Recent reviews by Nezicide

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. Dokimon is derivative of Pokemon, specifically Gen 2. However, Dokimon is NOT a rip off or a clone. It carves it's own identity.

With that out of the way, I really like Dokimon. It's a very fun time, very charming and good looking. It aces the aesthetic it's going for perfectly.

The designs of the Dokimon are overall quite good, so are the designs of the characters. Simple but charming. The battle UI is also quite nice, being able to hold tab (or the back left button on the steam deck) for more detailed information on your moves and the addition of the effectiveness of moves is very welcome. Especially that last one since learning new type matchups is a bit rough.

Some of the English names for the Dokimon are lacking. Like Leeksword. You'll never guess what that one is.

The writing is fun and charming, meta at times but never overbearingly/distractingly so. The story is fine, it's your standard evil team romp with the big bad legendary. But, the writing does help it out. While the story isn't anything crazy, I also wasn't skipping the dialogue. It's a more mature and mystical take, which is very welcome.

The level balancing is great, so long as you fight trainers you never really get underleveled. Well, you do a bit but affinity will keep you balanced with the large stat boosts it provides. The more you battle with a Dokimon, the more affinity it gains and the more stats it gets. The only downside of this system is that training up a new Dokimon can be pretty rough, as they're incredibly weak.

Shiny hunters rejoice! This game has shinies, or what it calls rares, and I LOVE how it handles them. Finding a rare is a 1/777 chance which I think is a perfect number. It's not so common they feel free, but not so rare you'll never see one. You can encounter and run away from a Dokimon in grass in about 10 seconds, meaning 6 encounters a minute so a little over 2 hours to hit odds. Pretty good! Each rare has 7 (iirc) different colours as well as a special colour, all the same chance. This is super unique and fun. You can also make a Dokimon a rare by using an expensive item, but it needs to be full affinity. Doing this will knock it back 5 levels and drain all the affinity. However, Dokimon made rare this way will have a different icon then Dokimon found as a rare, so it doesn't devalue them.

Now, for the negatives. The routes can be pretty bloated, making rare hunting a specific Dokimon pretty hard when there's 6+ Dokimon on each given route. (please add a new rare hunting method in the dlc)

The game is pretty buggy. I ran into two very annoying bugs in my time, along with a handful of minor bugs. Double battle becomes pretty regular in the second half of the game, but sometimes the Dokimon you target will not be the one attacked. And I had a bug that sent me on a two hour goose chase for the last Elite Ranger I needed simply because a line of statues didn't despawn, and had incorrect information. I couldn't find the eighth one because it didn't exist on the side of the statues I was on. Also sometimes the move an enemy says it uses isn't what it actually uses. And sometimes moves that need to recharge just kinda rarely don't.

Lastly you get Fly WAY too late. The two hour goose chase would have been cut down a lot if I had Fly, but for some reason you get it at the very end of the game.

But, I wanted to end this review off with some more positives. It works very well on the Steam Deck, though sometimes it'll require the D-Pad.

The post game is a fun romp with some hard fights, a fitting encore.

I'm close to getting all achievements in this game, just a few grinding ones left to do. I can't recommend this enough if you're nostalgic for the old days of Creature Collectors, or are just looking for a fun game with some depth to sink your teeth in. And if the Dev is reading this, fantastic job! This game is fantastic and absorbed a few days of my life. Looking forward to the DLC.

Both Renegades and Edge of Fate suffer from different problems, I wrote individual reviews if you're interested in more detail. However the biggest issue is the restrictive Portal system. It's all but killed the game for me. If you like D2 and have the money, well, this is more D2. Otherwise, not worth it.

Star Wars does nothing for me, so I didn't buy into any of that stuff. However Renegades does stand on it's own enough. Only twice was it distractingly Star Wars, once was the first mission unfortunately. Otherwise it feels like Destiny.

The new characters range from bad to okay, underwhelming antagonists and a poor story. 3rd worst in my opinion. However the gameplay and new guns more than make up for it, with the Praxic Blade (Lightsaber) being a very fun addition.

The Lawless Frontier is the bulk of the content, I'm still exploring it but it's fun enough if repetitive. It has the same issue of the Portal, of funneling you into being sweaty. However for some, insane and asinine reason, they have decided to include an invasion mechanic. That's right, in contested missions other players can invade, disrupt and kill you. You know, like Gambit. The gamemode everyone loves. What's even better is this CANNOT BE TURNED OFF. You HAVE to have it on for 2 of the 3 difficulties. Just a mental choice. Bungie has an incredible ability to fumble the bag.

The portal mechanic from Edge of Fate is still here and arguably worse. I'll copy paste part of my review from that.

The portal mechanic has replaced the core playlists. Bungie was in a rough spot here, the game was stagnating at best and dying at worst under the old system. But this new system is a side grade at best.

It's fine early on, breathing life into old content. But, the higher power you get the worse it gets. The Portal restricts you, removing choice and funneling you into sweaty content. At around 500 power, for any meaningful reward you're FORCED into Ultimatum content at -30 power. You don't always want to sweat your balls off, sometimes you want to relax with some casual content. Destiny 2 for me was always a casual game. I played sweaty, I had my fun, but now I just want to solo some content and relax. The Portal doesn't allow that. Fireteam Ops is basically a dead playlist at high power as it's hard as hell to solo, impossible for most players, and teammates are a detriment. Pinnacle Ops becomes frustrating and a waste of time, spending 30 minutes only to die to Destiny 2 jank and get NOTHING for your time.

The Portal made me genuinely question if I even enjoy Destiny 2 anymore. I can't answer that question yet.

Normally I don't like making comparisons to other games in my reviews. Doing so tends to muddy the waters and drowns out the games unique aspects. However, this game isn't very original. It's pretty much State of Decay x 7 Days to Die with a pinch of Project Zomboid.

What the game lacks in originality (and graphical fidelity) it makes up for with sheer fun and addicting gameplay and looting. SurrounDead comes with all the option customisation you'd come to expect from a game of the genre, allowing you to create an easy and casual experience, or a hard and tough challenge. The customisation is commendable, allowing you to tweak many numbers and turn off mechanics..

Speaking of casual, the game is more casual than other games in the genre, ESPECIALLY Zomboid. Only really hosting hunger, thirst, durability, radiation, inventory, trading and a simple injury system. It'll be a great introduction to the genre for most people.

One of the games biggest issues is sound, some things being too loud or too quiet. You can hear animals and NPC gunshots from super far away as if they were in your ear. Meanwhile, zombies are often too quiet, sneaking up on you. Footsteps and noises from zombies just sometimes don't play. The combat music isn't much help either as it tends to be late.

A more minor gripe is that enemy guns do a LOT of damage and you cannot adjust the damage they deal. Getting taken by surprise by a group of bandits can be quickly fatal.

Last thing I want to mention is the map. It is extensive with interesting and varied points of interest. It is, however, finite. It'll take you a lot of time to explore it all (11 hours in and I've explored MAYBE a 4th), but once you do there's not much left.

Overall the game is very fun and off to a fantastic start. You can't argue the price point either. Just don't expect something too deep or polished.

Deadzone Rogue is a fantastic game in the sleeper genre of FPS Roguelikes. But, it's not perfect.

The good:
Fantastic gun play
Good build variety
Fun and rewarding missions
Fun gameplay loop
Visually pretty game
Plenty of weapon skins to earn from playing missions

The cons:
The main characters voice acting is... fine. But the voice itself is generic gruff man voice.
The main character talks a LOT
Some of the enemies, ESPECIALLY in act 3, are poorly designed (will elaborate further in the review)
Act 3
Difficulties are just flat number increases, getting a bit crazy at the end.

The indifferent:
The story is fine enough
Tech (the currency used for meta progression) has no use after fully upgrading your meta progression. Which is weird as the higher difficulties offer more tech.
A gimmick of this game is you enter every room in stealth and can choose when to initiate combat. I never found this very valuable, it's more of a cute gimmick than an actual gameplay mechanic. A lot of the rooms are designed in a very narrow, linear fashion which does not encourage this mechanic.

On the enemy design, I want to touch on the only enemy I consider poorly designed that appears in Act 1 and 2. The Healer is a bit absurd, instantly boosting whoever it heals to full health. I've lost a long run on the hard Gauntlet mission because a Healer spawned in and immediately tagged all the Elite enemies I had been fighting and almost killed. If it healed them over time it would be far more balanced, especially considering the enemies will body block for the healer, making it difficult to shoot at times.

Act 3 is full of poorly designed enemies. The enemy that spawns an invincible heat seeking ghost to hit you upon death (unless killed by headshot) and the enemy that can hit you through walls are annoying enough. The little bugger that makes enemies around it invisible and invincible I can deal with, even if you can get body blocked from destroying it by an enemy you can't even see. But, the ceiling tentacles are just the worst.

If left in their line of sight for a few seconds they'll grab you and slowly drag you to them. This is bad enough since, especially in the higher difficulties, if you're not moving then you're dead. Yet, somehow these enemies get even worse. They are very tanky and depending on the angle their weak spot can be impossible to hit. There's a wide open room with limited space to stand and 3 of these guys. Three. This might be the most evil room in the entire game. Even if you try to position yourself well before combat and take one out, you're getting shot at by everything else in the room now while at least 1 has line of sight on you.

The level design in Act 3 is also just... bad. Most areas are very cramped and some even linear as well as cramped. Combined with the poor enemy design it can lead to some very unfair feeling deaths, especially on higher difficulties where enemies do ungodly amounts of damage. Almost all my deaths in Act 1 and 2 felt fair, almost none in Act 3 did.

Overall the game is very fun and totally worth the cost of entry, but it does fall apart a lot in act 3.

Killing Floor 3 is a promising game with a fun base, and I can't wait to see it expanded upon. But even in it's earliest form I do think it's worth the money.

The Good:
-Gameplay is fun. Straight up, the satisfying and fun gameplay loop the series is known for returns in full force.
-Enemy improvements. To compensate for the increased mobility and toolkit of the players, the Zed got some buffs. Fleshpounds have whip pounders. Scrakes have a grappling chainsaw. Sirens have a ranged attack and Husks have a jetpack and are extremely annoying.
-Weapon Modification system. You can modify your weapons to improve their stats, tweak their performance or modify their payload. The system is quite fun and you can feel the difference. You can also upgrade your modifications. Overall it's a very fun and intuitive form of progression. I will say the mod choices are a bit limited as of now, usually each slot only having 2.
-More perk choices. Gone are the days or choosing between 2 skills 5 times. Now you choose between 2-3 like 12 times! Allowing you to tweak and upgrade your perks how you see fit, changing how the perks play.

The Bad:
-Performance. it isn't great, but, it's fine. Some minor stutters for me. Devs say it's being worked on, so, here's hoping.
-Guns. Or, lack thereof. There's not as wide a variety of guns as I'd like with each perk having 4 and 1 sidearm. Variety is lacking.
-Guns part 2. The guns are... fine? A good amount fall into the futuristic sci-fi issue of looking like plastic toys. Or they just look off, like the sharpshooters starting weapon which my brain registered as a shotgun and was confused when it was a sniper. it's disappointing as KF2 had amazing guns and gunplay. But it's nothing that ruins the experience, as while they look not great, they're still fun to use.
-Lack of information. I wish the game gave you some more in depth information on enemies, their weaknesses and resistances. it's a minor gripe but it'd help.

Lastly perks being tied to specialist (Classes to characters) is an insanely stupid choice. BUT, it's getting changed in an upcoming update so, won't consider that too heavily into the review. Just know if you buy KF2 now, if you want to play Mr Foster as a Melee ninja, well, ain't happening.

My hours seem low but I've played a lot on the Switch.

Rune Factory 5 is a great game, it's more Rune Factory but taken up a notch. It boasts multiple areas and dungeons to explore and loot, plenty big but they don't feel TOO big. The gameplay is fun, the crafting system is fun and the areas are well thought out.

The graphics are.. well, they're fine.

And Rune Factory 5 is the first RF to have same sex marriage, a very welcome leap forward for the series. Offering more player choice and identity. It is a wee bit clunky as it was added after launch (For example in an all girls sleepover cutscene, my wife asks me which guy I have a crush on in town), but is very welcome nonetheless.

The Campaign of Edge of Fate is one of the best, the story is gripping and interesting. The locals and set pieces are fantastic. New guns are fun, gunplay has always been a strong suit of Destiny 2. Keplar is an expansive but not overwhelming location with plenty to do. I got my moneys worth, I don't regret the purchase.

However, what Edge of Fate brought with it was terrible. The portal mechanic has replaced the core playlists. Bungie was in a rough spot here, the game was stagnating at best and dying at worst under the old system. But this new system is a side grade at best.

It's fine early on, breathing life into old content. But, the higher power you get the worse it gets. The Portal restricts you, removing choice and funneling you into sweaty content. At around 500 power, for any meaningful reward you're FORCED into Ultimatum content at -30 power. You don't always want to sweat your balls off, sometimes you want to relax with some casual content. Destiny 2 for me was always a casual game. I played sweaty, I had my fun, but now I just want to solo some content and relax. The Portal doesn't allow that. Fireteam Ops is basically a dead playlist at high power as it's hard as hell to solo, impossible for most players, and teammates are a detriment. Pinnacle Ops becomes frustrating and a waste of time, spending 30 minutes only to die to Destiny 2 jank and get NOTHING for your time.

The Portal made me genuinely question if I even enjoy Destiny 2 anymore. I can't answer that question yet.

Both Renegades and Edge of Fate suffer from different problems, I wrote individual reviews if you're interested in more detail. However the biggest issue is the restrictive Portal system. It's all but killed the game for me. If you like D2 and have the money, well, this is more D2. Otherwise, not worth it.

Talented is a surprisingly fun and deep game. It's a perfect steam deck game, great to kill time. But, it's deep enough to where you can play for extended sessions and have a lot of fun.

The premise and graphics are simple. Gameboy like graphics and you shoot in one of 4 directions. There's so much variety in builds, challenges and things to unlock that it keeps you playing. The simple and addictive gameplay loop makes that play time very enjoyable.