Recent reviews by Grail

A decent spiritual sequel in the 'tide category. Whilst not as polished as Vermintide 2 (that game has years of development). and not offering all the options that it should have at launch, namely Private Lobbies (now added, but can't play solo private with 3 bots), multiple classes (only 4, should have more than that), and a fully detailed crafting system, it is still bonkers fun.

The game is hectic and frenetic as a tide game should be, mixing the brutal melee of VT2 with great gunplay, which is the big advantage of this game. The equipment options all are important because they make the 4 classes play differently based upon what you take, which coupled with the feats provide good variety and flexibility.

The other good thing is that the classes are merely templates. Unlike the named characters in the VT franchise, you can play 4 of the same class here. The disadvantage to that of course, is that the characters don't have the witty repartee and interactions that the Ubersreik Five have. Their lines are now a little bit more staid, without the personal touch. Plenty of lore in them, but no soul.

For those that want an indepth story, it's not that kind of game. It's a tide game of getting from A to B and killing heretics (lots of heretics) in the process.

Re-playability is great for when you just want to butcher in the name of The Emperor of Mankind, whether with the Bolter, Lasgun, Eviscerator or any one of a number of well designed weapons.

4/5

Simple.
Elegant.
Beautiful.
Existential.

Even though this is such a quick game, once and done isn't enough for me. I've played it a couple times over and above, and can see myself playing it more in the future when I just want to unwind and listen to the great classical composition by Edvard Grieg. Of course, the ending is a thing of humorous beauty, bathos and pathos in an otherwise starkly deep, sombre and yet freely engaging game.

5/5

Farming game huh?

Sure you farm I guess. But I've got a lava katana at my side, a magic glowing ring, a hat I bought from a giant mouse that looks like a cat that lives in an old house over near the wizard tower. I'm helping apple people, I'm trading with a creepy, but gentle sewer dwelling monster, have a tardis for a backpack, can teleport around the town and fight ghosts, floating faces and blobs of goo in the mine. And when I'm not concurrently dating every single girl in town at the same time, choosing one to marry by giving them a mermaid pendant that I bought from a weird old sailor on a beach in a storm, I do a bit of farming.

Is the game good? It's kind of addictive, and very grindy. There is little to no actual story, and is pretty sandboxy. The game basically follows 5 F's. Farm, Flirt, Fight, Fish, Forage.

And probably a 6th.
Fun.

3.5/5

I never knew that Jesus was a martial artist, gun totting, heart ripping, spine rending, fish wielding, swordmaster zombie killer.

Clearly, this is easily the most blasphemous game i've ever played, and if I don't go to hell for playing it, then I will be utterly disappointed.

666/10 would Blaspheme again.

I hate this game. It is so annoying. But it also must be beaten. It is (at least for me), a very difficult game. A side-scrolling platform puzzle solving game, where you play a Ninja trying to survive ever more challenging and difficult obstacle courses - courses that are filled with spikes, acid and sharp bamboo spears, (and later falling stallegmites, shuriken cannons, proximity mines and bottomless pits), armed only with physics defying jumps and overtly large shuriken (which in turn can hurt you when they stick into walls becoming a new hazard).

Thankfully this game has controller support, because I dread trying to play it without. Though I have found that my fingers are aching and my knuckles white with the very simple controls, I'm gripping the controller that tight.

Do I reccommend this game? Yes and No.

Yes if you like games that drive you insane til you complete them.
No if you have any vestige of sanity left.

Of course, people reading this are gamers, so there's no sanity to begin with.

Buy this game.
Beat this game.
Give it the finger!!

UPDATE: I beat this game. I gave it the finger. F**K YOU Game! :)

The immediate prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order, this game is just as beautifully crafted as that one, though gameplay is probably a bit nicer, the story is very linear even with the plot-twist towards the end, it's not so much of a twist as a slight deviation. The end boss fight is probably the weakest part of the gameplay, other than again the game not knowing whether it is a stealth game or an assault game. So much of it seems to be stealth oriented, but the mechanics seem shoe-horned in and not fully realized.

I'm not sure what the go is though, with this franchise having older female antagonists wanting to go sit BJ down and pontificate.

At least this title had far fewer cut-scenes than The New Order, so that they had meaning and felt part of a game, instead of the gameplay feeling part of a film.

4/5

An entertaining co-op game, much in the style of the Left 4 Dead series, with common enemies, hordes, and specials that do much the same kind of thing. But this game is so much more than a L4D clone. It shifts the emphasis more to melee (for most characters - though all characters can still utilize quite decent ranged attacks), and it delves at least partially into the lore of the Olde Worlde of Warhammer, before whatever they've done to it these days.

The players get a choice of 5 characters, with 4 distinct flavours, (unfortunately the Dwarf and the Soldier play rather similar and have very similar equipment options with nothing being truly unique among them). And what is great other than the unique style and feel of the characters and the various equipment options you can equip them with - each charcter gets 3+ melee and 3+ ranged options, is the banter and repartee between them. This dialogue gives genuine touches of humour and characterisation to what otherwise would just be the toon that you play, and it helps to really craft their personalities - yes, again like L4D.

The magic of the Bright Wizard is nice, and whilst powerful, the inbuilt kryptonite of her power is her power itself, and a careless player might soon find that they are taking more damage from their own spells than that of the ratmen.

Friendly fire exists in this game, but only on higher difficulties and only with ranged and AoE attacks. And whilst you feel it, it is nothing compared to the battering the enemy can deliver to you, allowing for you to sometimes be indiscriminate in the pursuit of achieving victory. So players that dislike FF shouldn't feel turned off by the fact that it exists, as it is rarely the reason for failure.

There is a loose campaign that ties each of the missions together, and 2 lots of DLC opening up 3 new maps each. And kudos to the developers for the way that they've handled the DLC. If you don't have it, all that stops you doing is hosting a game on one of those maps, and from accepting Contracts from the Bounty Board for those maps. Indeed, a player without the DLC can still play on those maps if someone who has purchased it, hosts the game and they join. Each DLC pack also has 2 new weapons. The Witch Hunter gets 2 and the Elf and Dwarf both get 1. It would have been nice had the Dwarf's gone to the Wizard as a melee option - but perhaps in the future.

As to the faults of the game, yes it's not perfect. The Bots are a new kind of stupid. They make the L4D bots look like intellectuals. There is no collision detection, so enemies can move through you, attacking as they do, and you have little recourse when you can't see them. It is easy to get caught up on the smallest obstacle at times also and the game does crash probably more than i'd like - though this has been greatly improved in the last update. The randomness of the Loot allocation can be frustrating at times, especially early on, though nowadays it's far easier to get good loot and lots of gems to improve them with a very basic "crafting" system, though it still takes some getting used too, and a lot of luck to get the exact item - especially trinkets, that you want.

Overall, it's a very fun game to play - especially with friends, and all the more challenging when you try to carry bots through the missions.

4/5

I'm saying no to this game from a recommendation point of view, but as with most reviews, a simple binary option of yes/no doesn't always work.

I don't recommend this game, because IMO, there are a number of places that it fails as a game, but there are many places that it also succeeds. So, if you're actually interested, you can read the review instead of just viewing the recommendation, then you can make your own mind up.

Firstly, this game is beautifully crafted. There is no doubt that the visuals merge really well with the atmosphere of the story and the sound effects and music score that includes some very nice song choices to make an amazing experience. The only failure in this department is the eyes. No matter how much work has gone into the graphics, the eyes just always seem to be staring into space - but if you can see past that, every element that appeals to the senses is terrific.

The story meanders, trying to have a solid narrative, but it is really just a vehicle for the graphic and sound effects to shine, providing loose rationale for playing in different environments, from a battlefield in WWII, to the Moon, a prison and the traditional Wolfenstein fortress environment, given a much needed face-lift from the original game with its grey and blue brick corridors. Also, another game where you are a member of a Resistance. Why this trope in almost every game? Lazy, lazy writing.

The elements of the story don't really add up given the world that they try to portray. There is no real way the Resistance should know in fine detail what they do know about all the places that you need to go. But they do. Clearly, this is to push the gameplay, but it does so at the expense of the story.

I also feel that the romantic angle in the game is nothing but a miss. It is given virtually no real time to grow in the narrative, instead it seems that a couple blurry sex-scenes are all that they think you'll need to feel the love. Well, it's not. The love angle could have been forgotten about entirely, nothing in it adds to the game.

The gameplay is quite good - to a point. There seems a desire to make Wolfenstein: The New Order a combination Stealth/Assault game. And, yes - at times it works. But the stealth system is incredibly basic, and at times, attempting stealth is doomed to fail, due to the enemy being hidden in so many incredulous locations. The enemy also seem to inherently know where you are if you screw up, instead of being alerted to your presence, they immediately start shooting directly at you, with almost unerring accuracy. There is no shadow or visual hiding mechanic, other than simply staying out of direct line of sight. So, generally it's just better to dual wield those Assault Rifles or Automatic Shotguns and march your way to victory.

There are also many times in the game, where to proceed and not die, you must do the exact right thing at the exact right time. And whilst this sounds like most games, I'm talking about in-game minutiae, such as running and sliding at the precise time so as not to get eaten by a robot dog that will always appear, regardless of what happens before. This is a lack of agency that I feel is unwarranted.

The weapons do feel nice when used, almost everyone plays some part in the game and is useful at times. They are all reasonably unique and they merge well with that visual and aural effect. The weapons I enjoyed the most when using were the silenced pistols (both the 1946 and 1960) and the MG-60 ('coz BFGs are fun).

The real problem that I have with this game, is that for much of it, it isn't a game at all. Instead, it takes on more of an interactive movie aspect. The cut-scenes are numerous, long-winded and at times, unnecessary. I'm all for cut-scenes in a game to help the story progress, but this game has so many of them that it loses meaning. Cut-scenes all the time, for the slightest thing. Even in-game elements have their own micro cut-scene, such as opening certain doors or climbing through certain windows, or killing certain enemies. I get it, but enough is enough. I'd suggest that at least 25%, maybe more, of this game time is devoted to cut-scenes.

Overall, if you can manage to get through the game and not worry so much about story - you'll be on a positive. If excessive cut-scenes that interject at some inopportune times won't stunt your enjoyment - you'll be on a winner. If killing Nazis is the only real reason you want to play this game, there's plenty of opportunity for that.

So, I don't recommend this game as an overall experience. I did enjoy the moments where i was in control, and where I could actually get invested in the parts of the story that appealed to me and made sense, of which the end scene is the strongest by far - so at least they close on a win.

I'd give this game

Narrative = 1.5/5
Visuals = 4.5/5
Sound FX and Soundtrack = 4.5/5
Gameplay = 3.5/5
Player Agency = 1/5
Overall Feel = 3/5

Did I regret buying this? No. But I was glad that I got it on special.

There is a lot to like about this game. A nice, vibrant post-apocalyptic world, even if it does have weird western and steampunk elements, nice guns that all feel different to use, have great animations and sounds. The crafting system is simple, not tedius. And the driving was just enough, not too much especially for someone who prefers shooters over drivers, so this didn't wear on me, which was nice.

The basic plotline of a survivor of a near ELE brought awakening into a nightmarish world years after being put into cryo sleep is not unique, but works well enough. The first part of the game is just doing odd jobs to get things. Most of those odd jobs involve brutal murder, but hey, it's the world you're in, right? Unfortunately, the plot is purely driven by the NPC's in the same mold as the Half-Life series, you never utter a single word, there are no cut scenes to drive plot. So, effectively you have to take the word of these people you just met, that murdering 100s of people is the right thing to do. Of course, everyone shoots on sight. But when strangers are constantly conspiring to murder you, who wouldn't?

The story goes down hill once The Resistance is brought into it. Yes, another story with a Resistance, which is fighting against an evil, oppresive and technologically superior supressor power. This trope is so over used, that it has lost all meaning. What starts as an interesting survival in the post-apocalyptic wasteland soon becomes the same as every other resistance storyline ever done. And whilst the gameplay is fun, the story lacks immersion and anything that you'll remember a day after completion.

There is no explanation given as to how, in such a desloate landscape, such technology is freely available to the bad guys. It just is. There are some nice moments of horror in the game, going through Dead City especially. Some good FPS battles, and each of the enemy types you come up against does have some nice and unique feel to them. Mutants, the different bandit tribes, the Authority, The Gearheads etc. They all look, fight and feel authentic, meaning that even though there is a lot of shoot XYZ, the combat never seems to drag. It's rare that you end up fighting the same kind of foe more than 1 or 2 missions in a row.

Ultimately, i thoroughly enjoyed this game, and even though i got it on special, i'd have been happy to pay full price.

4/5

Is this a good game?
Short answer.... No.
Long answer..... No No No No No No No No No No No No.

The campaign takes about 40 odd minutes to play. Why then do I have 1.7 hours of game time? Because I found the gameplay so grating, so horrible, so absolutely asinine, that I would play for a bit, then pause the game to do something more interesting. I also had about 30-40 minutes of the game sitting idle before I started to play.

I am not kidding, 40 minutes (give or take).

As to the gameplay, it is bad. The aliens will shoot you over NPCs, even if they can't see you. Often the only thing visible from an alien is the barrel of it's gun, and then it shoots at you from any angle. I got shot from the barrel of a gun that I was more than 90 degrees away from. I found it annoying that I couldn't hold crouch, only toggle it. And I couldn't toggle iron sights, only hold it. Why no option to change these? The weapons were clumsy, there was no indicator to health, but you seemed to regenerate to full health between chapters, regardless of how much damage you suffered. Movement was tedius, and I am really sick of games that let you sprint only for pathetic amounts of time. In this game, you can sprint for about 3 seconds before you run out of breath. YOU'RE A FREAKIN' MARINE. How can you get out of breath so easily?

The animation of the game was bad. The cutscenes were childish, using a very bad animation style, and the characters looked nothing like their counterparts from the movie. Why didn't this game use still photos from the film? They used some in the initial TV report (though the news anchor was still animated).

And now we come to the real crux of the problem.

This game was just a really bad adaptaiton of the plot from the movie. Really bad. Now, the movie I thought was a good film. I even bought a copy of it. Basically a 2 hour war movie that happens to have aliens in it as the other side. It was fast paced and well conceived. Sure there were plot holes, but it was entertaining. But this game didn't need to try to be that movie. Why couldn't the game have been in that world, in that setting, but other troops doing other things? Why couldn't a different story arc be opened up through the gaming medium? If they had gone that way, then we wouldn't have had to stick to very finite strictures of the movie, no, the developers could have made a larger, more expansive and LONGER game.

But saying that, given how bad the gameplay was, it's probably a good thing that the game wasn't longer.

Honestly, 20 year old shooters play better.

I'm not even sure I can give this game a rating, it is that bad.

0.5/5

Thankgod I didn't get this at full price. Anyone who did buy this at full price, get a class action and sue the Developers for wasting your time.