Recent reviews by Hyokkuda

The graphic quality quickly stunned me when I first played this game. Bandai knew what they were doing when they picked Unreal Engine 4 for their following line of video games. When playing the game, I quickly felt attached to the main protagonist & pretty much every new character joining the group. This game might be the first Tales game where I have no hate for a character. Their look, their personality, their voice, everything fits so well. This game starts with the character being a Dahnan slave, trying to liberate everyone from the Renans & survive through it all, & straight away, the story feels pretty dark. And this dark intensity keeps growing the further the player goes through the story. Then there is the mystery to it which I enjoy a lot, but the mystery also keeps going until the end of the game, constantly surprising me. I never felt this emotionally touched by a Tales game up until now. To be annoyed & angry by an antagonist is not every game that can make me feel that way, & that's a good thing.

The combat system is slightly different than in previous Tales games, it is satisfying & simple to understand & somewhat intense occasionally. One thing that could confuse veteran players is the new CP (Cure Points) feature. Artes with healing & support effects consume CP in addition to AG. CP is shared across the party & can be restored with items or by staying at an inn or campground. It can be raised by leveling up or finding specific items. If the party runs out of CP, you won't be able to cast healing or support artes.

AG (Artes Gauge) is a new mechanic commonly known as TP (Technical Points) in previous Tales games, also known as EP, SP, & MP in various RPG games. Artes are special actions or skills performed by spending part of the AG. The stronger the Artes, the more AG is required to perform them (average of 4 AG max). The AG will gradually restore automatically while standing still or by using normal attacks. A max of 10 AG can be earned by unlocking new titles throughout the games. As you fulfill certain requirements for each of your characters, you'll earn titles for them, which unlock 5 artes & skills that they can then learn, making fights easier. Then when you learn all of the artes & skills associated with a given title, you'll earn a completion bonus in the form of a stat boost.

BG (Boost-Attacks Gauge) is also something I believe is new to the game. (I stopped at Vesperia, I didn't play enough of the previous one) BG is a feature that can be abused quite often when appropriately used. Every character on your team will have special abilities for their BG, allowing you to deal with an enemy quickly. If an enemy moves too much, you can immobilize it with one of your allies' BG. If enemies cannot be staggered, you can break their defense. If an enemy is about to cast an arte, you can interrupt it, etc. BG also costs nothing, so they can be abused often.

The rest is about the same as in every previous Tales for the most part, like enhancing Artes. Once you've used an arte a certain number of times, a ★ will light up, & it'll become stronger. Follow the required artes count, for example, 137/1000, & the character might learn a new arte during combat.

Surprisingly, I noticed how generous Bandai Namco was with the modding community. Modding has never been this easy in a game. If you are like me & all you care about is installing mods rather than creating them, then all you have to do is go where the game is installed, then head to the following folders; Arise 🡆 Content 🡆 Paks, then create a new folder & call it "~mods" (without quotes) & drop any .pak files that you have downloaded online & that is all there is to it. Nothing is more straightforward than that!

Cons:
Now, for the negative part of the game. At times, characters will engage in optional chats called "skits" that offer insight into them & the story. To view them, the player will have to press Ctrl or RB when the icon appears in the bottom right corner of the screen. Luckily, you can watch or rewatch skits you have missed or skipped along with cutscenes. Unfortunately, the nature of those skits will become very long & repetitive near the end of the game. I have to admit, I have been skipping a few near the end of the game because it was all about "Renans this, Dahnans that" all over again, on & on like a broken record, with some of the group members pointing fingers again.

The enemies encountered through the game have been the most tedious enemies I have ever seen. The lack of variety is unreal, & I'm not talking about the game's engine. Most of the enemies I had to fight have been nothing more than reskins. From level 6, up to level 99, the enemies have been the same. But of course, some with a slight difference, such as being able to dodge or counter attacks. And that's about it. The same goes for weapons & outfits. Unless you plan on buying the DLCs, weapons & outfits that are unlocked by progressing through the game are nothing but reskins. And that is a big disappointment for me. It feels lazy.

The ally AI can be pretty dumb during combat. I have been playing the entire game with the strategy set to "Fight with moderation" which by default use healing & support artes when fighting & restore HP with items when low on CP. And on multiple occasions, the allies were standing there when a slow special attack was being thrown at them, without dodging or protecting themselves with a barrier arte to avoid it, & dying right in front of me like the brainless AI they are. Sometimes the character I'm controlling dies, so I expect my allies to revive it without me having to do anything, & yet I find myself having to go to the artes menu to do it myself rather often. So my advice is to not rely on AI too much.

And lastly, the New Game+. I have completed the game at 100% with nothing left under the Play Records menu & earned all 47 achievements for this game, with every artifact owned, which serve as bonuses that can be enjoyed after clearing the game. So I figured, why not start a New Game+, & oh boy! I have never been so disappointed with that mode in a game before.

Depending on the artifacts found in the cleared save data, you will be prompted with the option to carry whatever you want over. In my case, I was level 100, wearing the craziest piece of gear the game could possibly offer. With the game difficulty set to Unknown, which is the highest difficulty in the game, I quickly found out that the enemy I was facing early on was still level 6 rather than something matching my level, with all of them dying from a single swing of my sword without even using any artes at all. That was honestly pretty lame. This new game+ serves no purpose to me whatsoever other than reviving the story. I really enjoyed the story, but I don't think I'll be going through the whole thing again when there's nothing to gain from it. But maybe someone who is a die-hard fan of the Tales series or this particular title will. I'm not judging.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot! There's something weird going on with the aspect of this game. First is the random objects popping up nearby when running around, as if this game was made in 2005, with texture briefly re-rendering in certain areas too. Luckily my PC is a beast, but it was still bothering me slightly. But the worst of it all was the ridiculous amount of loadings I had to face. You would think that Bandai knew how to hide them more gracefully, but no. A lot of the time, I enter a door just to be greeted by a very short corridor that leads me to another door not even 5 steps away, greeting me with another loading screen. Surely the game is not THAT performance hungry. Like every Bandai game, this one is also filled with typos.

Well, I believe that was it for this game. I hope that my review was helpful to you, & I sincerely apologize for making you read this wall of text! I hope it was worth it in the end.

Take care, & keep being awesome.

Too long; didn't read: If anyone reading this feel like getting a more immersive experience, I suggest you go with Ghost Recon: Wildlands instead. You can really feel the chaos and violence through the entire gameplay as some areas around the map will display dismembered bodies, or corpses hanging from poles, on crosses or even bridges, anything to strike fear on the country. Poor civilians getting executed on the side of the road as you drive by, vehicles and executed corpses on fire. It shows how bad everything has gotten and who is in charge and why the Ghost team is here. But in Breakpoint, the purpose of my mission didn't have the same impact at all. And bugs were popping left and right and center too often, solo or with friends. The same friend who got stuck inside the terrain at least 4 times in his very first playthrough. Or unable to aim his weapon or locked in a standing stance, unable to crouch or prone until he pauses the game or enters a vehicle. Sliding down a mountain and hitting an invisible wall. Or getting disconnected without getting kicked out of the game and then realizing too late that one of us not actually sitting together in the vehicle. Trying to reanimate a fallen ally who's actually downed 50 ft away from their actual body. The list goes on. It's pretty bad but those bugs are not too frequent. Maybe once every... hour or so, depending on your playstyle, I guess...

When I first played this game in 2020 on Uplay (due to Ubisoft leaving Steam), I found out after only 75 hours of gameplay that this game was pretty bland or barren and lacking flavor and life. I came from Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildland, hoping for upgrades and positive vibes when in fact, it was quite the opposite. First, let me explain all the cons I have about this game.

A online connectivity is required. Now, some of you who are reading this (with a crazy network speed and a low ping) might think that this is not such a big deal. We are in 2023, and by now, pretty much everyone on this darn forsaken planet has the Internet, right? Well, sadly for Ubisoft, their server is not exactly stable (especially on Tuesdays). And unlike Wildlands, Breakpoint does not use P2P (Peer to Peer) connectivity. So for anyone who wishes to play the game solo, just remember that if Ubisoft servers are crapping the bed, you will not be able to get past the main menu. But hey! At least there's a nice little message that will tell you about it ahead of time, so you won't waste your time waiting at the loading screen!

As for the gameplay and game mechanics, let's just say that some things have been improved compared to Wildlands, while other things have been heavily downgraded, in my honest opinion. The player will start on an island, a pretty tech-savvy-and-militarized island, and your goal is to stop someone from starting up some kind of drone invasion! Skynet and stuff- if you watched The Terminator movie. Just kidding! I try not to spoil, well half the truth... In Wildlands, players were greeted with featured movie content, a foe from a movie that some of you may know called The Predator. This enemy could be hunted down by players as a nice challenge and a small story to it right in the middle of a dense forest. Sadly, this foe was removed in December 2020. Breakpoint is featuring something similar, which, you probably guessed it, is The Terminator. The T-800 models can be found somewhere on the island as a part of the mission and rewarded with two or three weapons to go along with the mission tasked to complete.

Now for the bad part, the missions are actually great. You can have a great time if you follow along with the missions and side missions. But if you are simply wandering aimlessly and trying to find new attachments, weapons, and gear along the way, you will probably be disappointed. I know I was. The problem I have with the game is how barren or lifeless the island is. If you ignore the drones for a moment and focus on actual human enemies, they are pretty hard to find. Outside of obvious-looking military bases and sites, I always struggle to find a handful of baddies to kill. Because unlike Wildlands, this game allows you to go everywhere unless it's a steep mountain stopping you and that's where the problem is. In Wildlands, there were so many trees and rocks and uneven terrain that traveling by vehicle or even on foot out in the field was pretty hard, forcing the player to use the road and other obvious paths that are frequently being used by the enemy as well and that's honestly what I think makes Wildlands a much more difficult game. Breakpoint does have its share of difficult challenges, with its spongy drones and armored troops wandering around with rocket launchers and gatling guns or even its Behemoth drone that are basically tanks just guarding a tower containing a sweet piece of equipment like armors or weapons. Unfortunately, I feel like a lot of the areas are copied and pasted. The towers being watched by Behemoths or modern houses and bases or sites scattered around the island will begin to feel quite familiar to some after a few hours or days of gameplay. That is something I started to hate very quickly.

The weapon choices and attachments are nice. A lot of customization options for everything just like in the previous game. Vehicles do feel quite sensitive and unrealistic. Unfortunately, they all feel super weightless, which is another downgrade from Wildlands. Microtransaction is something that was extremely heavy at launch apparently, and I am glad that I missed it all, but unfortunately, they are still very alive and everywhere even today. I could say that about 60% of the equipment and weapons are locked behind a paywall with no way of unlocking them. At least Wildland let players complete daily and weekly Prestige challenges to earn crates and unlock items from the online store. That was quite generous, and I honestly didn't hate that. The immersive mode can sort of change things a bit. The game will become more of a survival game where you need to drink to replenish your stamina and eat rations to become more effective during combat. Resupply yourself at a bivouac or apply EXP% for kills and other buffs, and switch weapons because now you can't switch weapons on the fly. You can have limited or unlimited items to heal yourself when injured or badly injured, depending on the gameplay experience options that you choose. Darker nights too, and you can have AI teammates if you prefer to play single-player rather than with friends or strangers. The new tactics or class system is a nice touch too. Challenges for leveling that class can be a pain sometimes. But it's definitely worth it and rewarding in the end.

And this one might be a personal preference, but I feel like the enemies are dumb, like really-really flippin' dumb. And they are very repetitive too! I don't speak nor understand Spanish other than common words, but I swear in Breakpoint the enemy seems to be repeating the same English lines more frequently, which drives me nuts! In Wildlands, the rebels were the ones repeating the same lines, but luckily the player never had to hang around them for too long.

And to end with, did I finish the story? To be honest, no. There are multiple missions and side missions and some free-downloadable content or updates which was very generous of Ubisoft to do so. I did complete some, but the ending was spoiled long ago, so I never felt like pushing forward to finish the game.

Well, that will be all for now. I may edit my review in the future depending on new events like The Terminator being removed from the game just like The Predator in the previous game for instance. That could be a possibility.

I hope that this review was helpful to you! But if not, I am sincerely sorry for that wall of text and for wasting your time!

All TERA servers were deactivated on 30th June 2022. R.I.P.

I always loved MMO games, and it's been so long since I've played a game like this one. A game where the scenery is mind-blowing. The story is fascinating & it saddens me to know that some players skipped through the story, because each chapter has interesting bosses & an exciting ending. Some endings can make you feel different emotions or turn things from action to mystery & that's something I enjoyed.

As for the game-play, the game isn't very well optimized. Playing in windowed mode or borderless can be sickening & can drop the performance quite a bit. So it's best to play in full screen at all times.

During my very first game-play in 2016, I never really heard of the game before. However, it didn't take me long to understand how things work. Pretty much everything has descriptions of what you need to do & the purpose of specific items. A non-English speaker doesn't need to know English to play this game since 90% of the time. Your objective is located on the map or as a highlighted text on your quests list.

The fighting style & game-play is smooth. There is nothing wrong with that & I can tell that the creator of this game put much effort into some of the character animations. Some of the armor is very appealing, despite some being stock armor. Most people won't have to feel forced to buy cash items like costumes. Just a bit of grinding is enough to look premium and stylish.

Stats & skills are a bit confusing & seem to be quite little as the game publisher is trying hard to balance every class to be fair in PVP. It doesn't matter what level you are. The values will be the same on your high-end gear. If you're level 20 with Critical Factor 6, a level 65 will have equal value on their equipment. The only thing high-level gear has more are additional stats. While a lower piece of armor can have four stats, a high-end piece of armor can have 12 or 15 in total. Gear is actually what makes you stronger. Even though you've probably heard of "The weapon doesn't make the hunter.". This game doesn't follow that rule because without armor, you've instantly become a level 1, even if your character profile shows otherwise. You don't build your character like those old MMO games by increasing your STR, DEF, DEX, EVA, or HIT & CRIT. It's all from gear.

Some people might say that this game is super grindy, but personally, it's not. I've played a game called Luna Online in the past. The quests & level cap were just insane while in this game, most objectives will ask you to defeat 5, 10 to 15 enemies, sometimes but rarely 30 or 50. How is that grinding? Of course, once you're level 65 & you wish to turn yourself into a PVP player with crazy gear, then you might have to work your way up & it's going to be grindy. But it's not even close compared to what I've played before.

In a month, you can get somewhere without spending your real money in this game. Surprisingly enough, it's not precisely a pay-to-win. However, more of a "pay-to-get-there-quicker" since the game-publisher doesn't lock you out of premium contents. They're giving them to you daily or monthly, unlike other MMO games. Earning gold might require some real money, however. Because once you are level 65, gathering gold isn't very easy until a certain point when you can handle most dungeons on your own, which might be grindy. But again, if you're social & you know how to make friends & form a party, that gap will soon be sealed. If you're a lone wolf, then spending real money is the best decision. There's no other way to progress through the game to obtain high-end gear quickly or efficiently enough. Or I guess you place a bet on a boss fight (gambling).

The game-publishing company tends to make good & bad decisions. They have removed the stamina along with talismans/charms & campfires, for instance, which is a good move on their part. These things were taking up space in the inventory. But stuff like consumable items or expansions items are being removed from the game—quests & features like PK-mode in PVP servers. Players below level 65 can't turn in PK mode to kill each other anymore, so there's no risk in leveling up through the game. But the bad thing is, once you reach 65, you have to face players who spent their entire life gearing up to the max & get annihilated by a single blow. A more severe penalty would've been better than to delete this feature.

Many classes are restricted to a specific gender. Here are a few examples. Brawlers, Gunners, Ninjas, Reapers & now Valkyries are locked to females only. An Elin could be understandable, but I could very well see a male as a Brawler or a Gunner. The next thing is about sexual content. It might not look like much to some people who get used to it, but it seems like the creator of TERA is a real pervert. Some armor isn't very protective at all by the looks of it. They're either showing off the females' thighs, belly, cleavage or butt & panties. Some items let the player alter the size of their thighs & their breasts. Others to also hide the armor to show their innerwear.

The enemies are incredibly persistent. No matter what level you are, if you walk or run too close to some enemies, they'll start chasing you up to 300 or 500 meters or for about a minute or so. It's very annoying, especially during combat, because the movement speed is significantly reduced by about 90%, which can be very bothersome. If you want to run at your usual pace, enchant a piece of equipment real quick, or use your mount to hightail out of there, you have to kill what's chasing you, or you're not going anywhere. I wish they made it, so enemies level 15 or 20 below you are ignoring you. The buff for the Elin, which does what I want to for only last a minute & the cooldown is about 30 minutes. Speaking of buffs, most buffs in this game are USELESS. They might be great temporarily, but their duration is so short & their cooldown is so long, you almost forget that the skill exists in your action bar. At least that's how I feel.

If you're too lazy to create your character, the randomizer might give you something worse than the preset you can choose. Most of the randomized faces are deformed & if I had to vote on the worst race, I would say the Elins win this one. It's just terrible how this feature doesn't work well. The facial skeleton isn't exactly great. During the character creation screen, the face of your character might look perfect. But once in-world, your character will start making some facial expressions from time to time. So it's hard to have something correctly done according to the animations. Also, there are not enough hairstyle & hair colors & you can't recolor the ears or tail for the Elin race, so you're forced with the same hair color as the ears & tail if you don't want to look goofy.

Some costumes have terrible physics. Some dangling pieces are clipping through the wearer's thighs, sometimes the wrists or even the cheeks or the hair. Some of them can are fixable by installing some mods which are only visible for you, unfortunately. However, if many people have these mods installed, they should see the wearer correctly without any visual imperfections.

The lack of variety for the monsters or enemies is killing me. You start as a level 1, and you have to fight your way through thousands of enemies. At level 65, with some of your gear level 430+, you will find yourself defeating the same type of enemies you were fighting when you were just a level 20 & I think that's just sad. Maybe I'm just picky, but I think they could've done a better job on that one.

The community is very disrespectful (or toxic), especially in PVP. It seems like 90% of players only know MEMEs references in their entire vocabulary, which can make some people sound entirely moronic. I would suggest hiding the chat completely.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. I hope that helps!

🖴 174.12+ GB Required!

Please note that, despite the initial system requirements, you will now need a minimum of 174 GB of free space on your device to accommodate all the downloadable content (DLCs) for this game.

Honestly, I was not really looking forward to driving around Mexico as I was in Forza Horizon 4 with Great Britain because there's too much off-roading going on for me in this game.

This game feels like a copy/pasted version of its predecessor with a few upgrades & downgrades of the core mechanics, but that's not an entirely bad thing. As a completionist, every race, every objective I try to beat, new ones are appearing on the map like there is no end to it just like the previous game, which is nice! There can be so many icons on the map that I have to use the filter once again to see where everything I need is. If you're like me, and you've played FH4 then you might be disappointed with this one because a lot of "Hard to Find" vehicle can now be purchased straight from the autoshow. A lot of them are no longer locked behind races or by doing events or behind a wheelspin.

Some cars that can only be earned by reaching certain levels or from different driving series like road racing, cross-country, dirt, drag racing, street racing,, drift, speed traps, danger zones for crazy jumps and speed zones. Others cars can be earned by just completing a car collection or by driving around the map & destroying private properties or kicking dirt with drift & burnouts in someone's yard & windows, or simply by driving recklessly & pulling dangerous near misses & stunts to increase various parts of the "Horizon Life" experience & reputation.

The progression is measured by an "Accolades" system & a level system. The more accolades points people earn, the higher their level is with a max level of 2999 or 10 ★ (prestige) still. Each action the player does in the game will be rewarding, including ramming into your neighbor's fences! I don't recommend doing that in real life, however. No matter how much you hate your neighbor. "APs" can be earned with the following steps I mentioned above and by showing off your taste & even your artistic skills. Taking enough pictures of cars or the beautiful scenery will give the player more points. But the same goes for creating some 3000-layer-stunningly good-looking paint jobs for a car of the player's choice to help them earn money & Accolades.

On top of that, if you are a mechanic expert, then by customizing & tuning vehicles, it's possible to become famous & rich among other players by sharing the best tuning setups to make a car drive better. The same goes for creating paint jobs or just small stickers for everyone to use. So, in case you have none of those skills in you, you can always search for various stickers to put together & create your dream car and download someone's tunes to help you progress through a race you hate so much because the only car you own for a specific class requirement happens to feel like a boat.

The UI is kind of bad. A grid rather than a slider feels like it's too much work when you just want to install the best of everything in the custom upgrade menu. This was originally a console game in mind, so I don't get those bad cursor UI designs in games.

And speaking of skills! If you're the kind of person who sucks at every racing game, you're just terrified of touching a simulator game because they're often too hard for you, well you shouldn't be scared. After all, you can always adjust the game difficulty along with the AI difficulty & turn them into brainless drivers. If that's not enough for you, there's even an option for assisted steering & brakes, which will pretty much turn the car for you & slow down before every turn. Although I don't know anyone who would use that, but hey! It's optional! Difficulty bonus can no longer go beyond 100%. Shifting set to manual, driving line, damage & tire wear, rewind no longer affect the difficulty bonus CR which is a shame in my opinion.

Now back to creativity & AI for a moment. Those who are creative or even cheap & non-competitive can abuse this creation system by creating their race & drive around the map, drawing the race lines they want & the AI will follow. Other players, too, if they don't realize what you've been up to by creating a race track while drunk, ramming into every tree, trash cans & street lights. I'm telling you, the AI will follow! The traffic won't go away while creating them, by the way, so you can also tell whenever someone just crashed into a car while creating the race just because the line will suddenly have a Z in it.

As mentioned earlier, there's a lot to be done in this game. There's a form of story mode related to Horizon Festival, but more is to be done even after completing those. So, a Festival playlist consists of completing multiple race events to increase the progression gauge up to 100 PTS for a "Hard to Find" car, or an access pass to new events & up to 160 PTS for a legendary "Hard to Find" vehicle, just like the previous game. That's the main "story." Then there's also a seasonal event that lasts about two weeks with another completion rate of 25 PTS & 40 PTS for random vehicles, which can also be purchased from other players at the auction house for those who hate grinding or for less-skilled players or even received as a gift now thanks to that new feature.

Almost everything can be played with friends & strangers, either in co-op or against each other. I haven't played a lot of multiplayer modes this time around.

Those who want to own everything in the game will have to work for it. Certain vehicles, horns, character accessories, clothes &... stupid dance moves can only be acquired by purchasing them with Forza Points (FP) from the Forzathon Shop. To earn points, the player must participate in a live group event that occurs randomly on the map. Everyone must participate to earn those points. But not to worry! There's nothing competitive about that event. It's similar to Burnout Paradise's online challenges if you ever played that game.

As for the character appearance, the player will be greeted with a character customization menu at the beginning of the game with 25 characters presets to choose from, the ability to change the hairstyle, and hair color, add prosthetic arms/legs, identity to be addressed as "he/him, she/her, they/them". Along with two voice options for male & female. Now the character can speak. The player can change their character at any time from their home or from the Horizon Festival. As for clothes like tops, jackets, dresses, legs, ankles for socks, face masks, outfits & accessories, a lot of them will be locked behind a completion system. But it can be unlocked with wheel spins & super wheelspins, which is some form of loot boxes that can be earned pretty quickly by just leveling up (Similar to the Overwatch loot box system, if you ever played that). Lastly, the player can also buy houses, beach houses and some rich-looking houses. Houses, houses everywhere. They don't do much other than looking great or bragging rights and setting the player closer to the desired location on the map. Some will give special perks, however, like double Forzathon points or the ability to fast travel. And lastly, the new weather system. But nothing too fancy. I barely noticed any storms outside of the prologue.

Well, that's about it for now! I hope that this review was helpful to you! And I'm sincerely sorry for this wall of text! Feel free to comment down below if you want to know more about the game, or if you wish to correct something I said, even though you probably own the game already & you're just a curious person! Either way, I appreciate it!

Well, that's a real bummer. The main reason why I got this game was for the cool-looking achievements to display on my profile. But instead, I wasted about 2 hours playing this game to find out in the end that the profile features are limited. So, the hope of using the pleasing-looking letters for the achievements showcase is not possible. :/

As for the gameplay, there are no tutorials at all. The game does not tell me why the character randomly dies whenever a line has been drawn too far or for too long, or sometimes a short one will cause a death, etc. I feel like I have to guess my objective once in a while. Like when it says "0/9", that means that I have to eat/kill nine enemies by uncovering certain areas while they are still in it, things like that. Or that "75%" means that I have to literally uncover the girl's body, not the whole picture. Anything that's not a body part will not count.

The music is quite repetitive, and the moaning after uncovering the girl or sometimes nothingness is getting pretty annoying real fast. I suppose the artwork is pretty good, could be appealing to some people. I was more focused on not repeatedly dying on some levels because of how many enemies are moving around with so little space and time and lack of speed.

Overall; Don't buy this game if you only want to display your name or something else on your profile using the achievements showcase. The game won't be listed in the context menu, and it probably never will be. And it's not because the game has some sexual content in it because I viewed another game with sexual content, to be sure, and it did not have that kind of label.

I always loved racing games since I was young, even though I still know nothing about cars today. To me, it's all about skills & good reaction time & this game can give people that! It's been a while since I've been excited for a big open-world racing gaming like Forza.

I was so looking forward to driving around a beautiful area like Great Britain while meeting other players. Driving around with my friends in convoy (party), & discovering new game activities like small businesses for a delivery service or being a stunt driver for a movie, a taxi driver for different clients, or just jumping off a ramp while going 265 MPH (430 KM/H).

This game keeps on giving, which blew my mind the first month I played the Microsoft Store version of the game. As a completionist, every race, every objective I try to beat, new ones are appearing on the map like there is no end to it! There can be so many icons on the map that I have to use the filter to see where everything I need is. But if you're like me, you're going to be satisfied with this one because not every vehicle can be purchased at the auto show (shop). They have to be earned by racing or by doing events.

Some cars can only be earned by reaching certain levels in different driving series like road racing, cross-country, dirt, drag racing, street racing (races include traffic), drift, speed traps, danger zones for crazy jumps, speed zones, & trailblazer (LEGO stuff). Others cars can be earned by just driving around the map & destroying private properties or kicking dirt with drift & burnouts in someone's yard & windows, or simply by driving recklessly & pulling dangerous near misses & stunts to increase various parts of the "Horizon Life" experience & reputation.

The progression is measured by an influence system & a level system. The more influence people earn, the higher their level is with a max level of 2999 or 10 ★ (prestige). Each action the player does in the game will be rewarding, including ramming into your neighbor's fences! I don't recommend doing that in real life, however. No matter how much you hate your neighbor. Influence can be earned with the following steps I mentioned above and by showing off your taste & even your artistic skills. Taking enough pictures of cars or the beautiful scenery will give the player more influence. But the same goes for creating some 3000-layer-stunningly good-looking paint jobs for a car of the player's choice to help them earn money & influence.

On top of that, if you are a mechanic expert, then by customizing & tuning vehicles, it's possible to become famous & rich among other players by sharing the best tuning setups to make a car drive better. The same goes for creating paint jobs or just small stickers for everyone to use. So, in case you have none of those skills in you, you can always search for various stickers to put together & create your dream car and download someone's tunes to help you progress through a race you hate so much because the only car you own for a specific class requirement happens to feel like a boat.

And speaking of skills! If you're the kind of person who sucks at every racing game, you're just terrified of touching a simulator game because they're often too hard for you, well you shouldn't be scared. After all, you can always adjust the game difficulty along with the AI difficulty & turn them into brainless drivers. If that's not enough for you, there's even an option for assisted steering & brakes, which will pretty much turn the car for you & slow down before every turn. Although I don't know anyone who would use that, but hey! It's optional!

Now back to creativity & AI for a moment. Those who are creative or even cheap & non-competitive can abuse this creation system by creating their race & drive around the map, drawing the race lines they want & the AI will follow. Other players, too, if they don't realize what you've been up to by creating a race track while drunk, ramming into every tree, trash cans & street lights. I'm telling you, the AI will follow! The traffic won't go away while creating them, by the way, so you can also tell whenever someone just crashed into a car while creating the race just because the line will suddenly have a Z in it.

As mentioned earlier, there's a lot to be done in this game. There's a form of story mode related to Horizon Festival, but more is to be done even after completing those. So, a Festival playlist consists of completing multiple race events to increase the progression gauge up to 50% for an access pass to new events & up to 80% for a rare vehicle. That's the main "story." Then there's also a seasonal event that lasts about one week with another completion rate of 50% & 80% for legendary vehicles, which can also be purchased from other players at the auction house for those who hate grinding or for less-skilled players. The seasonal events are slightly more challenging for those who are into that.

Almost everything can be played with friends & strangers, either in co-op or against each other. I like a few PVP online modes, but my favorite is survival mode, which consists of avoiding "zombie" cars & lasts as long as possible. Chase or be chased!

Those who want to own everything in the game will have to work for it. Certain vehicles, horns, character accessories, clothes &... stupid dance moves can only be acquired by purchasing them with Forza Points (FP) from the Forzathon Shop. To earn points, the player must participate in a live group event that occurs randomly on the map. Everyone must participate to earn those points. But not to worry! There's nothing competitive about that event. It's similar to Burnout Paradise's online challenges if you ever played that game. As for the character appearance, the player will be greeted with a character customization menu at the beginning of the game with 14 character presets to choose from. The player can change their character at any time. As for clothes, outfits & accessories, a lot of them will be locked behind a completion system. But it can be unlocked with wheel spins & super wheelspins, which is some form of loot boxes that can be earned pretty quickly by just leveling up (Similar to the Overwatch loot box system, if you ever played that). Lastly, the player can also buy houses, mansions & even some old castles. They don't do much other than looking great or bragging rights and setting the player closer to the desired location on the map. Some will give special perks, however, like double Forzathon points or the ability to fast travel.

The game has no micro-transaction. There are no pay-to-win vehicles in the game. But yes, some paid vehicles from DLCs might be better & cheaper or even free upon purchases compared to what someone can get in the standard version of the game, but just so you know; "The only thing that matters is who is behind the wheel. ― Dominic Toretto".

As for the performance, I also own the game on the Microsoft Store & the difference between the two is significant. The game can have a few hiccups here & there if I'm multitasking too much. But it could be something to do with my crappy HDD or just the heat. I'm running this game on a 2018 gaming laptop, after all. I have to mention I only crashed once, which was during a loading screen right when someone was about to watch me play via Steam Broadcast. But overall, unlike some people who have mentioned a few crashed or massive stuttering, I have been playing hours just fine with a constant 60 FPS on High / Ultra (Custom preset).

Well, that's about it for now! I hope that this review was helpful to you! And I'm sincerely sorry for this wall of text! Feel free to comment down below if you want to know more about the game, or if you wish to correct something I said even though you probably own the game already & you're just a curious person! Either way, I appreciate it!

P.S: To play in a convoy with friends, you need the old "Xbox Console Companion" app.

When I first heard about this game in 2013, I was slightly annoyed & puzzled at the same time! Many people were overly excited even though there was no gameplay footage or enough info at the time other than the Teaser Trailer, with comments from people who said that this would be the game of the year or the best game ever created in the game industry. Well! The game is finally here, & let me tell you that this has been more than engaging. It's been amazing! Since I played, I can't seem to put that game down. The main story just keeps on giving! It's like watching a really good movie, & I had a lot of fun playing it. The main story has been really gripping.

For starters, I'm sure that most of you have heard about a large number of bugs in this game by now. I heard that The Witcher 3 was just as buggy at launch. However, I never played it. From my own gaming experience, I didn't encounter too many bugs, so I guess I'm one of the few lucky people. It seems that CDPR is quick on fixing bugs & listening to people.

You start by choosing your life path & create your character with a poor choice of tattoos & color for the eyes & hair. Shush! I'm picky with that sort of thing. The character's face can't be seen outside of the inventory menu, in mirrors, in photo mode & at the end of the game. But to some people, including myself, it's better than no options at all. (We were told & shown that we could see our character in cutscenes, but there's been none in the game so far, minus the endings. Maybe in future updates!) Also, there's no turning back for you, which means that makeup on your character's face will be permanent in 2077! You should keep an eye open for those friends of yours who might want to prank you in your sleep...

After about 30 minutes into the game, you turn out to be a mercenary who does various jobs for Fixers & activities for friends like races, shooting targets contest & help-out the NCPD clear out the streets from various crimes & from cyberpsychos. Sometimes you will also be asked to escort someone, deliver a package, or retrieve some item or evidence.

There's also a small collectible activity available, which requires you to tag or scan 20 Tarot Card graffiti scattered all over Night City. There's also a dozen pre-added crime scenes & story-teller scenes for legendary or iconic weapons & items, free vehicles & data shards (notes) for the player to pick up that shares a few interesting Easter eggs related to some well known movies & other video games, which is a nice touch.

The combat feels good, especially when filled with over 50 weapon types & dozens of Iconic weapons available in the game. Some are more loved than others, & even more when they also have weapon attachments available like different muzzles, suppressors, better sights & long scopes. Many weapons & attachments are available in various colors & paint jobs that might not be for everyone's cup of tea. But if you want to rock with a bright-pink futuristic AK-47 that carries a baby blue suppressor & a lime green scope for your flashy cyborg-killer, then that's a thing. Or if you prefer to shoot your enemies with your shiny-gold-looking shotgun & sniper rifle, that's also possible! Unfortunately, changing the color/skin of your weapon at will is not possible. No menu or NPC can do that for you, which is a shame.

There's a vast selection of clothes & head accessories for you to choose from, allowing you to dress your character how you want it & without gender restriction neither. Earrings aren't an option, since it's part of the character creation. Most jewelry like necklaces, bracelets is either tied to innerwear, outerwear, or a one-piece outfit. The next thing I'm not too fond of is the color options. Luck & patience is needed to find the right color, not to mention the armor's stats that go with it.

Fortunately! There's a crafting option allowing you to turn an uncommon or a rare item into a legendary item if you have the perks & attributes for it, & also to increase the DPS of pretty much all weapons & armor stats to match your character level. So you can stick with the same pistol you're carrying around since level 2 & still kick some butts with it!

There's something that could confuse some people at first since this game has 3 different level systems. First is your character's level, which will allow you to use stronger weapons & armors but also match enemies to your current level. The second is street cred, which is your reputation. A higher cred will give you access to better weapons, armors, cyberwear, vehicles & other items like mods & so forth. The third is the skill progression, which will increase based on actions you keep doing through the game. Like, performing multiple stealth takedowns will increase its progression & allow you to get some skill rewards like increase evasion by 3%, or give +1 perk point & decrease visibility to enemies by 10%, etc.

Vehicles play a significant role in this game. Despite the world map looking pretty small, it feels big even while driving 200 MPH down the road. Car handling varies from hypercars to sports cars & muscle cars. Muscle cars & sports cars drive & handle the best. As for motorcycles, I could only appreciate 2 types of motorcycles as the rest didn't feel that great. As of right now, there's no taxi/cabs you can take & that fancy train from the trailer is (at the moment) just for show. As for the AVs (flying cars), they aren't something you can drive. They only appear during missions.

A few side quests are tied to the main story, which could change the course of action & even the faith of the story. The same goes for the life path you start with, making life easier or more challenging for you if you were a Corpo, a Street Kid or a Nomad. Some dialogue options can be available to you based on your life path. The same goes for your attributes. High enough points in Cool can give you the option to suggest a better plan to take on an enemy territory.

The immersion & amount of details in this game always impresses me, like the News on TV & radio that shares details on what's been happening as you progress through the story. Or NPC near mission areas that talk about recent events the player might have caused. Or just the visual is sometimes shocking, making me wonder why the developers went that far just for that amount of detail, like the components under the cars.

This game has some ups & downs. Let's go back to the voice acting for a moment. It's more of a personal opinion than a fact. I did create both character genders, & I might be crazy, but I have the feeling that the protagonist was meant to be a female character in the producer's mind from the very beginning. Either that or the woman who voiced V was much more experienced than the man who did it. Sometimes, the result from the male version of V was underwhelming to me. The "expression" in the voice for a lot of dialogues was missing. Like during an intense mission from Act 1, I could detect the sadness & disturbance in the female voice. Early on into the game, a quick example with female V as a Corpo who will whisper to Frank sharing info about her boss who is in a tough spot. You can see Frank's facial animation & body language, which tries to listen carefully to V's whispering. But male V never whispered while sharing the same dialogue & Frank did the same animations for that whispering sequence. That didn't hit me the same way. But again, it might just be me.

Outside of the mission areas (free roam), the AI is terrible. Don't expect that to be like GTA or RDR2, as the developers seem to have put more effort into quest areas than anywhere else on the map. Certain action buttons like flipping a switch or sitting on a stool could use a larger hitbox. I often find myself having to wiggle my character or crosshair around.

Well, I believe that's pretty much it for now. I hope that my review was helpful to you! ♥

So, I will be recommending this game but at the same time... I won't. The biggest problem with this game is how overwhelming this game is. I played it when the game was brand new and I stopped because of all the micro-transaction and updates tossed at me that I had to buy in order to play them and get better. So at first the game wasn't really big. Eventually, I bought some of the DLCs and I completely stopped playing around Shadowkeep. A few updates later, I believe I completely stopped playing around level 1100. Today, it seems the cap is 2000 and straight away, a bunch of stuff was tossed my way with no clear direction on where to go, what to do. The game forced me into a mission for the new DLC like it does with every DLCs once they're fresh. I believe I did some of the The Witch Queen DLCs at some point, but I never bought it until now.

Today, I am looking at the map and I just don't have a clue about where to go next. I scratch my head asking myself, where did I left off? And so I decided to make a brand new character in the hope to clear some stuff from the map and help me figure out where to go but NOPE... Once the full world is revealed to me, it's just the same thing. My power level or light level is cranked to 1900 straight away but all my weapons and gear are so bad that if I dare step into the wrong campaign, I'll get my butt kicked in a matter of milliseconds.

But now, if we ignore the fact that the game is super overwhelming for a second, why do I recommend this game then? Well, first of all it was released in 2017, and the game still look amazing to this day and run buttery smooth compared to most games. There is a lot of support from the developers to this day, the new DLC for 2024 is positively praised so I will definitely get my hands on it once I get the chance. The voice acting is still pretty amazing, weapons are cool, armors are still really appealing and if you don't like certain armors you picked off the floor or a dead body or a chest, you can always replace the appearance with something else while keeping the stats of the current armor you're wearing. Unfortunately, you can't really do that with weapons. Some will let you change the appearance completely, mainly Exotic (yellow/gold) weapons. Stats can be a bit confusing however. Up to this day, I still can't tell which weapon is better. Sometimes I fire something that has near max impact but deal poor damage, then I get something that's low but deal over 100,000 damage and has much lower light level too! Someone will have to explain that one to me. I heard that there's some crafting mechanics in this game but I still can't figure out how.

So, outside of getting lost a lot... If you don't like when a game tells you what to do and where to go at all time, well, this game will be for you! At first, the game will pull your arm and you can't go anywhere but in the direction that the game is forcing you to go, but you can always leave from whatever you're doing to do other things regardless. You don't want to do that new DLC they're tying to shove in your face and tempt you to buy? You can just press start and go back to your ship or fast travel back to a location that you're familiar with and resume that new campaign another time.

Well, that will be all for now. I might edit this review once I have more time to play it and get the hang of it. I remember a portion of the story, but now I am completely lost so wish me luck! lol

When I first played this game on the Xbox 360 in 2008, it was not how I expected the game to be at all. So when I bought this game again on Steam, I knew exactly where I was getting myself into by playing this game again. But I felt like had to give it a second try with higher graphic quality & higher FPS.

This game is not your average Need for Speed game. This is the type of game for people who are completely new to racing games. That's all there is to it! For those who know what rubber band AI is, well the game doesn't have that. Or, if it does have that, then it's just for when I'm not in the lead because when I am, I can literally have multiple laps ahead of my opponents. For those who don't know what rubber band AI is, it refers to a feature of AI found in racing titles that are designed to prevent players from getting too far ahead of AI opponents. When done well, such AI can maintain a consistent level of challenge from the beginning of an event to the end. But this game clearly doesn't have that. I will explain a bit more about that below.

The progression is quite easy, too easy for my taste. Back in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, or Underground or Underground 2, Most Wanted (2005), even Rivals, I had to progress quite far through the game before I could unlock a few things such as a new area of the map, new vehicles, new upgrades, etc... In this game, a dozen races will allow the player to unlock ALL level 1 upgrades and even allow you to buy them all with the money earned. A little bit further down the road, I could finally change vehicle and I might be wrong but I don't remember paying for the vehicle, I simply took it. Also, the starter vehicles in other games such as in Need for Speed Underground 2 would be considered like crap, but in this game, it felt quite fast and handles pretty well for a starter vehicle. My second vehicle was a Lotus Elise, I bet I could pick something else to give myself some more challenges but I didn't, just to see what would happen and honestly, after driving this vehicle, nothing could even come close to beat me yet and I wasn't even trying! During a circuit race, I actually caught up with the last racers. A few more miles and I could reach the 2nd racer without breaking a sweat in a stock car! How is that possible in other Need for Speed titles? I have never seen that before. That's not what I call a challenging game at all.

The cops are way too easy as well. It doesn't feel like walking the dog like in Need for Speed 2015, but close. For those who know Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2005, well, a heat level 4 would be a bit scary in a low-end vehicle, but in this game, there's no difference. And on top of that, I can reach that heat level without progressing much through the game. In all honesty, I didn't play much, I probably played a few hours and I already got bored of the game. Anything I played that was racing games on the Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 in the early years felt much harder than this thing!

The races and events are too repetitive. Either I get a circuit race with laps, a sprint from start to the finish, a checkpoint race, a one-on-one race from start to finish, an event where I have to stay ahead of my opponent for one minute, another event where I have to be at 700 feet/200 meters ahead of my opponent to beat it, take down specific targets, or do a police chase.

I couldn't really drive around the map to get anywhere on my own, because the game constantly prompts me with a fast travel button to new events every time. I tried to use the world map, hoping there was a GPS or something, but every time I hit something, I just fast travel there any way which kinda sucks. The car customization is pretty much like what is seen in Need for Speed: Carbon, it's not the best but it's better than nothing I suppose. Although I don't really care about that.

Concerning the graphic quality and sound effects, I'd say I'm quite disappointed. I was unable to disable the motion blur, it's not as bad as in Need for Speed: Carbon but it's still pretty bad. As for the reflection on cars, that's very bad in my opinion. I had to set the option to Low because in my opinion High and Medium are excessive. It almost looks like every car got some kind of Chrome paint job and that's nasty. :| The soundtracks aren't exactly my cup of tea and there's no way for me to add or remove what I like and whatnot, so I'm kinda forced to just turn the music all the way down and play something else.

The handling was kinda bad until I started playing with the vehicle settings at the start of the game. It's extremely sensitive, feels like an extremely arcade-ish game. I didn't play the game much because honestly, it bores me to death already. Also because I remember a while back, a few vehicles could reach the 260 MPH/400 KMH in a matter of seconds and can still take turns at that speed without losing speed or handling like if physic doesn't exist in this game anymore. It was not really something I liked.

The story is very interesting as far as I can remember. The cutscenes are well done too, that's something many people will probably realize if they watch the video from the store page. But other than that, there's nothing else for me to say. I wouldn't recommend anyone to waste their time playing this game, just search "walkthrough" on YouTube, it's much better than actually spending money to play it. I like racing games, but this one is just awful.

Well, I hope this review was helpful! If there's anything else you want to know, feel free to comment down below and I will try to reply as fast as possible.

When I first saw this game, it was not how I expected after watching a few videos before I get my hands on it. The game is pretty easy to play at first. But if you rush things up without getting prepared first, you ended-up dying over and over again, surrounded by 20 mobs shooting you from every direction or stabbing you with stingers or swords. Or you ended up getting your butt handled by an AI player just randomly sliding in and kicking you in the face because you were not paying attention to your 6 or the mini-map due to how small it is.

The game is pretty much a third-person shooter rather than your average hack & slash RPG game until you can finally get your hand on a photon blade, then it changes everything. But if you're thinking about only carrying a sword with you as Kirito does, then you will be in for a big surprise once you realize that not every enemy are reachable from the ground. And don't think for a second that you can just jump and slash your enemies that way, because this doesn't feel like Devil May Cry when you do it. You can't defy the law of gravity when doing it as Dante or Nero does.

You can do a couple of activities and side quests to kill time and boredom such as bounty hunting, collecting bounties by eliminating some awfully mean AI players for money, experience points, weapons, accessories, blueprints for outfits and materials for weapon upgrades. Or becoming a player killer yourself by locating them on the map for experience, combat ranks, and money, etc. There are boss hunting missions that you can get from the PVE squadron and hunt down unique bosses. You can do a dungeon assault which involves shooting down or slashing everything inside to collect rare loot, tons of experience points and materials.

If combat becomes slightly boring for you, there's still treasure hunts. The world map is still pretty big after all. Somewhere on the map, there are a few treasure chests waiting for you to be looted in places you probably never thought looking.

You could always go on a date with your favorite original character and see what they think of you and your reputation. Buy or craft an outfit of your choice and gift it to somebody you would like to see wearing permanently or temporarily through the game.

The game itself got a pretty huge completion ladder for you to climb and keep you busy for a while. There's an affinity rank that you can increase for every original characters and also non-original characters to unlock some hidden events. Some can be pretty useless, but they're there for you to complete if you feel like completing every single thing in the game, no matter how useless they are. There's also various weapons, skills and gadget proficiency that you can increase as well to improve their efficiency.

You could always join a co-op mission with other players and go hunting unique bosses or engage yourself in a PVP against other players to show off your skills or see who's the best!

Edit:
With the new downloadable contents added to the game, I have to say that it's really completing the game this time. There's just so much stuff to do now, I don't know where to begin. The grind is real however. If you're hoping to get loots and materials easily, you will be disappointed.

Other than that, the game is not perfect. No games are perfect as far as I know. Sometimes you will encounter some bugs, especially for photon blade users. Switching from a firearm to a sword while aiming will get you stuck in an aiming position while wielding a photon blade. You can luckily fix this little issue by jumping or rolling. Charging towards your enemy at full speed with a certain skill while you're near to an obstacle like a wall or a rock can cause your character to be stuck in a falling state for an indeterminate amount of time, making you look like you're floating while moving around. It can be very annoying. Sometimes, skills won't active due to multiple reasons, costing you a cooldown anyway. The game doesn't like it when I tab out, causing some spike-lags and stuttering, leaving me with two choices, restart the game or deal with the pain which can also affect the gameplay greatly. Like while running, a random spike-lag occurring just at the right time could boost your running speed immensely until you stop running. And finally, the AI teammates. Their behavior is somehow questionable. Most of the time, they act like they know what they're doing, kicking butts and getting you back on your feet like some pro. But other times, if you are down, they tend to roll around your downed body even though nothing is attacking them. And there's a certain character which is a personal AI you will get at the beginning of the game. He or she is very particular, full of happiness and awkwardness most of the time. If you are down on the battlefield, this one will not just roll around you, but also take time to wave at you for some reasons. Fortunately, this can be changed from the AI emotions settings.

Before I end this review, I'd like to say that the game is in Japanese with English subtitles. If you are fluent in Japanese, then the game is very interesting to follow. But if you don't understand Japanese at all and you don't like reading subtitles, then you will be disappointed because there are about 60 hours if not more of pure voiced dialogs that you need to go through. You can always skip them all entirely with a single press of a button/key, but then you could miss some important or funny moments.

Well, I believe that's pretty much it for now. I think I covered the most important parts of this review. If there's anything I am missing, just let me know and I will try to add it here. Thank you for reading this review. I hope it was worth your while. Keep being awesome and have a fantastic day!