Recent reviews by Darth_Vaepor

I have been loving this game! Great selection of craftables, decent management of resourses, interesting map interactions, the combat is simple but seamless and the progression is slow enough not to steam roll but fast enough not to get boring. I'm really looking forward to the devs finishing this game. The last 15+ games I've bought have been disappointing, money grabs, or so bare bones its not 'early access' its 'early development. It's great to see a game thats playable for hours and hours basically glitch free and bought as paid for. Seriously, buy this game!

This game seems decent but with so much of it locked behind DLC I can't justify it. I'm so tired of these massive paywalls locking people out of 80% of what should be core game experience and demanding 40$ for 20% of the game, then charging 150$ for the other 80%! This kind of BS should be illegal.

Do not buy until the game is fixed. There are some major and glaring issues with the mechanics and fundamentals of the game that make it difficult or near impossible to do certain things.
*After about 1-2hrs or a cutscene, major FPS drop. This is with a GTX 3080 64gb ram and I9 processor. Game stored on M.2 drive.
*Reputation system is bugged or poorly implemented. You get rep drops for the most random stuff, and eventually it gets so bad just talking to people drops your rep. Eventually resulting in everyone being hostile or hating you with no way to fix.
*Quest log poorly optimized. Seems intentionally obtuse and hard to utilize. You get a basic idea of what the quest is but no indication of how to proceed.
*Early game balance. You start with clothes and crap weapon if your clever. Bandits immediately start with armor. Combats can be nearly impossible to overcome and forced on you. Forcing you to revert saves.
*For those who care yes, the devs jumped on the woke train. For a game about historical accuracy and the divine will of god, they quickly throw all that out the window. They stood their ground last time saying non-European people wouldn't be in 15th century Bohemia, and the church would burn anyone who was openly gay. all that got thrown out the window in favor for 'diversity'. Is it as in your face and forced like many other games? No. Is it still incredibly annoying and detrimental to gameplay... Yes.

45HR EDIT
Many things were fixed in a patch, and then they were broke again in another patch?. Missing map icons, missing textures, character falling thru map... It's significantly worse than it was originally. I've got a bug now where I can't learn ANY crafting recipies, they just dissapear which means I actually can't progress several side stories AND the main quest line. Nice.

Played the whole game on the hardest difficulty it would allow. Ended up lv 60 (max level) before the end of act 2 (of 4) and one shot the final boss first stage, and 2 shot its final stage. Never once felt challenged or engaged like previous diabo games. The dungeons are 5 nearly identical layouts. And the end game, in typical diablo fashion, is actually kind of good if you like the grind.

The story is really good but incomplete, hidden behind 50$ dlc paywalls that only give you the next hour worth of content. It also leave a lot to be desired compared to previous games.

My biggest gripe is the constant crashes. I run a 3080TI, 64gb ram, I9 processor and game storage on M.2 drives. Absolutely zero reason I should get crashes regularly every 2-3 hours of gameplay.

So if I had to rate this game I'd give it a 4/10. Some of the mechanics and gameplay design is clever, but is overshadowed by the repetitive gameplay and DLC moneygrabs. The only real props I can give this game are the *attempts* at thought provoking content. The story is mired in the duality of man and the nature of good and evil. It's sad they fell short of that satisfying finish, opting for 'and its over' instead.

There's so much to unpack with Aska. One one hand it's a fast paced do-or-die settlement management game. On the other is a sandbox survival game with massive grind. While its still very rough around the edges I'd recommend this game, especially with friends.
This game is very intense, and in solo play it feels like you never have time to catch your breath. Settlers are required to avoid insanely long grind session that you don't have time for, but the more you automate, the more automation you need. Every solution branches 3 more problems to solve. The time crunch is real. In co-op things are a bit easier. Share the load with friends and it opens up all new avenues of gameplay. Almost crushing the progression curve entirely. In solo, I had trouble getting set up for the first winter with 5 settlers. In co-op we had 10 settlers and made iron tools for everyone by the start of winter. Both are completely viable, but it does seem game balance favors co-op.

I was really exited to finally play the next Horizons game, and I'm very conflicted on continuing to play it. On one hand, the graphics, scenery, story telling, and GUI are all fantastic. But in my opinion, combat is absolutely terrible. The weapons are awesome, the bots unique and interesting, but all together a slog. Every hit staggers or knocks you down, and several second recovery animations mean likely follow up attacks that loop until death. Enemies hit fast, often have range attacks, and are cable of flitting around your screen like humming birds. Making it hard to aim for weak spots, and easy to get hit trying. Sure it makes sense for a Trex to send you flying with a tail swipe. But an overgrown weasel? I'm serious when I say EVERY attack sends you into a long recovery animation, leaving you open to repeat attacks. I started on hard mode like I did for the first game, and unlike the first, quickly lowered the difficulty to no avail. Not because I was dying, but because combat isn't fun with 90% of it is spent on your ass until the enemy LETS you get up and shoot them. Honestly my biggest confusion is the health system. At the start of the game you get killed in 2-3 hits, and with stagger that happens easily. Late game health doesn't matter because you'll get stunlocked when fighting groups and just die anyway, even with max health and potions. An entire skill tree is added for using your spear but it feels like a trap since you'll get one hit, maybe a single combo if your lucky, before getting knocked down. Hit boxes are triggering too. I've looked at my replays and most enemy attacks have an extra foot of reach than they appear to, and some weapons actually slow down as they get close to the enemy so it can dodge out of the way. What kind of mechanic is that? Overall, I really want to see how the story plays out but hate the combat so much I don't think I'll get to. 4/10.

I've reviewed many games over the years. Some good, some bad. Some AAA games, some by 1 man in a basement. This game leaves me perplexed. On one hand I want to write a bad review. I feel like this game deserves it, on the other, its so impressive and multifaceted I want to sing its praise. In the end though, I think I'll have to obstain and just state the facts. So keep these things in mind if you're planning to buy Nightingale.
1) The Learning Curve: It wasn't until about 35 hrs in before I realized how intricate and tricky the crafting system is. Materials have more info on them than a 4E D&D Beholders stat block. Material bonuses only apply when used in gear that has the bonus to begin with. But the gear doesn't show you which of the 15+ stat modifiers it has. Boots that give +speed+stamina gain nothing for using epic level leather for +sneak. You won't know that until after you craft it and wonder why your stats are missing. Finding these materials and understanding how to harvest them can be just as tricky. If you don't pay attention, you'll never unlock ANY new gear anyway, because its only thru specific traders in specific realms. You can check that in the "Trader tab" but the game never mentions this. I could write an entire novel just explaining all the ways this game hides important information integral to progression.
2)Difficulty Curve: This one perplexes me. On one hand, normal mode feels super easy. With a little grinding you can far outpace the realms you visit. On the other, if you start in extreme difficulty like me, the game becomes impossible to progress. Gear Score is locked behind materials, locked behind realm cards, locked behind dungeons to unlock those realm cards, locked behind the very gear score you can't achieve, See the circular logic here? Extreme difficulty set my t1 realm card dungeons GS requirement to 85. Completely unachievable in the starting world. Thru some jank, I fixed this, but normal difficulty was such a breeze it made no sense. I had lv60 enemies in my T1 extreme world, and lv 60s in my t5 normal world. With no increased loot rewards, interactions, or unlocks in the extreme version, there really isn't a point or reward to do so.
3)Building: The main feature of a survival world. Nightingale does it beautifully. Streamlining base building with an easy blueprint placing system. It also expects you to build MASSIVE bases if you want to add all the crafting stations, and all the augments. A cannon is a fun choice for unlocking military gear. Notably a rifle. It takes up more than a whole foundation of space, and needs to be close to 4 different crafting benches. Cool decoration, far to crowded. Otherwise I quite enjoy these feature.
4)Leveling/ GearScore: I touched on this earlier, but there is no leveling in Nightingale. You are jane/john doe and not special. But your gear can be. Craft it, enchant it, augment it, put a charm on it, and upgrade it. What annoys me is the sheer lack of options. Let me list all the weapons in the first 40 hrs of gameplay: Stone cudgel, hammer, pick, wood axe, knife, pistol, rifle.... Thats it. besides the better versions of each, thats about all you get. Same with armor. I JUST unlocked my 3rd set of armor, and it doesn't come with pants. I remember when gearscore became a thing in WoW nearly 15 years ago. I hated it then, I hated it now. Especially when the gear has hidden stats, and only 5 options thru most of the game. Even worse when compounded by every single unlock having the classic tv toy set *accessories not included* meaning your unlock is not unlocked, until you unlock it, by unlocking the thing that unlocks it.
5)Exploration POI: This game is beautiful, and terrifying. Just like the Fae. Several famous stories and myths walk around in flesh and blood, Unique takes on ancient evils like the Harpy and Grendal. Some fae want to be left alone, others may give you a gift, and yet more still may seem docile only to rip your spine out or melt your fact at earliest convenience.
6)Bugs/Glitches/Crashes: Sadly, even a week after release there are far to many issues with the game for me to simply write it off as early access. It would be one thing if it was a simple graphical bug or a few naughty surfaces fixable with the unstick menu. But these are serious, and NEED addressing. Getting stuck zoomed into a spyglass, a DOT that never ends, NPCs that won't spawn or talk to you, dungeons that lock you out and block progression forever, Resource counts for essence not updating when you get more, but updating when you spend, UI that won't show you gear stats, unlocks, blueprints, or objectives. I encounter at least half these every day I play. They either launched to early, and some how missed every major flaw/bug/glitch or saw them and decided to launch anyway. Not sure which is worse.

Overall, I'd wait another month or two while they fix the issues before buying. That being said, I'm also a bit salty at losing 40 hours of progress, my entire base, and home world, all because the game didn't update my "Estate" (your spawn point) and decided to portal me to the tutorial world that I had deleted and rerolled after making my base elsewhere. Ergo: Everything is back to Day one in my 2x2 wooden shack. Before this incident, I would have recommended this game in a heartbeat. But a bug that allows a player to lose all their progress is just too egregious to ignore.

Hope you enjoyed, and good luck

I didn't know how disappointed I could be in a brand new video game until I got Forspoken. A litany of problems, none of which are minor, adding up to a half baked poorly executed game. For a game that's supposedly been in production for years, its offputtingly lackluster especially for a 70$ price tag.

Cons:
*2 hour long prologue consisting of endless dialog with little to no interaction, but somehow also lacking the vivid cutscenes of games like final fantasy. And after seeing how bad this game is, it feels intentional to deny refunds. Cant tell if the game is bad if you don't get to play it for 2 hours!

*Movement and combat are both extremely clunky. Plays like it wants to mix freestyle acrobatics and hack/slash, but never got around to installing either. For example: Parkour mechanic consists of a sprint and a jump until many hours into the game. The sprint is difficult to control and if you step over a pebble, the character flings itself over a mountain of its own accord. Which is weird because in the prologue you get a short parkour escape run and it was actually decent. It just sucks after that.

*Story seems decent but instead of being explained through the many voiced dialog scenes, all the meat and potatoes are log book items you have to read on your own. I got half an hr of a talking bracelet shooting the ♥♥♥♥, but cant get 30 seconds of storybook time to explain the core story taking place. A 10 minute 'burn the witch!' scene but learning about how the corruption happened, and the nations all powerful leaders, happens in a lame series of logbook entries.

*There might be a memory leak! The longer I play the game the more it frame stutters and eventually it crashes. I run a watercooled 3080 12gb with 64gb ram on an I9 processor, that I built myself. So no, its not my hardware. So I don't even get to find out what the first major boss is like!
*The world is empty. Seriously. Sparsely positioned trash mob combats, some chests, and rest spots. Throw in a statue that boosts stats and a 4 minute gauntlet in each area. Well done, minecraft has more variety. Which is sad because the enemies look fantastic!

I know this seems like a harsh condemnation for a game just released. But upcharge me 70$, delay the game for months quoting 'improvements' with Luminous Productions having the resources to make a fantastic game, and there are zero reasons this shouldn't have been a triple A title. Instead it feels like the rough draft of a game from 20 years ago. Which is unfair because Tomb raider (1996) had less clunky combat and better parkour.

I wanted to like this game so much. I have it every chance I could. Unfortunately its filled with good ideas, and interesting concepts, with a pretty compelling story.... And implemented terribly. The cutscenes are uninspiring. Drama feels forced and those moments of pain and loss they try to share with the player completely miss their marks. The combat is monotonous and tedious. Monster one level above you is a god, monsters one level below are cake. There are literally 12 total spells for the mage. and every combat, even bosses, is just a game of rock paper scissors until you find their weakness IF you even have that element equipped. Not to mention this game notes itself as a JRPG and yet your party is 2 people -.-* . To compound on this, the game becomes grindy in the worst of ways. Every weapon starts at level one, and it takes a lot of combat to increase it, the crystals (reminiscent of the grid from final fantasy x-2 but tiny and attatched to the weapon you keep replacing) are lack luster, and the improvement system is god awful. The last thing I want to do is rack up pages and pages of crystals just to gamble 5 in hope for a better one for this particular weapon, replace the weapon 10 minutes later and start all over again. The final 'come on guys, are you even trying?; for me was the prison break. "I wont kill the soldiers cuz I was one too. So lets get a 40 ft tall boar with tusks longer than spears and a bad temper to wreck the place as a 'distraction'". Yea... Those soldiers are definitely still alive... And the 'oooh, its so big it makes the screen shake when it runs' was more like a first person epilepsy simulator, is it just makes the terrain go up and down real fast like its glitching. Gave me a damn headache. ----TLDR: game feels like a combo of other video games good ideas but half done and cobbled together lazily until nothing feels unique or inspiring, sad to say but with 17 hours of gameplay its just one ' *groan* "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ really?" ' after another until eventually you quit.

the written dialog is crude, badly written broken English. I seriously thought something was wrong with my eyes or my brain as I struggled through the important story info.
The game play is confusing and frustrating thanks to a lack of meaningful tutorials. Which for a 'tactical turn based' game with unique mechanics left much to be desired.
Speaking of which, there is nothing unique about this system.
I feel that the description and game footage over-promised and certainly did not deliver. Maybe this game is your cup of tea, but after playing games like Octo-Traveler, Final Fantasy Tactics, BattleBrothers, and Eternal Sin, this game is not worth the asking price.
I was really looking forward to this one too after seeing so many good reviews. It might be unfair to compare this TBS to 'the greatest hits' list, but I'm not the one who listed it at $25.00 after 7 years.