Recent reviews by Alt.ere

Jagex is cooking.

The Early Access version is very rough around the edges but gives great insight into what the future of this game will be. Given the immense content and lore that already exists within OSRS and RS3, Dragonwilds has an overwhelming library of content available to draw upon. It's core gameplay loop, enhanced with traditional Runescape skilling, is already a deeply rooted foundation that gives a lot of hope for what is to come.

1. The building mechanics in the beta are already better than most other survival games. It has the most varied basic tiles and better snap-locking than any other game in the genre, is almost unrestricted with build locations and introduces the brilliant 'Eye of Oculus' spell is that gives the player the ability to interact and view their build from a flying orb that can clips through structures (think Halo Forge). It's a feature that's more than welcome and enhances the experience by removing the need to build endless scaffolding.

2. The combat leaves more to be desired. Higher level enemies are easily countered for the most part but the damage they deal vs the damage you give can make encounters often so punishing it's worth avoiding them entirely. It prioritises the need to search for and craft better gear over the combat encounters themselves leading to a gameplay loop of avoiding most encounters until you can overpower your enemies.

Valheim nailed this gameplay loop by carefully crafting gear specific too, but not limited too, each biome. Runescape has taken inspiration from their biome progression loop but falls short on understanding why Valheim's is so engaging. That being said, Valheim has had years to reflect and build upon feedback to craft their world whilst Dragonwilds is only days out from it's early access release.

The loot tables need addressing and this is a major problem. Whilst this is a survival game and standard drops is understandable, this is also Runescape. Goblin and Garou packs need to be removed and replaced with an actual drop table of biome acceptable loot including equipment, arrows and rares etc. Runescape is known for it's extensive drop tables, it gives an incentive to actually hunt monters instead of just avoiding them most of the time. I'd hate to see this opportunity for an engaging gameplay loop of hunting for specific drops be wasted.

I want that moment of hunting chickes for feathers and flesh to randomly reward me with the extremely rare rubber chicken mainhand weapon. Give me a reason to want to hunt chickens across the meadows and then expand that to the other mobs and mob variants in the game.

3. The adventuring is a solid 8/10. It has the lush, beautiful environments with points of interest everywhere, landmarks in the distance yearning for your attention and resources scattered in such a way that exploring is both fun to do but also mandatory. I do feel that there are a lot of areas of varying difficulty to access that feel deeply unrewarding and this needs improvement.

The 'dungeons', or the Vaults are really simplistic and need a complete overhaul. I understand what the developers were aiming for but they feel small and rushed. The later area vaults had more interesting hurdles but were neither difficult or inspiring. I did enjoy finding lots of hidden areas or breakable walls but was sadly disappointed by literally nothing being behind almost every single one. This area definitely needs improvement but it's still an enjoyable enough experience overall.

*4. These are general comments on things in game or what I'd like to see introduced.

- Introduce a loot table for monsters, including equipment and rares.
- Introduce a rare loot table of fun things, exciting stuff, monster variant uniques and alternative weapons/crafting lines that are biome appropriate.
- More Runescape inspired quests, with the puzzles and awkward crafting lines we know and love. One Small Favour?
- I want clarification on what 'Abyssal Demon' variants those were and I'd love to see them introduced as slayer tasks.
- Please introduce slayer by sending Laniakea with slayer helm schematics into Ashenfall. The idea of hunting packs of monsters for the parts I need to upgrade my slayer helm sounds like a lot of fun in the 3D survival adventure format. I can safely suspect that Ashenfall is not too far from Anachronia, given the dragonkin inspiration for the story and that the east has already been explored through player-owned-ports. (I know we don't know when Dragonwilds is set cannonically between OSRS/RS3)
- Dr. Nabanik would be fascinated with this new continent wouldn't you agree?

Whilst I am giving this a 'Yes' recommendation, I should clarify that I recommend it in a way that I have full confidence in what Jagex are doing with this game and that in time this will definitely be a worthwhile experience. In it's beta, I would not recommend it unless you're a hardcore Runescape or survival game enjoyer.

I can already smell how good this is from the oven and I hope Jagex doesn't fall off from this breakthrough evolution of the Runescape universe.

Edit: Mutliplayer is Unplayable. Networking is awful, expect disconnects every single mission. You can play for hours and achieve nothing. You can carry a team for 15 minutes and be rewarded with nothing. Must be fixed.

Helldivers 2 is a well earned 4.5/5 stars for delivering one of the greatest multiplayer PVE experiences to date with an aesthetic distinct enough stand alongside other great franchises. With incredible potential and an extremely talented team of developers behind it, HD2 could stand the test of time and become majorly successful.

I would highly recommend this game to everyone of all player types and skill levels however there are two major hurdles that must be overcome to capitalise on it's potential and be worth the recommendation:

1. Networking quality.

How unfortunate for an online multiplayer game to have such dismal networking. It is not about frequency, but expectation to have disconnection issues between almost Every, Single, Mission. Whether it's yourself disconnecting 20m into a mission 10 seconds before the extraction carrying 24 Samples, 21 Rare Samples and all 6 Super Samples (Personal experience) or constantly watching as your fellow divers are replaced by other players more than the allocated reinforcements a squad has per mission. This problem has the opportunity to permanently kill the experience of players if left unaddressed and is already wearing my patience despite my high praises.

2. Sony.

How even more unfortunate to have an IP so successful be tied to a company that cares more for isolating themselves than the quality and reach of their product or at the very least the profits they could make from it. HD2 is overflowing with potential both content wise and revenue wise. Not only with crossovers but with frequent events, warbonds (battlepass) and more, only to be ball-and-chained to the incompetence of Sony bureaucrats.

Instead of launching the game on Xbox and making a killing on the inevitable sales they decide to alienate their players and deny themselves a major portion of the market that is salivating over experiencing a game like this. They're further denying the opportunity for crossovers and promotions with many of the other successful IP's over at Microsoft and giving room for Microsoft to create a competitor that, given the problems Sony manufactures themselves, may effortlessly overtake or even entirely replace HD2 as the preferred game.

The most recent development, the forced PSN account linking fiasco which is entirely unnecessary, has done more to hurt the revenues and potential of the game than it has brought to the game. It also further tarnished the poor reputation Sony desperately needs to recover. An ultimately terrible decision with nothing to gain and everything to lose.

Hopefully Sony can, if not acknowledge the potential Helldivers 2 has and support it in every way possible to grow, then at the very least consider the cost/benefit ratio that comes from managing this IP with the respect it deserves.

Helldivers 2 is an endless gold vein discovered by talented and experienced diggers, only to be handled by the most incompetent of fools who'd rather drop a 500kg payload on the site than collect the immeasurable amount of samples within. Where bottomless potential exists, they'd rather create a bottom as shallow as their souls.

Goodluck Arrowhead, the Helldivers of super earth will wholeheartedly support your efforts to bring liberty and democracy to the offices at Sony.

Edit: Sony reversed disastrous decision. Major Order Complete.

Thing's I expected: The scripted Narrator to politely insult me in new and exciting ways.

Thing's I did not expect: To become emotionally attached to a bucket.

Thing's you should expect: Time is a construct.

Perfect.

Big Bang. Big Boom. Lots of Punch. Lots of Kick. Fly. Fun.

Very nice

The most enjoyable way of brutally killing things