Recent reviews by senzei

Baldur's Gate 3 is a rare gem in today’s gaming that set a very high bar not only for RPG's, but games in general.

A beautiful world that feels alive, compelling narrative, masterfully written and voiced characters, endless amounts of tools and ways (limited only by your imagination and creativity) to tackle any situation - are the key aspects of this masterpiece that keep you coming for more.

The game has great replay value, as there are choices to be made every step of the way, which influence how the plot evolves and encounters turn out. Regardless of whether you're going for a single playthrough or multiple - there's content for hundreds of hours.

I have to warn new players to the genre though - the game is incredibly complex, which can be very daunting at first.

Having no previous experience with DnD, I can say that this game doesn’t hold your hand at all and has a very steep learning curve to the point where I nearly dropped the game all together less than 10 hours in.

However, having decided to put the effort in figuring it out and learning the ropes on my own, I was presented with one of the greatest single player experiences I’ve ever had.

Orwell is a short but very well executed mystery detective.

The game starts off with the player working as an investigator in a security program called Orwell which allows tracking of every step of every person in The Nation. What starts as a detective case of a terrorist attack with a single suspect quickly turns into series of endless leads and plot twists.

Although most of the game consists of reading text it wasn’t boring for a second. Player has all the information at the palm of their hands and yet not everything is relevant or even true which forces fact checking and making decisions about the information they use and provide to the case. It’s even possible to leave out crucial information if a player thinks it’s a right thing to do. It’s hard to describe the experience without spoiling anything but the story, consequential choices, dilemmas, connections you make during your investigation and twists around every corner are impeccable and had me on the edge of my seat for the entire playthrough.

This game is definitely not for everyone, hell, I didn’t even think I myself would like it, but if you’re into mysteries and detectives it’s a must play. I’m usually not a big fan of these type of games or indie games in general, but Orwell blew me away, it was a brilliant experience.

This game feels like a very dull and boring copy of Retrowave. If you like retro synth just get Retrowave instead, it's better in every way imaginable for just 1-2€ more.

Better handling physics, scoring system, customization and awesome music. On top of that there are more cars, interesting game modes, sceneries and achievements that actually take effort. All that gives countless hours of relaxing driving when you've got nothing better to do.

80's Night on the other hand was so blank it got me bored within 5 minutes.

It's not as bad as people make it out to be, but definitely not worth 60€ or even the 40€ of its current sale, atleast not yet. I clocked in 26 hours this free weekend and I definitely had a lot of fun, but the game is full of bugs, visual glitches and bad design choices.

First of all there is no single player campaign, they put all their effort into making this a multiplayer experience and couldn't even get that right. Lack of weapon variety, maps are too big and open for the amount of people the lobbies hold with not enough emphasis on infantry combat. Same specialist skins for both US and Russian forces, the only way to distinguish enemies from teammates are red and green glow sticks taped to their arms.

Poor optimisation, honestly ridiculous amount of bugs, visual glitches, falling into the abyss through the textures, inability to connect to lobbies, a crash every now and then just add up to the rough state of this unfinished product.

Even though I enjoyed playing it, I can't recommend buying it in its current state. I hope that in 2022 most of these problems will get solved and make it a game it was supposed to be since launch, but until then I would pass.

Mafia III takes place in New Bordeaux during 1960’s. Lincoln returns home from a deployment in Vietnam. He reunites with his family, hoping to leave his gruesome past behind, only to realize they owe a lot of money to the Italian mob. When his family gets massacred and he is the sole survivor of the attack, Lincoln embarks on a mission of revenge, taking out everyone involved until he gets to the man himself – Sal Marcano – the boss of Italian mob.

Visually the game looks decent, nothing special. Graphic quality is very inconsistent – while many textures and models look fine, others are very low quality. Lightning and particle effects often have weird unnatural glow. Pop-in is very obvious when looking into the distance. On top of that the game is quite poorly optimized. Having said all that, when the stars align the game can still look pretty.

Mafia III has a captivating story and tells it in a unique true crime documentary fashion. Well written characters with amazing voice acting and cinematics. Mission design is very tedious and repetitive except for a few key points in the story and all 3 DLC’s which have unique stories and great missions. Despite that, I didn’t get bored due to great gameplay. Smooth movement mechanics, solid gunplay, satisfying melee takedowns. Stealth is an option through most of the game except for a few scripted scenes.

Mafia III: Definitive Edition includes all 3 amazing DLC’s so I would definitely recommend grabbing this game on sale. Everything I’ve heard about Mafia III before playing it was negative so I came in with no expectations, but boy did I have a blast playing it. It may not have the oldschool Mafia I & II feel to it, but it’s a great game nonetheless.

Forza Horizon 4 is by far one of the most polished and entertaining racing games to date and my absolute personal favorite.

Horizon 4 is a gorgeous open world game which takes place in Great Britain with locations like Ambleside, Broadway and the main star of the show – Scotland’s capital – Edinburgh. It is the first game in the series with not only dynamic weather and day/night cycles but now all 4 seasons of the year. Seasons cycle weekly and drastically change the way the entire game looks and plays out.

Driving in Horizon 4 is a near perfect balance between arcade and simulation. Physics feel realistic and on point all throughout the game no matter what type of content you're doing. The amount of things to do in this game is mind boggling. Horizon 4 has one of the biggest car lists out there with more than 700 vehicles total as of 2021. There are 2 great DLC expansions that add even more content to an already massive base game. The Fortune Island is, in my opinion, the greatest DLC of any racing game ever.

Mind you, Horizon 4 has a couple of flaws. Some of the engine sounds are just plain inaccurate. While performance tuning is plentiful I would have loved to see more visual customization - Need for Speed Heat and The Crew 2 are miles ahead in this department. Although Forza is one of the few games that managed to solve the problems of wall riding and ramming in online play making it far more enjoyable and competitive the stability of online servers is questionable.

From performance point of view the game is really well optimized with requirements even lower than the last game in the series. Game does occasionally suffer from pop-in regardless of how good your setup might be, though nothing game breaking.

This review comes from my 400+ hours of experience on Microsoft Store. I bought a second copy of the ultimate edition on steam without hesitating for a second.

Mafia Definitive Edition is a remake done right.

This remake of 2002's Mafia takes place in the city of Lost Haven during the 1930's. You play as Tommy Angelo – an ordinary cab driver who involuntarily got involved with mafia. Game depicts Tommy evolving from being a nobody to one of the most feared mobsters in Lost Haven through operations with Salieri’s crime family. One of the best video game stories period.

This remake takes everything the 2002’s original did well and sprinkles some goodies from modern generation. Masterful work on atmosphere and visuals. Game looks absolutely amazing and runs just as well. Characters are deep, memorable and remarkably well written as well as voiced.

Campaign is a short and linear experience with no secondary activities despite being listed under open-world genre. Variation in mission design and objectives does not let it get stale though. Everything from all out shootouts, assassinations and cop chases to sabotage, stealth and racing. You can also choose to jump into Free Ride mode to collect secret vehicles and other collectibles as well as find some Easter eggs or just explore the city without being forced to follow mission objectives.

When it comes to gameplay I think classic difficulty is the way this game is meant to be played. It only takes a couple of shots to 100-0 Tommy, so utilizing cover system and flanking unaware opponents is key to winning engagements. Enemies work based on your last known position so it's possible to use breaking line of sight to your advantage. AI will try to flank, surround or flush Tommy out of cover with molotovs. Basic stealth system works fine and allows player to sneak and stealth kill past some sections to avoid losing health to all out gun fights.

Mafia Definitive Edition is one of the better remakes I’ve seen in a while. Hangar 13 took a masterpiece and made it even better. Solid buy.

Dragon Age: Inquisition starts with your protagonist trying to reinstate the order of Inquisition and assemble an army to fight the main antagonist of the game – Corypheus – the darkspawn seeking to enter the fade and become a god. I’ve heard people say the story falls short when compared to Origins. But for me this is the first game in the series and I really enjoyed both main story and the plethora of interesting side content. Though I have to admit some characters are bland and boring, but there are some that are really well written and enjoyable for example Cassandra, Varric, Iron Bull. Game offers you many tough choices to make, but as far as I can tell they have very little if any actual impact on how the story evolves.

When it comes to gameplay - it took me half an hour to create my first character with the amount of customization offered. Jumping into combat for the first time felt natural coming from other RPG’s. Ranger rogue felt smooth and impactful. Game has tactical mode which stops time and allows you to control the actions of your whole party. Crafting system is very good, but it takes a while to fully understand how it works.

Visually the game looks great. Frostbite engine delivers prime experience and it aged well. It goes well with the design of most locations and the game looks superb most of the time.

Soundtrack department lacks variety, there are only a few different albeit amazing tracks throughout the whole game. Voice is done pretty good for the most part.

All in all great RPG, definitely worth picking up on sale.

Easily the greatest single player experience I’ve had.

Great voice acting, fantastic soundtrack, absolutely stunning and full of life open world with some of the most beautiful locations I’ve seen in a video game. Despite map being absolutely massive it’s completely filled with content and things to do, see and find. Graphically the game looks incredible for a 2015 release.

Memorable characters which make you care about them with their unique stories, relationships and world views. Endless amounts of unique and interesting side quests and witcher contracts which shadow even the main stories of some other games. Decisions you make even in the most minor of quests will impact the world of witcher in the long run. Both DLC's could be games on their own with the amount of content they add.

Gameplay wise I really enjoyed the combat. There is a whole plethora of different mobs and bosses to fight, each requiring different approach depending on their strengths and weaknesses. It’s nothing too special and complex, but switching up sword play and magic, bombs has this satisfying, smooth flow. Your fighting style also largely depends by the way you spend your skill points. You can mix and match the skills to create your ultimate monster slayer – The Witcher.

Witcher is not without its flaws. Geralt occasionally bumping and clipping into tiniest pixels was frustrating. Spent most of the game running on foot because Roach is an absolute idiot. Game is also slightly too easy even on the highest difficulty. Other than that – it’s a masterpiece.

Getting GOTY version on sale for 15$ is literally stealing from CDPR. The quality and quantity of the content this game offers is more than worth the full price. You can easily bag 200 hours game time in a single playthrough. I’m not exactly fantasy or rpg fan, I didn’t even like witcher 1 or 2 for that matter, but this is a masterpiece for any type of gamer.

Heat is a big step towards making Need for Speed great again.

The game looks great, especially during night time or rain. Reflections, shadows and lighting effects are on point. I have seen people complain about bad optimization, but I was able to run Heat 1080p maxed out on my inferior microwave no problem. I bought Heat expecting to run low-medium settings at best, so that was a pleasant surprise.

NFS Heat has a pretty decent story for a racing game. Sure, it’s short, full of clichés and cringey at points, but it’s done well nonetheless. As for gameplay itself - it took me some time to get used to arcade handling physics coming from sim racers, but once I did racing felt fine. Drifting on the other hand feels really weird and janky.

You race in sanctioned events during the day for cash and participate in illegal street races during the night for reputation. Reputation unlocks cars and parts which you then buy using cash you earned during the day. There are plenty of different cars to choose from and a lot of visual customization you can do to them from the get go. Performance upgrades on the other hand have a nice progression locked behind reputation levels.

Races are pretty easy even on hard difficulty, except for occasional rubber banding. Cops give a decent challenge, increasing dramatically the higher heat level you get. But even then, there are plenty of ways to cheese them off of you. Police chases are my favorite thing in Heat - trying to get away from a bunch of cops with millions of reputation at stake while your car is about to break down and you’re out of repairs give that special kind of thrill. Heat in general has 2005 Most Wanted vibe which is very good in my book.

Game requires Origin platform installed to run, but it’s not nearly as inconvenient as I thought it would be.