Recent reviews by Orchestructive

Play this game. Don't read reviews, don't read comparisons to "other" games. It's $5... play it.

First things first.

If you have never heard of or played The Secret World, you will not really "get" this game. Most of the game will seem arbitrary, dissonant in tone, and nonsensical.

However, if you understand where "Kingsmouth" is, have completed "The Seven Silences" quest and know who Carrie Killian is... this game is fantastic and chances are, you've already bought it.

I can't outright recommend this game otherwise, you probably won't enjoy it. There aren't enough "jump-scares" to fill a proper "watch me shriek" YouTube "let's play," and a lot of the story is delivered through inner monologue and visual imagery that won't make much sense to you without the greater context.

I'm giving this a thumbs-up however, because if you love The Secret World and Tørnquist's unique neo-Cthulhu stylings, then you'll get exactly what was intended out of this game.

Easily in my top-3 favorite open-city "GTA" style games. Easily the best main character in any game of this genre. Best hand-to-hand combat and top-notch DLC.

I wanted to like this game so bad.

Here are some immediate reactions:
- Jumping feels awful. You stutter and lose forward momentum, this is awful for a platformer.
- You die from fall height. Coupled with the aforementioned jump feeling, this leads to many needless deaths.
- Attacks have ZERO weight. The whip cuts through enemies, it's like swinging at nothing.
- YOU have zero weight. The movement feels completely unsatisfying and empty. You neither have the "heavy" movement of a Super Castlevania IV or the "smooth" movement of a Symphony of the Night.
- The maps are disconnected. Instead of giving you a big area to explore, you "explore" lots of small ones and move on (simply having a "square-based" map does not make you a metroidvania).
- The "grab" animations are too long and repetitive. If that will be your main means of finishing an enemy, you'd better make it fast, or interesting. Instead it's neither.

I can't even use the "well it's a 3DS port" excuse, because there were so many (Igarashi-made) fantastic Castlevania's on GBA/DS. This development team tried to take THEIR Castlevania and put it in the Igarashi formula and managed to miss every single mark of what made those games so satisfying.

This game is one "Better English Translation" away from being quite possibly one of the most fun to play "MMO's" on the market.