Recent reviews by Smely Ely

Good game with lotsa builds and cool class options. Wish there was more reward for exploring, especially in the beginning, but this isn't really that kinda game so whatevs. Story is alright, but in general the dialogue isn't that cringe so better than most. The shooting is what you get this game for, and it delivers imo.

One of the best single player games, and games in general, I've ever played. You got all my boxes checked in this one. There are some flaws in line with older, less intuitive titles like Chronicles of Uru and such, where interacting with NPCs, quest items, and some quests themselves are not explained and the game can seem overwhelming in the beginning because of this. However, you can easily look up some resources (albeit it's not a very practical way for tutorializing the game) and the wiki and other sites will tell you exactly what you need to do. I would imagine this game would've been a lot more of a pain to play before everything was figured out, such as the affinity system, certain vague quest descriptions, and the like. But with community resources, and now mods that include adding a map shortcut hotkey (heaven knows why it wasn't there to begin with) among other things, this game near pushes every single button required to keep me coming back for more, for at least a week per month (usually ends up being half the month or more).

In this game, we got (ordered from most important to me to least important to me):

- High quality animations
- In-depth character customization
- Different specialized classes with wild variety in combat tactics and skills. This is a big hitter for me since I always thought "what's the point" for games like Skyrim where everyone ends up getting 100s in every tree at the end.
- Customizability of pawns and pawn groups (NPCs which follow and help you out, including carrying things for you, fighting with/for you, and telling you some useful tidbits of information that you wouldn't have known otherwise)
- Intuitive and fun combat, which again, varies wildly depending on the class you play.
- Interesting story. Seems cliche at first, but is actually quite a unique setting when you really get into.
- Power progression feels natural
- Complete openworld, meaning if you really wanted to you could fight the level 60-ish drake at level 10. It would be seldom possible, but not because of story locked content, simply because he's more powerful. This kind of freedom is what I wish more games would have.
- Pawns are technically optional and although there isn't a "dismiss pawn" option, you can throw them off a cliff if you want to play solo runs, which is what I like to do a lot of the time.
- You can cheese monsters even if there's a huge level gap. On solo runs, I like to bait the everfall ogre to fall down the middle, instantly gaining like 2 levels. Despite being able to cheese some monsters, it strikes a good balance of not being able to cheese ALL of them, and often times you'll be able to kill monsters more quickly (save the cliff technique with the ogre) if you don't cheese them. I just like that there's the agency to do it if you want to.
- Interesting and decently sized world to explore.
- Honestly, very good graphics for its time, and the developers knew how to keep the camera's distance enough from the models so you can't see the ugly details that are there. Very well done in this department.
- Very nice and immersive environmental sounds
- High potential for min-maxing your character and with different builds. Different armour sets, different skills, and different weapons all allow for unique character builds with different tactics. Even one class can have multiple different setups, but of course this isn't as diverse as lets say, Diablo II or III.

Worst flaws I can think of:
- Music can be repetitive after a bit, but I find myself flipping the soundtrack back after a bit because I start to miss it. I just wish it had a bit more variety, although the tracks that are there are nice.
- The dialogue from NPCs can be a bit confusing and I don't think the writers really did their research on old english. Regardless you'll eventually learn the dialect fluently, but it is kind of jarring when you first start.
- As previously stated, some quests are a little weird and the "easter eggs" and "secrets" in this game seem like things that you would come upon through complete happenstance rather than with outside-of-the-box thinking. Regardless, these can still be looked up on the wiki, albeit it does take some the magic away. But that's not really important to me.
- Inventory mechanic in this game can sometimes bog things down, especially if you're playing solo (even if the game wasn't intended for solo play). Basically the more you fill up your inventory, the more slowly you move, and if you're encumbered you move VERY slowly and just walking eats up stamina. It makes sense but I'm more of a fan of the Skyrim style inventory where you just don't need to worry about it as much. Regardless, you do have a bank system to hold all the weight with no limit, but it just gets in the way a little too much sometimes. Nothing I can't deal with though.

Even though it's flawed, it's such a good game with endless replay value in the form of customizing different characters and builds, and it looks and plays fluidly. Probably the best game I've ever played and I continue to burn hours on this thing, possibly even to my detriment. Give it a try, you won't regret it.

Fun and fast-paced gameplay. Runs smoothly even on my outdated computer. Minor complaints would be having awkward save-points (specifically when playing in Nightmare Mode where dying is common) where there are trivial enemies in front of a gore nest that just waste time. Other than that, this is the most polished FPS game I've played.

Well, well, well. Seems I'm late in the Undertale reviews. But really, I don't care because this game deserves a positive review any day.

Do I recommend this game? Hell yes. Do I like this game? You already the answer.

At first this game didn't really stand out to me. I looked at it, and thought that is was just another original retro wanna be. At first glance this game was slow, it had no plot advancement because you're told plot in the middle of the game. It was just you and this funny-looking sprite walking around talking to weird monsters. At this point I was playing pacifist, (Choosing to not kill anybody), and the game really just seemed to be, well, boring. I stopped playing for awhile at the final boss because I just couldn't beat him. So I decided a while later that I would give it another go. And man. That's when this game gave me punch in the face and a half.

I realize now that because the game was so, light hearted and kind of, well, boring is because my actions had no consequences. Like, none. Nothing bad happened because I wasn't a bad person. It wasn't exciting, it was relaxing because all you're seeing is how life moves on in ol' monster world with just another cool guy come to join the club. I replayed in but this on Genocide route, and oh boy that was exciting. It didn't necessarily give me all the "feels" and the everyone is goin' on about, but man this game is something special.

This game shall forever be a classic, and may it never be forgotten. It's way up on my "good game" charts, like way up there. Good job, Toby. Good freaking job. You deserve a cookie.

I'm gonna be honest here, this game is great. At first glance I thought I wouldn't like it, but looked more into, (looking at let's plays and what not) and actually seemed to be my type of game. (Despite the anthropamorphic animal characters, but it's quite easy to look past one of my few pet-peeves in life with this masterpiece). I played it, and I gotta say, I wasn't dissapointed. The first thing that reeled me into this gorgeous game was the ambience. The art was beautiful, and I probably spent way more time on this than the average player simply because I took a few pauses just to enjoy the artisitic masterpiece that is Dust: An Elysian Tail.

Gameplay wise, this game doesn't let you down. It's more of a brawler than any other Genre, in my opinion. It has smooth combos and actually prooves to be challenging in many stages. I would say that the leveling system needs a bit more depth, but really with all that the game offers that's a pretty minor complaint. However the aerial dust storm seems to a bit imbalanced, as I can just constantly use that attack to defeat really any boss that gets in my way rather easily.

The soundtrack is AMAZING. I'm a sucker when it comes to good music in games, and this did not let me down. At all. Even when I got stuck in a death loop at the challenging parts, the soundtrack is what prevented me from raging, just because each time I respawn the ear candy will feed me once more.

Lastly, I gotta say I was a tad dissapointed with the story. It's still really well done, don't get me wrong. However, and I know it's hard avoid this in games, it's kind of cheesy in a lot of places. Fidget's bickering almost made me cry sometimes, because she's just SO DAMN ANNOYING. That high pitched voice irked me everytime she was trying to be sassy with me, or just freaking out over monsters everytime we encountered them. Also, Arah the talking sword is a pretty cool guy, I guess. He's the only non-furry character in the game so there's a bonus for me, but really? A talking sword? Cryptic tutor? I've heard WAY too many times in fantasy books/movies and the like, and both elements are usually in the same place. It was kind of sad to hear the words "You shall know in time, Dust." Or "Now is not the place nor the time" and other famous words of the ol' cryptic teacher guy. I feel like the dialogue in this could've been more excuted, and the when the real plot is revealed the way I found out didn't seem natural.

All in all, though, this game is still held up there in my "Was gud game wud pley agan" category, and quite frankly it deserves that place. The fact that this was mostly created by one person only further impresses me. Nice game.
8.5/10.

I'mma be honest here,
Is gud. 10/10. Would r8 again. With another 10/10.
Awesome gameplay, awesome characters, it's games like these that define "PC Gaming".
I really hope this becomes as big as I want it to be, or as I expect to be, rather.
PROS:
- Cool uniqueness in characters, each has their own weapon combination which makes the system logically appealing.
- Fluid gameplay, lots of opputinities for combos sure to it.
- Awesome community. I have only met one person so far who has ever said "Spammer **** off." All the others just say GG or nothing at all, and I'm cool with neutrality over rudeness.
- Lore for characters. This is a great bonus which I believe should be in many other games. Giving story elements to a game with no focus on story makes all the more enjoyable.
- No pay to win items. Oh my ghash I'm so happy this game doesn't have that. Pay to win games keep me interested for about 1 week until I meet all the people with money spent on being OP. I wouldn't mind in the future buying a cosmetic item for the pure sake of helping out Blue Mammoth Games. You guys deserve it, frankly.

CONS:
- May destroy friendships.
- I don't really like the fact that in 2v2 friendly fire is a thing. Sure, it adds to the challenge of team coordination but it almost seems like an online free for all since I keep accidentally throwing bombs at my teammates.

As you can see the Cons are minor, with only one of them being an actual thing.
This is where I r8 again. 10/10. Gud game.