Recent reviews by Benji Button

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the controls are the absolute worse. You can't even close the first rift without it constantly targetting the wrong target. It's horrendous. Refunding this

I am honestly in love with this game. The community is tight and strong community. I have met many and great people that I play with and even rando's also just in general are amazing. The gun play, the strategems, the lore everything is great. It's super fun! This is a game I will continously come back to when I am burned out on another game.

Also the Devs are completely connected with the community and actually listen to what the game needs, but still make the hard decisions and don't let their vision be swayed by a loud yelling obnoxious people. They know their crap and I absolutely feel like the success that they have is thanks to their dedication and passion they have for this game. Arrowhead, you're an absolute gem keep doing what you're doing! :)

Here's my honest and unfiltered opinion of Hogwarts Legacy. I love the game, the story and as a Harry Potter fan I'm really enjoying the whole aesthetic of the game. Wonderful world, with danger and logical explanation for each feature like fast travel: Floo Flame.

The Pro's I have written down:
1. The story and the writing is fun and interactive, You can follow a line or you can explore the caves the developers have set out for you.
2. A lot of interactive NPCs, Ask about their story or discover it yourself by the missions you get to get some more XP
3. The intro, House introduction, Wand creation etc were really fun to do and the missions after that to introduce yourself to new teachers was very nice
4. The Spell building. You can make your very own set of 4 spells. You can mix and match to whatever you prefer.
5. Even though there is no morality it's fun to see the interactions you have between NPC and player by being a completely D***bag or be the angel your mom always thought you to be.
6. Changing appearances of your clothing and for some collection items fun interactive dungeons / puzzles.

Now the Cons:
1. Horrid, horrid, HOOORRRIIIDDD optimization. From the start I had already a few stutters. I have a 7900XT, The newest GPU that came out in December last year so it should've taken this game as a breeze and not to talk about the freezing of the your whole computer. Like, amazing I have to restart my PC every 45 minutes because this game craps out on you
2. The repetitive aspect of "puzzles" like Merlin's Trails. Incredibly repetetitive and I don't even remember if it's even worth doing them because it's that forgettable and totally not engaging.
3. More unique items, upgrade weapons, clothes etc from level 1 to your current level for example with the cost of how many levels you are upgrading something from. (Maybe, because you really like a clothing piece and it's effect and don't want to lose the upgrade you put on it)
4. De-chore crafting, Why is there a timer anyway?
5. De-chore animal handling. They're cute, but god handling that many animals is just insane
6. De-chore Alohomora after you reach level 3, or just disable the lockpicking completely.
7. Improve the loot system, You can find clothes every where. Grandma's basement? Well here is your Mastery School Cloak. Dangerous Spider Caves of Death of Destruction? Here is your silly joker hat you silly fool! (Oh and it's worse than what you found in Grandma's basement)
8. We need permanent companions. I loved walking with Natty or going on missions with Sebastian, but even that wasn't possible.
9. Make enemies less "lock-on" type of deal. Example: Fighting a troll has a sequence attack where he slams the floor, If you zip away he will literally slide across the entire map to follow you and slam the position in.
10. After the wand there wasn't really much customizing anything. It would have been fun to replace parts or for example customize your broom, maybe recoloring clothes or even you companion animals.
11. The Room of Requirement, The awful swirly thing when something doesn't fit. Like how am i supposed to know where it will fit if it changes into a BALL OF PURE LIGHT!
12. Treasure vaults: Where is the Treasure? And exactly how is putting a block on a picture a vault? Make it more challenging. Give us fun puzzles and maybe more challenge.

All and all I am enjoying the game with a few things here and there that could've been executed better for many reasons. I love the RPG even MMO feeling to combat and just exploring. For anyone that's looking for a fix for the optimization there is one that I have noticed that works great for AMD users. Go to your AMD Software: Adrelin Edition and go to graphics for the game. You can overwrite everything in the tool and that will solve most stutters and even freezes

DO I RECOMMEND IT? Yes, It's still fun has a lot of flaws, but I'm hoping they will fix it in the future.

The game is fun and addictive, has some glaring issues for sure, but in the long run it's quite enjoyable. I've run multiple complex games now where I wanted to be the ruler. Seems easy, but it's definitely not which makes the game actually quite fun.

It has challenge, stragetic planning and tbh the graphics are nice. In the earlier stages the graphics were pretty much a downgrade because of the stutters, but for me that's fixed now. The game has a long road to go, but it's entertaining for the meantime as a side-game if you're bored when nobody is online.

And if you're not really into the whole combat map stuff, just play online mode and raid a town or defend it with online people! :D

In my opinion the game is good if your expectations was not to high. People really be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on the UI, idk either for the memes at this point or just because the UI really is that bad.

My opinion the UI is bad, but not as bad as people describe it, It has it flaws and it's different than most people are used to coming from the old rome total war to the remaster. It needs some work, but for the old-schools maybe give an option to change it to the Old UI? The UI that we have now is much more easier to navigate for cities, spies etc even though it's quite the search the first time, but i enjoy it and didn't let met get bothered by it.

Overall i had a pretty good experience, played 38 hours in one weekend (Actually... started friday late at night until sunday) and i'm enjoying it! Sure if you're a person with a stick up their arse and can't play the game without their precious UI then this game isn't for you.

It's literally great to see that actually developer are willing to put so much love behind a game and make something SO GOOD. In all honesty AAA-Game developers could teach a think or two. Sure the graphics aren't insane, it may seem in someway a little wonky, but they give what they've promised and that's amazing.

Love the building, Love the biomes to explore. You're always with the same question: What's next? Because once you think you've got it all. You really don't.

I've always had a weak for Survival games, but this one nails the spot.

----- Mixed Review! -----
Pro's
Gives me a lot of Windwaker/BOTW vibes
Enemies are interesting and have all different attacking patterns.
Recipes are different, not what you might expect and fun
The more you go a long in the game, The more rewards you recieve
Graphical this game looks amazing!
Building your boat, Just go completely ham! Think of something crazy and build it!
Music and story - very nice, story might confuse some.

Cons
Water Physics - Go over a big wave and hit the water to hard? Instant stop
Island surrounded by lots of rocks - Denies you to build bigger boats, since otherwise they dont fit
No open world - World is small, you respawn in a new world everytime you finish a chapter and you have limited supplies everytime.
Repetitive - Find 3 towers & loot, find big island, finish chapter that's it
Coral - The most annoying blockade in the world. If you dont have enough speed you might get stuck on them. This means you have to dismantle part of your ship.
The Wind - The main source of movement is one of the biggest flaws in the game. It is random, it barely works. Sometimes you get stuck on nothing or bounce off the waves without any reason.

Grounded

This game is something you'd except more from, but don't get yet.. Imo it's really still the skeleton of the game and the way it feels, the way it's played etc. which is very logical since it's still in Early Access.

Building - Meh
While it seems really simple, it is really not. They throw recipes your way like walls, windows and roofs pretty early in the game. You've probably seen it a lot in the discussion tab or even in the bug report I can't make floors even though it's there.. You just have to unlock it by finishing the 20 minute story and unlocking it by spending knowledge points.
Which imo... Is a really weird take.. Why would you be ablle to make a straight sturdy wall and not a FLOOR that's litterally 4 leaves laying on a FLAT surface..

Hunger, Water Mechanics - Yeah, i'm down
A pretty solid system not to shabby maybe a bit bare-boned, but still solid enough for an early access.

Enemies - I hate them, but i also like them
While they're dumb as rocks, they pack a punch. The spiders are horrific, apparently lady bugs too and don't get me started on the weird hoppy things that spit acid all of you.
All in all.. Pretty solid would give it a 10/10 heart attack now a then..
(Spiders also like to sneak towards you... Very fun)

This game is great! Spend many hours in it :) Does make it more fun to have some mods, but to first know the game i would recommend vanilla and then go ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy with the mods

Simply Amazing, It's a challenge, breathtaking world and fantastic story. Be prepared to be taken away in the world of Enderal. There is so much to do in Enderal that is kinda hard to put everything in one review, but here i go.

Main Quest
Long, Detailed and hands down one of the best quests i've seen in RPG games. It's not repetitive it has interesting stories and very exotic locations. NPC that you easily can get attached to and just in everyway very fun.
The main quest increases in difficulty once you go further in the story, which for me is good, because i like a challenge. It's not something you just run through and go through without a single scrap.

Side Quests
Side Quests aren't really ''Side Quests'' most of the quests that you can do besides the Main Quest are also very detailed too much information to go in too. The Side quests are scaled also on a difficulty level.

Items
Some Skyrim Items are seen through out the world, but most are new. You have sets for Armors and have a chance to become more powerful with the right attire.

Perk System / Classes
Strange if you're new to it, but easy to understand once you start reading what everything does.
You have it in 3 categories and those 3 categories have 3 sub categories
Which makes the gameplay really satisfying because you're not forced to be stuck to one Category.
Instead of gaining levels you also learn with books.

This was my review/experience. I really enjoy Enderal (I already finished it once, with the old installer) and will probably replay it a dozen of times but with different playstyles. :)