Recent reviews by MangelinaJolie

I did enjoy my first playthrough of the game and enough to recommend it, but there was a lot of issues that marred the experience and made it nearly equally as annoying as it was enjoyable. This is, without a doubt, the worst of the series for many reasons, in the perspective of a PVE player.

Pros:

- It's a Souls game. The gameplay style is still great, and it's still a great game because of it. Git gud and reap the rewards of that. Overcoming the challenges ahead of you and feeling great because of it is what this is about.

Cons:

- The level design is very linear and disconnected. It's a bunch of setpieces strung together for the cool factor rather than for cohesiveness. There is no cohesiveness at all, actually.

- The NPC invasions. Too many, too RNG. Think you might finally be getting to that next bonfire? Ha, think again. You just drew the Forlorn card. On top of that, they have no stamina constraint as you do and their poise levels do not match their visible equipment. If you think you might stagger them out of an attack, well... you're probably not going to. Adjust your approach accordingly.

- Dying punishes you more by reducing your health until you use a human effigy again to return to human state. As a concept I wouldn't necessarily say it's bad, but it doesn't mesh well with the aforementioned RNG of the NPC invasions since even when you are hollow, you will be invaded.

- The eight point turning makes the game feel clunky compared to the others in the series. And that's with the omnidirectional rolling present unlike in the first.

- Speaking of omnidirectional rolling, it would be great, except following up an attack out of it will always point it in that direction. You're almost always better off waiting out the period following the roll instead of attacking right away, or you're just going to be swinging or stabbing at air and opening yourself up.

- The boss fights generally rely on adds to for a challenge (many, many of them) while the boss itself has a limited moveset. It's a cheap and disappointing way of upping the difficulty and it rewards a playstyle focused on wide swings or AoE casts rather than a singular focus. Let's be honest here too... the series and the combat thrive in fights where less is more.

A fantastic visual and atmospheric experience that is unfortunately bogged down by lacking mechanics, monotonous enemy encounters, and a lack of connection with the characters.

The visuals were some of the best that can be spoken for to date, not solely due to quality, but little touches such as blood running down your gas mask (which you can consequently smear away) or flies harassing your immediate vision. The world is intriguing as a result, and truly draws you into the metro.

The story was interesting as well, if not perhaps a little underexplained and questionable for this being the original title. The characters, however, I cared little for. I did not find any of them particularly interesting nor did I care much for their fates. It does not help that the majority of the NPCs in the game are clearly sharing the same voice actor.

Mechanically speaking, this game has interesting concepts with its stealth features and weaponry, but it is too obvious which weapons are most effective given the situations to use them - and while there are many of these occasions, few feel different from the other.

There is a distinct lacking in enemy variation and frequently you face waves of enemies in one place as your comrades fight around you, giving the atmosphere much of a flair but ultimately leaving the experience repetitive. It started to feel like a chore when enemies crawled out of the walls as I knew I would be stuck in that room fighting them - and only that one kind of enemy - for much longer than I would have preferred. The opportunity for the game to have more use of simultaneous human and mutant conflict was also vastly underused.

Having finished the game just before writing this, I would say no to recommending it. It was not as enjoyable as I expected it to be and I often found much of it (despite how short the game is) to be a chore. While I loved the concept and the eerie atmosphere it conveys, the monotony overwhelmed it in the end.

Controls are atrocious. There is no explanation or functionality for finding friends. The translations are awful. It looked interesting, but turned out otherwise.