Recent reviews by Tenmak

A very enticing ARPG game with PvE and PvP !

Creating your castle feels good, bosses are tough and have a lot of cool and different mechanics, areas are well defined, mechanics such as sun / shade management is very well designed, and you can very much define your own build by relying on the combo from your weapons / skill sets.

Very, very, very fun to play with friend, I have yet to try this game on a PvP server (this is our next objective).

Several points to take into account to make sure you don't miss on this gem :
- The game you host comes with default settings, that you can alter at will. In our case, we were fine with the ressources grinding, but not with the ressources management (i.e. Teleporting with ressources is disabled, so you have to run back everytime you do a little hunt session. This is quite the hassle, especially considering we are not doing any PvP so there really isn't a point to keep this, so we enabled this.)

- The game has two cosmetic DLCs already available, and some are directly advertised from the game. These are clearly advertised to support the game, you can check their descriptions in Steam directly, and are in no way required to play the game fully.
I bought the 10€ DLC, which made my castle gorgeous, so I love it.

Take your time to setup things correctly, and you won't forget your experience with this game !

Overall a very decent game. The gameplay is quite addictive.

The unreal Engine 4 and the way the clips are played is really well made, and makes you part of the story all the time. It's neat !
The story overall is a bit weak. A lot of stuff is predictible, and when it's not, it's a simple / boring development.
On the characters side, at first looking at all the interactions was fun and nice, but you end-up getting bored of them. The characters constantly banter on their interpretations and thoughs of what is going on, and repeat themselves a lot. It's kind of unbearable at the end of the story to be honest.
On the combat part, it's pretty good, but there are some major flaws which makes the game quite dull in the end game. You just receive a ton of damage and end-up spamming the consumables to revive / spam CPs.
Still, I've played in the difficulty above "Normal" (challenging I think). It was a challenge and I ended up losing quite a few times, so it was nice as well.

Definetly recommend the game, but be aware of those flaws before buying it full price.

The very best Hack & Slash on the market and for the years to come.

The learning curve can be tough, and I also recommend people to play this game on hardcore as the game was designed for it primarily, and as people say you need to enjoy the ride and not only look at the end of the journey.
This game will punish you through mechanics that a new player cannot possibly overcome. Reflect damage bosses, Corpse explosion and many more, there are mechanics that you only learn when you die from them.
But that is no problem as this is infinitely replayable throughly with infinite possible builds. You choose what you want to be and that is extreme bliss. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it fails, that's the game. You have external tools to help you create and visualise a new build and try it out.

This game also works with leagues. Every 3 months you have a new specific content added to the game, and all previous leagues mechanics are merged into the game if it has received a good community feedback.

A few bad points that this game has :
- A good network is required. Lags and instances can sometimes crash / lag out. You can fix this by creating new instances manually but a new player won't know about this for a while and can be frustrating.
- This game is oriented for a long run. A lot of players whine about hardcore because the leveling part is long before the end game. Well pro players can reach the end game in 2h and 30 minutes. Git gud is what makes the difference. I'm far from that number and that's okay too.
- The game is weirdly zoomed in, and is quite fast paced. If you cannot manage to perceive a lot of simultaneous actions happening on your screen, you will get a bad time. This is what makes this game really hard in the end game.
- Colors and skills animations overlap a lot and it's tough to follow what is happening.
- Some QoL are missing over the leagues and it gets more and more painful. Item and stash management is a thing and you will need to look for external tools / macros / etc to be efficient.
- This game is a fake Free 2 play, in the sense that you will need to buy a few stash tabs to store items efficiently in order to appreciate the game and progress. It might not be required for a totally new player, but once you pass over the 20h mark, you will need them. To me a 20$ tag is hidden through this mechanism, but the game is way too good for this to bother me.

Apart from those points, the game is insane. Hop in !

Some delightful despair game.

PROS :
- Very good release while in Beta : the game is very complex and complete, with few bugs.
- Very stable and beautiful with a nice music (kinda repetitive but hey)
- Very challenging
- Insteresting gameplay, it's not the kind of RTS you usually meet.

CONS :
- IA pathfinding pretty retarded sometimes which is annoying in the long term.
- Some maps are literally unplayable because of the random generation, and sometimes with a bad ressources positioning or anything else it's already over.
- I fear a bit about the replayability, will some new content be added ? etc ? I don't imagine the outcome easily.

Very good and addictive game, and even more for those that like some challenge.

Have great despair =)

== HARDCORE PLAYER ONLY REVIEW ==

Amazing game, hands down the best hack and slash you can find on the market.

PROS :

- Amazing replayability with ability to do your own build, especially in hardcore, since there are a lot of factors to be aware of to make a stable build.
- The difficulty is here and real. Normal will be a way to discover your character and the build, with the factions, and everything there is. Elite will be the time when you learn about why resistances (8 different types !) are important. Ultimate will be for those who went further and will be willing to cry blood when their best character dies horribly by getting one-shot because of a bad positionning.
- Even though it is difficult, this is still really well balanced (maybe a bit less with the latest expansion, some re-work is needed for some classes)
- Tons of fun to hear your friends run away screaming because they are about to die.
- Want more challenges ? Additionnal dungeons when ennemies are always overleveled are here to punish you harder than you have ever imagined.
- 200h played, 5 different character. Never got to the end of the game with my friends. 10/10

CONS :

- A bit too grindy on the edges. Sometimes it's really bothersome to re-do the same quests even though you already have the reputation, and would prefer to go a bit faster to the interesting parts of the story.
- I wouldn't recommend playing alone, since it would become quite boring fast.
- I wouldn't recommend playing in softcore either since grinding to get equipment to grind to get equipment leads to nothing with no challenge (will be the same as Diablo 3, or all these games).
- Some classes and builds are worthless in hardcore (just a few, but still a shame for those specific builds).

PS : If you don't know about the expansions and DLC :

- The Crucible : An arena that becomes really helpful in hardcore if you find why (like really). Also fun if you wish to try some characters playing arena only. Worthless to play alone.
- The Ashes of Malmouth : Truly epic, the longest act of the game, and perhaps the very best. Extended builds and classes, it just shows how this game can shine even more and more.

This game seems to be good, and I really like the gameplay, but there is one mechanic that completly breaks the game, making it still possible, but it turns it into an endless dungeon-grind mode which is not fun at all.
Basically, in this game you can get items (with rarity) to equip onto your characters, but these items even though they grant some bonus stats, also gives debuff stats. On the principle it's good, but when the debuff stat is equal to a bonus stat (+40% something / -40% something really troublesome) on some legendary items, you just can't equip them.
I found some green items being more relevant than some legendaries, and hell no this is not correct.

Unless the devs change that, and I assume they won't because you know how people are, this game won't be worth your time. Sure it will be fun for a couple hours, but then the price makes it not worth it.

I hope some people read this and avoid the horrific experience of realizing you wasted your time.
Nuff said.

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- Is the game worth it ? : Yes, it looks good, and is enjoyable.
- Is the game laggy ? : Yes, during IA turns, and it's understandable since the IA must be hard processing a ton of code.
- Are the mechanics good ? : No, like all the Total Wars.
- Do the devs listen to the community and make changes accordingly ? : No they don't want to make their game better and get more money.
- Do they prefer releasing ♥♥♥♥♥♥ paying DLC that provide a basic feature game content such as Blood & Gore ? Yes

- Is there something that keeps me from running away from this game ? Yes : Mods that fix the game.

- Would I recommend this game ? Yes
- Would I recommend any other game from this company ? No, and I won't buy them for the reasons above.