Recent reviews by Mijime Piero

Perish is an ugly and boring FPS, loosely based around Greek mythos.

Level design is poor past the first 3 levels and is a chore to get around. One level is a labyrinth that has the same layout each time but there's nothing compelling about this, it could be a template that shifts around but instead it's the same set of hallways which you either get to the end of and do a hoard or collect logs (from one spot) to make a pyre around a Snake which is just a waste of time. There is a mini boss which boils down to a slightly bigger enemy that teleports around you.
The levels are also in a set order such as Hades which means if you're banking your money every time you reach a high, you're not making much or any progress and forcing you to slog through.
The last few levels are a highlight but this isn't a game where you can say "yeah but it gets better" because the rest of the game still falls short.

In the levels there is a random objective but for most levels it's one of three things, by far the worst type is where you collect a thing such as a log or torch and that's now your weapon: a slow moving stick that you have to maneuver with around enemies. It could be engaging if the movement system wasn't bog standard but it's just a drag that stops you from killing enemies effectively. Other objectives are to collect components and survive an oncoming hoard which is expected from this kind of game.

Combat is standard to bad, melee is hack and slash with fun looking weapons locked behind challenges and secrets but there are guns in the game that enemies don't know how to react to, you can have a shotgun and they will run in a straight line to you running slower than you are so you can basically walk around them and not take damage while mowing them down. A pistol is the third weapon unlock, once you get this, the game might as well be over. It's not as good as the revolver from something like Overwatch as it's quite slow and has a delay after you've reloaded but it's a one shot on most enemies in it's non upgraded form. Upgrades as unlocked via challenges which are mostly 'get x number of kills'. The sniper has 'get x number of kills with one bullet' but they all follow that pattern. No damage buffs but they get a new function or attachment.

There's a card perk system which feels a bit tacked on, some are faster animations, more move speed etc, some are neat like throwing daggers may spawn spears that spawn from beneath the enemy or daggers may explode but there are some which are "Stare at enemy for chance of fatal poisoning" or "Chance to spawn puddle which may lead to a fatal fall" which are powerful but don't quite make sense or give a good visual effect that indicate it's the perk taking effect, just the enemy falling over which is comical yet sad.

Respawning in co-op is another area that leaves much to be desired. Respawning comes with a steep penalty of losing half your money which again, is expected in a Roguelike/lite but in co-op, if one person dies they then lose all of their perks and will continuously lose money upon each respawn. I had a run where we were onto the second act and at the boss, on one health point, the fall breaks and I immediately fall into the bosses flamethrower dying before I get a chance to react. Very unfair, my mate beats this boss and I'm now behind in movement speed and killing effectiveness and 2/3rds of my money was lost. The game isn't necessarily hard once you have a shotgun so we still won without fast reload, instant poison kills via looking in the general direction and dropping insta kill puddles but it was very frustrating. This punitive system feels overly harsh and can sour the multiplayer experience, which is a core reason of why we bought Perish.

Boss fights are lame. Big enemy that's slow. The design of the boss from the end of act one was ok, there was the boss at the end of act 3 which was a big crab and one which was a large stone wall with a bell. Overall, 4/10. It's so uninspired that I don't feel the need to talk about it, it feels like a non feature.

Cosmetically, the music is very short and on a loop, I began to notice it within the first hour and turned it off. Graphics are ugly, it's another game in Unreal Engine. I liked the Forge and port locations but I don't have any positives regarding the looks of the other levels. UI is lackluster. The main menu has video and audio in the same tab for some reason. The tips (As are many in these types of game) pointless.

The game in rogue lite mode took 3 hours to beat, we then we played the other mode which was horrendous, it's small sets of rooms (maybe templates?) that just throw enemies at you, there's an NPC that talks to you but we quit the game as this was so boring.

yeah



Game's well presented, it has respectable game length, enjoyable and disturbing narrative
I fully grabbed by it, go in blind.

Cool

Nice lil indie title in the same vein as Katana Zero but a beat em up. Love the music, pixel art for characters and backdrops are pretty good, story is serviceable and kept me in, fun combat and has a lot of move sets and then afterwards there's a rogue-lite mode to keep you.

I should've taken the hint from the art style and character design but this game is definitely not for me.
It looks neat in screenshots but in motion I can't say it feels satisfying to play, I choose Hard mode, completed the first day, chatted to the first side character and decided that I didn't really want to go any further. There's a lot of talking in 'that' kind of style that you can see in the social gameplay video which I thought would've been avoidable.
The basic combat loop doesn't have good feedback, the basic enemies didn't really react to being stuck and just ran away when triggered to low health and the first boss is a puzzle boss which was damage the environmental structures that you've already been doing for the last 5 minutes.
I'm not going to play through more to find out that the magic is the same while being limited.

If there was a middling option I'd pick that. The base game is fine but after completing, I don't feel the need to play the DLC.

World building is pretty good with world presence and design, walking around the towns, active and deserted paint a very good picture of what the place was like before you. The writing for characters can be a bit jarring at times with how quirky some characters can be, I think Phineas is the best written consistently, the only off putting thing is the vague similarity to Rick from Rick and Morty which is more so marketing from the game rather than the actual game. Companions are mostly fine, Parv, Max and Felix are actual characters, Ellie is a very mixed bag who has a very bad start appearance wise, robot companions are getting stale and S.A.M. isn't an exception. There's one more companion that I didn't get and only found out was a companion after looking it up and she also has a really weak start as I though she was just going to be a faction NPC.
Speaking of, Edgewater factions are really weak and I wasn't invested in either group, Sublight has an interesting leader character which I kept wanting to talk to, Groundbreaker leader didn't have much going on even though she is a key item to a companion quest, Monarch has the best factions, the board is just evil which like, one good scientist who gets what I experience, no mention past the quest she's in if you save her even though it's very important to the overall story.
The only thing that I feel breaks the mood somewhat is the excessive comedy, at points it's good with tone but then turns into millennial humour. It is better than the Bethesda Fallout entries and I always favour the blank silent protag,

I started on Hard but changed to easy very quickly once I realised there were weapon and enemy levels instead of just armour ratings and modded guns. Yes, armour has ratings and guns have mods it all comes with a leveling system which I hate, damage numbers are too much for this type of game, it started to feel like a looter shooter with no good loot.
I do like how skills make a return from New Vegas with individual skill levels and armour bonuses and now companion bonuses, makes it worth while to keep companions yapping even after their quests.
There are phobias that you can take for extra perks but most perks aren't really worth while apart from additional carry capacity and time dilation bonuses, if there rewards were interesting then it'd be worth thinking about more but honestly the perk system could've just not been in the game.

It didn't grip me the entire way though, Monarch is a very big world with a lot of enemies around every corner which became very tedious very quickly making the gameplay loop unsatisfying.

It's no New Vegas, not even close but it's a ok game which I feel no need to explore further and am not sure was worth my time.

A somewhat unsettling 20 minute experience.

An on-rails 2,5D sidescroller which wasn't much of a horror, hardly a puzzle game when its just box moving and pulling levers. Became very unengaged after she mentioned space time continuum and the dialogue past that point just made my eyes roll.
I liked the visuals, liked the music, ok voice actress, hated the story and felt like a bit of a time waste since most of it was moving boxes.
There are three secret codes that look like it gives you an extra campaign, I found one of them but if it's more of the same gameplay I'm fine with not seeing it. I wish I turned back when control asked me to.

Imagine having an anti-cheat that seeps into the game so far that even the modded client doesn't work for co-op.

The opening of the game is a lot better than Divinity Original Sin 2 however it falls so short so quick I genuinely can't believe that this is what the hype is about.


The combat is probably my biggest gripe. The 5e system is ass, it's too simple to the point of being mundane comparison to the Divinity system or Pathfinder 2e with it feeling like everything is very limiting. In terms of how it plays outside of that, the AI path-finding is awful for allies as they walk around ally spaces to waste actions even though if I baby them through it you can comfortably fit next to them and they're all so determined to walk into attack of opportunity. It also is extremely annoying when I'm sneaking attacking as a party, going into turn based mode and after the first hit is struck every single enemy has a higher initiative than the rest of my party. Pushing is an extremely useful bonus action as it can create space in between you and an enemy unless the game feels like your successful roll means ♥♥♥♥ all and just doesn't move them even though the blue lines says that they'll be sent flying.
They got rid of a few arrow types from Div2 which is a bit weird.
Scrolls don't feel as powerful.


I feel like choice isn't as open in this game as it seems and as it's a video game will always go to combat, my triggering example is the Hag encounter in the swamp, if you get to her boss arena and sneak the woman out of the cage without being noticed nothing happens. No cut scene, no dialogue, no way to get her out until you start the final combat with the hag. Why bother having the cage interact with you if you can't do anything before combat?

VAs, the performances are good but I hate the party members, just not as charming as the Div2 guys and gals
Graphics are good
UI feels slightly better than previous Larion games


Can't comment on the overall story as I didn't and won't finish but the world building through the map is very engaging and is the only reason I want to continue playing but I might as well just watch a playthrough as the experience is not enjoyable for me.
For reference I got past the first map, the underdark but got fed up at the shadow cursed lands, skipped to the mountain pass but lost motivation.

TL;DR - Divinity 2 set the bar too high.