Recent reviews by MarSprite

I spent a day building an oil plant that converted oil into fuel, plastic, and rubber - then fuel into power. It looked great, and It made more power than I've yet to use. The next day I demolished it from existence in maybe 5 minutes because I wanted it to be different.
10/10 would destroy all of my own efforts again.

Maneater has a fairly straightforward gameplay loop. You can definitely tell whether or not you'll enjoy the game within the first 20 minutes of starting. If you don't, then you won't. The game loop is the same basic concept throughout the whole game. The tutorial is indicative of where you'll be power wise about half way through the game.

The game has pretty amusing dialog, and it's narrated by the voice actor who plays Jerry in Rick and Morty. His delivery is superb. The other voice actors are solid too. I was pretty surprised.

If you've ever played Prototype, then I'd say the feeling you get when you just start massacring humans is pretty similar between games, despite their very different styles. Creative use of the dodge, combined with constant consumption of your enemies, can sustain you into quite challenging fights with the hunters who show up when you start massacring humans. Well, maybe you have to build for it, I set up my equipment so i could get extra health from eating, even using two slots for it once I had a second unlocked.

On the subjects of equipment... don't save currency to spend on later equipment's upgrades. Your currency acquisition IS your xp gain, so just eat everything you can and you'll be good on resources. Most items use the same resource for every upgrade that item has, except the last two upgrades always use a little green mutagen.

The "True Quest" DLC content is completely inaccessible until you beat the original story, so if you want to buy it later, it won't create any issues. There is a bundle that is slightly cheaper than buying each individually though.

The game crashed maybe 4 times while I completed the original story, and I lost a minute or two of progress at most when that happened. The game started to get a great deal of frame lag within about 10-20 minutes of the crash, so maybe just find a stopping point, close and reopen - if the game is getting choppy.

One of the most fun monster tamer games I have ever played. Doesn't have the content density of a triple A offering, but the battle system is best in class, and there is versus. I would really like to see sequel games that expand the scope of the content, similar to a series like pokemon.

I love this game, but everybody wants to say that the micro-transactions are cosmetic only, and that is simply not true. If you want to take advantage of the superior third party gear market to sell your goods, you(or a trusted partner) MUST buy premium stash tabs, because only they can be made readable by third party websites. Beyond that, in a game with a phenomenal amount of build choices, you start with a fairly limited amount of storage space. You WILL buy stash tabs if you play this game at a high level.

[!] HOWEVER [!]
To play the game enough to need more stash tabs, you're going to be at least a hundred hours in, and it's only going to bother the stingiest of people.

+Miniguide+

The game is sort of a love child between Diablo 2 and the level up system in final fantasy 10. The skill web is incredibly deep and overwhelmingly complicated. For your first character, I highly recommend you spend a bit of time searching for starter builds with gameplay videos attached and then pick one that looks fun to follow. Use the term "starter" in your search, as league starter builds are usually designed to be powerful before you complete them.

If you are unwilling to follow a guide(I wasn't), then try to focus on nodes that provide damage. There are many kinds, so try to focus on damages that seem to multiply each-other. A glass cannon build, especially a ranged one, can clear the story comfortably and give you enough grinding power to pick up some decent equipment for your second character. Then, I implore you to consider a build guide for your second character.

SKILL LINKING IS INITIALLY CONFUSING BUT MOST IMPORTANT
I remember hearing they were going to tinker with how it works a bit and I haven't played since before covid, so I won't detail it heavily, but skill linking is something that most people I have introduced to path of exile did not understand, and it's extremely important. Basically, a socket in a piece of gear holds a skill gem, and if that socket is connected to another socket by a "link" then you can add a support skill gem that effects it. SUPPORT GEMS DON'T WORK WITHOUT LINKS! End game, your main attack is going to be in a 6 socket 5 link weapon or torso armor, and it's gonna have 5 support gems making it do unreasonable amounts of damage. YOU WANT TO DO UNREASONABLE AMOUNTS OF DAMAGE!!!

BUY GEAR FROM poe.trade
It's not wrong to leverage your wealth to increase your power. Try not to trade exalted orbs unless you must. They're more valuable than you think they are. Be sparing with chaos orbs, a lot of middle to end game gear is sold for chaos orbs. Try to be efficient when making purchases through trading websites. They don't want to talk to you, they want your money. If you waste their time, someone else will rush in and buy it before you. Good deals go fast in PoE.

Once you've followed a starter build guide into level 70+ territory, you'll have a ballpark understanding of the damage and defense you are aiming for, if you ever decide to pursue a build of your own design again. This is a shoulders of giants situation. It is difficult to comprehend how powerful you need to be in order to do advanced content before you have done it. The top of the endgame needs very tuned builds equipped with fairly specific to that build gear.

There is a currency that allows you to redistribute skill points, but it's cheaper to make and level a new character than it is to rebuild a high level character. In terms of resources spent versus time saved. The more you play this game and understand the mechanics, the faster it is to level in it. If you can afford to rebuild your level 70, then you should make a new character and deck it out with decent gear instead, most likely.

Seemed like it would be interesting if 80% of the enemies didn't float 15 feet in the air doing absolutely nothing, or raining mostly ineffectual ranged attacks down. The game difficulty setting is meaningless, because most of the enemies are never even able to engage you.

This game is terrible as is. 0/10

This arena game is some BS. They said this was going to be the platform going forward, and now everyone who invested time or money on this game is screwed. Please remember this forever as emblematic of the decision making process of Wizards of the Coast.
They will screw all their existing customers for a quick buck. This is who they are.
Magic arena players? In under 4 years, you too will experience this.

Bought game, Installed, Opened, Made account for game in launcher, Put in login details, am told my account isn't linked to steam. Hours later, much searching, No soloution. WOULD NOT RECCOMEND.