Recent reviews by HavK

As someone who long regarded Divinity: Original Sin 2 their favorite game and the overall best game ever, it's no surprise that this game has now overtaken the throne on both points. But the way in which it does it is remarkable.

To me the combat and character progression are the biggest improvements over D:OS2. All classes I've tried so far have all been interesting (while it seems a bit front-loaded with the earlier levels being more interesting for some classes; this probably benefits multiclassing) and fun to play. My impression after a first play-through is that all classes seem to have been made to be fun to play, though perhaps sacrificing some of the extremes one can achieve in similar games (creating a walking meat-shield seems less possible here than in Pathfinder for instance).

And regarding fun to play, the combat is by far the most fun out of any CRPG I've ever played (and that includes DOS 1 & 2, Pillars 1 & 2, Pathfinder 1 & 2). Throwing things, throwing/pushing people, putting up long lasting AoE effects in choke-points, kiting enemies by abusing the environment layout and your spells/abilities, figuring out how to best handle all unique enemy types, etc; there is just so many fun tactics that either don't exist in other CRPGs or that just work much better here. And the feedback of doing things is.just.so.GOOD. Blasting enemies with Eldritch blasts from a Warlock or landing a chunky hit with a great-sword feels just incredible.

Honestly the quality of this game is just crazy. Next to all dialog is voice acted, almost all conversations have cinematic views with character animations. Just think about that for a second; what it does for the immersion. Insane. Furthermore, something that might not be as immediately obvious is the sheer variation of combat encounters. All other CRPGs I've played always run into a lot of boring, repetitive fights and usually turn into a bit of a slog at some point. This game has by far the most varied combat, with many enemy types with unique abilities that only appear in a few (or a single) encounter. And when it comes to the more common enemies, a lot of the fights are still unlike each other simply because of the layout of where the battle takes place; and the layout actually makes a big difference in this game due to things like AoE effects and high ground. Unfortunately, towards the end it does become less interesting because the game becomes too easy, so tactics don't really matter anymore. But for the majority of the game the fights were very fun, and they were fun for way longer than in other games.

Carrying on the strong points from D:OS 2, the graphics are absolutely gorgeous, and the soundtrack is beautiful. The interactivity of the world is incredible; only in Larian CRPGs will you have these moments of feeling like a genius trying out some crazy interaction and actually seeing it work, or getting mind-blown happening up some interaction you never would have expected to exist. Then there is also a lot of interesting loot to find; something that was kind of missing in D:OS 2.

Being a bit of a completionist on my first play-through, my save file clocked out at about 150 hours (disregarding reloads and the like). It's a big game. Yet, I'm gonna start a new play-through immediately; to try new classes, bring other companions, and make different choices. Not many games of this size can achieve such instant desired for replay.

Tl;dr: best game of all time, no contest

By the time of the completion of my first playthrough, I have 205 hours logged. While many of these have been in the character creator, there's no doubt that this is a long game. Despite this, I already have a craving to start another playthrough. To play with other companions, to play another class, to choose another mythic path, to make other choices. I find this incredible; I don't think I've ever played such a long game and directly after finishing it wanted to start anew. I think this, more than anything else, speaks to the greatness of this game; how 200 hours in a game revolving around a story is not enough to grow tired of it. This is without a doubt one of the best games I've ever played.

So many are probably gonna be familiar with Divinity: Original Sin 2 and wonder how this compares. In short, this feels like a rougher version with less quality of life, less intricate dialogue and a less complex world (for instance more repetetive dialogue from non important NPCs). The world and the story is also not as dark and serious which seems to matter a lot to some, though I personally have no issues with it. Also, less mods and only two player coop (if you don't use one of the few mods that exists which allows four player coop, but that still only allows 2 main characters that can speak to NPCs).

With all this said, I still think the game is fantastic and where I think it shines compared to the second game is in all things skill related. To me, leveling got pretty boring in DOS2 with attributes giving +5% damage essentially and skills doing a very similar job, with no choice of combat vs non combat abilities; you got both automatically. Also: no way to put points into crafting. Furthermore, the combat got very predictable where you would deal a lot of damge until the shields of the enemies were down, and then stunlock them. In DOS1 you instead always have a chance to CC an enemy (as do they to you) with the right type of spell, with the chance scaling with one of INT DEX and STR, and with the option of putting points into certain skills that make you more resistant to CC. I also very much enjoy the more dynamic action point system, where you can increase your starting, max and turn action points, for example by investing in attributes associated with that instead of putting all you points into INT, DEX or STR. Every attribute point feels impactful, ability points can be used to further your combat ability or to make you better at crafting, pickpocketing etc. Also, traps and elemental surfaces can actually pack a punch for a large part of the game which I felt that they didn't really do in DOS2. Also, the music is absolutely fantastic, possible greater than the music in DOS2.

So, to me DOS1 is basically like DOS2 but worse world and story and less quality of life, but with a more enjoyable rpg-progression (the leveling up part is much more exciting), with a more enjoyable combat system and with more interesting decisions to make when building your character, rather than just max a specific type of damage. It's a bit long considering the world and the story isn't as good as in DOS2 and the rpg-progression eventually gets old, but even if you don't finish the game you can still enjoy playing part of it for the gameplay.

Can feel a little clunky at times, and trying to play it like an action game where you take on multiple enemies in combat didn't feel very nice. But playing it primarily like a stealth game with the option for combat (to get out of a pinch) was really fun; using powers to find ways around guards was very satisfying and enjoyable. The story was alright and I enjoyed the way you learnt about the lore; finding books, audio recordings and "examining" places ans people. Overall, Dishonored excels if you try to play like an stealth assassin since this game makes you feel like a total badass doing so.

Honestly this is probably the best game I've ever played. It's not perfect, with some annoying components like items getting added to the quickslots automatically, among other things. But between the lovely music, sweet graphics, fun combat and exciting world it's great. The most important aspect however is the fact that you can do so much crazy stuff, where it's pretty damn close to only being limited by your imagination. The fact that I could kill an enemy several levels higher than me by coming up with a seemingly mad plan is just awesome. This along with the pleothora of skills and builds you can do, with a very dynamic quest system where you very much can screw the questline over by not following the objectives, makes the game very exciting and replayable.

A cool game with a pretty look, atmospheric music and sound, and a story that is thrilling and a bit creepy. Not the longest game and it has, as expected, rather simple gameplay, but if you like games where the story is the focus you should definitely check Oxenfree out. The characters all have their unique personalities, the conversations feel great and the story is, in my opinion, original and memorable.

This is a game that everybody should have; low price, tons of content, really fun and awesome developers that have added really much stuff for free after launch.

Haven't really had an interest in interactive stories before, but decided to give this a shot. Really glad I did; I loved "playing" through this story. While it's nice getting to make choices and affect the story, the true greatness is the humor constantly making me smile; I honestly don't think a game by itself has every made smile this much. This, combined with a really nice story, makes Tales from the Borderlands a worthwhile pickup even if you don't see much of a point in the interactive part.

Amazing game; not only interesting gameplay but also an emotional experience where you have to question what you're willing to do to survive.

Interesting story, fun gameplay, great visuals and beautiful music (definitely one of the best game soundtracks in existans). Really nothing to dislike here.