Recent reviews by Crimsomrider

Sunset Overdrive is one of those games that easily fly under the radar because going by the trailers or screenshots it doesn't look that impressive to try out, but it actually is really fun. It's a superhero game in disguise that doesn't take itself seriously and is filled with a ton of funny jokes, memes and 4th wall breaks.

It's from the makers of Marvel's Spiderman and it has an incredibly fluid traversal system with a whole city built around it. Jump, grind, bounce, slide, air dash, wall run and even super launch yourself out of water. You are pretty much a superhero in this game with a plethora of different weapons to choose from.

On top of that you can create your own character, visually fully customize it and even upgrade it through perks and upgrades. And as other open-world games there are plenty of collectibles to collect as well. All in all it's a pretty great game, albeit somewhat short. Takes only about 35-40 hours to fully 100% it.

Death Stranding is an artistic masterpiece of a game. An incredibly unique game, the kind that is so artistically beautiful, rich and immersive that it pulls the player into its world with such strong passion, if given the chance.

Even though the intro of the game is so mind-blowingly great and personally one of the best ever made for a video-game, the first few hours of the game did not really get me hooked into playing it much and I thought I won't enjoy it as much as other people do, but i kept on keeping on. My love and enjoyment for Death Stranding grew gradually as I kept going and once I reached a certain point, I was so immersed and hooked that I could no longer stop playing.

Death Stranding is about YOU and YOUR JOURNEY with an emphasis that no man is an island. It's about connecting with people, building a future and overcoming challenges across your journey, whether they be natural or super-natural, and it does so in such beautiful ways. Is it a game for everyone? No, it is not. But it doesn't have to be. It is an artistic masterpiece that reminds me of the times when games were created out of pure passion and I'm so glad I gave this game the chance to pull me in and fill me with its soul.

+20 Like(s)

Control was such a breath of fresh air in a sea of games. The game just shines with quality from start to finish, with its incredibly gorgeous graphics which achieves the outstandingly immersive atmosphere of the Oldest House, followed by beautifully implemented Ray-Tracing and such a visually pleasing destructive environment all-throughout. On top of that it has some of the smoothest gameplay mechanics and animations imaginable!

The story is incredibly interesting as well. Most of the lore in the game is given in the form of collectibles, which are incredibly detailed and interesting to read. My favorite parts were about the Affected Items, reading all of their effects.

What I loved the most however was how much freedom is given to the player and how open the Oldest House truly is, both horizontally and vertically. Exploration is tremendously rewarded and I loved that so much about Control. Lots of subtle clues and puzzles hidden around.

If you're looking for an intricate game about mystery and paranormal objects of power, creatures and even dimensional planes that question and shift our own reality, then Control is a great game to dive into.

No words are needed to describe God Of War other than that it is a masterpiece. It is the only game out there right now that is on par with Metro Exodus when it comes to visuals, as it is just breathtakingly gorgeous, optimized to perfection and such a joy to play and experience.

It's simply one of those games that everyone should experience. A fantastic representation of what quality games can be given the right talent and effort put behind it. Thank you Santa Monica Studio for this wonderful gem!

Nioh 2 was one of the most incredibly pleasant surprises for me. As someone who normally stays away from these types of games, Nioh 2 was a game I never thought I'd be playing or even end up loving so much that it would quickly become one of my favorite games of all time. It's difficult to believe I went so long without playing this masterpiece.

The beauty of Nioh 2 is that it's incredibly vast and offers an insane amount of quality playtime and replayability. What initially drew me to Nioh 2 was its character creation and customization, which is honestly one of the best with a ton of options to choose from, but what truly made me so addicted to Nioh was its incredibly well done and challenging gameplay, impressive high quality cutscenes and beautifully composed music, accompanied with a compelling story that is part history, part folklore and part anime. Add on top of that the phenomenally well done Japanese voiceover and you've got yourself a winner. Truly a masterpiece worthy of admiration!

P.S. - If you're interested in obtaining the preorder outfits like the "Sohaya Deserter" and "Gold Ornate Armor" sets, you can do so by doing the following:

• If Steam is already running, switch to Offline mode and quit
  
• Change the date on your PC to 12th of February, 2021
  
• Start Steam in Offline mode and start the game
  
• Go to a Shrine and check the "Boons" option
  
• After claiming the items you can revert back the date and go Online

Having enjoyed Nioh 2 so much, I decided to get into Nioh 1 as I was really interested in the events between 1600 and 1615, during Hide's sleep.

What's impressive about Nioh 1 is that it does not feel outdated in any way whatsoever, in fact it feels almost exactly the same as Nioh 2. The game plays great, feels great, looks great and has a ton of content and replayability. It is also quite thrilling to see all the locations and characters from Nioh 2, even their descendants like Fuku (daughter of Saito Toshimitsu) and Lady Cha-Cha (daughter of Lady Oichi), since Nioh 2's story happens before Nioh 1's. Overall the game is very impressive and so worth playing.

There is however one nuisance worth mentioning with Nioh 1 and that is its unfair artificial difficulty. Having played Nioh 2 for more than 600h, the entire experience felt like one long phenomenal journey where fights were an intricately intimate dance of skill. It felt phenomenal and I loved every single second of it because the game played fair and kept challenging my own skill at all times.

Nioh 1 follows the same principle for the most part, however when it comes to its end-game missions it completely disregards personal skill in favor of builds. Nioh 1's idea of end-game difficulty is to overwhelm the player by swarming them with a lot of enemies/bosses to fight simultaneously. These missions in which you fight two bosses at the same time are incredibly messy and some of the worst level designs I've ever witnessed and I can say with absolute certainty that Everlasting Duty mission is the worst level I ever had the displeasure of playing in any game ever. Overwhelming the player with quantity rather than quality boss fights with intricate mechanics is not an enjoyable nor satisfying experience because all it comes down to are builds specifically made to withstand two bosses at the same time and being lucky not to get wombo-combo'd to death. I simply felt no satisfaction whatsoever beating these missions because they weren't a test of skill, but rather a test of builds and I'm glad Nioh 2 did not repeat the same mistake, but rather redesigned, improved and perfected everything.

But despite its unfair artificial difficulty, Nioh 1 is a very impressive experience with an insane amount of content and replayability, just like its sequel. Very rarely do older titles in a franchise feel on par with their sequels so I fully recommend playing it. Just be aware that the game is unfair in some sections and can get extremely tedious because it is artificially made hard just for the sake of being hard.

P.S. - If you're interested in experiencing the story chronologically then play Nioh 2 first before Nioh 1 because:

• Nioh 2's story is a prequel with time jumps from 1550 to 1600
  
• Then Nioh 1's story occurs between 1600 and 1615
  
• Then Nioh 2 subtly connects and continues the story from 1615

The Expansion Pass offers both the Two Colonels and Sam's Story DLCs.

• The Two Colonels is a linear 2 hour short story DLC with an extremely limited gameplay in which you play as Kirril's father Colonel Khlebnikov and get to experience Novosibirsk Metro while it was still full of life and the events that led to its destruction.
  
  You might want to play it once just for the sake of experiencing the story, but it doesn't offer any real replay value due to a very basic and restricted gameplay.
  
  
  
• Sam's story is a really well-made DLC that tells a quality story about his adventure after the events of Metro Exodus. Everything you had in Metro Exodus you have here as well, which means great story, lots of exploration, fun gameplay and incredible immersion.
  
  Unlike the Two Colonels which is primarily story driven, the great thing about Sam's Story is that it plays and feels exactly like the main game with a length of about 10 hours for a completionist. Highly worth experiencing this DLC, it's great!

Sam's story is a really well-made DLC that tells a quality story about his adventure after the events of Metro Exodus. Everything you had in Metro Exodus you have here as well, which means great story, lots of exploration, fun gameplay and incredible immersion.

Unlike the Two Colonels which is primarily story driven, the great thing about Sam's Story is that it plays and feels exactly like the main game with a length of about 10 hours for a completionist. Highly worth experiencing this DLC, it's great!

Death Of The Outsider is basically a DLC meant for Dishonored 2, but released as a standalone title instead, in which you play as Billie Lurk aka Meagan Foster in order to find Daud and end the Outsider. Both Billie Lurk and Daud are prominent characters in Dishonored 1 DLCs The Knife Of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, so I highly suggest playing these DLCs first before playing this one because there are a lot of references to them.

In terms of quality, Death Of The Outsider is on par with The Knife Of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches DLCs, where you can expect a lengthy meaningful story directly tied to the main plot of the series, this time with a character who never received the Outsider's mark.

In terms of gameplay it's also everything you'd expect from a Dishonored DLC. Long and open levels with a lot of areas to explore, interesting mechanics and an immersive experience. Mana auto-regenerating is a welcome addition, I love it.

In terms of replayability however, this is where the DLC falls short unfortunately:

• There is no New Game Plus mode
  
• The Original Game Plus is just a mode that replaces your 3 DLC powers with Dishonored 2 powers (Blink, Void Gaze and Domino)
  
• First level cannot be played with any powers
  
• Bonecharm crafting is only unlocked at the end of the 3rd mission

So with all that said, although it doesn't have a lot of replay value, it's still a great DLC as you'd expect from the Dishonored franchise and on a discount it's totally worth experiencing it for the sake of story, lore and gameplay.

Jill Valentine is such an iconic character in video game history that even those who never played Resident Evil games growing up, like myself, know who she is. So I appreciate these classic inspired outfits a lot, which look really great in-game. Jill gets a classic inspired remade outfit, while Carlos gets a hair makeover.

However the way these outfits are introduced to the player feels very cheap. It would have been a lot better if these classic appearances were introduced as an in-game reward for beating the story, just like in Resident Evil 2 Remake. RE2R rewarded the player with classic outfits not just for Leon and Claire, but Ada and Sherry as well. So the same could have been done here along with a classic Nemesis appearance.

As a new fan to the series, seeing those classic appearances in RE2R made me interested in other installments of the series. So to me, releasing one of the most iconic appearances in video game history as a preorder DLC was a very cheap way of introducing a part of video game history to both old and new fans. But despite the way it was released, the outfits are really great and in my opinion worth having.