Recent reviews by NorrKnekten

The experience of V-Rising starts out strong and thematic and the notion of PvP encounters happening at any time you are outside of your walls keeps you at your toes. But as the games own player numbers and empty servers where castles have been decaying for months will tell.

This experience is sadly not a lasting one. Every server is like its own race.
Fall behind and you may lose everything a friday evening while socializing with friends.
Pull ahead and you will inevitably find yourself in a dead server as others leave for greener pastures.

I was hooked on this game the moment I first started it, it oozes polish and has all the elements of a well structured story game. It is not the rouge-lite re-playable experience that I expected and that is honestly a good thing.

Its simplistic style and set in stone story means you replay to find the various endings and interactions, Each of which unlock yet another piece of the puzzle until you finally get that 100% completion rating.

Don't expect to return after the 100% completion as the solutions to problems never change and the extra knowledge only makes each chapter easier to complete

What can I say. its Isaac. Its been around for over a decade.

Simplistic gameplay and easy to learn rules that slowly unwraps the hidden complexity within.

An enemy blew up near a wall and a passage that wasnt there opened?
Why does this rock have a different color and an X drawn onto it.
What the ♥♥♥♥ even is a planetarium.

That and several hundreds of items that you most likely are not going to be able to remember what they all do even after 400 hours of playtime. Items that give way to broken combos that destroy entire screens in glorious displays while you laugh. Either that or you find that mirror and ipecac is horrible together.

My point is.

This game is awesome and will give you hours upon hours of entertainment.... now with splitscreen coop (also works
online trough steam playtogether)

While I was on the fence when playing the betas due to the wonky spawning and rather worrying trends I can honestly say that I would absolutely recommend this.

The game hits the same pleasure that L4D did upon its own launch and yes people fault in so many ways and saying how it can't live up to the masterpiece of L4D2. The thing is.. with living up to master pieces of the past is that people never seem to be able to remember that left 4 dead had a rough start as well. But multiple updates, nostalgia and a passionate community is why left 4 dead is remembered fondly.

There are still a few things I want to go deeper into.

Weapon rarities and attachments provide opportunities and incentive to mix things up,
With 3 rarities on the weapon for their main stats which then get further enhanced by what attachments they have.

While I would like a way to move attachments around better or at least carry one attachment for later use I cannot say that I felt this in any way hindered my enjoyment of the game. But then again I love my roguelites and roguelikes so sacrificing the total stats for a weapon with better base stats is one of those gambits you will encounter. Attachments also provide a healthy source of being able to reduce the weaknesses of certain weapons, Faster aim down sights or faster movement speed, Reload speed or increased damage. very much a refreshing take that I have wanted in the genre for a long while.

It is true... i'm not particularly a fan of the current way the deck functions. in the beta you would frequently see similar decks with the much well known cards be run time and time again. And some cards like Combat Knife was just to good to pass up. The rebalance to make some cards more interesting is a nice thing like buckshot bruiser now giving temp health for each pellet hit similar to vermintide's mechanics has turned from something I kinda like to something I pretty much use for every shotgun build.

My biggest gripe with the deck system also involves the corruptions. As I feel like the intention of needing to adapt your deck to what corruptions appear does not happen as some cards just are so much more impactful than others, And some of the corruptions feeling much to generic and not having enough impact.

The challenge cards also have a few issues in the way they are implemented as there are seemingly nothing stopping birds from spawning on the one path to the safehouse. Usually leading to a perfect completion being ruined due to larmed doors or birds in the very last section


And to end this I would like to say that I know why people feel like this game is missing something and I do feel it to. I miss the visceral glory of L4D's dismembered zombies and the explosions of pipebombs and propane tanks sending things flying, I still feel the force behind B4Bs weapons as they visibly are pushed back and staggered from shotgun rounds of 50cal, But other than that there is no real visual reaction.

I love the game and fully reccomend it even if quickplay with randoms can be a bit frustrating with people still not being used to the game yet. if you are on the fence then wait until a sale.

If you like hacking and slashing your ways trough room after room collecting items and upgrades Binding of Isaac style then look no further as this is easily one of the best rougelites currently available.

Multiple weapons each in different forms.
8 different gods each with vastly differing boons and synergies.
A modular difficulty system allowing you to push yourself for multiple hours upon end even after beating the game.

I thought this game was cool before it was even a game.

Silly jokes related to Steam's completly subjective awards aside.

This is a PvP arena arena game where two teams duke it out by using teamplay and positioning along their individual skill. It is by no means a MOBA unless you really want to be that picky about the definition as it lacks several elements that are usually found in MOBA's.
First off there are no items, levels or gold while in a match despite it having a talent system similar to Heroes of the storm.
Instead Talents are divided up into 5 groups of three with players picking one from each group at the beginning of each round to ensure that a character can be built differently while still having a level playing field.

Abilities also differ in the way that no ability is a "Targeted" ability but rather everything has to be aimed manually. Everything from the projectiles you shoot, to the AoE's you cast, To the swing of a melee weapon.

All in all. A great experience for those who love competitive and skillbased combats in the style of the arenas commonly found in MMO-RPG's.

Pros
-Character Depth and flexibility
-Matches are relatively short but instead can be intense until one is fueled by andrenaline.
-Frequent updates and additions compared to other Early Access games with balance issues not lasting for very long.
-'fair' gameplay. You will never lose because of a roll of a die.
-Several improvements compared to the spiritual prequel that is Bloodline Champions

Cons
-Current lack of gamemodes
-"Cookie cutter builds"
-Can be repetitive.