Recent reviews by Garmega

Tl:dr. This game wasn't for me, but it may be for you. So while the following are what I deem pros / cons, you might feel differently.


Combat:
This is arguably the most important thing anyway. The combat feels silky smooth and the animations make you feel powerful. The gameplay made me keep playing even though I disliked most of the game.

End-game:
The dungeons that I have access have been fun so far. These are typical MMO raids that require throwing yourself at the encounter until you figure out some mechanic to not wipe. There is a huge caveat to this one which I outline below but overall, I had fun.

(Sort of. Depends on whether or not these things are important to you).

Story:
It's generic and not really compelling. Not much else to say about it.

Leveling:
It's bad. Even the people who enjoy this game will say the grind from Lvl. 1-50 is just no fun at all. Since the game has no story, this part of the game is really about getting yourself to end-game where the progression system shifts from levels to gear score. The game starts at level 50.

End-Game Progression (Vertical Progression):
The game's gear-score system is infuriating. The best content is locked behind gear-score so high, that very few people will be able to reach it. It requires players to create many alts in order to funnel resources into their main, but because each subsequent upgrade has a lower chance of succeeding the grind becomes longer between each step. The activities to get these resources are brainless and time-gated. There will be days where you dump hours into the game only to fail your upgrades and receive no progression at all. I'm at 100+ hours and I'm at the point of needing to grind probably another 20 hours to just unlock the next 30-min dungeon. I'd rather play Elden Ring for 20 more hours. Some people really love this hamster wheel grind but I find it pointlessly difficult for the sake of adding "game time". There is a difference between mechanically difficult and difficulty in order to defend poor design choices.

Collectibles: (Horizontal Progression)
There are actually a ton of collectible categories within the game. Some of them are pretty fun to do. However, most of the rewards are pointless. Some give you special toys which are fun until you realize you can't use them in most places for some odd reason. Almost no skins can be earned through collectibles except for the infamous gold mount which because of the reputation system, probably takes over a year of time-gated waiting to finish.

This game is extremely addictive. It has some issues and not for everyone but overall it is an exciting experience.

Pros:
1) Gameplay: The gameplay is extremely simple and the variety of shields gives it enough variety to play with. The different shields essentially determine how you will block the notes and has an impact on your physical motions.

2) Visuals: Honestly the game looks extremely basic and unitneresting just based on videos and pictures. I had many people look at the game running on the monitor thinking it was pretty bland but put on the headset and feel overwhelmed and excited. I myself am guilty of this as well. The impact of the notes on your shieds are bot tactile and visually stimulating. There are often times where the explosions can actually distracting and prevent you from seeing the notes directly after.

Cons:
1) The Music: This isn't a huge issue personally but it is enough so that I must mention it. The game lets you play music off of a limited selection off of SoundCloud so there isn't much to pick from to begin with. Fortunately (or unfortunately for some) it allows you to pick songs files on your harddrive. For someone like me who has a lot of music files, I am able to delve into that library and play songs to no end. However, if you do not have such a collection, you might find yourself playing the same few songs over and over again.

2) The Algorithm: The game generates notes by analyzing the file and then spitting it back at you. Unfortunately, it isn't as refined as I would like it to be. There are some songs that work extremely well that will make you feel like you are fighting the music itself. However there are other songs that don't feel well represented by the algorithm. The algorithm works extremely well with clear distinctive snares and beats like electronic music and pop songs. Anything else like rock however seems to not play well. Overall I feel like I'm hitting random notes about 50% of the time.

Conclusion/TLDR:
I would recommend this game for the experience itself as it is truly a fun VR experience. If you have a substantial library of music of your own to play with however, this is an extremely worthwhile game. It has addictive gameplay and the different shields will make the same songs feel like a different experience. If none of these apply, than the game probably isn't for you.

Pay-to-win. That is the best way you can describe this game. The problem isn't that there are micro transactions, this is a card game afterall, it is that the game starts you out with a pretty bad deck and then expect you to play against decks that are more composed and have flat out better cards. There isn't really anyway to consistently get cards unless you pay for them.

This is a much better looking game compared to previous iterations and the deck builder is a welcome addition. However, spending money on cards to play against AIs isn't really enticing. It would be extremely distateful if Hearthstone was AI online and it still had microtransactions. You might as well pay for cards on Magic: The Gaterhing Online. You can at least play against real people there and if you really wanted, eventually trade out sets of digital cards into paper cards.

All in all, not recommended. Half the fun of Magic is playing with people which this game already lacks. The other half is deck building and collecting which it has, but is no use if no one else values a digital collection on a game that isn't multiplayer. It's like if there was a version of TF2 where hats added stats, hats cost money and the only way to really win was to buy a few hats. After that, you would just play against your AIs while everyone else was playing the real TF2 with friends and strangers. Not fun.

This is a beautiful atmospheric game that does a good job of telling a story through subtle, less conventional means while challenging the player with mindbending puzzles with the game's core swap-and-clone mechanic.

The feel of the story and game feels very dark and gritty but never shoves it in your face. The moments this game capitalizes on most are the small ones where you come across something, either a sound, note or object and it just clicks in your head what it refers to, revealing the mystery of the plot a little more. The puzzles themselves are difficult and rewarding to do. The level design shows off the core game mechanic very well in ways that would surprise you. I found myself spending up to half an hour on some of the harder puzzles and enjoyed every second of it. The shear relief after solving a puzzle left me feeling accomplished.

I would recommend this game if you enjoy a good challenge and the feel of an indie game. The difficulty reminded me of Super Meat Boy and it's story telling mechanisms reminded me of Fez. The game itself isn't very long and can be finished in one afternoon sitting and because of this, the game feels very much like an interactive movie that just left me reeling after the credits started rolling.

I highly recommend playing this game with headphones on and with the lights off. This really immerses you in the experience.

10/10

This is a fantastic game. The story is well-paced and keeps you wanting more. There were a few times where I felt the game was intentionally putting objectives far away in order to get me to spend more time fighting. This at times felt monotonous when in tense story moments and you just want to find out what happens next. However, thankfully the combat is fun and full of mechanics that it was usually fun beating up people on the way to your next objective.

You do NOT have to have played Bioshock 1 or 2 in order to enjoy this game. I did not and in fact this game made me go back and play Bioshock 1. The DLC however, in order to enjoy it, you must have played 1 or know the backstory of it.

As far as replay value, there isn't much but nostalgia and seeing what other skills you didn't use your first play through can be like.

9.5/10