Recent reviews by Skagi the Skald

A game that has a few freckles, but is beautiful nonetheless. Funcom hit an "in the park homerun" with this. They clearly used the Conan Exiles game (which they made) as a framework, but improved almost all of what held that back and created a rich gaming experience with an evolving world, real dangers, a thousands things to do and places to explore, and a clear love of the lore.

Highly recommend if you want an interesting blend of base builder, looter/shooter, MMO and survival game.

I recommend Days Gone....but I'm only begrudgingly recommending Broken Road. Calling this a DLC is almost false advertising. It added some challenge modes and a race mode as well as perma-death; but there isn't a single new mission or expansion of the game world. If you played this before, you're playing functionally the same game after paying $10.

I would downvote this - but many of us believe the Broken Road sales are the only possible chance of seeing a sequel made. On that alone, it will get buyers. But don't get duped into thinking there is an expansion of the main game content - there isn't

It's an open beta and costs nothing...so, this review reflects the beta state.

The game is buggy....but it's also new. Despite that, it already feels light years beyond Fallout 76 if you're into posy-apocalyptic games that focus on survivability, resource gathering, combat and base building. Definitely some insane lore in this game and fun visuals.

Staggeringly boring, grindy repetitive mechanics, reused low-res graphical assets. This feels like a game people want to pretend they enjoy but secretly despite it - and only play it because their friends are. It's little more than Minecraft for bored adults.

The multiplayer is fine....good graphics for its time and solid fighting fun.

So, why the negative review?

BUGS.

This game is a buggy disaster with no less than 4 gamebreaking solo campaign bugs that can become unplayable (swimming bugs, spinning in place, falling through objects, black screen on look-up). What a mess. The fact that these well known problems have NEVER been resolved does not make EA look good. At all.

Eh. I'm not getting the love. It adheres to D&D's 5e ruleset which can be fun (but does slow the pace a bit; but works overall). But this game boats the worst camera system I've seen in a long time. The camera requires a middle mouse button push and moves independently of the characters. It's an incredibly bad implementation that people have complained loudly about since 2020 (beta). And one that the developer has admitted wasn't ideal but they were too far along to change it.

The game also hosts a number of bugs (most of which aren't gamebreaking but do break immersion).

Story is OK....far below Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn but much better than the first BG game or Icewind Dale. Gra[hics are decent for an overhead, turn based game.

Not terrible - but with the current camera system, I just can't recommend it.

The game that should be good: it has so many of the right ingredients. A solid story, a charismatic lead character, nice graphics, a good soundtrack and enough player abilities that you have a lot of options in terms of how to play the game.

But I have to give it a thumbs down for two reasons:

1.) The city looks great from the street level but is fairly lifeless. You can't go into 99% of the buildings, and a lot of the models used for buildings and NPC's are heavily reused. Same with vehicles: there are a few that are great; but there are only about 10 cars in the game and they're largely interchangeable.

2.) And the biggie. Bugs. Since the game's launch, immersion breaking bugs (and some quest disruptive ones) have been the bane of this game. And while it's improved, there are still so many bugs. So, so many. With each patch to address the game's bugs, they introduce new ones. They'll do a patch to fix vehicles, and they'll break clothing, for example. The game is a quagmire of poor development and an overall lack of performance tuning.

I do enjoy it in so many ways and we need more games like this (stylistically) - but these kinds of games need a higher focus on stability to be truly worth it.

The game itself is a 'peaceful" survival game with simple mechanics, a solid crafting system with a lot of creativity built in, but a VERY short story. You can finish the whole game in 6-8 hours. Short story aside, you will grow attached to your raft as you customize it, make it nearly self-sustaining and add trophies and furniture. (I have a two story home, a lighthouse, a zoo, a garden and an engine room on mine).

Highly recommend.

Eh. Not my cup of tea. Some people may like it....the story is engaging. The characters good - and the graphics are nice.

But the gameplay is tedious, boring and annoying.

This is a courier game. You go from point A to point B....and often back again. It's little more than a hiking simulator with a few other gamebox abilities thrown in (and only midling combat). The issue is you're just ... walking. And more walking. Eventually you can ride a bike etc.; but 80+% is just ... walking. And you're balancing a bunch of weight.

So, in a nutshell, your entire time is spent rearranging the layout of things you're carrying so it's balanced...then walking up or down hill etc. Once you get imbalanced, you brace and crouch. Then rinse and repeat.

And that's the bulkshare of the gameplay save for some addl. mechanics later on.

It's beautiful - but not engaging. Games are meant to be fun. This wallows in tedium, pathos and decay...but doesn't do so in an engaging way. Lovely to look at, but I just can't recommend it except for niche gamers who enjoy glacially paced repetitive tasks set against the backdrop of a well drawn story.

Initially frustrating but beautiful game (albeit, a bit shallow). Deaths are abundant as you get the mechanics down; but after awhile, the game becomes more second nature and easier to navigate.

Things to know:
- This is NOT an MMO. In fact, it really is primarily a single player open world Dark Souls'ish game. There is some PvP - but cooperative multiplayer is almost pointless as virtually every main boss requires you beat it alone (NPC help excluded) to advance the story.
- Deaths are annoying but no big deal. Just be judicious with your runes and keep few on you whenever possible.
- Timing of dodges and rolls matters far more than damage for the majority of bosses. Most can be beaten via a war of attrition - so, practice the patterns and learn their attacks. You don't need massive strength to take out bosses...but you do need perfectly timed rolls.
- The aesthetic is cool but the graphics aren't "perfection". It looks good and has some crazy creature design; but don't go in expecting photorealism.
- The infamous game difficulty settles down as you level up. By the time you're 50 (which comes quick), you're able to dominate the landscape.
- Melee is great. Casting is great. But the game rewards hybrid play the most (and feels like what the devs intended). "Spellblades" tend to dominate heavily with a solid mix of swords and magical staffs.
- There is ZERO quest log. This wil be the single-most frustrating part of a game that has convoluted multi-step quests. Keep a notebook handy and write down EVERYTHING when interacting with primary NPC's.