Recent reviews by Awesomespace

Revised review
This game is a MASTERPIECE. Recent patches have substantially improved performance and stability on PC, meaning I can now actually boot into the game.

Elden Ring does not hold your hand, but you are never punished for wandering aimlessly. Exploring around for hours at a time is always welcome, and often encouraged to progress. As a newcomer to the Souls series, Elden Ring has had a steep learning curve, but a satisfying one; returning to a boss 30 hours later ready to kick its teeth in is a wonderful feeling which lets you get a palpable feeling of your growth in game.

The gameplay and controls take some getting used to on keyboard and mouse. While this game is definitely meant to be played with controller, K+M should still provide a comfortable experience for gamers without access to controllers (guilty!).

The music, graphics, and world as a whole are stunningly beautiful throughout the game. At the same time, the strength of your opponents is also highlighted during intense fights; you will feel fear when the music picks up into the boss' themes.

I have 30ish hours logged as of this review, and I have just recently beat the first main boss. I am taking my time, and enjoying every second in the Lands Between. Looking forward to beating the game eventually!


Original review[u/]
I will be brief for my initial review:

This game is a masterpiece, but it is not made for PC. The PC release of Elden Ring has been unplayable for me and many of my peers since launch. I continue to experience crashes on startup and -- on the rare occasion where the game actually boots -- I am met with SEVERE performance issues. I have a 3060 and a computer that does not bottleneck the card in any serious way.

This is an embarrassing port of what will likely be the game of the decade...

When FromSoft patches this masterpiece, I will be giving it a wonderful review. As is, though? Stick to the console release.

Before I start with the review, I'd like to make it clear that although I'm not the best player, I have been playing for nearly four years. The time does not show up on my steam profile because the game was originally a flash game, and my account is linked to that, not Steam.


Basic Info:

Realm of the Mad God (Rotmg for short) is a top-down pixelized roguelike rpg. A bit of a mouthful but I think that covers it. The main bulk of the gameplay comes from entering "realms" in order to fight the monsters within them alongside your fellow players. As you progress the monsters you encounter will become more difficult until you're fighting alongside the pros in the toughest areas and dungeons. Seperate to the realms, there are many elite groups who choose to split themselves from the rest and take on the toughest challenges in small parties. And other still choose to live a tradesmen's life and devote much of their time to buying and selling items (although trading in rotmg is usually so that combat is made easier for the marketer).


Combat and Gear:

Rotmg has 14 classes: each class has it's own ability and weapon types are split between class groups. Weapons and abilities are divided by tiers. Tier 0 is starter gear and Tier 13 is the best (tiered) equipment available. Seperate to the tiered items are UT (untiered) items which may be even stronger than some of the best gear OR may have unique aspects to it.

Combat is very reliant on what gear you have. If you have bad gear, you won't stand a chance against the strongest dungeons and monsters. All combat is done with left click (your primary weapon) and the spacebar (your class' ability).


Market:

Believe it or not, the trading system in this game (although primitive) is the base for a very sophisticated market. Prices are dynamic and based on what is high in demand, and almost everything is tradeable. There are dedicated "trading servers" where the bulk of the hubworld (the Nexus) is filled with people advertising their wares with speech bubbles. FOr most players, combat alone won't get you through to the late-game; you'll need a good share of trading ability to succeed.

Late Game:

Since this is a more general description of what you can find in Rotmg, I'll be skimming over some things like the dungeon system and guilds since they work exactly like you think they would.

After grinding monsters and slowly raising your stats, you'll be practically invincible. Invicible to everything except the strongest monsters. As a skilled character with maxed stats, you would be joining the most grueling dungeons in order to hunt loot so rare that it rivals the strength of the strongest tiered loot. The late game phase of Rotmg is considered by many to really be the beginning of the game, with everything else just being preperation. This may deter you from the game if you aren't patient (fair warning!).

The not so good stuff:

- This game is a roguelike, so upon death you will lose everything on the character you died with. All the stats you've put into it and all the gear it had will be gone. This is a huge turn off to the game if you are still unskilled and are prone to dying.

- Rotmg used to be owned by Kabam, who promptly turned it into a pay2win by putting the rarest items on sale (at a very high price) for premium currency (gold).

- Spambots are prevalent in the game and it can be difficult to shut them up unless you filter your chat. Otherwise, the chat function becomes moot.

- Rarer loot is very difficult to obtain due to low drop rates and relative difficulty to obtain in relation to character strength.

Final rating: 8/10

It's very difficult to compare this game to triple a titles and the like, but it is definitely one of the best games in it's genre. The gameplay is addicting and the risk of permadeath adds to the exhiliration. The co-op is tremendously fun and the difficulty will put your skills as a player to the test, but provide very worthwhile rewards.

hella