or the Jedi Survivor games from Respawn. Maybe the UI similarities, the little noises and graphical flairs when opening caches, and the destructible clutter around the maps are due to the shared engine these games run on, but the impact was that this part of the game felt stale and tired from the start. The same little tricks that every other mediocre "open world" game use to fluff out the size of the world are were in abundance and I'm left wondering whether a less open, more level based approach would have delivered a more impactful gameplay experience
> The writing was noticeably threadbare: Every cutscene felt like a ChatGPT prompt had written the lines. While is was incredibly nice to have dialogue options that reflected my lived experience (a rarity in games); it still felt like none of my choices really mattered beyond the isolated conversation in which the choice existed

> Combat is engaging and fun: I played a shock/fire mage. The combo options and in depth skill tree provide a varied way to engage with combat that can be tailored to your individual approach to fighting. Combos are deep - criticals, detonations, damage types all layer on each other to create many different niches to fill in combat
> Excellent characterization: The members of the veilguard all offer unique stories with meaningful themes tied expertly into the mechanics of using them in your party. Whether it's the offputting necromancer whose unique mechanics make difficult to build combos around, or the standoff-ish mage whose ice magic parallels her cold and distant personality, the way the party functions mechanically is tied into their narrative function is a sublime bit of character design. As a result, the conversations had between different pairs of your team often mirrors the way the characters work together in combat which lends to a much deeper feeling experience as a whole
> The Themes: The people criticizing DA for being "woke" are right about one thing - the game is truly a monument to diversity. I was offered unique dialogue options to reflect my non-binary experience; something I've never seen before in my 30+ years of gaming. Alongside the found family themes exist rich personal stories - helping your squad through grief and loss, trauma and injustice, exclusion and disability. This game was a love letter to queer, disabled, and neurodivergent gamers and it shows.

Veilguard is a good game. It's not genre-changing, it won't leave a lasting impact on the state of gaming. It has many flaws and it's carried more by the spectacle of AAA graphics than anything else. It's not a deep roleplaying experience, but a good Action/Adventure game with roleplaying elements. Mostly though; in an industry that so often caters to its loudest, most toxic players - Veilguard is a game for those of us left out of the narrative in other spaces, and even in its imperfections, that's something to celebrate

I recommend this game with a few caveats. It's cute, it's fun, it can be interesting to try and pull back from early societal collapse, but I rarely feel pulled in by it. The theme of the game feels more compelling than the gameplay, and if that's all you're looking for than great! You'll love Timberborn.

For me, it needs an extra bite to push things forward. What am I building towards, why? I'm hoping these will be added as the game approaches 1.0, but as it stands I don't see myself spending too much more time with these industrious little guys

Phenomenal. This game has me absolutely hooked; campaign style city building RTS fun, the art, mechanics and progression all interact to provide deep and engaging gameplay. I can't put it down, and the devs show no signs of stopping with new free updates still on the horizon

In my initial review, I said the game felt like it was missing something and that I couldn't reccomend it. That same evening I booted the game up for more and learned that I was deprioritizing a critical skill causing nearly all my frustrations to multiply.

Having played an additional dozen hours and beaten the first scenario, I can say that if you think this game will appeal to you, you'll probably get your money's worth out of it. Good game, just shy of being a great one

everything good about the first and more, without becoming stale

The radio station itself is fine. It's not worth $5. Paradox & CO are getting greedy and providing less and less content for more and more money. Buy it on sale if you must, or in a bundle, or just mod it in instead. Were this not part of the Ultimate Edition pre-order I never would have purchased this

Unacceptable. Too few assets for too much money. Had I not preordered the Ultimate Edition I would not have purchased this. There are no proper beaches and paywalling the only tropical trees is insulting. Paradox and CO needed a big hit here to start digging themselves out of the hole that was launch, but it seems the decision makers are content to charge ahead full speed. The only way they'll listen is when idiots like me stop pre-ordering. Avoid

Did I play it for over 40 hours? Yes. Was it worth $30? Also probably yes. Will I forget this game in it's entirety now that I've beaten it? Most definitely yes.

I wish we still had LucasArts.

Fun, relaxing, great atmosphere and decent storytelling