Recent reviews by J0k3_R

I really want to recommend this game. Like, I really do. I personally like a lot of things about this game. The core gameplay is great. Story is decent and it does actually feel like decisions matter a fair bit. I love the build diversity you have in this game, I've played a lot of cRPG's and this feels like it has some of the most in depth customisation I've seen.

See but despite all these great things, I find myself getting angry at this game as much as I enjoy it, due to some honestly baffling design decisions that ruin the experience a bit for me, so lets go into those:

- Prebuffing: Yeah I know, prebuffing is a staple of cRPG's. But this game feels like every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ encounter is balanced around prebuffing like ♥♥♥♥ to win. I have had to save scum so many times on encounters just because I've run into something without the right buff and have gotten completely destroyed.

- Enemies feel overtuned: some people might enjoy this, but honestly the amount of AC stacking in this game pisses me off. It gets better as you progress (until it doesn't) but even then, anything that isn't a humanoid or small animal seems to get hit half as much as you do and hit super consistently. This is why the prebuffing is so important in this game.

- Kingdom management: This part isn't bad in itself, but it isn't really explained very well. Thankfully you can now turn a lot of this off and let the kingdom run itself but I would have appreciated a better tutorial.

These are the main things that bother me and are what stop me from recommending this game to anyone. If you're a big fan of RPG's then by all means try this game, there might be something you like here (for me its the build diversity) but if you're new to the genre, don't play this as your first one. Try divinity, pillars, baldurs gate or something else first.

Divinity original sin 2 is my favourite RPG to come out in years. Divinity original sin was good, yes, but the sequel raises the bar in most aspects of the game. The storytelling in this game is vastly improved over the first and I loved the different character origins you could play as instead of your typical "blank slate" rpg protagonist, as well as the fact you could recruit these other origins as party members. It was great to see how their stories intertwine as the game progresses.

The game world is huge, with 4 acts, each with their own area to explore. These are beautifully created with lots of sidequests, hidden items and fights to keep you engaged across the game. The first 2 acts in particular have so much to do, with the last two acts being slightly smaller and more focused on the main quest.

The combat, like the first game, is excellent. There is so much interactivity with the environment and the surfaces system adds another layer of strategy and depth to the combat. The game gives you many tools to play with which you can combine for some pretty great combos. Ever wanted to turn your foe into a helpless chicken and watch them bleed to death as they run around frantically? You can do that here. There are so many cool builds you can try to suit your playstyle. Even more possibilities open up when you add mods to the picture, with many mods on workshop adding new skills and classes to the game to increase replayability

However the one problem I do have with this game is the armor system. The game gives you two armors (physical and magical) and the damage type you do will determine which armor is damaged. When your armor is 0 you are susceptible to status effects like freeze, shock, burn, etc. While some may like this simplification, it bothers me at times because armor can be depleted really fast (yours at least, the game likes to stack lots of armor on tougher enemies) and then you just get chain CC'ed once your armor is depleted. I waaaay prefer the willpower system from the first game. Though I wasn't a fan of this, it didn't detract from my experience too much. Also, some of this is alleviated by mods anyways so on my second playthrough I didn't even have this issue.

Overall, DOS 2 is an amazing game I would wholly recommend to any fan of RPG's, turn based games or fantasy. Even if you haven't played a game like it before, give it a go! It's a great RPG to start of with. Final score: 9.5/10

I bought this game in the recent sale and wow... just wow. This game is incredible on all fronts and is quickly becoming one of my favourite games. If you like the souls games, this is definitely one for you, and I don't mean that in a memey "hurr hurr its hard so its like dark souls", there are so many more similarities than just that in terms of the protagonist, the themes and the execution of this game. A quick rundown.

Pros
+ Large open world with lots of hidden secrets
+ A great level of diifculty where deaths rarely feel unfair. Learning an enemies/bosses attack pattern and using this to kill them is INCREDIBLY satisfying.
+ Epic soundtrack
+ Gorgeous artstyle
+ Great lore and large parts of it are up to you to find.
+ Enthralling story
+ Very little handholding- the game throws you in and expects you to find your own way pretty much. If you want, you can pretty much avoid most upgrades/charms and do the bare minimum to finish the game, or you can really take your time to learn everything go your own way.
+ Amazing price for what you get, I'd gladly pay £60 for this game
+ ALL DLC IS FREE

Cons
- If you don't like backtracking, this might get annoying. There is a lot of it but imo it feels good because you come back to areas with new upgrades and find secrets
- My reactions are pretty ♥♥♥♥♥ so some of the bosses got annoying for me (but never enough to make me want to quit the game). This isn't really a con as much as it is my experience with the game.

Conclusion: Hollow knight is a masterpiece, as close to a 10/10 game as you can get. For how much you pay for this game, there is no reason you shouldn't get it and support the devs.

After finding PoE getting a bit stale for me, I decided to pick this up, and I can happily say I have no regrets.

Pros

+ Great Artstyle and setting
+ Lots of replayability and customisability
+ Classes and class combinations feel difficult
+ Challenging enough to not feel like a cakewalk
+ (Mostly) Good itemisation
+ Great devs that support the game well and put out good new content for the game

Cons

- Game can get a bit laggy at times
- Sometimes deaths feel unavoidable which can be annoying for a hardcore run
- Physique is such a necessary stat that you rarely invest in anything else. Needs a rebalance imo

Overall, if you enjoy games like Diablo, PoE, Titan Quest, etc., get this game. You will not be disappointed.

This will be a review for both 'The Knife of Dunwall' and 'The Brigmore Witches' as they are both part of the same story.

I loved dishonored, it's definitely on my top 10 list of games and definitely my favourite of all the stealth games i've played. Rich lore, fantastic level design, multiple approaches to any situation and an excellent range of powers and gadgets at your disposal are just some of the reasons I enjoyed dishonored so much. If you liked all above the above about the main game, then this is a must buy for you, as it's more of the same.

The game follows the assassin Daud, the [Dishonored spoilers here]guy who killed the empress and started the events of dishonored in the first place[end spoiler], as he uncovers a mystery given to him by the outsider. The story happens parallel to dishonored, so while this can be played separately without playing the main game, I highly recommend you play the main game first, as there will be references to events from the main game as they unfold that you'll appreciate more.

The story itself is okay, about as good as the story in the main game which was fairly generic but was told well. Where the game really shines, as with the main game, is the stellar level design and immersive world theyve created. Levels have many approaches, with books, notes, posters and conversations between npc's used as a means of enriching your immersion in the world and making the world so much more believable. Like with corvo, daud has a variety of powers and gadgets at his disposal, with some changes and new additions to the main game. I particularly appreciated the addition of more non lethal options including the chokedust and stun mine gadgets, as I felt dishonored had very few options when it came to non-lethal. Powers are slightly different too, with Daud keeping the classic 'blink' power and the dark vision power, but exchanging corvo's rat and possession powers for some new ones such as "pull". While the gameplay itself has a similar feel to dishonored, these new powers and gadgets do open up some new ways to approach situations.

Overall, if you liked the main game, then get the knife of dunwall and brigmore witches as DLC's. They're excellent experiences that'll hopefully keep you busy before the second game comes out.

Path of Exile is one of the best games of it's genre and by far one of the best free games out there. Seriously, this should be a paid game because the amount of free content you get is pretty ridiculous. All story, class related and gameplay related parts of the game are accessible to everyone, and there is absolutely no element of "pay to win". Yes, there are microtransactions, but these are all for either cosmetic things like weapon effects or skins, or stash tabs which means you can store items.

The story itself is pretty decent, but the depth of gameplay is where it shines. The passive tree is huge, and opens up a ton of different build ideas based on passives. The uniqueness of these builds are further enhanced by the large number of skills and support gems that go with them, with gems adding different effects to each skills in order to change their role or strengthen them. Skills and support gems can be switched up any time, encouraging a lot of customisation, and while there are no full respec items (although usually the devs hand out full respecs when the passive tree changes), there are items which enable the respeccing of passives, point-by point.

I havent actually needed to use the support for the game yet, but I hear it's pretty good with the devs responding relatively quickly. I do know however that they do keep good contact with the community and do strive to improve the game as muh as they can.

There are however, two minor problems with this game. One is that you can have an infinite number of particles on screen at any given time, which means that when the spells start flying around, certain builds can get laggy fast. Second of all, is the desync that you get sometimes. It can be quite frustrating to die due to desync, and unfortunately we don't know when/if this problem will be fixed

Overall, if you enjoy the ARPG genre, or games such as Diablo II and Torchlight II, this is a must play. It is not only fully free for you to try, but it has a level of customisation that surpasses that of even some paid games.

EDIT 13/3/17: After playing this game fow a few hundred more hours, I can say that this game has only continued to go from strength to strength over the course of the last few years. A lot of the desync problems have been fixed and the game has run much more smoothly for me after various performance updates they've dished out. The content has continually been expanding, with a whole 6 new acts coming soon!. This is well and truly one of my favourite games to play and easily my favourite of the genre

I nearly got to the end of it, only to get screwed over by a crew of teleporting Mantises and a solar flare, watching both my crew and my ship die slowly.

10/10 would buy sequel

I always wanted to be a NInja. This game is pretty much the closest thing I have got to achieving this goal. The best bit about this game is it really makes you feel like a ninja, without the use of fancy 3D, realistic graphics. Whether you want to be the stealthy, sneak-by everything ninja or the katana wielding meat grinder, this game will make you feel very Ninja-like. The stealth mechanics are some of the best I've ever seen, better than that in some 3d games, with great AI, multiple routes and the fact every move, every noise you make could be your downfall.

This is only complimented by the art style, which is nothing short of beautiful. Factors like noise, enemy awareness and enemy vision are all clearly displayed in a neat way that doesn't detract from the art style at all. The Animations and cutscenes are excellent and while the story isn't brilliant, the gameplay more than makes up for it.

So, if you are a fan of the stealth genre, do yourself a favour and buy this game, otherwise you are truly missing out on one of the best stealth games of this generation. 10/10

I picked this up pretty cheap during the recent sale, and I've got to say I'm really enjoying this so far. Possibly one of the best combat systems i've seen in an RPG. The magick system is fun and encourages a lot of experimentation, which I enjoy. The story is average, but the script is where it really shines, with a ton of pop culture references riddled throughout the script. The levels are also pretty fun. Co-op is fun and engaging and I have yet to try PvP and the Challenges but I'm sure theyll be just as good as the rest of the game. Overall I would give this a solid 9/10, only losing a mark due to the relative shortness of the game (although there is a lot of replay value)

This is a game I really enjoy, but not necessarily for everyone. If you wanted a shooter or an very actiony game, it is possible to play like that, but its not as satisfying as other playstyles. Stealth on the other hand is engaging, fun and tense-exactly how it should be. The fact the game encourages different playstyles that will change the city permanently and the ending depending on what you do is a neat mechanic that adds a lot of replay value. Powers are very fun, and can lead to some interesting ways to deal with situations if you think out of the box. The world is well crafted, with lots of hidden routes, items and areas to explore. If you like stealth games like deus ex and thief, this is a must buy.