Recent reviews by Devil Harbinger

Code Vein 2.....doesn't feel like Code Vein. it feels like if Elden Ring was anime.
if you like the sound of that, go ahead, but if i wanted Elden Ring, I'd go play that.
I wanted a vampire centric story continuing from where 1 left off. I wanted wise cracking companions, blood veils, edgy goth aesthetic.
Code vein 2 does none of that. not only does it more or less ditch the setting and characters from 1 (yes its the same universe but there are no more 'lost' but 'horrors' and the concept of needing blood is basically forgotten. IN A GAME ABOUT VAMPIRES? HELLO??) it abandons its own identity to become something hollow by giving up what made it special and just doing what other games are doing. and its not even doing them well.
I'm not normally a 'whine about performance' person, but its no secret that games with a more stylized approach tend to use less gpu than stuff trying to look realistic. so why does Elden Ring run buttery smooth and this thing looks like mud with jittering every time I enter a new area?
remember bloodveils? those cool equipables that looked like rad coats? gone.
you cant even make your own build as leveling up is now just an arbitrary 'all stats go up by one' deal. you're supposed to use bloodcodes and equipables to raise certain stats higher than others now. who's bright idea was that?
I also cant tell what this game wants from me.
in code vein 1, you could block or dodge or parry. and this game SAYS you can do all of those, but none seem like a viable strategy? the parry window is ♥♥♥♥, your dodge isn't fast enough or cover enough ground to be useful and you can only block like one instance of damage before you stagger. your blocking is no longer tied to your weapon, but your 'defensive forma' and honestly the 4 I've tried all equally suck.
maybe it gets better or maybe I'm missing some crucial component but right now I'll say this;
If you wanted a second Code Vein, don't bother. everything you can get from this game, you can get from Elden Ring.
was super pumped when I first heard this game announced and now i just feel like I'd have felt better had 1 been the end. at least I wouldn't have the knowledge that THIS was their idea of a sequel.

Edit: before people decide they are clever and go; 'you say its bad but you're still sinking hours into it.' yeah because I paid $80 for it. its not the game that i wanted but i may as well get my money's worth.

Want to say that this is a thumbs down i will happily change if I see some real polish. there's a gem of an idea here, but its covered up by jank and poor decisions.
"Parrying is not optional. its the core of combat" that's what the steam page says about the game. so you'd think the parry mechanic is very thought out and well done. except its not. parrying feels like a gamble because the 'sweet spot' on the parry is so hard to read from enemy to enemy that i resorted to old soulslike tactics to dodge my way through fights because it was the most consistant. though notice I said 'most' as this games hitboxes are all over the place and i cant count the number of times i watched an enemy wind up for a big attack and prepared to block/dodge and the very act of them getting too close to my model sent me FLYING. the damage doesn't seem to be consistant either, unless enemies get crit bonuses our something. I've been hit by the same boss with the same attack and sometimes it barely hurts and sometimes its 60% of my health. I like the idea of the world and I want to explore it more and the combat feels good when it isn't punishing you needlessly with its unbearable brokeness. with some time and patches I'm sure it will be a well loved gem.
but right now its infuriating to experience and I have better, more polished Soulslikes that I could be playing.

Try to boot up game.
game says to disable steam input cause it recognizes my controller.
open game. game does NOT in fact recognize my controller.
disable steam input.
I can now navigate menus, but cant click anything with my controller.
Go to options. set my specific controller as the control scheme. hit 'apply'. nothing changes.
restart game with steam input still disabled despite the game still telling me NOT to do this.
game is finally playable with controller.
20 minutes in, get 'fatal error'.
when I'm actually playing it, Big Helmet Heroes is fun. but the games code being held together by toothpicks and dreams means i cant recommend it. not as it is now, anyway.

A genuinely good, open world, free to play game that doesn't force microtransactions down your throat? in the year of someone else's lord of 2025? its more likely than you think.
Also Wuxia.

TLDR: an excellent and imaginative 3rd person shooter/platformer. charming enough for kids and challenging enough for adults. though it still needs some polish.

there are two kinds of Jank in video games. there is charming Jank like facial animations that flap wildly and dont match voiceovers, finding ways to clip out of bounds, and physics deciding to take a holiday because its not getting paid enough.
and then there is Bad Jank, like levels not loading or music cutting out or cutscenes not triggering so you just sort of stand around awkwardly.
Unfortunately for Onirism, it contains a bit of both of these kinds of Jank.
now that likely sounds like the OPPOSITE of a recommendation, I hear you rightfully question. well hold your hobby horses, cowpoke, because this game is a gem.
I recall being a kid and playing Conkers Bad Fur Day on my friends N64 (I couldn't play it at my house because my parents didn't want me playing it for very obvious M rated reasons.) the crude humor was funny, I was like 10 after all. but it was mostly the combination of a 3d platformer and a 3rd person shooter that i loved. I remember wishing the game was more family friendly so i could play it at my house and not have my parents get mad.
Onirism is the game I had wished for.
Carol is a great protag who is on the whole a good person but also just generally uninterested in the huge conflict she's been pulled into and now finds herself a central combatant in. the dreamy quality of the setting means the world can have you driving a boat across icy waters as you attack enemy occupied oil rigs one moment and then before you know it you're blurring through the desert on a moving train having an old western style shoot out. the world feels connected enough to make at least some degree of sense but the dreamworld quality of the setting means the creators can play fast and loose with ideas and gimmicks, a factor that absolutely works to this games advantage. the game is fully voiced, though the performances vary, and more often than not the subtitles don't fully match the spoken dialogue.
I wouldn't consider them real criticisms, but It DOES bug me that Carols hair clips into a lot of her outfits, and I had to do some SERIOUS tweaking of the controls and sensitivity to get the game playable on game pad.
for anything negative i have said about this game, i still urge you give it a shot. its being updated and patched impressively regularly and getting better and smoother every day.

I want to start by saying i do not think this game is BAD per say. simply that I cant think of anyone I can honestly recommend it to.
I was a huge fan of the original Hollow Knight, and still am. it was a tough start, but the art, music and world were incredible. the fights were tough, but on the whole, fair.
Silksong does not feel what I would call fair.
How little damage you deal to enemies, the amount of damage enemies deal to you, these things do not feel balanced towards an early game experience. Silksong also doesn't seem to give you much in the way of direction. meaning I spent a lot of my time wandering into areas I wasn't meant to be, and promptly being overwhelmingly killed. This isn't a problem on its own. what compounds this is how few and fair between rest points are, meaning it actively de-incentivises exploring because dying means losing everything. There's also just a slew of tiny things like needing to decide whether you want to draw money to you, or have the ABILITY TO SEE YOURSELF ON THE MAP. and some trap placement which doesn't feel clever as much as it feels cruel.
I love this series' world and characters just as I did in the original. but considering how long this game was in the oven, I expected far better polish and balance. I may return if I see some balances changes in the patch notes, but right now the game seems to be actively punishing me for trying to play it. And I'm just not here for that experience.

Do you like Warriors games but think all those interesting playable characters and neat weapons just got in the way when you could play one bland pretty boy self insert? no? then do I have some bad news for you.
Origins takes everything interesting and bombastic and fun about warriors and boils it down to; 'what if a Soulslike but you are trying to duel a single guy in the middle of a mosh pit?' if that sounds fun to you, go ahead. I miss the characters and options and over the top story. this is romance of the three kingdoms but you're just some dude.
Pass.

I actually kind of feel like fool. in the current gaming landscape, I should have known better than to buy the deluxe version of a soulslike i hadnt even tried a demo of. but Wuchang looked so good I was SURE it couldn't fail.
i know i've BARELY clocked in any time, but Wuchang's performance is abysmal. if i can play Wukong at max settings, theres no reason this game should both LOOK like this and PLAY like this. died a few times due to frame drop. gonna wait for some performance patches. i encourage you to do the same.

Update: updated some stuff and lowered a few settings and it runs much smoother, but im still confused that I HAD to, as im over the recommended specs. still has weird frame drop sometimes and looks nowhere near as good as the gameplay videos, but its definitely playable now. still hope the devs make good on their word and roll out some optimization though.

Lies of P is an incredible game in every way.
its story and gameplay had me hooked right away. its the best put together soulslike that isnt just trying to copy dark souls. it tries new things, almost all of which work well and give a new experience. I didnt find the fights to be especially hard, but for those worried, the recent patch (at the time of my writing) added some difficulty settings. accessibility! love it! the story is interesting and dark and the aesthetic and environments feel like a nice fresh take on the dark fairy tale archetype without feeling grimdark or overly edgy. the weapons are awsome and unique and if that isnt enough for you, you can mix and match the blade and handle of most to create your own dream weapon! (or a bigass nightmare stick idk you do you) the game has multiple endings and a NG+ that has some story incentives why you should try it.
if i had ONE bad thing to say its that some of the English voice acting is a bit rough in the base game.(with the exception of one incredible and unhinged individual) it never gets cringe worthy, but there was more than once i went 'hmm that line could have been delivered better.' the DLC Overature seems to learn from this though and all the writing and line delivery improved greatly. Overature deserves its own review and I wont spoil it, but it takes everything from the base game and makes it even better.
all in all, Lies of P is a must if you like dark fairy tales, challenging but rewarding combat, and player freedom to approach fights your way.
Cannot begin to recommend highly enough.

Lords of the fallen really REALLY wants to be dark souls 2 and it just isnt.
its well put together if nothing else (I didn't experience crashing or any major bugs, but apparently I'm a rare case. )
once the Shiny newness of the umbral traversal mechanic wears off, the game just feels like dark souls on a budget. I couldn't bring myself to care about the story, if there even is one. the combat is sluggish and dull at best and randomly punishing and janky at worst. that probably makes it sound challenging, right? people only complain about the combat in soulslikes if its too hard for them, right? wrong. I found the fights far too easy, even the final boss of the route I chose was dull. I wont spoil you out of courtesy I guess but heres a warning: all the endings suck.
by the time I unlocked new game plus, I wondered why i would want to play that again and I think I just unistalled.
Lords of the Fallen is a decently put together budget soulslike that is largely forgettable in every way. its not BAD enough for me to say; 'dont play it its bad' but its not GOOD enough at anything for me to recommend anyone spend their time with it. buy on sale if you're really interested but I don't see myself picking this one back up.