Recent reviews by Jorick

I wish to remind anyone looking at this review it has been more than 4 months since fallout 4 but in space released. It had potential through the roof, yet Bethesda have yet to release even the most basic of functions, such as proper modding tools, or a decent inventory system. The game is bland in terms of quests, companions, utterly nonsensical when it comes to NPC reactions' to the player, world and weapon design or balancing. The RPG aspect has been even more watered down than before, which I didn't think to be even possible. The graphics are dated, the music is passable although some pieces are great. Even more hilarious : the game wants you to erase the entirety of your progress with their new game plus feature, wiping out your precious outposts and ships. Oh and I didn't mention the ship interiors and random outposts are copy-pasted.

However, besides all of these elements, I think the biggest meme was Starfield's steam award regarding most innovative gameplay. My final verdict would be this : I'd only get the game on sale, and WITH a large amount of gameplay-overhaul mods (there are none currently).

It's ok.

Almost 100 hours in 10 days while on vacations. Please send help.

I recall it got out of hand when I found a mod that allowed me to create custom origins. Run while you still can, or give into your lust for blood and gold.

That game is incredible, please do yourself a favour and download this game to play Tale of Two Wastelands or DUST. You will not regret it.

What Skyrim should have been in terms of storylines and character development. The fact this game is free is insulting when you compare it to the average RPG. While it is a bit railroaded for my taste, when a mod offers a better experience than a game, you know you're in for a ride, and this ride is quite a wild one. You'll be immersed into an universe different from that of the Elder Scrolls, with a map containing quite the variety of biomes and locations to explore. The skill system might be a bit odd, and I would absolutely recommend specialising in a few skills to unlock a higher class, as the choices you make from the start will matter in the end. I also recommend to get cured of the arcanic fever, and not proceeding further down that questline until you're well into the game to avoid a major detriment to the enjoyment of the worldspace and quests.

I recommend also the following mods for the game :

- Amnesia (allows you to respec your character, might be a bit too powerful since it is at will)
- Enderal Overhaul (refines the game's balance and mechanics)
- Enderal Realistic Armors Overhaul (makes some of the armors more realistic, just a preference of mine, disregard if you like fantasy armors).
- Frostfall is not patched for Enderal, and will cause you to die of cold in a desert. iNeed works relatively well, with some issues with food effects. I do not know if the survival mode from legendary edition works with Enderal, as I do not own it.

Anyhow, the game is amazing, and should take you roughly 100-150 hours to finish if you're a completionist. I recommend avoiding spoilers at all costs, and to orient yourself with the wiki when it comes to the available questgivers and builds to try out. It was certainly a memorable experience for me, and it will be the same for you.

When I was told to buy the game, I thought to myself this would be more indie early access crap. But I eventually did buy it because someone kept pestering me about it, and I am glad he did. Deep Rock Galactic is truly something else in terms of experience, and here's why.

The maps :

Procedurally-generated levels with various difficulties, they range from "a mere walk in the park disturbed by the occasional enemy", to "oh my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ god look many of them are coming to us right now, I have zero ammo left". You will fight in different biomes, each one of them with their own unique look and characteristics, plus they always are yielding different resources you later use for crafting, so you will have to fight in most of them. Some of the caves can be extremely tight and claustrophobic, while others lead to a gigantic room, sometimes so huge the game can't render the other side of it. The only time you will see the same map is on "Deep dives", a weekly mission which will test both your team's ability to survive three maps in a row, with predetermined random modifiers.

The "shooting" part :

It reminds me of both Bioshock and L4D2 for some odd reason. It's hip-fire only, but it doesn't mean you can't have builds based on precision; quite the opposite in fact, as many weapon have specific modifications that will reward handsomely those able to place well-aimed shots in critical points. Some of these weapons are downright inspired, as many of them have mechanics which separate them from each other, as some of them will deal elemental damage, some will have huge magazines but will overheat, some will be laser-accurate rifles or SMGs with a blistering rate of fire. They also are in the process of adding more weapons, so one can only hope they keep the same level of quality and balance.

The classes :

You'll have to pick between 4 classes before you head down there. These classes all fill different roles, and often have synergies with each other, without being overpowered For example, while the scout is considered to be the one least likely to hold a swarm of enemies, going into a cave without light will lower considerably your chances of survival, and amounts of loot in the process, as some levels place minerals high on the walls. Going with 4 gunners might mean you will absolutely obliterate anything rearing its head, but good luck if you have to drill through a wall. In the end of the day, the game is a coop experience, and while you can definitely play solo with a small drone helping you, you will always fill as you're missing on the core experience.

My final thoughts, and other stuff people should know :

The graphics are decent, but the art is something else and that's where the beauty is (Azure Weald surely is quite unique). The performance is, surprisingly okay considering the amount of bugs spawning on some levels. The game in general, is stable and loads very fast, also takes almost no space on my drive. There is a season pass, it's free and you can hop in right now to get some sweet rewards (only cosmetics and resources). The DLCs are purely cosmetic and there to support the devs. The space rig is quite nice, but I wish they added a shooting range. The tutorial is terrible, and needs to be reworked asap. Some of the mechanics are hidden (the minigun consumes 2 ammo per bullet fired for example), and should be made clearer or changed in this case. But all in all, if you see the game on sale, snatch it quickly, possibly with a DLC or two if you want your character to look the part and/or support the devs. There are very few games I'd genuinely recommend, this is one of them - it doesn't matter if you're good at shooting games or not, if you want a coop experience with far more depth than L4D2 or Killing Floor 2, this is it. I encourage you to check on some videos, just keep in mind some of them are 2 years old, and the game changed since then.

Do not buy this game, it's been 10 years in development, and still lacks a good chunk of the features M&B : Warband and its DLCs/mods had. The single player feels very lackluster in itself, and it is the strongest point of this game, as the MP scene is simply non-existant due to the complete absence of mods. Mods in general can only do so much to fix Taleword's terrible balancing, performance issues, AI issues, and so on. I won't waste any more time unless they release tools for modders and fix their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game in the first place; I also suggest you do the same, as this game isn't worth any of the trouble to make it enjoyable.

How to play HOI4 :

step 1 : buy the game on sales, and download it.
step 2 : instead of getting DLCs at full price, wait for them to be on sales, and and also play mods that have more content than all the DLCs combined.
step 3 : profit.

I don't think I can name a decent F2P game other than PoE. There isn't a single P2W element, the game gets free updates (and I mean, pretty big ones) regularly, has an incredibly gritty setting, and last but not least, has gameplay that will blow your mind the more you get into it and discover the endless combinations of skills and gear. Considering that today's game industry is mostly releasing straight-up rushed garbage, this game stands out even more as one of the best on the market. There are reviews and videos going more in detail about what this game is all about, so I'm just going to tell you to remember that it won't hold your hand, you'll need to check the community guides to learn the mechanics and so on, they're extremely well done and will get you started in no time; youtubers like ZiggyD have a lot of informative videos, and the official forum has entire sections of builds waiting for you to try them.

Do I recommend this game ? F*ck yes.

My brother gifted this to me (poor lad bought 3 copies), and well... it fell rather short when it comes to the expectations I had, both as a customer and as an ex-cRPG nerd.

Basically, I'm going to keep it short : the devs promised an open world experience, and challenging, skillful combat, accompanied with a wide array of armors, weapons, custom character builds, and so on. None of those are in. I just gave up on any kind of hope to see this game getting released in a complete version, being a concurrent to Mount & Blade : Bannerlord. I'll just have to wait for the latter, and I suggest you do the same thing, while staying away from this game at all costs.

It pains me to write this, yet it is liberating.