Recent reviews by Duck Whitman

Final Score: 8/10

PROS
- The hub areas are a very nice mix between Origins and Inquisition. Loot is scattered enough and is a good balance between "off the beaten path" and "puzzle".
- Faction system is great. I originally thought that having weapon and armor upgrades locked between Lore EXP and Faction EXP would be horrible, but it paces the progression of the game nicely.
- HAIR PHYSICS. You will travel Thedas with a flowing mane. If not, then who even are you?
- All of the party members feel like real people with vastly distinct opinions and personalities. Taash is the stand-out, as her entire identity crisis character plot really impressed me.
- The Lore reveals that were seeded since Origins were really well done. I can see why a lot of people would feel disappointed in how things ultimately played out, but I found the way they connected the history of Thedas was wonderfully executed, as well as how they very clearly ended the "Solas Saga" of the Dragon Age franchise.
- RNG Loot - minus a few obvious static areas - is actually incredibly well done.
- Character Creator is f_king unbelievable.
- When the writing is good, it's GOOD. Act 3 is epic AF.
- Pacing between quests - especially party member quests - feels natural and not paint-by-numbers.
- Skill tree is excellent.
- The Tactical UI actually is really well done and the party members do actually matter.

CONS
- Sometimes, the GaAS/MMO first draft origins of this game come back to haunt us. This is most apparent during certain fetch quests, areas, and boss battles.
- Romance is here but it's very, very truncated.
- Too few party member skills to actually push using Tactical Mode more creatively.
- The writing in plot-centric group scenes is extremely ham-fisted and inorganic as compared to talking to party members as individuals.
- No real telegraphing between regular quests and Act Break quests.
- 90% of the Dragons are quest-based instead of environment based.

It is essentially an improvement over the first game in ever way. Every feature, every mechanic is just better. Whenever I go back to Zero Dawn, I always jump off Meridian and then press the button for my glider to pop out..... and it never does.

It never does.

This game is also effing beautiful.

Like. This is a very good game. A very good game.
It just gets what makes rougelite deckbuilders fun, and peppers that with A BOATLOAD OF AWESOME MONSTERS ALL WITH THEIR OWN ABILITIES.

Each battle is a puzzle, and that's what really sets this apart from the rest of the pack. It's all about party management and position management. There are also enough gameplay hooks to keep you wanting to progress, try new things, and explore. The game provides ample reinforcement for playing its multiple difficulty settings/plot hooks.

All of the Not Pokemon are cute, but some are cuter than others. You'll know which ones I'm talking about (okay, so I am partial to the Big Bois).

Must be careful, or else this free card game will get my hard-earned money. I will spend it on the Dinosaur Booster Pack, and then I will have all the dinosaurs.

+ Incredibly charming art and animation
+ Variety of trap, offense, and buildings cards
+ The music is on-point
+ The Penguin offensive unit card
+ LOTS OF DINOSAURS
+ Clear and fun progression system

- F2P but the MTX is super tempting
- Confusing mechanics at first

Do not go into this expecting short 10 minute games. One game could *easily* last 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how clever you or your opponent are. I've seen (and pulled off) some really insane combos that dynamically and drastically change the board up to three times a match.

This is Unstable Unicorns in Tower Defense form.

A very, very good tower defense game that fully embraces its puzzle roots.
The cartoony graphics and wonderfully corny one-liners mask how deceptively hard this game can get at times. There are some elvels which I can only describe as "F You" levels. Still, once you learn a certain levels pattern, you can figure out the puzzle pieces pretty quickly. This is not to say that you can be lazy, however; battlefield management is key. You have to constantly be keeping an eye out for WHERE the dinosaurs ARE and HOW MANY HITS any certain weapon would take to kill them. Things get ultra spicy because the more you build, the less room Coconut Trees (weapon currency) have to grow.

The only downside is that certain level paths require certain weapons, which can be confusing and difficult when combined with the levels that lock in specific weapons.

Where the hell is the sequel?

Here's the thing: this should be GOTY (and it will win, unfortunately).... except that it has three major issues: major CPU chugging in Act 3, bugs, and a lack of handing holding when it comes to the more esoteric quests. Figuring out your own solution is one thing, not having ANY kind of hints as to your options is another entirely.

As for the bugs, they range from merely quality-of-life frustrating (party members only show up in camp when you camp in certain areas) to completely game-breaking in Act 3. It seems that the majority of the bigger bugs are isolated to the third act, which makes the fact that they exist all the more annoying. Watch as defenders come out of the woodwork, who normally would cry foul for a buggy final product.

Act 3's bugs are mostly dialogue-based, which makes completing romance, certain endgame plot points, and entire questlines that started way back in Act 1 entirely unfinishable. As an example, I finished a party members quest and got a powerful new ally, but wanted to "perfect" it, so I loaded up an earlier save. Not only was I unable to talk to said party member(s), who had visuals indicating new dialogue options, but they also acted like I had ALREADY gone down those dialogue paths. So, somehow, even though I reverted to an earlier save, the game APPARENTLY WAS ACTING like I had already done the thing, which, technically, I had, but IN THE FUTURE.

That is some BS coding right there.

It gets worse, as the further I went in Act 3, the less the game seemed to remember. Choices I had made earlier were retconned by the code.

I have no intention of giving a game 5-stars if it has bugs in it that literally erase, while also locking choices based on ghost data, its own code.

Which is sad, because it's Larian's best written game (until, again, Act 3 wherein it tries to cram 50 million twists in last minute). The soundtrack is friggin' BEAUTIFUL. It actually manages to visualize the world of D&D. It lets you be SUPER creative (again, except for the few esoteric missions where it gives you exactly zero to go on). It is essentially a home campaign instead of some super pretentious high fantasy BS.

Buy it when the Enhanced Edition inevitably comes out. Not now.

EDIT, 8.15.2023: Uninstalled the game and deleted all BG3 folders from my computer. Reinstalled. There now seem to be more bugs, such as doors being open but you still need to lockpick them, as well as cutscenes replaying if you step foot in certain areas.

Basically a lost NES game adaptation of a 1980s action film that never actually existed. The intent and execution of this game is flawless. It looks and plays just like a bargain bin title that somehow gained cult status despite its obvious gameplay limitations.

While the title as well as the script are both a little too much at times, you can't fault the devs for just straight-up going for the political commentary here. It may seem a bit heavy handed at first, but that's because it's not trying to mask the satirical point that it is trying to make.

Levels generate in such a way that they feel like a real human made them, piece by piece. The gameplay loop in itself is natural and organic, and the enemy AI is both simplistic as well as challenging.

This game set out to be an emulation of an old NES brawler, and it hits that note perfectly.

Not really an idle game AT ALL, but fun none-the-less. It requires you to be checking in every so often, even with Quality of Life trinkets.

Familiars can be placed on the battlefield, on players, on skills, and on click damage. There's a multiplayer aspect called Trials of Mount Tiamat for those that want to upgrade their gear.... moar-er. Seasonal events challenge players to daily and weekly events.

Your mileage is going to vary, not just on the basis of if you like Idle Clickers, but how much you like the Dungeons & Dragons IP as well.

It's a fun little time-waster, and surprisingly, it does help get the creative juices flowing if you need a distraction from work.

I nominated this game for Best Soundtrack for the 2022 Steam Awards, because it is. It sets the tone to an incredibly degree, and the radio jocks are downright hilarious.

As for gameplay, the loop is pretty standard for a builder, but both the variety of classes and the ability to actually make a *good looking college* are what raises this to a Must Buy if you're into Builder Games.

Very easy to use, and very easy to put together a prototype. For those interested in learning game dev and creating commercial or non-commercial items, this is a very user friendly engine.