Recent reviews by Maboi Laurence

People complain about Ready or Not being unfinished, yet they can't name a single Raven Shield/Swat 3-4 like game with a campaign and AI teammates that isn't from 2005 or older.

The fact this game exists and tried to be as faithful as possible to those gems is already a miracle.

Return of the King

This is one of those "I wish there was a middle button option" review.
So I liked the first game (have it on GOG) but thought it had too many flaws to stand next to the best boomer shooters I've played (Cultic, Ultrakill, Dusk etc...), its graphics were great, atmosphere and gunplay too, but it lacked in level design and storytelling.
While 2 improves on many of those aspects (combat and animations got a glow up, graphics are damn good, the soundtrack is great, and the new levels are set in the most popular Lovecraft settings, I really liked them aesthetically and probably the best looking Lovecraft dreamland representation next to Stygian Reign of the Old Ones), in falls short in the same areas that made me dislike the first game.

The writing is still subpar even by Boomer Shooter standards, the voicelines are as cringy and lackluster as they are in the first game and should have focused WAY more on the actual story and characters, instead you get a repetitive "this place hides unspeakable horrors/what is this place?/You need to face your past" over and over again, it's like they wanted the protagonist to be Darkest Dungeon's narrator but they completely missed the mark, no charisma or originality there, might as well remove them from the game, they are that useless.

The letters of lore aren't bad and much better than they were in the first game, but having them just as notes breaks the pace of an adrenalinic shooter, and they should have played a much bigger role in the game's storytelling (the fact their contents are never mentioned during the protagonists' monologues is beyond me, it was that easy).

The level design is by far what REALLY drags this game down in my opinion, and the reason I almost gave it a bad review, because it's all over the place: some levels are good and better than the first game, while others are worse than Gmod/Doom maps I used to make when I was 12, can't believe this game was in Early Access and not for a second did the devs think "ok, maybe this stage isn't really fun or engaging.

Rant apart, the game looks absolutely stunning and if you are into Lovecraft's books you will love the enemy aesthetic and animations, the arctic and ancient city look spectacular and I think the game is worth it even just for the artstyle.

The combat is better than the first game, and the upgrades are different but not necessarily better or worse, I personally prefer them but I know some will disagree. The guns feel somewhat balanced (with some obvious exceptions) and are fun to mix and match...the jump is a bit weird though, do not come in expecting to bunny hop and strafe around like in Quake, it feels much more static than that.

I guess for the price it's a good deal, but If could pick a score for this game it would be mostly positive, a step forward and one back from the first game.

Don't know about yall, but I got my Aquilas AND the soundtrack is worth this upgrade alone, it's criminal that this game didn't win any award with Jesper's work, it's arguably the best music I've listenend to in videogames in quite a while.

>Game runs like a crippled 70 year old man.
>Gets an update that makes it even more demanding.

Well played, Crytek.

I liked Call of Cthulhu Wasted Land's characters and theme a bit more, but this a decent game.
Quite pricey for what it is, considering how linear and short it is, but hey if you can grab it on a sale it isn't that bad at all.

Doesn't take almost 100 GBs as Payday 2, isn't as bad as Payday 3.

For 4 euros it's a win in my book.

I don't care how negative the community is, any company that releases a lot of free content with a DLC and doesn't split the community with DLC locked maps, and instead lets anyone join a lobby as long as the host owns it deserves my support in my book.

Find yourself a man who loves you like Sparrowson loves food.

Actually just get yourself a Sparrowson.

The DLC is mid at best, but Sir Vilhelm's voice actor, Steven Hartley (Eredin from The Witcher 3 and Petrus from Greedfall) is so damn good, stole the spotlight with four lines of dialogue, one of the most underrated characters in the entire series.

Oh, Friede's boss fight is cool too I guess, shame that's the only boss fight worth playing here.