Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@Tjuz this was A really interesting read! You’ve done a good job conveying your thoughts and the game’s strengths and weaknesses! You’ve painted quite a clear picture without giving any spoilers and while also giving away all the necessary details! This was quite insightful and fun to read while on a tea break, despite me having no plans to pick it up. I like reviews like this. Good day 👍

@Yousef- Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. It's a hard game to talk about without any spoilers considering how much of the game is anchored around one major event early on in the game, so I'm happy to hear you felt like I didn't give anything away.

@Tjuz Excellent review! I enjoyed reading your thoughts, even though it sounds like I enjoyed the game more than you did. I do agree with a lot of your criticisms though. In fact, I like how you’ve explained some of the issues because it has helped me understand why I did feel that Alex as a little emptier and less relatable than many of the other LiS characters. I finished True Colors a month ago so it’s fresh in my mind.

As for the issues with pacing and holding Alex’s backstory hostage until the late game, I think maybe the writers were hoping that the climax would hit harder when it’s revealed that Alex’s dad was one of the miners who died. I do agree with you that they could have carefully done the tragic backstory at the beginning and saved the piece about the father going to be a miner and it still could have had the same (if not better) emotional impact. That’s a fair observation and didn’t occur to me until you mentioned it.

I also felt the romance was a little forced, but it ended up okay for me. I did go with Steph as she seemed the more interesting character than Ryan, but seeing how the narrative goes with Jed I would have liked to see how being Ryan’s romantic interest changed how the climatic reveal plays out. As it was, I was able to keep in Ryan’s good graces and he defended my version of Alex at that reveal moment, but there’s an interesting narrative opportunity to be had if Alex and been dating the son of her dad’s killer.

As for the music, I thought it was pretty good, on par with the series. But it’s a genre of music that I don’t usually listen to and so I’m probably not a good judge of the indie music scene.

Overall, I was closer to a 7/10 for the game, or even 8/10. I think Before the Storm is probably my favorite, although they are all fairly close and parts of each entry resonate uniquely with me. Like you, I’m looking forward to Double Exposure and getting back into Max’s storyline.

@Th3solution I can't agree. I saw the 5/10 score from @Tjuz and didn't even read it then.

Seriously though, we can't all agree. True Colors is right up there with the original for me, with Life is Strange 2 being easily the weakest imo. I did enjoy Before the Storm more than most as well, which is at least partially because I actually like the Chloe character.

I guess one thing that helped is I had no issues with the romance portion of the game, but I also went with Steph. Oddly enough she was probably my favorite character in the game, so it seemed like a logical choice to me.

@Th3solution Glad you enjoyed reading it! I do think the miner reveal was a good one, but was pre-empted by the long sequences of backstory just destroying the pacing of that whole section. Like you said, I think it would've been better if they sprinkled those scenes throughout the game. Since I believe it was anyway about four scenes total, why not put one in each chapter which would then culminate in the big reveal at the end? I think it would've helped the pacing of it all immensely and given us more time to get invested in their backstory, hopefully having the reveal hit harder in the end because of it.

@KilloWertz Haha, fair enough. It seems we have just about the opposite opinion regarding the franchise, and that's all good! I think all these games (which, yes @Th3solution, much like The Dark Pictures 😉) are so reliant on connecting with the protagonist in a meaningful way, which with my personal experiences in life Life is Strange 2 managed better than any of the other entries. But that's why True Colors in particular also falls so short for me, because the character I feel like is the least fleshed out or interesting of any of the entries. I did actually really enjoy Before the Storm as well, so it seems like us three are in good company here regarding that one! Did you end up playing the Steph DLC as well? I decided to forgo it after my experience with the main game, but if she's your favourite character I would imagine that DLC to be a fun time for you.

@Tjuz I think I agree about the pacing and the overall character development. I think in LiS and LiS2 there was a better buildout of the main characters and specifically with the relationships. The interactions of the two brothers of LiS2 and the two friends of LiS are more fleshed out and feel more genuine. Although I liked Alex’s interactions with all the side characters, ultimately none of those relationships are very significant, like you say, and Alex is more of a stranger observing them with her powers. Her core relationship they kept trying to cultivate was with Gabe and their interaction did feel a little hollow for most of the game, mostly on account of the fact he dies so early in the game that they can’t really interact much, and then the significant interactions from flashbacks are held until late

As for the question, I wasn’t able to get Charlotte to stick up for me, but everyone else did at that meeting. I’m not sure what I did to Charlotte, but obviously I made some poor choices with her. Which is fine, because she was probably my least favorite character in the game. I never warmed up to her and I never really cared about her or her relationship with Gabe. She just always seemed strangely aloof and not very genuine.

I was tempted by Steph’s DLC since I did like her as well, but since I’m not a very big fan of DLC in general, I didn’t bite. I am curious how it is, so if @KilloWertz knows, do tell!

@Tjuz That's fair. I think I remember reading about how personal playing Life is Strange 2 ended up being for you. It's not that I thought it was bad. I haven't thought that about any game in the series, but it was definitely my least favorite. It didn't help that I thought the little brother's outbursts were annoying at times, at least for me.

I would've played the Steph DLC, but I bought it physically and I've never noticed the Deluxe Edition DLC to ever go on sale unfortunately. I would've otherwise of course, but not for however much the Deluxe Upgrade costs. So, sorry @Th3solution, I can't tell.

Per my New Year's resolution in the 2025 thread, I'm playing a hundred games in my backlog this year. Not necessarily finishing. Playing. This includes demos as well, although primarily actual full software. After playing for a couple of days, I'll decide if I want to add them into my rotation or pass on them going forward.

Game 1 out of 50: Amid Evil (PC)

Almost finished this one before moving on. I probably still will, since it's actually one of the best boomer shooters I've ever played. Publisher New Blood Interactive has made a name for themselves in the independent development community, publishing modern classics of the genre like Dusk and Ultrakill. This is my first experience with one of their games, but after playing this, I am 100% going back to look into the rest of their catalogue.

Amid Evil is a high fantasy boomer shooter that seems to be a sort of spiritual successor to Heretic (1994) and Hexen (1995), although there's shades of Quake here as well. You wield an array of magical weapons (primarily ranged, except for your default axe weapon) that feed on collectible mana orbs for ammunition. These weapons are not dissimilar in terms of their impact on gameplay to more modern weapons you'd find in other shooters of this variety. Throughout the game, you collect the souls of enemies you kill, and you can use these to power up a meter that, when full, can unlock ultra-powerful timed iterations of your weapons, which are useful for bosses and difficult enemy choke points. Although these powerful weapons typically expire pretty quickly, you can delay their transformation back if you're strategic about collecting more souls of defeated foes. It's a cool system that adds a nice extra layer to gameplay.

The progression structure is a lot like Quake, where you use a hub area to navigate between different sets of levels, which usually feature a boss at the end. The levels themselves are pretty incredibly designed: non-linear and exploratory, of course, but lacking in the maze-like quality you find in a lot of old boomer shooters. If I had to compare them to anything, it'd be the environments in From Software's more recent games in terms of how interconnected they are (and the lack of maps, ugh). They really are some of the most naturalistic and engaging levels I've encountered in this genre of game.

The AI is surprisingly good. Almost obnoxiously so. Enemies will hide in order to ambush you, chase you if you flee, deflect some of your attacks, etc. Par for the course for modern video games, I suppose, but very cool in such a retro-styled indie game.

Like Prodeus, which I also loved, Amid Evil utilizes interesting techniques to create a visual style that simultaneously feels old-fashioned yet weirdly modern at the same time. This is reflected in the game's strange yet awesome mixture of 3D meshes and sprites to create nostalgic yet very detailed weapons that react to environmental lighting. The game apparently has ray-tracing support as well, although, having an AMD card, I haven't played with this at all.

I could easily see myself replaying this game in the future to collect all the achievements and really explore the intricate levels. Just a fantastic game created by developers who truly love the genre and understand what makes the best boomer shooters so gripping. So this is very much going back into the rotation to beat, at the very least.

After missing a bunch of them, I finally tried out a Wilds beta. I was pretty nervous going in because Rise / Sunbreak "fixed" a lot of my pain points I had in World (and the older games before that), and I knew much of that was being removed from Wilds, to bring it back more to a World like game.

After playing the beta, while on the surface it is much closer to World absolutely, this is probably the best out of the box game feel I've ever had with a Monster Hunter game. Yeah, even better than Rise, which was often quite convoluted to control because the silk based stuff was almost like its own entire combo tree on top of your existing weapon's combos. Wilds feels very streamlined because the silkbind is now gone, but it still retains much of Rise's feel otherwise, with Wilds combat just feeling so cleaned up and refined. It is hard to really articulate, you just gotta experience it.

I ended up landing on the Lance in Sunbreak, cause the the Master rank end quests were just so brutally difficult, but Glaive was always my main before then (it is really what made me fall in love with World) and after testing both Wilds Lance and Wilds Glaive. The Glaive for me is once again the apple of my eye. It just feels like the Insect Glaive has an identity again (as in Rise / Sunbreak, everyone could fire themselves into the air with Silkbinds, making it less clear what the Glaive really offered, beyond the clunky Extract micro management, which you could just avoid if you used literally any other weapon).

Lance has always been a counter based weapon, but its really pivoted to that now being its sole identity (unless they open the option to change moves around like Sunbreak offered deeper in the game) in Wilds, with much of its most high damaging moves and much of its new features (like the absolutely epic Power Clash) really only accessed through perfectly timed blocks. You probably could do a turtle and poke style of play if you wanted, with the core combo getting this new rapid hit poke at the end, but I feel like you'd be absolutely gutting your damage potential, and the Lance has never been a particularly high damage weapon to begin with.

After struggling with that for a while, I swapped over to the Glaive and had a very similar come to Jesus moment like I did back in World all those years ago. Just being able to vault away, rather than having to perfectly time my block to land the best counter or whatever, was just a much less frustrating, way more fun, way to play.

The Lance has come really cool new moves don't get me wrong, but I really love the new Glaive combos and moves, the new Focus Mode felt somewhat tacked on to the Lance, really only serving the the base function of Focus Mode, which is popping their wounds. Whereas with the Glaive almost all of the Glaive's best new stuff is all accessed through Focused Mode, unlocking awesome new combos, awesome new finishing moves and unlocking way easier, more organic, ways to access your extracts through your combo chains.

The only real blemish I could point out right now is the technical state of the Beta, which is really really rough. I just upgraded my PC to a bit of a monster so it never really affected my ability to play the game, but the performance to fidelity ratio felt utterly borked on my machine, so I can't imagine what it is like on a worse one. They have said they have made a bunch of improvements which are not present in the beta build, but will be in the live launch. We'll just have to see what happens, but I am kinda bracing for impact this might come in real hot.

In all other regards though, if I wasn't excited for Wilds already, I'm now chomping at the bit for it.

This looks like it is going to be the best Monster Hunter yet.

@Pizzamorg Interesting thoughts. I have never played a Monster Hunter game. I may have tried a little of one back on PSP, if I remember correctly, but it was just for a few minutes. And I played the Monster Hunter World demo a few years back, which was really overwhelming.

I’ve often wondered what a good jumping in point would be for the franchise/genre. MH Wilds looks like it could be a good point of entry for noobs, based on your description. Have you played Wild Hearts? It looked like a decent MH-like.

Yeah, Wilds at least based on the beta does feel like a nice middle ground between World and Rise.

I did try Wild Hearts, it was a technical mess, I thought monsters were horribly designed and balanced (it was brutally hard right out of the gate, not having the carefully tuned curve of escalation MH has refined over the years) and while the build mechanic was a cool new spin on things, in practice it was just all quite clunky and hard to use. When a monster was absolutely smashing my doors in, pounding me with unrelenting combos, the last thing on my mind was building a trampoline for some combo move. I do remember it having some unique weapons too like a massive parasol thing, so the ideas were there, it just needed like maybe another year or two in the oven.

Star Wars: the Force Unleashed (Steam) - Always wanted to play this back in the day, so I picked it up in a Steam sell a couple years ago, and have finally gotten around to it.

• Ultimately it was nice playing a pure action game that (while it did have a simple level up/upgrade system) was neither bogged down by a bunch of skill trees/RPG systems, uber difficult (though it has harder difficulties for those who want that), or bloated out into a 50+ hour slog. Just a lean, mean, fun time zipping & jumping around largely linear levels cutting down everything in your path & using absolutely busted force powers to ragdoll Stormtroopers across levels, bring down Tie Fighters, & even brutalize the biggest names in the franchise in humiliating ways that no one will probably be allowed to do again, lol.
  
  
  
• It definitely has it's fair share of rough edges (beyond just graphically), such as the fact there's so much to interact with that your powers will sometimes target the wrong thing, it's from the era where any large enemy (& boss) must be finished off with a QTE, and an outdated checkpoint system (there are mid level checkpoints you can retry from if you die, but they are only "soft saves" and you must retry the whole level from the beginning if you shut the game off before completing it. Only hard saves are in between levels), but again it's not a frustratingly difficult game in most cases (at least on it's "normal" equivalent setting) so these weren't deal breakers.
  
  
• The 3 DLC levels (which are included by default in the Steam version) are definitely the game's best though. These are "what if" scenarios that place you in some of the franchise's most memorable locations facing off against famous faces, and they seem to have a much better balance of combat & environmental puzzles solving to break things up (the main game levels are probably a 90%-10% split favoring combat, while the split is probably more 70%-30% in the DLC levels).
  
  
  

I’m currently playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

I’ll share some of my impressions after roughly five hours of significant playtime. So far, the game is great and has incredible writing and characters. The world is fleshed out in meaningful ways, and the choices you can choose to impact side quests aren’t always so cut and dry, and do feature reactive consequences, good or bad.

I also like the RPG mechanics, similar to Oblivion, where you level up your skills based on the amount of times you do something. It creates a unique experience tailored specifically for you, the player. My Henry is a charismatic, smooth talker, but not too bright in academia.

With all of that said, the opening hours after the prologue is brutal as hell. Not only is it overwhelming, but you are thrust into a world that doesn’t care about you at all. Narratively and gameplay wise, that’s cool; but for enjoyment sake, it’s difficult.

I’m personally struggling with getting by. I completed one side quest, Bad Blood, which was fantastic, but I feel like I’m barely experiencing the game due to how hard basic survival is. There aren’t many beds around that you can sleep in without getting in trouble by inhabitants, eating food is relatively difficult because you need a pouch in order to do so (I just found one), and combat encounters are difficult because there are multiple enemies, some of which have shields.

I did find Tom Cat, and was able to learn a few new techniques, but in order to learn the master strike, I have to duel him. Unfortunately, I can’t because I don’t have any proper armor, so now I need to find some. The game can feel like it doesn’t want you to succeed, and make it quite difficult to do so.

A part of me wants to give up on the game. But I know deep down that once I get past the initial hurdle(s), I will fall in love with it. Getting to that point, however, is exhausting. And thank goodness for save scumming—it has saved my life many times, and progress too.

@Kraven I'm finding it super easy conpared to KCD1, so stick with it and you'll get what needs to be done in certain situations and what needs to be avoided. Obviously I'm experienced with it, but with time and understanding comes more comfort, and it is a lot more forgiving once you get it.

Remember, you don't have to fight enemies, you can run away. Especially if you've yet to find armour.

Keep talking to NPC's and doing smaller side quests, really listen to everything they say ti get hints and also improve Henry's speech skills. Rent rooms in Inns when possible before travelling any great distance, and craft. Saviour schnapps are your saviour when you are out in the wild, they aren't really needed in towns when you can nap at inns.

If you follow one of the two main/side quests you will earn money and get skill improvments and a new bed. And it will add to the Role Play element too, as you try to find your way in the world.

When you talk to npcs on quests there's a lot of saves just from that, so don't waste your schnapps unless it really is required.

My Henry is already starting to feel OP, and I've not been grinding or following the main quests at all, beyond the initial segments. The game will reward you, and you will start to understand how best to play it with more time.

Yesterday I had a full 10 minute fight vs 4 bandits and still just scraped by, and by that point I'd found a few helmets, arm protection, gauntlets and chauses, so was reasonably well protected. So 4 on 1 is always going to be a challenge, best left for when you are comfortable with the game, and even still avoided unless you've got a save recently so don't mind a failure.

Keep pressing the L2 button to parry and dodge, and don't always riposte if you need to regain stamina, no matter how tempting it is to try and get a hit in, a lack of stamina is what kills you, even when protected in armour.

Always try to attack perpendicular to the opponent's defence, never attack at it or opposite it unless you are confident and have master strikes unlocked.

We believe in you, Henry 🫡

@Ravix Those are some good tips! I’m going to keep playing for sure. I think I need to take advantage of some more of the gameplay mechanics. I need to get a good grasp on alchemy, and also brew healing potions.

I also think I may have done myself a disservice in how I approached a couple of quests. It’s hinted to really pursue the blacksmith first, which I did, and then tackle the quests leading from him — going to Semine — but I didn’t do that. Instead, I completed Bad Blood and now I’m currently working on finding Mutt. In retrospect, I probably should have went to Semine first and subsequently the other quests. Nonetheless, here I am and I’ll make the best of it.

I’m also struggling a little bit with my equipment. It’s hard to really grasp as to what is the best clothing - head-ware, garments, trousers and shoes to wear. There are so many stats regarding each piece that it’s difficult to make heads or tails as to what’s the best option. Maybe this will be remedied once I acquire some proper armor.

@Kraven yeah, I think that's a fair summary. I did a bunch of stuff way before I should have too, but I'm a sicko and quite enjoyed wandering about with nowhere to stay other than the herb hut as it was challenging. But it is easier to get settled in and level up a bit with easier content, carrying sacks to level strength, blacksmithing for craft bonuses etc. And then quests that aren't combat based, like one you can pick up in Zheleov.

Just think of it as one outfit for surviving, travelling and fighting, so any padding or plate armour you can scrounge to layer up as much as possible, regardless of how bad it looks. Then some regular clothes where the only stat that matters is charisma for chatting to people in towns.

Padding helps against maces, plate helps against swords, running away helps against everything but ranged weapons 😅

Finished Avowed today.

Maybe its just because of the choices I made, but I thought the game ended on a bit of a whimper. It felt like much was left unresolved, or if not unresolved just sort of not given what felt like the right amounts of closure maybe? It is hard to really articulate, but I just felt a sort of hollowness at how it all closed.

The stuff that was given truly black and white answers I thought were gonna be red herrings because its like... surely that cant be the answer, that's been obvious since like hour two, how did no one else figure this out?!

To be clear, it doesn't ruin the experience, overall. And seeing the little post ending thing where you get to see the culmination of your choices set the fires alight inside of wanting to roll a new character and do it all over again with what I know now (not that there is time until Wilds releases).

It is funny, cause obvious comparisons will be made to Veilguard, and I sort of feel like Avowed fumbles in all the areas Veilguard succeeded. Veilguard was really carried by its excellent companions and its final act which left you on a crazy high. The absolute worst part of Avowed for me were the companions. I didn't think they were well written. I didn't find them useful in battle. They weren't woven into the experience well at all. Lots of parts of the game feel a little underbaked, but this aspect of the game is probably the one area where it just feels like it truly was not finished.

And yeah, I think Avowed did the right thing in keeping the game to around 40 hours in length if you are doing a mixture of side and exploring, but not trying to 100 percent everything and along the way story works fine in the moment to moment driving you forwards. There is no 20 hour slab of filler in the middle to drag the experience down, but there is also no moment of real hype to close the game on a high.

People have kind of pushed and pulled over how much Avowed is a true RPG, and I thought some of the choices you need to make along the way are excellent. Like sit and stare at your screen for minutes on end. Dreading to hit the choice. Being haunted by the decision you made hours later kind of stuff.

Maybe a lot of this will turn out to be smoke and mirrors on repeat playthroughs, but so were like 90 percent of the choices you made in BG3, so I can't knock Avowed for that. They did what they needed to do in making me feel like I was making meaningful choices that shaped the world in the moment. Nothing else really matters in this regard. But yeah, looking at the story as a whole piece once the final parts are slotted in, it ain't like... great. It served its function, and that is about it.

I will say overall, it is a game really carried by its strong moment to moment gameplay. A couple of patches which have adjusted the upgrade curve to make it a lot less oppressive was really the missing final piece for this. I hope future patches maybe rebalance how many skill points you get or perhaps introduce some more exciting loot (or just more exciting rewards for exploration in general, to be honest). But the important part is the core game feel is refined to near perfection.

I usually don't like first person melee, but it was my preferred way to play throughout. I see so many posts about magic, and like sure your magic is cool and all, but have you tried wielding two swords?!

It is also carried by excellent art direction - the game is truly gorgeous. The showcase piece I was longing for for my new PC. And it seems very well optimised, too. I know people complained online about crashes, I had just one crash and that was after the second patch.

So yeah, come to Avowed for the promise of a new Obsidian RPG. Stay for the excellent moment to moment game feel, the choices that will haunt you long after, the gorgeous world that invites you to always explore off of the beaten path with many wonders for you to discover and rejoice it'll get you in and out of the door in around 40 hours, never staying a minute longer than it needs to.

@Pizzamorg Thanks for the review! I've been curious about this, but ever since this game got washed up in the online culture war I never know if criticism and praise are being made in good faith or not.

tbh I really yearn for more RPGs in this 40-ish hour range. That's still a really solid, meaty gameplay experience.

@xeofate Did you play the original? With all the positive press about KCD2, I'm mulling over grabbing the original on sale.