Recent reviews by Judgement Day

Love it. As a strategy fan, and a RPG fan this lightly scratches both itches for me.

My only complaint is that the maps aren't big enough. That's it. Have any specific questions, leave a comment

This is a reversal of my previous opinion of the game at 5hrs of playing.
Now that I'm deeper into it....
I do not recommend this.

Hell with the superficial reasons others have for negatively reviewing this, mine are solely based on the gameplay experience.

Firstly, the writing was decent at the start annnnnddd hit a wall soon as you get to your first main city. There you get contrived rehashing of older stories like the prince and the pauper as side content, while the main story just comes across as an attempt to be 'Game of Thrones' - except instead of boobs and dragons, you get fetch quests and kill wolves lol.
Like playing an MMO from the 2000s...

All the videos they showed high lighting vocations didn't show that you master them pretty quickly. That the combos for a lot of them are janky, with most of your attacks missing (and this is not unique to me, because the way some vocations are designed and some skills are designed, they will just lock you in place or send you flying in a direction that may or may not be close to your target. It can soft lock you onto something's position, but you can't adjust mid dash. So if they move, you don't and can't follow)
but back to mastering them quickly.
They do this so you try out every vocation. NOT BECAUSE YOU WANT TO, but because you soon realize that you NEED to play certain other vocations to collect their associated augments. That way you can mix and match them to, mostly, give yourself some QoL improvements OR make yourself a better dps/tank/support
Which for me takes away from the immersion of being say a fighter that advances to warrior, that then advances to mystic spearhand. Following a path of ADVANCING classes, rather than just jumping between.
Also there is no really cool way to get your ultimate skills. The fighter for example just hands you a scroll after a brief talking to...

Gameplay wise, you are forced to deal with the same enemies over and over and over and over again, until they feel like random encounters for oldschool JRPGs lol
No real variety. All big monsters, except the golem so far, are easy. Even the golem was once you were able to tickle the rune on the bottom of its foot.

Trying to get to places is a pain. "
The map is annoying to traverse.
Dragonplague


It's like they designed a game to entice gamers, only to TRAP them into a hate machine of their years of negative reviews or something. Like the devs HATE gamers and wanted to punish them. That is how this game feels to play for me. There is no heart, there is no soul - hell there isn't even a CHALLENGE!
So I'm done. My wife, she wants to TRY IT, so am going to let her, but after that this is being uninstalled and forgotten about.
Would refund it if I could.

tried to stay positive about this game but damn, it is soooo unready to even start early access. Don't bother here. Not for awhile.

This game is practically perfect. At least for my tastes.

If you enjoy turned based tactics, and being able to just hop on, play, and not worry about the grind -- this game will exceed expectations.

This is an initial impression - will update after I finish the game.

So far. I'm loving it. Combat feels a bit on the simplistic side, but not too much. Longish loading screens for a game made in 2023. Other than that, I like the story, the voice acting, and the overall feel.

TBH, this gives me more of what I wanted from a Sci-Fi rpg experience than say Starfield. That isn't even a knock. Just, I like a bit more FI in my Sci Fi is all.

Game looks thrown together by one guy who is just learning coding....
Awful BSOD-looking menus
Same name as last year, but no story for your MyCareer...
Character creation is like trying to polish up a turd

This isn't next gen, current gen, or last gen
THIS looks like it was designed for the Xbox 360

and who in the hell chose this "music"????

Don't bother with this even at half off, even if it's FREE
Just play older titles. Better graphics, more features.

It got boring

sad to say

Maybe after they add more to it in the next few years, but right now...just save your money.
Very empty game.

If you want a space adventure, Mass Effect or No Man's Sky. This? Ehh. The outpost system is bare bones, the story is meh, and no alien races really. So lot of the same generated NPCs

You enjoy it at first, the prospect of 1000 planets. Then you go to a lot of them and realize....there is literally nothing here. Maybe a rock to lazer...
OOH FUN!

leveling takes too long as well.

So much clutter everywhere as well, but...most is useless. In Fallout 4, you could at least turn most the clutter into resources. Not in this.

a very middling 5/10

Bethesda, stop using the creation engine, and ...give us games that enthrall us. You spent so much money and time on making the food in game look good, you could have added a couple alien races lol. Screw the Fermi Paradox

Okayyyyyyyyyyyy, let's talk about this DLC. We're not going to talk about the ridiculous price -- that's been covered by everyone else -- no, we are going to talk about the actual content within.
I just finished beating all 3 lord's campaigns on Very Hard, and I have thoughts I want to share.

Do any of you remember the vampire coast dlc? Which in my opinion was the last time CA actually made an effort with their quest battles. The campaign's final battle was good, fun, and I loved it. Ever since then...ugh, at best they are forgettable.
This DLC illustrates laziness...

Ostankya and the Changeling has the EXACT SAME final campaign battle; protect 3 casters so they complete a ritual, or kill the lord of the attacking army...
There is no real difference, and hell, as the changeling, you can even appear as Ostankya in it lol.
So there is that

Ostankya's campaign is boring, short, and there is nothing special about her or it.
Changeling campaign cannot be lost, so is very easy, but feels like a slog.
Yuan Bo is fun, units and lord, but his final battle is a snooze. You literally don't have to do anything. The AI reinforcements you have inside the city just kills the lizardmen army for you while you afk, grab a drink, use the bathroom.

They proclaimed there was a lot of work done on the back end for the changeling, his 'theater' system/mechanic....but as a former modder of this game, honestly? ...not much work goes into that theater mechanic. It's literally just objectives like raze Altdorf. The battles at the end of each were very easy as the enemy routes almost immediately for whatever reason, and there is just nothing new. We've had undercity like building chains for awhile. Them not going away on razing is something we got with Oxyotly or whatever that little skink's name is.

All in all, this DLC has some cool looking units. Yuan Bo has cool animations. BUT....that's it.

So, I don't recommend this as 'essential'
None of the units make or break their factions. This is not a Sisters of Avelorn kind of dlc

I don't finish many games. Because most games never hold my interest all the way through. One thing I will say about Firaxis, I finished Xcom, Xcom 2, and now this.

Nearly 100hrs in one playthrough because I wanted to get all the midnight sun abilities, all the friendships, and I still could have done more.
Excellent story telling, a fun, smooth gameplay loop. Abilities that were satisfying. Your heroes, straight from the off, felt like HEROES!!!

I have no complaints. Even the dlc was perfect as each addition fed into a completely separate story, all culminating and at the same time, connecting to the main story enough to not feel out of place.
All I can say negative about the game is I had a few crashes, the 2K launcher sucks, and there were a couple bugs but nothing game breaking. Most were fixed from what I saw.

This game nearly perfect, and I am by no means fanboying on it. Most games I don't review and if I do, usually negative. This I felt like I had to whole heartedly recommend. If you are worried about the strategy component don't. It's deep enough the hardcore vets will enjoy it, and forgiving enough that everyone else won't feel overwhelmed.
Buy it, try it, game is worth full price.

10/10 will definitely play it again

Might've had a rough start. Granted. But the vermintide games were great and I have faith in Fatshark to fix any an all problems, as well as support game for years to come.
If I am proven wrong by them, I will change this review, but I don't think I will be.