Recent reviews by linkerError

Boring. Apparently it takes like 3 hours of wandering around this town to finally get the gadget that lets you write code and hack things. Unfortunately, that 3 hours is filled with wandering around the town completing random tasks and talking to utterly dull and uninteresting NPCs with extremely poorly written dialogue. The only reason I know this is I finally got tired of dinking around and decided to pull up a walkthrough on youtube... only to find that the cool stuff doesn't even unlock into several hours into an interminably barebones game.

I like me some code. However, this game hides the cool mechanics behind a plot seemingly written by a 12 year old. It wouldn't be so bad if the game weren't so high on its own supply. I feel like this is trying to be some avante guarde kind of gaming experience and it just fails in every way. The writing isn't good, the graphics aren't good, the music is non-existant. The game just feels bleh to play.

Speaking of bleh: All of this is made worse by your character's stilted movement. They have to speed up and slow down as they lazily jog to your next clicked spot. There is no way to just make them run all the time. You're stuck with this slow speed up and slow speed down as you awkwardly lurch your character from point to point.

Oh and the map is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It doesn't show your position and doesn't have a decent list of destinations or legend. The game is in desperate need of a fast travel system because, despite how small the town is, it is absolutely torturous to navigate due to the bad movement.

The game seemingly wants you to puzzle over every step -- you have to figure out where you are, and then where to go and what to do. There is no journal system to help you keep track of tasks or where you are in the story, so good luck picking this back up if you put it down for a week or so. All of this is with very little direction from the game itself -- it doesn't provide any formal goals or quests. It seems like the game just wants you to wander around randomly and solve problems by serendipity??

I'm honestly not sure what they're going for here. I could see potential in a game that lets you solve puzzles by hacking the code of the various devices around a town, but this game doesn't seem to want to let me get to that part -- it's too busy navel gazing.

After 3 hours of wasting my time, I gave up. Simply put, the exposition in this game takes about 30 times longer than it needs to and doesn't expose any kind of cool mechanics until you've been aimlessly wandering around for several hours. Its probably a great game for out of work programmers, as they'd be the only ones with the time and the skills to figure this game out. For everyone else, avoid like the plague.

Solid. The core loop still needs a bit of work as there isn't much variety in the types of enemies you'll go up against -- at least in the demo. Absolutely ADORE the retro art style in this game. It looks super great. A lot of the work is needed on the mechanical side.

Unfortunately, here just isn't enough 'crunch' here yet to warrant a purchase yet -- at least at a price point greater than 15 bucks or so. The game is way too stingy with credits for starters -- even on levels where credit spawns were supposedly boosted. During my time with the demo I saw exactly one credit spore spawn across 3 levels with supposedly boosted spawns. And I saw exactly zero credit spore spawns on normal levels. I had credits to afford a shop exactly once across 3 different runs. Also, the game doesn't provide a description of items you're buying at shops, leaving you up to the mercy of knowing what the items are already before you purchase them. Secret rooms are gated behind a strange RNG mechanic that forces you into a small area where you're forced to take damage for the chance to find a secret room. Suffice it to say, this mechanic doesn't feel great -- the designers really need to find a better way to 'hide' these as it feels too punishing to take health hits in return for a chance to roll on secret rooms. The inclusion of a stamina system feels out of place here as well -- the stamina really only gets consumed when you use a melee attack, dodge or jump. This feels really weird, but I can see it being engaging with some tweaks to the game's design.

With a few tweaks to enemy and room variety, more crunch to the RPG mechanics and changes to spawns and credits, they'll have a nice indie banger here. I can recommend the demo, as its free and pretty fun. All that said, I'll be wishlisting it to keep an eye on it, but don't expect anything groundbreaking here.

Dope little resource supply chain game. Very chill!

No idea where all the hate for this game is coming from. From every conceivable angle this is a much improved game over the first. Yes the charming pixel aesthetic has been replaced with a freak sharp art style. Maybe not as stylistic but still gorgeous. I will admit the levels look a little bit busy sometimes, but that’s pretty normal with a graphics upgrade like this. It doesn’t take long to adjust to it.

The powers of each of the thieves are much improved over the first game and each thief’s power seems much better balanced against the others. These powers are also much better suited towards coop play, where the game really shines. Speaking of which, split screen is now a thing, meaning you can both go off on your own adventures.

A fully voice acted cast comes in to tell the story for lively looking comic book style cutscenes and keeps the gameplay entertaining with funny situational quips.

The game’s level and enemy design also feels quite a bit more forgiving than before, allowing you to recover easier if you make a mistake (usually the bane of stealth games).

All in all, I think it’s a pretty good game and feel very comfortable recommending it. Plus if it’s anything like the first game you can look forward to years of updates and improvements along with free content drops.

Certified banger.

Not an immersive sim. Not anywhere close. More along the lines of a first person puzzle game.

"... glorious metal nonsense."

-- Jonathan Ferguson
Keeper of Firearms and Artillery
Royal Armouries Museum, London

What a game. This could be the best game in the Pillars series, though I've yet to check out Deadfire I think it's going to have a hard time topping this.

I think the obvious part is the combat. Fast, furious and highly kinetic, Obsidian has absolutely raised the bar for combat for first person melee games. They've incorporated dodging, parrying and power attacks all together into a slick package that just works. You can feel the impact of your blows and that of your enemies very viscerally thanks to great animation and sound effects. It goes hand in hand with the ability system, which lets you spec out and customize your character. I eventually chose to spec into Ice Wizard because of the elemental accumulation system and how it inflicts constant damage and status effects based on how much accumulation you can stack onto your enemies. but beware! You can also sustain accumulation as well.

Obsidian's philosophy here seems to be quality-over-quantity and that echoes throughout the game. Even though the game doesn't offer the breadth and scope of a BethSoft game, it more than makes up for it with graphical fidelity, attention to detail and an astounding lack of bugs and jank that has historically characterized those games. Better plot, better NPCs, more polished and interesting quests with better rewards, a smaller but undeniably beautifully crafted world, a tight gameplay loop and even tighter combat.

The vistas in this game will never fail to disappoint and you'll love exploring it thanks to the way Obsidian has designed them. The world here is significantly smaller than an ES or Fallout game, but what it lacks in size it gains in quality and polish. BethSoft games use a cookie-cutter approach to world design where everything is tiled and that lets the level designers cobble together dungeons and the world like lego bricks. While this makes it easier to make massive worlds, it also has the side effect of making everything feel generic and samey. You won't find any of that here -- every area feels unique, interesting and visually captivating. The game is not formatted like an ES/FO game where there is one open world. Instead, there are 4 large open world areas that are gated by the main quest progression -- simply progress the main quest to access the next area. That said, as is often the case in these kinds of games, the designers encourage you to go off and do your own thing -- this is very rewarding. This world is filled to the brim with secrets and loot and you'll want to climb up every little thing and explore every nook and cranny to find all of the hidden loot (not to mention see the aforementioned vistas). And exploring it feels great, thanks to a parkour system that allows you to run, jump and mantle up just about any object in the game.

The writing and story in this game absolutely dwarfs ES/FO games. Characters are interesting and quippy, responding organically to what's happening in the story and the world around them. The game incorporates a BG3-ish camp system where you can find various camp sites in the open world. When you set up camp that gives you access to the crafting and enhancement system, allowing you to upgrade and enchant your weapons, chat with your party about recent events or simply enjoy the chatter -- there is a metric ton of it. They will sit there and chat for like half an hour, I'm not even kidding. And it never repeats. Absolutely nutty. The main quest is engaging and fun, often saddling the player with tough ethical decisions that have no clear right answer.

Some folks are saying the game isn't an RPG and I guess I can see parts of that? For one, a lot of your conversation options don't really matter. Unfortunately, this is not BG3, but it's definitely head and shoulders above the BethSoft games it's trying to emulate. It is very action oriented, but you could level the same critique at any real-time combat game. It's a silly prospect to suggest that this game isn't an RPG. It's got all the depth of any other RPG, just with all the fat cut out.

I see people down rating this game because every single object in the world doesn't have physics -- as if that has ever actually mattered to anyone who plays BethSoft games for the gameplay. I guess these folks are expecting a sort of sandbox and thought that ES/FO were sandboxes. In my opinion they were not. I think they certainly get cribbed into that category that way because those games don't give you much direction and offer relatively open gameplay systems. However, these critics overlook how little those systems contribute to the core gameplay of exploration, role playing and good old killing things and taking their stuff. So yeah if you're looking for something like Tears of the Kingdom, you won't find it here. What you *will* find is a super polished and tight first person fantasy RPG with plenty of meaningful exploration.

On the not so great side are, as I mentioned, the memory of the characters. In one conversation they might be mad at you, but then in the next they will just be their normal tone. These awkward tonal shifts are jarring given how polished the rest of the game is. A lot of the time your dialogue choices are purely cosmetic however I appreciate that they do at least offer the opportunity for some roleplaying even if they often don't make a lasting impact. Some mechanics are sidelined in this game. For instance, lockpicking is always an option in this game and isn't gated behind any skills or classes. Likewise for the parkour system, though it can be improved with stats on gear, it really only makes it faster. They clearly wanted to do all the things BG3 did, but simply didn't have the time. It's a shame they didn't have another year to cook on this, because then the game would be giving BG3 a run for its money as the best RPG of this generation.

Some people won't like the itemization and I get that. Named weapons and equipment (the game uses the term 'unique' items to refer to these) are somewhat rare in this game and are typically found or used as rewards for sidequesting and exploration. The rest of the time, you are upgrading a base weapon to a higher tier version -- but only until you find suitable uniques to complete your character's build -- whatever it is you're going for. The game has a neat food system where you can buffer up essence and health by eating food. It won't recover during combat, but it will automatically top you off using the buffered essence and health, encouraging you to eat lots and use the cooking system at the camp to create delicious eats. Everything that isn't a trinket, glove or boot can be broken down and used to enchant or upgrade your equipment and on top of that exploration will load you down with even more crafting goodies to spend to your heart's content.

Another common critique that I don't quite understand is that people say this is stripped down. Maybe? But only if you consider the zillions of useless options many RPGs load you down with as good. To me, I feel like they just trimmed the fat and left only the good stuff on the bone as opposed to the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach BethSoft games typically use. All the skill and abilities matter and are useful in someway. Instead of offering a massive skill system, the game opts for an ability system that lets you mix and match features of different classes however you like. On the downside though, these are only ever combat related -- you won't find skills or abilities that affect things like bargaining, lockpicking and such. Those are reserved for the Ability points, which unlock various dialogue options based on how many you have -- like a skill check in D&D.

As delivered, this game is pretty frickin dope. There are a lot of kids on here, it seems, downvoting positive reviews and rewarding people Jesters for them. I welcome them because I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think you will too.

This is an excellent game that has, sadly, gone overlooked by a broad audience fascinated by marginally different online shooters. Deceive is a really fresh take on action and espionage but rolled into the format of a shooter. It's really fun to pretend to be an NPC, it turns out. Slipping around people in plain sight was a thrill and hilarious all at once. Lots of good things to say about the gameplay.

Unfortunately, because this game failed to garner a decent audience, the entire community is made up of sweats. When the game first dropped, it was incredible. Lots of people were trying the game out and matches were much more even. Eventually people lost interest -- leaving nothing but a small, dedicated core of players. These people will completely destroy you less than 5 minutes into match. They have no mercy. You will die.

If you think you can like this game and grind it enough to survive, my hat's off to ya. This was a lot more fun for me when people played it more like a casual party game. Now it's way to serious face for my taste. Your mileage may vary -- if you have the dedication.

Nerf Gimlet

It's gud.