6
Products
reviewed
0
Products
in account

Recent reviews by Julian The Hooligan

Showing 1-6 of 6 entries
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
73.3 hrs on record (48.8 hrs at review time)
I haven't been pushed this hard by a game in a long time. Came for the world of DFO, the game and I quickly forgot about the story, and stayed for the fantastic combat. Highly recommend because it's a blast to play.

You WILL learn the perfect block/dodge timings on the bosses or you just won't proceed.

Pros:
- Visually it's great. Twice now I've been distracted in a boss fight because they had a move that just looked really cool.
- Combat feels great. Only three weapons but each one feels distinct in the play styles they offer, with their respective skill trees adding impactful skills over the course of the game.
- Eventually armor sets start adding even more value in additional abilities to skills you have.
- I was genuinely surprised by the quality of some of the English voice acting (shout out to Tristan's voice actor).

Cons:
- I couldn't tell you what the OST for this game even sounds like, I legitimately have no clue. It's drowned out by the sfx and it feels more "ambiance" than anything.
- There's a fair deal of asset reuse around, but they got creative with it. You'll see some enemies re-skinned, some armor "detailing accessories" that have been moved around and reattached on different pieces. If you squint real hard at some of the level design you can see some assets cut in half and clipped into others to create different set pieces.
- The story is FIRMLY in the back seat here. All the named characters are there. They're voice acted. The story, however, feels more like a loose outline of the events.
Posted 31 March. Last edited 31 March.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
1 person found this review helpful
41.5 hrs on record (38.4 hrs at review time)
tldr; if you consider yourself a member of the HP fandom, play it. For everyone else, it's one of a select few big budget games that have come out in recent memory that doesn't feel like it was a "focus-group tested, executive 'okay'd', cash cow project to get a return to investors in the books.
---

Background: I have read the books. Mostly, because many of my friends did. I didn't enjoy them much, I also have not followed whatever drama has surrounded the game's release.

-PROS-

- First and foremost the game is gorgeous. Even turning the graphics down the spectacle of it all warrants a look.
- The moment to moment game play is legitimately just, fun.
- There are A LOT of puzzles. Some you will stumble into, some you will deliberately hunt for. None that made me throw up my hands in indignation. Many that made me feel the very slightest bit clever for solving.
- There is a lot to explore, which ties in well with how the game looks. There's legitimately a feeling of adventure at times.
- The combat is actually quite well done. Featuring the tried and true Attack/Block/Dodge of many open world action like-games. However, with a honestly surprising amount of care into a combo system that will let you really push the limits of your coordination.

CONS

A caveat to the excellent combo system:
- The battles themselves don't often lend themselves to the grandiose combos you're capable of unless you deliberately leave a few enemies near the end to toy with. Even so, they may die well into the combo reset itself.
- The controls for swapping "pages" of skills will also take some getting used to.

- For the life of me, I cannot determine why the flying controls are the way they are on controller. It isn't a deal breaker... However, every time I set off to fly it bothers me. The left analog controls your turning, forward and backward. The right analog controls ascent, descent, and turning the camera. Not turning your character mind you, just the camera.

General open world drawbacks:
- As open worlds do, it can get a little "tedious" as well as have a bit story pacing that lurches all at once and screeches to a halt. However, the world is so lovingly put together and it has such a satisfying feature-drip that you'll hardly remember the downtime between if you allow yourself to enjoy it.
- As open worlds do, gear and rarity why?
- Fitting a story around a character who can do anything, whenever, is difficult to pace. I'll call it a con but I was having so much fun I genuinely didn't care.
Posted 13 February, 2023.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
18.7 hrs on record
This game isn't perfect, but at the end of the day... There's something truly cathartic about turning what used to be a field of enemies into a burning hellscape as far as the virtual eye can see.

All with only a quatrain poem and a whim.
Posted 15 July, 2021. Last edited 15 July, 2021.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
2 people found this review funny
96.0 hrs on record (8.5 hrs at review time)
I found a "haunted" kusarigama weapon that after a while was basically like...

"Yo, f*ck these snakes".

I felt so validated. I just upgraded it for the rest of the game and never switched.

10/10
Posted 21 February, 2021.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
3 people found this review helpful
537.9 hrs on record (413.5 hrs at review time)
Pros:

The Secret World and subsequently, Secret World Legends is a one of a kind game. It truly shines in the unique map zones. Where each quest you complete tells you the story of that zone that is part of a greater narrative. They are voice acted, deep, sometimes complex, a little dense at times, but filled with character. There are quests I have remembered for years, that I will probably remember for many more.

For those that have never played it I 100% recommend stopping by and poking around the solo content because it can hold its own even without the community aspect.

Cons:

Thanks to Funcom's negligence the game is a shadow of its former self... At least in the sense of it being an mmorpg. Admittedly, it's got a bit of a slow start. Some of the writing in beginning feels cliche. The graphics are aged, and the combat may feel clunky at first.

Please note at time of writing, the game is effectively dead. Queuing for dungeons offers an abysmal wait time if you find a group at all. The faction-pvp is essentially nonexistent. Most of the hubs are barren.

TLDR;

So basically, if you've got a moment or some bored friends who are looking for something to play (especially for free). You could do a lot worse than SWL, and you may even end up being pleasantly surprised by what you find if you give it a solid try.
Posted 7 February, 2020. Last edited 30 September, 2023.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
20.7 hrs on record (7.5 hrs at review time)
Early Access Review
I picked up this game exclusively for the nostalgia of Falling Sand games. I assumed it would be at least "mildly" as therapeutic.

Noita, an evolution.

Spawn: Discover "strange fire-y sand".
Death: Sporadic explosion.
Lesson: Avoid strange fire-y sand.

Spawn: Discover new wand with ability I've never seen before!
Death: Spawned odd "Death-star" that ended in my violent death.
Lesson: Inspect the spells a wand has before randomly using it in battle.

Spawn: Progress several levels and developed a build that made me impervious to "most" enemies.
Death: Destroyed a mech at close range and the resulting oil explosion burned me alive.
Lesson: Pay attention to the environment during battle.

Spawn: Progress several more levels and create build resulting in a shield and immunity to "most" environment damage"
Death: Suffocated in water covered by an ice shelf because my homing bullets violently curved in the opposite direction.
Lesson: Nothing is sacred. I exist to die.

10/10, best existential crisis of my existence.



Posted 13 October, 2019.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
Showing 1-6 of 6 entries