Recent reviews by moonie

this is literally magic

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a fun but flawed game that I genuinely enjoyed my time with but still have lots of grievances.
I only recently played through Origins - Inquisition in anticipation of this game so my feelings on certain reveals might not be as strong as someone who has waited years for this.

THE STORY
🔲 Awful
🔲 Nothing Special
✅ Good
🔲 Great
🔲 FANTASTIC

The Dragon Age series is known for its complex characters & morally ambiguous storylines, something that seems to be missing from this game in most of its quests.
Most of the antagonists/villains are simply factions designed as "evil" and that are trying to grab power. It gives the feeling that there is no unique qualities to any of these factions making them all feel like carbon copies of each other with little depth. Not all quests / storylines suffer from this but you start to see the pattern as you go through.
The main story isn't bad but it's not perfect either, some details from the early game are lost on me after how much time I spent gathering collectibles & doing side quests. I loved the whole final act of the game though, it felt very reminiscent of the final mission of Mass Effect 2 with important choices to make.
My biggest gripe with the main story was that Solas & The Inquisitor were sidelined in exchange for lesser characters for 90% of the story.

At the start of the game you pick a faction for your Rook which can add extra dialogue / context to certain scenes throughout main & side content.

I can't touch on the story without mentioning the dialogue. It's really rough at times and some of the voice direction on certain characters felt off (especially compared to the same character in Inquisition) I do feel though that a lot of the times the dialogue was too modern and wasn't very immersive but it didn't bother me too much in the big picture.

I'm also not a fan of the removal of evil/antagonistic dialogue options that have been in Dragon Age/Mass Effect since the start. Rook feels like a more established character than even Hawke from DA2 did.

Overall I enjoyed what we got but the question lingers in my mind, could we have gotten better?

GAMEPLAY
🔲 Lifeless/static
🔲 Poor
🔲 Average
✅ Good
🔲 Excellent

The gameplay has been by far the WORST part of every Dragon Age for me. Veilguard has changed things significantly and its for the better in my opinion. I actually felt engaged with the combat on Nightmare but it didn't feel overly hard even on max difficulty. The parry timing felt strange for a while, I got used to it eventually and then it felt like second nature.

The Map design is leagues ahead of Inquisition's bloated open worlds. I spent countless hours scouring every map for chests to find the perfect items for my warrior's flaming weapons build, which really paid off in the third act. The skill tree has the right amount of variation between specialisations that make them all feel unique.

Instead of being able to control companions like previous games, you can now only command them to use abilities. I barely ever controlled the companions in past games so this doesn't matter to me but the new streamlined system helped keep the combat flowing for me.

The character creator is amazing and gives you way more options than any BioWare game previously has (it might also be their first good creator)

DIFFICULTY
🔲 Playing asleep
🔲 Some brain usage
✅ Easy to learn / Hard to master
🔲 Difficult
🔲 Dark Souls

GRIND
🔲 Nothing to grind
✅ Isn't necessary to progress
🔲 Average grind level
🔲 A lot of grind
🔲 Too much grind

The grind will depend on what difficulty you're playing. The side quests were generally enjoyable and didn't feel like filler to me. You will need to complete these if you want the best ending though. Gathering chest items for your build will be grindy at least until guides are out showing the location of every item.

GAME TIME / REPLAYABILITY
🔲 Long enough for a cup of coffee
🔲 Short
✅ Average
✅ Long (Completionist)
🔲 To infinity and beyond

The game has a lot of replayability on the gameplay side being able to pick between three very distinct classes which all have tons of build potential.

I could see the dialogue getting repetitive on future playthroughs.

There is also multiple endings to replay for.

GRAPHICS
🔲 Low
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
✅ Beautiful
🔲 Reality 2.0

I was sceptical about the art style before release but upon playing I love it. There are a few characters that look a bit off to me but I got used to it as time went on. Runs really well on max raytracing & ultra settings and looks gorgeous.

AUDIO
🔲 Earrape
🔲 Bad
✅ Not too bad
🔲 Good
🔲 Eargasm

The music is one of my major problems with this game. I like the music, but it doesn't feel like Dragon Age. A lot of it sounds more like something you'd hear in Mass Effect. They should've asked Trevor Morris to come back as the music from Inquisition was perfect. The best part of this games soundtrack is when Lost Elf (from Inquisition) plays.

AUDIENCE
🔲 Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults
🔲 Everyone

The game has a less mature feel to it than previous Dragon Age games but I wouldn't call it a "kid's game" or "disney product" like a lot of people have been saying.

PC REQUIREMENTS
🔲 Potato
🔲 Decent
✅ Fast
🔲 Rich boi
🔲 NASA

PRICE
🔲 It's free!
🔲 Not recommended
✅ Wait for sale
✅ Worth the price
🔲 Best investment ever done

If you're only going to play the game once and not 100% it, wait for a sale.

If you're a completionist or will play multiple times it's worth full price.

BUGS / CRASHES
🔲 None that I can recount
✅ Minor bugs
🔲 Infrequent crashes
🔲 Frequent crashes
🔲 Complete mess

Before the recent GeForce Driver update, I had no crashes or bugs at all. Since then I've had three crashes over 30-35 hours. The game auto saves frequently enough that it was barely an inconvenience.

MISC
🔲 Steam Workshop
✅ Steam Trading Cards
✅ Steam Achievements
✅ Content for Steam Points Shop

VERDICT
✅ Recommended
🔲 Not recommended

I've never had motion sickness from any game but almost every action in this game triggered it for me. It's a shame, this game was really fun for the hour and a half I played it.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - 8.5/10

A good game weighed down by bloated open worlds. I really enjoyed the story of DAI but it felt like it kept being put on hold as I had to complete side-missions to gain power to start the main missions.

If you use Dragon Age Keep, you can transfer all of your choices from DAO and DA2 into this game. Without spoilers its nice to see old characters show up and play a role in the plot.

1/15 STORY
🔲 Awful
🔲 Nothing Special
🔲 Good
✅ Great
🔲 FANTASTIC

2/15 GAMEPLAY
🔲 Lifeless/static
🔲 Poor
✅ Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Excellent

3/15 DIFFICULTY
🔲 Playing asleep
🔲 Some brain usage
✅ Easy to learn / Hard to master
🔲 Difficult
🔲 Dark Souls

4/15 GRIND
🔲 Nothing to grind
🔲 Isn't necessary to progress
🔲 Average grind level
🔲 A lot of grind
✅ Too much grind

5/15 GAME TIME / REPLAYABILITY
🔲 Long enough for a cup of coffee
🔲 Short
🔲 Average
✅ Long
🔲 To infinity and beyond

6/15 MULTIPLAYER
🔲 No Multiplayer
🔲 Trashy servers
🔲 Some hiccups
✅ Smooth and pleasant experience
🔲 Co-op
🔲 PvP
🔲 PvE

7/15 GRAPHICS
🔲 Low
🔲 Average
✅ Good
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Reality 2.0

8/15 AUDIO
🔲 Earrape
🔲 Bad
🔲 Not too bad
✅ Good
🔲 Eargasm

9/15 AUDIENCE
🔲 Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults
🔲 Everyone

10/15 PC REQUIREMENTS
🔲 Potato
✅ Decent
🔲 Fast
🔲 Rich boi
🔲 NASA

11/15 PRICE
🔲 It's free!
🔲 Not recommended
✅ Wait for sale
🔲 Worth the price
🔲 Best investment ever done

12/15 FREQUENT UPDATES
✅ Life cycle completed
🔲 Last year
🔲 A few every year
🔲 Once per month
🔲 Every week

13/15 BUGS / CRASHES
🔲 None that I can recount
✅ Minor bugs
🔲 Infrequent crashes
🔲 Frequent crashes
🔲 Complete mess

14/15 MISC
🔲 Steam Workshop
✅ Steam Trading Cards
✅ Steam Achievements
✅ Content for Steam Points Shop

15/15 VERDICT
✅ Recommended
🔲 Not recommended

Dragon Age II - 7.5/10

Dragon Age II is a very different game from its predecessor but I'm not sure it's for the best. I loved the characters of this game including Hawke (player character) and all of the companions.

My issues come at the story and setting. Most of the story is running around doing errands, the best missions take place at the end of Act 2 & 3.

The story is set around the city of Kirkwall and it basically never leaves it. Unlike Dragon Age: Origins where you visit all of Ferelden, you spend the whole game running around the same 10 hallways over and over again. To me this takes away all replay-ability that the game has.

I'd still recommend just like DAO downloading a 4GB patch to reduce crashes but its no way near as bad as it was in Origins. At least you can alt + tab in this one without is crashing lol

1/15 STORY
🔲 Awful
✅ Nothing Special
🔲 Good
🔲 Great
🔲 FANTASTIC

2/15 GAMEPLAY
🔲 Lifeless/static
🔲 Poor
✅ Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Excellent

3/15 DIFFICULTY
🔲 Playing asleep
🔲 Some brain usage
✅ Easy to learn / Hard to master
🔲 Difficult
🔲 Dark Souls

4/15 GRIND
🔲 Nothing to grind
🔲 Isn't necessary to progress
🔲 Average grind level
✅ A lot of grind
🔲 Too much grind

5/15 GAME TIME / REPLAYABILITY
🔲 Long enough for a cup of coffee
🔲 Short
✅ Average
🔲 Long
🔲 To infinity and beyond

6/15 MULTIPLAYER
✅ No Multiplayer
🔲 Trashy servers
🔲 Some hiccups
🔲 Smooth and pleasant experience
🔲 Co-op
🔲 PvP
🔲 PvE

7/15 GRAPHICS
✅ Low
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Reality 2.0

8/15 AUDIO
🔲 Earrape
🔲 Bad
✅ Not too bad
🔲 Good
🔲 Eargasm

9/15 AUDIENCE
🔲 Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults
🔲 Everyone

10/15 PC REQUIREMENTS
✅ Potato
🔲 Decent
🔲 Fast
🔲 Rich boi
🔲 NASA

11/15 PRICE
🔲 It's free!
🔲 Not recommended
✅ Wait for sale
🔲 Worth the price
🔲 Best investment ever done

12/15 FREQUENT UPDATES
✅ Life cycle completed
🔲 Last year
🔲 A few every year
🔲 Once per month
🔲 Every week

13/15 BUGS / CRASHES
🔲 None that I can recount
🔲 Minor bugs
✅ Infrequent crashes
🔲 Frequent crashes
🔲 Complete mess

14/15 MISC
🔲 Steam Workshop
✅ Steam Trading Cards
🔲 Steam Achievements
✅ Content for Steam Points Shop

15/15 VERDICT
✅ Recommended
🔲 Not recommended

Dragon Age: Origins - 8/10

I had my fun with this game but it's heavily outdated and impossible to run on a modern PC without modding it, The game wouldn't even open until I modded it. After all of that I still had numerous crashes throughout the game, including a town where if you loaded a save it would completely crash the game.

The combat feels incredibly outdated to me and while some may enjoy it I definitely do not. I was only there for the story and used a mod that skips combat in most scenarios but I'd recommend giving it a shot before trying that.

The companions are what you'd expect from a golden age BioWare game. There are also lots of choices throughout the story that are felt through lasting consequences making your decisions count. While I enjoyed the story, it did not grip me as much as any of the Mass Effect games (also from BioWare).

I'm probably giving this too high a score considering how much effort it took to get it to run smoothly but its worth the effort if you can be bothered going through all the setup.

1/15 STORY
🔲 Bad Story
🔲 Average
✅ Good
🔲 Great
🔲 FANTASTIC

2/15 GAMEPLAY
✅ Lifeless/static
🔲 Poor
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Excellent

3/15 DIFFICULTY
🔲 Playing asleep
🔲 Some brain usage
✅ Easy to learn / Hard to master
🔲 Difficult
🔲 Dark Souls

4/15 GRIND
🔲 Nothing to grind
✅ Isn't necessary to progress
🔲 Average grind level
🔲 A lot of grind
🔲 Too much grind

5/15 GAME TIME / REPLAYABILITY
🔲 Long enough for a cup of coffee
🔲 Short
✅ Average
🔲 Long
🔲 To infinity and beyond

6/15 MULTIPLAYER
✅ No Multiplayer but the online servers have shut down
🔲 Trashy servers
🔲 Some hiccups
🔲 Smooth and pleasant experience
🔲 Co-op
🔲 PvP
🔲 PvE

7/15 GRAPHICS
✅ Low
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Reality 2.0

8/15 AUDIO
🔲 Earrape
🔲 Bad
✅ Not too bad (Dialogue, compressed sounding)
✅ Good (Music)
🔲 Eargasm

9/15 AUDIENCE
🔲 Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults
🔲 Everyone

10/15 PC REQUIREMENTS
✅ Potato
🔲 Decent
🔲 Fast
🔲 Rich boi
🔲 NASA

11/15 PRICE
🔲 It's free!
🔲 Not recommended
✅ Wait for sale
🔲 Worth the price
🔲 Best investment ever done

12/15 FREQUENT UPDATES
✅ Life cycle completed
🔲 Last year
🔲 A few every year
🔲 Once per month
🔲 Every week

13/15 BUGS / CRASHES
🔲 None that I can recount
🔲 Minor bugs
🔲 Infrequent crashes
✅ Frequent crashes
🔲 Complete mess

14/15 MISC
🔲 Steam Workshop
✅ Steam Trading Cards
🔲 Steam Achievements
🔲 Content for Steam Points Shop

15/15 VERDICT
✅ Recommended
🔲 Not recommended

Mirror's Edge Catalyst - 5/10

Mirror's Edge Catalyst has a beautiful world and fun movement but that's it. The story starts off intriguing in the first 30 minutes but after a few hours you realise you've already seen everything that the game has to offer. The combat is awful and very clunky. I tried to look past it until they throw you into a forced combat mission mid way through the game.
Story is extremely dull and predictable. There's an extreme amount of sound compression in the cutscenes too which just makes it even worse.
1/15 STORY
✅ Bad Story
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Great
🔲 FANTASTIC

2/15 GAMEPLAY
🔲 Lifeless/static
✅ Poor (Combat)
🔲 Average
✅ Good (Movement)
🔲 Excellent

3/15 DIFFICULTY
🔲 Playing asleep
✅ Some brain usage
🔲Easy to learn / Hard to master
🔲 Difficult
🔲 Dark Souls

4/15 GRIND
🔲 Nothing to grind
✅ Isn't necessary to progress
🔲 Average grind level
🔲 A lot of grind
🔲 Too much grind

5/15 GAME TIME / REPLAYABILITY
🔲 Long enough for a cup of coffee
✅ Short
🔲 Average
🔲 Long
🔲 To infinity and beyond

6/15 MULTIPLAYER
✅ Multiplayer shut down
🔲 Trashy servers
🔲 Some hiccups
🔲 Smooth and pleasant experience
🔲 Co-op
🔲 PvP
🔲 PvE

7/15 GRAPHICS
🔲 Low
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
✅ Beautiful
🔲 Reality 2.0

8/15 AUDIO
✅ Earrape (SFX)
🔲 Bad
✅ Not too bad (Music)
🔲 Good
🔲 Eargasm

9/15 AUDIENCE
🔲 Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults
🔲 Everyone

10/15 PC REQUIREMENTS
🔲 Potato
✅ Decent
🔲 Fast
🔲 Rich boi
🔲 NASA

11/15 PRICE
🔲 It's free!
✅ Not recommended
🔲 Wait for sale
🔲 Worth the price
🔲 Best investment ever done

12/15 FREQUENT UPDATES
✅ Life cycle completed
🔲 Last year
🔲 A few every year
🔲 Once per month
🔲 Every week

13/15 BUGS / CRASHES
🔲 None that I can recount
✅ Minor bugs
🔲 Infrequent crashes
🔲 Frequent crashes
🔲 Complete mess

14/15 MISC
🔲 Steam Workshop
✅ Steam Trading Cards
✅ Steam Achievements
🔲 Content for Steam Points Shop

15/15 VERDICT
🔲 Recommended
✅ Not recommended

Injustice 2 - 7/10

Fun but very short campaign, if you want a short action game with no deep meaning just fun fights then look no further.
1/15 STORY
🔲 Bad Story
✅ Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Great
🔲 FANTASTIC

2/15 GAMEPLAY
🔲 Lifeless/static
🔲 Poor
✅ Average (not good at these type of games so probably not the best example for me)
🔲 Good
🔲 Excellent

3/15 DIFFICULTY
🔲 Playing asleep
🔲 Some brain usage
✅ Easy to learn / Hard to master
🔲 Difficult
🔲 Dark Souls

4/15 GRIND
✅ Nothing to grind
🔲 Isn't necessary to progress
🔲 Average grind level
🔲 A lot of grind
🔲 Too much grind

5/15 GAME TIME / REPLAYABILITY
🔲 Long enough for a cup of coffee
✅ Short
🔲 Average
🔲 Long
🔲 To infinity and beyond

6/15 MULTIPLAYER
✅ Never tried multiplayer but its present
🔲 Trashy servers
🔲 Some hiccups
🔲 Smooth and pleasant experience
🔲 Co-op
🔲 PvP
🔲 PvE

7/15 GRAPHICS
🔲 Low
✅ Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Reality 2.0

8/15 AUDIO
🔲 Earrape
🔲 Bad
✅ Not too bad
🔲 Good
🔲 Eargasm

9/15 AUDIENCE
🔲 Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults
🔲 Everyone

10/15 PC REQUIREMENTS
🔲 Potato
🔲 Decent
✅ Fast
🔲 Rich boi
🔲 NASA

11/15 PRICE
🔲 It's free!
🔲 Not recommended
✅ Wait for sale
🔲 Worth the price
🔲 Best investment ever done

12/15 FREQUENT UPDATES
✅ Life cycle completed
🔲 Last year
🔲 A few every year
🔲 Once per month
🔲 Every week

13/15 BUGS / CRASHES
🔲 None that I can recount
🔲 Minor bugs
✅ Infrequent crashes
🔲 Frequent crashes
🔲 Complete mess

14/15 MISC
🔲 Steam Workshop
✅ Steam Trading Cards
✅ Steam Achievements
🔲 Content for Steam Points Shop

15/15 VERDICT
✅ Recommended
🔲 Not recommended

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - 9/10

The Witcher 3 is a fantastic game set in a fascinating universe. It has amazing music and characters that support an interesting story with consequences for your actions. In my opinion the only downside is how repetitive most missions feel (Use witcher senses, track something, repeat) The expansion Blood and Wine improves upon this though.
1/15 STORY
🔲 Bad Story
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
🔲 Great
✅ FANTASTIC

2/15 GAMEPLAY
🔲 Lifeless/static
🔲 Poor
🔲 Average
✅ Good
🔲 Excellent

3/15 DIFFICULTY
🔲 Playing asleep
🔲 Some brain usage
✅ Easy to learn / Hard to master
🔲 Difficult
🔲 Dark Souls

4/15 GRIND
🔲 Nothing to grind
✅ Isn't necessary to progress
🔲 Average grind level
🔲 A lot of grind
🔲 Too much grind

5/15 GAME TIME / REPLAYABILITY
🔲 Long enough for a cup of coffee
🔲 Short
🔲 Average
✅ Long
🔲 To infinity and beyond

6/15 MULTIPLAYER
✅ No Multiplayer
🔲 Trashy servers
🔲 Some hiccups
🔲 Smooth and pleasant experience
🔲 Co-op
🔲 PvP
🔲 PvE

7/15 GRAPHICS
🔲 Low
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
✅ Beautiful
🔲 Reality 2.0

8/15 AUDIO
🔲 Earrape
🔲 Bad
🔲 Not too bad
🔲 Good
✅ Eargasm

9/15 AUDIENCE
🔲 Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults
🔲 Everyone

10/15 PC REQUIREMENTS
🔲 Potato
🔲 Decent
✅ Fast
🔲 Rich boi
🔲 NASA

11/15 PRICE
🔲 It's free!
🔲 Not recommended
✅ Wait for sale (goes on sale frequently)
✅ Worth the price
🔲 Best investment ever done

12/15 FREQUENT UPDATES
✅ Life cycle completed
🔲 Last year
🔲 A few every year
🔲 Once per month
🔲 Every week

13/15 BUGS / CRASHES
🔲 None that I can recount
🔲 Minor bugs
✅ Infrequent crashes
🔲 Frequent crashes
🔲 Complete mess

14/15 MISC
🔲 Steam Workshop
✅ Steam Trading Cards
✅ Steam Achievements
✅ Content for Steam Points Shop

15/15 VERDICT
✅ Recommended
🔲 Not recommended

God of War is a fantastic narrative driven story fueled by amazing characters and an intriguing setting and powerful music.
1/15 STORY
🔲 No story
🔲 Not main aspect
🔲 Bad story
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
✅ FANTASTIC

2/15 GAMEPLAY
🔲 Lifeless/static
🔲 Poor
🔲 Average
✅ Good
🔲 Excellent

3/15 DIFFICULTY
🔲 Playing asleep
🔲 Some brain usage
✅ Easy to learn / Hard to master
🔲 Difficult
🔲 Dark Souls

4/15 GRIND
🔲 Nothing to grind
✅ Isn't necessary to progress
🔲 Average grind level
🔲 A lot of grind
🔲 Too much grind

5/15 GAME TIME / REPLAYABILITY
🔲 Long enough for a cup of coffee
🔲 Short
✅ Average
🔲 Long
🔲 To infinity and beyond

6/15 MULTIPLAYER
✅ No Multiplayer
🔲 Trashy servers
🔲 Some hiccups
🔲 Smooth and pleasant experience
🔲 Co-op
🔲 PvP
🔲 PvE

7/15 GRAPHICS
🔲 Low
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
✅ Beautiful
🔲 Reality 2.0

8/15 AUDIO
🔲 Earrape
🔲 Bad
🔲 Not too bad
🔲 Good
✅ Eargasm

9/15 AUDIENCE
🔲 Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults
🔲 Everyone

10/15 PC REQUIREMENTS
🔲 Potato
🔲 Decent
✅ Fast
🔲 Rich boi
🔲 NASA

11/15 PRICE
🔲 It's free!
🔲 Not recommended
🔲 Wait for sale
✅ Worth the price
🔲 Best investment ever done

12/15 FREQUENT UPDATES
✅ Life cycle completed
🔲 Last year
🔲 A few every year
🔲 Once per month (Major content updates, new story)
🔲 Every week

13/15 BUGS / CRASHES
🔲 None that I can recount
🔲 Minor bugs
✅ Infrequent crashes
🔲 Frequent crashes
🔲 Complete mess

14/15 MISC
🔲 Steam Workshop
✅ Steam Trading Cards
✅ Steam Achievements
✅ Content for Steam Points Shop

15/15 VERDICT
✅ Recommended
🔲 Not recommended