Recent reviews by Dran's head in a box

Honestly, the past 5-10 years, I have felt a bit empty playing most games. Didn't excite me as much anymore. But then came Elden Ring. I just enjoy it so much. It feels like I am back to the time I could really enjoy the game. It feels just perfectly challenging where I can struggle, but I can easily overcome the struggle by improving, and it feels good, and I enjoy the battles. Man, I love this game.

I am just gonna compare this to OMD2 and say, this is far more boring. So many stupid decisions, especially when it comes to Endless. Let me elaborate:

1. In OMD2, you had the scavenger trinket, coin forge and void wall with money upgrade, which was useful after the value of enemies dropped and getting money was harder. In this game, there is no such thing, and it's annoying trying to kill off buff enemies to get kill streak rewards which ends up being the only good source of money.

2. They made it so enemies are a lot faster after a while, and also a lot more resistant to crowd control. Combine that with their increased HP and damage, and it becomes annoying to try to even reach wave 50. In OMD2, reaching wave 100 was fun, and seeing you manage to trap up the whole map and see it all in it's glory made me feel so accomplished, while here, I feel unsatisfied.

here is something not related to endless specifically:
They ruined good traps and trinkets from OMD2 and does not include other fun weapons, trinkets and traps.
2 items I wish they added to this I mentioned above, the scavenger trinket and coin forge, but also the Web Spinner is missing as well as some other fun stuff.

But as for items they ruined:
-Ceiling Mace they somehow reduced the hitbox, so now it takes no effort for enemies to get past it, and even the damage is terrible if it hits.
-Decoy is useless. They replaced the upgrade that makes it respawn again, and it doesn't do much damage, and costs too much for what it's worth, and only a limited amount of enemies try to go for it. It's just trash. And also, you can't place it on top of floor traps like in OMD2.
-Guardian Archers have a very limited range, and just underperformes overall.
-Alchemist's Satchel is also terrible.

Those are just some things to mention. I spent 200 hours trying to find the really fun part, but I couldn't find it. It's a disappointment compared to OMD2.

Yeah, it's a nice way to pass a little bit of time.

This game can be tricky and infuriating at times, but overall, it's a lot of fun. Love the village building aspect mixed with tower defence. 8/10. Would play again.

I love this game. If you remember the old game called Desperados? This is basically the same placed in Edo Japan rather. Perfect for those like me who enjoys stealth game and see patterns and order of killing enemies.

Edit: It becomes not as good after level 10.

Just gonna put it out there. The Trap, Trinket and Weapon are all just amazing, but the maps. The first one is Okay, But the other two. Especially the second map. It's the worst and hardest map in Orcs Must Die 2. I have never struggled this much to get a perfect 5 skull score before on Nightmare. It's so trash. Just the combination of Elemental Ogres starting so early, and mountain troll, and the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of fliers of every type, and mostly Frostbat. There is no doubt that this is the worst map in the entire game and DLCs.

Most maps if I have failed them, I have just retried max a few times. And the reason I might have failed it is because of the Par Time. But this one throws so many strong and annoying enemies at you that it's extremely hard to defend the rift.

Pros and Cons for me personally:

+The combat system is still awesome just like in Shadow of Mordor.
+The nemesis system is awesome
+The personalities and traits of Orcs are fun (I laugh ever time I meet a moaner especially)
+Bruze
+You can ride Dragons... Well, drakes, but close enough.
+Fighting pit is fun to watch.
+Attacking enemy keeps and defending.
+more

-Annoying how hard it is to mount a stunned Olog when there are Caragors and other Orcs nearby because Talion grabs
them before the Olog
-The targeting can be very bad at times. I have tried stealth killing a guy in front under me, and talion jumped to a guy
behind me
-I think the "Leaving mission area" message should be a bit clearer and bigger, and maybe a visible border on the mini map. I have left the area without noticing several times because it's just plain text, which often appears on screen, so I tend to ignore most of it.

This game I feel is somewhat lacking in some departments, but overall it's a fun game. It can be challenging at times, but that makes it more fun. I recommend getting the Offworld Angel as quickly as possible for a better experience.

I also recommend them changing the "One careful owner" achievement as I have tried it so many times, but I can't make it in time any time. Winning gold in the olympics start sounding easier than this achievement. I mean, most of the time it's the attacking ship manages to damage the ship I am trying to hijack in like 1 barrage bad enough that I can't hijack it anymore. So I have to kill everyone in the entire ship I am trying to grab and take the ship before the attacking ship shows up in a few sec.

It's too hard in the beginning really. When you are early on in a game, I think you should have easier missions to learn more about the units, tactics and the game in general, but I feel this game is trying to make us rush a bit too much to have a nice time. Even the scirmish in the boot camp is a bit too hard. If they could just lower the difficulty more that early in the game, then I think it would be a better game.

And I want to add that, I can't even figure out if something of an enemy is AT or a tank. Or what kind of units I am up against. Another reason I really dislike this game. There are no good indicator for newer players and those not too familiar with WWII.

Classic game that still gets DLCs. Fun with many different strategies and civilizations. Love this game so much.