Recent reviews by Teapot Possum

This is one of the best co-op games I've ever played with random people. A lot of games are good with friends, this game is good with strangers too.

Earn your Citizenship today, join the Helldivers!

Was great, but mid session I started to have massive lag spikes. Thought maybe my connection was bad. Tried offline solo, same thing. I ran as admin, tried alt tabbing, windowed mode, updating my drivers, adding different launch params, reinstalled, moved it off my SSD to an HDD, moved it back, tried launching as an admin, setting priority to high, etc.

None of it helped. I have no idea why this happened after a perfectly fine run, and as soon as we wash back up at shore it started to lag and wouldn't stop. I have a RTX 3070, 32GBs of RAM, and a Ryzen 5 3600. None of my hardware should be having a single issue with this game, and in fact it didn't have a single issue for the first 3 hours of play, and ran at least 90fps if not higher. I built this PC to be overkill for the kinds of games I wanted to play, because being poor growing up I had to constantly troubleshoot the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ laptop I had for years. It wasn't a big deal having to do that all the time, but it was still draining to constantly deal with. I have had next to zero issues with anything else I play that couldn't be fixed with a simple driver update. I just wanted a smooth experience, that's all. Afterburner didn't even come up with ANY hardware being pushed past ~50% usage. I'm at such a loss right now.

The lag is HORRIBLE, and skips me around 2 body lengths in whatever direction the lag started in, and happens every 0.5-2,5 seconds. Sometimes I'm lucky, and it stops when I start a mission, but sometimes it doesn't. It always happens at the beach you spawn in at new games from, and makes getting the right upgrade excruciating. I love this game aside from that, but I cannot in good faith recommend a great game that I can hardly play half the time.

For the number of mistakes it takes to die, I've encountered far too many bugs. Punishing me for my mistakes is fine, punishing me for the game's mistakes is annoying.

That aside, some of the enemies are more frustrating than challenging. The "Flying Bell People" and "Book Throwing Librarians", as I call them, are some of the most obnoxious enemies I've fought in any souls game.

I can see why many people would like this game and rate it positively, but I post reviews based on the experience I'm personally having at the time, and update my review as that changes. Right now I'm annoyed by bugs, bells, and books, so right now my impression is bad.

For those of you undeterred from getting the game by this review (most of you, I'm sure) I know many also dislike the wall statues. If this is you, and you recall this review while playing, you can handle them early on with attack then block at first, then 3 attacks and a block repeatedly until they die. I hope that helps, as I found them to be fine once I found a rhythm by throwing myself at them.

The game is good fun when the only thing your mind is focused on is the challenge of increasing your skill at overcoming the game's many obstacles, but there are many 2D Souls-like MetroidVanias out there, and many in my library. So, personally, I find it hard to play through this one with others waiting when I'd be having a better experience with another similar title. I'll likely come back to this game and update this review.

One of the best DLC I've ever played. The world is well made, there are a surprising number of new items added, the dungeons and puzzles have all felt great so far, the new Archetype and items make for some great and interesting build crafting. The new enemies are really, really fun to fight once you get used to them. I did my first run of the "one-shot" adventure mode on Apocalypse difficulty, and wow was the world boss hard as nails, yet it felt fair.

Honestly I can understand why some people are upset with the new enemies, the ones that spread pollen and the shotgun dran especially, but I think it's not so bad if you have a thought out build and play around the actual mechanics of the enemies. The Hellfire and Enigma are great for the pollen enemies, esp in tight spaces, and if you use misty step with Fitness, Feedback Loop, and Dark Fluid, they're actually kind of trivial most of the time outside of their pollen spit attack they do while on a wall, and even that is manageable below Apoc. The Shotgun enemies you just have to learn to zone by standing further back and cut off their line of sight until you can target them. They definitely ask more of you than the vanilla enemies, but it's not unreasonable. If you're having issues against them on survivor or vet, I recommend you just take a second and reconsider either your build or how you're playing, because if it isn't either of those it probably just means you aren't really geared or leveled enough to deal with them, and should probably fully level a couple classes in the vanilla areas first.

This is better than I expected out of their first DLC, and probably one of the best additions to a game I already love that I've gotten from a DLC in general. I can only hope that the other two DLCs match this quality, and they keep pumping out the really enjoyable free updates. I'm also glad to see that it's likely we'll get more DLC after these 3. The more layers they add to this game, the deeper and more replayable it feels. I'd especially shell out if we could get a couple more worlds to join Yaesha, N'erud, and Losomn, as the other two worlds felt kind of underwhelming by comparison.

I look forward to spending the next week or two wrinkling my face trying to figure out where the last couple DLC items I'll undoubtedly still be missing are hiding.

The worst BGS game I've played. Unmodded Skyrim at least has enemy variety. I can steal the heart right out of an angry plant-man's chest in that game. I can find shoe hording vampires that bat-cloud all over the place. This game? Some animals in out of the way places, one failed attempt at this game's Death Claws, and humanoid enemies that all feel pretttttty much identical (yes I'm including the robots in that). If, for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles, you're fine with this like I am because you can craft an in-game drug at your outposts and become an in-game drug lord that sells to shop owners for the barely pocket-change they keep in the register, sure you'll have fun. But this is a real step backwards for this company. I'm going to enjoy spawning in 5000 watermelons into a small room like the world's most lagged out ball pit while my friends watch me stream and question my sanity, but honestly I can't say most people would want to spend a crisp $60 on that.

I adore this game, and the dev videos semiwork puts out. This is honestly everything I wanted out of Gungeon, but better. And at the rate these updates keep coming out, the volume content might actually eclipse it (I am pretty sure Gungeon still has a lot more bosses and locations and rooms etc.). But don't get me wrong, there's already a lot of content here, and all of what is here is also quality. This is 100% my favorite bullet hell top down rogue-like, the Slay the Spire of it's corner of the genre, at least for me. Buy it, try it, and if you don't like it you can refund it. But let me tell you, by the time you hit that two hour mark, you're probably going to be hooked too.

The Good:
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This is hands down one of the most fun games I've played in years. I'm blown away what a step up over the original game this is. Honestly, with hundreds more hours of play still to be had, I'm already looking forward to Remnant III. I just hope that it comes with a studio expansion to make that into the $60 price tag this game has already been more than deserving of. I can see the amount of replayability, the amount of content, and I just want more of it. I want Remnant III with 3 times the weapons, loot, depth of buildcrafting, classes, SECRETS, dungeons and enemies, I want it with at least two more worlds on launch, and two season passes of 4 worlds each. I want to get lost in this game series like people have gotten lost in Destiny 2, WoW, and Star Citizen. I love this game, and my only regret is that there is not such an overwhelming amount of content that I can't see the edges of the plate it sits upon. I know I have seen almost all the bosses and levels on one of the worlds, and a handful on each of the others, and am sad that I can SEE the end, not that I am NEAR it.

Truly, of all the games that I have loved this last few years, this is truly among the best of them. I cannot wait to play through every single drop of DLC that this team makes for the game, and I am ALREADY eagerly awaiting what they do next in Remnant III. I may not have liked what they did to Darksiders III, but with how lovingly this team listens to feedback, and how talented they are at building on what has come before, I have no doubt that I will love Darksiders IV. That should tell you something about how improved over the previous entry this truly is. Thank you devs, I am so grateful that you are in the industry, and I will be keeping a close eye on whatever it is you choose to do next.

Also, please add more DLC after the first 3. I WILL pay for new worlds if they can deliver the same volume and quality of content as base worlds. Having the Labyrinth and Root Earth be static hurts a lot more with only 3 worlds, but would feel like a refreshing change of pace if there were more worlds. Fingers crossed we get a randomizer mode like the rogue-lite in R:FTA, but this time letting us have the option to bring our characters with their already made builds into the mode.

The Bad:
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But, that said, it is far from perfect. Prepare yourself to re-roll the same world in adventure mode 15 or so times looking for the one 'possible to spawn' event in the one 'possible to spawn' dungeon. And if it can be failed but has multiple items like the flooded room event, prepare to roll another 15 because you didn't manage to get one of the items, or screwed up trying to get all of them and failed the event. I can understand being locked out of an event after failure, it would defeat the point a little bit if you could endlessly retry. But that said, there is not a GOOD ENOUGH way to target farm items in general. The worst farms are the ones you can't know if you spawned until making a fair amount of progress in an adventure mode run, and the ones that require drawn out dialogue/walking upon re-roll of a world. For those, I recommend just joining someone else's game and crossing your fingers that the right things spawned in that dungeon, and they haven't already picked it up.

I know it is a tough problem to solve, but at this point my #1 quality of life desire for the game is a way to target farm events with the way the game is currently set up. My best idea for how to fix this would be a version of adventure mode you unlock after beating the game once and obtaining like 40% of the items from a world. In this mode that I'm going to refer to as "Exotic Advenutre" mode (AE mode), the world would have a massively decreased chance of spawning events you've already completed, prioritize spawning dungeons with items you haven't obtained, increased event chance, and show you a dungeon list on re-roll (pref before loading into the world, but alternatively at the start of a new world).

Aside from adding AE mode, I could also see playing on the third highest difficulty or higher post completing the game simply allowing a 5% chance to obtain an item you don't have when looting an item you've already obtained, and simply increasing the chance of seeing content you haven't done yet. The drop chance and chance of seeing content you haven't before could just increase more with every game clear thus allowing you to simply play through multiple times without needing target farming to get every item, and simply enjoy exploring new content.

It would also be cool if there were a way to skip over some of the starting fluff of some of the worlds. I've beaten the whole of N'erud at least 3 times, and rerolled it at least 60 times trying to target farm. Rapidly smashing spacebar to speed through the dialogue in the forgotten prison has outworn it's welcome 30 something times ago.

This is one of the best games ever to be made. I'm sure you've heard that, but let me contextualize it a little bit. I'm sure the "why" is already covered just fine by many reviews. I'm partial to Skill Up's review, if that helps.

Rather, let me contextualize my statement by adding some weight back to it. I loved Elden Ring. Truly it was a wonderful time. I gave it a negative review. Why? Because I had issues with the game that I found to be inexcusable after that many iterations of their formula as a long time Souls fan. I gave a negative review not because the game was bad, but because I am dissatisfied with the product on some level I don't find it easy to look past. I'm sure this would likely be considered an unreasonable bar by most, but I try to keep consistent, and I try to use these reviews for feedback for both devs and information for potential buyers on what the experience ultimately felt like.

One of the upshots to this, is when I get to write a review for a game like RE4R. Not just because it's a thumbs up review, I do give those to small indie games when they make incredibly polished products even if they aren't as FUN as something like Elden Ring -it's an apples to oranges comparison (I feel like reviewing the execution is more important, as you can easily see what you're getting into from the product page and other reviews). The real upshot with writing a review like this is being able to state that despite the size of the game, despite being a AAA production, this game has every little bit as much love, care, and character as an indie game worked on as a passion project by indie devs. That is truly incredible, and rare.

My only longing is that this game had an A/B campaign structure similar to RE2R, but that is not dissatisfaction with the game, it is addiction to it. I got a solid ~25 hours out of this game, getting ~99% of the collectibles and subtracting time spent loading an old save to do something I locked myself out of or leaving the game running while cooking dinner. Counting time playing offline, RE2R gave me ~18 hours. I did not purchase RE3R, as it was so starved for content that I finished it in a single sitting at a friend's house. RE4R has given me more time than both games combined, and yet has not overstayed it's welcome, how phenomenal is that? It is possible I'll get my wish, as the Separate Ways DLC (a B-side style mini-campaign as Ada) seems to be all but confirmed, and looks like it might be a fair bit longer than the original. So even in my most unreasonable desires for this game, it might still deliver.

The only warning to potential buyers is that playing RE4R might raise your bar enough to feel the same sour taste in your mouth that I do when playing great games like Elden Ring, because you've experienced what it is for great games to leave you wanting for nothing but (unreasonably) more time with it. My only feedback to the developers? Make RE1R in this same style. And Code Veronica. And RE5. And RE6. Make these games, and if they meet this bar of quality I will always keep buying them. Make brand new games in this style. Give me more 3D metroidvania action-horror puzzle-boxes, and give them lots of remixed playthroughs from alternate modes like A/B stories, randomizers, NG+ with changes in encounters and weapons. I will ALWAYS be ravenous for your games when they release if they continue to be this good, and can only hope that more ways to replay them can hold me over between releases. My last act of unreasonable review is a request I know will never be filled, but I can't help myself. I hope that one day the devs make a game happening in parallel to the events of RE3R. I know we'll never get RE3R expanded, or have them release a second "RE3R" this decade, but I can hope that they give us a spiritual replacement, similar to how RE: Village was a love-letter to RE4.

One of the best games I've ever played. I like to write long and pointed reviews, but I genuinely don't have much more to say other than just try it (even if you don't think you'll like it) and refund it after an hour and a half of playtime (before 1 week after purchase) if you end up not liking it. If you end up liking it, you will probably REALLY like it, so it's absolutely worth just dropping the money on to see if something clicks. Far better than videos or pictures make it seem, they really don't do the experience justice in my humble opinion

Very fun with friends. People can be annoying, sweaty, or toxic, but if you bring your own squad it's a great time despite the mixed community.