Recent reviews by misterfish

I'm currently playing through TL3 because I already bought it so I feel like I should. I've been playing since the early Alpha and have played through the Beta and Early Access, for what that's worth.

When a friend asked me what I thought of the game, I said "it's fine." A couple of hours later, a review on Kotaku was subtitled "it's just fine." TL3 is another ARPG - there isn't really anything there that sets it apart that significantly and to echo some of the sentiment from the Kotaku review, there are parts of the game where it really drags. I think there were some cool ideas planned when TL3 was previously slated to be Torchlight Frontiers but I think many of the changes from TLF to TL3 retracted some of those things and make it feel slightly more cookie cutter.

In my opinion, one of the features that almost helped to differentiate character customization a bit was the addition of relic subclasses. Having a permanent - but selectable - third skill tree provide some interesting character builds conceptually, though I think in practice it just feels like a slight augmentation. Because there's no direct synergy or skill milestones between those relic trees and the standard character trees, the end result is a handful of additional skills that feel like they're just tacked onto your class. Sure, you can create a build that centers itself around those reilc trees more than other builds but even then, I haven't felt like those relic-centric builds have created a new identity that feels unique and cool. While the relics could potentially have upped the replay value of making multiple characters of the same class, I ultimately find myself having zero motivation to do that.

Also, this is a gripe that's somewhere between relatively small to relatively large depending on your personal priorities, but you can't pause the game when you're playing in Single Player. I can't quite say I understand that. I've also been playing SP because I currently have a baby at home so being able to pause at a moment's notice would be an enormous perk so not being able to is sort of a downer.

One of the last things I'll touch on is gear and itemization. First of all, while tangentially related, items are worth the same amount of gold regardless of level. Greens and Blues are worth 30g and 60g, respectively, whether they're item level 1 or 60. This static valuation goes hand-in-hand with the fact that none of the items I got ever felt exciting. There are legendaries and there are sets but none of the unique effects from those ever made me feel like "wow, these are really cool." As you level, you get three "legendarium" slots, similar to D3 Kanai's Cube, but I found myself struggling to choose which three to use because I didn't especially want any of them. Suffice to say, TL3 legendaries and set bonuses lag way behind those in D3 or POE in their ability to alter or even create their own builds.

If someone was asking me for an ARPG recommendation, I'd go with POE for $0 instead of TL3 for whatever it currently costs. Unfortunately, I'd also recommend something like Grim Dawn first and probably D3. TL3 has a lot of potential but, at least at the time of this review - its potential is unrealized and leaves an overall underwhelming feeling.

I wanted to like Othercide. The art style is unique and immediately got me interested in the game. Games with roguelike-elements are all the craze right now and I'll admit that I've been hooked on them as of late. So Othercide seemed like a natural fit: rpg elements, perks of sorts, skill choices, etc.

It was fun briefly. The class design seemed cool on the surface and the system of attack interrupts and reactions was pretty neat. But only getting a new skill every 5 levels made the novelty of the character classes feel stale at a pretty quick rate. There are probably 4-6 mission types (excluding boss encounters), which have some unique objectives but after the first few times doing them, they all start to feel pretty similar. Doing those individual mission types multiple times starts to feel even more repetitive pretty quickly. The meta perks that you can unlock are sort of nice but don't change anything radically enough to distinguish themselves.

Ultimately, I didn't end up finishing the game. I tend to be a bit of a completionist with games so I fear that says something about how well it was able to hold my interest.

I'll start by saying that Hades is my favorite game of 2020, including both single-player and mulitplayer games. I feel comfortable saying that its polish and content rival - if not exceed - what is offered by some $60+ AAA titles. I bought the game while it was still in early access and it has, by far, been the most engaging and fruitful early access experience that I've seen. Hades jumps on the bandwagon to partake in the roguelike party that's been going on for some time now and its execution shows how powerful smaller game companies can be in moving the needle.

Through and through, Hades undeniably delivers what has come to be expected from Supergiant: a clean and unique art style, engaging dialogue/story and music (bonus points for effectively leveraging Greek mythology), lively gameplay, and a wide array of unlockable content to enhance your experience (including both cosmetics and talents/perks).