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Recent reviews by theJas0n

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Showing 1-10 of 11 entries
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
75.5 hrs on record (5.8 hrs at review time)
tl;dr at the bottom.

To begin, I advise everyone reading the early negative reviews to take them all with a grain of salt. The majority of these people leaving bad reviews are doing so because they expected DD2 to be a copy and paste of DD1 but with new graphics. If you're a fan of Call of Duty or FIFA, this sequel is not for you because it actively attempts to reinvent the formula and changes almost absolutely everything instead of merely adding a few new features and calling it a day. There are in fact some very valid criticisms of this game, which I will go through, but very few of the negative reviews actually touch on the issues that matter, and do not make their decision based solely off the games own merit, but instead based off the differences to the first game. I believe this is a deeply unfair and uncharitable way to review a game. If your only criticism of a game is that "its too different from the first one", then your opinion has very little value and I encourage everyone to disregard these people who are reviewing out of spite. Now, onto the actual review. I have played a lot during early access, so ignore my hours played on Steam.

The Good

The Combat

The combat of DD1 that so many people loved and loathed, has been completely re-imagined and overhauled. While it keeps its very distinct DD identity, it has managed to surpass the original in many different ways.

The complexity has been greatly increased, making the combat way more tactical than before. The amount of new status effects, strategies, and moves that both your heroes and enemies posses is truly staggering. Replacing random misses and dodges, there are many new status effects that make every move feel a lot more fair and deliberate, whether you're on the dealing or receiving end.

Upgrades are now very different. There are no character upgrades, and moves have only one upgrade. You have a limited amount of points to upgrade moves, choosing which move you want to upgrade is much more strategic now, instead of just grinding for gold and upgrading everything. Move upgrades are also much more interesting. Instead of just being a raw increase in numbers like DD1, almost every move has an added benefit from being upgraded. This opens so many doors for strategy between characters, and mastering the different synergies is sure to be an absolute joy, and very rewarding for the players willing to put in the time to learn.

In DD1, the majority of basic enemies had very little going for them. They would have damage moves and maybe one with an extra status infliction. DD2 manages to make all but the most basic enemies feel unique, all having a myriad of different moves, both disruptive and supportive. Fighting a new enemy for the first time to learn its moves and adapt accordingly has so much more depth than DD1, that it is practically not even a competition. In DD1 after the early game, every combat usually went the same. Stun then clean up. In DD2, every part of the combat is a calculated decision, as is whether or not you even want to engage in the first place.

Another hidden benefit of the overhauled combat is that you no longer have to worry about getting wiped by many unlucky crits. While you can still get very unlucky, the amount of RNG BS has been reduced to a point where it helps sell the feel of the combat without being very intrusive. This is also good for those who hated the original for this very reason. You might enjoy DD2 a lot more knowing that the RNG is toned down.

The Journey

The most controversial thing in the sequel: the main gameplay loop has been changed from the long crusade, to a single journey taken by 4 heroes you pick from the start. However I have some thoughts about why this is good, putting the new overhauled gameplay into perspective.

The way everything ties in together, sells the fantasy and idea of what the game is actually about. These are the same heroes that saved the world once before. They are battle-hardened and not as prone to the stress of the world. The heroes are still very much just human, so logically the biggest obstacle now is for them to remain a cohesive unit. Taking good care to encourage good relationships between your heroes has many benefits, while also just being a really fun mechanic.

The Progression

So how do you actually progress in this game, now that runs are only a couple hours long? The main form of progression is through a currency known as candles. These candles are collected in many ways. After each run you are able to unlock new items, trinkets, heroes and others, using candles. The slow burn of unlocking and slowly familiarising yourself with all the new mechanics is a good move, design-wise. Not too overwhelming and in the long run much more approachable.

No matter how far you get, whether your party gets wiped, or if you resign early, you get rewarded candles to continue to progress, so you will never feel like you are wasting your time. Unlike DD1, DD2 actively encourages you to try new things, unlock things and see how it all fits together rather than only playing it safe. It may not be immediately apparent, but this method of progression is much more gratifying, doesn't punish creative play and still rewards smart play.

The Bad

Missing characters

There are some characters from DD1 that are missing. This might be disappointing to some, whose favourites will not be in the game at launch.

Gameplay Loop

I touched on this briefly before. It has to be stated that, for fans of the original, maybe the roguelike reimagining of DD isn't your cup of tea. One point that you can't ignore, however, is that DD2 is in fact SO different to DD1, that it doesn't take away from the first game. They are very distinct and you can play and enjoy both for different reasons. This is a huge benefit over other games that do sequels that are purely just an upgrade, making the original redundant.

[uSlow Start[/u]

The game is quite slow to start. You will likely need many attempts to beat the first act, and sadly there are only 2 areas in it. So, while the game REALLY opens up and becomes amazing after it, act 1 may feel a bit repetitive to some.

Meaningful Hero Deaths

The sting of losing a hero in DD1, especially if you were particularly attached to them, is something that is sorely missing from DD2. I can't help but feel sad that the tension of having your favourite hero on death's door just isn't there. I guess this could be a pretty big dealbreaker for some.

Conclusion

Overall, it gets a 9/10 from me. The few complains I have are very minor. You can see the passion the devs had for this game ooze out of every little detail and piece of polish. And of course, Wayne June is still here. It is very much a different experience to DD1, and you shouldn't go in expecting more of the same. If you go in with the right mindset, DD2 hits it out of the park with its many improvements and innovations.

Thanks for reading if you did make it this far, although I don't expect many did. Any opinions on any of my points are welcome.

tl;dr

Pros:

- overhauled gameplay loop, not a lazy copy and paste of original
- greatly enhanced combat, adding more fairness, strategy and complexity
- much more varied and interesting enemies
- rewards creativity and trying a variety of strategies
- metaprogression aids in learning while not locking or taking away from main mechanics
- rich in lore and atmosphere for those who enjoy that, non-intrusive
- beautiful graphics, transforming the original 2d style to 3d flawlessly
- lots of polish and small details
- more approachable than original

Cons:

- missing characters from original
- some might not be a fan of the roguelike adaptation
- beating act 1 is required for the game to really open up, and it may take some time
- hero deaths arent as meaningful, and you don't form attachments to them like in DD1
Posted 10 May, 2023. Last edited 14 May, 2023.
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1 person found this review helpful
1,194.6 hrs on record (197.5 hrs at review time)
The long awaited sequel to the perfect game.

If I could give it more than 10/10 I would.

Flawless game design. The procedural generation of the levels is varied and interesting and the emergent gameplay creates some really funny scenarios. Every run feels like a unique challenge and like a puzzle to figure out.

Immensely satisfying gameplay (even dying is so fun). The movement is my favourite of any platformer I've ever played. The controls are perfect, smooth and very tight. It encourages you to make every single button input a deliberate action.

And of course, when you do well you know it's because you've improved, you've learned and you've earned it. There is very little luck in Spelunky. Every win is an affirmation of your skills. Fantastic game design for a ruthless roguelike.
Posted 23 November, 2020. Last edited 23 November, 2020.
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5 people found this review helpful
298.7 hrs on record (77.4 hrs at review time)
With the newest update out and after playing it for a while, I finally feel it's worth giving NMS a proper review.

Suppose what we got at launch would've been the final product, I still would've recommended it even back then but only if it wasn't priced the same as a AAA title. If it was early access or something, maybe. But it wasn't. It was meant to be a PS4 exclusive, so there would be no early release on a different platform.

There wasn't a lot to do apart from exploring new planets, which back then had limited variety. The end game was very simple but time consuming to achieve and when you got there, you were basically out of content since you would've seen all the dialogue and in game events that exist in the game up to that point. Still, there was some appeal to it, even if it was very niche, a few people stuck by and kept playing, hopful for the future.

Thankfully, the promise of free updates was one that was kept. Probably the most important one of them all, even above multiplayer.

There were several small updates a few months after release, bringing base building, land vehicles and other features. For some long time fans this was enough to keep them playing. But not for everyone.

There is no DLC so all the updates are completely free no matter when you buy the game. This is what conviced me, what made me finally understand what actually happened. NMS was a passion project created by a small group of people, a lot smaller than the scope of the project, who because of their deal with Sony were forced to release the game early along with all the problems of an early release. Unfinished and unpolished.

It could've been a Steam early access game if it was PC only and it wouldn't have recieved the amount of bad press it did last year. But of course, Sony wanted a piece of that $$$.

With everything gone wrong, nearly all their fans deserting them, getting death threats and losing a huge chunk of revenue from refunded preorders, Hello Games did not take remaining the money and run.

If you look at update 1.3, exactly 1 year after launch, it ticks almost every box. All the promises made by the developers before release are slowly but surely coming true.

Even after an enourmous amount of people who purchased the game had it refunded at launch, Hello Games continued to invest and work tirelessly to bring the game to life. To turn it into something it was meant to be from the start. And the first step came with update 1.3.

Better combat, better trading, low flight (finally), over 30 hours of brilliantly written new story content with branching paths and choices and too many more small features to name that add up to make the biggest and best update yet.

If you liked the sound of NMS before release, before all the hate, before all the circlejerking, no matter what your opinion was back then, now is the time to get this game. I'm convinced it will only get better from here. If you like the genre, you won't regret your purchase.
Posted 16 August, 2017.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
1 person found this review funny
0.0 hrs on record
after ten thousand years in development

hopefully it would have been worth the weight
Posted 3 January, 2017.
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2 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
327.5 hrs on record (69.4 hrs at review time)
Most fun I've had with a video game in my life.

420/10.

Also happy 4/20.
Posted 20 April, 2016.
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1 person found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
615.4 hrs on record (365.0 hrs at review time)
CS:GO Review
Black hole for wallets.
Posted 24 February, 2016.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
1 person found this review funny
0.6 hrs on record (0.5 hrs at review time)
A short but cute visual novel. Worth picking up on a sale if you like kawaii neko girls.
Posted 29 January, 2016.
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8 people found this review helpful
20.5 hrs on record (17.5 hrs at review time)
Risk of Rain is a fantastic game. However it has a serious flaw in the way it saves your progress. If it were to crash (which it did for me every time I got to the final stage, frustratingly, so I could've beaten the game multiple times by now), everything you unlock during your run, new playable characters and artifacts... aren't actually unlocked. It only registers your unlocks, achievements and new scores when the run ends, when you die, give up or win. It should at the very least save your progress after every stage, and let you continue from the start of the stage but to be safe should save after every important unlock.

I bought the game a while ago but only started getting into it recently. I had tons of fun with it until it started crashing. Having to again unlock all the characters and artifacts which require lucky item drops and level generation is more of a hassle than it is fun.

I admit I'm writing this review because I ragequit in anger because I just unlocked 3 artifacts and 2 new characters in one lucky run and it crashed when I got to the final area. I will change my rating for this review if the devs update the game to make it less infuriating to play. It's a shame the devs didn't implement a better save feature because every other aspect of the game is near perfect.
Posted 28 January, 2016.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
1,082.5 hrs on record (418.2 hrs at review time)
its good
Posted 29 December, 2015. Last edited 9 June, 2022.
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1 person found this review helpful
5.2 hrs on record (2.1 hrs at review time)
An Agar.io clone done right. There are a lot of poor ones out there but this one is definitely worth checking out. What Mitos.is has that Agar.io doesn't:
  • More gamemodes
  • Can buy items and power-ups to enhance abilities
  • Quests to earn more money
  • Achievements
  • Nicer graphics
  • It's on Steam
  • Sound effects and sweet chiptune music
  • Overall more fun (IMHO)

    9/10
Posted 29 October, 2015. Last edited 29 October, 2015.
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Showing 1-10 of 11 entries