Recent reviews by Snazzy Seer

Like the original but better, great example of how to do an open world and encourage exploration. "I just need to follow the road north a little bit" turned into a three hour journey that finished so far south that I was in the neighbouring country.

You can get all the MTX in regular gameplay with no difficulty at all. Sucks that they're in the game, but it's another DMC5 situation.

It's really good. Much more Call of Duty (newer ones) to Pavlov's CS:GO but I mean that in a very positive way. Time to kill is a lot faster (as opposed to some of the more 'spongy' elements of Pavlov) but still arcade-y enough to give you a chance to turn bad situations around. Having your own loadouts is great, rather than buying each round, since you can find the weapons you like and give them a run out in each game. Maps neatly blend encounters of different ranges - you'll find yourself engaging people from 100m+, as well as CQC firefights, in the course of a single game, which varies things up nicely and accommodates a variety of playstyles.

Thanks to the sale and update there's an active community - once you get over the initial learning curve (i.e. getting boxed around for the first couple of matches) and learn to take things slower and co-ordinate with people, it's a ton of fun.

Great melee VR combat. Not sure the comparisons to Blade and Sorcery are helpful - this is a very different thing altogether (more arcade-y) and it benefits from it. Soundtrack is brilliant and ties the action together, weapon variety adds good depth, and the enemies (particularly later on) really push you physically to keep up with the blocking and dodging movements. It's also a good workout - after a couple of runs you'll be sweating.

It's all built really nicely around VR and making everything as satisfying as possible - crushing the powerups in your hand, conjuring the weapons in and out of thin air, the visual and haptic feedback on hitting critical strikes. There's a good layer of depth too, particularly once you realise you can mix in your own counterattacks on enemies during their combo strings (rather than just standing and waiting to block) and get used to dashing to handle multiple foes at once.

Overall very strongly recommended to anyone who wants a fun melee experience, and enjoys rogue-lite progression.

Expectations exceeded.

Keeps the brilliant combat from 4 (Inertia excluded), Nero gets a nice boost to his complexity at a high level due to Devil Breakers and endgame stuff while simultaneously getting quality of life improvements (maxAct being somewhat attainable for mortals now), Dante still has all the style switching and some lovely new weaponry, and while V can feel a little shallow he's ultimately still a ton of fun to play as.

Story beats are great, game looks beautiful on the RE engine, Bloody Palace is great fun, and the game guides you along the skill curve really nicely - there's a really natural feel to improving at it, and the freefrom nature of the combat is a treat even 65 hours in.

Strongly recommend.

Capcom, get us redacted character DLC, please.

Really solid character action game, can't argue with it costing the same as a bottle of Coke on sale. Even off sale, £4 is pretty reasonable for how well it plays. For a more detailed look at the combat systems, see below.

Story is sparse, graphics aren't the best (though the art direction is good given what they're working with). You don't get new abilities, there's no platforming, you start the game with the exact same character build you finish with. It's entirely streamlined around its combat systems, which is totally fine when they're so much fun.

You have a dash, parry (which cancels out of any move) and combo attacks by alternating between regular hits and 'stance' inputs. Parries will deflect physical attacks but not ranged ones, dashing runs off a limited power meter which recharges, and some enemies employ shielding which renders them immune to stagger until broken.

It's fundamentally simple, but punishes mistakes quickly; your character gets staggered and left briefly unable to attack upon taking damage, and you don't have invincibility frames, meaning one hit in a group of enemies can lead to an entire health bar being wiped. To that end the game, particularly in the latter half, is very much focused on spacing - keep in as close to one-on-one engagements as you can, and dash away otherwise.

Most of the difficulty comes from reading enemies; most only have one or two telegraphed attacks, but keeping track of groups while parrying and dashing away from projectiles is frenetic, fast, and extremely satisfying when you get a flow going. Controls in fights feel fast and snappy, and deaths are typically down to an error that you committed, rather than unfairness.

It's not a long game by any means - my Normal difficulty run took about 50 minutes from start to end. The lives system means you get thrown back to the start of a stage upon losing all of them (losing a life with some left in stock just restarts you at the last room you entered), so runs with Game Overs would probably take a little longer, as I expect to discover when attempting Critical difficulty.

As long as you're not under illusions about length or story, Proxy Blade Zero is a great little character action game for the price. Just be prepared for a challenge/playing on easy to learn the ropes.

TL;DR : Fantastically meaty co-op melee action, that can cater for multiple playstyles depending on class/loadout, offers a good range of difficulty, and has brilliant attention to detail, though the loot system (improved from initial release!), a few bugs, and occassional crashes may still annoy some. Read below for a (much) more in depth explanation of features/issues.

Vermintide inevitably draws comparisons to Left 4 Dead because of its similarities; four person teams move through linear levels, accomplishing objective tasks and dealing with interspersed enemies, while random horde events lead to on-the-fly adaption, and special enemy types will incapacitate team members separated from the group/use AoE attacks. You even have a similar inventory system; slot for healing items, slot for buff items, and a slot for a bomb. All very familiar.

However, upon closer inspection, Vermintide offers a significantly different experience. The L4D similarities seem to be there to make the game accessible; you can jump in and understand the basics, since almost everyone has played L4D. Mechnically, however, it's a whole different story. Melee combat, the meat of the game, has four main components; light attacks, charged attacks, parries, and dodging.

These four components, working in tandem, make for a thrilling melee experience. Learning that the greatsword has wide, multi-target swipes, but only small knockbacks, encourages a style of play built for well timed charges and backsteps. Faster dual daggers can slash and parry almost instantly; switching between light attacks on single targets, to wider charged swipes for larger groups. Positioning and reading enemy attacks is vital; regular Skaven do telegraph significantly, so kiting and parrying, then going on the counter attack, feels satisfying.

The game feels entirely possible to play without taking damage, and that's fantastic. Every hit to your front is usually a strategic mistake; punished for overreaching and not being able to parry in time, pressing too aggressively without backstepping between swings. Even special enemies have counter-strategies; Gutter Runners/hunters can be avoided with well timed sidesteps, and Rat Ogres/tanks can be parried and dodged with deft footwork and parries. Indeed, once you get into Catacylsm difficulty, no-damage starts becoming an expectation when a single clan rat is wiping 30% off your health.

Combine the precision with a wonderfully visceral dismemberment system (literally cutting rats in half/decaptitations with charged attacks) and you have a melee system that gives constant satisfaction. You feel in control of your movement at all times, and the feedback from big swings and parries is excellent. Spot on.

Lots of customisation avaialable. Every character has at least three melee and three ranged weapons to choose from, covering single target damage to wider attacks. There's some crossover weapons between classes, but everyone has at least something distinct on the table. Being able to choose your own loadout for missions allows a level of specialisation L4D doesn't have; at higher difficulties, people take on damage and support roles (Tank, DPS, etc), forming a more cohesive fantasy party, and a greater level of cooperation, and allowing for a lot more playstyles than its comparison game.

This feels like a game put together by pre-Age of Sigmar Warhammer fanboys/girls, and that's fantastic. Characterisation is done wonderfully; all the characters have biographies on the official website which are worth reading, but in-game dialogue still gives plenty away.

You have your zealous Witch Hunter who occassionaly lets his humanity slip through, a dwarf filled with stories, songs and numerous references to the seemingly endless feats of his cousin, the sharp wit and oft-times manic enthusiasm of a bright wizard, an elf who babies the entire party, and the straightman Empire Soldier to the bunch of misfits surrounding him.

Incidental dialogue has them play off each other; typically throwaway lines of dialogue, such as the Witch Hunter telling the Bright Wizard to "take my hand, and we'll speak no more of it" during a revival, will make you smile and start liking the characters. Fatshark does a great job with the little lines like this that make you like the characters, rather than just playing them as entirely one-dimensional (which, in a game like this, they could have easily gotten away with).

The Skaven deserve credit too; L4D zombies weren't smart enough to talk smack during a fight, but these guys certainly are. Clan Rats will mock you if they get behind you for a backstab, Gutter Rats taunt from the shadows as they ready to strike, Packmasters sort of just scream at you, and a lot of these lines, particularly from the basic enemies, all have character specific variants. Skaven will, outside of horde events, wait for friends to join them before attacking, cower in place if they see you charging an attack, and generally act in a way that makes them believable and improves the immersion. You feel, at times, like you're fighting cunning ratmen, not mindless mobs.

Every character also has their own personalised room in the hub, with specific items and decorations that you'd expect from them. Again, fantastic. The devs love the lore, and it shines through perfectly.

Controversial, to put it lightly. Playing on higher difficulties makes rarer items appear in your potential post-mission loot table; picking up side items give better dice to roll at the end to decide what item you get.

On the positive side, this has made me experiment with multiple classes and discover my love for two handed swords, but on the downside, it keeps me from getting some weapons I really want (my kingdom for an epic rapier). You can, at least, fuse items from the same tier to produce one item of the tier above it, or scrap weapons you don't want and use the resources to 'pray' for a ranged or melee weapon at the same tier. Even so, RNG features heavily no matter how you look at it, and while this increases game longevity and encourages experimentation, it can also be a bit of a pain in the ass. Your mileage may vary; as other reviews show, some people love it, some people hate it.

The only area the game is let down. One of the lessons you quickly learn in Vermintide is to avoid standing next to walls when you know enemies are on the other side of it, because they *will* attack and damage you through them. Packmaster thing-catchers are able to travel through solid surfaces, and then bestow the same property to the hero they grab, carrying you through a wall and away from your team before you can do anything about it.

These situations are rare; I've been attacked through a wall maybe five times, and the afformentioned Packmaster only happened once (but it was on Nightmare difficulty, so I'm still salty). But the whole game has a slightly beta feel to it. Some enemy animations get hung up, such as rats rolling in place, or subtitles remaining in place for the entire mission. However, most are minor annoyances at worst, but can drag you out of the otherwise well crafted world.

Crashes are also rare, but extremely annoying. Had it happen four times over my playtime, which I can cope with, but would rather it didn't happen at all.

I've had a blast with Vermintide, despite a short campaign. The loot system is built to encourage multiple playthroughs, learning the combat inticracies has been great, and I've enjoyed the characters a lot. The devs are constantly asking for feedback/new ideas on Reddit, so I can only expect the game to improve over time. Lizardman hero DLC pls.

Strongly recommended.