Seneste anmeldelser af NightSn1PeR

Usually I would write a whole paragraphs to describe good or bad sides of games, but this game will have an exception to the rule cause it simply THAT GOOD. (plus me being a bit of lazy ass)
Game done with a lot of talent and love. Great unique story with good character roster and their development. Responsive and deep combat system with one of best boss designs in souls like genre. High quality visuals and soundtrack. This game simply doesn't have any weak sides. It's a piece of art which will provide you with complete experience for a fair price.

So 115 hours that's how long it took me to complete and explore most stuff I could find in this game and honestly it pains me to know this game had all chances to be more than it ended up to.
I played through first game twice and I loved that game a lot, second game brings so much improvements to many areas of the game. Better and more polished combat system, bigger and actually filled with unique stuff to find and discover map, improvements to pawns system, amazing visuals with distinct zones, But at same time game manages to fail at parts that I was least expecting, such as: godawful technical side of the game and main story progression/presentation. So lets dive into depth for all pros and cons sequel brings to the table.

First big advantage sequel have over its predecessor is much bigger and handcrafted world that you can explore. Map grew 3-4 times in size, and have different types of environment be it forests of first game or desert canyons and volcanic islands. Each zone have their unique charm and points of interests to visit. Exploring world became actual thing since you can find a lot of unique loot/dungeons or even quests while doing so.

So time to talk about the best part of sequel which is combat system. First game already was one of best in genre in this aspect, so sequel tried to polish down some corners and provide player with more impactful feedback from it. And they accomplished just that. All weapons are great to use, have a good sound design to it and have their own ways to express the strength of class it used with. Finishers is being another addition that was executed well. Each time your opponent being stunned/knocked down or just unaware of your presence, you can use strong attack that will become a finisher with context sensitive animations and huge damage. Thief for example can hold strong attack button and pin down his opponent to the ground and use multiple types of attacks while restricting enemy from any moves at same time. Sadly I haven't played as caster vocation in DD1 so i cant really talk about changes of them in DD2, but what I can say is that. I never seen such broken class in game as sorcerer here, as long as you aren't being focused by enemies it takes just few seconds to deal with whole enemy group while casting one of best executed magics in games I had experience with. Obviously you cant do that on your own, and that's where pawns coming into play.
Pawns - had a lot of improvements be it to their ability to learn new stuff (yes pawns actually can learn some tactics, enemy behavior or even remember locations of interests like treasure chests, caves, camps or even quests destinations while traveling with you or any other player they been hired by). Your combination of pawns can end up as one of best teams that work together to the point they can follow up with amazing combos, catch you mid-fall after being shaked off the monsters back, and can pretty much deal with most fights on their own, or be a bunch of disorganized clowns that have a competition who can kill themself faster. Outside of combat they can learn one of specializations, it can be: language knowladge, logistics (which helps you with managing inventory a bit on its own), chirurgy (to automaticaly heal wounded allies with consumables) and so on. Pawns can guide you to undiscovered areas, mark the treasures or help with location of quests destination too. Which makes them a real part of the group instead of being barely working decoration as in many games of this genre.

There was a huge graphical jump in sequel which makes game look gorgeous in so many ways, environment, character models and their animations, particle effects, one of best and cleanest looking armor designs in games. All that visualy stunning, but at same time here comes a problem. People not gonna care about all these amazing details you created when all their attention taken away by constantly stuttery and unstable framerate. My system isnt some kind of high-end type RTX 3060 + ryzen 5 5600x, but it more than enough to run most games in 1080p 60+ fps no problem. And Dragon's Dogma 2 struggles to run so badly it works around 40-60 fps in wilderness and drops to 25-40 in cities. Nowadays that kind of technical fiasko should not be acceptable by any means.

And here we getting to a problem №2. Thing is, after playing through DD1 I wasn't expecting this game's main story to be something outstanding from the start. At best I expected some sweet surprise, at worst just retelling of the old story with new technologies and better presentation. And with such low expectations I still was dissapointed with how badly main story was executed. Narrative just doesn't knows what it wants to focus on, constantly leaving gaps and switching from one point to another without even trying to explain most things it tries to tell. Which leaves the player with constant feeling like they miss something, but they don't, it just the way this story was told. And this story actually had a potential since the idea wasnt the worst, but idea alone isnt enough to write a good story. It lacks any connection with a player who would care about events happening around them and thats exactly why it fails to deliver.
Characters - Another painful part that is directly related to the story failure. First game had one of best written dragons in gaming industry. He had charisma, his own philosophy and was main reason at pushing player to his goal. Dragon in sequel just isn't there, like literally if we remove fight itself he might have less than 3 minutes of screentime total. It just another monster you dont care about and it supposed to be one of biggest figures in the story. Other characters aren't much better, they just there to give a direction to the player and thats pretty much their whole role in main story. The only thing that saves some of these characters are their own optional side-stories and some of them actually good. And I love the idea of game not forcing you into going from one quest giver to another since most quests require you to actually learn the world and revisiting some NPC-s time to time you meet through your journey. But since the main story sucks so much this approach works against it's own nature by limiting already poor choice of things player can do.

Good: Great world and its exploration | Combat system with diverse classes | Improved pawns | Attention to details and ingame interactions | Nice visuals
Neutral: Lack of difficulty after 10-15 hours of the game | Moving between places takes time
Bad: One of worst performances in triple A game | Somehow worse story telling than in original | Dragon barely exists in this game

So with said above can I really recommend the game?
Personally even with all these problems I still had a lot of fun with good parts of the game and mostly positive emotions, because finishing it felt like an end to a great journey. With that said I gonna split decision in 3 categories.
1) If you never touched this series before, buy the first game instead. It cheaper, doesn't have same technical problems and have the story you actually can follow while being shorter too. Which would be a better starting experience for a new player than its sequel.
2) You played original and really liked it, and main story part doesn't bothers you that much. Check if your system able to keep up with technical flaws first. (especially performance in cities) If it looks comfortable enough for you then buy it.
3) You played first game but have mixed feelings about problematic parts. Wait for patches and maybe some sale like 30-50% to justify its current state.

And so after 21 hours of exploring and doing pretty much everything this game can present I'm ready to throw in some thoughts about it.

Lets start with overall setting and atmosphere this game tries to achieve. World shown to us as post-apocalyptic wasteland as a result of bomb drop and tries to mix it with some western-like aspects. While traveling around the world you will mostly encounter locations/characters that's are filled with melancholy, emptiness and suffering. But even then there's always a place or two which have a little piece of light to it. And just to clarify even through locations are presented as wastelands they still drawn really well and have unique touches.
Music adds a lot to this game and might be one of best parts overall. Outside of location/encounter specific background compositions there's like 20 cassettes which work like collectibles and played in general locations while moving around the world. Not only these songs (most of them have vocals) improving overall atmosphere, but they also amazing to listen on its own. (which i strongly recommending to do).

Well this subject can be a bit controversial. Personally I liked the way movement and combat system works, but it took some time and even then I was failing here and there because I keep forgetting about something. (I got around 650 deaths by the end)
So if someone of you back in the day played games like "elasto mania" or "gravity defied" you might have general idea how moving and balancing your bike works. For everyone else, you have a gas button and while holding it you have to balance your bike left and right, if head hits the floor you gonna die. Mechanic is simple but when you have to keep tracking your position while doing active shooting and reloading (by doing backflip you reload your weapon) you might end up in situations where you keep dying by hitting floor instead of enemy fire. You can block shots with your vehicle/deflect bullets back or even dodge it with shotguns knockback (some accidents might happen with it more often than not).
Through the game you might find new weapons, there isn't many but they quite unique from each other and you can switch your guns in middle of fight instead of sticking to one and keep trying to reload it after few shots. Even through when you master this combat system and will be able to do really neat combos, I think it still can be a bit overwhelming experience for many people. So you either gonna love it or be annoyed by it.

Game sticks with metroidvania style level design, which means you have some freedom here and there to explore and move around locations but some places will be unreachable until you find an upgrade or locked behind some story events. Main quests sending you into places with pretty interesting stories and their endings can hit you in the feels. Side quests on another hand mostly can be described as a fetch quests, just go back into locations that you visited already and bring something. They can be annoying to do and there's a lot of them, but at least they trying to show you a state of the world and characters that are living in it, and it adds up to the atmosphere which is good.
Progression in this game mostly tied to weapon crafting and their upgrades. You might need to gather some resources during your travels and collect a currency from killing your enemies. Bigger combos award you with more currency. And each time you die you might drop half of that currency into a bag that can be recovered. (max amount of bags can be upgraded too)

Well I left this aspect for the last since it might be one of main reasons why people like this game. Said story being told about Laika, soldier the protector of her people, also a mother who tries to hide its child from a cruel reality of this world. And while being stoic person, she might have her moments to appreciate stuff around and a wish for a normal life. To make sure the tribe survives, she will be sent on missions to disrupt enemy communications and try to find allies. Through the game she will meet other survivors or victims of these lands. Some might ask for a help, while others just want to be left alone. Even though story is pretty simple on paper, it has some powerful scenes and themes to it.

So lets recap it in short
Good: Visuals, Music, Atmosphere, Story.
Neutral: Combat system in combination with movement can be enjoyable for one player and annoying for another
Bad: Too many optional fetch quests.

Verdict: There's a lot of love was put into this game, with a little problems here and there but mostly good stuff. So game totally worth its money, and should be enjoyable experience for many players.

That was something I totally didn't expected from a game I was just thinking to try for years but always was looking the other way. Honestly i don't know how much game was changed with afterlife update which was released like 2 years ago, but I can say for sure the end result was multiple tiers above of all expectations.

The visuals and voice acting are 2 things I had expectations for to be good in this game, and damn right it was. A lot of unique locations with different themes and amazing backgrounds to them. Voice acting was really good for a game of that caliber, you can feel character emotions flowing through their speech. But obviously you cant have a game with just that, and here where Death's Gambit starts to surprise.
Sound effects for weapons swinging, blocking and parrying are satisfying to hear.
Music knows when to be inspiring or sound desperate, it has chill\relaxing music for hubs and can be silly when required.

Game provides player with multiple class choices each with unique talents tree, plus multiple weapon types with its own movesets. Combat mostly inspired by souls-like games, but Boss fights have a lot of variety and decent mix of attacks that forces player to adapt. For example, some boss attacks can be dodged easily but others might be able to catch you up with follow up, so that's where perfect block\parry comes in handy. Yes its 2 different mechanics, while have similarities they have pros and cons. Perfect block just requires you to click the button the moment attack has to hit you, no delays or anything but some bosses have counter to that by requiring you to do that multiple times to actually get a counter attack out of it. Parry can ignore that rule of multiple successful blocks and hits harder while healing you, but downside it isn't instant and puts you in animation lock.
Level design isn't the best in the genre but it fills the requirement of allowing player to explore multiple paths from the start of the game as long as you able find the upgrades to do so.
And now to the aspect I was caught off guard the most, characters and story. Out of all things I didn't expected for a game to provide such likeable characters with so little words while keeping intrigue to the finale.

I been playing metroidvania games for some time now and most of them end up as decent games that are fun to play through. F.I.S.T. Forged in Shadow Torch is one of those types, it doesnt have some inovations but it still enjoyable expirience. The strongest parts might be combat system which allows a lot of enemy juggling and weapon swapping mid combo (similar to Devil May Cry series) and aesthetics of the world.

City presents before you in face of dark streets and underground labs created in dieselpunk style. Music contains multiple genres that covers mood pretty well, be it jazz, electro or orchestra. Cutscenes looks nice, but you may notice lack of polish here and there, such as twitching or missing smoothness in some animations.
Story - being average at best. (there is lack of memorable characters)
Combat system - game starts with a single weapon and allows you to upgrade it to unlock new moves which you can combine in long and fun combos which only becomes deeper and more complex with new weapons and gadgets. Most of boss fights are unique and good but there is some exceptions of reuse or dull designs. Still final boss fight was amazing.
Level Design - seems good but distances between teleport devices too big, so running back in old locations to grab some upgrades you wasnt able to pick up earlier might take a bit more time than it has to. And i would like to have slightly bigger amount of routes i can take while exploring.
Underwater levels, they are fine as small sections, but not as a whole location.

So in the end its a good game for its price, which might take 14-22 hours to finish and will provide you with mostly enjoyable experience.

Honestly its one of those rare moments when alrdy amazing game becomes even better.
For me "Ori and the Blind Forest" been one of best examples how to create something more than just good platformer. It had smooth and responsive movement, visuals that can easly be used as your wallpaper, music which can hold you in main menu for some time after launching the game, and of course the story while being simplistic leaves memorable expirience.

After listing all above you would think "It cant get that much better" but it does. One of first big improvements might be new combat system, it allows you to fight your enemies with huge arsenal of weapons and skills without touching ground and flying all over your screen dodging projectiles and boss attacks. Yes "Boss fights" another thing that been added to the game and when you learn their patern those encounters becomes more enjoyable than FromSoftware games, cause you not limited to dodge and attack buttons and able to use your own flow of fight.
Then there is optional collectables\upgrades that can improve Ori in different ways it can be slight buff or change to ability mechanic, maybe utility stuff like enemies provide more exp but reciving extra health and damage and so on.

Now to smaller additions:
Even more new movement abilities
NPC and Quests
Non-linear order for locations
And of course onion ninjas included

So the last thing i would like to say "try to support more projects like this one" they totally deserve it.

First half of the game can feel a bit of sluggish for being introduction to the world, everything changes on second half the moment it catches up pace and leads you through unstoppable chain of events up to the end.
Gameplay can be described as simple as walk from point A to point B while controlling different types of animals be it a fish that follows stream of river or parrot who hovers in the sky. Background music transmits mood of surroundings pretty well. Alot of people saying game too short, but honestly can you really call something too short when it delivers the idea it had in fundament? And yes i'm talking about story which feels complete and not stretched for a sake of extra hours.
The only thing i can agree with is price being slightly too high, 15-30% sale should be totally fair for that product.

So yes "Lost Ember" doesn't have any complex gameplay mechanics, but it wasn't a point the game tried to deliver at first place.

Game contains ideal mix of oldschool and new-gen design decisions wich makes game pleasurable to play for both generations. Soo much content wich always have few ways to be done. Some quests require brain activity but doesnt overcomplicate with them. Exploring part is rewarding your eagle eye. Origin characters which written really well and can affect main story. Music was enjoyable even for me and i'm not a fan of fantasy themes. Even if game has some weak or bad moments they will never overcome all good stuff in that piece of art. And i think its first time in my life when game deserves max possible grade.

"Masterpiece of genre in game industry"

Ну что же, вот и вышло обновленное издание.
Начну с того что оригинальная игра мне пришлась одним из лучших примеров идеального платформера. (Да игра содержит в себе великолепный баланс всего: музыка которая стала для меня одним из часто прослушиваемых OST-ов, стилистика и дизайн уровней просто богоподобны для 2d, геймплей включил в себя отзывчивое управление и гладкость происходящего на пару с довольно расширнным арсеналом умений, комбинирование которых одно удовольствие. Повествование истории происходит с минимальным количеством текста и это идет игре только на пользу, поскольку она не становиться от этого проще и продолжает цеплять за душу).

Ну а теперь давайте перейдем к самому изданию.
Первое что бросается в глаза это появилась возможность выбора сложности: легкий,средний,высокий и режим с одной жизьню (при игре на котором не получиться считерить быстрым выходом из игры при смерти).
Второе игра была дополненна новыми локациями с уникальными геймплейными особеностями и двумя новыми способностями которые при получении можно использовать и в оригинальном контенте. (в том числе были переработанны некоторые секреты в базовой игре под эти же способности) А так же эти локации имеют небольшую пред-историю одного из персонажей, хоть она и простенькая.
Ну и в третих людям имеющим оригинальную игру была предоставленна скидка 75% для апгрейда версии, что так же является плюсом.

В итоге я могу сказать что переиздание более чем удалось и стоит своего внимание как людям уже прошедшим оригинал, так и новым игрокам.

Скажу коротко, игра великолепна.
Только есть одно "но!", если вы хотите играть на геймпаде, а у вас какая нибудь старенькая версия logitech-а(в моем случае rumblepad второй) тогда приготовтесь проеб**ь 3 часа на попытку заставить его работать. А когда вы таки настроите кнопки и стики, можете удивиться спустя 15 минут игры, что тригеры не работают и с ними прийдется отдельно разбираться.
Во всем остальном это шедевральный платформер имеющий все необходимое: приятное управление,музыка,стилистика и в меру сложная. Так же история рассказанна с минимальным количеством текста, а скорее передана на визуально\эмоцианальном уровне и имеет не заезженный сюжет. По этому Must Buy.