Recent reviews by Dethklok

Overall this game is headed in the right direction, and the gamplay is good, but here's the breakdown with minimum spoilers.


Campaign: 1/10 - Forgettable

The acts had themes (obviously) but the text nature of it had me missing out on what exactly was happening because I'm a dialog skipper. There's a lot focused on skipping the campaign after your initial pass through

I also felt that EHG was looking for ways to artificially extend gameplay with maps that simply wrapped around like a finished game of Snake, and the revive timer. No point. Just get on with it.

The Act 8 Boss was also terrible. It's like Blizzard designed it.


Skills & Effects: 7/10

Pretty basic stuff here. Cool screen-filling graphics.

The game offers you the ability to choose a main class and 1 Mastery class.

Items & Crafting: 5/10

A lot of the items offer some interesting stats, and the crafting system is great for someone looking for that bridge between D4 and PoE without being overwhelmed. In LE you're given clear options to modify your items and they carry a 'Forging Potential'. This is used up as you do things like upgrade a stat, add something, etc. When it reaches 0 your item cannot be modified any longer.

Items have the following qualities:

Normal > Magic > Rare > Exalted > Unique > Legendary

The first 3 should be familiar to you if you've played any ARPG before this. Exalted items are purple and pull from a pool of 'Drop-only' affixes meaning you can only encounter them randomly. These become important later.

Once you're in the End Game, you'll encounter a system that essentially allows you to smash two items together. One unique with one Exalted item of the same base type, and always with 4 affixes on the Exalted item. You'll know what items can be used with this system as they'll have a 'Legendary Potential' from 0 (none on the item) to 4. This means that the Unique item can take anywhere from 1 to 4 affixes from the Exalted item being consumed.

The resulting item from the above is a Legendary item and this is the only way to get to this tier.


End Game: 6/10

This is a weird mix of Greater Rifts from D3 and the Synthesis League (Patch 3.6) mini-game from PoE. After the campaign you end up at the 'End of Time' and can explore timelines that are being consumed by the void. Your aim is to complete all of them including the 3 Level 90 areas in order to unlock Empowered Monoliths (Legendary) Difficulty.

I am not going to explain every mechanic, but the idea is to get Empowered to farm rarer items and interact with the item smasher to get cooler things. The materials for which will become more plentiful at higher tiers.

There are a couple of other activities, but none with the long tail of Monoliths.


Verdict:

This game's campaign is straight up terrible from a storytelling point of view. The events jump across time and are mainly communicated via text. Since I'm a dialog skipper, the already disconnected events just seemed worse.

In the same way you get to ascend in PoE, the same happens in LE but at around Level 15. You can re-spec any skills and points within the Mastery Class you've selected, but you CANNOT change the Mastery Class itself. So if you picked a mage and picked Sorcerer, you would need a new character to be a Runemaster.

Last Epoch deserves the love it gets for the end game and refreshing take on something at that in-between sweet spot that's been missing in ARPGs. However, it does have a long way to go and a lot of issues to overcome in the meantime.

D4 Bad

Great game, better lighting

I didn't have any interest in this game at full price for what it seemed to offer which was more of an exploration experience rather than something more action-based that I usually like. This game is definitely not for everyone in that respect, so there's a lot to get used to in terms of the general gameplay.

Spoilery from here on...

The game is based more on connecting people and helping others out than fending anything off with an array of weapons. A lot of time is spent traversing the landscape and helping others out with the things you add to the map like ladders and bridges to make traversal easier. If you're a fan of more fast-paced games, then you're really not going to like this. If you're up for something new, then during the sale, this is worth giving a shot.

The game plays well in some areas, but there's a lot that's interrupted by repetitive exposition when you complete a mission or recycle materials. The controls on PC at least (Keyboard & Mouse) get pretty mushy when you're trying to escape an enemy. It's also rough getting used to the weight system in the game where you start off like a newborn deer flopping around and shifting your weight to being more stable with more stamina.

It's an innovative concept, but it does need some work. Some of the excessive menuing took away from the experience because you can't just accept orders, you have to accept and then carry what you're delivering. Some of the items don't have a lot of clarity around usage either, like the container spray. Carrying it is one thing, but it needs to be on the right belt for quick usage.

This is not usually the type of title I like, but my overall opinion of it is: OK.

Death Stranding is a game you play to help others playing it as well and occasionally see a 'No Urinating' sign placed for memes. Your interactions with deliveries get 'Likes' for how well you did and your progress is graded for things like distance and damage to cargo.

Cutscenes/Visuals: 10/10 - Really cool
Controls: 6/10 - Could use some improvement with menus, and got spammy at times.
Story: 8/10
Regret Levels: 2/10 (it was on sale, would buy again)
Mechanics: 6/10 - Awkward, and takes getting used to

I've completed the Corpo main quest line, and this game is very good.

If you're concerned about spoilers, stop reading and play the game :)

Pros:
* Storyline
* Graphics
* Weapons
* Crafting
* Keanu Reeves

Cons:
* Various Bugs/Crashes (The game straight up died 3 times while playing it. Straight quit to Desktop)
* Very generic "weak-spot" boss encounters that just absorb a lot of damage - Many times you could see the big orange "shoot here" target and just open fire.
* Driving felt clunky
* Markers & GPS Pathing were a bit weird*
* The world didn't feel very active
* Hacking felt secondary

Overall: 8/10

The game's storyline and missions were great. The combat felt pretty good, and seeing all the places in Night City was awesome. I don't think I've seen a better looking game in a very long time. I do want to be clear though that I do very much recommend playing this title.

With that said, the open world could've been done a lot better. The people in the city are just bodies and not really DOING much. Compared to something like GTA 5 and Los Santos, Night City lacks a pulse. Everything is really just waiting for you to react to (or trigger) it if it isn't an active part of a pre-determined mission. You have to engage people for something to happen rather than something going on regardless of your presence. I also felt like the vehicle control through the world felt a bit spongy and a little out of control. Car damage seems mostly of no consequence too.

There were also some side missions that didn't serve a point. There were side objectives, for example, to buy a car when I had 3 vehicles at that point. I don't think "I have a car for you, but it's costly" is really a good quest. Come on.

I played this both on a 1080 and then finished it on a 3080 and it still looks good even without RTX. Obviously the bugs will be ironed out with time, but the game is fun. It could've used some additional time because of the weird GPS pathing issues. *One example of this was in the shipyard the path puts you through a fence that doesn't open. It's looking for the shortest path rather than the most usable one.

Given all of that, if you've been on the fence and you don't mind some bugs on the PC version, just go for it. These things will likely be addressed over time as well. The story is good enough that during the campaign, you don't really notice how passive the world is if you're engaged in something else. Your mileage may vary, but I don't see this as a super long-term game.

Most efficient game there is

Still a great game.

If you don't own this game in 2020, you should

Since this is the first Full AAA VR Title, I'm thoroughly impressed. Great game although frustrating at times. This is a great break from the usual VR titles that are pretty basic.

The only way to really rip & tear in 2020. A true classic of our time.

If you loved DOOM 2016 and were gripped by things like the new weapon pickups and constant action, DOOM Eternal will feel weird. It takes a lot of those systems and somehow adds a ton of distractions. No longer is a weapon pickup a nice moment of badassery. You're now taken away from the action altogether to learn the new thing. If you turn that off, clutter is reduced but you miss out on mechanics. I didn't like a lot about this game including the non-sensical platforming and forced reliance on the weapon dance. Constantly switching to my chainsaw because now the demons are even more pinata style things to break open making that and glory kills almost mandatory if you want enough ammo. The Doom slayer is a force of nature, not a platforming character. Also wtf is with seeing his face? Compared to the 2016 installment this felt flaccid, distracting, and empty. I wanted to feel like a man on a mission with my shotgun, but I only got to use it sometimes because of the constant demon pinata popping.

The lore also didn't add anything for me so I skipped all of th exposition. I feel sorry for anyone who has this as their first DOOM experience. Buy the 2016 one.You won't regret it.

This is a 2/10 DOOM game and 12/10 Prince of Persia remake.