Recent reviews by Chokestomp

absurdly good game feel; areas and obstacles that feel insurmountable upon initial encounter relatively quickly become flowing and gratifying to navigate. very minimal jank that is often more endearing than frustrating. writing/sounds/aesthetics are fine. Doinkler dlc is very fun. I like rollerblade man more than monkeys in orbs, just needs the multiplayer minigames, that would rip.

There is a lot to like here for arpg fans. In terms of combat oomph/responsiveness, build diversity, interesting itemization, player choice as to what rewards they pursue; there is plenty of solid and genre-informed design. i.e. Relative to peers in the field, a nice intermediate balance has been struck between complexity/accessibility among many game systems.

However, the 1.0 designation is borderline fraudulent. The campaign remains jarringly unfinished, bugs that have existed for years continue to persist, end-game content has not matured nor deepened, and there is a tremendous gap in design quality/power level of character classes. (The newest classes are comparatively absurd and dominant on leaderboards, not just by virtue of more people playing the new specs.)

BUT ABOVE ALL, there is a deeply baffling chat filter that cannot be disabled. It extends to dm's. It censors entire messages, not just offending words. It censors words that are unequivocally fine for nine year olds to say to adults. I must reiterate: IT CANNOT BE DISABLED EVEN IN DM'S. Feels not just patently archaic in this age, but actively antithetical to their vaunted multiplayer/trading. It is not serving its supposed purpose of limiting hateful/damaging/violent speech. It is just damaging all speech.

It is such a shame that elements of this game besides the gameplay/features are so lackluster as to be blatantly and insultingly anti-consumer.

Delaying the microtransaction shop release as an attempt to avoid poor press/rating is bad enough; implementing the shop in such classic, predatory fashion is deplorable. (Item prices are intentionally offset from premium currency prices, Starbucks is being actively litigated against for this practice. It is demonstrably anti-consumer.)

As for players who intentionally disconnect: just give them a loss! There is not a technical issue, none has been stated or even vaguely alluded to. In fact, quite the opposite: it is absurd and disrespectful what deceptive, manipulative lip service has been generated by the developers/pr team:

"giving intentional pluggers a loss is not enough, we want to wipe them from the earth in a salvo of shimmering magma, if only it weren't for these darned international laws! we're still researching them though, its so complicated, we don't understand them. you want us to go to jail for our divine retribution? that's messed up man, you suck. oh also we had murray chained to a workstation for a week and he manually complied a list of players we're very mad at. we're so mad at them, we reset their ranks so they can make more new players miserable."

You should be concerned about this team and company's ability to manage this game. You should withhold your financial support for them until they prove capable of mustering an ounce of respect for their players.

Hello, I am art! Why am I art? Walk around for a while, you'll figure me out.

I love light! I use it to illustrate my dimensions. They're not useful dimensions, but they sure are visible sometimes.

I have puzzles!? I'm not sure, everything important is obscured. Puzzles are the most fun when they get rid of those boring rules. Instead, stumble blindly until you think you've discerned a pattern! (It's an ExPeRiEnCe !)

You didn't discern anything, though. You're stuck in the windows screensaver from 1995. I'm not art, I'm a maze born from your algorithm-driven nightmares. Except I was designed by a person?!

I make noises and have geometry, I am most definitely a game. All my noises and shapes are intentionally confusing, but that's what makes me soooooo clever.

Take some L and briefly glance at an Escher painting. Even if you remember literally nothing once you come down, you'll be far more fulfilled than you would have been after any amount of time with this steaming heap.

Id love to sign off on a recommendation for this game, but a clunky u.i. combined with a complete inability to report players/contact anyone in support in-game is immensely frustrating. Sincerely hope this trend of chat-less games ceases soon.

Any imaginary benefit you might believe excluding chat gives your game is severely out-weighed by how frustrating it is to have literally zero communication options in game. Early access is not a good enough excuse for major features being absent. Pass on this indefinitely.