Recent reviews by FallenOneFS

I forced myself to finish act 2 to re-review this game, and boy, oh boy...

Pros:
- it is still a pretty game, some act 2 places are gorgeous, act 3 also fenomenal;

Cons:
- many great things simply don't work, at all, melee is one of them, playing warrior is this game's equivalent to CBT, all skills fire as slowly as humanly possible, you walk as slowly as humanly possible without actually not moving at all, you can't tank a sneeze from a butterfly but are supposed to get up close and personal to hit everything, you attack as slowly as humanly possible and deal less damage than everyone else;
- it's not enough that everything is slowed down to a crawl and you don't get movement abilities, you'll also take cc from everything under the sun and also everything under the sun will create prohibitive fields, which forces you to relocate often because they in % of hp;
- maps are huge, but with a vengeance, because now you absolutely have to walk at a snail's pace, take cc from the vase you just broke, and everything will respawn when you die, so you can walk it all over again, some act 2 maps took me no less than 40min to get through;
- bosses are atrociously boring, all bosses are attrition battles, every single one of them, and GGG takes great care to keep it that way, if you are able to finish a boss in less than 5min, they'll nerf every single skill and passive and your build to the ground so that you won't be able to kill trash mobs after the patch, and good luck with respec, it's a fortune;
- speaking of fortune, there is gold, but it's scarce, so much so that it's utlimately useless, you just save to respec when GGG inevitably nerf your build into the ground, because buying items is unheard of;
- forget crafting, something that was integral to PoE1 is completely gone, mats are so rare that in all my play time I managed to craft a whopping 2 items;
- forget drops, they made so bosses drop at least 1 piece of trash that you'll sell to the merchant in town, items are so scarce I feel like I'm Diablo 3 during the release days, it's ridiculous;
- not 1 week in and the entire passive tree was nerfed already, I'm not even mad, that's pretty amazing, the game was already nearly playable, now players are scrounging every bit of usefulness from the 6 corners of the tree to try and salvage a build that can actually kill a rare mob;
- speaking of the passive tree, it's mired in useless nodes that have, I'm dead serious, negative effects, there is a big node that DECREASES your move speed by 5% and gives you 1% of your hp as regen per second WHILE STANDING STILL, for such crap to be even remotely useless, it'd need to give 10 times that heal and not hinder movement, and even then, nobody would use it because it'd be hella useless;
- the class ascenssion mission have become torture, the first game feels easy now, you have to go through several stages like the first game, but now you have an "honor" bar, which is exactly equal to your hp plus your es, it goes down every time you take damage in the same amount of damage you took, and the only way to refill it is to complete a stage that allows refill and have the currency for it, so the ascenssion mission is basically the same as the first game, but you cannot take damage at all, you either go perfect, or go home;
- act bosses are some of the most bizarre fights I have seen in a game maybe ever, they are so strong, they can kill you in 2 or 3 hits, sometimes ohk even, and have near millions of hp, so it's a worse attrition battle than every other boss, but they aren't hard per se, they are made that way to cap the player dps, you are menat to hit, dodge, hit, dodge, and keep this up for half an hour, because, supposedly, this is "fun", but I don't really know who finds this fun, this is not Dark Souls, you don't have to learn and adapt, bosses are mechanically simple, they create proihibition zones, they basic attack, they explode, they summon minions to refill your potions, nothing else, you are literally supposed to stare at the screen and click once, press space bar once, click once, press space bar once, rinse and repeat for half an hour;

This game is in such a sad state that I genuinely regret buying it, and given GGG's history, I don't see this improving in near future, it will be years before this game is a state that anyone can scarcely call "fun". If you are a masochist, sure, go ahead, buy this CBT simulator, otherwise find something else, or play the first game, because this here doesn't even belong to the same genre as that.

Look, lets keep this simple:

- the core gameplay loop is not inspired, it's Fallout 4.2, no difference whatsoever;
- core game mechanics are just as simple if not simpler than previous Bethesda titles;
- the game is bloated and heavy on the hardware, you need high end hardware to play on any setting above low, and over 180GB of storage for what it delivers is not good;
- like Fallout 4, in which the settlements are fun to build, in this game we have outposts, same thing, but not fun;

BUT

- the game is very pretty, even on lowest possible settings, some places are simply gorgeous, even Neon is beautiful in its own way;
- the stories within are amazing, the main story is pretty simple, but interesting nonetheless, and every single side story is fantastic in its own way;
- the new game + cycle can look intimidating, but the changes with each + cycle make them interesting again;
- exploration is not completely fun, but it's not terrible either, this is not No Man's Sky, don't expect a system with several interesting planets, no, mostly there are lifeless rocks floating about, but when you find some interesting planet, it can be a joy to explore it fully;

So why am I recommending this? The story is just so fun that I find myself playing and replaying just for the story and the characters, and if they managed to create good entertainment from that alone, then this is a good game.

What in the Nameless God's name happened here? How did we move from an amazing game to this godless abomination?

- equipment system was reworked, for the worse, main weapon and side weapon are now tied into one thing, for some reason, you cannot double hand nor equip shield as necessary, you have to make do with the pre-made combos;
- world building was reworked, for the worse, there is no more "world", now we have a central hub from which we teleport to the locations, and those locations are completely separated from one another, unlike, say, Dark Souls 3;
- enemies are now dirt cheap, there is no point in learning anything, it's best to just power through everything with reckless abandon, if you're dying too much, just grind levels and power through;
- speaking of world building again, there is no organic roadblock anymore (a gap that needs double jump, for instance), they have made literal doors with "kill this many enemies first" message, and I cannot fathom anything cheaper than this, it's ridiculous;
- checkpoint system was reworked, for the worse, now you no longer have access to sanctuaries to ressuply, upgrade, do quests, no, now you have totems and everything is done in the central hub, and ressuplying was reworked too, now you need a specific item to ressuply heals, so it's perfectly possible, and easy even, to completely run out of healing, which I don't know if I should laugh or cry about, and even better, you don't have access to teleport between totems, and ressuplying is done manualy instead of automatic like previous game;
- storytelling was reworked, instead of organic learning via reading in-game descriptions and piecing together the story through NPC's quest, enemy name, locations and whatnot, now we have a billion NPCs that vomit exposition as needed, lovely;

Not all is lost, though...

- leveling and item buying are still the same;
- art style and overall presentation are still the same;
- combat stream and momentum are still the same, despite the disgusting equipment system and cheap enemies;

But I don't know if that alone can salvage this mess... The game overall is not the end of the world, it's still somewhat fun, albeit with very annoying changes, so if you can stomach the new disgusting equipment system and the insane cheapness of the enemies, it's worth a 60% sale.
5.5/10 - don't buy it unless you are starved for a soulslike-platforming game and is absolutely bored of Salt and Sanctuary, otherwise just buy Salt and Sanctuary instead or wait for a big sale, at least 50%.
As a final note, I hope Sweeney's money was worth it, because between EGS's terrible sales and game sub-mediocrity delivery, the sales won't save this tragedy of a game.

Tired of D4's simplicity? Too inlectually backrupt for PoE? Well, look no further, this is the game for you!

Only feature missing is a way to bypass the tiresome leveling process to 58...

Here are some of the things you can do in this game:

- acquire butter and sell for profit;
- make an army of only horse archers so you can flex on armies 3 times the size of yours;
- re-enact the French revolution;
- re-enact the fall of Rome and the fall of Constantinople;
- use a bear as a hat;
- chop-chop;
- fight in the arena;
- collect even more butter;
- conquer the world;

Besides that, I say this is a solid 9.2/10, really damn good.
Edit: forget mods, developers hate them.

Finished this, now onto the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥: another great game soiled by another ending. There will be spoilers, you were warned!

They delivered an amazing expansion to an already great game, but like the game, this ones ends in the trash. We are so desperate to save V that we grasp onto whatever oportunity we are given, the story flaunts salvation like a carrot on a stick, and we follow it, we latch on to that last hope that maybe this time, things will turn out alright... But they don't. They never do.

I don't have to talk about the gameplay, I don't have to talk about the excelent story telling, I don't have to talk about the new features, all of those have already been hammered enough times, they are good, they are just that good, but the ending? We gotta talk about that. This expansion gave us a chance to save V, but the price is steep, so steep in fact that it is not even worth the time it takes to see it, so I'll summarise for you: you lose everything, and I mean everything, V becomes a nobody, incapable of fighting, with nothing to their name, no friends, no loved ones, no family, no home, nothing, everything turns into dust. Up until the very end, the story is amazing, masterfully written, masterfully delivered, but it ends in nihilism, once again, sad, broken, nihilism. To make matters worse, you are forced to choose whom will die, wonderful characters that made you feel something, but in the end there is no choice at all, every character will have a sad ending no matter what, they can't be saved. No one can be saved.

Is it worth buying? Yes. But don't end it. When you get the call to go for the cure, don't take it. Walk away. Go see Panam. Don't do this to yourself, it's not worth it, not even for the achievement, if you really feel the need to get the achievement, find a mod or a cheat table, don't complete that last quest, don't take the call, no one, not Jhonny, not V, not you, nobody deserves that. But, for all that is worth, I'll give them this: at least this ending delivered, our efforts were not in vain, we achieved that which we set out to do, and for that, and only that, this is a good ending, even if not a happy one.

But, for the last, I feel I've suffered so much through my life, I saw so much wrong, so much pain, that I came here to escape that, but all I've managed to find was more suffering. For once, just once, maybe, I wanted that things could go right... Just once... Even if not for me, but for something, for someone, so that I could feel a sliver of hope and happyness I simply cannot find anywhere else.

It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's much less frustrating than the rest of the game, so it's a step in the right direction.

The side job in itself is very basic, interesting, but basic, don't expect some fleshed out mini-game, it's just selecting options and repeating things, though with a much greater degree of control, so there's that. New scenes are better than what the base game provides, don't ask me why, they simply are, the new dialog is ok, the interactions are ok, the 1st person view is fun in a weird way and the new clothing is awesome.

Is it good? Yes. If you bought the base game and didn't tear your hair out from frustration with it, this will be a nice change of pace, so I'd it's worth, more so than the base game, ♥♥♥♥ I'd pay for this alone instead of the base game.

Verdict: 8.5/10
Pretty good, much better than the base game, no frustration to be had, even if very basic.

Yes, I like pain and suffering, I like to go through torture sessions at least once a week, how did you know?

This game is your abusive wife you can't let go, it's horrible, it's ugly, it's cumbersome, it's painful, but you absolutely cannot let go...
- over 10 years in early access, and no release in sight
- many mechanics that were good when introduced are now a ♥♥♥♥♥ and a half (yeah, I'm talking about foraging and fishing, FIGHT ME)
- you suffer, over and over again
- game is made to be impossible, and it doesn't even try to hide it, it tells it in your face: THIS IS HOW YOU DIED

Should you buy this? Are you a sucker for punishment? Then yeah, buy this crap and start the torture right away, hop on some "whitelisted" server and die over and over again, or play by yourself and still die no matter what. Don't like suffering? Too bad, there's only suffering here. There are still ways to have fun, but you need mods, and a sale offer, otherwise just don't. Don't dive into this madness. Just don't.

So, I'll just list the things I don't like, because everything else is pretty much perfect.

- crowd control; there is way too much crowd control, there's stun, there's slow, there's snare, there's knockback, there's knockdown, there's silence, there's fear, there's freeze, it's unreal the amount of cc in this game, and I hate it, I mean, I play the game to play the game, not to stare at the screen while the mobs crush me, that's just stupid;

What's interesting: story, questing, pacing, zones, activities, dungeons, leveling and even talking to NPCs, it's crazy the amount of content and the valune in it.

But, if you don't like cc, this game is not for you, move on. If you don't care about cc, you should probably get this, it's a very solid game, very good, I'd say 9/10.

V-Falling.

Pros.:
- good combat system overall, it's very refreshing, it's like a mix of Diablo and DMC, I quite love it;
- gorgeous, even for an indie game, this one is absolutely stunning beautiful;
- interesting building system, with room layout bonuses and delimitations, much like The Sims;
- interesting map system, while much like Ark, it is unique in its own way, diveded into tiers and factions, can be hard to navigate, but interesting nonetheless, and with awesome exploration, entering a new region is pure fun;

Cons.:
- same-y and very grindy, and not in a fun way, you'll kill the same enemy a million times over and remain stuck on tech/power, after a while the game becomes "hunt for paper"-"boss fight", rinse, repeat;
- building is fun, but not for everyone, maps can get clogged easily and there's a lot of fighting for space;
- multiplayer only, this is not a "it's more fun with friends" game, this is an MMO, even if they say otherwise, it's simply too convoluted and hard to play solo, so much so that it becomes tedious, solo play feels more like a chore than a game;
- survival aspects are barebones;
- bosses aren't hard, they are just annoying, bossing goes from "learning and overcoming" to "battle of attrition" real quick, and it does not get better, it only gets worse, later bosses have more and more hp and more and more annoyances, it's not hard and it's very boring;
- RPG systems are barebones and overly convoluted, you do a lot to accomplish next to nothing, the sense of progression is so slow it feels nonexistant at times;
- "resistance" mechanics aren't fun, there's garlic which reduces you to a walking plant and the sun that kills you, you can avoid them, but can't fight them, there is a "resistance" mechanic to, well, resist them, but it's so inneficient it might as well not even be there;
- moving around is really slow, in a game where you need to constantly move around the map to gather resourses and kill things, this becomes the biggest source of frustration ever;
- most activities sum up to nothing, all you do is gather resourses to build or research something, kill, mine, run, it's all in the name of some iron, paper and wood, and that's that;

Conclusion:
They tried real hard to re-invent the wheel, but in the end it fell short of an ugly square. This is not a survival game, it's too barebones, more so than fricking Minecraft, it's not sandbox also, you are limited by a lot of factors, too many to call this a sandbox, it can't be an RPG either, too barebones for it, and it's not an adventure either, I mean, going to your local supermarket for the first time is an adventure, by the tenth time it's just tuesday, and this game is exactly that, you build your house and go to the market to get some paper so you can expand your home and unlock new fashion.
To add salt to injury, the game have 2 paied DLCs AND is early access.

This is the most solid 7 I'll ever give. 7/10 - not worth it yet, maybe in the future