Recent reviews by 👌m8

TWEAKS - temporarily changes the final score

📝Basis of Scoring[docs.google.com]

Things to consider when thinking of getting Marvel’s Spider-man: Miles Morales:

• ⚡ It’s pretty much a DLC as it has half the amount of content as the original Marvel’s Spider-man. You could compare it by searching the HowLongToBeat pages of the two.
  
• ⚡ Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered vs Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales? The original has bigger story content while this one has more seamless free-roaming and combat. Other aspects would land on personal preference.
  
• ⚡ As regards to the game’s difficulty, don’t expect anything more challenging than the Arkham games. If challenge is what you’re after, this game ain’t it. The original game has more difficult challenges though. Seeing the word ‘Screwball’ still boils my blood to this day. 😁

STORY

• ⚡ The Plot may just be a generic story of a comic book superhero’s silver age. It has shallow character building since the hero just started his career, light plot twists because the writers don’t want to go all out on a new superhero story, and the usual high stakes that every famous superhero would face to make the whole arc worth witnessing. All in all, the game delivered these aspects fairly well for the character’s story.
  
  
• ⚡ There’s a good side and a bad side about how the game handled the story’s Length. The good thing is they don’t fill it with boring missions. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered was arguably bloated with main missions where your character plays as a civilian. The devs made sure you only get 1 main mission that almost does the same thing here (i.e. The Christmas party mission).
  
  On the other hand, the bad thing is we, or at least I, wished there was more to the story. Even though it has all of your usual plot points covered, other characters could have been fleshed out more. These two points served as an impression to me that the game is more of a DLC compared to the Remastered.

GAMEPLAY

• ⚡ Just like any open world Spider-man games, the main meat is Free-Roaming. This game manages to improve what’s already good from the Remastered. The web-swinging looks more fluid since Miles has several more animations than any other games of its franchise has ever shown (pre-2023) – plus the electric boosts he could do while mid-air. I just wish there were movement challenges that focus on his electric powers.
  
  
• ⚡ I like how even if the Combat’s controls are the same as the main game, they even bothered making it feel like we’re playing a different character. Miles’ normal attacks are much weaker than Peter’s and has less tools in his arsenal; thus, it becomes more efficient to use his electric powers in exchange when playing as him. The stealth ability feels gimmicky apparently, and it only becomes necessary for a few scenarios in the whole game.

AESTHETICS

• ⚡ The Graphics seem more polished compared to the main Spider-Man game. Their cut-scenes have slightly better cinematography, the details on the clothing look more realistic, and the lighting just feels more balanced overall. Additional eye-candy points for the gameplay animations as well.
  
  
• ⚡ I have nothing much to say about the Audio besides the 🔥 soundtracks and some small in-game features. I just love how this game’s series added a detail to make your characters sound like they’re slightly breathing heavily when talking to someone on a voice call and web-swinging at the same time. There are also some dialogues when you land on a point of interest anywhere where Miles says something about it. The voice cast behind Miles is a bit subjective since I prefer Miles’ voice casting in the Spider-Verse movies.

Thus, the verdict is an overall…

This is an easy 8 out of 10 if it weren't for the bugs. I may have experienced more bugs here compared to the Remastered, but despite that, I really enjoyed the game. If you're checking whether this will be your first Spider-man game, this one's a good idea to pick if you just want a quick glimpse. Free-roaming across the city alone took me as long as actually playing the main story before I uninstalled it for good.

As the age of outlaws and gunslingers is nearing its end, the Van der Linde gang is finding its way to live in the new era of the west. The loyal member, Arthur Morgan, begins taking on the hardships garnering enough needs for the gang to live in peace. You, as the player, will take on his role to lead his fate as the people around him reflect his past actions.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the first game that offers a glimpse of what immersive open world games could be in the new/current generation. If you ask me which open world game on Steam has quality AND quantity, RDR2 first comes to mind.


TWEAKS - temporarily changes the final score

Pre-tweak Score: 10/10 (9.58)
Final Review Score: 10/10 (9.50)
Basis of Scoring[docs.google.com]


It seems like the game is something Rockstar may never replicate - if not surpass. I may be wrong, but the way they handled its open world is quite straightforward yet feels like there's too much sweat and tears shed just to make the vast and wide world of Red Dead feel alive. Take note that this review pretty much focuses on the singleplayer campaign aspect.

STORY

• ⭐ There’s nothing new about the story’s Plot that we may consider record breaking imo. The execution alone is what makes it perfect. The game doesn’t seem to hold back too much on resources for them to make a blockbuster story. It even manages to have a completely different island just for one chapter despite how huge the main map is.
  
  
• ⭐ There are tons of Content in the story as to which I sunk around 80+ hours before I actually reach the credits. The game is like a 40+ min/ep TV series you would binge because it has a nice blend of cinematography with a long story split into different parts.
  
  
• ⭐ Each Missions are properly split per major plot point as the usual Rockstar open world games do except these sets of missions are organized by chapter which helps the player know when’s the time to fool around in the game and do side missions before proceeding to the main story. The side missions are something I wouldn’t guarantee skipping as it helps build up the development of the main character. I honestly think bounty hunting missions, gang honor missions, and only some ‘unique encounter’ missions are the only ones that feel optional.

GAMEPLAY

• ⭐ Some may back out on how RDR2’s Exploration works as most of the time, players will be riding on a horse. Even if fast travelling exists, we’re only allowed to do so in major towns, cities, or settlements which are generally far apart. What makes exploration fun is how common scripted events are. There’s so many unique encounters in this game that my fingers, toes, and eyelashes can’t count. I wouldn’t spoil all the them, but one memorable experience was when there was a horse pulling a wagon on the road, and as it approaches to my character’s side, there’s a corpse of a driver leaning his head downwards with arrows on his back which was a great introduction to an infamous gang in the late game. All in all, It comes down to personal preference rather than criticism.
  
  
• ⭐ The Controls are polished to a point that there are hardly any conflicting inputs that would let the character do a different action on a couple of nearby interactables. It may be counter-intuitive at first just like in old Assassin’s Creed games, but it’ll soon make sense where it begins to fit like a glove.
  
  
• ⭐ There’s hardly anything innovative about the Combat besides it being done so well. The flow of the fights was improved compared to the first game as close quarters combat has more fluidity and more executions.
  
  
• ⭐ I would have skipped the topic about Immersion if it weren’t for hunting and skinning animals for food and profit, doing home chores, gun cleaning, camping, cooking, bathing, eating, drinking, sleeping, hitchhiking, opening doors, opening two-sided doors, getting your hat shot by an enemy which flew away from your head and then being able to pick it up where it literally landed, perhaps also how a gun gets a different animation the longer you use it as the main character gets better at it, and maybe even how the main character has his own dialogue at a dog when he’s drunk… yet here we are.

AESTHETICS

• ⭐ There’s no mistaking how amazing the Graphics are, but it definitely shows its age of the Pre-PS5 era. What makes it jaw-dropping are the amount of scripted animations applied on everyone as it shows characters and NPCs acting as realistically as possible. I could even write a school report of an analysis of the horse’s details alone. It makes horses from other games look like an animatronic.
  
  
• ⭐ Rockstar did well with the Voice, Audio and Music. The voice actors/actresses perfectly portray their characters with emotions especially the main character. I like how the music only kicks in during horse riding or when a major plot point occurs. Each major scene has its own soundtrack which makes it memorable. Other than that, the audio quality is overall decent and nothing groundbreaking as it is common to most modern games.

Thus, the verdict is an overall…

Rockstar really hit every mark in this game for me, arguably their best singleplayer yet. If I could pay to experience the game for the first time without getting spoiled, I would. Gladly. If it’s on sale of course.

Now let me have my whiskey while listening to this song knowing that Red Dead Redemption 3 may never come:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh1gCHfYeQw

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a decent RPG at best since it only falls short on one of the few aspects that makes the CRPG genre recognizable: Good Storywriting. I recommend this game to those who played and enjoyed the first title. If you haven’t played Pillars of Eternity 1 yet, I suggest picking that up first if story continuity matters to you. If not, then I would probably recommend this to any RTwP and TBM players.


The game is quite a refreshing take on the RPG genre made by Obsidian Entertainment. It introduces stellar graphics while retaining the classic isometric atmosphere from old games like Baldur’s Gate along with gameplay mechanics that have been improved from Pillars of Eternity 1. Despite all of the things this game did right, there’s no mistaking that there are still issues with it whatsoever.

You’ll take the role of the Watcher where you set sail with the ship’s crew towards the Deadfire Archipelago to confront a destructive god that towers over any castles and fortresses. This chapter brings you to a long journey meeting new and familiar faces and making tough decisions - as it concludes to an ending that screams for another sequel. :^)

Unlike most modern RPGs that include character creation, PoE2’s story is a direct sequel to the first game with your PoE1 character. Some of the choices and traits you’ve made from PoE1 will be carried over to this game.

STORY

• The lack of PoE1 Context feels like it’s not meant to be played by those who have skipped or will skip the first game. It’s true that there are not that much significant effects from our previous decisions, but it’s the way how a lot of characters mention these past events from PoE1. It makes us think as if we've missed a lot due to its underwhelming "amnesia" dialogues.
  
  
• The Deadfire Archipelago, however, feels completely different from the first game’s setting, so expect a lot of new things that will expand on world building. Even though most of the DLC Stories lack relevance to the main story, it expands on the lore of the game’s world:
  
  
  • The Beast of Winter has an interesting plot, but it’s hardly relevant to the main story. It features witnessing the past events that occurred before PoE1. It’s a great questline for a more unique experience.
    
    
  • Seeker, Slayer, Survivor is basically an arena DLC with several unique items. It sort of fills up the lack of civilization on this game’s world, but it only does so little to the main story. The repetitiveness is what made this feel like the weakest DLC regardless on how “unique” the fights are.
    
    
  • The Forgotten Sanctum is something that any player should never miss when picking this game up. The start of it may feel out of place, but this DLC itself directly contributes to the main story which is quite rare in most RPGs these days. Expect a lot of reading... and book pile toppling.
  
  
• A part of what made the main story weak was due to it contradicting with Player Exploration. As you play through the main quest, you may feel conflicted as to whether should you continue or do other side quests. Most of these side quests are barely progressive to the main goal. Beneficial, sure, but given the early knowledge on the god's whereabouts, you could just keep on pursuing it. Thus, us players may end up not taking the main story's urgency seriously.

GAMEPLAY

• The game’s Combat Mechanics feel more fleshed out than its predecessor in terms of balance, but there are still abilities that favor more than the other as usual. That is only the case if we’re talking about RTwP. The Turn-based Mode mechanics, on the other hand, still have much more to improve when it comes to its design.
  
  
• The best part in my opinion is the Class System. There's a huge pool of possibilities for you to choose with classes having subclasses given that multi-classing was introduced in this game. It’s possible to make a character that is almost unkillable in solo. We could even be a mage slayer while ironically using a mage’s grimoire.
  
  
• The Companion System has its ups and downs. It contains a disposition system for each companion where they can change the way they think of you and your other comrades depending on your choice of actions/dialogues and your other companion’s responses.
  
  On the other hand, most of the companion quests end abruptly. Perhaps it’s because of the lack of depth each delivers while they’re mostly too short to even be acknowledged by the players. Nonetheless, they have a lot to say throughout the game, dialogue-wise.
  
  
• One thing that somewhat spices up the story is the Factions given how the main plot flows around these opposing groups. Each faction has its own ideology on taking over the region, but supporting either sides only gives conversation checks for very few dialogues. Only the epilogue would show an actual impact or outcome basing from your decisions, so the system has nothing much to offer other than faction-based shops and discounts.
  
  
• Lastly, the Quests are quite expansive regardless of the huge bulk of bounty hunting this game offers. There are quests that go from two or more dialogue conversations in two areas up to raiding a base with two or more different outcomes.

AESTHETICS

• During its release, this game had one of the best Graphics in all Isometric CRPGs. The well-executed details on each asset combined with the others really makes one sweet eye candy. Though, there are still glitches and optimization issues to consider.
  
  
• I would stay in the main menu and leave it there for awhile just to listen to the music. The Soundtracks may not be over-the-top, but it sets the right mood for this game.
  
  
• The fully Voiced Dialogues are mostly well delivered by the voice actors, but there are still notable NPCs that just doesn’t seem to perform very well. There are also some missing audio to some dialogues.

BUGS/GLITCHES

• It may be avoidable, but not following a certain flow or pattern could lead to a Broken Quest. It happens when the quest progresses in a way that the game wasn't programmed to handle. It was reported on around 2 or 3 quests so far.
  
  
• There are a few Visual Glitches that occur on the characters. Some will turn completely invisible and have their weapons seem like they’re floating around the character.
  
  
• I may have not experienced this given that I often only rely on quicksaves, but knowing that creating a named manual save could lead to a random Manual Save Deletion is a let down for some unlucky players. It seems this only occurs when you make a named manual save that is similar to an existing manual save, but that's just me assuming things.

Each deduction from a bug/glitch will reduce the overall rating with the maximum of -1.0.


So that'll be,

6 doubloons out of 10

Most Animals in Modern RPGs:
▫ [Player]: *clicks cat*
▫ [Cat]: *meow sound*
▫ *end dialogue*
Divinity: Original Sin 2:
▫ [Player with Pet Pal skill]: *clicks cat*
▫ [Narrator]: As you approach a stray cat, it looks up to you with its pupils thin as a needle...
▫ [Cat]: 'TIS A TERRIBLE DAY, INNIT?
▫ *shows dialogue options*

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has reached new heights of what it is to be expected on huge Indie Games. Made by Larian Studios, it was able to level with AAA games that it even surpasses the standards, regardless of its flaws.

You'll play as your own character in the story, and embark on a journey towards the world of Rivellon as you find the answer to the cause of the Void's awakening. You could also play as one of the six main characters with their own unique story if character creation is not your thing.

Also, quicksaving before doing anything else is a must. Talk to someone, quicksave first. Interacting an item, quicksave first. Opening a door, quicksave. After an autosave, quicksave.


The game is very similar to its previous title, Divinity: Original Sin (DOS1). There may be changes, but there's nothing too drastic as far as I've observed.

STORY

• DOS2 moved towards a more interesting Plot. While it still does have DOS1's lighthearted "HaHa"s, the studio was able to put the humor at the right spot. In a way, they're able to make a decently captivating tale for an RPG. What's so interesting about the plot's flow is that the game doesn't make you feel like you need to save the world because when you want to go somewhere, doing so will progress your main story. The linearity is barely present that I didn't even know which quest I should keep my focus on my first playthrough.
  
  
• It's quite unfortunate, for me at least, how the game treats the Party Interaction on the whole story as it progresses because it had less... interaction. Back in DOS1's party interaction, you're able to choose a dialogue for everyone. DOS2 removed that feature and only allows you to choose a dialogue for your main character only; however, in turn they added an Attitude system, so your party members and everyone else in the game have their own morals and beliefs. In the end, it sadly lowers the replayability.

GAMEPLAY

• On the matter of the game's Quest System, I become lost throughout my first playthrough. Given that most of your progress relates to the main story, a quest that I've ignored for an in-game day (since I'm focusing on a particular quest at that time) suddenly updates along with the quest I'm currently taking. There are some cases during an update to my current quest, a new quest opens up in my journal. In a long run, the quest log became flooded to a point that I don't know which quest would I continue.
  
  
• The turn-based Combat System is really great. Given how there's hundreds of skills and hardly countable ways of killing an enemy, the fact that good positioning actually gives an advantage, it's hard to get bored of it. Unlike many turn-based games, the Original Sin series shines on how your surroundings affect you and your enemy's strategy. The lit torch stand, the oil puddle poured near an explosive barrel, the sea shore, everything is interactive. In DOS2, the height advantage was a great addition.
  
  
• The game's Challenge is the one that sparks its replayability. It's not just how unfair some items/skills are, it's the moment when the AI actually knows how, where, and when to use the environment and situation to their advantage. Once you've come up with a different build, their playstyle changes. They are annoyingly smart that sometimes they're three turns ahead of you if you're not aware enough.
  
  Carelessly set a trap mine near an enemy, one of them will then teleport you on top of it. Enemies even face behind a wall just so your Rogue character can't backstab him/her. Although, there is a time when a hazardous area is too wide, the AI keeps on walking around the said area until they die instead of just standing still. It has its awful moments sadly.

AESTHETICS

• Comparing the two of the series, DOS2 was able to utilize more graphical features which made it far more detailed than DOS1. It shifted from a cartoony colorful vibe into a more realistic and bleak environment. Even so, the Graphics were decent at best.
  
  
• The Music score is an improvement from the previous title. Just comparing the two themes, you could say that they have more budget this time haha. It's interesting how you could select your character's instrument theme, so you could hear a particular instrument on certain occasions depending on what you chose for one of your characters. As much as how catchiness goes however, it's not as grand as what I always hear from Bioware and Bethesda games. For short, DOS2's music is ingenuinely good.
  
  Sample OST I personally liked:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MldTENh8cU
  
  
• For a game that lacks flashy CGI cinematics, they were able to compensate it with the expressive Voice Dialogues. You've gotta hand it to the voice actors and scriptwriters for making their characters and npcs feel alive. It's interesting how most of them have something to say inside and outside of the conversation.

FEATURES

• For a turn-based game, the Playability is good. Besides the 4 player multiplayer, there's couch co-op and controller support. The game is playable in any way but 3-4 splitscreen multiplayer, yet it's still rare to find such accessibility this time around in video games.
  
  
• Game Master Mode is a cool feature that you can't believe it's included on the standard game. Though, I'm not fond of Dungeons and Dragons, it really seems that's what it's trying to make out of this game mode. In my case, this is a casual DnD that includes the game's character abilities and such.
  
  
• Arena Mode is quite fun. Besides the fact that you could play online, there's an offline mode called Hot Seat where you and your fellow players play in one device.
  
  
• Lastly, I have a slight feeling that the Classic Edition was unnecessary since it removes a ton of new dialogues and enemy encounters along with the updated User Interface for controller users from the Definitive Edition. It just adds up more space on your hard drive.

(👍 = Good, 👌 = ok, 👎 = Bad)

DEDUCTIONS (Maximum of 1.0 per issue)
❌ Visual Bugs ( - 0.20 ) Invisible Particles e.g. Poison Cloud
❌ Gameplay Bugs ( - 0.05 ) Locked Inventory
NOTE: Can be fixed by reloading a save

~ You know what, pen & paper games aren't so boring after all.


Divinity: Original Sin 2 is obviously not for everyone to love. It's neither an Action RPG like Diablo that the majority wanted nor a hardcore RPG like Baldur's Gate. It's definitely not for those who hates reading a lot of texts as well. I would recommend this to anyone who, for once, has played and liked turn-based games because this one's the best of the genre as I'm writing this review.

Want a game that makes you feel immersed by its colorful and peaceful atmosphere? A game where you could explore the world to its unimaginable limits? Last but not least, a game that is immensely moddable? Well, this game is not for you!

Dishonored is an underdog game developed by Arkane Studios that brings you to a new universe filled with government corruption, discrimination towards the lower-middle class, and rat plague.

You'll be able to play as the disgraced lord protector, Corvo Attano, who seeks revenge towards those who... 'dishonored' him... -along with the Outsider's powers that apparently requires you a lot of mana potions for you to do some rad killstreaks. That unless you want a stealthy approach, then prepare to load your game every single moment the enemy spots you for ridiculous reasons.

If you have the DLCs, The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, you'd also be playing as the master assassin, Daud, who journeys through Dunwall discovering the mystery of a powerful Witch who deems to rule the city (and soon the world). His goal is to stop her evil plan to justify the guilt trip that he had after what he did.


The game is close enough to being a masterpiece if not because of the difficulty it lacks (there's a mod for that apparently), the strange bugs that haven't been fixed after 2-3 years, and the nerve wracking plot. However, it was still able to live up as one of the greatest games that came out as a first title to a new franchise. It gave us a fresh feeling to a new game by giving us a powerful yet stealthy assassin that has a mix of first-person combat and cheap parkour. It has some sort of semi-rpg aspects put into it since there are sub-quests scattered all around the area during your mission and there are choices you make that slightly affects the environment of the next mission and the game's ending.

THE PROS

As you dwell into the plot, you'd think that the whole story would be cliched. You are right. However, it won't be a linear one. The game gives you a choice or rather an opportunity that would affect the last chapter of the game. In fact, the main story is more dynamic than an Elder Scrolls game but less dynamic than a Fallout game. The books that you probably wouldn't read includes the game's lore of the city and outside of it and some journals that once you look at the corpse who wrote it, you'd feel bad for him/her. Seriously, those rotting couples who died while hugging each other and being surrounded by plague rats, and an enemy guard that has an infected friend who wanted to euthanize him; these started to hit me right in the feels after reading their last words written on a letter... It shows how cruel the plague has lead to the people of Dunwall.

In terms of gameplay, the developers were somehow able to make the game pass through that awful area that we call: repetitiveness. As mentioned a while ago, the game gives us varied ways to go through the objective. On each mission, there are sewers, open hallways, alleys, or hidden passage ways for you to decide whether you go rampage mode or go Thief style sneaking through every living obstacle. Even though the upgrades were only few, upgrading one skill already delivers an impact to the gameplay.

Other than that, the graphics are the ones that surprised me out of all the stuffs I've experienced in this game. The developers have learned that even mere textures and right lighting could make a visually compelling atmosphere without having high-poly models and applying the frame killing Ambient Occlusions. An eye trick as what it seems. What more if you add a graphic enhancer mod to it.

The audio gave a decent feel into the game's surroundings. The soundtracks were so emotional that it immersed me throughout my playthrough. They made a way to make the ambience feel lively even if the area wasn't crowded. Overall, it's decent.

THE CONS

Here's the part where it gets slightly bad. On the plot of the main story, the part where your 'allies' tell the things you do for the mission doesn't make sense for me since they themselves never tend to help you at all! Captain: "Corvo, kill this man in order to cripple the main boss! Now if you'll excuse me, the other loyalists and I will just stay here in the pub and intensify our tea-sipping as you kill 50 men on your way." The DLC story although fixed that by giving you the power to summon your allies and fight with you, but the main story of the game apparently never had such.

Going back to gameplay, there are cases in the game where it starts to glitch out such as when you have to bring an unconscious body to someone for a non-lethal approach of the mission. Once you go near to the person who told you the objective while bringing the body, it will go to a scene where the conversation starts and your character will drop the unconscious body which somehow lead to his/her death. Thus, your non-lethal objective failed. There are also some cases where you just wanted to hide the body, but as you gently drop them near a movable object, it's possible that when they hit the object, they'll die. It's one of those annoying things if you wanted to achieve something in the game.

Even though the UI settings was well implemented (though, you can't turn off the item selection UI whenever you bind them to your hotkeys), it's hard to say the same thing with the graphics options. Obviously, it lacks options.
- AA only has 3 options: Off, MLAA, and FXAA
- There are no Shadow options at all
- The Rat Shadows doesn't even work even if you toggle it On!
- Level of Detail options don't exist
You may ask why are all of these mentioned when they're practically unnecessary; it's because there's actually an option for that if you look into a/an .ini file! You can even change the density of the particles, turn up the textures that is beyond the in-game texture settings, and increase the intensity of Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering! Other than that, there are those very VERY low-res textures even if the textures were set on high. Even a 2000s game could beat this (that would be those Source engine games).

Lastly on the audio, the guard dialogues were repetitive that it ended up being funny whenever you hear them; the rest of the characters however were good as it's not overly exaggerated nor dead boring.




OVERALL: 8/10 - Great game for a new franchise
OVERALL (+DLCs): 8.9/10 - DLCs are the ones that spiced it up

Awful outdated graphics
Rushed animations
Horrible bland textures
Boring combat system
Tons of bugs
and Dead-boring NPCs!

I seriously don't understand why people still play this old hag of a game. If only they would realize how buggy this ga- .... wai- what? There are mods that enhance and fix all of that?.... How about those limited 2GB ram usa-... there's a fix for that too? Umm... well the main story is kind of very linear, I bet there's no mo-.... there is?... Well fighting against Alduin was pretty eas-... So there's actually a mod that gives him 5 different levels/stages that casts hundreds of meteors falling towards me that makes him nearly impossible to beat?

So what now, I'm guessing there'll be a mod that makes your character poop and pee? Get your male character pregnant? Listen to an auto-tuned Cave Bear? Fight a flying deformed Randy Savage?... Wha-... there actually are!? Great Scott... Modding saved this game.


In all seriousness, the game itself without having it covered with fancy mods was disappointing. Though in spite of the unrewarding quests however: Going through the dark void of the dungeon, fighting your way through, beating the boss, turning in your quest item..., and only get 100 Gold as a reward..., there are still some stuffs that make it very interesting like the Daedric quests for example. The consistent blue tint of atmosphere is reasonable for me to be honest (you're in the northern side of Tamriel, what other atmosphere would you expect?).

The models and textures are decent for its 2011 gen. Apparently, some of the normal maps are misplaced and there are some portions where the textures are stretched. There are even textures that give performance hits due to its lack of optimization. Now don't get me started with the animations... oh god, the dual wield and the one-handed weapon when held on the left hand...

Compared to the previous titles, this game lacks the role-playing aspects of a an actual RPG. It's more of a sandbox game where you would explore the whole area of Skyrim just right after escaping from Helgen at the beginning of the game. The main story wasn't well delivered due to the NPCs' dialogues making you feel like they're rushing you on saving the world. You would rather spend dozens of hours doing other quests, and then you'll come back to the main quest once you've got bored on the open-world. Unlike in TESIII: Morrowind, you'd need to level up and get better items for you to make the next main quest beatable. Also, exploring other places is a guaranteed death sentence to your character. The plot could have been better if only it wasn't too linear. There's only one or three quest/s where you could choose which side would you go, but other than that, the main plot goes on with the same ending.

It's sad that the developers just made a game that would only last 100 hours for me to enjoy and would make me leave it in the Library/Shelf for a long time rotting and waiting to be played again. Then, there's the modding community: the ones that made the game worth buying in the first place. The developers may have put their efforts into this game, but the modding community had it in ten-folds to think they're not even getting paid for their work. Though, that's not the case to all modders.

Overall, the game is okay, but it gets really good with mods installed. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for me doesn't have the story of its own; because we, the players, are the ones who write it. This game could have been better especially since the Skyrim region has the most interesting lore in Tamriel (in my opinion). I do recommend to buy it only when it goes on sale since it has been 3-4 years now from its release. Better wait for a new Elder Scrolls game!



Overall: 8.20/10 - Great enough, but not so great!
With Mods Overall: YourPC/10 - "Mod it until it crashes"


You must have at least 8GB of RAM in order to get the full experience of using mods in Skyrim with the help of Skyrim Memory Patch.

Make sure you download Mod Managers (NMM, MO, or Wrye Bash), LOOT (Load Order Organizing Tool), and Wrye Bash to prevent your game from glitching. Feel free to ask in the TESV: Skyrim Steam Discussions if ever you're having issues such as crashing and other bugs; people there are very nice and helpful!

The fact that you could mod this game where it can affect the main scripts/codes makes it so dangerous to even touch any scripted mods. STAY. AWAY. FROM MODS WITH HEAVY SCRIPTS... unless if you have NASA's computer/s then why not go ahead and use all script heavy mods as you like.

Anyway, the following are the popular mods to avoid if you have a low-med end CPU and RAM on your PC:
- Convenient Horses
- Footprints (not really, but if you have mods that populate the game, please do avoid)
- Wet & Cold (unless you de-activate the parts that makes it script-heavy, (preferably everything in it), then you'll do fine)
- Enhanced Blood Textures
- Realistic Needs and Diseases
- Frostfall
- Sands of Time
- Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2 (it increases the radius where the audio starts playing, meaning it loads a lot more sounds than usual)
- Immersive Lighting of NPC (Immersive Detection of NPC is fine. ILNPC however contains scripts on AIs)
- Warzones (more npcs, higher frequency of crashes)
- Interesting NPCs (this mod is really big. you'd notice that your game will start to launch much more slower than it used to before. other than that, you are prone to crashes)
- Any mods that populates your game (more NPCs, more scripts generating in your game)
- Any mods that modifies NPC's behaviour through scripting
- Any mods that runs/process throughout your whole game (e.g. Frostfall and RND)

Remember that you should only avoid those if you don't have a very powerful CPU and a high amount of RAM to handle these mods.

These performance friendly mods on the other hand will give a vast improvement to your game in terms of visual environment, atmosphere, and audio with a very minimum chance of crashing your game:
- Enhanced Lighting and FX
- ICBINE
- Imaginator
- Climates of Tamriel (or any other weather mods of your preference)
- Immersive Sounds - Compendium
- Lightning during Thunder Storms (make sure you download compatibility patch for CoTamriel if you have that also installed)

Fun but sadly a dead game.

This is actually quite similar to Left 4 Dead. It has hordes of fast running creatures, quite a wide variation of weapons and equipments, and the story starts off by a helicopter leaving you(!) just like in L4D2.

The graphics still matches with current-gen. Even Valve's Counter-Strike dev took some of the features for CS:GO. The level design of the map is quite linear as if it's only focusing on one way, but in terms of visuals, it's great. The mission is actually quite long but only separated in 5-7 levels. There are small Easter Eggs that can be found even on the very first part of the stage. Some characters have their unique personality, but others were quite dull.

This game is a gem that people even the company sadly abandoned and ignored. There are a LOT of campaigns out there on the internet that you can download. It's worth playing, but it just lacks content in my opinion.

Good game, but crappy community.