Recent reviews by VoidNotNull

fantastic game, 10/10

very fun with friends, 9/10.

While the standard "canon" episodes aren't anything to write home about, the alternate routes are very creative and fun. Online is fun when playing with friends and just having a good time, ranked matchmaking is not fun and the only part of the game I would consider "bad". 6/10 solo, 8/10 with friends.

Not enough incest, too few cultists, if the entire game was written like the cultists are written I would have had significantly more fun.

I mean, c'mon, it's friggin Garry's Mod. THE game to play with the boys. 9/10

Yeah it's pretty good, Handsome Jack is the best part of the main story. 8/10

Let me start with what I liked: I really liked the beginning areas, Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula. Outside of the gargoyle goblins in dungeons, the enemies in these areas are fair and fun to go against. The encounters are designed to teach new players how to play and veteran players what's different. Margit is a fantastic first true boss, challenging but not unfair, he attacks quickly but follows a pattern, he can deal a lot of damage but has a lengthy windup time, as well most of his moves are parry-able.

Addendum, July 2024: The Seamless Co-op mod is also a wonderful addition to the game, being able to play with friends from start to finish makes the game a lot more enjoyable and brings build variety to the forefront even more.

Now for what I didn't like: The camera and lock-on are easily the worst they've ever been, trying to lock-onto huge or flying enemies just makes combat more difficult to maneuver than if you controlled the camera yourself. The mid and late game enemy design is reminiscent of Dark Souls 3 with the speed of attacks and length of combos, however most enemies have very little cooldown between combos and infinite spellcasting capabilities, and this is compounded with the fact that rolling has fewer i-frames than Dark Souls 3 making you far easier to hit near the end of a roll. Bosses are especially egregious, due to most having an absurd amount of poise, all while being able to break the poise of players wearing super-heavy armor while the player is attacking with a colossal weapon, in one or two hits. Enemies have i-frames while getting up from a critical attack, however the player doesn't get i-frames and cannot roll out of getting up from a strong attack anymore. Late game enemies deal an absurd amount of damage, killing in two hits or even one hit unless players dump points in vigor and have a significant amount of damage negation (40+ vigor and 25%+ damage negation). Overall the mid and late game combat just feel difficult for the sake of being arbitrarily hard, like if Elden Ring was made by somebody who had only seen and heard about Soulsborne difficulty and never played one themselves.

Finally, let me just say visually the game is fantastic, the world and environments are very pleasing and interesting, the effects are impressive, and the ambient noise and music are pleasing to listen to. However the game has an issue with caching shaders, meaning that there's constant lag spikes when entering different areas or fighting enemies you haven't encountered in a while.

If you enjoyed Dark Souls 2 and 3 and do not mind artificial difficulty, I do believe Elden Ring is worth trying out. However if you did not enjoy Dark Souls 2 and 3 or really do not like artificial difficulty like myself, I would recommend just looking into the world and story and not spending the time or money on it.

Although it has some of the typical MMO grievances, like arbitrary wait times and over-priced cosmetics. The artistic designs feel different from mainline TES titles yet like they could exist, the combat is active but not difficult, the classes and abilities are thematic and fun, and the story and dialogue are better than Oblivion and Skyrim but not amazing.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of MMOs, I found myself enjoying ESO, especially late at night when I can shut brain off and grind out quests. 7/10

Goofy, fun, doesn't take itself seriously, protag's dialogue isn't incel tier. 8/10

Honestly a really good recreation of the Pathfinder TTRPG systems on PC. 8/10