Recent reviews by Robin Firedrake

So, right off the bat I should say: I haven't the foggiest idea what this game was like before it was changed to be offline. I have no idea about the developer's or publisher's actions. And I can't say one thing or another about buying in on an MMO and being given a singleplayer game. All I will be reviewing here is the game as it stands now, and... Yeah, if I'm being honest, I'm reviewing the fact that a live service game made the change to a single price offline singleplayer/co-op game at all.

In my time playing the game, I have gotten an itch scratched that I have wanted for a while. The experience of an MMO, but... All for me. Coming in after a lot of content has been added, with balance suitable for playing solo, but I can call in friends if I want it. Is that a common desire? Probably not. But if you've wanted an MMO solo for a while, here it is.

The combat feels quite nice, every character has their own abilities (And you aren't limited to just one. You can swap between the ones you own at will, even mid dungeon if you want.) and each unique weapon adds another. 'Echoes' can be slotted into gear almost like Materia out of Final Fantasy, and talent and affinity points add even more layers of 'Building this character into something weird and different', which is helped along by the fact that weapon classes aren't locked onto character classes. Want to give that holy paladin a shotgun? Turn up that Doom music and start ripping and tearing.

I'm willing to bet that the combat is much smoother now than originally. Almost every action MMO I have ever played has had noticeable delay between you doing something and the effect actually happening. That's absolutely not the case here.

Plus, for the price you pay, there's just... A lot of content. Open a chest? Could be crafting mats, sure. Could be a new weapon. Could be a new cosmetic item (given completely for free). Could even be a ceiling fan to spruce up your home, so you can play interior designer! It's a whole MMO, and it's right here, all for you and up-to-two friends at once, if desired.

This is simply a fun game. I enjoy it. It does something I've wanted for a long time, and if you're one of the oddballs that's like me, who's zen experience is found in making a fantasy man and beating the crap out of some demons, you'll like it too. Plus, as end of life for a 'live service' game goes? This is probably the absolute best change I have ever seen. Ross would be proud. If we're lucky, and this change brings the game a second life, the devs are already intending to continue adding more content. Who knows? Maybe our singleplayer MMO can keep getting updates. I sure hope so.

Here's the thing. This game is a lot of fun. It's high quality. The microtransactions aren't that bad. The only real gameplay complaint I can even have is that way too many things are heavily armored, and that means way too few weapons are useful because of it.

So why do I not recommend? nProtect. Kernel level anti-cheat shouldn't exist for any reason, much less for a PvE game. The fact that it eats up so much of your processing power is just the icing on the awful cake. No program like this should have access to my kernel.

Edit: And now they're requiring linking to PSN accounts when they hadn't clearly communicated that from the beginning. They've sold this game in many countries where you're not allowed to have a PSN account, and will be banned if you try and make one. Those players cannot play the game any longer. Even if you're like me though, and live in the US of A, you just don't want some random company with a horrible track record of protecting data demanding your data. Heck, maybe you just don't like being told to do something pointless. Either way, it's bad for everyone.


Sony reversed their decision. The rest of what I've said still stands, but truth be told, it's a game I can recommend to people again. The anti-cheat still sucks. The armor on enemies is still scuffed. But the game feels fun to play. The gunplay is (usually) a lot of fun. Almost everything being simulated leads to a lot of entertaining moments. The world feels almost 'alive'. Have at it.

Sony hasn't changed their EULA. If they try this again the review goes back negative. But you have to show positive actions have positive consequences too, or no one would ever try to change.

I'm doing my part.

More inspiration was taken from Dead Cells than Hades in all honesty.

The combat is top down action, yes. However, everything else is very different. The biggest thing for me is that the experience was designed around a caster, and it feels like it. I died very early in the palace early on, many times, when I tried to play like Hades and ram my face into enemies to destroy them as quickly as possible. I started getting further when I realized I needed to play like a caster, staying on the edge of fights, needling inwards with ranged spells and using tons of status effects to make sure opponents can't do anything to you.

All your abilities, including basic attacks, dashes, and all are in the form of cards that you can equip freely in one of four slots. Decide you don't want to dodge? Shove a bomb in that slot. Decide you don't want to do anything BUT dodge and use the damage effects from those to destroy your enemies? Fill every slot with blue cards. On top of that, every card has an active form for if you use it in a slot, but every card ALSO has an additional effect that applies if you attach it to an existing card. Got a card that gives you a spray of playing cards? Throw that on your big explosive burst. Now the burst causes homing cards to fly out of opponents it damages. You can freely change which cards you are using, and in what way, whenever you wish. You're not locked into abilities.

Much like Dead Cells, you take branching pathways that are all different. Also much like dead cells, you have to obtain most things in meta progression, which isn't really my favorite element of modern roguish games, but what can you do? As well, after each room you finish you get to equip a Trinket which are very similar to the Mutations from Dead Cells, including being capped at a certain amount and paying to swap them later if you wish. So far they seem to do some interesting things and I'm excited to see what else will be unlocked later.

The style of the game is very distinctive, and I am entirely biased towards this kind of thing. I've found the game very enjoyable overall, and I hope more people try it, rather than just immediately calling it a 'Hades Ripoff', which it most certainly isn't. At least try the demo and see for yourself!

The reviews that call this game roguelite borderlands are basically true, though there's a couple things that make it stand out from even that. One, the weapons are hand crafted. Each has a unique gimmick and thing that they do. But on top of that, they get borderlands style modifiers, some of which are hand crafted themselves! So it's the best of both worlds between procedural and not. Two, the way the numbers work out, it just feels more satisfying than most 'RPG' styled FPSes. And three, many FPS roguelikes don't feel like there's that much variation in the runs. In this one, I can say that each run feels very different, and the same character can be played multiple different ways. It's a whole lot of fun, and if you have friends, it's a great way to kill some time!

It's not often that I write a review for games. When I do, it's because something made me feel very intensely about them.

This game was simply amazing. Emotionally powerful, with a wonderful story, and no character unlikeable. I can't reveal much more without spoiling.

Know this though. You don't have to kill anyone. ANYONE.