Recent reviews by ¡Pøndø!

Camera Obscura is a puzzle platformer game that utilises photography as its core concept. What makes is stand out from the crowd is that the player isn’t limited to using built-in platforms, instead using a camera to create a temporary, solid image of the base layout to pave the way further. That’s pretty much it, but you really don’t need more here.

THE GOOD

• Photo shooting as the main mechanics is not something I’m familiar with, especially when it’s used to reshape the world instead of just capturing the views. When you use your camera, the current layout of platforms and obstacles is copied. The copy becomes a still, interactive image that gives you extra surfaces for a couple of seconds. This usually gives you multiple ways to beat a level, eschewing the linearity of solutions most games within the genre go with. The game is a great blend of platforming and puzzles, where you can test your dexterity, cleverness and reaction time. The difficulty level progresses at a proper pace, allowing you to hone your skills without throwing you into the deep end.
  
• There is a replayability factor in form of medals for finishing a level in a certain time limit, as well as mementos, which serve as collectibles that uncover bits of the story behind the protagonist and what motivates her to rush towards the danger that lurks in the mysterious tower you’ll be visiting. The medals and unorthodox mechanics make the game a decent choice for speed-running. And if you’re a trophy hunter, there’s a lot of hidden goodies to find when you take alternative routes instead of the shortest ones.
  
• There is a story in here. It’s not obligatory to follow and you won’t be missing on any information crucial to progressing if you don’t. Still, it’s a good addition, serving as a nostalgic background to the protagonist’s journey, and thanks to its inclusion, there’s four different endings you can get.
  
• In case you’re already done with your playthrough and want to challenge yourself further, there’s a built-in level editor and a level sharing tool. All your craziest ideas may come true with a little bit of work, and all your photography-related nightmares may materialise into reality with heaps of downloadable levels from the community creators.
  
• The game is laughably cheap. For two bucks you get to spend enough hours in game to call it a shameless steal. I honestly don’t get the price tag, it’s crazy! The madness!

THE BAD

• You can shape the world accordingly to your needs, but there are times (not often, fortunately) where you have to be overly precise with both the camera and movement. Considering that the layout copies only stay for a little while, it can be irritating to lose its perfect positioning because of one nanometre between you and success. This may lead to some frustrations, especially in case of people who aren’t particularly patient and/or skilled in platforming.
  
• Photo shooting is a great mechanics. But it’s also the only mechanics. Whilst with each level the game continues to get more and more challenging, you’ll be testing the same skill over and over again. Personally, I enjoyed it, but at the same time I can clearly see it as a completely legitimate reason to call the game monotonous.
  
• In a game that invites you to try speed-running its levels, it’s unforgivable to not have a timer. And Camera Obscura doesn’t have one. You can only see your run time after having finished a level, which goes strictly against the very idea of speed-running. This lack of means of comparability can leave you with a feeling of wasting the time you could spend on another try.

OVERALL
Great idea for the mechanics, good execution of said idea, a couple of issues that don’t take away from the overall enjoyability, decent retro-esque visuals, and a satisfying story that’s playing a background role. Camera Obscura is a nice game for puzzle enthusiasts and for those who love platformers – with emphasis on the former. There’s multiple ways to play it and technically endless opportunities for a challenge, with the level editor. The game’s not reaching to perfection and may seem too simple or lacking in flavour for some people, but you still get much more than what you’d usually get for such a price.

Ten years of development hell and too many lead writers after Dragon Age: Inquisition, we finally got our hands on the fourth game in the series. I’m certain anyone who happened to follow its development cycle was shocked that it’d actually come to be. But it did, putting players in the shoes of Rook, a nobody whom more important people recruited to spare the world from Solas – an elven god who got so annoyed by losing the rights to the game’s subtitle that he decided to turn up the evil to 11. And now Rook is forced to embark on a dangerous adventure to solve tasks ranging from mundane to wildly epic, gain favour of powerful factions spread across Thedas, and engage in other kinds of everyday business.

It’s a mixed review, by the way.

THE GOOD

• What I love about the Dragon Age series is that each game offers a distinct style of gameplay. From the tactical combat of Origins, through animesque whatever-it-is in the second game, to a bag of everything in Inquisition, we now delve into the territory of pure action. It’s a completely fresh approach, very different from anything we’ve seen in the series, giving Veilguard a unique flavour of combat. The overall pace is increased and there’s multiple fighting styles to choose from.
  
• My first glance at the skill wheel induced a momentary nightmare, but it turned out to be more intuitive and simpler than initially expected. Instead of being forced to reach more powerful skills or specialisations (three per class) through a fixed set of upgrades, you can pave your path more freely. Also, for those of you who can never decide on upgrades, the game provides you with infinite, free respec at any time.
  
• Every explorable region in the game brings its own, unique atmosphere. You can enjoy quite a variety of cultures, political climates, histories and social issues. Each nation is has its own exclusive climate with its own beauty and ugliness. Since we’re at it – bonus points for the Photo Mode, but more on the graphics later on.
  
• The main story is fine. It gets somewhat lost among the companion arcs, but since they are strongly intertwined, it’s not a big deal. It reaches the levels of epicness never seen before in the series, but also speaks of down-to-earth things when necessary. It’s not very surprising or innovative, but moves quite gracefully between too cliché and too left field.
  
• If you’re a sucker for Dragon Age lore, rejoice, for Veilguard expands it significantly. Many of the past mysteries become clear(er), uncertainties get clarified and completely new areas of Thedas knowledge are added. If you’re new to the series but want to sink your teeth in its lore, there’s a high chance of being overwhelmed at first, but if you’re patient and willing, you’ll eventually see a world packed to the brim with eventful history.
  
• Hanz Zimmer and Lorne Balfe blessed Veilguard with an extraordinary soundtrack. Always most fitting to the mood, it emphasises each and every important moment of your adventure, working perfectly with whichever emotion the game tries to kindle in you.

THE QUESTIONABLE

• Art style. Art directors abandoned the realism ship, instead hopping on the train to Cartoon City. Landmarks, panoramic views or city streets look good enough to justify this decision, but if you take a closer look at characters, you may notice that facial animations are odd and their movement is very wonky. On the other hand, the environments are detailed and cutscenes are decent.
  
• Companions, which are among the most important aspects of a good RPG, are nowhere near as interesting as in any previous Dragon Age game. There are moments in which all seven of them seem to share a single, kind-hearted, goodie-doer personality happily engaged in a nigh impossible task set before them. No meanies with hidden motives or an ugly history. Just a bunch of regular folks. But setting aside that calm heroic facade uncovers seven individuals with human struggles and distinct motivations to do good. It’s not a bad thing that Veilguard focuses strongly on the single most personal side of companions, but unfortunately it also leaves the impression of them being one-dimensional. Also, romances suck butt.
  
• In character creator you choose one of six factions operating in different regions of Thedas to fill in Rook’s backstory. Sounds great until you learn it means little to nothing. Yes, there’s dialogues and progression options based on the chosen faction, but these moments are so scarce you can barely notice their influence on the game. Still, it’s a nice little touch to finish out your character, but not an important one.

THE BAD a.k.a. THE WRITING

• What keeps the story from being actually very good is its linearity and the way it’s handed to you. Quests almost exclusively progress through crucial characters appearing out of nowhere, having (obviously) overheard your conversation, carrying the very last piece of information you desperately need at the moment, or papers exposing the whole truth behind your enemies’ evil schemes, left in the most ridiculous and visible places. On top of that, your companions often possess knowledge they shouldn’t in any possible iteration of history of Thedas. It’s obvious that you need to progress somehow, but is there really no other way than treating the player like a dumb, dependent child?
  
• The dialogues range from serviceable to awful. It’s unbelievable how every type of response you give leads to the same outcome anyway. The player has too little impact on how conversations go, because most interactions with your companions inevitably lead to a friendly banter, regardless of Rook’s attitude. Sarcasm is the closest option to aggression you’ll get, and that usually comes out funny, not intimidating. And lastly, many dialogues are about the exact same thing, almost like the writers needed to fill in extra fifty thousand words and had no more ideas.
  
• Boss fights are less about destroying evil and more about trying not to die of cringe. Every encounter with an enemy who’s able to talk is a struggle against the incessant yapping of the most stereotypical, edgy evil-doer. It’s clear as day that you’re fighting the bad guys, they don’t need to repeat it every couple of seconds to the point of actually being exhausting. But they do, emphasising that in Thedas you’re either stupidly good or ultimately evil, nothing in between.
  
• As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it saddens me to see what a great disservice Veilguard does to non-binary people through a certain character: they are hands down the worst written companion in the whole series, and to no extent it’s because of their gender identity. It’s because they’re presented as a character with almost no personality, nothing interesting to say, uninteresting background and an annoying habit of telling people who they are despite themselves hating to be categorised. It’s great to have a non-binary character in the roster. It’s a shame that this is the only quality they bring to the table, and that’s not how caring for inclusiveness works.

THE WORST

• There’s a critically low number of dwarves in this game. Unforgivable, 0/10.

OVERALL
Two steps back as an RPG, and then two forward as an action game. It’s clearly different to what the previous games were, which isn’t a bad thing in itself. But it’s also vastly different from what was expected. I enjoyed venturing through the dark bogs of Anderfels and tropical beaches of Rivain. My thirst for fresh Dragon Age lore has been sated for a long time. I fell in love with Rook, my super cool dwarven warrior. The combat was engaging. But it just doesn’t feel like I actually played a Dragon Age game, you know? I got my money’s worth and I had fun, but I expected way better from Bioware. Get it when it’s on a sale (and that's soon, eh?)

Whether you guys have phones or not, Diablo IV is here – the continuation of an acclaimed hack and slash franchise drags players back to Sanctuary, the evil-ridden home of humankind. This time the series took a fresh turn and put focus on a new, but equally twisted antagonist – Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto, Lord of Hatred himself. And where there’s evil, there’s the hero of Sanctuary, ready to slice billions of demons into miniscule pieces.

Please mind that this review was written in late December 2023, that is more than 6 months after the game’s initial release and after multiple patches and content additions.

THE GOOD

• The good old hack and slash formula that makes the genre accessible and enjoyable is clearly the heart of Diablo IV. There’s legions of monsters to slay, there’s powers to gain, items to collect, tasks to fulfil and – most importantly – an opportunity to mash your mouse buttons into inexistence. The game isn’t groundbreaking in its mechanics and rehashes many ideas from the previous instalments, but thanks to this there’s not much to be iffy about. You have a large set of skills to choose from, items and talents that improve your survivability or damage output, potions with varying, long-lasting effects, shrines granting temporary boosts… everything you know from the previous Diablo games or other titles in the genre.
  
• After a rather candy colour take on visuals and the overall atmosphere in Diablo 3, we’re back to doom and gloom from the previous titles. The aura is heavy, but not off-putting. Sanctuary is presented as a hopeless world filled to the brim with darkness and corruption, where everything can potentially become a threat to all life. At the same time, said dreariness – in terms of both graphics and mood – is very well balanced to avoid going too far and thus becoming less believable or more ridiculous.
  
• There’s five classes to choose from – Druid, Sorcerer, Rogue, Barbarian and Necromancer – and each has access to several unique skill sets allowing you to create many interesting builds. There aren’t really skill trees to avoid if you want to stay relevant in late game, and even if you find your choices unsatisfying, you can spend a little gold to reset skill points. After reaching level 50 (out of 100), you start gaining paragon points instead that can be spent to boost primary and secondary stats as well as performance of your character’s skills. Overall, there’s quite much variety in terms of classes and builds to satisfy many players’ needs.
  
• Seasons that change every couple of months introduce fresh mechanics in form of unique powers, items and their properties, dungeon rewards, enemies, cosmetics or hour-long hunts with event-specific tasks. Even if you’ve already gone through most the game has to offer, there’s always more waiting in the next Season – and it goes beyond just a couple of small additions. What’s more, there’s also other events (like the Christmas-themed one) that run independently of the Seasons, bringing in even more extras to the gameplay.
  
• It’s not a given in Diablo series, but the story is really good. Not only that, it’s also cohesive, both expands and borrows from the existing lore and gracefully guides you through five regions of Estuar, the eastern continent of Sanctuary. Lilith is by far the most intriguing and complex antagonist the series has ever introduced, and following her trails as well as unfolding new mysteries that shook Estuar to its core is a great, dark and lengthy journey. And if you’re not interested in the plot, you can skip the campaign and go full freelance instead.
  
• There’s dozens of extra dungeons, hundreds of side quests, strongholds to conquer and hidden structures to keep you occupied in between waves of monsters. Not only do they individually provide permanent, realm-wide bonuses, but also contribute towards the Renown of your character, granting extra boosts as a thank you for exploring the vast lands of Sanctuary. It’s a great nod towards completionists and a reward for their commitment.

THE WHO CARES

• Season Pass and micro-transactions reinvigorated people’s need to complain about the company’s greediness and whatnot. While I do agree that having already paid a lot of money should grant players all the goods, the in-game shop items and Season Pass rewards are so insignificant I find it hard to justify the negativity. It’s all cosmetics, and believe me, it’s difficult anyway to notice them when you’re shredding through monsters with lightnings, knives and magic missiles swirling like crazy all over the place. The game is fully enjoyable without spending an extra penny.

THE NEUTRAL

• The endgame is quite lacking. Even though the amount of extra challenges you can then take on is rather satisfying, it all quickly becomes barely relevant, for technically there’s not much else you can earn. These high-level options are devoid of actual motivators that fill the game’s earlier stages. If you want to obtain desired items or powers, you don’t need to engage in endgame at all – a little luck is all you need. The thing is, you can sink hundreds of hours in the game before reaching that point, so you definitely get your money’s worth anyway.
  
• Supposedly all that’s good comes with a cost (someone smarter than me definitely said that at some point) and Diablo IV is pricey. I’d say it’s worth it, but at the same time I’m aware that this is not the money you just get to throw away casually. I definitely recommend reading or watching more materials about the game before making a purchase.

THE BAD

• It’s technically a single player game that’s also online-only. You can meet other players on your adventures, but it happens so rarely it’s confusing when it actually happens. What you cannot do is decide whether to play on your own or not. There’s no way to opt out of multiplayer features (the least interesting parts of the game in my opinion) or even play the game at all without the Internet connection. Supposedly the company’s reasoning behind the implementation of an online-only system was to avoid cheating in PvP, but considering the dubious popularity of PvP in Diablo games that may be among the lamest excuses I’ve heard in a long while.
  
• Items are a vital part of any hack and slash games and unfortunately, Diablo IV still has some work to do in this department. Item diversity is rather poor as it comes to their properties, linear upgrade options and very limited enchanting allowing you to change only a single property of an item. You get to obtain legendary items quite early in the game so there’s nothing really extraordinary about them and items of unique rarity – that’s one above legendary – are often not that impressive. There’s also no item sets. Supposedly they are to be added at some point, but it hasn’t happened yet.
  
• Crafting exists, but in its current form it’s very basic and boring. You gather all resources via scavenging or killing enemies and then just trade them with certain merchants to get what you need. Long story short: crafting is just buying with resources other than gold.

OVERALL
Despite the negativity surrounding Blizzard and its still swelling pile of bad stuff, I think Diablo IV should be given a chance. It’s a very solid game, a great addition to the series and a worthy successor for the previous titles. The level up mechanics are simpler than in Diablo II, but many others are added or expanded. The atmosphere went back to gloomy after a more light-hearted Diablo 3. The story is exceptionally good for the series, the cutscenes are breathtaking, the sonic layer is great. There’s enough to provide you with hundreds of hours of fun. The game’s not perfect, but it’s still developing with frequent updates and patches. If you’re a fan of the series, you should definitely check it out.

12 Is Better Than 6 is a top-down shooter game. Following in the steps of titles like Hotline Miami, it throws you into the dangerous world of crime as a ruthless man ready to set certain things straight. This time you’ll visit late 19th century southern USA and its deserts, find yourself between several conflicted parties and set off for a personal journey, leaving behind a trail of corpses.

THE GOOD

• The grey scale + blood red aesthetic is arguably the game’s most standout feature. The visuals are clearly more on the basic side, but the hand-drawn styling combined with a simple colour palette actually turns this into an asset. Visual simplicity and overall brightness work great with the theme of hot desert areas filled with nothing but rocks and bandits. It’s not all just a couple of shaded lines and circles, though. The menus, user interface or dialogue windows exemplify that the artists working on this game knew exactly what they were doing – play areas are meant to be clear, while the moments of respite show a vastly different picture, but still within the same stylistics.
  
• You don’t often get to see a game with a setting 12 Is Better Than 6 offers. It’s a late 1800s Western story that follows the tracks of a Mexican man that lost crucial parts of his memory and embarks on a quest to regain it. The game doesn’t make it easy for you to recognise whether you’re just a lost soul trying to discover its past or a murderous villain mowing down hundreds of bandits and innocents alike with no intent to stop until you’re knee deep in trouble. There’s a sense of mystery and the supernatural that the narrative makes seem believable despite it not being explicitly shown as anything beyond faith. It intertwines the fates of different people, showcasing semi-historical disparities in their social statuses and backgrounds. It’s an interesting setting that could be further worked on to create something really unique.
  
• At first I found it a little jarring that a game set in late 1800s gets a set of very modern, electric guitar-driven tracks, but then some tracks turned it around for me (“Espiritus del Diablo” is absolutely banging!). Not saying that the soundtrack doesn’t include some misses, but its overall quality is high enough for it to belong in “The Good” category.

THE UUH?

• If you’re one of these people that struggle with telling friend from foe, you will have a couple of awful flashbacks from your previous experiences in the field. At certain times you’ll enter an area with no prior knowledge on its inhabitants and their attitude towards you. Sometimes you’ll get a point blank shot to the face, you know, and other times you’ll try to do the same only to learn that you’re actually among your own kin. Fortunately it’s nothing too serious here, since you will never find yourself among both parties at the same time. Still, they could’ve at least given them different hats.

THE BAD

• THE flaw of 12 Is Better Than 6 is that can only trick you into believing it still has something more in store for 20-30 minutes max. That’s when it becomes a tedious, repetitive chore. An almost complete lack of enemy diversity, stages comprising of near identical environments, a linear gameplay and only a few available weapons – that also play very similarly – makes it a helluva boring ride. It took me around 5 hours to finish this game and get all of its achievements (that required a bit of replaying), and even that felt like infinity. New levels don’t introduce new mechanics, threats, win or lose conditions. Not to mention that out of four available ranged weapons, three are unrecognisable when it comes to their effectiveness or range.
  
• Replenishing ammo hasn’t been this unnecessarily annoying since a long time ago. Forget the good old walking over a mag to pick it up – to turn up the immersion to 11, it’s been decided that you’ll have to grab a weapon from the ground, empty its clip, then go back to pick your original weapon, reload it and pick the (not any more) surplus ammo from the ground. Learning this wasted a relatively huge chunk of my playtime only to get more frustrating when I got an option to dual wield revolvers, because that pretty much doubles the amount of moves you need to make in order to get a couple of bullets.
  
• Speaking of upgrades, there’s five of them and most (that’s three of four, you decide) are completely negligible. There’s even two that are occasional downgrades: one takes away control over the use of dynamite, which for me turned out detrimental more often than not, and the other – the one you obtain almost at the end of the game – is the aforementioned double wielding which is just unnecessary and for these last minutes changes what you’ve learnt about aiming, shooting and reloading (which isn’t as simple as it seems).
  
• The AI is dumb as an average non-magical headless horseman. Which is dumb, because a headless horseman is dead and dead horsemen aren’t particularly smart, eh? Well, your enemies often end up just as dead after simply rushing towards you at the first opportunity, using only the shortest path available, even if it means walking through a pile of fresh corpses of their comrades. Sometimes they try to shoot you through an indestructible obstacle, emptying their clips for nothing. If you want to break through a window, don’t hesitate, for no one will ever hear it. The game is advertised as a mix of shooting and stealth – in reality the latter is utterly unnecessary, since failing it yields little to no consequences whatsoever.
  
• Camera works on a whole new level of butt. Field of view is so excruciatingly small it actually is the most challenging factor in the whole game. It’s one thing to test a player’s reaction, but in some cases 12 Is Better Than 6 takes it way too far by making your enemies see you before they even appear on the screen. Also, someone decided that the camera will slightly skew to the sides when you move and I’m not joking when I say it made me a little nauseous before I got used to it.
  
• The story begins curiously, with a tint of mystery on top of a pile of a slave’s everyday struggles. There’s a mix of drama, hopelessness and murder hobo tendencies. For a while it’s possible to follow it, when you meet new people, discover new truths and form one horrifying plan after the other. But then it just derails and never goes back to even the slightest resemblance of cohesion. It twists and turns, getting filled with more and more characters you couldn’t care less about, as well as situations and events that feel totally out of place. All of it delivered with terrible, unfunny dialogues and an overall bad writing. Additionally, the story ends so abruptly I thought I accidentally skipped a significant portion of it, but nope, that was not the case.

OVERALL
It’s not a terrible game, but apart from unique aesthetics it doesn’t bring anything memorable to the table. Just a couple of short levels in you’ll have already reached the point of repeating the same thing over and over again. The game then becomes a bore fest wits its empty surroundings, awkward shooting and reloading mechanics, almost inexistent mechanical diversity, bad camera work, even worse dialogues and a fragmented, confusing story that ends with a whimper. It’s a short title that can be finished in a single session, but then, why bother – with multiple other, equally inexpensive games within the genre, this one is close to pointless.

After eight years of development, the first new Bethesda IP since approximately the Bronze Age, arrives to take you right to the infinite Space. Starfield is an ambitious action role-playing game about space travel and exploration, dangerous knowledge, forming unexpected alliances, obtaining valuable resources and forging your own path through the vast universe... and many other half-baked ideas.

Treat this review as mixed. Valve, it's almost 2024, where's mixed reviews?

THE GOOD

• Starfield offers a wide array of activities that tick many boxes in gaming. In its core it’s a title about exploration, wandering from one star system to another to gather valuable data through survey, decimating space pirates and solving the mysteries of the universe, all of it sprinkled with a pinch of roleplay. But there’s also resource management in form of planetary outposts and research that furthers various types of crafting, starship workshop and piloting with space combat, fulfilling tasks provided by factions and NPCs, mining and collecting samples of alien flora, and so on. There’s much going on gameplay-wise and most of these features fall on the more accessible side of the spectrum. Many are pretty simple as well, serving a role of (mostly) enjoyable fillers in a semi-open environment. While lacking intensity, Starfield is a chill, somewhat casual experience.
  
• Research and crafting section may be slightly overwhelming at first and moderately complex forward, but it offers a solid number of choices regarding weapons, space suits, consumables, jet packs, starship parts, outpost modules and many more. Crafting every set of components or upgrades requires very specific skills and resources, thus may seem too systematic, but it definitely helps in building immersion and focusing on what’s most necessary for you at the moment or simply what tickles your fancy the most.
  
• A fairly great number of skill choices allows you to build your character however you please, from getting certified in a type of guns, being more durable against specific planetary conditions, gaining a faster health recovery to unlocking new starships and research options. Skill points are acquired via levelling up, but to actually invest them you’ll also have to go through challenges that utilise the very mechanics you’re trying to improve, serving as a proper learning mechanism.
  
• And now for a Bethesda standard: A mediocre main plot that gains some momentum later on (but let’s not push this statement too far) redeemed by much better sub-plots – and you can take these words as far as you wish, for the five moderately extensive faction quest lines are the shining beacons in the dark, vast cosmos. Each places somewhere else on the morality spectrum and provides a distinct perspective on space exploration, colonisation and consequences of the two.

THE MIXED BAG

• Starfield’s main advertisement point seems to be a humongous universe with a bajillion planets to visit. While not necessarily a lie, it also misses the whole truth by a long shot. A very small percentage of them contain anything worth spending more than just an eye glance, with vast majority being barren, unimaginably boring locations with little to nothing to do. Inhabited planets are visually pleasant, brim with side tasks and are a source of crafting components and experience points. The rest serve no other purpose than to exist.
  
• In addition to guns, skills and starships, there’s also place for supernatural powers. Sounds great, right? In theory, yes. Reality shows that a couple of them may come in handy, providing extra information in combat or allowing to utilise other resources more frequently. The problem is, they’re far from wow, in terms of both visuals and usefulness. In a way it’s a nice touch and another link between what’s human and what’s alien, but then would it really hurt to give them some actual oomph?
  
• You’re able to settle on any planet you can land on, provided you meet skill requirements. The outposts is an interesting yet unnecessarily complicated and buggy concept for finding your own place in the universe. The Internet states that outposts can work and be useful for gathering resources and sending them to other bases as well as your space ship. I built three of these, then removed them after an uphill battle against disappearing resource veins and an insanely complex link system. I have to give it a benefit of the doubt, though: my management abilities were swallowed by a black hole a long time ago and maybe, just maybe, it’s too complicated for my small brain. Even then, it is an outlier of complexity within the game.
  
• Environments are gorgeous. Alien creatures are funny. Human faces are atrocious. Animations are wonky. You can clearly see that visually it’s not a 2023 game. By no means it’s terrible – like I’ve mentioned, the planets themselves are stunning at times. It’s just the intelligent life forms and their movement that screw it all up.

THE BAD

• It’s a monster-ducking loading simulator and loves stealing your time for no purpose. I’m (almost) certain that at least 80 out of ~160 hours I sank into this game comprise of loading and unnecessary animations you cannot skip. Travelling to another star system? Sure, just press one button and wait. Then wait again so you can see the same travel animation for the 100th time. Surveying these empty, barren planets may take approximately 15-20 seconds. All the mandatory animations and loading screens are 3-4 times longer. Every. Single. Time. The ship landing animation is already burned like a scar on my brain, since I’ve probably seen it more times than my own parents, and no, I didn’t WANT to, I was FORCED to.
  
• Another 20 of these hours (no data available to support this claim) were eaten up by the initial loading, severe hiccups and bugs. The game suffers from quite an awful performance and poor quality control. The music and sound effects get cut off completely, the UI tabs fail to fully load, the game freezes during dialogues. Some quests are broken and can only be completed after fulfilling unwritten requirements. Visuals glitch out in worst moments. Approximately first 10-15 minutes after launching the game is still trying to load all of its assets. That’s bad.
  
• The writing. Ideas are clearly there, as shown in the faction content. Starfield’s creative universe loses much of its appeal though, when faced with the idea-to-English translation. Any resemblance of diversity loses its colours when you face yet another adversary from the Deja Vù Cast or listen to one more data log recorded in one of three emotions known to the post-Earth human civilisation (whatever-sad, whatever-happy, evil-angry). Your companions are boring, lifeless chunks of wood (with one exception), most NPCs are very one-dimensional and dialogue options often oscillate just between outright rudeness and bootlicking.
  
• Space combat – a crucial part of a game about exploring the universe, I’d say – is the single worst, most annoying and tedious chore you’ll have to endure in Starfield. Ship controls are terrible, weapons are dull, the UI is immeasurably awful and the enemy ships are shooting at you from out of your sight most of the time. Simply dire.

OVERALL
Starfield tries to be everything at once – a game with elements of RPG, exploration, combat, management, crafting, survival, you name it. In truth, it does none of these well enough, ending up a jack of all trades in its purest form. It pretends to be enormous, while 90% of it is almost completely lacking real content. It’s beautiful in some departments and hideous in others. But despite its clear flaws, it’s still a game to enjoy. Maybe more casually than it was intended, maybe not to the extent of its advertised greatness. And definitely not for its original price. 50% off? Worth a shot.

The most anticipated game since chess, the best thing (according to the Internet) that happened in the world since the invention of the wheel, the actually good Duke Nukem Forever of role-playing games. Ladies, gentlemen and everybody in between, after twenty-two long years: Baldur’s Gate III. Over a century after defending the titular city from the wrath of Bhaal, deity of murder, a new, terrifying plot unfolds – illithids, brain-devouring psionic entities, threaten to add thousands to their foul ranks by transforming unwilling hosts into twisted abominations. And that’s where you come in.

THE GOOD

• Despite all aspects in which the third instalment differs from its predecessors, a truly epic journey remains an undisputed constant in the series. The plot is humongous, complex and multi-faceted, presenting many opportunities to branch out accordingly to your choices. Apart from the obvious illithid theme from the get go, there’s a couple of other major plot points – including well-known factions operating throughout the Forgotten Realms and intriguing references to Bhaal’s resurgence over a hundred years ago – that may seem disjointed at first, but come together exactly when the time is right.
  
• All of it happens in a highly interactive world that’s being shaped accordingly to your actions. Most major plot points can be tackled in multiple ways that are distinct enough to contribute to creating a unique playthrough. The game never tells you how to deal with the story, the world and its inhabitants. Whatever path you decide to follow, there's always choices, as well as far-reaching consequences – including removal of a whole faction, being hunted in certain areas, gaining favour of powerful entities or even being surprised by premature closing credits. It's all up to you.
  
• Since travelling alone can be boring, ten recruitable companions are here to keep you occupied. Most of them are very well-written, sporting deep backstories as well as multidimensional personalities. Their unique quests stretch throughout the whole game, often intertwining with the main plot and its subplots. And while they may start as goodies, baddies and in-betweens, it's the player's choices that catalyse their development, potentially changing their worldview to great extent. One reservation, though: where's my dwarf companion, Larian?!
  
• For tabletop RPG fans, the game may feel like a long, thoughtfully crafted campaign. The Narrator, who guides the player, provides additional insight into the Forgotten Realms' lore, characters' emotions and struggles, setting up each scene like an important part of the story. And once again, the writing really deserves all the praise. There's very few duds in quest-related content, the characters you meet on your way are believable and dialogues most often exhaust all necessary options to roleplay your heart out.
  
• And if you're here for a taste of digital D&D, rejoice, because it may be the first instance of a 5th Edition rule set done right in a video game. With no unnecessary complications or departures from the tabletop system, it's an accessible title for both fans of D&D 5e and newcomers. Veterans may be positively surprised at how accurate the translation is and those new to tabletops may find the mechanics user-friendly. In addition, there's many class and racial options to pick from, a number of abilities and level-up improvements that isn't overwhelming, familiar monsters and a wide variety of items, both ordinary and enchanted. Definitely a good example of a digitised D&D game.
  
• Turn-based combat is somewhat smooth, puts emphasis on resource management sensibly reducing the impact of luck on the outcome (dice rolls are still a thing, obviously) and allows the player to approach every combat in a different way through the use of covers, environmental hazards or... picking up an enemy and throwing it at another one. Because why not?
  
• If Underdark sounds scary to you, just wait until you get to see it. It's just one of many locations that are worth sightseeing – as soon as you're finished trying not to die, that is. Game's environments look stunning. Aforementioned Underdark brings out the feeling of delving into a gloomy place of dire reputation, the city of Baldur's Gate is huge and greatly detailed with multiple distinctive sub-areas, and another planes of existence that you visit show a good representation of the Forgotten Realm's variety – both in terms of used ideas and gorgeous visuals.
  
• With a great work from the Narrator, flawless voice acting breathing artificial life into NPCs, ambient sounds strengthening the power of immersion and an epic, orchestral soundtrack, Baldur's Gate III is truly a sonic feast.
  
• Inclusivity done well. There’s multiple characters that represent various minorities, break prejudicial or unnecessary stereotypes and just naturally belong to the game’s world and story. In no point the representation feels harmful to its actual real-life equivalent groups. Long story short: you certainly can feel good about yourself in Baldur’s Gate III, regardless of who you are. Just be yourself.
  
• It’s a complete game (except for what’s stated below). The dev team showed that a game can be not only playable, but enjoyable on day one, that you don’t need microtransactions or a dozen DLCs that consist primarily of cut content to gain players’ interest and their money. With feedback being constantly turned into patches, I believe there’s still many more improvements to come to what’s already a great product.

THE CHAOTIC NEUTRAL

• The further you go, the wonkier it gets. The game is split into three humongous acts. Act 1 is by far the most polished, which shouldn’t be surprising considering it was available in the Early Access. Act 2 is very solid as well, although in later parts I was already tired with its omnipresent gloom. And then there’s Act 3, a chaotic blend of greatness and undercooked content. While it’s definitely still a ton of fun and most things work as they should, if there’s bugs to encounter, Act 3 is where you will. Some of the quest lines are too intertwined, breaking other tasks if they’re not finished in a proper order (that you cannot know of), there’s content that feels shortened in a rush (to release the game earlier) and then there’s the ending...

THE (L)AWFUL EVIL

• ...oh, the ending. While the very last minutes of the game don’t undo the whole joy of playing, but calling them “unsatisfactory” is like saying nothing at all. All grand revelations happen way earlier, so the very ending lacks absolutely anything to think over. You emerge as a new hero (or scourge) of Faerun, stand in the light of a new dawn… roll the credits. Have your choices changed the world and people you’ve encountered? Except for the obvious “everyone is saved” or “everyone is screwed”, you don’t get to know. Is Faerun preparing to rebuild after its nigh-devastation? Uhm, maybe? How about your companions, what happened to them after the game’s events? In most cases, it remains a mystery. Did you want the ending slides for an expanded epilogue? So did many people, it seems. Unfortunately, these weren’t delivered and nothing was put as replacement. Bummer.

OVERALL
Despite its lack of polish towards the later parts, it still IS as good as the Internet suggests. Mechanics – spot on. Story – engaging, intriguing, multidimensional. Companions – deep, likeable. Narration – outstanding. Sound – beautiful. Visuals – on point. High replayability with easily a hundred hours of playtime. It’s a full game with no development or release BS. The devs are still working on patches and communication with the player base is spotless. If you like RPGs, go for it. If you thought the brilliance of the Baldur’s Gate series couldn’t possibly be brought back after so much time – think again. Baldur’s Gate III is close to perfect.

A fun and well-received roguelite game, Children of Morta invites you to light a beacon of hope in a world steadily falling into darkness. Join the Bergson family in search of the source of dark corruption, discover the powers running in their blood since many generations ago and kick some evil butts, just like the tradition dictates.

THE GOOD

• There`s quite a lot to say about what makes the gameplay so enjoyable. Firstly, the learning curve. Being granted new powers, delving into new territories, encountering unknown enemies and unlocking new mechanics all comes exactly in time. During my initial playthrough I felt neither sorely unprepared for what`s to come (save boss battles, but that may be a common theme within the genre) nor punished for lacking required game knowledge. In time you`ll need to polish your reflexes and pay increasingly more attention to hazards with each stage of progression, but the game still makes a prime example of a "fair" roguelite title that never goes out of its way to punish you for no reason.
  
• Then we have the flow. It`s greatly balanced with havoc and respite constantly intertwining, though without one ever overshadowing the other. Missions aren`t too long and are additionally split into smaller stages so neither overstaying your welcome in a single place nor unnecessary, tedious backtracking is a problem here. Also, movement and combat feel smooth - with a few negligible exceptions, like attacks made with delay.
  
• Multitude of upgrades and powers makes every run unique. As it goes with roguelite titles, you get to keep certain resoruces gathered in previous runs to spend them on permanent buffs to press on harder next time. Apart from that, there's a number of run-specific extras in form of one-use items, double-edged powers, tag team abilities that may trigger automatically after meeting certain requirements, runes that modify your character's talents in many different ways. There's a chance that once you've beaten the game and indulged in NG+, you still will be discovering new power-ups and ability modifiers.
  
• To add to the previous point, since Children of Morta is a family affair, there's a roster of several playable characters, each sporting a distinct personality, attacks and talent trees. There's John with his trusty sword and shield, focused on defensive playstyle, Lucy who shoots fiery lasers everywhere like a madwoman she is, the glass cannon Kevin who can sneak away from danger, a slow but powerful berserker type Joey and a couple of more options. Each character clearly brings something unique to the table, as well as enhances other family members from behind the scenes when upgraded.
  
• Whilst the story is quite clichéd, the narration behind it, accompanied by colourful, pixelated cutscenes, create a feeling of retelling a warm, familiar fairytale with a strong moral about the importance of family bonds – even despite a rather dark atmosphere throughout. My personal favourite thing here is that the meaning and method of unlocking of every new feature revolves around the lore and story progression. The game expands its borders exactly when it needs to and that makes its story part organic.
  
• Do you like pixel art? Awesome. Children of Morta does that very well. It doesn’t necessarily give the retro vibe, but at the same time is enough detailed and colourful to stand out in the crowd in a positive way. My only nitpick here are the cutscenes which happen to be significantly zoomed in and that’s when the pixel art lose much of its charm. Definitely not enough to write it off, though.
  
• Co-op. It… exists! Just pointing out, since I’ve never tried it myself, but hey, you can!

THE DISPUTABLE

• Replayability is a tough one in this case. On the one hand there’s the New Game Plus which increases maximum upgrade levels and tests the skills you acquired during the initial run to the limits. On the other, though, game’s power lies in its narrative, unlocking new characters, places, items and powers, and you won’t be doing that anymore during the endgame. Like stated previously, single runs don’t last long enough to become stale, but if you want to progress side quests, you’ll have to come back again and again to the same locations, since many special encounters are random. In a way there’s always room to go further, but whether it’s worth the hassle or not is debatable.
  
• While ordinary enemies don’t mess up the overall difficulty level, boss balance seems skewed. Early on, while still short on powers and upgrades, I found myself struggling with boss fights mostly for grind-related reasons - resources turned out to be too scarce for me to prepare ahead accordingly. It was halfway to the end when these battles felt spot on – challenging, but not hopeless. And then, towards the last encounters, the major fights felt like a walk in the park. Not a game-ruining experience, but one that could use addressing, since it takes away some fun.

THE BAD

• Speaking of balance, the discrepancy of power, and especially survivability, between ranged and melee characters is bad to jarring. There’s a couple of attributes that can make or break your run (and your back), from the number of evasion bars (how often you can evade attacks) to the more obvious hit points. For some reason, though, melee characters lack proper defensibility that ranged ones make up by staying afar. With the amount of sheer attack spam increasing with each zone, frequency of ferocious enemies’ spawn (their attacks cannot be interrupted) and negative conditions awaiting mostly in close combat, range-oriented characters enjoy much more freedom – and much longer lives. Yep, that shield doesn’t do jack later on, I mean, try to block thirty simultaneous attacks. Unfortunately, in most cases it also doesn’t translate to overall damage output, which feels more or less similar for every character or damage reduction abilities, which are scarce, but available to everybody as well.
  
• Visual glitches are a minor problem. That is, until it turns out you’re taking damage outside of the designated area of effect or that you can be shot through that pillar you planned to use for a short reprieve. In time you can learn to avoid certain environmental structures or get further away from these deep purple pools of corruptive ooze, but unclear hit boxes should never be a thing in the first place. Duh.

OVERALL
Despite lacking polish here and there, as well as struggling with endgame balance issues, Children of Morta is still a gorgeously crafted roguelite title to be enjoyed for many hours. It does what a representative of the genre should, and does it very well, while adding sprinkles of freshness to a well-known rhythm of „go – die – upgrade – repeat”. It’s heavily rooted in its beautifully told story, combining mechanics and lore with proficiency a few roguelite games achieved. While not serving an endless loop of gameplay, its quality is well worth the money spent.

Pillars of Eternity is an isometric RPG title developed by Obsidian Entertainment. You begin your journey as an ordinary member of a caravan travelling to the town of Gilded Vale, for the reasons of your choice, but this quickly changes as the unfolding events connect you to the world of spirits. Troubled with visions of a dark future and mysterious past, you set off to find the answers to a terrifying curse, only to find more questions.

THE GOOD

• I’m a sucker for a good story and Pillars of Eternity delivers exactly that, with the plot revolving around sinister happenings in the region of Dyrwood that cause tragic consequences for all of its denizens. While intrigues between the gods and mortals may be a common trope in RPG genre, here it’s expanded on by the lore that’s exceptionally rich and original. The story may not be the easiest to get a full grasp on, but the superb focus on lore and plot presentation makes it absolutely special. There’s also tons of extra information about the world, its history and mystical forces that drive it, for those interested in fuller immersion.
  
• At first I was sceptical of a story DLC split into two parts, but then it turned out it was completely unfounded. Don’t be fooled by the shared title (The White March) – both DLCs bring plenty of different gameplay extras. Part 1 adds a new region to explore, a storyline of an abandoned forge able to shape the world and a couple of mechanical improvements. Part 2 expands on that, as well as grants access to a couple of high-level challenges. Overall, a very strong (and long) addition, definitely worth its price. The only caveat I have is that the storyline isn’t well matched with the main game and can provide too much distraction from, you know, actually saving the world. Maybe it’s not that important after all?
  
• There’s so much stuff to do in the game you’ll have spent dozens of hours before you’re finished. An incredible asset of Pillars of Eternity is that no quest seems unsubstantial, not even the most trivial task feels forcefully shoved into the game to artificially bloat it, and your hero always feels to exist in the middle of affairs of great importance. And some of these really are important, as your choices craft your further experience with people you meet, organisations of dubious intents and events that progress your way to an inevitable clash with the ultimate evil.
  
• And speaking of choices, the game emphasises their significance through the system of reputation and personality traits, a multivariate approach to shaping the world’s responses to your actions. Each region and major organisation has its own view on your hero through separate reputation stats, allowing you to be the saviour and the villain at the same time, depending on your roleplaying needs. And consequences of treading your path reach beyond just that with the personality trait scores that increase purely based on your decisions. Gaining some traits open new options for resolving quests or dialoguing and may as well make some things harder if your interlocutor doesn’t fancy you being too honest or cruel.
  
• The classes are the shining beacon of mechanical diversity of the game. Even the RPG usuals such as the warrior or the wizard aren’t just a copy-paste of what you see in an average representative of the genre, gaining multiplicity of advancement perks and options that may lean their progress towards a satisfactorily different playstyle if that’s what you want. And then you have the bard with their chants you get to craft depending on what passive boons you need at the moment, only to strike with powerful magic once you’ve sung enough, the cipher that uses psychic abilities to easily break through the enemy’s defences, or the monk whose powers rely on getting their cheeks clapped during a fight. If you’re in for somewhat expansive mechanics that at the same time aren’t overwhelming, your playthrough may get a couple of more hours spent on checking out the available options.
  
• The stronghold is such a cool base of operations it actually needs its own point on this list. Not only you get to bring back its greatness with various upgrades, but you also get a couple of different “filler” types of content, like deciding the fates of people in the area, extra side quests for your inactive companions or getting ingredients for your alchemical shenanigans. It’s a very interesting way of expanding the game’s lore and strengthening the immersion.
  
• A lot of thought was put into the sonic presentation of the game. The music hauntingly fills the atmosphere of events and places together with thoroughly mastered sound effects, and voice actors clearly committed to their jobs as well.
  
• It’s a game tailored for a wide range of RPG fans out there. Whether you’re a casual player, a tactical mastermind or anyone in between, there’s enough gameplay settings for you to craft your ideal experience. Need an extra safeguard when your companion is about to die? No problem. Want to disable tooltips to seep more realism into your game? Sure thing. Feel like getting ultimately challenged? Try the Path of the Damned mode (and regret later!). Or go the other way around and explore the world (almost) freely with the Story Time difficulty.

THE SO-SO

• There’s a good deal of dialogue option to choose from and some of them bear great importance and equally great consequences, but too many are hidden behind ridiculous stat requirements that feel almost unreachable at the current level of progress. Sometimes you can’t get back to the core of a discussion after picking an option that may have sounded completely neutral, like an innocent question before digging deeper into the topic. In a way it’s a method of preventing your hero from becoming an all-knowing Mary Sue – which is a good thing – but then you may be left with a feeling that they’re actually quite dumb for not having come up with an idea that seemed pretty obvious, but it’s locked behind a stat requirement. Also screw you, Resolve, for almost being a must pick in this department.
  
• There’s many equipment options to fit into your desired playstyle and those more gifted in figuring out mechanical details may feel at home with the ability to switch weapon sets depending on the enemy’s armour type and whatnot, but to me it all lacks the oomph. There’s a couple of powerful items you need to upgrade by meeting certain conditions (which is an interesting concept), but everything else feels rather samey. It’s not entirely bad, because you don’t need to push for the greatest rewards in order to enjoy the game, but at the same time you don’t even have to look at your inventory screen after a certain point.

THE BAD

• Pathfinding is just dire. The characters seem to take up more space than what’s shown on the screen, or maybe they’re just all stupid, who knows. What I definitely know, though, is that multiple encounters ended up much worse than they could have purely because my companions struggled to move their pixel bodies to designated points, even though they really shouldn’t. If there’s two tips I can give you, one is “avoid fighting in corridors, even if they seem wide enough”…
  
• …and the other one is “practice your patience”, because that’s what’s going to be strained during loading screens. The game just loads forever. Maybe that’s the “eternity” part of the title, since I actually never figured that one out.

OVERALL
Pillars of Eternity takes what’s best in RPG genre and incorporates it into a unique universe. It’s packed with a really great plot, interesting events and memorable characters, as well as fun mechanics that are void of major holes. For me it was definitely more of a story-driven game than one that shines bright with its gameplay, but nonetheless it is without a doubt a worthy successor to the classics like Baldur’s Gate.

Rogue Legacy 2 is a rogue-li#e title (I honestly don't care about your roguelite/roguelike war, Internet, solve it yourselves!) and a successor to a critically acclaimed Rogue Legacy (duh). You pick one of a few characters generated randomly from classes and traits available on your current level of progression and work your way through six content-bloated biomes to dealing with lethal enemies, get your hands on relics, runes and item blueprints and hoard as much gold as possible to make it easier for your heirs to reach the ultimate goal in case of your untimely demise. Rinse and repeat until you finally beat that pesky last boss. And then go again, because the game provides an infinite loop of playability.

THE GOOD

• No major flaws are present in the game's mechanics. Fittingly for the genre it provides challenge that may or may not, depending on your gaming background and capabilities, push the limits of your keyboard/pad mastery. You'll eventually reach the point of having to learn to use some unorthodox movement or combat manoeuvres, but there's never a huge bump in the road that may halt your progress for long enough to turn enjoyment into frustration. The mechanics are as far from unfair as possible, and with each failure you'll know exactly what went wrong. What's also important is that the tutorial is more than enough to grant players all mandatory knowledge of what's to come until they gradually start discovering new techniques through natural progression.
  
• Rejoice, you who belong to the most querulous kin, for the variety brought by Rogue Legacy 2 can rekindle the flame of joy in your cold heart. It takes dozens of hours to go through all available options of building your character and the number of possible combinations of classes, talents, spells, pieces of equipment and traits is big enough to experience freshness for a very long time. Each class plays differently and grants unique passive bonuses, whilst weapons, talents (cooldown-based abilities) and spells (mana-based abilities) require specific timing and make use of distinct mechanics. Relics you find throughout your journey serve as double-edged swords, enhancing your abilities significantly at a cost of potentially making you more prone to the grasp of death. Special shout-out to the trait system which furthers the uniqueness of each run by adding a bunch of modifiers (e.g. making you larger, enhancing your range at the cost of having a bigger hitbox) or handicaps (e.g. making you take damage instead of healing when eating food) for increased gold gain.
  
• And speaking of gold (and other resources), the upgrade system keeps the game fresh and interesting long after you’ve already beaten it. In early game, you gain gold, ore, aether and soul orbs to primarily unlock new classes, buy and upgrade gear and runes granting you extra stat bonuses or enhancing your abilities, the typical stuff. What Rogue Legacy 2 does better than many of its counterparts is that grinding resources doesn’t feel tedious or meaningless. For hundreds of hours, and it’s not an exaggeration, you’ll find yourself getting new and more powerful upgrades that contribute significantly enough to your overall performance to avoid being a necessary evil.
  
• Multiplicity of gameplay settings allow you to freely choose your own style and adjust the difficulty to your current needs. Don’t worry if you’re new to the genre or get stuck at some point, you can turn off or tune down some of the more demanding hitches. And in case the game gets too easy for you, New Game Plus options allow you to willingly turn your experience into a nightmare. If you’re interested in Rogue Legacy 2, but at the same time uncertain of its difficulty and complexity, the answer is go for it 99% of the time.
  
• Boss fights may properly test your skills, but in no point are cheesy. Like in most cases as it comes to the genre (and beyond) you’ll need to find proper movement and attack patterns, but the game is never unforgiving in terms of how much is required from you to memorise. Likewise, other challenges present in the game (e.g. dealing with all enemies without taking damage to gain a new rune) may seem tough at first, but they’re well balanced in terms of difficulty and reward, without being unnecessarily frustrating too.
  
• Graphics are very well crafted, combining oldschool vibes with modern style. Obviously, such a mix is always subject to wide array of opinions, but with how greatly detailed and colourful the visual world of Rogue Legacy 2 is, how diverse its areas and inhabitants are and how smooth the animations look, there’s little place for anything but praise.
  
• If you’re a sucker for a good story, you’ll see your expectations met on the journey through six main areas of the game and some extra subdivisions. Even if within the genre lore most often serves a role of a filler, it never stopped the development team of Rogue Legacy 2 from turning it into a substantial part of the game. Lore points scattered throughout the game and unveiled with each defeated boss and unearthed secret come together at some point, blending into a tale of courage, love, thirst for power and betrayal that serves as a prologue to the first instalment in the series.
  
• A well-crafted soundtrack fits well into the themes of corresponding areas and battles.

THE SO-SO

• While I highly praise the game for originality and high variety in pretty much all of its important elements, there’s two areas that get more tedious in consecutive runs than the others. Axis Mundi and Sun Tower, that is biome number two and five respectively, become stale more quickly than the other four because of their layouts and area-specific challenges – former because of its full linearity and latter because of its heavy reliance on a quite uninteresting mechanic of spin kicks and lots and lots of vertical mobility (and long ways down in case you fail). Curiously, the developers seem to have noticed that as well, granting players bonus gold gained in these two areas.

THE BAD

• Usually variety, which I’ve already mentioned more times than necessary, also brings at least a couple of black sheep to the roster. Rogue Legacy 2 is no different. There’s stuff in the wide array of classes, items or perks that are, in most cases, too hard to pull off anything of value to justify using them. There’s no universally loved or hated class, but I find Bard particularly boring to play with its necessity to fully commit to spin kicks, a mechanic that is almost unnecessary overall. The so-called fabled weapons that are supposedly rarest and most powerful, in most cases are extremely situational, like Enkindled Gloves which will hurt you in addition to enemies way too often. The Pacifist trait may sound fun on paper (you get way less HP and can’t attack at all, but gain much more gold), but if you’re unlucky and can’t find yourself a weapon in your run, you can’t even finish the game.

OVERALL

The game mixes all necessary rogue-li#e ingredients to create a perfect gameplay blend suitable for beginners and advanced players alike. At the same time, no element is more or less important than the others. Platforming, combat, puzzles, upgrading and sorting out your inventory and skills are spread evenly throughout an incredibly accessible learning curve. Plethora of options allows players to craft their own experience to fit into their preferred tempo. Visuals and sound effects showcase extraordinary polish and deep care for details. Rogue Legacy 2 is truly a standout title that will remain staple within its genre for a long time.

Styx: Shards of Darkness is a second instalment in the third-person stealth game series about a snarky, murderous goblin who uses his assassin skills as well as mysterious powers to move through shadows, eliminate unsuspecting enemies, and find answers to a turn of events that threaten his forsaken kind.

THE GOOD

• The game does best what it should – the combination of numerous mechanics it serves prioritises stealth as its main focus, at the same time allowing for enough flexibility to avoid monotony of doing the same thing over and over again. Detection is split into three tiers, which lets you adjust the balance between patiently moving through shadows and running for it like your butt is on fire. Enemies, depending on their type and rank, have various detection patterns and reactions to the sight of yours truly, and that diversifies encounters, depending on locations of escape routes, items at hand, and so on. Distraction methods add a lot to the possibilities of manipulating your surroundings accordingly to your purposes. Killing in open combat (but who cares about that, you’re an assassin) is an outlier here, and avoiding it is synonymous to avoiding frustration from awful camera angles – fortunately there’s multiple ways to escape a fight and go back to the shadows (ominous music here).
  
• About the enemy diversity: while being subpar in comparison to the first game, it still adds to the tactical aspect. Some of them you can kill in any manner, some you can only rid of through deception, and some are just too heavily armoured for you to handle. There’s those that can smell you from afar, and those that hear your footsteps better than the others. There’s multiple approaches to stealth you’ll eventually have to take up and that’s healthy for the sake of keeping you interested.
  
• Skill trees are yet again another thing that allows you to pick a more personalised approach to the game, based on the aspects they focus on. Stealth tree grants you extra mobility, making it harder for enemies to hear or see you and expands on your ability to become invisible. Kill tree gives you more effective and showy opportunities to dispose of your enemies. Cloning tree is fully dedicated to another of your abilities (that’s cloning, who would’ve thought?) and granting it additional purposes. Perception tree sharpens Styx’s senses and Alchemy tree allows him to craft more inventive stuff. But the best thing in skills is that they don’t make the game too easy (at least outright) and there’s no mandatory build you simply need. Just pick your own style, supplement it with skills from other trees, and back to the shadows with you (more ominous music here).
  
• The inventory. One-use items come with varying degree of usefulness, but the ability to both find and craft them always gives you an extra thing to play around just in case. Outfits and daggers, while scarce, serve more purpose than just of glorified reskins, giving you the possibility to change the gameplay in a certain way, like gaining easier silent kills, but without the ability to parry, being able to carry more items for the cost of being louder, and so on. It’s an interesting use of a modest equipment system that actually is a bank of double-edged game modifiers.
  
• Areas look good and are more diverse than in the first game. Their design is cleaner, there is more variety in terms of possible routes to take and, generally speaking, are quite pretty.
  
• You get extra skill points for finishing a mission in a certain time frame, limiting yourself to a set number of kills, not alerting enemies of your presence and finding hidden tokens in the area. While pretty much impossible to do it all in one run, completionists should be quite happy about the opportunities to replay missions using different styles to get their hands on every achievement and available skill point. And even if that’s not the case, you’re not being punished for playing the game in a certain style, but rather rewarded for using your own.

THE SO-SO

• The story is pretty basic, but still okay. At first the game starts with something completely else, then it sets you up for a surprise and when the main story kicks in, you may feel intrigued. Halfway through, however, it loses momentum, becoming a stretched out shadow of its former self. There’s a bunch of baddies, a shady organisation, a grand scheme of a sort, but you’ve heard it all before. It still serves an alright filler to the more interesting lore aspects.
  
• The game doesn’t really become more challenging the further you go. While new enemy types are added to the roster, and missions where you cannot be spotted at all become a thing, with skill upgrades and mechanics that don’t get more complex than how they first started, the difficulty curve is very mild. If you’re up for a challenge, there are extra settings that give enemies more health, or make you die instantly when hit, but if you’d rather keep one difficulty setting for the whole game, be prepared for an “I’ve done it all already” moment sooner or later.

THE BAD

• Let’s be real, the writing is a gigantic flaw. In no particular order:
  - Firstly, the so-called sense of humour and the game’s incessant desire to forcefully shove it down your throat. Styx, once the feisty master of shadows, now became the unfunny master of breaking the fourth wall in the most embarrassing ways possible. The death screen that replaces the usual game over image, is just a travesty of comicality and the jokes that the goblin throws at you are only worth a moment of silence for the time you wasted listening to them.
  - Secondly, the dialogues implying that the game’s world is filled with psychopaths. From the dingiest corner of Thoben to the grandest quarter of Korrangar, everyone’s favourite pastime is killing, and sharing details from their most recent murderous foray to their equally bloodthirsty friends is the only thing than can put a smile on their lips. Every syllable spat out by friends and foes alike drips with excessive amounts of unnecessary darkness. Maybe I don’t know how to properly write these myself – but after playing Shards of Darkness I definitely know how to not. Dialogues are just outrageously bad (voice acting isn’t much better, too).
  - And thirdly, if it weren’t for constantly overhearing NPCs randomly talking about exactly what we need to know to proceed, Styx would never be able to get anywhere. Most of the story progresses because the goblin assassin found himself in the right place in the right time, and not because of his own knowledge or connections. This aspect of storytelling is quite a failure.
  
• The last stage and everything that happens from there is a big, stinking mystery. There is an event that makes absolutely no sense, the game turns on its stealth origins to become an action title instead, and the ending only leaves you with a lot of question marks. The last cutscene ends so abruptly I initially thought my game was lacking some files to process it properly, but no. This would be even too much as a foreshadowing of an extra story DLC (that never came to be) since not only one of the biggest questions that followed you through the game doesn’t get answered in the end, but the game literally ends during the most important encounter in the story.

OVERALL

Shards of Darkness improves upon its predecessor – slightly, but on multiple levels. Stealth mechanics are upgraded, visuals and animations are slicker, skill and inventory systems are better, Styx is greener (actually not true). Yes, the writing is a tad awful and areas still repeat, though to lesser extent, but overall the game is very enjoyable from the mechanical standpoint. If you enjoyed the previous game, you’ll most probably enjoy this one too. If you like stealth titles and/or fantasy games with charismatic protagonists, that’s a recommendation as well.