Recent reviews by ɠųąཞɖıąŋ ąŋɠɛƖ!

I thoroughly love Obsidian's (Black Isle) previous RPG entries, especially Icewind Dale 1 & 2. Pillars of Eternity was an interesting, if flawed spiritual successor to their Infinity series. This previous CRPG prowess and success make Pillars of Eternity 2's failure even more glaring. I will never be able to finish this game as it commits the most unforgivable sin: it is plain boring. Possessed of an initially interesting pirate theme, tons of explorable islands, serviceable graphics and a powerful soundtrack, one would assume that the game would be yet another CRPG success.

However, unlike Pillars of Eternity, Pillars 2 is a heavy handed, preachy mess, with a not unsubstantial sjw undercurrent permeating the game. The title feels as if it were written by fanfiction writers and less by fantasy auteurs. Characters talk in modern vernacular, often fight under incredibly complex auspices but always seem to express a simpleton's perspective. The game attempts to toss half a dozen end-game options at you but has no problem painting certain options plainly evil, making such ultimate choice a complete non-starter. A simple example of such writing:

Quote - Xoti says:

"Are you by any chance...looking to help the people I saw die in my dreams? She ducks her head, cheeks flushing prettily."

That was the third thing she said/did...ever.

The game has a dismissive take on faith-based characters, painting them as desperately /misguidedly unfulfilled busybodies. The Watcher's companions are obnoxiously vapid, with love interests relegated to militant, man-shaped contrarians or sloppy seconds. Gods are hardly that and the game does its best to bash you over your head that gods are simply inferior characters that somehow obtained almost unlimited power, without a shred of wisdom to go along with it. The underlying messages against certain groups don't have to be unwelcome but because the story is so hamfisted with its ulterior motives, the writing suffers.

The clumsy and ineffectual writing alone could be ignored if the combat, exploration and progression worked. Except they don't. The game's progression stops and starts, at least within the first few hours, and the combat isn't really improved over Pillars of Eternity, which was already inferior to Icewind Dale/2. I have to confess, I'm not very fond of this IP and the litany of impossible to follow names, dull "political intrigue" and ultimately lifeless interactions ruin the gameplay process. The game runs really well and I didn't encounter any crashing, although I've seen many people that have. The voice acting is a disaster. The first port town you appear in confronts you with individuals that vacillate between Jamaican and Italian accents, often times in the same sentence.

Highest cringe part: You and Eder encounter a companion, who used to be one of his lovers. This character is one of your future romance options and he proceeds to tell you about her ability to startle nearby people/animals with her extremely loud sex noises.

No, I'm not kidding.

It's a good thing that Obsidian got gobbled up by Microsoft. Maybe now they'll stick to making their Falloutesque knockoffs and stay away from soiling their isoCRPG reputation ever again. I recommend this game to only the most CRPG-hard up players apply and only after a hefty 50+% sale. I'm sure some players will enjoy this game but I found it to be painfully tedious.

Not worth the time. You'll find better games elsewhere.

6.5/10.

Developers never learn. Capcom hadn't exactly slam-dunked the release of Resident Evil 2 but the game was meaty enough, pretty enough and revamped enough to excite many hardcore Resident Evil/horror gamers. Upon completion of Resident Evil 2, many gamers were hungry for the release of the sequel: Resident Evil 3. Even more excitingly, the game was going to be every bit as satisfying as its precursor but was also supposedly packaged with a gorgeous multiplayer mode that would add even more hours of gameplay. Resident Evil 2 sold really well and the assumption was that Capcom would do everything in its power to funnel those funds to replicate the process with Resident Evil 3. Not so.

Resident Evil 3 has simply staggeringly beautiful models, with sharp, realistic animations and nigh-photorealistic textures. The game looks sumptuous in 4K and it positively bleeds atmosphere. Possessed of great sounds, a solid soundtrack and good voice acting, Resident Evil 3 seems to have caught lightning in a bottle again. The game runs at Ultra/4K at a solid 60 fps. Unfortunately, the game isn't nearly as stable, with issues afflicting my drivers for half my playthrough, resulting in pronounced and onerous screen flickering. Additionally, the maps are tiny, with areas of Raccoon City amounting to 2-3 square, shuttered blocks. I still remember my profuse disappointment when I finally broke into a toy store, only to discover a 10x10 room with minimal secrets or loot.

Gameplay feels good, with third person controls operating beautifully, especially with the expanded dodge animations/controls. Unfortunately, some of the enemies rush you quickly, resulting in camera issues although, thankfully, this doesn't happen often. Apart from the technical issues, weapons and gunplay feel really good. The same can't be said about the enemy AI, with several enemies losing track of you through a simple, open doorway. Additionally, Nemesis exhibits a more event-oriented AI, rather than the roaming Mr. X AI from Resident Evil 2. While this kind of behavior can be tense when he pops up as a surprise, boss battles tend to be more formulaic and less stressful than the preceding game's boss encounters.

The story is about as absurd as it gets. Worse still, the game's plot has become more action-oriented than that of Resident Evil 2. In some ways, it feels like the same type of descent that the Resident Evil IP experienced in its slide towards Resident Evil 6. The game is phenomenally short, completed in about 6-8 hours, with minimal reasons to replay the campaign. Some character and sketch galleries acquisitions could lead to a replay. Some more determined players may want to attain certain achievements but most players will play this once for 6-8 hours and never touch it again. Large areas from the original game, like the clock tower and spiders have been completely excised.

The multiplayer is pretty, runs well and has minimal glitches but, unfortunately, bad design and a poor UI mar the experience. Playing as the evil RE scientist can be fun but the gameplay often progresses far too quickly to weigh strategic options carefully or to employ complex tactics. Playing as survivors is a frenetic mess, with little communication and little strategic application outside of running and gunning. I doubt I'll get more than 2-4 hours out of the multiplayer. This problem is compounded by empty lobbies that compromise online play, less than 2 months after release.

Overall, Resident Evil 3, is a sad addition after the inspired Resident Evil 2. It feels abridged, small and lacks the hours of gameplay that the predecessor revels in. It feels like a lazy release and a poor celebration of a true classic Resident Evil game. It's still a wonderously cinematic experience with jaw-dropping graphics and I recommend that anyone pick up the title for 30 USD or less. It's not worth 60 USD however and at the current price, it's a bad bargain.

Provisionally worth a look.

7/10.

Doom Eternal is inferior to Doom 2016.

Doom Eternal is Doom 2016, with more action, slightly better graphics, more enemies, more collectibles more varied environments and...more bad decisions. It's not a bad game and there's really a lot to like about it but if you played Doom 2016 and you followed up with Doom Eternal, you'll be confronted with a litany of odd decisions that focus on game perception, reputation and "street cred" rather than player flexibility and enjoyment. Doom 2016 focused on the gameplay, first and foremost and Doom Eternal doesn't. That is why this game isn't a classic, but instead, simply a good example of the genre.

The graphics engine is still a wonder to behold. Graphics are crisp, clean, and amazing. The graphics engine is an efficient brute, rendering incredible HDR environments, advanced texture surfacing and staggering levels of visual fidelity at fast framerates (4K Ultra Nightmare - 80 fps). If you want to see what the game looks with all the dials cranked to eleven, check out some of my screenshots. The atmosphere, aesthetics, character designs, fluid animations and building/environment architecture demonstrate an impressive level of focus/dedication. And unlike many attractive games, Doom Eternal looks bleeding edge but performs wonderfully. I did encounter three crashes, during the Gladiator, that were fixed with the latest drivers (released a full MONTH after game release!). Disappointing to be sure, since the predecessor crashed only once.

My only graphical caveat is that the game's design focused on larger environments, with more Q3A-like movement, than Doom 2016. That's not necessarily a bad thing but between the Metroid Prime-like fruity pebbles pickups and the lighter, brighter and more open environments, Doom Eternal loses quite a bit of its claustrophobic horror identity. Doom 2016 looks meaner, feels leaner and feels more alien than a Doom Eternal, despite Eternal's alien landscapes, precisely because its alien worlds are often so overdone and Unreal/Quake-like, that they stop feeling relatable. The voice acting and soundtrack are impeccably good and I hope that iD can salvage its relationship with the talented Mick Gordon. The game features a ton of collectibles this time around, ranging from armor/weapon power ups, to perks, to Doom dolls, previous soundtracks, banners/icons, character models/skins, and more. These unlocks definitely encourage campaign replayability. Interestingly, and for the first time in a Doom game, you now have the Fortress of Doom, a home base, which is also upgradable and explorable.

The weapons still feel good, with meaty sounds, great animations and plenty of punch. The shooting play is still best in class with muscular controls and fantastic responsiveness. The game is smooth, tactile and accessible. While the upgrades may feel overwhelming at times, discovering new improvements is part of the fun. The Doom Slayer is now able to not only double jump, but also double dash, as well as side-dash, allowing for new dimensions of evasion, as well as complex Mario Bros-like jump puzzles. There're also Tomb Raider-esque wall-climbing pieces. All of these new additions work quite intuitively. Combined with monkey bars placed throughout the map, Doom Eternal affords players with unprecedented levels of FPS shooter mobility. Unfortunately, some players may not appreciate being caught in a 20-death jump puzzle loop. Consequently, some jump sections feel like unnecessary padding. Doom also loses some of its identity when even Quake 3 Arena or Quake Live feel tame when compared to the monkey-bar hijinx afforded by Doom Eternal.

So far everything about Doom Eternal seems great. Unfortunately, Doom Eternal has several weaknesses. Firstly, the game lacks SnapMap. SnapMap is a very intuitive, flexible and powerful tool released by iD software with Doom 2016. SnapMap allows enterprising players to create new game modes, maps and mini-games. Thousands of SnapMap projects were downloaded by the community and such additions provide tremendous value for customers. SnapMap is gone in Doom Eternal. What replaced it? Nothing, as far as I can tell. Sure, the campaign is longer and has more collectibles but really, that doesn't make up for the massive play you lose from lacking SnapMap. Additionally, while the multiplayer isn't a vanilla, unpolished CoD clone this time around, Battlemode isn't any great shakes either. The idea of asymmetrical gameplay between monsters and humans has been done to death and, while novel for Doom, isn't something most people will likely plonk more than a few hours into. The addition of a far more robust storyline, replete with cutscenes, isn't unwelcome, however Doom Eternal's storyline is fast approaching the levels of nonsensical absurdity only previously attained by Platinum Dev Games, Resident Evil sequels or the Mortal Kombat series. Sometimes less is more.

However, most of these criticisms are basically nitpicks. So what is Doom Eternal's unforgivable sin? They fundamentally altered the perfect gameplay and pacing of the preceding game. While in Doom 2016, you'd occasionally have to use the chainsaw and obviously tailor weapon use to best vanquish enemies, you weren't forced to constantly do so. You had a pistol that never ran of ammunition and you predominantly used glory kills to refill your reserves. Sure, some weapons were more effective than others against certain foes (often based on intuitive principles like range, movement patterns or hitboxes) but every weapon was useful against enemies. Doom Eternal throws that all out of the window. Ammunition reserves are miniscule compared to Doom 2016. This means you're constantly running around trying to chainsaw peons to generate new ammunition. In theory, this would nudge players into utilizing other weapons and to constantly respond to threats with the best weapon. Sure, ideally that sounds like a great concept, but this isn't a job; it's a game. Developers shouldn't be forcing players that paid $60 to do anything. Players should experience the games on their own terms, flexibly and organically.

The real flaw in this new paradigm, within Doom Eternal, is that some weapons are absolutely worthless against certain enemies. Ammunition expends quickly. Sometimes you're facing super-normal amounts of one type of enemy and you run out of ammunition, forced to revert to inferior weapons that make the game dramatically harder than it should be. Worse, it undermines the gameplay philosophies rooted in power fantasies afforded by being the Doom Slayer. While you frenetically run away from enemies, desperately looking for peons to bully and beat up on so you can coax a few more rounds of the only 1-2 weapons that really work well for one particular enemy type. That kind of fearful gameplay is actually the opposite of what Doom is about.

Couple this with an developer preoccupation with making Doom Eternal more "hardcore" than its predecessor, and you quickly experience frustrating encounter after frustrating encounter in the game. Doom Eternal is significantly harder than Doom 2016 but the difficulty curve isn't enjoyable. The game starts of easy in the first 2-3 maps, quickly ramps in difficulty to practically unbearable levels for the next 4-5 maps and then crashes when you unlock the BFG 9000 and Crucible blade. Many players will experience nigh-Dark Souls levels of grinding at least at one point during the campaign. As an experienced fps gamer, I found myself feeling quite dissatisfied during many of these grueling mid-game maps. I finished the game on normal difficulty but too often, Doom Eternal just felt like "pro-MLG" work rather than the dizzying, demon-stomping frenzy that the predecessor captured so joyously. This might explain the useful cheat codes.

Doom Eternal is a very good game but not a masterpiece we waited for.

Recommended.

8.5/10.

(mini-review.)

Everything that made the first Banner Saga charming, atmospheric, melancholy and wonderful continues in this sequel. The game is slightly shorter and slightly more complex, both in gameplay and storytelling. While the game does feels rich and robust, it can overwhelm on a few occasions. The occasional fight can annoy but, as a whole, the story is unique, captivating and it stays with you long after you finish. Deep, meaningful decisions abound, often forcing you to wrestle with painfully final alternative possibilities.

The art, music and design are all absolutely singular and inspired. The game is stable, runs on junk systems and is pretty much unlike anything you've experienced before. While the game lacks a ton of social interactivity or replayability, the story makes up for all shortcomings by raising all the stakes. Tension increases exponentially as you realize that you are watching the end of the world unfold around you. In this story, there are no happy endings and provincial ideas of cavalier honor and triumph are pyrrhic at best.

On sale for 5-7 USD, this game is a bargain and is sure to leave an indelible mark on you.

Highly recommended.

9/10.

Restfinder: Restmaker!

This game is a frustrating mess. I don't care how much you love Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment or even Baldur's Gate 1/2, this game will test your patience and make you hate isometric RPGs. Sure, the game is attractive, feels good, commands reasonably well, with tons of quality of life features. It routinely inspires you to play it. Great mechanical depth makes the game feel like an evolution of old-school isometric RPGs. The foundation and potential is obviously there in spades. The problem is the game is flawed...everywhere and all the weaknesses overwhelm the experience and soon the title becomes torturously awful.

- Crashing? Sure. Problems with saves disappearing/corrupting? Occasionally. Issues with bad game mechanics forcing you to replay tracts of the game again? Definitely. The game has an abysmally designed kingdom-creation mechanism that fails to teach you about how to play it. It also fails to adequately warn you about deadlines, priorities and other important story elements. The result? You're routinely punished for exploring the world, in an *isometric fantasy RPG*. If that entire concept seems counterproductive, that's because it is. On a dozen occasions, I left my kingdom with no open/visible quests, in the hands of my lieutenants, with HUNDREDS of days left before the next story development, only to return a few weeks later and find out that my kingdom was destroyed because I wasn't babysitting the process constantly.

Unfortunately, exploring the world is *impossible* while you're dwelling back in your throne room (not to mention painfully boring). Traveling long distances requires *continuous* resting sessions on the map, causing large amounts of time to go by, punishing you for your ever-present Sword of Damocles-like kingmaker duties. Your advisers and lieutenants often fail at their quests, projects and goals, regardless of how hard you try to develop them as leaders. Consequently, you're hemorrhaging empire stats *constantly* and many such projects/goals will appear and disappear while you're exploring the actual world and enjoying the game. Some failed kingmaker events will penalize you to such an overwhelming degree, that you'll find your kingdom being destroyed often, leading to reload and replay entire pieces of the quest over and over again.

None of these issues or responsibilities are adequately explained or tutored in the game.

- Juvenile, politically charged SJW story? Present. Characters are pulled out of tacky fan-fictions. None of the companions are especially likable. Some are tolerable to be sure and, yes, moments can sometimes exist between your character and some of your team mates, but genuine character development is practically non-existent. Oh sure, they go through often obnoxious character arcs but they never really change socially. Every resting event, of which you'll experience THOUSANDS of times, consists of two of such characters sniping at each other, regardless of alignment, smugly insulting each other over their personal beliefs. Alignment, past experiences and camaraderie have literally NO effect on these acerbic and tiring exchanges.

The Valerie romance is painful, and Valerie is constantly painted an atheist feminist. Seriously, that's pretty much her only personality elements. She's an atheist. She's a feminist. Believers are idiots. Blah. Beauty is stupid. Blah. I'm equal to any man. Blah. Even when she's served as your right arm for *years* and no one questions her abilities, she'll rub them in everyone's face in some ♥♥♥♥♥hat brigade attempt to push an agenda. Valerie isn't an atheist, however. She believes in the gods, she simply doesn't worship them, despite the power that can be channeled by worshipers on the world. The writer obviously wanted to push an agenda but failed utterly at the attempt.

Valerie is a smug, joyless nag that will pick a fight with you constantly if you don't consistently lavish her with feminist odes to her equality and self-worth. Flirting with her is about as much fun as prison foreplay. I never thought I'd see a game romance so boring that I actually couldn't care less that the relationship survived, after spending hours cultivating it. Healthy relationships hinge on sharing vulnerability with your partner. Valerie is literally a cardboard cutout that punishes you for wanting to further your relationship. Enemies and allies all communicate with modern-day colloquialisms, expressing concepts or language that is alien in a fantasy setting. One example is when a barbarian cleric referred to the concept of renting. Would a barbarian really understand something like that? Would kings use modern vernacular colloquial lingo?

The writing is awful and the characters aren't the only weakness. The story consists of you earning a kingdom over one plot armored event after another. The big bad, a faerie queen of the like, couldn't be more boring and her machinations are rarely explained. The game consists of her sending waves of attacks/threats at your kingdom. You face these threats predominantly from your throne room, wherein your kingdom gets punched in the face over and over and over and over, until you manage to advance to the next level of hostilities. After awhile, you literally stop caring about her plans, your kingdom and pretty much every ungrateful, obnoxious companion. I know I stopped caring long ago.

- Pathinder is obnoxiously colorful, cartoony and yet flat in design/aesthetic. A key example of this transpires when you arrive at Irovetti's feast and you see him for the first time. It describes him as a having a doublet, with refined, powdered features. Instead, you're presented with an uninspired barbarianesque warrior portrait missing all the aforementioned. He is hardly clever and doesn't seem all that threatening once you meet him in person. Magic permeates and floods every centimeter of the world, with Elder Venomous Dweomer Hydras taking the place of bears/wolves in any other sane fantasy setting.

- Glitches abound with many quests breaking or simply failing to trigger properly.

This game would be great if a real development team could step in and spend a year polishing it but as it stands, this game is nothing more than a boring, overdone, uninspired foray into isometric RPGs. This could have been a great experience but only the hardest of the hardcore Icewind Dale/Baldur's Gate junkies need apply.

Not worth the time. You'll find better games elsewhere.

6.5/10.

(mini-review).

Sam's Story operates off a fascinating concept: to expand upon the story of one of Atyom's companions. Sam continues his progress down the railway/roads of Russia, even as Artyom, Anna and the rest settle down. As a result, you get a lonely, frightening tale of Sam desperately trying to make his way home. Sam, who's quite the badass, gets a DLC that can best be summarized as: "Mini-Metro Exodus". You have a central plot line, revolving around his attempt to return to the USA, which takes place in a large area, not unlike Volga, Caspian or Taiga. Plenty of hidden secrets and loot abound and you'll have several tense moments. While more action-oriented than Metro Exodus, with more human enemies, plenty of corridor horror still exists, with bosses like Batwing and the fuel rod depot excursion making the game feel very "Metro-like".

Sam's Story not only has a poignant ending with two possible options, but it also serves as a deep character study to Sam, which we get to know superficially throughout Metro Exodus. For those players that wanted more after finishing Metro Exodus, Sam's Story is the ultimate dessert.

Recommended.

8.5/10.

Metro Exodus is an excellent capstone to the Metro 2033 & Metro Last Light series of games. The game employs effective storytelling, exploration and punchy horror to great effect and showcases the substantial investment that 4A Games has made into Dimitri Glukhovsky's post-apocalyptic franchise. Unfortunately, a litany of uncontrollable issues sour an otherwise fantastic gaming tour de force. Despite the weaknesses, I will be awaiting 4A Games' next foray into video game storytelling.

Metro has great graphics, rendering large, living worlds with sharp 4K-capable textures, excellent lighting effects and adequate character/enemy models. Maps are expansive, interesting and possessed of character/personality themselves. Character models lack amazing animations and often seem less impressive by comparison. The sound in Metro is wholly adequate as well, with the exception of the musical score, which is excellent and emotionally impacting. The same can't be said for the voice acting, which ranges from good to laughably bad. It's quickly obvious that Metro's greatest strength lies in its fantastic atmosphere.

The game play in Metro is great, with a sufficiently deep crafting system, various ammunition types, weapon modifications, stealth, melee, healing, irradiation effects and more. Objectives can be resolved either forcefully or by employing guile and you are always able to update your weapons on the fly in order to best fit your needs. Weapon models and animations are great, with strong, staccato firing sounds that make discharging them a joy. The game begins like previous Metro titles with cramped, linear subway missions but soon evolves into a far more open experience, not unlike FarCry.

Each of the large areas has a pervasive identity with Volga being mostly swamp/marsh-like, Caspian being an arid, scorched desert and the Taiga being a lush, vibrant forest. Within each of these areas, Artyom will find a variety of underground bunkers, decrepit buildings, radioactive hellscapes, mutant-infested ecosystems and bandit/NPC communities. Tons of hidden loot abounds, with many items hidden from all but the most sagaciously persistent. Punctuating the three large areas are several other stops with interesting concepts and consequences, propelling the story forward, slowing only for poignant moments between Artyom and his companions on the the train (the Aurora). Sitting outside and watching miles of scenery zip by as you race forward towards your next location is a great trick and something I had never experienced before on any game.

Characters are reasonably fleshed out and the story, while not superlatively unpredictable or clever gets the job done. Tons of written logs are available for perusal and members of your crew will leave, resulting in surprising amounts of disappointment. Your proclivities towards aggression or cruelty will result in a specific ending, so players should be careful about what decisions they make. The save system is pretty bog standard, albeit not very robust. Game difficulty at medium is adequate and higher difficulty levels can be quite challenging. The ending plucks at the heart strings. Anyone that alleges that Metro Exodus isn't horror-focused is a intentionally misleading. The entire game is littered with forays underground, both long and short. The finale, which takes place in the Metro of Novosibirsk, makes past Metro games look like Disney Land. The game has simply evolved into a larger, more varied, more ambitious experience.

Technically, even a year after release, the game is still a bit of a mess. A small group of players have lost their save games. Many players have experienced crashes to desktop (including yours truly). I actually experienced 2 additional crashes in Taiga that were unrecoverable, with ALT-TAB, ALT-F4 and ALT-CTRL-DEL having no effect. I had to hard-restart the computer, souring the experience somewhat, as the crashes happened within a few minutes of each other. The game's optimization is disappointing. At 4K, ultra, I was hovering between 45-60 fps with current computer, which has run other, equally-attractive games, far better. Players often get hung up on floating objects, or get caught on clipping errors in the map/scenery. The game's AI is pretty awful. While bad AI is excusable for brain dead mutants, it is obviously not for human opponents.

The greatest issue with Metro was Deep Silver's decision to make the game an Epic Games Store exclusive. Ironically, I would've purchased the game at full price and probably would've purchased all the DLC full price as well but, instead, had to wait a full year to play the game. This was disappointing as the game was no longer discussed in the current gaming community and many of my Steam friends nixed the game from their wishlists, never to return. While 4A Games/Deep Silver made up for the slight, somewhat with deep price cuts on the Steam release week (I bought everything for about 40 dollars), the decision to make the game exclusive no doubt cost 4A Games/Deep Silver good will from their customers and fans. Hopefully the lesson has been learned for next time.

However, despite those weaknesses, I can honestly affirm that Metro Exodus was one of the greatest games of 2019 and easily worth any FPS fan's precious gaming time.

Recommended.

8.5/10.

(mini-review.)

Ring of Elysium is another boring, staid, generic Battle Royale. The graphics are a mediocre photocopy of PUBG or CoD:BO4, with passable models wrapped in often poor textures. Animations are stiff and controls feel anything but fluid and satisfying. The game is pretty primitive but the aiming is often touchy, with double clicks required to aim down sights or to grab items from a fallen opponent. Environments and visual cues aren't supremely well thought-out. Optimization is poor. 4K Ultra gameplay only produced 70 fps on a Core i7/32 GB RAM/Radeon VII system and for the graphics that it puts out, that's pretty laughable.

PUBG or CoD:BO4 are better than this tired mess. This game feels and plays like a mod of PUBG or CoD:BO4, run out of someone's garage, using public assets. If you can play those, or better yet, Apex or Fortnite, why the hell would you ever want to play this iPhone-like title?

Avoid this game.

4/10.

(Mini-review.)

Weak, flaccid weapons. Pointless shopping. Little to no progression. Area replay is passed off as “gameplay”. Thimble-sized amounts of content. No matchmaking. Unskippable cutscenes. Mediocre performance optimization. Only ~3000 players on first day of release. Sure the game is early access but it practically has nothing going for it save some atmospheric lighting.

This game makes Overkill’s Walking Dead look master class, by comparison. Refunded.

Not worth the time. You'll find better games elsewhere.

5.5/10.

DMC 5 is a polished, stylish and master-crafted game all-around. The game has fantastic character models, ferociously explosive animations, a blood-pumping soundtrack and a story line that attempts to tie all the IP's loose threads together as neatly as possible. Combat rewards both novices and hardcore gamers, with fantastic depth and variety. Exploration, unlocks and customization abounds. Most impressively, the game handles this attractive, stylish presentation with unbelievably good optimization, managing a blistering ~90 fps, 4K/Ultra on any high-end system.

DMC 5 isn't without flaws. The game's combat, while profound, can often be overwhelming and the combat can often feel a bit rote. Some bosses can feel a bit unfair at higher difficulty levels, spamming a dozen of attacks at once. The levels do start to blur together. Multiplayer doesn't really work intuitively or conveniently.

Despite those small setbacks, DMC 5 is a great triumph for Capcom and a masterpiece 3rd person brawler. I recommend it at any price but especially at 30 USD or less.

Highly Recommended.

9/10.

***I wasn't able to finish the game when Microsoft's Windows 10 installation imploded spontaneously (Microsoft...joke) but I will for sure once I reinstall it.***