Recent reviews by ms3000

What a fantastic game!

Many reviews compare "Drova" to "Gothic" and they are right: The game is obviously inspired by Gothic's approach to progression and world building. To me, Drova turned out to be a modern, far more polished and thought-out version of Gothic.

The world of Drova is brilliant. First, it takes Gothic's smart idea of throwing the player into the literally limited, yet believable world of "Drova", the "land of legends". This alleged paradise is surrounded by a mysterious and deadly fog, so nobody can leave or enter the world at his own will.

The map itself is a work of art: So many hidden caves, secrets and trails! It's just fun to walk around and explore every corner of Drova. Nothing stops you from visiting nearly all parts of the world from the very beginning of the game (apart from some necessary barriers for story-progression reasons). It's hard to explain but the map's scope and size feels just right: Not too big, not too small and the longer I played I really started to appreciate the positions of the factions and other locations of interests. Everything is thought out beautifully and supports the feeling of immersion. For instance, since enemies don't respawn and their corpses decay over time, your character leaves a visibly lasting effect on the world.

This also contributes to the overall feeling of progression. It's at least as good as Gothic in this regard: You start out as a nobody, barely being able to defend yourself by using a piece of wood. You collect EXP by progressing the story, solving quests, completing tasks and defeating enemies. This EXP can be either used to improve one of your three core attributes (Strength, Dexterity or Mind) or to learn certain skills. Either way, you must visit NPCs who can teach you. In the end, every time you level up and improve your attributes or skills, you instantly feel more powerful. Defeating enemies or beating up NPCs who used to bully you at the start of the game is just very, very, very satisfying. :)

I didn't find Drova too difficult or unfair, but it certainly does not hold your hand. You can kind of control the difficulty curve by ignoring stronger enemies until you are strong enough and it is easy to level-up by simply completing tasks without too much combat. The combat serves its purpose by being action-orientated and focussing on crowd control. There are no classes and in theory your character can learn and combine any talent. The possibility of becoming a "mage" only presents itself later in the game, which is an interesting, but overall fun decision. I had the most fun playing with fast daggers until I could intersperse some magic skills in the endgame.

Drova is a 2D game. In general, I love pixel art but had to get used to Drova's approach. It felt like having to learn to read the environment which is fine and supports the overall atmosphere of the game, though this might not work for everyone. I heavily recommend using the zoomed-out camera position for orientation purposes. Some people complain about the lack of any recorded audio lines or voice over in general. Since being an Indie game, this is not surprising. Personally, I prefer textboxes with appropriate sound effects and background music in these types of games and did not miss anything.

I loved the story. First, it actually has a beginning, a middle part and an end (!). No cliffhanger. It leaves the door for a sequel wide open, but still wraps everything up. You can piece the whole backstory together by reading parchments which can be found all over the world and by talking to certain NPCs. It does a wonderful job of explaining how Drova turned out to be the way it is, covering the deadly fog, the red tower, the architecture, even the enemies and the reason why your character ended up in Drova in the first place. There are two main factions in the game, complemented by some additional settlements. The depiction of the sociodynamics between the groups and within the groups are excellent. This used to be a strong point of Gothic, imo, but in Drova it feels even more fleshed out and by interweaving it with the overall story it leads to some satisfying conclusions.

There is a pivotal, gut-wrenching scene at the end of the third chapter which was hard to stomach. The aftermath of this scene feels so chilling and sobering... It's a necessary part of the plot progression, although it feels slightly unfair to be left with no choice but to go through with it. Looking back, this scene in particular drives the overall theme of Drova's story home: The exploitation of nature and the lack of responsibility for the environment until it is (almost) too late. There is actually a "good" ending which leaves us on a rather hopeful note, although it couldn't overwrite the underlying sadness considering the irredeemable abuse that took place in a potentially paradisiac world over such a long time.

To everyone who enjoyed Gothic back in the day and likes a kind of different approach to the modern CRPG formula: Just buy this game!

As a fan of Arkane Studio's Dishonored and Prey, "Deathloop" feels like a perfect continuation of their extraordinary mixture of level design, gameplay mechanics and a captivating atmosphere. :)

This is not a game for everyone, but that's okay :)

'Outward' has a lot of rough edges: The graphics are okayish, the loading times are abysmal, the battle system feels clunky at times. The game is designed to limit the player by taking away things that became standard in modern (Action/MMO) RPGs:

- There is no manual save/reload system
- There is no fast travel
- There is no real-time map with player positions and a complete list of points of interest
- There are only eight quickslots
- There is no shared stash across the maps
- There is no level system and therefore no way to grind EXP to the path of victory
- There are no quest markers and the journal does not provide all information about quests

The removal of all those elements makes the game, at least for me, far more exciting than the usual role-playing experience. During the first couple of game hours, you are a nobody. You have to be lucky and smart in order to make it out of the starting city and earn enough silver to bring the story forward and to get better equipment.

Since there is no level system in place, you develop your character by gaining new equipment and a certain set of skills. In order to do so, you need silver, the preferred currency in the world of Aurai. In order to get enough silver, you have to travel through the map, enter dungeons or bandit camps and try to solve one of the few side oder main quests the game has to offer. Even though the game might feel hard, it is often times simply a question of strategy. Especially in the first few hours, things like traps or ranged weapons work absolute wonders. It just takes some time and patience.

The survival aspect is not as annoying or challenging as the marketing might suggest, in my opinion. If it gets too cold, start a fire or wear thick clothes. If it is too hot, drink water and take off your clothes. If you are hungry, eat something, if you are thirsty, drink something. Food and water are easy to come by. Since you can basically outrun any type of enemy and the maps are not as huge as, let's say, Skyrim, it is no problem to reach a safe city within a couple of minutes - even if you die, your character will always wake up by activating one of several random "defeat scenarios", which often times are easy to handle. I had more "problems" with the weather conditions in Zelda:BOTW and the slippery mountains...

There is a story, yes. In order to understand the complete lore and the main plot, I recommend to play through every single faction, which requires four playthroughs with four different characters (or three, if you don't own the DLC). The lore is not as bad as some people claim, but the overall plot development throughout the game is nothing extraordinary. It works to get you to necessary set-pieces, I guess.

'Outward' is the first game in a long time that made me feel very excited, especially while working through obstacle after obstacle with my first character. Entering a new map, facing enemies and situations that make you say "WTF!", escaping near-death scenarios: it's awesome!

In the end, when you travel the beginner's region with you first character, one-shotting enemies that troubled you so much, drowning in silver, owning your own houses, facing new post-game bosses, realising how far you've made it and how small Chersonese actually is, you understand that despite all the rough edges, this game is a great adventure.

It's been a long time since I became so hooked on a game. "Dishonored" is a stealth FPS with role play elements, telling the story of Corvo, the Royal Protector, who fails to protect his Empress and has to witness her assassination. Even worse, he's being accused of her murder and thrown into prison.

This is where the actual game starts - and won't let you go until you got your revenge... The developers and story writers did an incredible job to gradually introduce the player to the world of "Dishonored", or to be more precisely, the capital of the Empire: Dunwall. A place with little to no hope, afflicted by a plague, carried by rats, killing most of the inhabitants and a corrupt, immoral government, only caring for themselves. The graphic, music and dialogues are so rich in detail and underline a complex and thoughtful background story, set in an ugly, but beautiful universe, filled with black magic, religious belief, violence and devastation.

Fortunately, the game mechanics are on a par with the storyline. Being a good FPS at its core, "Dishonored" offers a variety of ways to fight your way through enemies, mostly with your sword, often accompanied by either some classical weapons (pistol, crossbow) or magic skills. It's actually very easy to simply fight your way through the levels, but the real challenge lies in the stealth mode. Trying not to be detected by anyone, without alerting or killing just one person, is just a lot of fun - and works perfectly. Every level offers a variety of approaches, entering buildings from different entries, sneaking around through different passages and trying to stay in the shadows most of the time.

It's something many developers fail to do, but for "Dishonored" it just works: Two very different ways of playing the game and both feel rewarding :) Additionally, the way you play through the levels, either causing a lot of chaos or nearly none of it, changes the design of the upcoming levels - and the outcome of the story. In the end, it is only a simple A/B, good/bad, war/peace choice, but the impact of your actions feels comprehensible and helps to deliver enough uniqueness for at least two different playthroughs.

The DLCs "The Kife of Dunwall" and "The Brigmore Witches" are focussing on the story of Daud, a character you get to know in the original game. Both are taking place during the events of "Dishonored", so they are no sequels, but they add depth and new aspects to the original story in an incredibly smart way. There are only minor gameplay changes, e.g. altered or even new skills, but why changing someone that works just well?

The first DLC, "Dunwall City Trials" is really just what the name suggests: a collection of different challenges, focussing on different gameplay aspects. It's fun, but achievement hunters should be warned: Some of the achievements are a pain in the a** and no comparison to the rest of "Dishonored" :)

If you don't already own this game: Get it! It's so much worth it, especially at such a low price (07/2014). Definitely, one of the finest stealth games out there, with a touching story you don't want to miss.