Recent reviews by Vythiel

In its current state, No Man's Sky may be one of the best, most expansive, and beautiful survival\exploration games available. I'm always looking forward to the next game update from Hello Games. After all the hours I've put into the game, I'd love to see the story expanded so I can hop back in and play some more.

A great RPG with a compelling story, world, and roster of characters. Not many games bring these three elements together so cohesively. Pillars of eternity is probably one of the best RPGs to come out in the last decade.

If you played Pillars of Eternity, you should get Pillars of Eternity 2 as it is a direct extension of the main story. I found the story, lore, and characters less interesting than the original, but the graphics and gameplay mechanics are improved. The "patched in" turn based mode adds a lot of strategy to the combat.

Great Civ style game with beautiful graphics, a sleek interface, and amazing music. The Endless universe is full of lore, and the playable races are unique and interesting. Each race has enough variation to provide a fresh experience with each new game. There are too many great features to list, but If you're interested in a 4X game in space, this is one of, if not the best one currently available.

I really liked this game. I've been playing a lot of difficult games lately that seem to confuse difficulty with fun, so this was a refreshing break. The difficulty is laid back and your greatest threat clumsily ploping into any puddle of water.

It took me just over 5 hours to finish the game, which I found to be too short to get attached to anything happening in the narrative. The story is good, but don't expect an epic RPG style tale. Most of the game's mechanics are pretty basic and the gameplay is centered around the freedom of movement provided by your suit. This was by far the best part of the gameplay, as zipping through the environments was a very cathartic experience. I didn't have any trouble with the combat either as most enemies are very easily dispatched.

The graphics are very good as well, though I did encounter some odd slowdowns which were fixed by "Alt+Enter" to windowed mode and back again to full screen.

Over all, I recommend this game if you can get it on sale due to its short length.

This review is based solely on playing, or trying to play, the campaign. A genuinely unpleasant experience, and by far the least fun survival game I've played.. Get ready to save, reload, and restart your playthrough many times over, as the game forces you to learn everything (including its flakey interface and mechanics) through unforgiving trial and error. If you love to suffer through the old school mentality of needing to Google every little detail of playing a game or die endlessly, you may enjoy this. Once you've suffered enough to know how the game works, I can see it possibly being fun.. maybe. If you're looking for better alternatives, go buy The Forest, or Subnautica. These are vastly superior products.

Plays like a spiritual successor to System Shock 2. Stylized graphics like Dishonored. "Play your way" gameplay like Deus Ex. The game ran very well for me, staying well above 60fps at 1440p using an aging GTX970. I didn't run into any technical issues.

TL;DR - This may be my game of the year for 2017.

This game is mostly great and if you enjoy a good RPG with interesting turn based combat, then you should give this game a try. For me, the combat was the highlight of the game as the classes and related abilities make each battle unique. Furthermore, the synergies between spells, abilities, and environmental elements make combat highly unpredictable, constantly keeping you on your toes. That being said, this game has some flaws that I need to mention so that potential buyers aren't caught unaware. If you can look past these flaws, then you'll enjoy this game.

First and foremost are the bugs. I find myself constantly annoyed by something that doesn't work right. Whether it's a crafting recipe, a combination of spells interacting erratically or not at all, or some random effect that happens inexplicably (i.e. dealing poison damage by shooting a silver arrow). The turn order indicator at the top of the screen will sometimes get stuck and you'll have no idea whose turn it is.

Knowing the type of surface you're standing on is extremely important, however, many times I found that the surface texture wasn't showing correctly so I end up standing in an electrified puddle, or poison, or fire, when there's nothing showing under my character. What makes this even more problematic is that your characters will happily run right into these hazards instead of pathing around them. There are further annoyances, however these are a few examples of what to expect. I've also had some crashes on rare occasions but it's mostly the in game bugs that are the most problematic. The key is to save often. Thankfully the game lets you save at almost any time, even during combat.

The reason that the above issues are more than minor nuisances is that the game can be very hard. There's nothing wrong with a difficult game, but when you have to constantly contend with the problems mentioned above, it takes away from the fun and makes the experience more aggravating.

Finally, the difficulty curve is all over the place. One moment you'll be ripping through a group of enemies with ease, and the next you get destroyed before you've had your first turn. It just feels completely random. This appears to be done purposefully as there are some events\encounters that just outright kill you, and you have to reload, so prepare to quicksave\quickload often.

This is an arcade style spaceship shooter with some advanced elements. The combat is similar to the ship battles in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. Line up your broadsides and fire away. It has a trading system where you can make money buying merchandise low at one station and selling high at another. Lots of side missions to collect enough money for bigger ships, and for upgrading them with the best equipment. There is a simple factions system that lets you help the groups you like and piss off the ones that you don't. You can also join some guilds to get some special missiona and "unique" ships. It's very polished and looks really good. The only annoyance I had was that you are always flying on a 2D plane, so you can't go up or down. After a while though, I stopped noticing and just enjoyed the game. It's a lot of fun for a good price.

This is a Fallout game in the vein of Fallout 3, "Vast as an ocean, deep as a puddle". Many points of interest, stories, characters, and quests but none of them provide many paths or feel like they've changed your game world once you've completed them. The dialogue is extremely simple and the choices limited. All the S.P.E.C.I.A.L dialogue options from New Vegas have been simplified down to Charisma. There are a few times where you get to make meaningful choices, but most of the time it comes down to saying "Yes" or "No" in a different tone.

That being said, you'll note that I've spent over 300 hours in this game (to date) and I'm still playing. There is plenty of entertainment value here and Fallout 4 is a very good game if you know what you're getting. As other have said, the combat is excellent. It feels very responsive and satisfying. The weapons and armor modding system is very well done and provides a sense of accomplishment and tactical advantage. Settlements don't have much to do with the story and can be skipped entirely if they're not your speed. However, the act of taking a pile of refuse and turning it into a well defended settlement is satisfying. There are so many side quests that it's likely you won't find them all in your first play through. Some are actualy exceptionally well done. I liked the main plot better than Fallout 3 and I think it's very enjoyable.

Recently, survival mode has been added for those dedicated\crazy enough to play at that difficulty. It turns Fallout 4 into a very unforgiving survival game. Feel free to Google it in detail, but for those that like having to worry about eating, drinking, sleeping, and getting sick while having very limited save points (beds), this mode is for you.

Overall I'm still having a lot of fun after 300 hours and recommend this game to anyone that isn't looking for a really deep RPG experience. Basically, if you like Fallout 3, you'll probably like Fallout 4 as it's bigger and better in every way.