Recent reviews by UserX

Presentation is brilliant. Banging music as well. What really lets the game down is the difficulty and how it's designed around memorisation. I like overcoming challenge in games from either skill or a better understanding of the game mechanics and systems. With this you've basically got stuff you have no chance in avoiding unless you've memorised from your last run that it's going to happen. I find that poor and not game design I enjoy. It might take you a while to appreciate what I'm explaining, but you'll soon realise that the lack of choreographed attacks and the timing you'll get to avoid them is nothing. They're basically just instant attacks. You could argue that shmups require routing to some degree, but this is to an extreme just to survive.

3 weapons this time. Lots of magic abilities to try. A little linear, far as exploration goes. No doubt a lot of DLC coming. Very difficult penultimate boss, way beyond any of the others. Biggest difficulty is non-skippable boss cutscene/intro every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time.

I have enjoyed many strategy and board games over many years. The Civ series was something I hadn't properly tried, despite rave reviews over the years and a large following. I am not a fan. There is a lot of nagging AI, that you cannot aut-skip, constant and unnecessary micro-management, and ridiculous pacing where you're doing nothing but 'end turn' for ages.

As far as the win conditions go, this means you are just building the same things in every city, brute forcing your chosen win condition rather than nuanced strategy. The gameplay is doing the exact thing you did 20 hours ago for the next 20, with AI characters taking over your full screen wherein they throw a stick on the ground in frustration at you playing the game. Boring, dull, repetitive.

A terrible or great game depending on who you're playing with. Enough to keep me coming back for more.

My controllers keep disconnecting, soft locking the game. Wired 360 and DS4. Avoid.

* This game is actually extremely fast compared to the other "realistic" shooters available.
* Player base and servers are still going, very easy to get a game whenever you want.
* It's constant action, usually one shot kill, and if that's your jam, you'll perhaps enjoy it... for as long as you're alive.
* The Vietnam war theme is terrific, as well as the audio design. Graphically its still a nice looking game.

Personal Gripes:
* I feel Rising Storm 1 and Red Orchestra 2 worked better (WW2-era, mostly bolt-action rifles): you had more chance of survival, you'd kill with finesse and precision, there was just artillery as a commander ability.
* In Rising Storm 2: Vietnam everyone's got an automatic weapon and the buildings and general cover are made out of cheese due to bullet penetration.
* On top of that: artillery, napalm, gunships, grenade launchers, *AND* napalm just turn it into a death simulator, especially when the cooldown on those abilities is lightning fast.
* Even when you're spraying an AK47, there's very little recoil.

Either way, it provides a very decent experience and is a well-made product.Just not my preferred gameplay, but fun for an hour here and there - depending on the map.

Really great game, since all the DLC updates, everything is a lot tighter. What if Castlevania and Dark Souls had a baby...?

Get yourself a TURBO BUTTON on your controller, and the negative criticism for this game goes away. Just hold it down for combat and enjoy.

Great music and presentation. Played it in a few settings. However, the backtracking elements which then become the endgame (true ending) - not fun - no map. Kind of a shame since it could have been a metroidvania-style game too.

There's been quite a few art projects delivered as games in recent years, however, Ori: atBF is one of the rare games where the music and art style are as good as the gameplay. 10/10.