Recent reviews by drake31

I LOVE Darkest Dungeon®... so much so, within a month I'm getting my very first tattoo and it will be the signature torch from the game (with some added personal meaning). So, obviously, I was buzzing with excitement for the second game to come out.

However, despite my excitement and the game being in early access on Epic Store, I never actually looked at the gameplay or what the new game gonna look like, never watched a stream or even saw images - I went in completely blind. So when Darkest Dungeon® II came out on the 8th of May 2023, I put it in my basket, checked out, installed it, and finally had the chance to sit down and play a few days after.

It's been a rollercoaster of emotions ever since.

As I'm writing this, I've put 25 hours into the game, I've just finally reached the Chapter II boss on The Mountain for the first time, almost won, and in all honesty, it's been very enjoyable in a VERY different way than the first game. But I'll admit, the first couple of hours have been tough. Obviously, expectations played a huge part in why it's been hard. I was completely taken aback by how much things have changed from the first game to the sequel. And, listen, I'm not going to be throwing a tantrum like some other folks here, moaning about how it is so different from the first game this should've been a different game, not a sequel to Darkest Dungeon. That's silly. In fact, I do applaud Red Hook for taking the swing in a different direction when the mechanics of the first game were so damn solid & fun and they could've just added a fresh coat of paint, throw in some fan-favourite characters from the workshop, create a new region or two, write a new story, and people with myself included would eat it up. Instead, the gameplay loop has been revamped in a direction it took a while to adjust to, but as I said I'm enjoying it now quite a bit. I feel like all the new mechanics add this sense of unfamiliarity and danger. With the original, after a certain point you could easily coast and grind for resources with ease, but here you have to be a little bit more strategic with every expedition, you need to plan ahead at least a little to achieve what you want to do, as well as adjust on the go when things go sideways in the worst direction (which they will if you are me). Sure, I miss some sense of stability and predictability in my runs (like trinkets for example), but I can't help but be excited and determined to roll with the punches of each new run, and press on no matter how heartbroken I get when I lose my crew during a phenomenal run.

As I really don't have a narrative throughline for my thought and feelings, what I like and dislike, I decided to split them into the following sections:

• The visual overhaul is absolutely fantastic, just beautiful. The animations and little flairs to each character are just delightful. This is definitely the biggest and the most obvious highlight of the game.
  
  
• Character storylines is something I'm a sucker for. Yes, give me the backstory for all of my heroes. It was fun in the first game, I could role-play and create my own stories, but this is a feature I really like here and I'm super on board for it!
  
• The Affinity System is great, I love it. Again, something I loved doing in terms of role-playing, but I really like how it functions here.
  
  
• Locations and the new travelling system. I really like how things from the first game are implemented here in new ways creating new locations, as well as new dangers and new headaches with them. It's the way it forces you to look ahead, to think ahead because one wrong turn could be the end of the expedition, so I enjoy that aspect of constant danger.
  
  
• New features in general I'm really liking a whole lot. I know this game just released, BUT, if there's a plan for a third one, taking Hamlet and everything that comes with it from the first game and taking the new features from this sequel and combining them together, adding a larger world we could explore? Don't tell me this vision doesn't sound great, it could be ******* AMAZING! and probably a laborious undertaking, but one can dream, right?

• Inability to sell. We are encountering a character named Hoarder, could not at least he be the one we could sell trinkets to? My guy is hoarding stuff, I can imagine he is also hoarding some relics he could bargain, which could be also an added mechanic as certain characters could have better bargaining skills than others.
  
  
• Flagellant now dealing blight damage instead of bleed took me for a spin, and unless there's a story explanation as to why in the Shrine of Reflection, this might be the change that annoys me the most.

• Amount of characters. I'm certain we will get more in the coming months and years, but being so incredibly spoiled by the workshop and the number of fun characters I can choose from, makes the sequel feel less exciting in comparison. Like, at least add all the characters the first game had by the end?
  
  
• Confusing texts are sometimes too much for me. I may be just dumb, perhaps not used to the new buffs and debuffs but sometimes I have no clue what things are doing and why. This one is highly likely on me, but looking back at the first game, I don't feel like I've been struggling to figure out trinkets, attacks etc.
  
  
• Dark Impulse trinkets. I'm not a fan of all of them looking the same, and in the same vein not a fan of each region having Oblivion's Rampart be the locations we always have to clear at the end, I feel like a larger variety, perhaps of something specifically tied to the region would work better. Neither I actively dislike, just wish it wouldn't be the same always.

This is what I have at this moment. Might be adding or editing things out as I continue to play. And I WILL CONTINUE TO PLAY as I got pretty invested and I'm enjoying my time within this gloomy unforgiving world full of horrors and occasional beautiful friendships I witnessed along the way.

Darkest Dungeon® II gave me whiplash for sure when I first started my journey. I do not Love it the same way I did the first game from the get-go, but I kinda do now and I am fully into it, committed, and I'll die as much as it takes to hopefully eventually gloriously beat it.

Casually peaceful delight into which I can sink several hours of hyper-focusing trying to create the most pleasing landscape to my sensibilities. All of that only to get really heartbroken when the session ends because I messed up, whilst also feeling and carrying with me some semblance of pride in my creation. Its simplicity is calming, it winds me down, clears my mind, allows me to listen to something while my eyes are left inspecting each hexagon trying to find the perfect spot for it. Despite my casual flow, I get impressed if not jealous towards those who can master this game and craft monumental landscapes spreading far and wide I know I'll never reach... but with each session, my landscapes grew larger in size and that makes me happy. This game makes me happy, and I truly adore it ❤️

Grade: A+

Throughout the playthrough of Black Book, my feelings have been really mixed, it was a rollercoaster of various emotions and thoughts because I've enjoyed some aspects of this game, but also this game has plenty that is annoying and quite bad.

I feel like Kyle in his review described certain things that were bothersome to me as well, so there are at least two of us who find issues with the morality system, managing chorts, and the boss battles. The combat system is either super easy, especially in the latter stages of the game - which was wonderful, or it gets super annoying and you have to (re)build decks specifically for that one boss - which wasn't wonderful at all. However, what I did appreciate in this scenario was the fact I could just skip through the battles once the game realised my efforts are going nowhere (might have been my difficulty setting perhaps), so that at least protected my sanity and it gave me the willingness to finish the game... which I definitely wanted to do and see how the story concludes, but I certainly won't replay, despite the fact, there's a lot to discover in terms of story, characters, playstyles, deck builds, different endings etc.

Black Book also has plenty of moments that genuinely impressed me in terms of visuals. So much so, screenshots have been made and I could see many images as beautiful framed pictures on the wall, only for that feeling to be diminished by the poor & unappealing art style during the visual novel-esque parts of the game; these sequences were also heavily crippled by voice acting that was all over the place, but I have to confess, Proshka the cat, sounds like John Mulaney and it was cracking me up the whole time. The characters in general were quite good, I really wanted to see where the story takes them, how will Vasilisa's story end, what fate I as a player will concoct for her (intentionally or not). But even here nothing is 100%. Some story beats seemed kinda underwhelming, underdeveloped, certain plot points just seemingly ended abruptly when I expected there to be a battle for example, character moments many times came off rather strange as the morality system isn't that deep, some choices and actions seemingly didn't connect later for some reason... but I have to disclose that also could be my fault, as I was meddling with save files, to rollback to previous locations. Speaking of saves. The save system is quite bad, it felt counter-intuitive, oftentimes you are forced to take a single choice and live with it as going back to replay is not a convenient or viable option - which was the #1 cause for much of my frustration as I'm a player who likes to experiment with different scenarios before committing to my default goody-two-shoes playstyle. Several times happened that a dialogue choice ended the whole thing and I was back in the izba with no way to go back, which again, suck for my way of playing, for getting achievements, or just simply going back to replay individual areas. Having in the main menu a menu of individual chapters, individual days even would be from my point of view so much better and much favourable option.

The facet of the game I enjoyed the most was the mythology, the lore. Going through those stories, engaging with various characters based on myths & legends from this part of the world - I'm a sucker for these kinds of things, so this was the most rewarding part of my playthrough. Definitely, something I would like to take a closer look at, and I hope the other work from Morteshka - The Mooseman will have something more from the Perm region.

Overall, I'm still torn, as I really want to like Black Book, I feel like it has the perfect combination of "game stuff" I personally like and gravitate towards, but to me, almost everything just misses the point, sometimes slightly, sometimes big time.

Grade: C

After I enjoyed the main storyline of Maneater, despite the reviews, I wanted to get into Truth Quest and see what insane story will be told by Chris Parnell.

And dear oh dear, was I disappointed, frustrated, annoyed and disgruntled by the time I reached encounter with M.O.L.O.C.H.. As much as I would love to get the last three achievements I simply don't have the patience going through the boring side quests, extremely frustrating time challenges, or the final boss fight - genuinely, F this DLC! From the jump, the performance issues of this game only heightened - oftentimes nearly unplayable, it was unbearable and rage-inducing during the final boss fight, and I just gave up, I'm not going back, F this with barbed wire bat! The controls this time around are even more irritating thanks to the heavy focus on time challenges - I can endure only so much and I'm opting not to anymore. The repetitive nature of the side quests was basically the last nail into the coffin as they totally discouraged me from even doing them; especially when each area has increasingly annoying time challenges which were just draining my sanity as did the tower challenges due to the aforementioned poor controls, and going to eat soldiers is not as much fun as it was the regular civilian beach-goers.

This DLC just brought pain and misery and lunacy, making me mad along the way, and it honestly ruined my whole outlook on this game. It felt like it doubling down on the negatives and padding the story with useless & repetitive quests which certainly won't justify the inflated price tag if that was the idea.

I would strongly advise you to avoid Truth Quest unless it is heavily, heavily, heavily discounted, and you are a mentally stronger person than I am... which is not hard to beat, let's be honest, but still it can get really, really, really effing frustrating!

Grade: D-

Maneater Review

Maneater is a game I had no expectations for and I didn't necessarily expect it to grab me as much as it did. But the concept and the framing of the story provided enough entertainment for me that I wanted to finish the game, find all the collectables, and just be a cool-ass shark, growing up in hostile waters, and tearing through people and water-beasts alike, while the whole experience was narrated by the wonderful Chris Parnell whom I adore for a very long time, and his voice is top tier!

As good as this sounds, all the great is heavily undermined by terrible controls. Doesn't matter if it was a controller or mouse & keyboard, in both cases my frustration levels were rising up way too often, but unlike with the DLC, I was finding it manageable and was able to get through the game with relative ease. Another downfall is performance. I'm not a person who understands a whole lot when it comes to performance, but my gaming laptop was running every single game I played without issues, without fail, and all of a sudden Maneater even on the low setting and with me boosting my laptop everywhere I could, my child was oftentimes struggling, but unlike with the DLC, I was finding it manageable and was able to get through this hurdle and get content with it.

To keep my conscience clear, considering the price tag I can only recommend Maneater on sale, buy it as a part of a bundle of your choice. I would say spending this much money on a game that is plagued with issues, a game that certainly can be repetitive, a game that may offer a poor experience across various fronts is a huge gamble. I personally enjoyed many aspects, despised a lot too, but in the end, I would say I had a swell time being a shark (unlike with the DLC).

Grade: C+

Maneater: Truth Quest Review

The Outer Worlds was on my radar, in my wishlist, in my library, in my mind for a very long time before I actually installed the game, and even longer before I actually hit the play button. For the past several years I find it really hard to commit to big-scale games, games whose main story can be concluded after 64 hours as I did with The Outer Worlds. Because I know myself. I have to read everything I find, listen to every dialogue, do every quest possible, load previous saves to find better options of resolving situations or just to discover those other options for curiosity (achievement) sake. Playing games that I can just pop in and dip out after a run or few, games that perhaps require clicking my mouse at most, games that don't necessarily require my full focus, or story games that take maybe a few hours to complete are always my preference these days, so committing to The Outer Worlds was a big "F YOU" to my ADHD.

But since the announcement, the release of The Outer Worlds, there was always something about this game that always drawn me in, intrigued me and I wanted to experience myself. It wasn't my non-existent fandom towards Obsidian - I never *really* played Fallout: New Vegas and only now I come to realise they made South Park™: The Stick of Truth™ (which is a game I adore), as well some other games I own and never played. Again, I'm not really sure where the inception of unquenching desire to play this game was born, but after spending 64 hours in the world of Halcyon, I'm so glad this unrelenting thought was in my head, pestering my mind every time I launched Steam.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, I always describe myself as a filthy casual (in most things I enjoy), so I feel like I find it easier to enjoy games, and I can get more out of them just by not having expectations, as I don't necessarily follow the scene (as much), or I never actually played all of the all-time great games released in the past 30+ years. I think to some degree that is an advantage, but also, I consider myself to have an open mind, not set unfair expectations on games, studios who make them, or kicking off because the political views of a game are going against mine, especially when it doesn't hurt anybody or those views aren't bad takes against society. If a game doesn't bore me, is fun to play, has something for me to chew on, has something that grabs me and takes me into new exciting worlds meeting great characters all supported with great writing, I'm all in. The Outer Worlds had all those things, some perhaps a tad underwhelming, but a whole lot that was fun and awesome to experience, and I enjoyed it immensely ❤️

This isn't the kind of a game I tend to play a lot these days, trying to get used to the FPS view, lots of loot, distractions left, right and centre was a bit overwhelming to my senses at the start - like the first hour after my character descended to Emerald Vale was a lot of fiddling with FOV sliders, key bindings, monitor colour settings etc. It took me a while to get comfortable with the game, as weird as it sound. But once I did, I was IN! I was HOOKED!

I start with is the one thing I didn't care much about, as The Outer Worlds doesn't have anything I particularly disliked. Combat, I did not really care that much for it. Sure, it's a large part of the game, but for me, it was just there - a necessity, I guess. I played on normal, once I found a good gear I don't think I switched anything in the last 25 hours of playing the game - practically since I levelled up to level 36 after buying both DLCs. That of course did not stop me from hoarding all the stuff I could pick up, and until the very end I would still rabidly collect everything from the bins, floors, and corpses like my life was depending on it (it wasn't, for the record). Like the combat was enjoyable for what it was, but nothing that would blow my mind, or give me goosebumps, delivered moments of suspense, especially because I felt I was too OP during most of my playthrough. I was just vaporising people and creatures alike on the spot - which was kinda fun, and allowed me to get to the story beats quicker.

Oh yes, the story... the dialogues... the characters... the best things about The Outer Worlds hands down. I've read through some discussion, comments, about how "woke" the game is, how the characters are underwhelming, how there are only short-haired ugly women, and I definitely don't subscribe to those sentiments in the slightest. I would agree that not every quest is great, some are certainly underwhelming especially when it came to Felix's & Ellie's companion quests which felt short and underwhelming. What also was incredibly underwhelming, almost disappointing, were the villain reveals in the DLCs - as it was 1. predictable 2. literally the same thing, so the imagination was quite lacklustre on that front. But overall, I really enjoyed the story, the story beats across the main storyline, as well as the side quests, the different approaches you could do (said the guy who only has one gaming speed, and that is being annoying goody-two-shoes). I absolutely adored Parvati as a character and her companion quest was SO freaking good, cute, and wholesome, and that was the point I genuinely fell in Love with this game. Not to mention the small interactions between characters either on the ship or off the ship when they walked with me - again Parvati was the absolute best, and having her innocence & hope around, most of the times combined with Ellie's pessimism was a delightful experience when travelling through the planets of Halcyon and interacting with NPCs. Literally, if the story wasn't strong enough for my sensibilities, I would not spend 64 hours trying to get to the bottom of things, hopefully saving Hope as well as bringing some sort of peace to Halcyon at least some of its planets, trying my best trying to get rid of The Board. I was engaged the whole way throughout, and when the final moments of the game began to roll, I was just sitting on my chair all delighted, basking in the decisions I've made that shaped Halcyon, only wishing there would be more to do in this world. As I don't see myself replaying the game, I feel that would be jarring and not so satisfying anymore (because as I've mentioned I have only one speed of playing games), I guess all I can do is to sit patiently and wait for The Outer Worlds 2. My biggest hope is the second one will also bring great, witty, humorous writing, which will support intriguing quests as well as delightful, evil and grey characters alike, set in a colourfully dangerous world worth exploring and hopefully worth saving, the similar, if not the same or even better way than this game did. The writing was truly on point (most of the time), and if there was one thing I would choose to highlight and sell people on, that would be it. Music is also astonishing, and my workdays will be definitely filled with the sounds provided by Justin E. Bell.

The Outer Worlds get a big recommendation from me - the lows are minuscule, the highs are high, and for me and my sensibilities it was a gratifying and captivating playthrough.

Grade: A-

Alongside Sudoku, Paint by Numbers puzzles are my favourite things to kill time with. No matter if it is a book, game on my phone, PC game, I absolutely adore these... and this adoration is what lead me to purchase Pictopix.

Sadly, however, I find this game rather dull. Not sure if it was caused by my adoration of this particular puzzle genre which was skewing my expectations; or perhaps it was the unfulfilled desire to dive into this game for hours on end today forgetting about the world around me whilst listening to podcasts. I simply lost my interest very quickly and got bored completely halfway through 10x10s. Switching to solving the first mosaic also felt unfulfilling and by the last two rows very tedious, with a result that felt incredibly unrewarding to me. And yes, I realise, the starting point is offering really easy puzzles and I would perhaps find a greater enjoyment with the supposedly harder ones later, but I just can't find the willpower to grind for any longer and feel empty doing so.

Objectively, I would say this is a very well made picross game and judging by the reviews many people enjoy it, unfortunately, this wasn't my case in those few hours I've played and I've no desire to come back to it. Instead, if the itch to paint by numbers on my PC comes back, I will install and happily return to a different game - Paint it Back , which in my opinion has more of a fun and imaginative element to it.

Grade: C

Gorogoa is an absolute audio-visual stunner of a game, which is effortlessly challenging with unique & gripping puzzle mechanics. All aspects of this game, big or small, are honed to perfection in order to create a unique way of telling a story. I'm so impressed by the whole experience, only regretting I didn't press play sooner.

Easily the best puzzle game I've ever played.

Grade: A

Pilgrims is a short and sweet point & click that takes advantage of our obsession with card gameplay mechanics. This game looks absolutely wonderful - Amanita Design has one of the best looking games you can play right now, and Pilgrims is no exception to that trend. The music is wonderful, with hilarious sounds which shine even brighter especially if you understand Czech. Like, everything about this game is wonderful and charming. The game itself is not hard, I had a lot of fun figuring things out without even the desire or need for guides (which is a personal achievement to be perfectly honest). More importantly, though, the repetition to get all the achievements, to discover all the possible paths to solve problems presented to us didn't overstay its welcome, and the game is really engaging for the whole 90 minutes which was the point I got the final achievement. I consider Pilgrims to be a time well spent, and it is an easy recommendation to make if you like point & click games.

Grade: A

Speed Dating for Ghosts is perhaps a little bit different dating sim I'm used to, and I don't mean it in a bad way. The tone is more existential and less fun, yet hopeful; it is sad but joyful, it makes you laugh but also my eyes got misty on a few occasions. You meet various characters with different pasts and with various outlooks on death, some characters to whom I related more than I would be willing to admit out loud. This game struck me, made me feel many emotions, questioning my own purpose and dealings with life (which I'm already doing quite a lot in my spare time), providing an even deeper level into my playthrough. I like stories, and going through the stories of these beings was a time well spent... on the other hand, what wasn't a time well spent, was getting "rejected" achievement which was incredibly hard for me, because I am an ass, but not that kind of an ass, especially in video games, so this guide was a godsend. Even with that kind of a playthrough though, you uncovered further glimpses into feelings and mindsets of the ghosts you meet which helped to deepen their characters, and made me even more sympathetic to their fates.

Speed Dating for Ghosts is a lovely, small game which I enjoyed and I would recommend anyone to give it a go if you feeling like questioning life, afterlife, mortality or neither and you want a dating sim to play. I personally think that anyone can find some nuggets of truth & wisdom in here, offering small solace into your life... or maybe that's just me :)

Grade: B+