Recent reviews by Jane Raynor

Helldivers, standing down

First off, if you're reading this review, I'm really sorry. This is the first review I've ever written.
Secondly, if you're a 15 year Warriors fan like me, I have a singular piece of advice for you.

Don't go into this game expecting your usual Warriors experience.

Given its open world mechanic, the enemies and missions will be far more spread out than what anyone will be used to. While this will bring down the pace of the game, it will give you more time to enjoy what most people are saying did well, which is the environments. The day/night cycle, the weather, the ambience. All of it very well blended together.

Regarding the Return of the Clones: from what I've seen, the only part that is cloned is the weapon itself. I've played several people who have the same weapons and their movesets are almost completely different. It cuts down on the diversity of the playstyles, sure, but Koei made sure that if they're going to have multiple officers using the same weapon, they're going to make them feel different.

Speaking of weapon systems, I enjoy the reaction system. Being able to choose which special attack I want to do at my own pace gives me more control of how I engage the enemy soldiers and officers. It's a step away from the static combo system, but doesn't run into the spam fest of the Renbu system from 6, though I liked that too.

The only big issues I find is with the voice acting (Eng. version). Most of the voice actors got recycled and replaced between 8 and 9, which means we had a lot of new and unfamiliar voices. My issue with the acting comes not from the actors, but from the direction. There are some hard inconsistencies between how characters speak and to what version of names they're using. The biggest example comes from calling people the Cao family. Most people say it the way that we've been used to since 6 (Ts'ao), but there is one cutscene where Cao Xiu pronounces the name as it was before DW6. The other loud example comes from people talking about Xun You and Xun Yu. The actors are inconsistent on whether they pronounce the former Xun "Yoh" or Xun "ouh" and the latter having the problem of Xun "Yuu" or Xun "Uu". The actors themselves, in my opinion, are fine. Its the inconsistencies like these that really dragged away from the experience.

Overall, I'd give this version high praise for its systems and breakaway from typical gameplay. The thing I'm interested to see is what they're going to do for Empires. That extension has been my favorite since 6, and I'm curious if Koei will further put control of your nation into your hands.

If you're anxious to buy a 60$ game with overwhelmingly negative reviews, then I would say wait until it goes on a sale for 60-70% of its full price.