Recent reviews by Amazo Yuuji

This is the only game my cat was interested in. Throughout our whole life together, she didn't pay attention to any other game, but with this game that was not the case. She was watching each random thing I was cooking and tossing around very intently, quite predatory also.

This is why it's a 10/10 game and my nominee for Innovative Gameplay award.

I Have No Sense and I Must Spend

DD2 has its good sides and on paper it's an ok game, but I'm gonna review it in the context of it being the second installment in the series and I'm gonna be biased towards the first one and compare heavily. I'm a big fan of DD, I've expected something in the spirit of DD from DD2, I got a little but it was almost featureless and I was disappointed. I would give it a neutral mark if I could for all that's great in it, but in general I believe it's a serious downgrade from the original DD.

First, the good stuff

Visual design - I don't like the transition from 2D to 3D and more realistic proportions of characters, but I feel like it's a thing of habit. And despite that uncanny feeling from characters moving in three dimensions, I gotta say that it looks awesome and you can see love poured in it. Drawing is immaculate and slick, while at the same time preserving the original style that left its mark (blacked out eyes included). Animations are top notch - there were almost no real animations in DD, as most of them were just static 2D sprites sewn together and moving to imitate breathing, and abilities were not animations but drawings. Here in DD2 idle animations are much more alive and all abilities are animated as well and they are quite complex and lengthy (Drummer enemy is my favourite). The wasteland all around you in driving sequences is ok, haven't got much look of it. Also I haven't seen most of the enemies roster but I have no doubt they have top quality visual design.

Audio design - music is good, it's haunting and pressuring, nothing of note for me personally but it aligns with what's happening on the screen. And Wayne June returns in all his glory - one of the reasons I will continue to play is that I want to hear more of his voice acting.

One other great thing - there's a very convenient 'academic view' in combat that lets you see all the details of specific enemy in combat - skills, stats, etc. In DD it was super simplistic, here it's more in-depth.

Alas, for me that's all with the good stuff

Combat is the same, it's ok
There are lots of abilities and rarely you find a skill that does damage only and doesn't have some utility. And there are some new cool and anticipated mechanics like burn damage or traps. But for quite some time you will be playing with the same stuff over and over again, because you don't get new heroes with randomly assigned abilities and you have to unlock new classes with in-game currency.

Next is everything from questionable to sad

First things first - the roster is 1/3 smaller now. And although that's an understandable decision, I'm in sorrow. Okay, I get it, Antiquarian was kinda useless 95% of the time. Abomination didn't fit in most of the compositions. Arbalest was just a sniper with little utility and Musketeer was Arbalest reskin. Crusader was an ok tank but there were better options (although removing Reynauld from the game is horrible on its own). BUT
THEY'VE REMOVED THE HOUNDMASTER REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
All others are included and there's one more character that seems good
I guess devs were working with balancing the roster around all the new mechanics and decided that aforementioned characters don't fit in and that's kinda ok but you expect more classes and playstyle diversity from the next installment (and honestly that's not something that can be done 'right' - even if you leave out the least played and useful character, someone will be sad cause they loved that class).

That aside, my two biggest gripes with the game are intertwined - atmosphere and gameplay progression.

The setting seems to become much darker, now not only Hamlet is in danger, but everything everywhere is ruined and the apocalypse is upon us. The game plays on feelings of dread and desperation, but I couldn't really feel it. Intros and story cutscenes are fast and chaotic and you don't really have time to understand what is going on and what are you doing - everything bad go do something. With all the tutorials for every little mechanic and different words for unfamiliar mechanics you quickly get overwhelmed and not only not understand any of the motivations - you don't really care for what's going on. I mean, why would you? Oh please go save the world - of course I will, bc if my party wipes I just collect the currency and start again with new upgrades. In the original if one of your characters died, you often wanted to follow them in that sweet embrace for everything is futile and darkness is closing in. Here character's death is just a minor inconvenience. Your actions don't feel impactful nor important neither meaningful. I didn't care for the plot and I didn't care for the characters. The only dread I feel now is from '7/96 candles spent on this upgrade' stuff. There is one good moment - in the inn, actions like sharing a drink and other bonding stuff. The vibe there is good but it's a very small part of a game and it's also quite undeveloped.

Then there's progression - instead of several different buildings with unique design, functions and requirements you now have a couple of screens with progress bars. Spend a thousand of candles on this hero and repeat a thousand times more. It feels much more shallow both gameplay wise and interface wise. When you ended the expedition in DD there was a moment of relief and also concentration - you went back to town, collected rewards, helped your characters preserve their sanity, managed the resources, applies new upgrades etc. Here the expedition end is 'ok which progress bar will I click on a couple of dozens time this time?' There is no emotional feedback, no attachment nor to process neither to personalities.

Before the release I was hyped for two things mostly - characters relationships and backstories, but with all the changes to atmosphere and progress I don't really care anymore.

To everyone's their own but I feel like DD2 is a downgrade in most departments. It feels like a demo for the first installment with several experimental and unfinished mechanics (and superb art design). In the first one you were on your toes all the time, there was misery, there was glory, there was the urge to overcome and persevere. Here you have to grind and spend.

Constant tutorials for every minor thing, more roguelike (in place of roguelite) vision, absence of dread of imminent loss, crumpled story, blank and expendable classes and dubious progress curve make me feel that Darkest Dungeon 2 is more of a Darkest Dungeon Mobile.
On its own DD2 is an ok experience and I can see many people enjoying it thoroughly and having a relaxing evening with an expedition or two. I certainly don't play Darkest Dungeon to relax, I play it to crunch bones, spill blood and cry tears of grief.

I will certainly play more and maybe I'll change my opinion, but I'm not holding my breath. As for updates and patches, the game is out for a year already in EGS, so I think none of the core design features will change.

In conclusion - DD2 is a MUCH simpler and shallower DD1. It is NOT bad per se, but it's disappointing and non-engaging for people who wanted something of a DD1, not the same, but something. If DD2 was a standalone game before DD1, I would just say 'whatever' and move on without saying it was a bad experience, or I might have even say it's good, just a bit simple. But I believe that the context of an art object is as important as the object itself in evaluating, and I feel that DD2 is a straight downgrade, so it's a negative review. Darkest Dungeon was monumental, Darkest Dungeon 2 will be forgotten.

Rant over, thanks for reading.

Update: I've played like 5 hours more, completing a couple of runs and defeating the first end boss. I've seen some good and some bad stuff and proved myself right and wrong in some positions. I've written my thoughts in the comments below as there's just too much rant text.

потом допишу

To me, Cyberpunk 2077 is like a box of chocolates. Manufacturer described in colors how tasty these chocolates are, mentioned the wide array of different flavors, promised that I'm sure to find some new favorite ones. The box looks splendid, it's all colorful and sparkly, and on the back side there are pictures of said chocolates and their flavors. As I look at them, I feel like I'm really looking forward to trying it.

And so I open a box and what do I see? All these chocolates are there, there are hell lot of them and they all look really tasty. So I try one flavor after another and, to be fair, the flavors are really distinct and I've found some new favorite ones. But there is a slight problem.

Someone has taken a bite of each chocolate. So when I take and eat it, I feel like it SHOULD be good, but something is missing... It doesn't feel fulfilling, I feel somewhat tricked. I mean, no one lied to me about flavors, the sheer quantity of them, originality of flavor combination and all that, but who the hell sells a used box of chocolates...

Oh, and sometimes your hand glitches through the box when you try to take a chocolate, but you can just buy a new high-spec hand from your local ripperdoc and you're good.

I want to love this game but it's not possible for me. I'm a picky gamer, but I wasn't hyped for the game at all, and I'm not disappointed. I'm just... sad. It shows you so much stuff that COULD be good, there is a lot of interesting content, but there's so much missing... UI, customization, driving, shooting, dialogues, V's persona (and different life paths), it feels like devs has taken some aspect of a game, developed it somewhat, then moved on to the next one without finishing the previous one. And after several cycles like that, they weren't really able to craft all these aspects into one coherent project. Bugs and glitches will be fixed and I'm not even bothered by them (some are even hilarious), but the game design won't be fixed I fear.

I have had some enjoyable experience with it, but I can't recommend an unfinished project to anyone.

Not joking, they should have delayed this game for another couple years.