Recent reviews by Four

Let me start out by saying I didn't buy this game anywhere near launch. I just bought it about a month ago, which means I didn't have to suffer through the bugs and glitches that made the game botch the release. That said...

This has to be, hands-down, one of the BEST RPGs I've ever played. Witcher 3 used to have the first place in my list, but this has actually surpassed that.

Graphics: 10/10
Story: 10/10
Content: 10/10 (I don't think I could ever have enough content in this game...)
Voice acting: 10/10
Easter eggs: 10/10
Learning curve: Gradual and pleasant in normal, steep in hard and higher

In conclusion, this is the only RPG I've ever played, and beat, and ended up starting a new game shortly after. BUY THIS GAME! lol

I started playing the Assassin's Creed series back when the first one came out. At first I wasn't a huge fan of the original. After only a few hours of gameplay I ended up leaving it. Then, AC2 was released. I was hooked. I played it multiple times and it actually motivated me to dive back into the original. I have been hooked on the series ever since, despite the iffy-ness of AC3, Unity, Syndicate and Origins. I am absolutely thrilled and ecstatic for the release of Valhalla.

That all said, Assassin's Creed Rogue gives a unique opportunity to extensively delve into the mentality and philosophy of the Templars. Having been a fan and pro-Assassins since the beginning, this wasn't something I had a lot of interest in. But something odd happened. The older I got in real life, the more my mentality and perspective changed about the world around me and how the different sides (Assassins and Templars) would impact such a world. And during the course of playing this game, I found myself quite consistently agreeing with the Templars instead of hating them.

It brings to light a subtle yet critical weakness in the base of the Assassin's beliefs. They want true freedom. They abhor tyranny. But their idea of freedom throughout the series has become tarnished. They have forgotten that true freedom can only exist in a world of law and order, whereas the Templars have realized this from the beginning, albeit their methodology didn't exactly kick off on the right foot.

I never expected that a video game would give me a philosophical awakening like this one has. Nor was I expecting one of this magnitude. And I am certain that Ubisoft didn't intend for such literal conclusions to be drawn from their game. But here it is.

10/10 - Would find myself questioning everything I previously perceived to be true again.

Love the game but 40 bucks for a DLC? C'mon now...

Not sure what everyone's problem is with the negative reviews. This game is epic. I love it, and I will probably spend an ungodly amount of time playing it because mods and such. Thank you TaleWorlds. Keep up the good work.

I am so glad they ditched whatever system they were trying to put together in Thrones of Britannia. This installation of Total War is absolutely phenomenal. With a steep learning curve that is made pretty user-friendly via excellent tutorial, this game brings city management, character management, and army builds to a whole new level. There's a large gap between the 'kind' of game this and previous historical total wars, but this time, unlike ToB, that gap is perfectly executed and fine-tuned into a game that has removed my skepticism of future Total Wars all together.

Now if only we could get them to remake Medieval 2....

I love this game. 5/5. Would die to rubber banding off a cliff again!

Let me preface this review by stating it is entirely based on first impressions. If it gets better, I'll update it.

After being a huge fan of the Total War series for years and providing practically unwavering support despite my dislike for Sega's decision to turn a wonderful historical-based strategy game series into a mythic one with the Warhammer franchises, I think it's time to fold and say Total War, as I knew it, is dead. And this game drives the point home.

The interface is clunky and feels like it was rushed, the unit cards look like they belong in a deck of poker cards, everything decent about the game came from Attila with a few different details. Recruitment has been completely changed to a weird "recruit now, but wait 5-6 turns to have a full unit" system. The diplomacy system is missing things even Attila had.

And then there's the "no blood" thing...which indicates we're more than likely going to be pillaged by DLCs that we have to pay 5-10 dollars per release for in order to get things that should have been included in the game to begin with.

I've waited years for another historical release for Total War. I suppose expecting anything different from Sega after the Warhammer move was futile.

All in all, this game is garbage so far. It's Attila with a broken interface, fewer options, insultingly dumbed-down regional maintenance system, etc...

Day 1 of playtime: Family got slaughtered, I killed some people, ruined the storyline, started over.

Attempt 2: Family got slaughtered, behaved myself and folowed the storyline, did some killing, got killed, did more killing, investigated butchering of a horse breeding place, got drunk with a priest, game crashed, started over way back in the horse breeding area.

10/10 - Would drink with a priest again.

Edit: I would give this game more thumbs up but I can't. This is the first RPG that I've enjoyed this much since I played Witcher 3, only perhaps even more so.

Pros: Open world. While the map is relatively small at times, it's a lot bigger than you think. Exploring, running into random people with random tasks or stories is amazing.

Storyline - The storyline in this game is rich and well-written. The twists and turns are easy to follow IF you pay attention to the way things are said, how they are phrased, etc...

Combat system - I absolutely love this combat system. I've read some people claiming it is hack and slash but it is anything but. You can legitimately become a bamf swordfighter in this game from pure skill, with things like combos and special abilities only enhancing it.

AI - The AI is still a bit buggy but I can't even mark it as a con since it's still surprisingly interactive and responsive to things as small as the stance you are holding your sword in. Adjust the position of your sword in a fight and they will adjust their's to make it easier to block.

Keep what you kill - It's not hard to make a decent living in this game. 46 hours in and I have a rather decent set of armor, a good weapon, a solid shield, badass bow, AND 11K currency for whatever I want. Rule of thumb in the beginning: Loot and sell -everything- that isn't stolen. Rule of thumb about mid-way through, only loot things with a value of 200 or higher.

Fast travel/waiting/sleeping system - This makes you really consider between standing around losing energy and and gaining hunger instead of putting your time to better uses. Plus it's kind of slow.

Cons:
Some bugs - I've noticed a couple bugs but nothing critical to the main storyline. Don't go around hacking and slashing eeryone you see and chances are, for the most part, you'll be just fine.

This is the first strategy game I've had to restart the prologue on three times because all the strategy games I've ever played gave me ♥♥♥♥-all for experience in this one. 10/10. Would gladly feel like a moron again.

Overkill on the DLC, much? I knew it would kill the game when Sega bought it...just didn't know it would happen so fast.