Recent reviews by Applecrow

Imagine if someone made a game and pre-installed every mod from every rpg ever made, and that is Crimson Desert.

The tutorial is too short for you to really learn the controls, until you realize the first 4-5 hours of missions are still the tutorial.

I highly recommend watching a breakdown of the controls and perhaps even some primers on the other systems.

After that...expect to invest a lot of time in this game because it is BIG. The story is pretty standard but the world is fleshed out to a ridiculous degree.

Loving this little gem! Especially enjoying the music and of course supporting a first-time game dev!

The premise hooked me and the game does a great job of making you feel trapped in an inescapable situation where you have to master yourself and your environment to survive.

I hope they re-release the demo so more people on the fence can get a real look at the game. I would avoid watching playthroughs as it feels like things in the game could easily be spoiled.

After finishing the game and getting the secret ending...wow. I'd put this in the number 4 slot of best Indy story after the original trilogy. If you are an Indiana Jones fan you absolutely need to play this game.

This feels like an Indy adventure, action, puzzles, one-liners. It can get a bit slow in some of the open world areas but Indy's journal will keep you on track.

There are still some very annoying bugs that can pop up especially when the game opens up and allows the 'travels' sections. Most of them are just auditory cues that keep getting repeated. None of them are game breaking, and one of them near the end kind of works as a hint to come back to where you are later rather than trying to figure it out then.

The characters and voice acting are top notch, and Voss is a great villain for Indy.

Don't be deceived that this is an xcom style game, its more of a story driven puzzle game in an Xcom style. You can brute force your way through but the real trick is learning the rules of each level and optimizing your actions and turns.

2nd EDIT: Victory Helldivers! Sony relented (for now) in their PSN requirement for PC gamers, so I can go back to recommending this game because it truly is a modern masterpiece.

EDIT: I have to change my review to negative considering the tactics Sony is using to force users to create a PSN account to play a PC game...especially considering they sold the PC version in areas where users cannot create such an account.

I have a psn account so this didn't effect me, but we all need to take a stand so those tactics don't start becoming standardized.

I don't have time to write this review as its cutting into my playtime. Just buy it for democracy!

I played for 9 hours straight after buying it, safe to call it addictive.

Sometimes you just want a job that you click a button and its done right and you don't have to deal with being sandwiched between people who won't do their job and people who won't do their job and also wont get rid of the other people who won't do their job and keep asking you to take care of things that aren't your job, and then don't bring you in on the planning for the things that ARE your job, so no matter how much you enjoy doing your part of the work you hate going to that job because you have no idea what ludicrous ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you will have to deal with that day. And when you take serious concerns up the chain, they beg you not to quit because the work environment is causing them to hemorrhage talent.

Anyway, this is a game that makes cleaning cathartic and relaxing.

If you love Robocop, you're probably going to love this game.

Sad to say, because I am enjoying the game, but.

but, but, but. There are just so many things that Bethesda hasn't improved on and Starfield shows they never will. Again we have a game left to modders to fix. We have massive upgrades to the facial resolution but with seemingly zero updates to the facial animations leaving the speaking characters looking like some nightmarish android future. And yet, some of the faces seem well done while most don't so its like they started working on it and then gave up.

In fact that's how a LOT of this game feels, like they started working on something great and then just meh'd out and launched it.

The writing for the main plot is amateur DM levels of scripting, and then you'll come across a sidequest that just nails the immersion and atmosphere you are wanting from a game like this. The companion designed to be an (optional) annoying clinger-on is actually one of the better companions both mechanically and hell just to have around.

Exploration seems tedious and while the visuals are great, there's always that nagging realization that you are on a holodeck-like limited grid, not an actual open world.

Ship design was my most anticipated feature and while that aspect is cool, your ship is nigh pointless because you can fast travel everywhere. Sorry, ALMOST everywhere. If you land on a planet you still have to hike to the locations, because your only actually fly your ship in the space mini-game. And no, there are plenty of bugs, but no buggies to drive around in a self-styled Nasapunk exploration game.

Combat feels like a push-pull of keeping your weapons and perks up-to-date all while making enemies bullet spongy AND severely limiting how much ammo is available. I found a nice shotgun, turns out vendors that sell that type of ammo generally have 12 in stock. 12. That's two reloads worth. Oh, and ammo isn't cheap, there are like 20 kinds of ammo even though you keep finding the same 5-6 guns off random mobs, and weapon mods are destroyed if you switch them out.

I could keep going; suffice to say the biggest problem with Starfield is that it feels like some upstart indie studio tried to make a Bethesda-clone in space and did a pretty good job of mimicking it with some freshman errors and some promise for future titles or maybe even fixes in the future.

EXCEPT

This isn't some upcoming dev, its a freaking AAA developer who spent a decade on this. The art really shows, the music and sound are top notch even if I absolutely hate the in-town music. They weren't re-inventing any wheels like No Man's Sky or Star Citizen are trying to do, and they failed at the wide scope Elite set out for and as for writing, Outer Worlds is much better.

That alone is just mindblowing. Starfield really drives home Bethesda's 'let the mods fix the game' as corporate dogma. And it can't be let off the hook for that. That's why I can't recommend this game.