Recent reviews by HeartBreakOne

Helldivers 2 is a great game concept hampered by constant bugs and a Dev team that seems averse to fun at every turn, somehow slowly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. There is a constant fixation by the infamous dev in charge of balance with nerfing all the guns in this PVE shooter into being samey, useless garbage.

OST Drama aside, I disliked the goofy, more platformy nature of Eternal when compared to 2016.

Game consistently crashes on "The Bog."

I'll keep it brief; this is just a review of the campaign, or as far as I got before I was fed up with it, anyway. Driving is awful, slow QTEs using odd keyboard inputs is not desirable, and the enemies feel like they take a few too many bullets to kill. Its also kind of weird to find the PPSH-41 in German hands at Normandy, but that's more of a minor gripe.

Despite having a very poorly implemented progression of XP, this is one of the best multiplayer FPS I've played in a long time.

A fantastic first offering from a new studio, I had a lot of fun with it. For a third person action rpg, it felt refreshing for there to be multiple options for most of the quests, allowing players to focus on their strengths, rather than build specifically for specific circumstances. The game has a few flaws, such as a pointless day and night cycle that appears to only exist to make you go to a campsite/residence to use the wait system, as well as a slight lack of polish, but these are more minor gripes than major concerns. The game world is rich in lore, and you truly feel like you're a part of it; I would definitely recommend it.

The most fun I've had playing a shooter in a long time, Doom has set a high bar for future FPS games I play in the future. An amazing soundtrack that's reactive to your skill, fun weapons, and a surprisingly engaging story make for a great package. Highly recommended.

If you are a fan of the old Harvest Moon games, look no further; Stardew Valley is a labor of love for its one man dev team, and I am quite taken with it. There's always plenty to do in the game, but I never felt overwhelmed; earning quality of life improvements overtime as you grow your farm really make you feel like you've improved, though its not as if the game had a high difficulty curve. A great relaxing game about farming, dungeon crawling, and love, if that's what you're into.

A very fun little choose your own adventure tale, its definitely one of the best crafted; all the stats seem to nicely correlate with my play style, and I thoroughly enjoyed the choices I was given. If I had any complaints, it would be the somewhat abrupt ending; it felt as if there was at least another third or quarter of the game left when I got the ending screen. It wasn't a deal breaker, nor did it leave a sour taste in my mouth, but I would have prefered a little more closure or at least an epilogue.

I digress; Choice of Kung Fu is a very solid title, possibly one of the most solid ones from this publisher. It never gets preachy or mired in exposition, and gives the player a good sense of being a martial arts protagonist.

As a fan of Super Giant's previous entries, I was very excited to play Pyre; enough so to buy the game day one, something I rarely do nowadays.

Almost immediately the player is dropped into a strange and beautiful world with a great soundtrack, both hallmarks of Bastion and Transistor. Yet this did not make up for the hallmark that is missing... The Narrator. It seems an odd complaint to anyone not familiar with Super Giant Games, but the decision not to have the familiar voice leaves the game feeling rather bland with its story telling. Gone are the fun little insights and descriptions, replaced instead with a series of text boxes more akin to a visual novel or old school rpg. Though there are some voiced lines, most are merely gibberish like a sims character, and just didn't pull me in or establish any kind of agency with the Nightwings like I had with previous protagonists or support characters.

When it comes to gameplay, the game has a very good and fun premise; a sort of magical 3v3 basketball game, utilizing different classes of characters with different strengths and weaknesses. Each character/class gains experience and with that experience can gain passive skills, as well as equip a totem with other passive bonuses. I really enjoyed the first few 'Rites' against the AI, but after a certain point you find yourself playing against the same teams repeatedly, as they grow stronger and you have less options in which players you'd like to field.

This would not be so bothersome if not for the fact that the AI makes use of the mechanics far better than the game's clunky controls will allow. It is not uncommon to see the AI making swift passes and quick maneuvers that look particularly seemless, though the same cannot be said for the player's team. The controls simply feel sluggish and somewhat obtuse, especially for fast reactions; which is a real shame, considering the game designers' pedigree.

Perhaps I had too high expectations of Pyre, but I don't think that is the problem; I had high expectations for Transistor after Bastion, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, mechanics and all. I simply could not become invested in Pyre, especially not after discovering the repetitiveness... which is a damn shame, because despite it all I wanted to see the story, but could not suffer through the grind.

An Exile I Remain.