Recent reviews by Argenwarrior_DestroyerofPeronia

Where the hell was this game hiding and why is no one talking about it?

An absolute masterpiece of old school boomer shooter design where every weapon serves a purpose (and you get a bunch of them, plus the ability to dual wield 'em). On top of your melee weapons and shelds you also get some magic spells, staff, traps and potions.

Enemies aren't as plenty as in other games but are varied enough and present such a constant threat and challenge than even engaging with 2 or 3 at a time is asking for a bad time. Almost none of them are annoying (except the flying enemies on the first chapter, ♥♥♥♥ those)

Level design is very intricate yet not labyrinthian enough to necessitate a map nor make you loose your head walking in circles (except for E3M3) and very rewarding of exploration as there's secrets a plenty.

it's only downsides is it's performance as frames tend to drop quicker than your HP but understandable as this is the dev's first game if I'm not mistaken.

One of the worst boomer shooters I ever played. Pure style over substance.

• Enemies blend into the background and shadows
  
• Weapons have no weight nor punch to them
  
• Enemies don't react much to getting shot
  
• No side or back sprites, only rotating fronts.
  
• ♥♥♥♥♥♥ overly compressed modern "metal" which works in Doom, Dusk and the like. Which tries to be overly kewl and energetic but does not go with the flow of the gameplay which is as exiting as shooting a piece of cardboard.

Go play Blood for the 100th time.

Broken on AMD video cards. It has some shader and sprite layering issues that are not fixed even with the Pretty Prinny mod, fastest way to notice is on the second room of the game walking behind the throne still shows your character. The fix is either remaking the game or AMD fixing their ♥♥♥♥♥♥ support which honestly I don't know which is one is more feasible

Horrible horrible game, baby's first CRPG. There's hardly any media more narratively offensive than video games. A place where mediocre writers are given free reign to indulge in their incessant exposition as if anything they wrote would be worth reading at all. And it goes on and on and on, there's hardly other games that are so far up their ass as this one. Whether is trying to be deep or trying to be funny or quirky and it fails on both sides and there's just so much dialogue everywhere.

Now you could just skip everything and go straight for the combat but that has it own problems as well. The only thing going for it is that it has co-op and even that is as dry as it gets. Being a turn based game with such a "tactical" gameplay and a heavy prevalence on crowd control what ends up happening is there's a LOT of downtime (I'm writing this while playing this game on co-op ;) Add that to an aiming system that loves to cling into every part of terrain except for whoever you are trying to aim, and an action/movement system that's so restrictive you can barely move and act in every turn.

The UI and Inventory management is awful and cramped. It doesn't add nothing of value more than a bunch of busywork

The artstyle is horrendous, like a souless and cartoonish version of your generic fantasy cliches all smashed without a single sense of gravity. Imagine what Fable did with its similar comedic take on fantasy but do it in a way that makes the game feel cheaper.

Sound design is unnoticeable but the soundtrack is pretty good, even if they do repeat the same songs over and over and over and sometimes they stop because they didn't loop them in a combat encounter.

Oh boy this is going to be a though one to review *cracks fingers*

Nioh is kind of a half-disfigured monster that has no idea of what it is, what it wants to be or what i ended up being
thanks to having very interesting system clashing into eachother on top of subpar budget assets

the good:

-What the combat system tries to do is pretty good on paper; you have a bunch of different weapon types with its own attacks
combos and skills plus 3 different postures with different damage values, attack speed and movesets
and a very limiting stamina(ki) system that requires to press a button with a certain timing after every combo or attack to
get some of that sweet sweet stamina back (ki pulse)
all of this ends up making a very grounded slow and mechanical combat that requires your inputs to carry much more
intention than mere r1 spamming.

-Purification: big bad yokai leave a stinky aura that slows downs your stamina regen unless you perform a ki pulse
once inside them

-Living weapons: animal spirits you unlock which have active and passive bonuses to complement your build and can
be activated for a powered up state


the neutral:

-Revenenant: it's nice to be able to fight other people's character and is a good way to farm gear fast although kind of
breaks the balance or progression, although not too much

-ARPGS: all those classic elemnts from diablo and the likes make an appearance on nioh, lot's of lvls, equipment tiers with
shiny colours, upgrades and set bonuses for such gear, etc. all those classic skinner boxes still manage to make you
release some dopamine everytime you get something new or fancy and still clutter the rest of the game with trash gear
made to be sold or dissasemble. What's their point in a game like this? which supposedly values skill more than numbers?

le bad:

-level design: ranges from decent to what the ♥♥♥♥ is this? pretty wildly, it has no sense of flow and everything feels
extremely square, you go from corridors to boxy rooms where you can expect to be ganked and ambushed at every turn.
levels are convoluted by design and Shortcuts seem to be there because dark souls has em although are never
really necessary thanks to it's mission system.
This is made worse by the fact that the game repeats textures like it's going out of style which it's criminal
considering this is a 60gb game with graphics that look like a generation prior it's release if not worse.
it feels like exploring some old-school dungeon crawler in the worst of ways possible but i guess that's another
thing they took from ARPGs uh?

the ♥♥♥♥ you:

-enemies: You've got variety of enemies sprinkled in every level, some of the yokais are cool but most of them
are le generic skelly samurai, le generic spider, etc.
their worst offender and the most offending thing of nioh which robs it of it's potential is how combat with enemies works.
their animations are stiff as ♥♥♥♥ and lack start up frames, so you tend to eat damage instantly and every hit destroys you.
ARPGs have build variety right? where if you wannt to be a tank too bad, you are barely more resistant, you regen stamina more slowly
move slowly but lose a little less stamina when blocking... great!.
they never force you to adapt and learn the combat system and all it's depth like something like sekiro might, so for instance instead
of managing range and using kusarigama's moveset to it's favor you can just dish way more damage spamming attacks with the nodachi.

all in all i would give nioh a maybe review if i could, it works for some people and filters others, if you have any kind of tolerance to
frustration, patience and skill consider giving it a try and forging your own opinion about it. Everything i just wrote is after a first
43 hour glance and is subject to change. The game is made to be played into several ng+cycles,who knows? i may come back and discover a hidden gem
after all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Did i hear a rock 'n stone?

Styx a magical alcohol infused, cocaine ridden and fun-sized greenskin. A stalker of shadows, stabber of throats and a stealer of shekels.

Shards of Darkness is a stealth AA game and a relic of a by-gone era, as such it plays it very safe offering a very consistent gameplay that will make any old-school taffers feel right at home.

The levels are quite open, with a great use of verticality and many pathways, nooks and crannys to pass through giving this sense of interconnected arenas. On the downside and thanks to the constant reuse of textures and props it's rather easy to feel lost if you try to explore every level thoroughly searching for every little piece of loot scattered around.

Same can be said about finding objectives and where to advance as the game is designed with both objective markers and "detective vision" in mind and restraining to use one or another, specially on a first playthrough, quickly turns styx from a lighthearted fun little game into a whole tedious ordeal

Progression-wise it encourages replayability as skill points are given by mission tokens for speed, alerts and no-kills plus small secondary objectives in some quests, good thing this is accompanied by how mechanically solid the game is on top of upgrades giving new mechanics or altering old ones to play with (i.e. stealth lasting more, or being able to use clones as smoke bombs or terrain traversal tools)

Presentation wise both audio and music are serviceable. Visuals on the other hand look pretty good except for two key factors, some areas during daylight have this horrible excessive application of post-processing typical of Unreal Engine where they just crammed every possible ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ effect smearing the visuals without any kind of restraint whatsoever.
On the other hand on darker areas the contrast between light and shadows is really harsh giving the game this a great sense of visual depth that reminds me of thief 3 deadly shadows. Problem lies in the fact that darker areas are kind of hard to navigate thanks to how hard to see in them and touching game/gpu/pc settings doesn't really help at all. Either dark areas are too dark or bright areas and torches are gonna blind you. both of this problems can be helped by lowering the post-processing option a tiny bit.

AI is pretty sharp and eager to ♥♥♥♥ you up if you don't thread carefully and tend to gang up on you if they are within shouting distance of their allies, although AI can act a little buggy sometimes with their path-finding but stay pretty consistent with their spotting abilities.

On a time and age where metal gear solid is done, splinter cell is not getting new releases, syphon filter and tenchu were quickly forgotten and thief was brutally murdered and stealth is nothing more than sub-par filler used to pad out AAA games with waist-high cover, low risk and low reward gameplay that discourages player agency and expression. Styx not only brings forth a consistently solid AA stealth experience but also adds full coop support for the whole campaign. Famished fans of the genre should definitely sink their teeth into this one.

Dishonored is set in a victorian english inspired city of Dunwall. Technologically it's a retro-futuristic setting (with something akin to steampunk but everything is powered by whale-oil so... Whalepunk? ) scarred by an unstoppable and deadly plague, a series of political assassinations, the instability this bred and the iron grip of the empire trying to uphold any semblance of order through the most ruthless of methods.

The art-style resembles an oil-painting with a soft palette where colors don't blend into each-other much. This is punctuated by the almost cartoonish proportions of characters and the stylized and elegant way they conduct themselves.
Dunwall is truly its own character. The cold industrial barricades and defensive outposts contrast harshly against the rat filled abandoned victorian housings and pubs and even more so with nobility's gathering spots which seem pristine and untainted by the filth bellow.
The towering walls of the city stand in oppressive manner above you while still welcoming you in their promise of verticality which they do uphold.

The levels encompass different sections of the city with many routes and paths to take. The entry points and enemy placement are designed on point to accomodate both stealth and combat approaches and both lethal and non lethal.

Depending the way you tackle the game and it's objectives is gonna be reflected on Dunwall's chaos level which is going to change how missions play. (Types, amount and placement of enemies, rats, side characters, difficulty of certain routes, etc.)
This combined with how powerful your supernatural abilities are you are always left with a feeling of what if? how things could've played differently?.

Dishonored manages to do something the industry dares not which is leaving you wanting more of the game instead of overstaying its welcome through needless padding.

In the early game, where the original bioshock took it's time to build up the world and it's themes which made that rapture reveal iconic.
Infinite decides to throw pacing out of the window and starts throwing stuff at you. Columbia, vigors, some hints at the
central themes of racism, patriotism, class struggles and various religions overtones. All just crammed into the first hour of gameplay
and with no notion of subtlety, this themes never develop nor does the game have anything of value to say about them.

gameplay wise infinite not only did not improve upon its successors (which wouldn't have been much of a difficult task to be honest) but actively doesn't trust the player enough.

it doesn't trust you to carry more than 2 weapons. It doesn't trust you to be able to read a map so they removed it, you won't need it though because it doesn't trust you
enough to explore so instead of expanding the level design they ironed out any branching paths except when the game decides to have some random hallway or room to the side
for you to go, found the audio log? good boy now back to the objective!

speaking of audio logs, the idea was a neat way of combining traditional narrative and environmental storytelling. The problem is they never dared to improve upon it
so you still have the same old problem of picking up an audiolog moving an inch and some scripted sequence of dialogue happening over the audio log playing forcing you
to stay still while it plays which destroys any sense of momentum or saving them for latter which defeats any possibly of environmental storytelling. Audio logs should be
scarce and located where they can provide some meaningful context to the scene's aftermath you are observing.

vigors do not have a logical explanation for existing like in previous entries but they all work exactly the same and it's kinda funny having the game explaining you how to set up a trap
for the 16th time.

Elizabeth's rifts are small advantages you can bring forth for arenas like ammo caches, vantage points, health packs,etc. you can only choose one but most of them are worthless compared
to turrets and weapons

late game is where the game picks up in pace and starts being almost fun. More open arenas, more rails, more enemies. The story finally gets going until it throws some convoluted mumbo jumbo that is both
very simplistic and very im14andthisisverydeep causing it to fall flat on its face although in an elegant manner.

Heavy spoilers warning!

I do find the ending's message to be absolutely despicable as the protagonist seems to be an allegory for white people as whole (DeWitt means the white in dutch) and the guilt they should feel for the atrocities of colonization "Broken-knee". Guilt that can not be washed away, nor by baptism (turning into Comstock) nor by forgiveness. The only way forward is a literal witch hunt throughout the multiverse in search for every possible version of DeWitt even the versions that have yet not sinned and as so elegantly put by the main characters "smother him in the crib". wow! such amazing writing levine /s

port-wise bioshock games always had garbage ports and although this is doesn't seem to have the instability of previous games is still shoddy at best.
the game's artstyle is nothing short of amazing with great vistas and locales. Although graphically they kept this tendency of unreal 3 engine-powered games of cranking bloom so high everything becomes a blurry mess, making some enemies more than 10m away from you kind of hard to spot.
sensitivity has the problem of having 10 discrete values and the first one being to low while the second being way to high and the rest outright unplayable.

i can't really recommend bioshock infinite unless you really wanna experience it firsthand and the dlcs tie the saga together (will update review when i play them.)
but do yourself a favor and do not play it on hard, it only buffs enemies stats and make the game's design flaws stand out even more so.

Edit.
Burial at Sea review:
Really slow early on with scripted walking segments ,small and linear rooms and ammo starvation. But midway through it opens up the levels a little bit reminding you what was so good about bioshock in the first place.
Combined with infinite's additions like rails and mechanized patriots. Which feel out of place in rapture but then again, you go from rapture before the fall to a broken down
section that exists further below.
Thanks to the magic of plot convenience to give back that broken down and oppressive atmosphere the first 2 games had.
Which they nailed.

The second part is more stealth heavy since elizabeth can't stand as many hits as booker and it is for the better since you are more concerned about navigation of the level than padded out combat arenas.

The weapon wheel is back and the enviromental applications of plasmids don't feel out of place thanks to how tightly packed the levels are instead of having a huge open arena with a small random puddle of oil sitting in the middle.

The story is as nonsensical as it was on infinite's ending although is interesting to see what happens around you specially on the second part of the dlc, and how it connects both settings although i can't say im happy with the result. Levine meddled with something he shouldn't have and muddied the narrative into such a convoluted mess that there is no savaging it now.
I think there is no way the saga could go forward in the same setting, putting rapture to rest and moving to something completely new is the only way forward.

In the end Bioshock is like that forest in Arcadia.
"On the surface, I once bought a forest. The Parasites claimed that the land belonged to God, and demanded that I establish a public park there. Why?
So the rabble could stand slack-jawed under the canopy and pretend that it was paradise earned.
When Congress moved to nationalize my forest, I burnt it to the ground. God did not plant the seeds of this Arcadia; I did."

Dusk. Another excellent offering in the boomer shooter genre, a fast-paced horror infused bloody offering that isn't afraid to wear its influences on it's sleeves.

The game is split into 3 episodes:
The first one being the most laid back playing it conservatively with enemies being chainsaw dudes, reindeers, kkk wizards and other B-movie tropes. Locations being countryside farmlands, mines and the derelict town of dusk itself. The level design is pretty straight forward but serviceable and throughout the whole game the seemingly maze-like claustrophobic corridors are kept in-check by the old color coded keys and switches trope.

The second episode is where the game decides to step up it's game and stop holding any punches. Newer enemies never stop being introduced and the small cultists start being phased for possessed military and technological infused monstrosities plus a gold-tier arnold schwarzenegger imitation . Levels visual design starts to shine in this episode as you navigate through seemingly impossible industrial themed mazes, s.t.a.l.k.e.r. inspired labs and sky floating altars, and the horror elements starts to really creep in as the game becomes more and more tense. thankfully this helps the pacing immensely as it switches back and forth from slow paced tense sections back to fast paced balls to the wall combat arenas filled with enemies.

The third episode recaps everything that came before and loops itself back to the beginning. (george lucas would approve)

The music perfectly accompanies the game's two only moods and constantly shifts between eeriness and aggression. Ost is done by the sleepless Andrew Hulshut who seems to be carrying the boomer shooter revival with his soundtracks.
As for gameplay, it's quick it's brutal and i wouldn't have it any other way. side-strafing allows you to outrun any sports car and it's mandatory on open areas if you wanna last more than few cultists fireballs.
I'm a firm believer that the quality of an FPS is directly proportional to the quality of it's shotguns and boy do the shotguns pack a punch, you can choose dual-wielding winchesters or a double-barreled super-shotgun and none replaces the other, you want them both and you want them stylishly spinning after every frag.