Recent reviews by May90

Another incredible game by Bioware. Set in a Chinese-inspired fantasy world built around martial arts and related philosophies, it features an absolutely breathtaking story full of plot twists and reveals, traditionally strong dialogues, amazing soundtrack and countless choices, moral and otherwise.

The story deserves a special praise. I haven't played many other games in which my interpretation of events was wrong so many times. You learn very early to not take anyone's word for granted, as all characters have their secrets and often aren't what they appear to be, even after you get to know them seemingly well. Layers upon layers of deception, of confusion, of investigation, that keep you engaged, wanting to discover the truth, wondering whether the truth even exists. The last 4 chapters are pure marvel, with some Planescape: Torment vibes.

If you like story-based games of any kind, get this game! Even if you don't enjoy the sticky action-based combat and somewhat shallow character customization, the story is likely to keep you playing - and to be left wanting more in the end. :)

This game is very similar to Deus Ex, only set in the modern times in a fictional vampire underworld. It is ugly, clunky, glitchy, has an atrocious combat - but at the same time, it offers a pretty deep story with a lot of memorable characters and extensive roleplaying elements (skills you choose for your character define what approaches are available to you; hacking computers, picking locks, persuading guards, brute-forcing your way through, detecting hidden items, sneaking through, etc.).

If you can look past the (significant) flaws and focus on the game's strengths, then you can find a decent atmospheric RPG with strong storytelling.

Amazing open-world game. It is very similar to the previous Fallout installments and to Skyrim, with some improvements and innovations.

If you are new to the series, Fallout games have everything you would want from an open-world game: vast world to explore, character progression, fun snappy combat, companions, crafting, housing, main story, main faction stories, quests with moral choices, conversations with various characters, well developed world with extensive lore, a large variety of factions, creatures and robots, a vast array of weapons, armor, consumables and raw materials. In addition, Fallout 4 features an experimental settlement building system and a hardcore Survival mode.

Survival mode is my favorite feature. It gives the game a new dimension, it is far more challenging than the Hardcore mode from Fallout: New Vegas, and the lack of free travel and the saving mechanic means that you will have to plan your travels carefully. The only issue is that the game is as bug-ridden as other Bethesda games, and since on Survival mode the manual save is disabled, you may lose quite a bit of progress to random glitches and freezes. I strongly recommend playing with one of the available save mods.

I also loved the feeling of progression. You start out extremely weak, struggling with fighting rats or dogs and having to fight humanoid enemies from stealth, but as your level and gear improves, you will grow more and more confident, and by the end you will be able to clear entire camps of elite enemies standing wide open. Some creatures, such as mutant behemoths or deathclaws, are very strong, and killing them the first time will feel like an achievement. Lack of the level cap means that you can potentially become as strong as you want, and the character progression never stops.

Settlement system is a mixed bag. Building settlements and tending to them is fun, but doesn't have much effect on anything in the game aside from the related quests, and the interface is very sloppy. I also can see how this system might annoy some players, as it takes time away from the exploration and questing. Luckily, you can ignore the system if you like for the most part.

Overall, the game is an improvement over Bethesda's previous titles. If you like open-world games, I strongly recommend it.

I usually do not leave negative reviews for anything and try to see something positive in every product I buy. But with this game, I can't help it.

The game tries to be a "party-based Diablo", but it fails miserably at it. The combat is very simplistic (left-click, wait for the enemies to die, move on) and makes Diablo feel like a game of chess. The leveling system is one of the most boring ones I've ever seen: your 3 stats and 4 skills grow naturally as you fight or cast spells, and all they do is allow you to use new spells and slightly increase your chance to hit - no active abilities, no auras, nothing. The level design is atrocious: you are going to fight the same copy-pasted groups of enemies for an hour in a long location consisting of copy-pasted corridors, then move to another similar location, and so on. The story is nearly non-existent, the lore entries are very scarce and don't give you much information about the world. All the characters are very forgettable, and the companions never say anything beyond the few lines the first time you meet them.

Overall, this game feels like a tech-demo for a decent engine that was sloppily put together by a bunch of programmers under extremely strict time constraints. It is probably the most generic and forgettable game I've ever played.

I will give the game credit for its visuals (pretty good for its time), music and certain technological innovations. Jeremy Soule did an amazing job, as always, and you will recognize the musical style from Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, KotoR, etc. I, however, don't think music and visuals can make up for the lack of... well, game.

P. S. The Steam version doesn't include the Legends of Aranna expansion. You can easily download and install it, thanks for this amazing guide:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1148174213

Best story in a video game I've seen, hands down. It even surpasses Planescape: Torment in some regards. The ending is superb, and the amount of details the writers put in the universe, the characters and the story is staggering.

The gameplay is also surprisingly strong. Where Planescape: Torment was built around conversations and most other elements weren't very well thought out, Tides of Numenera also introduces a complex system of interaction with characters and objects through using various skills, such as Smashing, Persuasion or Lore knowledge, and the amount of possible interactions is enormous. The interaction may fail, which sometimes leads to unpredictable (not necessarily negative) outcomes. These interactions are also the cornerstone of the combat system, where, aside from the usual attacks and spells, you can interact with objects nearby to damage or disable your enemies or to shield or heal your group, or sometimes you can talk to some of the enemy characters and convince them to lay down their weapons.

The soundtrack is amazing; I haven't checked, but I strongly suspect that the composer is the same as in Planescape: Torment, or, at the very least, he/she was strongly inspired by it. The visuals are dated and don't always match the narration, but the artists did an a good job with the engine and managed to create very atmospheric locations.

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My only points of criticism are the companions and the sound effects. The companions are by no means boring or poorly written, but somehow they aren't very memorable. Where Planescape: Torment had a flying skull, a naughty tiefling, a levitating burning man or a succubus keeping a brothel specialized on intellectual activities, Tides of Numenera has a bunch of humans (except for Oom; Oom is on par with his/its Planescape counterparts) with somewhat generic sub-stories. Sound effects are good on their own, but their volume isn't balanced properly, and every so often some annoying sound will dominate the background, making it difficult to read the dialogue lines without being distracted, or to feel immersed in the area.

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Overall, this is a perfect spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, with a lot of elements refined/improved. Precisely what I wanted from this game while waiting for it all these years, and frankly, much more than I hoped for from a Kickstarter project.

9.5/10

Just finished a completionist playthrough of this masterpiece, with no mods, on Legendary. 354 hours played, 71/75 achievements done, level 191 reached, all quests (except for a few radiant and bugged ones) are done, all locations are explored, all shouts (except for several bugged ones) unlocked... And I want more of Skyrim!

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This is by far the most comprehensive open world game I've ever played. Now, I won't say "the best" (too subjective), or "my favorite" (that goes to Witcher 3), or "the largest" (it is, but that's beside the point)... But "comprehensive". The game offers a mind boggling variety of activities to do. Exploring outdoors with beautiful and diverse scenery, clearing dungeons, caves and ancient burial grounds, crafting weapons and armor, brewing potions and enchanting items, talking to people in the world about everything, doing side quests, doing faction quests, doing the main and the civil war questlines, building houses... I can go on and on, let me just say that, unlike in MMOs, all these activities are enjoyable, they don't feel like an endless grind.

This is something Skyrim does extremely well: making your character feel alive, immersing you in the world. Most open world games fail to achieve it, instead throwing a barrage of goals at you and making you focus on accomplishing those goals much more than enjoying the virtual world. But in Skyrim, I always felt alive, living in a large "real" world with rich lore, interesting characters, fascinating companions and incredibly well drawn visuals. Once I was done with everything, ready to finish my playthrough, I once again went on to travel to a dozen of memorable locations, to enjoy the places I grew to love over hundreds hours for the last time. I barely remember any other game where I would do that.

I also must mention the artistic side of the game. The Elder Scrolls games have always had great visuals, sound effects and music, but Skyrim outdid all the expectations. The game looks incredible, even today, 5 years since the release (I know, Special Edition features enhanced visuals, compared to the original, but even so, it warrants mentioning); each city is individually drawn and is immediately recognizable, with incredible details, down to the guards wearing differently colored uniforms and houses built of different materials. Sound effects are very realistic; I liked sometimes just listening to the water running, because of how authentic it sounded. Music... The soundtrack is absolutely breathtaking even on its own, but it also perfectly fits the universe, adding to the immersion immensely.

Compared to the previous TES games (which I wasn't a big fan of, to be honest), the stories have grown significantly more deep and mature, and the dialogues are more specific to each character than in the past, where it felt like they were all written by the same person. While I can't say the main story was very original, it is the richness of the world nearby and the amount of mini-stories in it that make this fictional world feel so real. You talk to a character who lost his dog, then you find this dog and find out that its master is a powerful daedric lord, then you go in search of that daedric lord who is not satisfied with either of you and demands a tribute... This is just one example of how quickly a random conversation with an NPC may embark you on adventure with a lot of plot twists and reveals. And if that is not enough for you, you can always join the Dark Brotherhood and complete their questline - the conclusion will take your breath away.

I will finish the praise with mentioning the follower system, something the previous TES games severely lacked in. Unlike Morrowind and Oblivion, where you would wander completely alone or with some random unnamed follower, in Skyrim all followers are unique, recognizable and have some backstories. Well, not all of them; housecarls, for example, have pretty much the same dialogue lines, just voiced by different actors. But most followers have unique dialogues and sometimes some quests related to them, as well as combat focus (mage / light fighter / heavy fighter). You can also marry many different characters, including the majority of companions, which adds more to the already full roleplaying pot. You can adopt up to two children, and your family can live in any of the major cities, or in one of the three houses you yourself built on the countryside. All these also involve unique dialogues, with mini-lines ("Mommy, wanna play a game?" - "I'm too busy right now, my son." - "Aww.") which add to the feeling of family.

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Having said so much about the greatness of the game, let's not forget to mention the flaws as well. Unfortunately, the combat is still clunky, and although it is an obvious improvement over Morrowind and Oblivion, for the most part melee combat is just clicking enemies to death. The "radiant" (randomly generated) quests is a very lazy design, this kind of thing should not be featured in single player games, it is an ugly child of MMOs - luckily, there are not many such quests, and they can be safely ignored. The game is BUGGY, although that goes for all Bethesda games. The game is also extremely long: I know, it is not a flaw, but it does make life of us competionists a nightmare. The interface apparently wasn't very well adapted for PC use, and while it is easy to get used to it, sometimes certain dialogue options or items in the inventory are easy to misclick. Finally, the dragons, especially at early stages, are new cliff racers: they are too frequent, and the novelty and epicness of fighting these beasts quickly gives way to frustration and having to restrict oneself in fast-traveling, to avoid triggering the dragon encounters.

None of these flaws were a big deal for me, and they are far outweighed by the positives.

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In conclusion, Skyrim is definitely one of the best games I've ever played, and I recommend it to every single RPG fan out there. If you like RPG games and haven't tried Skyrim yet, GET IT NOW, or a bounty shall be placed on your head! I would recommend playing the previous two TES games first, since they will give you insight in the TES lore, and Skyrim does reference the events displayed there every now and then - but it is not necessary.

This game deserves 10/10, a true masterpiece.