Recent reviews by Squashlord

This is ending up as one my fave games. It's such a mishmash of genres and the premise is fun and a bit daft, and I genuinely *adore* it. I enjoyed Paradise Killer and this keeps that odd and sometimes adult humour, and gets me invested all over again.

WAIT FOR ME MATRIARCH, I WILL GET YOU YOUR 12 BILLION YEN I SWEAR

What a promising demo!
Like with plenty of the other reviews, it absolutely seems to draw a lot of inspiration for the setting and gameplay from Morrowind - which is a compliment in my eyes. I went for a melee character and the combat felt good, especially with extras like the greataxe having an aoe effect for strong attacks. I should try magic next time, since I only really used the odd magic slate/scroll.

Exploring with the combo of levitation and jumping potions, having to be a bit crafty with the enemy in the corrupted glade (and one other spot), and having the freedom to make some choices that will have (hopefully) lasting consequences? Sign me up.

When it came out I bounced off this game hard, and I tried it again a few years ago to the same fate.
This time I finished it, did every side mission, gig, and as many NCPD things as I could stand. And I'm glad I did, even though I'm 6 years late. But I don't think I'm alone in thinking that CDPR needed that extra time to bring out more of the game's potential.

Still had reservations about Johnny but I ended up really liking him. And tbh the rest of the cast and characters knocked it out of the park too! There's a lot that I'd have loved expanding on and there's stuff that's very obviously cut from the game but overall I've had a solid time with the game when immersing myself as much as possible in Night City.

Bear in mind that it uses Oblivion as the base, so you will experience a lot of crashing. But if you can withstand that, you get a solid RPG out of it. 4GB patch helps, and by now there's a lot of patches/fixes in Nehrim's files.

I've now played through Nehrim twice - once modding Oblivion via the files on Sureai's site, and once through Steam. Doing this second run I took a lot more time to immerse myself in the world as it was so worth it. While I was introduced to the world of Vyn by Enderal and there are a decent amount of changes, you can absolutely see the direction they were going and how vivid the concepts already were.
As for the skills and combat - combat is essentially Oblivion. Platforming is horrible when there's moving blocks to jump from. However the magic system, with ranks that you can unlock when levelling rather than just being beholden to skill level, is something I like. Conjuration is your friend in this for sure, with the skillbooks and creature runes you find all over. But I feel that suits a Shadowgod.

Just like with the other games in the series (Myar Aranath, Arktwend, Enderal) I would say give it a go. However I would say getting some knowledge of Arktwend is useful to get yourself more mileage - something I did before doing my 2nd run of Nehrim and it really paid off. If you're coming from Enderal, there's a mod for unretconned names! Very helpful in the long run :)

I love being a degenerate.
But on a proper note, it is actually a good little game. The art is really great, the soundtrack isn't in your face, and the characters are charming even with the awful things that happen. I love the dark humour, too.

It is a genuinely fun game. The most important thing for me was the movement, which feels smooth and freeing, and as someone familiar with the relatively floaty jumping physics of JSR and JSRF, it is satisfying to do tricks and grinds across the levels.
There are some QoL things that can be improved upon, such as the maps labelling more than just unsprayed walls and the shortcut post boxes maybe needing a slightly different texture to differentiate them, but on the whole I've been having a blast. I have nitpicks about the police cutscenes (rly don't need them after the first time you've had them in an area) but by now I've spent time just going around levels, messing around and seeing how far I can take my combo while chilling with the music - and that wouldn't happen if the way it played felt unresponsive or slow.

Found this to be a great addition to an already amazing game.
I will say that there are a couple of sections that can get frustrating (turning on reduced frights helped) - but these can all be solved by venturing further along with the DLC's plot.
Ultimately I definitely recommend this after you have played the base game or are close to finishing it. This gives a fantastic sense of mystery, some mind bending realisations, and offers something that's a little bittersweet.

Previously played the game by other means, but bought it as soon as it dropped here.
It's still brilliant. The atmosphere is hard to describe, with it being both triumphant in places, yet also very melancholy.

First and foremost an exploration game, the galaxy may be pretty small when compared to other open world games, but it is dense with puzzles and discoveries, with information and also tidbits that let you peek at what came before you and you fellow Hearthians. It can seem overwhelming to piece together every part of the mystery, but that's why the looping mechanic is actually really useful, and nothing relevant that you've uncovered is lost.
Unironically one of my favourite games. It's bittersweet and poignant when you don't expect it to be, and also a fun adventure with a good deal of heart-stopping moments.

Edit to now include the DLC: A fresh, gorgeous mystery. Absolutely loving this, but the base game definitely needs to be played through first to get some real understanding.

Genuinely fantastic and gave a lot of unexpected moments of true emotion.
I can't give a full review without spoiling so much of the game and the choices it gives you, but it's fair to say that no matter what stats you choose, you will get an interesting as hell playthrough.

TL;DR: A bit janky but a fantastic experience when using Restored Content mods.

I have never played a game where the ending was physically painful and frustrating for me.

That sounds like a terriblr opener, and it is, but I feel like I need to warn you that there is unfortunately a lot of content missing or cut, even with the Restored Content mod(s). I'm writing this straight after I've finished the game on my first go around. I love this game to death, love the characters and party members (Atton is my boy), and the dynamics between them all. I fell into the story right away and got taken for a huge, wild ride across planets and into the dark past of the Exile, and it was fantaastic.
If you already have played KOTOR then the combat, levelling system and all this is exactly the same, pretty much. If you haven't, then damn well play it before even touching this as there are a few things that hark back to it. And it's a damn good game.

That said, you will need to run it with some mods. Restored Content is a must - it doesn't make it perfect by any means but it will restre some unfinished quests and important parts of the game. I so wish Obsidian had the time and money to go back and fix things, but it's been so long. It's still a fantastic game. Challenging and surprising in parts, it's so good right from the start.