Recent reviews by Thebindle

Overrated gameplay that cant redeem the awful story and terrible humour. The most broken scaling of the series by far - i recommend not doing any side quests unless you absolutely have to, or its going to be brainlessly easy. Briefly entertaining in the sweet spot between scaling being broken-easy and massively inflated numbers meaning that very few weapons are worth using. Mayhem mode was a mistake, but at least i didn't have to play through the main story again so theres that.

Characters are a mixture of moronic and obnoxious, old characters have completely retconned stories/personalities. Drops plot twists that are either blindingly obvious cliches or incomprehensibly stupid.

Handsome Jack DLC was ok - seemed like a cheap attempt to cash in on Jack's popularity but it somewhat worked. Hammerlock DLC was pretty good for the most part, his area and characters were my favourite in the main game. Bounty of Blood came in hot with a ton of potential, a really interesting aesthetic and villain, and then fell completely flat. Shamefully under utilised villain and the rest of the characters were awful. Krieg DLC was the peak of Borderlands 3 by far. In a way im glad i happened to save it until last so i could at least finish on a positive note, but why couldnt the rest of the writing have been on this level? Arms race was a surprisingly kind of fun PvE extraction/battle royale style mode.

Acceptable as a coopslop game and for the RPG pull of levelling up your character - i feel exhausted with the series more than anything. Gave me a new appreciation for Pre-Sequel.

Expected a comfy game. Got an incredibly stressful game. Gradually became a comfy game with practice. Will make you rage at your friends.

A mile wide and an inch deep. Starbound is full of lots of ideas that never pan out, lots of 'stuff' that serves no real purpose, and just generally fails to live up to its potential. It tries so hard to be bigger and better than Terraria, that it didn't stop to make sure that the things it was doing, it was doing well.

Theres nothing offensively bad about Starbound, theres just nothing about it that makes it worth playing over other options. I wanted so much to like it, but incredibly disappointing overall, and a game i have no desire to ever revisit. Could probably be saved with mods, but i have limited interest in looking into that.

Brilliant action based survival horror game, that perfectly blends both elements together. Cool weapons, scary and grotesque atmosphere, good variety of enemies/bosses, RPG elements that give you progression throughout the game.

Recently went back and finished up the various bonus game modes. Akumu mode (instant death) could be gruelling and extremely frustrating at times, especially as its been some years since i first played, but overall was pretty fun and satisfying to complete. The DLC has Kurayami mode; this pitches you in complete darkness, in a more traditional atmospheric horror experience, with limited combat and minor puzzles. I have almost no memory of doing those DLC's before, but found it to be a really great and genuinely heart racing experience.

The main reason i have Total War: Empire is because it was in a Total War bundle. Every time i try and give this game another chance, i end up incredibly bored and frustrated.

Naval combat is slow, irritating, and unrewarding, and the best advice i can find seems to be 'just have double their ships and click auto resolve'. Army combat consists largely of marching rows of muskets at each other, and whoever has the most wins. I miss sword/spear walls, archers, and cavalry charges. Military upkeep costs can quickly overwhelm you even if you focus on your economy above all else.

The campaign map feels extremely slow while simultaneously rushing you to complete your objectives within a time limit. A bit of a mixed bag at the best of times for a series known more for its strategic battles, but feels particularly bad in Empire.

I really don't have the motivation to try and learn and improve, because i just dont see enough reward on the table. I don't think id lose much by turning most things to automatic, but then what would be the point. This game feels like its more for people who are interested in the historical period specifically, rather than fans of the Total War series.

Completely unhinged in the best possible way. Will feel very familiar if you've played the original Quake.

Starts out as a decent (if a little too obvious) Terraria clone, but grows into a brilliant game in its own right.

Settler management is one of the highlights - you can assign all your settlers to various tasks around the place such as farming, hunting, and taking care of your animals, making it feel more like an actual village rather than an NPC storehouse. You can also have them tag along with you on adventures - i'm not entirely sure about the pros and cons of this, but i love that you can.

Decent variety of weapons and armour, stifled only by progression being perhaps a little too fast at times - you can kind of ignore a lot of the gear, but at least theres options. Many sets of armour have interchangeable helms depending on what type of build youre using, making it easier to swap around.

The weakest part of Necesse is the mid/late game - i think some of the later biomes lack personality somewhat; you just kind of show up, clear the area out, do the boss and leave. There is far less focus on mining, and the games strength lies mostly in exploring existing caves/dungeons, and mining when you have to. The first few areas capture that joy of discovery and exploration, the later ones far less so. The bosses are still good it just feels like the biomes themselves could have had more to do.

End/post game content is surprisingly engaging, and really brought the game back for me. You are able to rematch scaled up versions of bosses (and some new ones) to farm new gear and scale up old gear. This gear can also be farmed somewhat easily (if you arent bothered about random parts) to catch up your villagers, which was a brilliant design choice to avoid monotonous/frustrating grind.

Great soundtrack and some really cool boss designs.

My biggest concern with Silksong was that after such a long wait, it had generated more hype and anticipation than it could possibly live up to - but i think Team Cherry delivered a brilliant sequel.

I will say i agree with much of the criticism i've seen - numerous minor annoyances and questionable design choices that come to a head around the mid point - but overall it is still a brilliant game, and really comes into its own towards the end. My advice is don't be afraid to take things slow and explore more often to make sure you have everything you might need.

I could sit here and nitpick problems i had with Silksong, or things Hollow Knight did better, but at the end of the day its still probably an easy 9/10 game. Overall i prefer Hollow Knight, but Silksong is still a very strong successor that even does some things better than the original.

Also shoutout to Christopher Larkin who once again delivered some absolute gems on the soundtrack!

Abiotic Factor combines what has quickly become one of my favourite genres - open world survival craft - with an experience reminiscent of one of my all time favourite games; Half-Life. Add to that exceptional map design, with metroidvania elements and shortcuts that loop back to your previous areas, and what you have is a near perfect experience.

Survival elements are strong enough to keep you on your toes and make dying inconvenient, but without being obnoxious. Hard mode difficulty felt good - completely manageable but tougher enemies were very much a real threat. Sandbox settings are available if you wish to make things easier or more difficult than the default settings, or just generally tweak things. Base building isnt the most in-depth, but benefits greatly from not having unnecessarily tedious grinding to build the most basic constructions.

Probably the least grindy game of this type i have played, and the most enjoyable to explore and simply exist in. One thing that really stood out to me is how much care the developers took to design certain areas of the game, that you would almost expect to be copypasted. It also stood out to me that puzzles/progression were highly intuitive, without holding your hand. Figuring things out was very satisfying, and is a balance games often struggle with.

Absolute breath of fresh air. Short but highly enjoyable and engaging co-op puzzle experience where communication is key. Mildly spooky atmosphere with some nice ambient music too.