Recent reviews by Defect

Incomplete, extremely grindy, very little character customization or agency. How do modern MMOs so consistently fail to learn from and improve upon their predecessors?

A beautiful sequel that manages to feel intimately familiar, and yet simultaneously, entirely novel.

Imagine, if you will, your first high school crush. She's the only thing that made your awkward, sweaty, acne-ridden freshman year worth remembering. Although she wasn't perfect, she was the first of her kind to make you feel a certain kind of way - a way that you have scarcely felt again since. You can still feel the shadow of that feeling, thinking back with nostalgia. Imagine, if you will, that that girl was Diablo 2.

For 20 years, you wade through swathes of hollow, vapid prospects, each of which fails to improve on your first love. You've begun to lose hope that you'll ever feel *that* feeling again. You wonder if it's even possible to reproduce those feelings - perhaps it's YOU that has changed? Despair sets in. Woe! But just as you reach the end of your rope, as though Providence herself were slapping you in the face for your lack of resolve, you finally discover it - Path of Exile.

Immediately, you can feel it. This game has it - that "je ne sais quoi" - whatever it is, it's the thing that all the others have lacked. It isn't just what you've been looking for all these years, it's so much more. This girl isn't just intoxicating, she's enrapturing; not just beautiful, but intelligent. Yes, like most other women, she's complicated - in fact, even more than most - but she wears her complexity with sophistication. She's hot, but she's classy.

That's what Path of Exile is - the girl you want to bring home to meet Mom. A gender- (or genre-) defining masterpiece. Rejoice, you fans of ARPGs; your soul is not broken; you can indeed enjoy the genre again; hope is restored. Praise be to GGG.

One of the finest single player RPG's ever made. Though it suffers a reputation for being "that one really hard game", it has so much more to offer than a challenge. Dark Souls sets the bar for world design and ambience, and both hold up wonderfully nearly 10 years after release. Give it a chance - you won't regret it.