23
Products
reviewed
2042
Products
in account

Recent reviews by Tomas Mac Mordain

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Showing 1-10 of 23 entries
68 people found this review helpful
14 people found this review funny
9
1
0.0 hrs on record
One of the most common criticisms of Elden Ring - especially late game areas - is they are hopelessly overtuned. Sadly fromsoft decided to continue their tradition of overtuning their DLC difficulty to reach stupid levels of obnoxious,

Everything 1 or 2-shots you. If it's a mini-boss, it input reads you. And you're treated to more incomprehensible 'lore' - which not even Vaatividia can make coherent sense of.

If you liked the end-game areas of Elden Ring, like the snowfield and tree section on your way to the haligtree - but even more ridiculously overtuned - you'll feel right at home with this one.

Unfortunately the DLC it is a very unrewarding time sink to play. And if you want to git gud on this one - you'll have to be ready to no-life the game for a couple of weeks.

You know when Fromsoft said about the early souls games that 'difficulty was not the point'? Now I can say with certainty that this is no longer true. Difficulty is in fact the whole point of this DLC. They clearly give no ♥♥♥♥♥ that nobody understands what is going on story and lore wise. Same as main game.

Unless you have it in mind to bang your head against the wall for hours on end - do yourself a favor and let it be. This DLC is made by people who think the fight against the Dual Gargoyles, Maliketh and Malenia is totally fine and actually too easy - probably should buff the bosses some more to give them more poise and give them less pubishable windows, and make the hitboxes a bit more unfair.

The only other time I had a feeling the design of the combat mechanics had reached its limits and everything was ridiculously obnoxious was at Nioh post-game. This entire DLC is kind of like that - but you get demons that do capoeira and humanoid mini bosses who work like the griefing NPC invader in the dark souls 2 DLC - but this time it's not a self-referential wink. They actually have gone full ♥♥♥♥♥♥ on this one.
Posted October 15.
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3 people found this review helpful
0.1 hrs on record
Does not work with Valve index controllers.
Posted July 13.
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7 people found this review helpful
9.1 hrs on record
Amazing 'mostly' walking simulator that revolves around a mystery. Very atmospheric.
Posted April 14.
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24 people found this review helpful
10.8 hrs on record (1.9 hrs at review time)
Superb writing - even mundane dialogue with NPCs - excellent acting. Very decent dramaturgy and a story better than most 'content' that streaming services churn out on their conveyor belts these days.

Play it, if you like narrative-heavy action RPGs!
Posted February 18.
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2 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
3.0 hrs on record (2.6 hrs at review time)
“If you get your core ontology wrong, errors, misinterpretations and misunderstandings flow ceaselessly from your false model of reality.”
― Mike Hockney, Causation and the Principle of Sufficient Reason
Posted October 27, 2023.
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8 people found this review helpful
342.0 hrs on record (341.9 hrs at review time)
Yep. Play it.

I did not care for the contrived story, weak characterization, and somewhat bland 'factions'.

Nor did I care for the 'romances'. Most of the companion quests are unfinished or unsatisfying after completion as well.

However. Get yourself some mods for camera control and aesthetics - and we have something really decent here.

As is customary in computer RPGs, the systems are geared towards combat and combat only. Everything else is kinda there, but not a core mechanic. That said, the encounter design and environments are varied and creative enough that each battle has the potential of being interesting as its own little story, if someone was to turn it into narration. You can throw things (and people) at your enemies, manipulate surfaces, cast spells that compel behavior of the enemy etc. and the whole thing is a nice creative battle-box - caveat: only once you understand the combat mechanics properly.

Hoping that there will be some 'definitive' edition down the line with fewer bugs, better camera control and UI, a day-night cycle, more voice choices for characters, and proper progression in the last act. As is you hit max level about 30 hours before the credits roll, if you do all the quests, and why wouldn't you. On the other hand, on repeated playthroughs you can efficiently beeline for the final encounter, knowing what contributes to the main plot or interesting rewards, and what doesn't.
Posted October 4, 2023. Last edited October 4, 2023.
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28 people found this review helpful
1
85.5 hrs on record (18.7 hrs at review time)
Incoherent, bland, tedious, outdated, unimmersive, repetitive, and mostly ugly.

If you'd like a worse version of NMS with bethesda fetch-quests and 'join every faction in a single playthrough' experience design - coupled with quests that feel like they were designed and voiced by an unholy communion between an AI and a Radiant System. Look no further.

It does not deliver on any front for me. At all. I'd play it as a time-waster while commuting. That's ... all this does for me.
Posted October 4, 2023.
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A developer has responded on Oct 4, 2023 @ 7:58am (view response)
36 people found this review helpful
2
2
24.1 hrs on record (9.0 hrs at review time)
You're alone in a bunker during WWI - you're buried inside ... with a monster.

This plays very much like Alien: Isolation. Slightly less forgiving. Much smaller, but very well thought out map.

Slightly overtuned on Normal difficulty. Some resources are way too abundant (healing items - the monster kills you in one hit, they are mostly pointless), some resources are too scarce (bullets - I shot 0 times at the monster, and was short on bullets all the time having shot a couple of locks or explosive barrels to open up level areas).

The monster is mostly consistent in its behavior, which makes gameplay predictable once you get the hang of it. Unfortunately there are some sequences where the devs clearly 'want' the monster to come out, even though you give it no reason to. While understandable from a experience design standpoint, it's kinda meh when playing smart counts for nothing because the devs 'wanted' a chase sequence or force you into hiding at certain moments. That just makes it harder to learn what the 'default' behavior of the monster is - and navigating around this sucker is pretty much all you're doing in this game.

And just like in Alien: Isolation, the monster is tethered to the player a bit too much. Want to distract the monster by throwing a grenade over there? Too bad, it will not necessarily go there, it's more likely to come to 'you' instead - even if you moved entirely out of 'scope' after throwing it. It's all knowing sometimes. Found a hiding place in a corner somewhere? The monster might decide to check this one particular corner for no reason. Reload.

The game seriously lacks reliable hiding spots, and does not give you anything reliable with which to fight or outsmart the sucker, so you're basically trying to keep a low profile and when you have to make a ruckus, you plan your escape plan beforehand - since most hiding places are unreliable, that usually means making a beeline to the central safe-room of the bunker. This aspect could be much improved. There should be some reasonably available resource with which to deter the monster. It's not bullets. There's like 10 total in the game, about 3 of which you need to progress the story, and 3 are needed to deter a single monster attack - and you since you learn early on that bullets open locks (directly or indirectly) - why waste them on the monster? It will come back almost instantly anyway.

The story is barely there, but in this amnesia title, the story is not that important, gameplay and player agency is. Which is a welcome change from Rebirth, which was almost entirely story-driven, but the story and protagonist were not delivering for long stretches of the game. This time the protagonist isn't pointlessly afraid of the dark and does not have excessive voiced lines. Only talks through his journal entries.

There is some replay value as item placement and locker codes varies each playthrough. And you might want to go for a nice speedrun after learning how to progress the story.

Clearly the devs went back to the roots on this one - and the game came out ... pretty great!
Posted June 25, 2023.
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6 people found this review helpful
24.0 hrs on record
Absolutely wonderful horror classic!
Posted June 24, 2023.
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9 people found this review helpful
3.5 hrs on record
Different from 'The Dark Descent' - but worth the trip. Once you get past the opening sections - which can require some perseverance - the mid and late game are excellent. The plot is perhaps a bit weak - but it is thematically strong towards the end. Worth your time to see the whole thing once.
Posted June 24, 2023.
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Showing 1-10 of 23 entries