Recent reviews by Runak

I would say this is probably the very best the genre has to offer in open-world sandbox survival crafting. And with the multitude of overhaul mods you can lose hundreds of hours playing this.

EA has been getting a bad rap for quite a few years now, and deservedly so, but this game bucks the trend. The company that was allergic to creating a narrative driven single player game has done just that, and it is quite good in the process. This game was a pleasant surprise and if you like Star Wars, souls-like gameplay, with Tomb Raider exploration thrown in, you will definitely enjoy this one. Plus, I felt it has one of the most intriguing storylines in a Star Wars game in quite some time and it really gives you insight to what happened after Order 66 was executed.

Combat was the best part of the game, as you can finish off you enemies in so many ways; many lightsaber techniques including double-bladed and dual, force powers to either push, pull, or slow enemies, or use your robotic friend to hack damaged electronic enemies to fight on your side. Plus you gain skill points as you play, allowing you to upgrade your abilities in the way you see fit. As a souls veteran, I would not recommend playing the game on any less than Jedi Master difficulty. At that difficulty it was easier than most souls-like games, probably closest to The Surge in difficulty. I finished the game with 95% completion and it took a bit over 20 hours to do so, which I feel is somewhat fair for a AAA title. Unfortunately, the replayability is lacking, outside of trying to find every lore, secret, and chest in the game.

I don't review too many games but when I play an extremely enjoyable one, I do like people to know my perspective and why I enjoyed it so much.

If you are a fan of the following, you will likely enjoy this game such that it's worth purchasing: vampires, investigative quests not unlike Batman Arkham series, third person action combat, rpg advancement. This is the best, and one of the few, vampire based rpg games since Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines nearly 15 years ago.

Unlike that game, this is more focused, in both narrative and choice. You play Dr. Jonathan Reid, and have very little control in how he reacts to situations or his personal beliefs. The positive to this is he is very fleshed out feels like a real character, not just some silent protagonist like many rpgs. You do have some control in how he responds to questions or goes about his night, not that much unlike Telltale's Walking Dead. You can choose to refrain from embracing your more darker vampiric desires, and indirectly from this, affect the difficulty of the game. You have the option, to drain the blood of pretty much any NPC in the game, the only restriction being your mesmerize level, which is increased as you get further along in the story. When you do consume an NPC and gain a large chunk of XP, not only are they gone, but their loss affects those close to that NPC as well as affects the overall chaos level of the area (similar in a way to Dishonored). Since the number one way to earn XP is in this fashion, followed by completed quests and identifying NPC hints, then finally killing enemy NPCs in combat, doing so can really increase the powers of Dr. Reid.

I completed the game without consuming any NPC, and even though the game was hard at times, forcing me to rest and increase my skills slowly, it never was impossible. But it is clear, the game would have been much easier had I resorted to my baser instincts. The storyline was well done driving me to see what new reveal was waiting around the corner, which I would expect from the creators of Life Is Strange. Combat, although clunky at time, and prone to irritating bouts of stun-lock, wasn't too bad and was clear a means to an end but not the focus. The single auto-save was a bit of a let down as it prevents experimentation. There were a lot of skills I couldn't even try because of this.

Overall, I enjoyed the game immensely. Doing all the side-quests as well as the main mission, and not skipping the very well voiced dialogue took about 30 hours. Now, in terms of value, you could definitely play through this twice, once not consuming and another going on a bloody rampage. Pricewise some may find it too pricey and they would recommend wait for a sale. To me a full price game returning 30 hours of enjoyable story and content was worth it. To each their own.

The Biggest Patch ever just ruined one of the most fun and diverse action RPGs on the market. Everything has been nerfed to oblivion. There is now so little choice on your heroes' builds it's become pointless. Hero powers now play like Diablo 3; level up, get automatic access to new skills, get higher levels, add a modifier to one of your skills, and that's it. Also, there's only one skill bar now so you have a fixed number of skills allowed per hero. Movement powers either have a replenishing number of charges or have a charge time to initiate. The overly complex Omega system was replaced by the Infinity system, which is basically Diablo 3's Paragon system. Instead of 4 categories in D3 you have 6 and you only have about a 1/10th of the Infinity points as you had Omega points. They decided to separate costume cores from costumes and make a new slot for cores (now called catalysts) which was unnecessary. Story missions are now so on rails they are boring. The revamped story chapters have zero interractivity with other players and no area events. Finally, attributes no longer give any damage bonuses, only defensive bonuses so increasing attributes like fighting/strength/energy doesn't give you any of the value like before.

Everything about the game is slower. Combat is slower, movement is slower, and the fun is pretty much gone. I got a 25% off G coupon prior to the patch that I was waiting to use to see how this new patch worked. I'm not using it nor will I ever buy another G pack for this game again. Thanks Gaz for dumbing down this great game for the consoles.

Ok. Do you like Dark Souls or similar games? Do you like metroidvanias? Do you like side-scrolling action-rpgs? If yes to any of these, do yourself a favor and buy this game.

This game plays like a 2d Dark Souls game right down to the creepy dark setting, the odd items, the completely skill based leveling and combat system, and the brutal difficulty. You will spend your time gathering salt (like souls) to level up, upgrade equipment, or transmute equipment into more powerful versions. While doing this you will defeat bosses, gain items to allow you to further explore the game world, and meet NPCs that may have requests for you. The only downside is I wish there was a map like in many other metroidvanias but I guess in keeping with the dark souls tribute, there is none.

Overall an addicting game and I highly recommend it.

Well I just finished the game and it was quite a ride. One of my biggest complaints about most zombie based games is that the stories are usually pretty weak, and a lot of this has to do to the necessity for co-op experiences. Dying Light has one of the best single player campaigns (although you can certainly play co-op) I have ever played and much of that is you become Kyle Crane, a GRE operative tasked with recovering a stolen file regarding the viral outbreak in Harran. The main missions guide you through quite a few individual missions, each one advancing the story. The story is quite good as you keep wanting to see more but you also have a plethora of side missions helping other survivors in many different ways. The mission design for both main and side missions is so varied that I don't think any really felt the same. And best yet, you really feel like you are helping the survivors when you complete these missions, as many of them sound like realistic requests during a fragile fight for survival.

The comparisons of a cross between Dead Island and Mirror's Edge is not far off. The parkour elements really shine in this game, and as you level up your agility you get access to more and more abilities that make you even better. It's quite a rush to run full flight jumping from rooftop to rooftop, executing quick climb and jump moves, and sliding under low hanging obstacles. The combat feels very much like Dead Island with a crafting system and modification system very similar. You must collect blueprints to expand your crafting and modification options; many become available as you spend survival points (which is mostly gained by completing missions or returning supply drops), or by finding blueprints in the world or by completing side missions or protection missions. Your combat ability is handled via power points, which are gained by hitting infected and killing them in a myriad of ways. Spending power points gives you access to different combat abilities like power swing, whirlwind with two-handed weapons, and death from above which impales an enemy when you are above them.

During daytime the game can be challenging as there are a lot of different special infected much like Dead Island. Come nighttime though, and all bets are off. The game becomes more of a stealth game as you try to avoid volatiles, the most powerful infected in the game. Early on you have no chance of killing one of these but as you reach higher levels and get access to better weapons with super modifications you can end up killing them in one power swing. The problem is, attacking a volatile or being seen by one immediately alerts every other volatile in the immediate vicinity. The speed that these volatiles close in on you and pummel you to death is astonishing. You may wonder why bother playing during the night as you can just sleep at any safehouse until the morning. Some missions require you to do them at night like the early one where you have to restore the full power grid at three substations. The other reason is all power and agility xp is doubled at night, which really makes a difference as I found agility to be lagging behind survivor and power xp. Also, the longer you survive at night the more bonus survivor points you will get once morning comes. I found I rarely ended up sleeping until morning, preferring to maneuver myself to specific locations by jumping between safehouses, trying to stay unnoticed by the volatiles but occasionally alerting them and booking it while throwing UV flares to slow the pursuit down.

Overall, this was a fantastic game that was so fun it was hard to put down. There are a few framerate issues where the FPS would drop to the single digits for 10-15 seconds until eventually clearing up. The graphics are gorgeous, the animations fluid, and the gameplay top-notch. The game works well with both keyboard/mouse and gamepad. I played with a gamepad mostly because 90% of the time you are fighting with melee weapons and I like the feel of the gamepad in that manner. If you like action/adventure games with good stories, a plethora of gameplay options, and the freedom to do what you want in the order you want, then I highly recommend this game. It's worth it at full price.