Recent reviews by JavaWaka

HITMAN™ is the first Hitman game I have ever spent more than a few hours on, and it is an absolute blast. To someone new to the franchise, the latest game has been a great introduction to the series.

The sandbox gameplay is top notch, there are countless ways to kill your quarry in each mission, and each mission provides oppurtunities and hints on new and interesting ways to kill your target. The controls work well, both on keyboard and controller, and the world feels alive with many unique characters populating each world.

Beating each mission on the first try may only take an hour at most, but the replayability of each mission is top notch, as the game prods you to go back to each mission to try new ways to complete it, rewarding you with new starting options like weapons, starting points, and disguises to try new ways to complete the mission. Additionally Escalations and user-made Contracts change up each level giving you new targets and varying restrictions to help keep the game fresh.

The community seems split on the episodic nature of the game, but in my opinion, the Hitman gameplay seems perfect for the form. Each Episode stands on its own, giving you a seperate experience with an overarching plot given in cutscenes. Each episode gives you a great amount of content, you get the mission itself with many oppurtunities and challenges giving you many unique ways to complete the mission, you get several escalations each with 5 increasingly difficult restrictions, and you get access to all the fan-made contracts for the map. $10 an episode seems to be a fair price for the content, in my opinion.

The always online nature is an annoyance, and I have on two occasions had to reload my save in order to continue my game due to disconnects. However, the missions are playable offline, although offline progress has no effect on online progress.

As long as you have a stable internet connection, I fully recommend trying out the Intro Pack to anyone who is on the edge about this game. The first episode is the weakest, so if you enjoy it, you will likely enjoy the later episodes as well. The intro pack gives you two small training levels, complete with additional content, and a larger main level with all the bells and whistles.

Dark Souls is an amazing RPG. The game may be mind-numbingly difficult at times, but it is very fair in it's many inevitable deaths. With each death, you learn a bit more about your enemies, and about the game world. This is not a game that holds your hand, hell, in most cases you get barely any direction at all. But that is what makes this game a great RPG. If you can learn to love the difficulty and the lack of direction, what greets you is a game with amazing reflex based combat, and a character advancement system that keeps you pushing forward even when you are about to rage.
The PC port is not perfect at all, however with the work of modders, this game is completely playable, although a controller is almost a necessity.
Welcome to Dark Souls, Prepare to Die.