Recent reviews by Spring Breeze Dancin'

I backed this game on Kickstarter because it sounded like a promising prospect. Who wouldn't enjoy some classic multiplayer shooter action?

Unfortunately, the game just isn't that great. The matchmaking barely worked, and the game's lackluster features and buggy faculties were opaque and/or meaningless to boot. The maps were strangely designed and felt unfair towards one team or the other, and classic team deathmatch is the only mode that is actually fun. I've been playing video games for a very long time, and believe me when I tell you I know bad gameplay when I see it. The gameplay in this feels as though it is easily exploited, and ripe for BS, it's almost entirely unfun and goes straight from zero to frustrating in a short time. The only time it begins to feel fun is if your team will actually coordinate as a group, because otherwise all of the worst aspects of shooting games rear their ugly heads within seconds of any match in this game. Not at all balanced, not remotely sensical in any way. The best thing I can say about it is the game is playable, when it works. If you manage to get a few kills after you somehow manage to get into a match, maybe you could glean some fun from it.

Not only that, but one of the developers was nakedly rude to me on the game's official subreddit, and all I did was politely participate in the discussion. Call me a snowflake if you want, but I expect a little more from developers, and this particular dev's behavior put a bad taste in my mouth. Frankly, that's all the evidence I need to surmise that this game probably isn't worth your time.

TL;DR: Devs made a really cheap game with literally all the downsides of a multiplayer shooter and nothing else.

UPDATE: I have updated my review because Telltale has patched the game a few times to improve performance. When I first received the game, I was playing on a GTX 760, and the game ran but only barely. Now, after upgrading my GPU, I am running the game on a GTX 1070. The framerate is acceptable now, but it should have ran fine from the beginning per the game's recommended system requirements.

For one, the game doesn't run that well, and there's no excuse for that in a simple game like this. It's an interactive movie, basically, it shouldn't struggle when I'm running it on one of the best GPUs available. The frame rate has had constant issues prior to its many patches and then some afterwards, the game crashes randomly, the audio cuts out at times, the controls sometimes don't work -- the game is was a mess, technically, and it's very disappointing.

For two, the story is so...bizarre. Forget everything you know about Batman, because this game goes out of its way to subvert your expectations. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but the issue lies in the fact that the way it's written, the game feels like it's punishing you for doing what seems "right" or natural. But instead of the twists being clever and thoughtful, it's more like choosing to let your character kick a can on the ground and then the can explodes and you lose a foot. Not to mention some of the dialogue choices do NOT reflect what Bruce Wayne actually says, leading to some "restart to main menu" moments. Lots of them. Just keep in mind that if you intend on having what may seem like a good ending to you, this game is going to fight you tooth and nail to wrestle it away from you. This is not good writing, it's annoying and stressful. Maybe a little ironically so, the action is really cool in this game and does feel very Batman-esque, albeit like I mentioned before the frame rate issues and unreliable controls will frustrate you so. There's also the small matter that some of Batman's "detective moments" are absurdly dumb, to the point where I was both laughing and shouting at my monitor because they make Batman look like he misses the most obvious of the obvious; thankfully, not all of the "detective moments" were dumb, but some of them were, and that was enough.

All of that being said, I did enjoy myself. Obviously, because I finished it. If you love Batman, you will find a lot to like about this game. When all was said and done, I can't say it wasn't worth playing, but my feelings were very mixed. I am looking forward to the next Batman story, but hopefully the writers will step up their game, because the choices and end results in this particular story left me feeling unsatisfied. But, maybe that's the point. You decide.

I feel like I hate to love this game, and I want to play the next one even though my experience with this one was such a roller coaster. The performance issues were bad, and they didn't totally go away even after the 2016 holiday and I made a major upgrade to my rig. Your mileage may vary. My opinion on the story is that it misses the mark in many areas; if you felt like Batman v. Superman was void of happiness or optimism and that was a negative point for you: brace yourself, Telltale is coming, they're coming to take away all your Batman fantasies and replace them with a strange Batman story that makes you feel like you failed even though you tried to Batman the best Batman you could possibly Batman.

Today while I was at work (goofing off) I checked the store page to see what the reviews were, and much to my surprise the page said "Mostly Negative", and not because of the game itself but because of the performance. This was worrisome to me because I have a medium-high tier desktop, I can play most games on high settings but it's certainly not a state-of-the-art gaming rig by any stretch of the imagination. If all these other people are having issues, surely my rig will have trouble too.

That being said, I've had more performance issues with games that are purportedly better optimized than this one. Initially, there was a very noticeable hitch in the frame rate, but that went away after I changed the frame cap to "Max". I managed to play the game for a solid thirty minutes without any problems. Is the frame rate rock solid? No. It could be a lot better. Am I caring while I play the game, or am I noticing that much? Not really. No crashes or anything either. For a GTX 760, it certainly seems to be more than playable, though it does need patching. I had to turn the mouse sensitivity way down too, and the few moments before the game actually starts (aka the "title screen) can leave you scratching your head the first time you boot it up.

As for the game itself, I'll have to update once I've played it more. Immediately when it started I was confused as to what I was supposed to be doing, much like the character in their current state. Took me a good five-ten minutes of farting around to figure things out, and about two minutes running away from the sentinels because I didn't notice they were watching me, but once I got the hang of it....well, I started having fun. It's very immersive so far, the half hour I spent playing it blew by so fast I hardly believed it. It doesn't spell everything out for you in neon lighting like some games do, and I like that aspect about it. I would expect no less from a game like this.

The AI voice keeps telling me my toxicity is going to kill me, so I try to keep a weather eye out for the right materials to recharge my hazard suit when I need to. After collecting enough materials to repair one of my ship's parts, I realized that the other element I needed was nowhere to be found. Panicking, I wondered if my suit could hold up, if I could find it in time before the toxic air killed me. Turning my eyes to the horizon, and among the endless sand and arid terrain, I noticed a single blip beyond the hills, and the HUD tells me that it's the element I'm looking for. It's about a seven minute trek in one direction. I make my way towards it, hoping for the best.

Needless to say, it has grabbed my attention. It reminds me of all the sci-fi movies that I love, and I'm probably going to play it a lot.

I'll be honest with you, I liked the first game, but I never finished it. I hopped on that bandwagon a little too late, and before I knew it the second game was hot off the press and on my hard drive. Nevertheless, I played enough of the first one to get the idea, and Dark Souls II is a remarkable improvement over it's predecessor. Everything I didn't like about the first game has been fixed, and in more ways than I expected. I don't understand why some people say the graphics aren't that great either -- the game runs on the highest settings quite easily, and I haven't seen anything that really stood out to me as far as bad graphics go.

The only thing I don't like about the Souls series, on a big picture scale, is the PvP. Nobody ever fights honorably when you encounter an invader. Everyone wants to be a roguish type or a magic user, and they almost always circle around you like a noob and this is Call of Duty or something, totally negating all of the same tactics you've used to previously. Then there's the times when you find messages on the ground and people intentially mislead you or block your ability to use whatever you need the "use" button for. I understand it's a joke, and that it's the nature of the game, but it's those kind of things that deter me from playing the game at all. It's bittersweet. I accidentally killed an NPC because someone left a message saying it was a "Sniper Spot". After aggro'ing the NPC, I was forced to murder him, and that really upset me highly. Plus, I have never been invaded outside of an, erhm, "designated invasion area", and I'm wondering if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Apart from its flaws, I have to recommend it because it's such an addictive and mesmerizing game. The environments, the subtle and intuitive design, the combat....it's all so perfect. It's loads of fun and you won't be able to put it down, especially since they took all of the flaws of the first game and flipped them around quite literally, turning them into strengths in this title. I can't ignore the fact though that some flaws of the series are deeply rooted, and how much they matter depends on what kind of gamer you are, if an honorable one at all.

In my opinion, the second game far outweighs the first one. It improves everything the first game did, in every way. Some people say it was unfinished, at least that's the rumor, and to an extent it is true. However, I've completed this game many many times, don't let Steam fool you, and I can honestly say I"ve never encountered any real bugs or glitches. The last time I completed it, I installed the Lost Content Mod (do a Google Search). The Lost Content Mod makes the game a lot different, in a good way, but you'd only really notice the big differences if you're like me and you've beat it multiple times already. Still I highly recommend you install it.

The resolution is low because this is an old game, but you can rig it to go higher I believe. I could write a full professional review here detailing all the solid points as well as the highs and lows of the game, but I'm not. It's a fantastic role-playing game, and it's the best Star Wars story I've experienced so far. It's been so many years since I first played this on original Xbox, and I'm still finding new things to love about it to this day. There's much replayability, especially if you're into games like Mass Effect, and once again the Lost Content mod adds quite a bit to the experience. Plenty of role-playing afficionados will likely claim that the first game is superior, but you can take it from a lifetime Star Wars fan: everything about this game really just captures me.