Recent reviews by Kuhtlass

Only recommending the game if you play it on anything under Extreme difficulty, but would rather give it a Neutral instead - or a not-recommended if going by achievements.

First off, this game freakin' sucks if you are a completionist as you have to beat the game on Extreme difficulty: it's not so bad, but when some of the fights literally come down to RNG then it becomes retarded - a disclaimer to those expecting to get it done, and I pray that you have a lot of patience.

On the topic of Extreme mode: the devs apparently didn't optimize this mode at all - or even play it - given to the fact that the difficulty is sometimes neutral as it should be, then it'll drop in areas where it feels like you are playing on Easy, but THEN it will spike in certain fights like the three Berserkers, but I came across an exploit to win that stupid thing.

Extreme mode might as well be called RNG mode at certain points since you are relying on dice rolls on whether you hit or miss, while hoping you get stun-locks or you may get steamrolled if not.

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One of the stupidest fights ever: the fight is like twenty minutes long but during this time you have to watch a partially unskippable cutscene, then you fight a wave of enemies, then another cutscene, then another wave of harder enemies, then another cutscene, then finally the actual boss who is literally stupid OP if you don't stun-lock the idiot to death - don't expect to play fair; if you stunlock him, then he will either paralyze and allow his 'friends' to clean-your-clock, heal an unholy amount, or raise the dead making the fight even more retarded.

But guess what: RNG favored them during that fight so you died, now you get to do all that again, and again, and again until the computer fails and RNG is in your favor.

In the end - and blessedly - I managed to conqueror it; the only thing I can say is to run stuns against the last boss the moment the fight starts: Arkail's stunning punch on repeat with Styx's ranged throwing knives, and keep it going and pray that you don't fail on stunning or getting a knockback.

The devs must have just changed some numbers in the code instead of playing that fight, as there's no way they played it and went, "Yeah, this is good.", unless they walked off pulling their pants back up.

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Dialogue during combat stops Styx and Arkail from fighting: apparently they'd rather chat while idling until their speech is over with - taking a beating in the process; happens when you retreat to the prior area's zone too: causes Styx or Arkail to run their mouth again instead of fighting.

Enemy attacks hit you when you aren't even near them: again, the dice roll comes into play and it isn't based on whether you are near them or not; if you happen to be by them and they begin their windup animation, then you run across the map, they can still hit you because game deemed it being a hit.

On the topic of being hit irrationally: there are fights that start the moment after a cutscene and sometimes you'll be close enough to take a hit from the Ai before you can get away - sometimes getting stun-locked or paralyzed given the enemy.

Targeting sometimes doesn't seem to work: the cursor will be on the enemy, yet my characters would either hit another enemy or spasm out and run around, though it seemed to happen only a few times, and I'm thinking the attack commands follow whichever enemy the attack was commanded on, instead of which enemy is currently highlighted.

Devs decided to put autosaves before cutscenes instead of after them, making you have to skip through it each time and you really feel it when the cutscene was decided upon to be unskippable - like the last fight...

It's bad when you are spending time during a fight to look for an exploit instead of actually playing the game: running around the environment until you get the enemy stuck so you can kill them, instead of playing the game as intended, but that's the truth of it in certain areas.

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Talk about channeling Arkail's Berserking rage: I was close to calling that last fight off due to how angry it made me; this is why I like skill-based games since if the game is hard, it's because I'M not good enough - not whether the dice-roll was.

Only reason I even decided to push through that last fight was to get it 100%'ed for the sake of completing Styx's story - so far.

The game should have been a true action RPG instead of depending on dice-rolls as a tactical strategy, because it's really not skill-based at all when it comes down to the computer choosing if you hit or not, but as much as I hate those parts, the story and characters were great and seeing Styx in his original game was fun; it's just a shame that it has this patina of nasty over the top of it that can't be scraped off due to the imbedded mechanics, but maybe we'll see another game like it in the future though this time it'll preferably be an actual action RPG - with no dice-rolls...

Achievements Hunters: Shards of Darkness takes about 17hrs to beat // 24hrs to 100%; contrasting Master of Shadows' 23hrs to beat // 36hrs to 100%, making SoD an easier game to complete.

If you are unsure about the games - or stealth games in general - then I recommend SoD first as it is an easier game to play with all its Quality of Life improvements, but if you want a harder game, then I recommend playing the first one: Master of Shadows.

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Right off the blade, the game already felt like a sequel to MoS with increased graphical fidelity without losing its art style in the process; just add on all the new skills and tools, and the movement system, and the game feels so good to play, but I do have my grievances with it that I stated further below - though a quick note:

If Master of Shadows was Halo CE with its backtracking galore, then Shards of Darkness is H4: instead of Prometheans on Requiem, it's Elves on Korrangar - take that how you will.

Styx still has his cynical humor: hasn't been neutered, though maybe more cynical now than he ever was, but as another was saying in the reviews, he does break the 4th wall a lot, even making remarks about contemporary pop culture; most of it seems to be tied to the death screen alike Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, but there are some quips during gameplay too.

I have nothing against him breaking the 4th wall, or making pop culture references during death screen as it is funny, but hearing it while playing is a different story.

This may be a blessing to some coming from MoS: Tokens have been cut down from 40 per mission, to 20, making it less of a drag which is great imo, but in doing so you drop the difficulty of the game of having to work harder at getting them - subjective of course.

Missions have also been scaled down from 4 zones to 2, which leads to my disappointment of content; MoS had 30 zones broken up by 8 missions, and SoD had 19 zones broken up by 10 missions, though obviously it gets reduced on reused missions, but it seemed like in SoD, I was playing through the same areas more often than I did in MoS.

Lighting has improved, though shadows sometimes seem too strong: there were points where I should have been seen, but wasn't.

Dwarves make an appearance as a new faction to fight against, but they are classified as Heavy, so you can only kill them with specific ways; elves make a return but lose their smell sensitivity to the Dwarves, but they gain a pet in the process.

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QOL improvements from Master of Shadows, for those wondering about additions:

• Most legacy skills are core skills, i.e. cover kills with the added over-the-counter kill, invisibility, clones, etc, are given to you at the start.
  
• Better controls, such as running off ledges to hang, instead of M.o.S's walk slowly off, and ledges don't auto-pullup anymore, as you have to press the button.
  
• Auto-save button not apart of load screen: meaning you don't have to worry about pressing down each time to load your recent save.
  
• Color palette (blue over orange), feels better on the eyes - that's subjective of course.
  
• Crafting makes a debut with world resources, instead of just random vial placements across the map; vials still exist on the enemy to pickpocket as well as pick-up, but you can craft them now.
  
• Ziplines / ropes for area traveral instead of just running across the map to find vantage points.
  
• Insignias stat screen on pause existing at start of game, instead of beating it first which is awesome; not sure why it was that way in the first place - maybe to keep people from speedrunning.
  
• Quick-saving on controller: meaning no momentum loss during gameplay, so click-clack your away across the map without having to pause every thirty seconds to make a save.

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Problems I faced while playing Shards of Darkness:

• Non-skippable splash screens, while MoS's was skippable.
  
• Ai is retarded: yeah, this is a big one - the game feels nowhere near as hard as MoS was, outside of having many enemies on the screen; their vision cone seems to have been reduced and like I stated above: their dead friends don't worry them as much as it should.
  
• Bodies seem to stick to the floor: physics aren't like MoS where weight exists, such as placing a body on the edge and it pulling itself over due to weight; in SoD, you have to be right at the edge for the body to go over.
  
• Bodies not counting as alert like in MoS, making game much easier: you don't have to worry about hiding them which seems like a bug, but apparently not, which is crazy since that's the theme of stealth games - it also makes Acid Vials redundant; apparently bodies don't really cause the enemy to run for the alarm either; my entire playthrough, they rang the bell like a couple of times, so like I said way up above: MoS is the harder game.
  
• Styx stands up after dropping a body, requiring you to crouch each time so you don't start running after dropping the body.
  
• Keyhole animation needs to be faster, as it is redundant since one can just reload the save after opening door anyway - makes sense for Goblin difficulty.
  
• Amber Vision being moved to thumbstick instead of 'Hold LT + Press Y': Rebirth took that slot, which is understandable, but Amber Vision sucks for thumbstick since it is constantly pressed, hurting the thumb.
  
• Some missions feel too bare, as if there isn't enough enemies, but that problem tended to be at the start of the game, so I chalk that up to be a tutorial thing for new players.
  
• Acid Trap not pick-up-able: it should be, as it is a place-able.
  
• No save at start of last mission, meaning you are forced through two load screens and a cutscene each time you die, until you get an auto save after not dying.
  
• Token Ultimate isn't as good as MoS: white dots are hard to make out, whereas MoS was super easy to follow, though sometimes too bright - needs a happy medium.
  
• Aaron Barimen being a random NPC kill, instead of using him to lead up to something: felt like he was just tossed away to continue the plot into a different direction instead, making it feel like a cop-out.

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Wants:

• Doors still can't be shut like MoS, but would be nice as enemies seem to detect it being open, and closing it would block their sight of view.
  
• Can't remove bodies from hiding places (chests or closets): not a huge issue, but if you needed that hiding spot, you could just pull the body out.
  
• Can't carry bodies through windows, or throw them through it: again, not a huge issue, but if the door is closed, then you have to drop the body first, open it, pick up the body, then go out, whereas an open window is right there.
  
• Dagger: this isn't a problem per-se, but in MoS: Styx constantly carried his dagger around which I thought was weird, though he didn't have a sheath so it made sense; in SoD, he only pulls it out to kill, so I'd like to see both of these used.

Maybe akin to Shadow of Mordor since some inspiration was drawn from it: when in 'high-profile' state, Styx pulls dagger and holds it; when in 'low-profile', Styx dagger stays in its sheath - you could also make it auto-pull near enemies, and stay sheathed when away from them.

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Inspirations I noticed, which I thought was cool:

• Shadow of Mordor-like sheath that glows, but instead of Orcs - its shadows // death screen also like Shadow of War.
  
• Elf knight armor looks inspired by Destiny's Titan's OG Willbreaker.
  
• Elves and Roabies seem inspired by Skyrim's Falmer and their pet Chaurus: even the armor seems to be made of chitin alike the Falmer.

Love it for the nostalgia of OG Styx, and the added bonus of dissolving kills is sick - though OP for a first-run.

Though I'm not sure why it's an MTX when it could have just been added to the game: it is a legacy skin and this is the only DLC for the game, so it's kind of weird.

I presume it was a pre-order bonus? At this point it should just be free to those that buy the game, especially when it's a $1.50 on sale; then again, the games are cheap so there's no fuss at all if you grab it all at once.

First off, it's a great game, though maybe a bit repetitious, especially with certain levels being like the OG Halo: backtracking galore; highly recommend it if you are into stealth games with a dash (across your head) of violence, and a touch (of cold steel of a dagger across your throat) of cynicism in the form of a foul-mouthed Goblin named "Styx".

Achievement Hunters: game takes about 23hrs to beat - at least for me - and around 36hrs to 100% with three runs if you do it the way I did; if you listen to some things I have to say, you may beat it faster as you won't spend time doing things you shouldn't.

Insignias: Shadow, Mercy, Swiftness, Tokens; don't worry about these until you beat the game, as you will get a stat screen showing you on the pause screen, and you have to obtain all these for each mission and zone for the 'Unlock All Skills' achievement.

Shadow: beat all zones on each mission without alerting anyone; don't get seen and hide all bodies: seen is when the human/elf turns red (alerted) on noticing you, but creatures don't count.

Use your clone if you are nervous, as his detection doesn't count as an alert; while he cannot pick up things, he can interact with the environment.

Tokens: are ten tokens you find in each zone that are sometimes hidden well; don't worry about grabbing them on your first run, as it isn't retroactive: you'll have to pick them all up again on a zone-by-zone basis, e.g. Mission 1: Zone 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and they will reset unless you pick all 10 up during each zone.

These two Insignias can be done simultaneously, so beat each mission without being seen and grab all tokens along the way (make sure you have the token perk before chasing these Insignias).

Mercy: do not kill anyone throughout entire run (objectives don't count); self-explanatory, but make sure to keep an eye on stat screen, as you may kill and not be aware of it, as I've done it on a whim to get through the mission, which led to me reloading back some saves.

Swiftness: speed-running; you have a time limit to beat, and before you start sweating, it's actually pretty lenient, as most missions tend to have ten or more minutes to spare if you learn the routes after all the replays.

These two Insignias can be done simultaneously: pretty much just run through it without killing anyone and you'll claim these two.

I recommend those pair-ups since you are doing three runs regardless (Beat Game + Shadow/Token + Mercy/Swiftness) or (Beat Game + Shadow/Token/Mercy + Swiftness), unless you try for two playthroughs only with (Beat Game/Swiftness/Mercy + Shadow/Token).

I don't recommend the two-run strategy as you will be missing the story/dialogue/exploration, and you will not like doing Mercy along with Shadow/Token, as you will be exploring and hiding most of the time, and waiting for guards to move since you can't kill them.

Again, my recommendation: Beat Game + Shadow/Token + Mercy/Swiftness.

Tip: you can whistle: hold down on DPAD if on controller.

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Maps are a bit hard to follow, and open world with elevation doesn't help since maps are static to a single elevation; a compass would have been great to understand map, and the drawn landmarks is a neat idea - until loss of orientation.

Tutorial hints popping up along with dialogue / subtitle makes it hard to read and listen simultaneously when it's on a timer: tutorial should be removed with a button press, not on a timer, though I did notice some tutorials seem connected to an area, and pop on and off when you walk through, which is great.

Stat screen: only available after beating the game is kind of goofy (after playing a bit of Styx: Shards of Darkness, that has been remedied, which is awesome)

Bodies getting seen through walls somehow: its rare but it happens - same with exstinguished torches somehow being detected on other side of wall; the light disappearing makes sense to startle, but they literally can't see it sometimes.

Ai continually being surprised after an accident: chandelier kill constantly pops them off when they see it again, as if they have short-term memory loss.

When hanging, pressing A should go up, instead of auto-clambering; same for dropping down to hang - it shouldn't be a slow walk to engage it (again, Styx: SoD remedied these, which - again - is awesome)

Roabies' detection is too sensitive: as in killing someone without muffling, upsets them a mile away, but maybe that isn't a bug (heh).

Vials need to be different color in amber vision, as it is hard to tell if a guard is carrying one or not.

2nd time getting dagger: why does it look the same? I guess it was a lazy choice or maybe it was a time-sensitive decision, but it doesn't make sense unless proto-Styx decided to leave it for him.

First off, there's a mission in the game that has a heavy-horror atmosphere, at least at the start imo, so if you aren't the type that is into that, then you will not like that mission at all, as I didn't, but the game is pretty good, so I recommend pushing through it - I have faith that you can do it, as I did.

Achievement Hunters: I managed to 100% the game in around 30 in-game hours: 12hrs in Master difficulty + modifiers of 700+ points // 18hrs cleaning up the rest of the achievements during a 2nd playthrough on Rogue difficulty.

Highly recommend you knock out that Master + modifiers achievement first, so you won't have to do 2 Master difficulty playthroughs, a 'no focus' playthrough, and a 'no knockout/kill' playthrough, as Master+ will give you those four achievements, BUT ONLY IF you set that 'no focus' & 'no knockout/kill' modifier with modifiers pushing over 700 points before starting your Master+ playthrough; there is also an achievement for 'no alerting' anyone for three consecutive chapters, so I recommend tying that modifier in with the others.

Custom difficulty (Master) + no knockout/kill + no focus + no alerting + etc = 700+ points.

Those modifiers plus the ones I chose to get to 700+ isn't really that bad, you'll just be doing alot of trial and error with reloading your save, as getting caught or killing automatically forces you to reload, so you won't have to worry if you screwed up or not during your playthrough.

Don't worry about achievements during your Master+ run, and don't worry about collecting everything, as you are pretty much speed-running it to get it done; once you finish it, then do a 2nd playthrough on Rogue by following a guide to collect all collectibles on each mission (unless you want to do it yourself, as you can replay missions), and finding each secret area (do NOT do it yourself as it is impossible), as the secret areas do not have an in-game checklist, meaning you need to make sure you hit each point without missing a beat, or you'll be restarting each mission after completing them all when the achievement doesn't pop - on top of that, make sure you complete the mission each time as finding secret areas (and collectibles) aren't retroactive.

Most of the other achievements can be done on Rogue difficulty, other than the 5,000,000 point Challenge Mode achievement, though there's a PowerPyx guide for that if you are having a hard time.

Once you make it to mission 5, you'll have two sets of collectibles to collect as there is another achievement exclusive to that mission, so make sure you follow a guide for both, or you'll be doing three whole runs on that mission, including your Master+ playthrough.

During your 2nd playthrough, you'll have an achievement for beating the game with at least 15+hrs of in-game time attached to that playthrough, so if you are faster than me on your second playthough, then keep an eye on your game time by the end of the 8th mission; save right before the last part, then let the game sit until the 15hr mark before beating it.

Make sure to pick every pocket you come across as well; that means 'pick it', not knock the dude out first then take everything he worked hard for - take his life-savings, then knock him out.

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Animations in cutscenes and even in first person were great, such as lock-picking, opening windows, breaking into safes, pressing buttons on pictures - so cool.

And graphics too considering this game came out during the Xbox 360 generation; the game plays well too, though combat was hit-or-miss, literally: hit - dodge - hit - dodge, until you unlocked the Focus ability that does an instant takedown, meaning combat isn't its strong-suit which makes sense, but getting headshots with the bow using limited arrows, or leaving a line of bodies behind with your Blackjack never fails to feel good.

Map design is subjective according who you ask, though I enjoyed it when I played the game, such as shooting ladders down, shooting ropes up, shooting buttons to turn lights off, which turned me on, but when it came down to 100%'ing it, then I began to hate it; it's like a huge maze and every window is a pain after opening your 200th one, as you now have to do the animation again to get back out, then again at the next window, and then again to get out, but I assume that it has to do with the console generation's limitations at the time, which bled into the PC version.

I've also seen people bringing up the scalability of this game, comparing it to the OGs, with the Rope Arrow being nerfed, i.e., only being able to use it in certain spots, which is odd, since Thief 1 and 2 had specific spots to use it, but I guess having the ability to choose the exact spot to shoot your arrow is better than how it was done in this one, even though you are going through the same window...


[Secret areas] doesn't have a check-list, so everyone is forced to look up a guide; since there is no checklist, if you miss a single area of the 73 that's scattered through 8 missions and The City, you are pretty much forced to do another entire playthrough of each mission just to find the one you missed, which is insane (luckily I didn't thanks to PowerPyx)

[Collectibles] not being retroactive, which forces you to do the entire mission if you find it 1 minute during the mission, same could be said for secret areas.

[Windows] shutting behind you so you have to open them again: like I said previously, probably a limitation thing carried over, but man did it create ire, especially when I forgot which one I went in, just to open the window to a room I've been in already...

[Map] needs a fog of war, or highlights, or something to tell the player they've been there, and make it a toggable-layer; maps don't show the next floor unless you are on it, when it should show me when I'm not on it.

[Maps] as in, buyable maps that show loot for those that have beaten the game, making it much easier to find it instead of running to-and-fro across the same areas looking for loot you haven't found, but thankfully, the internet bros has us covered for those maps actually exist outside the game; even some kind of mythical object (such as Garret's eye), could give us indicators on where the missing things are.

[Fast-travel] is needed - yeah I know, I'm a sissy for needing fast travel, but spending fifteen minutes running, climbing, falling across the map to go through multiple load zones is ridiculous, especially since replaying missions forces you to go to their starting point, even if the freakin' mission is located on the sun - it need portals or something... this is a problem that Deadly Shadows had, which is ironic that it appeared in this game too considering the next thing I bring up.


The Asylum mission - I hated it - I hated it in Deadly Shadows too, but I hate it more in this Thief but not because it's scarier - as it isn't - but because it's fan-service, which means it's a forced plot-point for the story; the story could have been something different with a new fresh idea, but instead we get a 'let us try our version of Asylum, and build our story around it' instead, though maybe I'm wrong, but it feels that way.

Outside of that, the story was good imo, as were the characters in their own sort of way, such as Basso who I grew to like; there is Garret obviously, though some people don't like him in this game, but it 'feels' like Garret to me, but maybe a shade paler (he's a Thief, probably doesn't see much sun); I didn't like Erin's personality, as she seemed to imbibe that whole girl-boss thing that every recent game does for some reason (what happened to strong feminine women?), and what happened to the girl at the end of Deadly Shadows - unless that's Magpie in the VR version, but I find it odd that she isn't mentioned at all in this Thief, and why was she replaced by Erin?

Had fun.

Till I got to Shalebridge..

Just as Whispered World was, this is the same: such amazing games.

Though I liked the first game more when it comes to art, as it was hand-drawn, but this also looks hand-drawn, just a 3D version of it; I don't know, it just doesn't seem as appealing imo.

Also, the game seems easier than the first one, as it is more linear outside of controlling different characters in different zones; I was stuck WAY less than I was on Whispered World.

Achievement hunting is a pain though, as it was with the first one, but this one took me longer due to having to do 3 1/2 playthroughs because I missed something again and again apparently; these games really need a chapter select, as it would improve QoL by a lot, so if there is a 3rd Silence game, then chapter select needs to be a must-do.

I had one achievement bug on me twice on each playthrough, so I had to force it to pop because I wasn't about to do another playthrough just find it broke again, as it was becoming a waste of time.

Achievement Hunters: you can 100% the game in about 25hrs time, give or take based on RNG, or how fast you manage to beat the level; WARNING: make sure you play it on Hard difficulty as the Easy and Normal difficulty achievements are retroactive, and will unlock upon beating it on Hard, so I don't recommend any difficulty less as you'd be doing it all over again.

Tip for the 'Never seen me coming' achievement: unlock the bow first, don't run too much, use scent killer, and use urine once your target is spotted; once a gun is shot, you are instantly detected.

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The highest difficulty removes advantages, such as showing you where the animals are on the map, taking your compass from the HUD, and you lose the awareness meter that animals have, so you know, like real life where you have to play the wind and be stealthy.

The game has bare-bones mission objectives that quickly become repetitive: click map -> choose gear between 3 different weapons based on game size (including bows once unlocked) -> choose gear for animal -> hunt the animal -> claim it -> do next mission which is another animal on the same biome of map, but maybe you have to kill two of those; pretty much just run around the map, shoot whatever in the head, claim it, and moved on to the next mission.

Each mission gives a description about the particular animal you are hunting, about the biome, how to hunt it, etc, but the only story in this game is the Legendary animals you'll hunt as the last mission on the biome (though not always), so the game is practically a checklist; though I found it funny how the descriptions started out long and actually descriptive, but by the last biome and missions, it was just like a couple sentences long - sometimes the same wording - which gave me a laugh, as it seemed the dev was getting tired of writing.

Once you beat all the missions (or most), you'll unlock the next biome to do another set of missions, but with different animals this time, going through the checklist again until you hit the laid-back, duck-hunt biomes.

Which *QUACKIN* suck - the shotguns in the game for some reason like to shoot 6 inches higher than where you are supposed to aim, so you have to aim lower, blindly firing until you hit something; I'll tell you now, once you unlock the semi-auto, it'll start feeling a bit funner - a bit.

One of the missions: 'A Float Too Much' description is laughable, "Lot's of trees in this spot. Remember to move around and get a better line of sight." - you can only move a few feet in any direction.

There are secondary objectives on some missions for extra points - which are superficial besides being on an online leaderboard, or a stat in your trophy room - such as shoot the animal in the lung, or shoot the animal 150m away; there are also extra 'tags' that pop up during the hunt, telling you to hunt a bonus animal which are called Flash Objectives, but apparently you can just shoot whatever during the hunt and not get in trouble for it.

Points are connected to unlocking equipment, so the more points you earn based on clean kill - heart shot at long distance being the best, with stomach shots negating points - you'll unlock more gear, but as I played not caring about points, I unlocked about 95% of the things before I beat the game anyway.

Weapon choices: various rifles, shotguns, and bows, even a tranquilizer rifle for some reason, even though there's no mission to put something to sleep; like the real world, certain rifles are for certain animals: .22 for rabbits; shotguns for duck, rabbit, turkey, etc; .308 for deer or even moose.

Then you got bow in the form of recurve, compound, and crossbow, which can take all game, with all weapons models looking really nice, especially on missions with lots of lighting, or rain where you can see the droplets on it.

Gear is chosen by you, with gear being things like calls, scent-killer, urine spray, wind-powder, binoculars, range-finders, flashlight, and even night vision and a drone; no mobile treestands, ground blinds, or tripods, but the game will sometimes have treestands that you can get in and hunt from, which usually means that's where the animal is located, so another hint.

Walking in the game is fine, but once you start sprinting diagonally, you'll see the jankiness of it as the person begins to skate, which I guess is a bug carried over from keyboard, but then there's 360° movement on controller, so I don't know - just a bug I suppose; you can also crouch - obviously, for how else are you going to sneak - but you can also go prone, and crawl around.

Though during walking, sometimes you'll snag on things, especially during running, so you'll probably be keeping your finger on the sprint button as it kicks you out of sprint; sometimes it looks like you can walk over rocks, fallen trees, through water, etc, but it won't allow it, becoming a nuisance when you are trekking, so you'll spend time fighting the controls.

3 PoVs: 1st person, 3rd person, and closer 3rd person, but 3rd person aiming goes into first person, except the bows which can be aimed in 3rd person, though the camera seems to block the reticle.

There's a delay in equipment use: pressing the hotkey, it'll take a second or two before it's pulled out, and that's a big issue if you spot a fleeing animal and need to get your gun out, waiting on the delay.

Rabbit tracks are backwards when it comes to analyzing them, as it shows the rabbit running backwards - small issue, but I found it funny - I even found tracks walking up the side of trees once.

Night hunting: like I said before, there's a flashlight and night vision for those hunts, with the first mission being elk, so apparently poaching missions are a thing lol, but for coyotes or something, it's a pretty neat mission idea.

TL;DR - if you get the game cheap, then it's a fun time killer, just don't expect it to be amazing; maybe the second one is though, I just haven't played it yet to find out, but there are still other hunting games out there to check out for better value of your time.

DROS is a puzzle-platformer, so expect to use your brain to play this game.

Achievement Hunters: 30hrs or so to get all the achievements, and you'll be tested on a few due to learning how to speedrun optimally, which are the Speedy Clam achievements; each map has 4 objectives for the 100% Gold achievement: collect all bloodstone, beat the par time (quite easy), don't kill innocent DROS, collect a piece of the Moderat.

The story is like any another: subjective to your taste, but I enjoyed it, as it was something different.

Combat is pretty standard: hack-and-slash, block, parry, but there are also other abilities you will acquire along the way.

Artstyle is pretty: 2D drawings or the 3D aspects - I don't know what it is, but I find this type of artstyle more endearing than the more realistic stuff being pushed these days.

The entire reason I got this game, is because it reminded me of Phantom Hourglass with the shadow using armor to move, but in this case it's a DROS, and the relationship is symbiotic.

For the achievement hunters: around 30hrs for me to 100%, but that was due to chasing down the Treasure chest achievement (collecting maps), which was way too rare imo, as I beat the entire game + all achievements, and was still missing ten of them chests or so - and no, it isn't any chest you find, it has to be dug up after finding the map, and the maps seem to be connected to body count.

Like kills, obviously; I counted once: 142 for one drop, but I'm pretty sure I've gotten it much less kills.

Great little game if you love 2D games, or survival games, or 2D survival games, or Don't Starve but want the casual approach instead, such as, you know, not permanently losing all your progress; the game throws creatures at you at night like Don't Starve, but if you die, you will respawn with all your inventory still, but a small sliver of health.

So if you like Don't Starve's gameplay, but want a more casual version, then try this game out.

As for the story, it isn't that interesting from what I've gleaned from it, though there are some interesting characters I suppose, but the gameplay is a fun sandbox imo, especially if you are the type to build up a base, be it: building a large garden, placing a forest around you to harvest, collecting all the flora in each biome and growing it at your home, or just being nomadic and building a small home wherever you are in the world.

Or be like me, finding the highest selling thing, and capitalize on it by surrounding my house in it like some type of drug-lord or something.

The map is large, and what I mean by large: it's too freakin' big; everything seems miles away so you end up relying on finding speed totems or eating consumables for increased speed, which makes one wish one could find a pair of speed shoes or something, or an ability to do just that, or maybe a mount of some kind.

Man, we got chicken-turkey-dodos running around, give me a saddle for it.

Or even the boulders, as Spongebob has taught us the pioneers used to ride those babies around for miles.

Combat isn't that great, as it seemed like I had to brute force my way a lot of the time, as it was either blocking an attack with the shield, my face, or running away, as losing dash or back-step to hotkeys was an odd decision, at least for controller, that, and being stun-locked and only getting an attack in when I ran away.

For some reason, you can only block one attack if you are attacked twice from the front, as the first one disrupted your shield stance, allowing the second through - BS I tell you, I know Willie can take it like the snowMAN he is.

You can also fish.

Lastly: like I said, it's a good game and I'd definitely play a sequel, prequel, or equal, but it needs some updates for sure, such as a combat overhaul, smaller map, or at least a map with things to do in between instead of running for a solid 3 minutes in each direction, getting stun-locked into oblivion, etc, etc.

Maybe make it 2.5D😶