A different review - PS4 10+ hours played

[Langor]

Hello all,

Games are different for everyone. So my review is going to be a little different. Example: I dis-like Assasins Creed but I own over 300 games and that game seems to be a hit. I dont know why, but I just dont like it. So I am going to do this a little different. Please note this is based off first impressions (I got to chapter 3 now) mostly from playing on the hardest difficulty. (Got the game on Wednesday)

Story: If you are into lore and a good story with twists in the plot this game is for you. I would say the story is on par with Dragon Age 1/Witcher 2. You will not be able to see any of these twists or make choices that effect your world until chapter 2 of the game. With that said, it takes a bit to really start the story. The characters scripts are adult themed with cursing. The interactions between hirelings inturrupt and talk to your character occasionaly during dialog moments with NPC's. Choices you make effect your hirelings and can also change the story. 9/10 for the lore junkies.

Hack and slash: Well, if your main focus is a Diablo like game you wont like it. There are plenty of monsters to fight but it is story driven. The monsters do respawn over time in zones and reset when you zone. But it will get very repetitive if you are a person who skips the dialogue and just want to run through quests and kill monsters. 3/10 I just want to kill ♥♥♥♥.

Strategist: If you like playing the game on the hardest difficulty this game is for you. It is very bland if you play on normal or below. When you up the difficulty when you get hit, you get hit hard. Soon you will have to learn how to counter each attack and have to learn what each monsters attacks are. The bosses are unique and have unique attacks also and will take a few retries to figure out how to kill them. If you are a person who spam attacks you wont make it in this difficulty. How you spend your skill points will matter here. 8/10 I will analyze your every attack and figure out how to counter you or your group.

Combat: There are plent of attacks and class swaps to keep you busy on the hardest difficulty. But if you play on easy none of this is needed. The controls feel very fluent and smooth. Most of it makes sense. You can lock view on targets but it is not required to hit them in melee. Animations are decent and feels polished but nothing ground breaking. 7/10

Explorer: The game is extremley linear at the first chapter minorly opening up in chapter two. You are following a story line. In chapter two starts to be many side quests which lets you go back into zones to finish them following the main story lines quest. In chapter two I think its about 3 or 4 zones big. If you want to explore far off distances and run around in an open world this is not for you. 2/10 for my explor'ers.

Character: There is only one of me is not the case in this game. Character creation is very vague and doesnt give you many options. But you can be a male or female. Along the tree line there is only three skill trees with not soo many skills inside them. Most of the points you get will be you upgrading these skills instead of unlocking them. It only really matters what you do towards the beginning of your journey. After that, it is more forgiving to puting points into something you are not specialized in. 6/10 I want to be a unique play style ranger or warrior.

Loot ♥♥♥♥♥: If your main focus is running around and finding new armor sets and weapons you will find your self getting bored quickly. There are a varity of items but you come by them slow. Most of these are from merchants, quests and crate finds. The uniqueness of these items come from how you imbue them, which they call crafting. Most of the loot you find off mobs are ingrediants to imbue your items to make them more powerful. These imbues are not unique like Elder Scrolls, they have preset stats and names for each imbue type. But each peice you imbue does in fact give the item a new unique apparance on that spot of the item. 5/10 for items.

Crafting: Crafting is very linear. Every mob you kill has a chance to drop components. These components you use to make imbues for your items. You will have to combine these components to make different components for your imbues. If you do not have the components you can automaticly buy the base ones from your inventory with gold. It is much easier and cheaper finding them. You can not craft weapons or armor, you can only imbue them to change there stats. You can also craft things like bolts for your crossbows or traps you may lay out and have your enemies run over. Or you can buy them from a merchant, along with potions you can craft. The only real unique thing about the crafting is that each peice you imbue on an item changes its looks. You will not be able to create a unique imbue. Each item as a preset of imbues you can choose from. You only need to find the ingrediants or buy them from your inventory and make them for the imbue. If your looking for something like elder scrolls crafting system look away. 3/10 I just upgrade my items when I need to wether it be instantly purchasing the ingreadiants or finding them.

Graphics: I will say this is not ground breaking. It is much, much better than Dragon Age 2 but quite a bit less than Witcher 2 (for pc). It doesnt feel like you are playing an old game but it definetly is not going to awe inspire you. They are about average for what you would consider next gen console or a "EA game". 8/10 as the graphics are done well, just nothing extrodanry.

Myself: I am really enjoying the game. Its been a long while since a game really took me in (Think it was DA series). I myself with what I like in games would rate it a solid 8/10. But everyone likes different things in games so that rating will not help anyone but me :)

I might add more if someone wants some other outlook on the game. Here is my original post from last night, along with link of twitch stream 8+ hours of play from the start. No edits. http://steamcommunity.com/app/243930/discussions/0/558755529635915932/

[p41n10001]

Great review, very informative and unbiased. Thank you very much for the work.

[Amblin]

Mini reviews from the perspective of different personality types? That's pretty neat. Good job :)

[Fishook]

Nice review, my game is just downloading at the moment, I am not expecting a amazing game, but I bought it because I quite enjoyed there previous game I played, I know I will get some enjoyment out of it.

[BadBreath]

Thanks this helps. We need a PC review next.

[Separa]

I enjoyed your review approach and I think that it worked well. It didn't cover every angle, but it covered many. One thing that you might want to add is a crafting section. I'm not big on that, but I know that a lot of RPG gamers are. For me, personally; the low explorer rating is definitely a big con, but if the rest of the game is good enough (and it sounds like it is) I can probably get over it. I'll have to give it a try.

[Langor]

Originally posted by The Universal Void:

I enjoyed your review approach and I think that it worked well. It didn't cover every angle, but it covered many. One thing that you might want to add is a crafting section. I'm not big on that, but I know that a lot of RPG gamers are. For me, personally; the low explorer rating is definitely a big con, but if the rest of the game is good enough (and it sounds like it is) I can probably get over it. I'll have to give it a try.

I added in crafting. Though other parts kinda explained it. Thanks for your feed back :)

[CueZero]

Great review, similar thoughts so far. For the production values here, I am pretty impressed with the game. From a technical aspect the graphics aren't that high, but the game still manages to look stunning in my opinion.

[McStorm]

Great reviews. like how you took an unbiased aproach with the content. look forward to reading some of your future reviews. keep up the good work.

[NeroAngelo]

+1

[GraveMatter]

Excellent review. This is the kind of review I like...and there's not many of them... Keep it up!

[Gonzoid]

Thanks for taking the time away from playing to give a first impression.

[Dao of Yakitori]

Excellent review, thank you Langor I'm going to buy the game based on your recommendation !

[Langor]

Originally posted by Vince Gilligan:

Excellent review, thank you Langor I'm going to buy the game based on your recommendation !

The game is directed at a certain type of audiance. I think many people are coming to it looking for a different type of game style. I think for an Indie game and price tag its very well done. Also, finally, a real RPG for PS4 to hold me off for a bit. Glad it helped.

[Langor]

I am streaming this now, playing captain difficulty (Hardest). I have twitch controls turn off in game so I wont see you typing. But feel free to watch :)

http://www.twitch.tv/shadedkin

[ToxicVampire]

Thank you. The things I was looking forward to most in this game you gave good reviews for.