Recent reviews by Sumowning

Souls-like open world ARPG (diablo/POE-like) made by an independent studio called Moon Studios, makers of Ori and the Blind Forest. The art style of which can be seen back in this game as well with absolutely stunning visuals, amazing dynamic weather and day/night cycle, top-tier voice acting, cutscenes and cutscene transition.

Gameplay wise, this game stands out with it's absolutely astonishing amount of verticality. Some areas feature near 7-8 levels of explorable areas on top of eachother, found through hidden corridors, ladders, parkour challenges.

Furthermore, the fog of war (grey transparent fog) slowly creeps back over explored areas, this will respawn and redistribute loot, chests, and enemies across it. Meaning what starts off as a fort with Risen enemies, may be repopulated with enemies and loot of a different kind later, which scales off of your level and progression in the game.

In terms of combat, it plays very much like a Soulsborne game. Where it takes a step back from the usual press button to kill everything on screen, to the more methodical combat approach of souls games. Where each enemy has their own unique 'thing' that they do and that you need to be careful of, as the game can be as unforgiving as other Soulslikes if you're not careful enough.

End-game consists out of 2 main playable modes:

The crucible, which acts as Rogue-like game mode where you fight through areas of enemies to get to a boss, and killing those enemies grant resources for random buffs throughout the run.

Pestilence, increases enemy density and provides new unique end-game resources. After killing enough enemies, it culminates in fighting a boss.

Story-wise, it's still in early access and being further developed. But so far so good, and will update on official release.

TLDR; Fantastic game for fans of Soulslikes and ARPGs, a true hidden gem. 10/10
With COOP now having arrived, this game gets a well deserved 10/10!

https://www.warframe.com/download
https://store.steampowered.com/app/230410/Warframe/
See you soon, Tenno.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1172710/view/546739082808525243

Update 1.1.0.17: The carebear update, where they folded to a bunch of whiny PvE-only players and went back on their word to keep the End-game PvP area The Deep Desert: PvP. See the Funcom AMA on the 18th of June:
https://www.reddit.com/r/duneawakening/comments/1lehj35/official_dune_awakening_launch_ama_with_funcom/

Direct quote: "The Deep Desert will always stay a PvP free-for-all area, but we might consider adding other locations that offer factional warfare. "

On the 23rd of June only 5 days after the AMA, they folded by turning half of the Deep Desert to PvE, and giving people an even easier time by slowing down any thopter with weapons on them (rockets) by 20%, because instant-pocketing of a vehicle wasn't secure enough.

https://duneawakening.com/news/a-message-from-the-creative-director-on-pve-and-pvp/

And in good ol' Funcom fashion, on the June 26th they surprise dropped the garbage patch without warning despite saying it'll take two weeks on their Public Test Client first.

This is why you don't trust Funcom, and once all the streamers and mayflies leave Dune Awakening. There won't be a game left for anyone to enjoy.

If you like Roguelikes, if you like Soulslike then this game is just for you.
Is there room for improvement? Absolutely.

But regardless of that, I think this is a good start to build something with.

8.5/10

Don't.

Absolutely amazing game, comedic timing, difficulty, teamwork and democracy.
Would highly recommend if you like horde shooters and having a great time with friends.


Today, May 6th, 6AM GMT+2: We have officially defeated the PSN link!

Never have I seen a community this united, alongside Arrowhead we've saved our fellow Helldivers from all over the world. If you haven't played this game already, absolutely give it a shot, this sense of unification amongst gamers rivals that of DRG.

As part of our promise, let us change the reviews back to where it belongs as this game deserves the praise it gets!

Tonight, we dive back into Hell.

The combination of a citybuilder and resource management along with rogue-like elements, such as random perks, conditions, and even buildings. Emphasizing player choice so that no new city is build the same, and each plays a little differently than before, actions have consequences and the meta progression is smooth.

If you enjoy resource management games and roguelikes, this is it. 9/10

Great game, however it doesn't come without flaws.
The best features of this game are it's world and combat, and it emphasizes that a lot.
TLDR; Is it worth to buy? Yes, but be patient.

Combat:
Fluid, parrying and dodging are satisfying.
Could do with more weaponry options, and enemy AI can seem erratic, one time it can feel like a proper battle the other time it feels like they spam but one move, or keep dodging out of bound meaning they start resetting and slowly regaining HP

The world:
The world looks amazing, flying around the stunning landscape as a Raven just to go sightseeing is worthwhile

But at the same time, it feels.. Empty. There's plenty of camps, vegetation and whatnot.
It's that player interact-ability is really limited, you kind of just go to the village, do quest -> kill camps -> heal up -> kill boss-> repeat. Which isn't to say it's bad, because it's a lot of fun but having a massive beautiful open world to explore, give us ways to interact with it, more secret chests, parkour chests, resource gathering maybe to make into potions, or makeshift armour, or sell to get more gold.

And that's really Ravenbound, the current gameplay loop is fun, but the potential it can have should be used and I'm eagerly awaiting what the devs will do as they're very open and transparent about development.

Drop-kicking zombies off rooftops: The game.

10/10 would do again.

I had written an entire essay before on how much I disliked this game, how much they lied to us about the features promised to us.

Now here we are, almost 5 years from when I have written my review and I've gotta say that they earned my respect by sticking to the game and fixing it. NMS has become one of the best tales of redemption I have seen in the video game industry. They continue to update it to this day, adding more and more features whilst taking feedback from then community.

They deserve a 2nd chance, and it's very much worth it's money.