Recent reviews by Chefmaks

The game, much like the story surrounding it's development, seems to be having an existential crisis sadly.

First and foremost, it's not by any chance a spiritual successor to the first installment despite its name.

It tries really hard to tell a compelling story but starts bland and gets nowhere interesting. The gameplay is shallow and while the animations are fluid, everything else feels floaty and weird.

In short, if I wanted to solve crimes, I'd play LA:Noire. If I wanted a good CYOA story, I'd play Disco Elysium. And if I wanted to have fun in a "combat sandbox", I'd play Dishonored.

Sadly neither the gameplay nor the story is engaging. The voiceacting is good, but that's about it. The world feels hollow, empty and lifeless. Character customization reminds me of Hogwarts Legacy, and that's not a good thing.

I'll probably continue playing, since I got gifted the game at PDX-Con in 2019(!), if I paid 60€ I would not hesitate to refund it before the 2h mark for the reasons stated above.

The game is walking an insanely fine line between wanting to be a "builder" and a "cozy game", so please take negative as well as positive reviews with a grain of salt.

A 10-15$ game should not be expected to be a fully fleshed out building game. It is a cozy game. And it really is a nice cozy game.
While I agree there are some minor points the game could be improved upon, I wholeheartedly disagree with people saying they want way more features for the game. The game is meant to be minimalistic. Because of this the UI will most likely not get any more options, safe a few QOL changes. And this is totally fine.

I actually love the game being both easy to play (cozy) but still having depth to it once you understand its intricacies. There is actually a lot to do once you get the hang of it, and comparing it to other "builders" like planet coaster/zoo, etc. I believe Tiny Glades is way easier to work with.

However I really recommend for people who want to know more about how to build your perfect glade to check out the developers Youtube channel (currently named "Ana & Tom"). Watching even one video really showcases what is possible in Tiny Glades.


// Also to piggyback off some other reviewers: please add chickens..

I don't know how the same studio that developed the base game could have developed this.



The world/exploration is amazing again. I would even say it's slightly better than in the base game, however that is my personal preference.

That being said, the DLC really falls apart because of its bosses.

I have played every Souls Game + Sekiro and Bloodborne (no Armored Core). So up until now I always wondered why so many people called the Souls-Combat "frustrating", "infuriating" or even "unfair". To me it always was kind of hard, but never unfair. Some bosses like the Nameless King from DS3 I would even consider very hard, at least until you get to know his move set a little better. After that it becomes a hard but very enjoyable experience.



Elden Ring base game bosses were always hit or miss for me. There were awesome fights like Malenia, and then there was the ever appearing Ulcerated/Putrid Tree Spirit. There is just no fun to be had in fighting an enemy that is about 10x as big as you with limbs extending across the whole arena that is just wildly flailing about.

Why didn't that bother me in the base game? Because the Tree Spirits are a very easy fight just because they are very unlikely to even hit you if you try to stay up close. Their body just pushes you away, but mostly will not inflict damage. So, while the fights are not enjoyable and very chaotic, they at least aren't hard.



ER:SotE takes this annoyance and scales it into oblivion..

Yes, there is valid criticism for the weird approach to scaling the DLC with collectables as well. I for one don't like it as well, but I guess it doesn't make or break the experience if you like exploring the world as thoroughly as me.

That being said, I think most peoples gripes with the boss design just get exacerbated by this scaling choice. If a boss is annoying to fight, hits like a truck and takes forever to kill it feels about 100x worse than the prior mentioned Tree Spirit. Imagine the Tree Spirit having 10x the amount of HP and being able to kill you in 2 hits. Yeah, you will still not get hit that often, but if the fight drags on for too long and you die by getting hit from his flailing the death doesn't feel fair anymore but random.



And this is exactly where I am with ER:SotE. Humanoid bosses are still fine. The problem is everything that is about >5x bigger than you. I even think Relanna is fine. Annoying, yes, but her attacks are mostly telegraphed soon enough and easily dodgeable. She's just very fast, but when you get the hang of it, it is an enjoyable fight.

While this is true for bosses like Divine Beast Dancing Lion , Dragons and their ilk are by far the worst offender.

These bosses are huge; however, they are somehow even faster than Lady Maria (Bloodborne) and hit for at least 1/3 of your HP. In addition to their "normal" attacks, most of those bosses also have the earlier mentioned "wild flailing" attacks. This just means that you have to know their move set perfectly while also dodging frame-perfect, because most of these attacks have a follow up that will roll-catch you if you roll even a little bit too soon.

In essence, this means you will dodge the first flailing attack and before you can roll again the boss will hit you with his follow up because you are still animation-locked but not invincible anymore.

Because of these factors those boss fights become chaotic, tedious and nerve-racking instead of being enjoyable. This results in you not feeling accomplishment after beating one of those bosses but rather relief. This is not a good thing to have happening to players.



Small side note; I am almost 100% sure some of the new bosses are even input reading. That, or they are designed in a way that is just hardcoded to react the same each time the players presses a specific combination of buttons. The worst offender in this regard is Ancient Dragon Senessax, which results in him using his instantaneous backhand swipe every time you are in front of him and press circle/B on Horseback, thus making him very much more difficult than Bayle the Dread which doesn't make any sense lore-wise.



In essence, I feel the reason most people complain about the bosses isn't their difficulty per se. It's just that so many design choices come together to make the DLC bosses as frustrating as possible. Which is a crying shame, because the world/items/etc. are the best a souls game has ever offered IMO.



I think there will be some balance patches coming in the next weeks, however the thing I hope for the most, is that this new boss design is no indication of what to expect from the next Fromsoft title. This is the main reason I am giving this a thumbs down. It's not even that it's not for me, I genuinely think this is objectively bad design, but feel free to disagree.

Let me preface this review by saying just because this game is not for me you may very well like it. Also I haven't played the game enough to have an opinion on game balance. The first 2 hours work very well though.

The Good:
The game looks visually stunning. The lighting, setting, effects and animations are very well done. Some may not see it that way because of the isometric perspective, but the developers knew what they were designing 100%. The artstyle suits the story and setting and cumulates in a very pleasing experience.
Weather effects also are absolutely gorgeous.
The introductory sequence may not be something new or groundbreaking, but it does a fantastic job teaching you basic controls without dragging on for too long. For me it struck the perfect balance between being to short to teach you anything meaningful and being so long you are waiting for it to be over. It's very well done and thought out.

The Bad:
Combat just does not work (for me). I hesitate to compare it to Souls combat, but that is basically what is is. Hades would be another good comparison, but No Rest For The Wicked is way less "arcady" and much slower than hades. This makes combat pacing more in tune with games like Dark Souls 1 or even Demon Souls. Attacks and animations feel weighty, slow and meaningful. Stamina matters very much, and almost everything you do needs stamina to be available.
This works great in Souls Games. You attack a boss a few times and need to back off because said boss will also attack you after you had time for a few hits. Stamina will never be a problem here, unless you don't let it regenerate enough between attack cycles leaving you unable to roll or run out of attacks.
No Rest For The Wicked doesn't let you do that. You will not be able to get into the above "flow" of combat, because your stamina is constantly at zero. Take a basic enemy in the starting area. You get 2-4 hits in depending on your weapon, then you need to either block, parry or roll out of the way. Doing this once will leave you with no stamina and as such making you unable to perform most abilities/moves.
If you need to back of or do any defensive action anyway , why are we balancing this around stamina? The only thing being at 0 stamina after a basic attack cycle does is massively hinder the natural flow of combat. Stamina should (IMO) used as a ressource (same as Mana), not as a punishement for the player. The current design makes the game feel like a turn-based combat, because after you took all actions you wanted (or could) you wait for the enemies to do theirs as you can do next to nothing while your stamina regenerates.
This kinda feeds into the next problem I have with the game. In bossfights this "turn-based combat" will get a bit more dynamic, because bosses are more aggressive than normal enemies. This results in even more tedious stamina management.
While I don't mind the isometric perspective of the game, in bossfights this also sadly falls apart a bit. The camera needs to zoom out here, but it doesn't. Many people argue that the fights are not hard because the arenas are very big. This is true, however with the current zoom level they are too big and enemies have too much range. Take the first boss, he has at least two attacks that close huge caps that I can remember (jump and lunge). If you want to heal, your instinct would be to get as much distance between the boss and you by sprinting/dashing away and healing out of reach. Yeah well, this will make the boss just slightly off screen, so you have no way of seeing him telegraph any attacks that can very well reach you from off-screen, making your healing redundant.
(the following doesn't bother me that much, but are worth noting)
Gear degrades in durability when dying. Repearing your gear costs money. This does not add anything to the game. Repair cost is so low anyway, why even add durability? There is a reason why the souls games have experimented so much with this concept just to remove it with Elden Ring. It adds nothing but tedium. Durability in NRftW feels like being copy-pasted from Diablo, without taking into consideration if it makes sense in this game.
Town Upgrades take time to build instead of just ressources. Why? What does this add?

The Ugly:
The performance. No Rest For The Wicked has no reason to run as badly as it does. I have yet to find any consistancy in frame drops/freezes or stutters. They just occur randomly, often making you teleport across the screen or getting hit/killed by enemies. This is bad as is, but the timing being seemingly completely random also makes it absolutely impossible to play around them.
If you played Dark Souls 1 and remember Blighttown frame drops this is Blighttown all over again, just dialed up to eleven.


All in all it feels like this game tries to be so many different things at once, and while getting a surprising amount of stuff right, also comes short on many other goals it set for itself. This is also genuinely sad for me, as I really wanted/want to like this game. I also think it still has huge potential, and we should remember this being early access. However in its current state it just is not for me, and I can't in in good conscience recommend it to anyone else.

If you have read up until now, you may be wondering why this review still says "recommended". The game is currently at "mostly positive", due to many people voicing valid criticism and many being in the same boat as me.
I also know that a lot of people will see these reviews and be turned away from the game. Feedback is important. The more people don't even try the game, the fewer feedback it gets, resulting in issues not being communicated and thus not being tackled. Remember, this is steam. You can always try a game for < 2 hours and refund if you don't like it. This is what I am doing right now, however I will probably pick it up again in a later stage of developement, when hopefully at least a few of my issues with the game are either fixed or changed.
Moon Studios did a fantastic job with both Ori games, and I believe they will polish and support this game until it resembles their own vision of it. Will I like this vision? I don't know, but I would very much like to see it some day.

Was browsing reviews before deciding whether to buy or not when I saw some people complaining about the game being too hard/unbalanced.
After buying the game and playing for about 1 hour I beat act 3 on my very first run.

I would call these peoples inability to beat act 3 a "skill issue", however, maybe I just got insanely lucky or they are getting insanely bad RNG.

That being said, there actually is a problem with beating act 3 on the first try. I think I softlocked my save file, because I can't seem to be able to spend my currency on any permanent upgrades? f.ex. a second wand slot, which I really want.

Won't refund for 10€, but the game is not yet finished and still needs a lot of work. Still very promising, as it really fits a niche between Isaac and Hades IMHO.

Cheers

Best CRPG made in the last few years by a long shot.

So this game was recommended to my by quite a few people since its release in 2021. Almost everyone I who played this game didn't want to talk about it that much in order to not spoil the plot. Well after watching some trailers and gameplay I thought I would give it a shot. Deckbuilder meets Horror/Thriller? Count me in!

So after launching the game for the first time I am greeted with a really well made spooky, intriguing and fun setting. You are placed in a dark cabin in the woods with no information or clues of how you got there whatsoever. All you know is you need to play a card game against this mysterious man on the far side of the table.

Let me make it clear that everything in act 1 is so incredibly well done!
Soon some of your cards start talking to you. You notice you can stand up from the table and move rather freely in the cabin you are held hostage in. There are a few puzzles there that give of a very interesting escape room vibe.
So you play, talk and puzzle your way through the mysteries presented to you. Every riddle solved only leads to further questions in your head.
All in all this part of the game is incredibly fun to play, solve and listen to.

Sadly this only lasts for 3-4 hours.
After you defeat the old man you are presented with more information about the game and its story. Still great and captivating btw.

And then starts act 2.
The entire game you fell in love with in the first 4 hours is just gone .
You are now playing top down in a zelda/finalfantasy/stardewvalley-esque artstyle. The plot is kinda gone and you need to again get your bearings on what is happening. The gameplay itself is a card game again. Although very dumbed down from act 1. There are some new mechanics introduced but they really pale in comparison.
So you battle your way to 4 main bosses in order to defeat them and replace one of them as scribe. All 4 boss "areas" are similar in esscence, thus getting boring really fast.
Someone played the first Assassins Creed? Get some informations 3 times -> kill main dude -> repeat.
This is fine to do if the gameplay is really fun, but not otherwise.

Sadly act 2 gameplay is really RNG in the beginning and once you get enough card packs it becomes too easy too fast and the whole story progressions gets tedious. Also the "puzzles" in act 2 are way easier than in act 1. Whereas act 1 had you wondering about the purpose of certain things act 2 is basically just: get hint -> go solve -> repeat, without any need to think about the puzzles.
To say this whole ordeal was a slog is putting it mildly.

However, this part only lasts for 1-2 hours max. So while I personally really didn't like it at least it was over quite fast!

So you beat all 4 bosses, return to the start and battle 1 final boss. Actually I am not sure at this point if there are different outcomes depending on who you choose/how you play out the battle, but the plot felt very forced to me.
>> I chose to replace PO3 and failed (?) the battle by attacking the corrupted card he played (had a mantis with 3-strike beside it and no way to sacrifice it).<<

So after a short cutscene, that really should have a epilepsy warning, you are now in act 3.

As of now I have only sunk about 50 minutes into this next act. It is, as was act 2, very different from the act 1 I liked so much. In short, almost 50% of what I played so far wasn't act 1 material. And neither act 2 not act 3 are fun to me. There is no mystery anymore, except from wanting to know how luke carder ends up in the end. Although he will probably get shot since that is what was being hinted at at the beginning of the game..
I really don't know if I will finish this game, since act 3 seems to be more of what I hated about act 2.

Also I don't want to be that guy since I understand the novelty in having different games in 1 game which you, the consumer doesn't expect. However since way more than 50% of this game doesn't resemble the marketing material this is kinda false advertising?
I guess I won't be returning this game since I can respect the design decisions made by the developers. However as of now this game is just not for me since I can't be bothered to sit through multiple hours of gameplay I don't like, to watch an ending I can kinda predict.

So as I said. Interesting game, objectively well made and thought out. Just not for me.
Also you should refrain from buying the game based solely on marketing material from act 1. I would have actually prefered some minor spoilers before buying to be sure act 2 and 3 were also something I enjoy.

One of the best games I've ever played.

In light of the recent scandals I'd suggest you pirate it and donate your 10$/€ to some (local) charity.

Apart from some micro stutters (mainly when sitting down at "bonfires") that are no big deal to me game runs at stable 60@1080p on RTX2070S & I7-9700k. Dualsense Controllers are also supported if you are wondering.

For gameplay and content watch a review. All i can say is that it's a souls game and probably the best one of those yet. If that sounds like something you enjoy I'd definitely say it's worth the price.

Waiting almost 2 months for a patch to make the game at least playable and they break it even more.

I am not even gonna get into the problems with gameplay (the stupid chaos rift mechanics etc.) but at this point the technical aspect of the game is literally laughable.
400mb patch takes 110GB of free space. If you don't have that kind of free SSD space you are basically ♥♥♥♥♥♥ .
Don't even get me started on the game randomly deciding to use temporary space on another drive which makes redownloading 110GB faster than patching 400mb.

Save yourself a headache and wait at least a year until you buy this pile of garbage software.