Recent reviews by Preacher

Is it a good game? Yes.

I am breaking out my finest sock after playing it? No.

Don't get me wrong, it's pretty good and I have to play the later Souls games to compare within the series, but comparing it to previously played games of this ilk, both old and new, it's good, but nowhere near as amazing as I'd been led to believe...

Reading others stating that this game is a masterpiece after the other Souls games were released makes me wonder whether they understand what a masterpiece is or whether this is genuinely as good as it got...

Excellent turn-based game, nicely balanced and well thought out

A nice little building game, no real pressure and quite cathartic, with a pleasing aesthetic and nicely crafted background sounds that fit the whole experience nicely.

Considering the other Borderlands games and how they play this was quite different and not entirely what I was expecting, but I'm so glad I decided to give it a try, because once I did I was hooked.

As well as being humourous and well written it can tug at the heart-strings and surprise you too.

Definitely worth a venture.

It has all the hallmarks of a great game, but there's just one snag and unfortunately that one snag is the size of a continent:

This game is far too glitchy to recommend (at this time).

It honestly feels like I'm playing a beta test and not even a late beta at times.

I don't think I've come across an area in the game that, at some point, doesn't glitch, be it the busted AI, the ships that change class when you upgrade them or the research that decides "Nah, y'alright" when you've finished an area of research but to name a few examples..

EDIT - Best glitch yet: I invaded a planet with my troops, when it came to the land battle for the planet I was put in charge of the defensive force whilst the AI attacked for control of the planet with my troops...

At some point I'll make a list for the developers and send it over, but it's going to be a long list and it's going to be a while before I send it...

"Why am I moaning about things rather than helping fix them?" you may ask.

Simple. I paid for the game, a whole game, not a beta test or a DLC, the whole game.

Had I bought a beta then I wouldn't be writing this, heck, I'd be praising it. But I didn't, so I can't.

There's been an absolute shedload of patches and updates since the game came out little over a month ago, so I'm kinda glad I didn't buy it at release as I would have been majorly angry / disappointed. I'm also quite surprised that some pretty major issues haven't been addressed at this time.

Like I say, I'll get around to addressing my woes to the devs at some point, but as I'm a little busy with work and suchlike at the moment I don't see why I'll effectively be doing a job that should have been done properly and by someone else in the first place.

I play games for enjoyment and to de-stress and unwind, not get angry and be turned into a unpaid beta-tester.

This will probably be a great game at some point and when that happens I'll change my review accordingly, but for now I'd recommend waiting until a few more patches have come out.

And by a few I mean a lot.

The characters are well designed and rounded, with at least one character to suit your preferred playing style and the graphics set for ever character it pretty much damn perfect.

In fact, the whole game looks great, on every level. The art stylings are bold and good looking, with loads going on in the background, but nothing that intrudes on the game whilst combat is ongoing.

The sounds and good and beefy too, so when you smack someone in the chops hard you find yourself wincing for them. A lovely addition is the announcer and character add-ins as combat is ongoing or menus are being opened. It's a minor but enjoyable part for me when you pause the game and the announcer chimes in with "Just a moment!", rather than nothing at all or just a dull "blip" noise.

The menus are easy to navigate and give plenty of options without in-turn becoming a game within itself where you get lost looking for the way back to the title screen.

It's these nice touches and the obvious love that's been poured into this game which makes it one the games I'll roll out when I have friends around and say "You've got to play this game".

The only con I can think of to sit on the opposite side of the see-saw to the above is that the arcade (and some story lines) boss can be a bit of a bugger sometimes, especially if you pick a character who likes throws, as they just don't work on her.

There's nothing quite as infuriating as filling up your level bar to the required level to pop out your level-3 bad-boy attack to find that it has no effect on the boss whatsoever other that to leave your character sat helplessly with her face at boot level, awaiting the kicking you know you're about to receive.

However, that's pretty much my only gripe and on the pro/con see-saw of Preacher that's pretty much the equivilent of setting up a fat kid against a fieldmouse. A fieldmouse that hasn't eaten for a few days at that.

It's a clunky, badly-coded port that shouldn't have been. I've tried to get into it I really have but, when it decides it wants to work, it's just hard work to try and get into the game. It's so hard to get in to and play on any decent level I haven't even got any of the Steam card drops from this game yet, it's that bad.

It may be argued that I'm not trying hard enough, but my philosophy is that if a game is this hard to get into it's not worth it in the first place. Games should be easy to pick up and hard to master, not hard to pick up and easy to put down (digitally anyway).

Even if it comes up on sale I still wouldn't recommend this game, unless they do some major work on it, and by that I mean redesign the entire game from the bottom up.

Use your money to buy something like Guilty Gear X2, Blaz Blue or KoF if you want a beat'em up of this ilk. If you want 4 player co-op for when your mates come round play Castle Crashers, Monano or Street Fighter X Tekken

Just don't waste your money here.

This game regresses (in the best of ways) to when shooters had less hand holding and a lot more kick-bottom, seat-of-your-pants, in-your-face action.

It looks like a slick and surreal twist on Blade Runner and large parts of the scenary can be interacted with. And by that I mean blown up to devastating effect, which is highly useful when fighting off hordes of enemies.

And you'll need every advantage you can get with this game, as the deluge of enemies it unleashes at times will have you running backwards in the game and leaning back in your chair in real life, screaming obscenities of your choice as you desperately try and fend off the horde.

The game makes think fast in tight situations too: do you blast the smaller bots to pieces first then go for the bruisers or do you bring all fire to bear on the big ones first whilst taking minor hits from the smaller bots so they can't get close enough to mangle you in melee?

The game gives you option of seeking out hidden areas if you want, but they're not essential to finishing the game and there's no hand holding allowing you to find them easily. They do provide nice boosts to your weapons and they can give you the health edge in a pinch, but you don't have to find them all.

Speaking of options, the weapon setup is quite unique, with the customisation setup on the guns allowing you to do it your way rather than having to follow the games ay of doing it. I say guns, but you only have one gun that changes mode and each mode has several ways of being used, although all ways it's used are taken out of one of the two ammo reserves that you carry. But that's it, the game deliberately allows a certain amount of ammo, so you'd better make it count, there's no spraying and praying here.

I don't see how this game would work as a multiplayer game, but it doesn't need to, it's built as a standalone, a single player story being told only to you, an intimate, high-speed life-or-death fight that's up-close and personal to you.

A gripe may be that the game would not be that welcoming to newer players, but I disagree: if you can make it on this game you can make it anywhere.

Now go and part with your money if you haven't already done so ;)