Recent reviews by 『8-9-3』

A blast from the past — this was the very first game I played on my freshly bought Dreamcast.

It’s easy and a bit clunky, but still quite enjoyable for the nostalgia. For me, it also brought some closure, since I had never fully finished it back in the day. Be sure to install the BetterSADX patch for a smoother experience.

Unironically enjoyed it more than the first game (both are good mind you). Having a real character instead of a mute dummy & some basic plot did wonders for my immersion, also enjoyed the biomes & flora/fauna a bit more (good thing there were no analogues of Reaper Leviathans this time though).

Wish they invested as much time & effort into this so I could play a proper game instead of about half of it.

That's an amazing game alright, especially during the initial hours. It falls off a bit toward the end, but overall, it was a very enjoyable experience.

If you've been putting off trying the game because you're afraid of deep water or big fish - don’t worry. I felt the same way at first, but just persevere and you’ll be reminded why humans are apex predators. The various upgrades take you from zero to hero in a way that feels both authentic and fitting for the setting.

Solid 8.5/10, I sure hope Subnautica 2 won't flop.

Probably the only relatively new PvP game that managed to captivate me, but oh well. Low EU playerbase = you can only play ranked from X to Y = get cucked by your time zone.

You're the baddie this time, and it actually feels good. In terms of difficulty, it's harder than Origins but still easier than Frontiers.

Both the tower system and the upgrade system were reworked — now you choose up to five towers from the entire pool, so you can adapt to any level. As for reinforcements, you can choose between an upgraded melee path or a ranged one. The global power felt much, much weaker this time — or maybe the previous iterations were just too strong. Now it's more about the stuns it provides than the damage.

Level designs generally felt more complex — most had at least two exits, and three wasn't uncommon. Complexity aside, I especially enjoyed the design of the final level in the regular campaign — that was a unique experience that has never been seen in previous iterations.

Both paid DLCs contain the following: 5 levels, 1 hero, and 1 tower. The Pirate King one is definitely worth it, I'd say. The other one is okay — mostly a nostalgia trip since it's all about Frontiers and its heroes, so maybe just wait for a discount.

+ Vaas;
+ His name is Buck, and he likes to ... give history lessons;
+ Lots of enjoyable Hollywoodesque moments with guns galore and big bangs;
+ The way the game portrayed Jason's character development - from an insecure white boy doing rich kid things with his friends, lacking control over his life, to a ruthless vengeful warrior who slowly descends into madness as the story progresses - was impressive;
+ Side quests. Really short but still enjoyable mini stories about all kinds of people and their troubles;

- Both ending choices felt kinda rushed, one of them was a huge let-down and also felt very forced;
- Who's Hoyt and where did Vaas go?;
- Insanely dumb AI left no room for challenge even on the hardest difficulty;
- Looting enemies was a pain because unless you find the right angle, you're going to switch weapons;
- Ridiculous fall damage. Anything taller than a regular jump? Time to fix that dislocated finger;
- Crafting system stops being useful as soon as you max your carrying capacity. Constantly gathering stuff to craft syringes is more trouble than it's worth. You can do everything in the game without them, you can also loot & buy medicine instead of wasting time on gathering the resources;

Additional '-' that's not game-related:
- Grindy achievements weren't engaging at all. Gathering 60 relics, for example, isn't hard, just tedious. Some relic locations could be interesting at least in terms of exploration, but nah, it's the same patterns over and over again. You also get something in return when you reach relic milestones, but after the 30th relic (because of another achievement) it's worthless.

Still a nice addition to the series. It also felt much easier than Frontiers, despite the introduction of Impossible difficulty — probably due to some heroes & upgrades being almost obnoxiously strong.

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Old but gold, nuff said.

Unfortunately, after 100%ing the game on Bloody Whiskers (not a flex, just that the difficulty affects combat AI too, so the run was as complete as possible), I have to select the 'not recommended' option, but let's start with positive aspects first.

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Strong points of the first game are still there - visual style, OSTs, and the great narration. Here are additional things I liked about the 2nd game in no particular order:
- Some combat visual cues were improved compared to the first game;

- Sprint feature makes exploration much, much easier. A crucial improvement in the game that uses backtracking a LOT;

- Lost & Found is another great improvement. It's a chest in Arlo's room that allows you to collect mobs' drop you forgot about/missed (since corpses disappear when you leave the area, along with said loot);

- The 2nd game almost fully focuses on itself, but I also liked the reintroductions of some characters & locations from the 1st game.

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And now it's time for the main part of the review - the cons, also in no particular order:
- The final plot twist felt very forced. The first game could be used as a build-up for that since it's related, instead you get the 'in your face' moment out of the blue;

- Fall damage is still very annoying, especially because there were a few parts of levels where it's either very hard or even impossible to not get damaged;

- The roll feature is still very inconsistent. It lacks properly established i-frame windows so any time you meet enemies with wacky hitboxes the fight turns into a streak of gambles. The most prominent example is 'any boss fight against a flying enemy that dives you or sweeps its tail';

- The battle mechanics are still very abusable. You can either find 'a cheat spot' and stay there to prevent bosses from doing particularly nasty attacks or stick to some of them for the same result;

- Gear part of the game feels like a big downgrade for several reasons. Firstly, you get 99% of your gear through craft now, compared to the first game where quite a lot of it was acquired through exploration. Secondly, the inventory lacks proper filter system, so when you amass a lot of gear, the only solution that comes to mind is 'sell everything & re-craft later when needed', otherwise it's a chore. Considering that the combat system is heavily tied to elements, that doesn't feel like an optimal solution since the game rewards you for build adjustments before every next major fight;

- Same goes for the kitchen requirements aka the 'boost your hp bar' feature. You had to collect ingredients for your meals, now you just buy most of them from a trader that stands next to that kitchen;

- A lot of bosses have stages that require you to chase them around the map. Feels appropriate at first, later also becomes a huge chore that's only somewhat saved by teleports & the fact that the world size at least feels smaller. The worst part is that repeatable versions of those bosses make you do the very same chase all over the map instead of making you fight them in the final location, bleh;

- Bloody Whiskers is still not balanced properly. When I played the first game, I imposed an additional challenge on myself - no armor run. Considering that pretty much 99% of enemies two shotted me because of that, that felt appropriate and rewarding in a way, since I had to grind fights until I could do them pretty much hitless as there was little to no room for any mistakes. Turned out that even being fully geared in the best armor possible resulted in the almost same experience. The 2nd game also has that issue, albeit to a little less extent. That doesn't feel right at all, especially because donning heavy armor slows you down noticeably;

- If I had to choose only one of the 'cons' to mention, I'd choose this one. The game generously provided enemies with the ability to apply status effects, so even the most basic mobs are able to do it. Those status effects are tied to elements (spiders can also throw webs at you), but in the end they all do the same thing - make you unable to move unless you spam Alt or get hit. Those effects get applied REALLY quickly, and the worst part is that enemies do that not only through hits, but they can also affect areas of the arena. Since the game is designed around dashing and rolling around a lot, where you have to do chip damage whenever there's a window, those areas limit that ability a lot, dragging the fights for much, much longer. Sure, there are antidotes, that are limited to '3 per type per fight' and last for just a few seconds. Sure, there's armor, but it's the same issue as the difficulty-related damage issue. Even when you're using the best armor, the status effects are applied too fast. It also doesn't help that the circle bar that shows when you'll get stunned is super small & hidden in the top left corner of the screen, making it pretty much impossible to check on it reliable because of the intensity of the fights. Some bosses have the ability to apply several status effects, too;

- Magic was one of the things I was really excited about and it turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments. The way it's introduced & acquired is pretty cool, but, well, it just sucks. There are four elements, two of them do initial damage & dot damage, two of them do damage & stun enemies that aren't resistant. The magic also gets upgraded through altars, but in the end the damage part is absolutely irrelevant, both because the damage is non-existent and because you only get one charge for each element that needs to be recharged in battle. Basically, it's just a 'free' gimmick akin to the consumables that doesn't really affect gameplay in any significant way. It's neither strong nor interesting;

- That's a minor one, but still deserves to be here - no more boss trophies in the Keep. That was a very rewarding feeling & added nicely to the aesthetics part, especially since the base is much smaller now compared to the first game;

- Another minor one - the game introduced a grappling hook that makes travelling easier. Feels similar to magic - an undercooked feature that's only applied in very specific game parts, making you do a scripted movement that's only available from particular spots. Some of those animations also make you wonder why the fall damage issue is still there.

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