Recent reviews by Pimpollo

I haven't had this much fun with game mechanics alone since Neon White. Theme and music aside (which are fantastic!) I'm continually surprised by the little nuances I'm discovering run after run. I do have some QOL feedback though:

-adjectives above equipment slots (it's easy to confuse neck pieces, with head pieces, trinkets, etc)
-tell me how many squares a pushable object will travel if struck
-make inventory accessible when encounters the merchant as a random encounter in the world map
-when clicking on spells, show me the possible squares it can affect based on where I move to (it only does it for the basic attack, but not spells)
-being able to filter the cats by retired/untested would help make it easier figure out which cats I want to take on an adventure
-not a QOL ask, but I think the House could be better tutorialized, It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the Attic was its own "ROOM" and that b/c I was crowding all my cats in the base room, I wasn't having success breeding

A more polished experience than KCD1. Its size may work against it and I wish the skill progression wasn't just a perk system. Would love for future title to have actual skill points so Henry wouldn't be a jack of all trades.

Hard as balls but very fun throughout. A few difficulty spikes here and there but so long as you are patient and observe what's going on, nothing is too insurmountable.

Not being able to easily play with your sub-weapons on the fly stinks. As it stands, it makes me play with a loadout I've long become accustomed to. I appreciate the effort that went into the Crests and sub-weapons, but I don't think forcing you to equip them via benches was the best design decision.

That aside, I'm having a good time. I do wish the bosses hit harder, as most I've been able to best at my 1st or 2nd attempt. Exploration remains a joy and my favorite element of the game.

Edit: finished Act 3 w/Mushroom Man ending. ~93%. I had a mostly great time. Looking forward to DLC! Some more thoughts:

strengths:
-exploration continues to be the greatest joy. exploring environments for the first time is fantastic. unlocking shortcuts feels great.

-personally, I didn't have much trouble with the majority of the boss fights. I made use of the tools the game provided and defeated most in 2 tries. My favorite boss fights that took me numerous attemps were: First Sinner, Karmelita, and Lost Lace. I also really enjoyed the gauntlet/challenge rooms. My favorite was the one in the Citadel with the two big knights at the end.


weakness:
Shard economy. This reminds me of the Blood Vial discourse in Bloodborne. By Act 2 and 3 I was almost nearly <100 shards so I was discouraged from using Tools. I would have preferred if Shards were removed altogether and that the Tools ran off a charge system per rest.

Quests/backtracking: I love when Quests lead to new encounters, but I disliked the ones where you just backtracked for the sake of netting pelts/doing the fedex deliveries. The timed ones are fun, but I had zero desire to go from the Belltown to the remote corner where the Fleas end up

Subweapons: I wish we could freely switch between subweapons on the fly. Instead, I just stuck with my favorite one most of the way through.

I found the movement and combat to feel weightless and spammy. I grew tired with it pretty quickly.

Great new zone. It feels like Ch2 but starting from scratch. Nice progression and plenty of new weapons/items to play with. Final boss was pretty trash IMO.

Ambitious story let down by tedious format. I largely disliked "exploring" the big 3D spaces just to find new NPCs to talk to. Given that this is practically a walking-sim/visual novel, I would have much preferred it didn't dump you into those boring spaces.

That aside, the story was ambitious and thought provoking. Good world building and characters, but the gameplay really hurt it for me and made me drop it a few times.

A solid Half-Life 2 tribute. Often it feels like a home-movie version of something you've seen before, such that a sense of boredom creeps in. Movement is nice, but I have issues with the controls. I can't assign weapons to specific Keys, you have to cycle through them which blows. Combat encounters start to feel the same in the mid-game. Game plops you in a wide open space, and you do combat with the same composition of enemies over and over again. At times, it can feel a bit Serious Sam-like. You can't really sneak up on enemies, so all the encounters start to feel the same.

A solid metroidvania with a few weaknesses:
-I didn't like how the game would often lock you into a combat arena, especially when said combat arenas led to acquiring new abilities. I think it would have been better if all abilities were connected to some boss
-the biggest surprise of the game was when it was over. I didn't know that triggering a door would lead to a boss, and even then, I was surprised that it had just one phase. Maybe I didn't explore thoroughly enough (I netted some 60% completion and was able to lay waste to the final boss without much trouble).

Theming and story fell flat for me. I didn't care/remember any of the NPCs beyond their utility. Mechanics are solid. The one thing that did annoy me was that you need to wait a few frames after attacking if you want to dodge in the opposite direction. It didn't feel snappy, just something I had to get used to.

Final score: SOLID

Tough as nails, IV2 is great fun. I played on the "True" setting and had a great time. I think the dual protagonist set-up provides a great incentive to roleplay and switch up your play stile. I had a blast switching between being a stealthy ghost + apex predator.