Recent reviews by Eileen the Crow

The SNOY armada has been vanquished. Once again we snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!

- Core gameplay loop is fun. There is a fair amount of strategy to the game modes that focuses on objectives, rotations, and threat assessment.

- The combat has a good amount of depth. At first it's easy to assume the game is just swinging wildly and in larger team fights it certainly can be, but mastery over spacing, jumping to avoid attacks, and character specific knowledge adds a surprisingly detailed combat system underneath an initially chaotic experience.

- With a good amount of play, you can get the battle pass without spending a dime. I have gotten both battle passes without spending anything on the game. It's even possible to get skins from the shops for free if you are a particularly dedicated player.

- Each character is diverse in play style, strengths, and weaknesses. Thankfully, few of the heroes in the roster feel like they are the same as other heroes.

- This game does NOT handle latency well. If you have a ping greater than 50, you may encounter problems. Anything over 100 is unplayable.

- There are few servers that can handle Oceania at all, so depending on where you are in the world, you may literally be unable to play the game at all.

- There is some noticeable power creep between new and old heroes. The newer heroes definitely have an enormous list of abilities and combos that makes them complex, but it's obvious they just get more then other heroes. They aren't necessarily always better than the old roster, but its clear their is a gap in design between the new heroes.

- There are just too many ridiculous internal "mini-games" (more akin to skinner-boxes imo) that just distract from the game, but more specifically are nearly required to make progress on the Battle Pass, which is basically the only thing that will give you rewards for playing. I wish these were more opt-in, even if they are somewhat rewarding if you spend a lot of time with them.

- The player base is small. This means getting games against the same people pretty often. This is double-edged sword, as the community has become much more tight nit and engaged with each other, especially the more skilled players. The down side is that it is nebulous as to how long the community will stick around and if it will be long enough to bounce back to a more sustainable player base. I think many of us don't want to see this game die, but it is in an uncertain state rn.

- This game can feel off putting. There are a lot of moments that new players may find rage inducing because they feel like the are out of their control. I think that in reality, most players don't think about the actual scenarios they are in before running in and getting outnumbered. Worse yet, there is a propensity to complain, rather than improve. We all do it, but its important to understand that just because you don't know how to deal with a certain character, move, or encounter in the game, does not mean that the game is busted. In my 100 hours of play, almost every immortal and character has an ideal way to react to them to avoid getting steam rolled.

Elden Ring is enrapturing and frustrating. There were countless moments that filled me with wonder as I explored the vast world it had to offer. Its non-linearity, in comparison to its predecessors, was a breath of fresh air in a nearly washed out formula. Each time I'd uncover something new I would find myself repeating these star struck phrases: "How is this game so enormous?", "How is this game so beautiful?", "How many secrets have I missed?". And yet, for every moment of awe, there were nearly as many moments of frustration. Under-designed filler fights, aggravating encounters, and even underwhelming core bosses all mar the experience. It's a game that doesn't reward adherence to the "git gud" rhetoric of the series. Elden Ring pushes the player to use every tool and take every advantage to overcome the obstacles that it presents. The player is free to avoid that, but it turns into what I have found to be simply an annoyance, rather than an organic and engaging challenge. When this game shines, it shines brilliantly. When it falters, you can be sure that there is a path to get you through the frustration.

It's more of a short demo than a fully fledged game. It's pretty impressive given it was made by only one person and, though the writting and story aren't anything to write home about, the developer nails the fast paced combat with this hybrid of traditional hack and slash juggling and standard first person shooting. Definetly worth the buy if you just want some fun action without a lot of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

10/10 would fight Kuze again.

This is the darksouls of yakuza.

This game has one of the most complex combat systems I've ever seen. It uses a multitude of various mechanics that rely on good timing and foresight and has tons of unique combos for each hero that make every character entirely unique in their play style. However, these systems clash heavily with the overall unbalanced nature of the game. Some heroes are downright better than others. The devs are working to try and further balance the game with reworks to characters, but the constant introduction of new (usually) unbalanced heroes brings a lot of frustration to the game. The huge dichotomy between the pro play and the casual play is a constant struggle for the developers making this game near impossible to balance. This game is dope as hell with a lot of things to love and just as many things to hate. I recommend this game only on a huge sale or give away. It is not for everyone and will probably turn a lot of players away with it's flaws.

It's alright.

This game has great graphics, decent stealth mechanics, and awesome gunplay, but the experience is interrupted by the awfully written characters and story. The game advances itself from it's previous installments by trashing the radio tower mechanic for a liberating map-out-what-you-see mechanic. This is a step in the right direction, but they then undermine this by having the antagonists of each zone kidnap you while you are out exploring. This wouldn't be so bad if this weren't one of the worst story's in all of Farcry.

It continuosly shoves ridiculous commentary down your throat in the form of boring cutscenes that accomplish nearly nothing through out the story. Not a single antagonist presents any reasonable thoughts to the player in the games attempt to get you to ponder the cults seemingly "holy" mission statement. They all give ridiculous theses for their thoughts and when you finally get to the final encounter, they moan and droan about how "they were abused" as a last ditch effort to get us to sympathize with them. It's just not good storytelling from a game with this kind of budget and this amount of money. Not to mention the ending completely lacks any sort of pay off for the player and really just screws them out of all the time they've spent.

What's even weirder is that the actual story missions aren't bad at all. They have a decent balance between action and stealth and they give the player enough freedom to approach missions how they want (Not to the level of MGSV mind you). It does a good job of giving you comically violent set-pieces that keep you entertained all the way through. This, coupled with the great sound design of the guns and their weightyness, gives the game some really fun, punchy gameplay. My consensus is that, as a game, Farcry 5 succeeds on many fronts, however, as a story, it royally faceplants into its own redneck manure. It did give me a good laugh though.

(on the dunkey scale of course)

(Also this game has a good amount of hilarious bugs, but I didn't actually mind as most of the time it didn't ruin my experience and actually made the game funnier in my eyes.)

This game is a schizophrenic nightmare and I loved it. Every minute you are berrated with the nonstop ramblings of Senua's inner demon's: a cacophony of self doubt and fear. This game has some of the best audio design I've ever seen and is by far one of the coolest audio and visual experiences in all of gaming for half the regular price. It tells a deep, emotionally charged story that will suck you in til the last minute. The only downside is that it is short, but it makes up for it. I promise. 10/10