Análises recentes de Nightmarian

Most of the positive reviews have absolutely nothing to do with Phantom Liberty and are instead gushing about the 2.0 update which while great turns a meh game into a decent one 3 years after it should have already been that way.

Phantom Liberty itself is so far pretty decent, but far less content than I would have hoped given it being the only xpac coming and them having 3 years to work on it (longer, supposedly...).

Hopefully the story gets better because it's pretty meh so far, the new area is pretty great to look at, much less so to play in (it has some pretty annoying level design) but the missions are fanatic. My best wish for the game was if they had just dumped all the meaningless busywork gigs and just kept this level of quality, but alas.

Why the negative rating? Well, it doesn't really make Cyberpunk 2077 better, it just cuts the fat and shows you a glimpse of what cyberpunk 2077 could have been and what the sequel will hopefully be.

I can't recommend it to anyone on its own merits because as some of the reviewers pointed out, it's not really all that better than the base game and still doesn't make Cyberpunk a standout game, but it does give you more cyberpunk.

So if the original game didn't bore you, this will bore you even less, I guess.

tl;dr: Incredibly boring game that feels like a remaster of an archaic game released 10 years ago. Individually, it does nothing better than other games, it contains all the same flaws of prior Bethesda titles including their lackluster writing and level design, and no, it doesn't get better after 12 hours. If you enjoy shallow MMORPG of old open world design, i.e. quests asking you to hunt and kill generic procedurally generated NPC on procedurally generated base with a procedurally generated name instead of their default enemy type label wooooo, you might enjoy this game. I mean, there are people out there dumping thousands of hours into clickers and mobile garbage, so why not.

Least buggiest game they ever released, but it's already pathetic that needs to be a bullet point. Aside from that, it's slightly modernized Fallout 4 in space. It shouldn't be. Despite the inherently natural changes involved in going from linear to open world, games like Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring, and Witcher 3 still made attempts to try new things and improve on the core mechanics they brought forward from prior titles.

Starfield does not. At all. In any way, shape, or form. It's the same lovingly janky, yet unfortunately shallow Betheseda game you played 10 years ago, just in space and with passable improvements to graphics. Same janky movement and facial animations, same horrible UI (fire your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ UI designers already), same uninspired writing (FIRE YOUR WRITERS TOO ALREADY), same lackluster world design and itemization. It blows my mind that a game like Elden Ring can be made by a smaller studio (not by much but still) with arguably less resources now and still utterly trump the living hell out of Starfield in terms of regional diversity, weapon types and appearances, and enemy design.

Meanwhile, in Starfield, within those initial boring 12 hours everyone says is the gate for the game getting good (Spoiler: nothing changes. At that point you just either give up or have huffed enough copium to numb yourself against the boredom) you've basically seen all 10 weapon types and all like 15 armor types in the entire game, lmao, as well as pretty much all the monsters though they all literally act the same so who cares (all have some horribly animated and cheesy as hell ranged attack and a generic melee attack).

The combat is as terrible as it's always been for Betheseda. Melee is a joke, STILL, in this year of our lord 2023, but I'll forgive them as this isn't Elder Scrolls (though expect it to be just as crappy in ES6). The gunplay is passable, definitely not the worst ever, but weapon diversity is pretty bad with mostly numerical modifiers so loot is never interesting. AI is also as bad as it always is... lots of enemies staring at walls or standing in the open shooting at you then freezing for an entire 60 seconds before slowly pivoting like a tank and shooting again, lol. It got to the point where I just started meleeing most things even though I wasn't specced for it because the majority would die before their second attack cycle.

The ship and base building is as convuleted and pointless as the version of it in Fallout 4. Yes, you can do cool stuff with it the same way you can build cool stuff in Minecraft, and it's just as pointless unless you have an artistic itch to scratch. Me, on the other hand, wished they had dedicated those resources into more weapons, armor, and enemies, as well as better AI and monster design...

Space combat was obviously an afterthought and was probably thrown in last minute. I've played a lot of space sims, especially older ones like Freespace and Starlancer, and recently Everspace 1/2, etc. Some are realistic, some are more arcadey, all are light years better than Starfield's space combat. With so many examples to draw from, I genuinely don't understand how they could have made it this terrible. You'll rarely ever need engage in it (thank god), but when you do, expect to fly some bulky corvette like it was instead a zippy fighter and hold down three buttons to spam your weapon types until enemy blows up, lean over and side fart while the weapon bars refill, then repeat until you 'win.'

It's obvious the reason why the game lets you skip space so easily via quick travel is because it's already barely there. Your spaceship is as pointless as Fallout 4's base, space combat is even more generic than the game's normal combat, and there is zero exploration done in space outside of clicking stuff in a menu. Would it have killed them to give planets more life in orbit?

Anyway, it's not a BAD game, it just feels like a remastered release of a game that should have come out 10 years ago. I have zero idea why Bethesda took so long to develop this and frankly I weep for console players. Modders might make this game interesting (they already fixed the horrendous UI) by adding new monsters, game mechanics, space mechanics, and weapons/armor, but right now this is barely a modding platform and certainly not worth anywhere near $70.

So far this game is more depressing than scary, lol. And super short. I'd normally refund but I feel bad because short games can still be good and the asking price isn't high. However, be aware that it's hella short. My hours played are a bit wonky according to steam but I've pretty sure I'm nearing the end.

The game isn't much of a game. It's more of a visual novel with some basic rhythm game elements. In a nutshell, it deals with depression and the sexualization of women. The MC is a cabaret dancer, which is like a high class stripper that doesn't often get completely naked but does remove clothing.

The MC is 29 years old, and that alone should probably say a lot lol. Though 30 years is quite young, it's a common 'joke' that woman stop being 'young and beautiful' at that point. The MC is also dating a college kid at the time, which must be at best like 20-22, but the game treats the relationship like she's 60 and the other girl is freshly 18. a 20-22 and a 29 year old in a relationship isn't the end of the world and the Mc calling the other girl a baby is ridiculous.

I don't want to spoil much, but basically the MC bemoans the fact that's she aging and that her career is dead-ended by that fact, as beauty is a strong part of it. All the expected things happen right at the start; she's being replaced by younger dancers, her GF leaves her, a sculptor makes a statue of her but when she goes to see it some dude is groping it right in the museum, and all this sends her into a spiraling depression that makes her not pick up all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ red flags of an 'offer' that leaves her kidnapped by some pycho admirerer. You see this coming a mile away and this is all like the first 20 min.

From there, you get a pretty looking but rather lackluster and uncreative story of depression and self-loathing while dealing with a psychopath abuser. I was kind of hoping for something like Silent Hill 4 where you're scratching your head as things become increasingly insane and trying to figure out what's going on.

Right now, there isn't much mystery... or scariness. It's just really depressing because it hits home pretty hard. All the things that happen to her could happen to anyone and has. Maybe there will be some kind of twist at the end, but unless you feel like playing 'regular everyday life depression simulator' I wouldn't bother with the game.

Calling this horror is beyond generous. And trust me, psychological horror can be done an infinite number of ways. Just like at OMORI.

Edit: for those asking me about my playtime, I play on both Steam Deck and my PC and that's why it's not updated. Sometimes one doesn't update or the save doesn't automatically go throw, especially if you play games offline like I do at work. Usually if you leave the Steam Deck online long enough it fixes but I don't. It shoudl be fixed now, so please stop asking me about that yeesh.

Reminds me of a lite version of Pyre with worse characters and story but much better gameplay. Everything else is kind of the same; basically a visual novel with indistinct characterization because you might not end up with every character at the end, so they had to make the story work no matter what combination you end up with.

Still, the concept is a great and I'd love more games like this.

Update: Quite a few hours later and a few campaigns down and I love the game, but boy oh boy make sure to save. The game still crashes all the time for me, which is weird because performance-wise it runs silky smooth. it just crashes randomlly for no reason.

The game itself isn't that bad and it runs great when it runs, but I have a pretty powerful rig. My issue is that it's buggy as heck and constantly crashes. I will update review if and when they fix this, but doing my part to show developers this is not acceptable.

As for the game, I haven't played through yet but visually it's pretty shallow so get used to seeing a lot of repeat stuff. However, beneath the hood, there seems to be a ton of diversity that will hopefully be expanded on with xpacs, so if you have a decent amount of imagination and don't need the sheer visual diversity of a game like Total War Warhammer, this can be a great 4x game for playing out your favorite tropes and situations which is what most of them are usually enjoyed for.

After all, you don't play Stelleris hoping for Freespace 2 or Starlancer or something, lol.

I mean, you should get it by now. Creative Assembly is like Paradox in that they pelvic thrust your door while your cower defensively over your weeping wallet, though it's hard to tell its own tears apart from your own.

Much as I love CA's game, this is still the scumbag company that charges for blood effects lmao.

Despite this, GENERALLY, their content adds interesting stuff, and they actually go back and improve those things, so it really feels like a complete part of the game rather than just a tacked-on thing.

Sadly, this seems to be yet another descent into darkness, which began with Total Warhammer 3 itself and its pitiful campaign and launch state... I guess this being the big Chaos game was too on the nose. Anyway, the pack is ridicously overpriced for what you get. One less Legendary Lord (watch 'em sell you the fourth in an upcoming dual pack), and none of the three have their own campaign mechanics. For Chaos Dwarves overall, 99% of content is reused elsewhere, including a lot of the models (they're just dwarves, but evil! OOh, spooky!) Considering how diverse Dark, High, and Wood elves are from each other, despite them technically being far more related (dark elves still hate chaos overall), and even eventually become a single race again during Age of Sigmar (which takes place right after the Total War Warhammer setting, End Times).

The fact that the elves are infinitely more diverse is kind of hilarious then. Heck, many races have some pretty crazy mechanic divides between their LL that let them do stuff others literally can't, grants them unique units (like access to vampire units or special versions of units).

And yet, here we go, one of the most awaited race releases... and it's all reskins, with one less LL than usual, none of which have mechanical diversity, and for a race that just steals mechanics from preexisting races...

For a higher price.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CA is literally out of their mine with this. If you're looking to pick up only what you need, you can very happily and easily skip this garbage. I regret buying it as I'm pretty sure I'll never ever play the Chaos Dwarves now as they are.

Some of the surrounding plot points make literally no sense, and I don't mean in a realistic sense, I mean in a simple logic sense. For instance (no spoilers), why would you buy an unusual child with strange conditions to their care because you can't have your own children instead of just adopting a NORMAL one or paying for a surrogate? These cannot be excused as unlikely options considering some of the ridiculous technology and blatant realization of the supernatural evident in the setting.

But ignoring those few quibbles, what you end up with is a ridiculously high quality horror game that reeks of style and atmosphere in the best way possible. It's definitely a wild, crazy ride, and I think it deserves its glowing reviews.

My only true negatives involve just how bittersweet the game is even during the best endings. The implications for some of the characters (the two at the heart of this in particular) is just... utterly heartbreaking and depressing. While not quite OMORI levels of sadness, this is definitely a game that will make you think more than usual and make you shake your head often in a good way.

It's definitely worth the full price, and I'm deeply looking forward to this developer's next project, which will be an instant-buy for me.

If you ever needed a clearer example of how a fairly priced game built around FUN and being a GAME can slap AAA wannabe movie-games with trillion dollar budgets across all four cheeks, this is it.

It's not indie, but it oozes that indie charm many of us have come to love. We're at this weird place now where we expect $70 AAA games to be buggy broken shallow messes with a lot of filler and indie games to be where the real fun is at at equally fun prices.

Like big yikes, gaming industry. Yes, some AAA are still worth it here and there, but weirdly I've been buying and enjoying way more indie and AA games past few years...

And look at what happened to Forspoken lmao.

Just as a quick point out for my low playtime: the vast majority of my play is on the GoG version of the game, which I bought to support CDPR directly during release. I got the Steam version as a throwaway part of some game trades I made when I cleaned out the last of my humble bundle games and steam keys, and since then all my testing of subsequent patches while waiting for phantom liberty/2.0 have been on Steam. I used to use GoG Galaxy a lot back then and was trying to split my time evenly between the two, but GoG and Galaxy have both gone to the dumpster so I'm back to mostly using Steam again.

2.0 Update:

Game is in an immensely better state. It should be. 2 years later and who knows how many untold millions they stole from gamers with the promise that they will eventually fix the game. Well, it's fixed. Performance is really good if you have the hardware to match. Very few bugs left now (again... 2 years non-stop work on it to get it to the state it should have been at release after 8 freaking years of development and 4(!) delays...). But is it fun? Well, sort of. Combat is much improved. They took a lot of the obvious feedback the community scratched their head over. Clothing is just that, your defense comes from augs, augs aren't useless or OP and scale and have their own perk tree now. Crafting is fully unlocked for everyone. There are tons of more weapons and itemization is overall better.

Combat interactivity and the AI is greatly improved too so melee doesn't make you want to kill yourself and gunplay actually feels fun. I no longer just lazily walk into a room and grind down everyone while standing still and lazily spinning a circle while I watch netflix.The new perks are still pretty much but still far better than the old ones which were useless. It still doesn't make the game an RPG. If you want an RPG, this is not it. This is a story shooter and as much an RPG as GTA is.

However, nothing else has changed. This is still, at best,a mediocre game, maybe 84/100. The main storyline is fantastic, and Phantom Liberty will suppoedly give us a real ending instead of the garbage ones the game currently has so there's that. The side quests/gigs still all completely suck, but the ones in phantom liberty are said to be better (all 10 of them lmao).


The game's biggest flaws also remain. The open world has very little interactivity and is mostly wasted. The few things there (police scanner, gang attacks) are still wastes of your time and boring to engage with. Exploration is non-existent and never rewarded. You will constantly ask yourself why this game is an open world game as you spend more time driving to a mission than doing the mission.

Over all, I hope that when they eventually release Cyberpunk 2 (already in development), the director will rub his cheek and remember the slap CDPR deservedly got and decide to not only release a game that doesn't take 2 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years to just become decent, but actually has a point being open world too. We shall see.

They lost all their adoration after this and many people will be eying their future games like vultures now, so I guess we'll see if they've learned their lessons or if their execs still don't give a damn.


OLD 1.5 Review:
I'm going to say that the game's biggest fixable issues are much better, namely all the bugs, hard performance problems, etc. Not perfect by any means, but better.

Everything else is still a jankfest and frankly I'm surprised the game's rating has recovered so much, as the game is a solid 75~/100 at best. Most of the open world is lifeless and pointless, most of the sidequests are the usual shallow repeatable junk with small variance as are practically all the in-world events like stopping gang members (who just stand around waiting for you to shoot them). Even the more detailed sidequests with actual story content, few as there are of those, are lacklaster and predictable to a fault aside from a few choice exception. Not a single one has any fallout or pull-through later; once they end, the get black-holed from the universe. Overall, your actions have zero influence on the world.

Okaaaaay. So, the combat's good, right? No, but that's no surprise. CDPR has never been good at combat. It was one of the biggest complaints for Witcher 3 despite it being a masterpiece. Combat here is hella shallow and mega repetitive, and the awkward level scaling was a stupid choice that really screwed over itemization unintentionally. Rather than finding cool stuff you use for good periods of time, outside of iconics, you're going to find some junk weapon and just shift through better versions of it from the literal rivers of loot you're going to find as if you were playing Diablo instead of a story shooter. Would have been an infinitely better idea to throw out level scaling, use augs/perks/stats as the progression system, and let weapons be one and done with you only being able to load a set amount at time and only swap at apartment or maybe some cars.

But nope.

Because of this, combat quickly becomes a chore. You get yet another kill target or retrieve random object question, sigh, drive out to the location, stand in place and kill everyone even on the highest difficulty, fart a few times, lazily inhale the loot, then press z when the mission complete transmission comes in. If you're looking for a good shooter, this isn't it, and compared to something like the interactivity of combat in Red Dead 2, it's honestly kind of sad.

The entire game is one long lacklaster drag, but it's luckily saved by an excellent core story. It's truly good, and I include the "optional main quests" the game likes to call sidequests. They aren't. They are directly related to the main story and influence it directly, but don't need to be completed if you like bad endings (though I'd argue all the endings are garbage, but whatever).

The game is pretty. Music is pretty good, voice acting is superb, and the story enjoyable, but those are about the only positives. All the elements of gameplay are pretty terrible, and an RPG this is anything but, no matter what CDPR wants to say. None of your choices matter until the choices at the end, your characterization abilities are lackluster and not all that important either (it got better but you can still use stuff you're not built for and look like a god), and gear and crafting is a vomity mess of a system.

Glad CDPR really cleaned up their act, but I mean, they're a massive company that put a lot of money into this waste of time of a project, so that is the VERY least they should have done. I refuse to praise or reward them for taking part of the toxic "we'll fix it later" culture that developers are jerking off to, and even in its improved state, this will never be more than a mediocre game.

Make sure to get it on discount and don't go in expecting much more than a decently interactive movie for the main questline with a disappointing ending.

Yeah, yeah, it's a pron game. I figured it looked high quality and I'm not shy to erotic content given my love of visual novels, but I typically only want it to be a very nice bonus to what should already be a pretty great game if it itself isn't just top-tier quality.

There is nothing top-tier about this game except maybe the graphics, but even that is deceptive, as the game is a visual novel with a lot of static imagery. The pron scenes are also mostly unlocked via points (that's right, they have zero place or context in the story, you just unlock them at whim) and are looped gifs with no interaction like camera rotation that you can slap together to autoplay in any order you want.

Yikes. I've played one-man pron projects with none of the ridiculous amount of funding they made on kickstarter that do better.

The gameplay elements are also horrific and frankly tedious. It's a ghetto astroids clone where you shoot ships and a really, really shallow tactical RPG system where you move units around a tiny grid while trying not to yawn.

As far as it being an actual VN, boy oh boy is this game on crack, and not in the good way. The MC is this really, really cringey Deadpool knockoff that will make you want to refund the game every time he opens his mouth, though he is hardly the only one to deliver cringey jokes and eye-rolly sexual innuendos.

The rest of the cast involves a crew of pansexual ladies who make you do zero work to woo them pending one with the most terribly written 'emotional' backstory ever that almost makes you NOT want to bone her out of spite. It's like the developers played a ton of the best romance/ero visual novels, then decided to do the exact opposite with every single element. That's not getting into the fact that the personalities of each of the gals is clearly typed (the tsundere name might as well be tsundere) and played straight with zero variance, which might not matter as much if it didn't make already bland characters incredibly predictable.

What's worse is probably is that the development cycle of the game has been kind of a miss, with many missed target dates, the kickstarter plan thrown into the trash years ago, no clear end in sight, and lot of the concerns from the people who backed the game being either ignored or ridiculed.

I also looked into some of their previous work, and boy does knowing it make this game even more of a head scratcher. I guess they realized that stuff would get banned quick on Steam, but making a cutsey fourthwall breaking Deadpool harem simulator is a hella awkward hard shift in direction.

While not a terrible product overall--it's worth ripping out the gifs I guess--it's barely worth calling a game and as a visual novel it's worth laughing at (and not with). I genuinely hope the developers go back to making videos after this, though it's hard to imagine anyone will ever support them again on Kickstarter after this mess of a game.

Buyer beware. The 50%~ rating, bad as that already is, is probably too generous.