Recent reviews by Leonhart

After getting Platinum in all FROM SOFTWARE games, and somehow being a bit salty over refined formula after ER, while playing LOTF i felt unexpected sense of sweet nostalgia. As if the first souls game i played released not in 2010, but in 2023. So short review:
- Community is relatively small, hence no end game spoilers, secrets and mechanics revealed on day one of playing. IMO it's really good for the immersion.
- Game feels a bit clunky at times, but after playing old DS1 its totally manageable.
- Beautiful design, and good graphics. I bought deluxe edition, so in the digital artbook (available inside the game) there's a lot of really inspiring artworks, it's possible future game should be able to implement it even better.
- Mediocre music overall (except for some compositions) but good sound effects. Somewhere closer to ER than DS series.
- Online was disaster at launch, got much better since, especially after introducing cross-play. You can easliy connect to random people, be it Invasion, or Co-op. There's still technical issues though.
- World seems interconnected in similar fashion to the DS1, with a TON secrets to find, and you can literally skip roughly 40% of the game, if you would like to. That's a plus from me)
- Axiom and Umbral worlds are a great idea overall IMO. It's good balance in difficulty for those who wants it rough but with more rewards) There's not that much content that absolutely should be done in umbra alone, and if so, that parts of a level usually can be skipped with shortcut later.
- I'm not a fan of a ULTRA HARDCORE experience, albeit Sekiro and BB bosses were perfectly fine for me, but this game introduces well-balanced bosses in terms of difficulty. They're easy mechanically at the beggining of a game, and get more complex later, never being "too dificult" imo. It's close to DS1 and DS2 bosses in this regard.
- Story is basic but being basic doesn't make it bad. It's good imo, and NPC's are great. There's a lot of "questlines" with them to complete, and storytelling is practically the same as in DS series, so you may screw some characters very easily))
Overall, I really like this game, and more importantly, I feel a lot of effort from the devs trying to make it better and introduce QoL changes along the way. If you seek a good game similar to DS1 with several mechanics from other DS games, definitely give it a try!

Game seems like a direct upgrade to DOS2 in every way, so if you enjoyed playing that one, you'll enjoy BG3 as well!
edited 8.24 \ 50 hours more into play: also cinematic cutscenes makes this game feel a lot more immersive, and personally, along with really well written characters, this game now feels like mine all-time fav rpgs such as Dragon Age 1 or Star Wars KotOR 1 & 2.
Battle system feels quite polished and fun to play with, but i was more surprised with how well your skills and spells interact with the world itself, outside of actual battle, be it a conversation, exploring, trading, stealth etc. This only adds up to the feeling of "alive world where your choices matter", and i love it!
BTW i explore every corner and game has A LOT to offer to those who seek, and AFAIK all the good stuff aren't random at all, which is a huge + for me))
All in all, I feel tremendous amount of care and love poured into BG3 by the Devs, and still can't believe such game is released in 2023, in the era of mobile \ "free to play pay to win" games. After rougly 90 hours I'm stilll in early Act 2, taking it slow and enjoying as much as I can)

best souls experience

Игра зашибись, особенно, когда нечего делать)