Recent reviews by #NV

Why did I wait this long to play this gem?

This is an absolute masterpiece - story, characters, writing, world building, voice acting, everything is on point.
SureAI made the best of Skyrim's wonky engine and put heart and soul into one of the most brilliant RPGs experiences I've ever seen.

Yeah, I played this game for the free key of Moons of Madness as well.
Nonetheless, I have to admit: I like the idea to 'promote' another game this way a lot and this is why I wanted to leave a positive review (especially as many people seem to bash the game because they have not received a free key on their first/second/third/x try).

Cyrano Story is a free little text puzzle game which is telling a background story to Moons of Madness. According to the dev the chance to receive a key upon finishing this game is approx. 5% and finishing the game with only using the correct solutions (e.g. from a guide) takes not even two minutes. If you do not look up the solutions online the puzzles aren't easy but require quite some thinking and experimenting.

Both the unlocked soundfiles of Dr. Mason and the overall atmosphere are very interesting if you like lovecraftian vibes and the introduction to Moons of Madness' story works well from my point of view. That's why I want to say: Dear dev, thank you for this, I had fun!

EDIT: It seems the giveaway's over and you can't get keys anymore. According to feedback in the forum lots of people grinded for keys and they ran out earlier than expected.

-- Gebel
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'Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night' was the first game I kind-of pre-ordered since Dark Souls III back in 2016. In fact this is the only game I ever even backed via Kickstarter some years ago.
Yeah, I was 'kind-of-hyped' for the release - to put it very mildly.

I grew up with Symphony of the Night/Circle of the Moon/Dawn of Sorrow/Order of Ecclesia/... and in the past years I played nearly all of the Indie titles that luckily still keep the genre alive nowadays.
Valdis Story, Guacamelee, Axiom Verge, Salt & Sanctuary, Hollow Knight to name some of them. So many hours of fun, so many fantastic titles, such a great mix of the well-known Metroidvania formula with interesting new ideas and settings.

However, if I had to make a short comparison: after playing Bloodstained for some hours now, this game really feels like 'coming home' after all those years. This is neither me saying that the other titles were no fun (which they definitely were) nor that they messed up the formula (which they definitely did not) but instead it is the fact that Bloodstained feels exactly like the Castlevania games I gew up with.

The combat. The exploration. The areas. The items. The soundtrack. The atmosphere.
Yup, they nailed it. 110%.
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The visuals may look a bit strange at first glance but you get used to them quite quickly. Some of those close-up character models during conversations and the 'kind-of-out-of-place' Poltergeist/Backer portraits aside it is a beautiful game with an amazing soundtrack (plus more than just solid voice acting!).

Sure, the game needs some more polishing (e.g. some wall colissions are weird) and there are a few glitches every now and then (e.g. items get stuck in walls/floors, random crashes when reading a book (happened to me once)) but overall this release is definitely on the safer side, especially compared to some other launch experiences in the past years.
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I'm 17 hours in so far. The map is unfinished, I've only seen the bad ending and my collection of enemies, items and shards still lacks a lot of entries. Oh boy, I am happy.

At the moment I don't even want to move on. I simply pump up my luck stat to max and grind for missing items and shards. And I love every second of it.

EDIT: 30 hours on the clock now and I finished the game with the good ending somewhere around 25 hours. Grinding is still fun, plus now I'm even more hyped for the new characters and the other DLC. In the end the game's exactly what I wanted: a new Metroidvania with the good-old Castlevania vibes!

--Salt and Sanctuary Intro
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"Salt and Sanctuary" is an interesting approach to the Metroidvania genre that expands the well-known combination of exploration and combat with some 'new' elements known from e.g. the Souls series - like creeds, a quite tough difficulty, vague and ominous lore or an open skill system.
To cut it short: I loved every minute I spent on this game and now, after finishing it with my 2nd character, I can only recommend it to everyone that even slightly enjoys these genres.
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The game has not only quite unique visuals ("kind-of-washed-out-drawings") but also overall a very grim and dark setting -and it is filled to the brim with ominous names, hints of past events and forgotten lore and mysterious characters - exactly what I enjoyed in terms of lore from the Souls series. Moreover, you can decide by yourself if you just want to rush through the areas, not caring about the story at all or if you prefer spending a good amount of time to unravel the secrets this mysterious island has to offer - nothing here is served to you aside from an easy death. Of course, the "solutions" are most of the times vague at best and there is probably no final answer to the questions you may have but most bosses, areas and NPCs provide some interesting lore nonetheless and create very atmospheric scenes.

Exploring the haunted island of the game is very fun in general as there are tons of optional paths (areas/bosses), secrets and sweet, sweet loot to be found. And traps. Lots of traps. Deadly traps.

"Oh, better don’t rush too easy to this chest over there it’s possible that it-… yeah, it’s a mimic. And it has eaten me. Great. What path did I choose again earlier?"

The combat mechanics and the character movements are quite solid and trying out different weapons and builds is quite fun. There are many options how to specify your character and what path to choose - Magic, Miracles, Bows, Whips, Swords, Greataxes, Wands... there's a good amount of different styles to choose from.
However, the balancing would have benefited a bit from more polishing in the end and it feels like most items and armours are kind of 'generic‘ and feel mostly the same aside from raw stats and some looks. Some epic/unique abilities/skills would have been interesting here. The character system also seems quite deep at first but lacks something 'unique' in the end.
But this is criticism on a quite high level.
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In the end, I have to admit that as a fan of both the 'Souls' and the 'Metroidvania' series I enjoyed every minute I spent on this haunted island. Sure, from time to time frustration was a temporary companion on my journey as well (I herewith curse a specific Witch of a specific Lake...) but in the end defeating a once invincibly-looking enemy or outsmarting the trap device that hit you earlier was even sweeter. The mix between easy and tough parts was quite good and only a few bosses felt either too easy or too generic.

So overall there are only little flaws that becloud the overall impression of "Salt & Sanctuary" and I'd rate it at least 9 out of 10. Seriously, it's a pleasure to see that the "Metroidvania" genre still receives such fantastic additions by the Indie developers after the 'big names' have given up on it - I (still) have my hopes up for either an expansion or a successor here and I'd pre-order instantly.

Praise the S-…alt! \[T]/

Twin Daggers
Broadsword
Bow and Infinite Arrows

-Random Wisdom brought to you by Dead Cells gear
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So far Dead Cells is a perfect example of „Early Access done right“, this charming mix of Rogue-lite (tough difficulty and permadeath) and Metroidvania elements (exploration aspect and combat system) is already a very entertaining experience and gets frequently updated with additional content and fixes.

The gameplay is solid and fun, it runs mostly smooth (some sporadic stuttering aside – developers are trying their best to fix it though), the pixelated visuals are great and there‘s a good amount of areas to explore and weapons/skills to choose from.

On the other hand, the game still lacks some variety (especially Challenge Rooms), needs some more bosses (only two so far) and polishing/balancing but that's acceptable in an Early Access game.
Overall, It already has a solid amount of content, gets updated quite frequently and the developers really seem to care for the player‘s feedback - from my point of view you can’t go wrong here.
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Oh dear, for quite some time those words leave some kind of mixed taste in most gamer’s mouths, mostly due to all those problems and bad examples of the last years (e.g. Next Car Game, Spacebase DF-9 and probably a thousand others…).

I guess we were kind of taught that you cannot trust developers that easily as some of them do shady business and do not care for their game at all (cash aside) – so most of the time it’s probably better to wait than to join a „soon-to-be-abandoned ship“.
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Luckily, Dead Cells is kind of different here and works perfectly as an example of „Early Access done right“.
Aside from its charming visuals ( the game definitely gets some bonus points for interesting design and style) it uses a well-working mix of the Metroidvania Formula in combination with a harsh difficulty and a permadeath where only little progress stays between the runs.

The gameplay is already a lot of fun and slicing through the enemies and rushing through the areas to access Timed Doors (…and dying because I did not pay attention for 1.2 seconds (Good Lord, those Pirate Captains…)) is as fun as carefully approaching each of the enemies alone and slowly but steadily making progress through the areas while exploring every last corner of the level – at least before I’m dying as well due to unfortunate enemy combinations and/or bad reactions on my end.

The levels feature hidden areas, timed doors, challenge rooms, vendors, several exits and of course lots and lots of difficult monstrosities and sweet, sweet gear.
There’s a good amount of different levels and different paths that lead to the (current) ending – so far there are only two bosses but it will take some time (approx. 12-15 hours at first) before you are able to defeat them both and "finish" a run. And then there are the Daily Challenges as well...
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However, aside from all the positive points that I mentioned above, there are some small things as well that hopefully will be fixed/balanced soon.

One example are blueprints, which unlock new skills and weapons for your character and persist between runs.
Their drops are tied to specific enemies (The Shield Bearer e.g. drops some shield blueprints) but some of them have a drop rate straight out of hell and need a lot of grinding to get (or a ton of luck).
However, the developers already announced some changes here to reduce the necessary amount of grinding.

Another point is that e.g. some Timed Doors tend to be quite useless (open them once to get the unique blueprint hidden there and then ignore them for the rest of the game) and that most Challenge Rooms seriously lack some variety: enemy constellations, layout, traps - approximately 80% of them feel the same.
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In the end, those are quite minor negative points and I’m definitely looking forward to the next updates.
Dead Cells is already very entertaining and the developers are not only expanding the game quite frequently but listen to the feedback they receive as well - and this is definitely a promising combination. Even now after the official release there are frequent content updates.
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This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union, providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

Stina Nilsson
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Personally I have no clue about swedish folklore or mythology and grabbed the title simply because it looked kind of unique: setting and visuals seemed to be fresh and interesting and I expected a nice little title that I can play on my tablet and relax along the way. (Okay, did I seriously miss the "Horror“ tag on the storepage?)

Oh man was I wrong.

However, I have to say that I regret nothing - the game’s fantastic but for scary people probably not the best thing to play at 1 a.m..
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The story of the game is mysterious, kind of creepy and mature. At the beginning you are greeted with a short introduction and some small dialogue before starting your 'Year Walk' in attempt to unravel the mysteries of the future.

On your journey you will encounter several beings of swedish folklore, creepy places and many puzzles and secrets.
The game is a mixture of 2D- and 3D-Textures, you play in first person view, travelling from left to right through different parts of the forest, but at some spots you are able to go up or down to change the location.

The forest consists of different areas and you will need to backtrack a lot (or you make notes along the way) to find the solution to some riddles and gadgets. These puzzles are quite interesting but nothing new or unique in the genre, especially for people that already played lots of adventures.

Luckily there is a map and some hints to make your journey easier from time to time and there’s also some kind of information section that will tell you something about the history behind Year Walking, the folklore and the mysterious appearances. It was surprisingly interesting to read all the available information, especially due to the fresh setting that was not already used a hundred times in different games and stories. There’s also a very mysterious journal that requires a username and a password for access and stays a complete secret until you have finished the game at least once.

The visuals and the interesting design of 'Year Walk' are definitely the strongest part of the game, but in combination with an interesting story and the great soundtrack (albeit there’s not that much music, mostly in intense situations) the game's able to create a fantastic amosphere. Out there in a dark forest inhabitated by strange beings that are neither entirely good nor bad there’s a lot of potential for sending chills down your spine.
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Unfortunately the games‘ lenght is from my point of view also the games' biggest downside: your first run will take approximately between two or three hours and as soon as you understand the puzzles and know how to solve them without searching for clues you will be able finish the game quite fast. There’s an achievement that wants you to finish the game in less than 20 minutes and in the end it’s not that particularly hard to get.

Another thing that I would like to mention here are the jumpscares – I simply don’t like them as an element to 'inflict' horror, they feel a bit... cheap. From my point of view the game has a strong atmosphere by itself and does not really need these „SURPRISE: spooky face riiiiiiight in front of the screen‘-moments to scare you. Luckily there are only a few of them.

The last negative point would be the implementation of touchscreen controls. At first I thought that the touchscreen of my Surface Tablet would be enough to play the game (because the game itself was ported from iOS to PC) but unfortunately you need a keyboard to move (and to solve one puzzle).
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In the end I can say that the game surprised me a lot and the positive qualities of 'Year Walk‘ outweigh the short length by far. Sure, the games‘ charm is mostly created by the interesting visuals and the fresh setting but it succeeds nonetheless in building up a dense and mysterious atmosphere. There are some sparse horror elements – e.g. unexpected jump scares - but overall it’s the fear of what may happen and what lies at the end of your walk that will give you some chills, the story within the story.

It's definitely an interesting little horror-adventure that may entertain you for two up to three hours. Luckily there's some replayability due to a secret ending. In the end I would rate the game 8 out of 10 points and especially during sales it’s a great little title to grab.
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This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

Sister Friede
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I really looked forward to 'Dark Souls III''s first DLC called 'Ashes of Ariandel' because - according to trailers - it looked like an amazing experience that would expand the world of the main game by adding lots of new interesting areas, enemies and bosses.
In the end I was partly right. It was a 'great' experience, but the term 'lots' is definitely out of place here.

After release I thought I would pay a visit to the new area and finish it some days after. That’s what I’m used to from the 'Soulsborne' DLCs. So I visited the cold painting of Ariandel and ventured out in the snow. The start was splendid and my journey lead me through fantastic areas full of new items and enemies. The lore seemed to be as sparse and mysterious as ever and created an interesting picture of this new world. After roughly three hours (I played more than intended at first) I faced the first boss in an intense battle. It was a challenging and entertaining fight, environment and music were top-notch and my thoughts back then were: "Damn, if the first boss is THAT good how great must be the following fights?".
I was ready to face the next challenge...

…but there was nothing more. The DLC was over. I sat there totally puzzled. "Wait, that’s it? Are you kidding me?".
I spent one more hour with grabbing the missing items, facing an optional boss and uncovering the last secrets of the Painted World of Ariandel.
Afterwards I was done and left with very mixed feelings…
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'Ashes of Ariandel' has one major problem: it’s too short for its price tag and what we are used to from 'Soulsborne' DLCs or DLCs in general nowadays.

Don’t misunderstand me, the journey and the atmosphere are good. The painted world is a beautiful area of ice and snow, it adds some new content to the main game’s lore (as usual there are more new questions left than old ones answered though) and rewards the player with interesting new weapons, armor sets and spells. The DLC’s boss fight is amazing (from my point of view definitely among the best fights of the whole series) and it finally adds an arena for PVP lovers.

However aside from this there’s not much else in this cold desert. In the end there are two bosses (one is optional) and some new areas, including a winter wonderland, a destroyed village and a frozen lake.
I play rather slowly but I still finished the whole DLC in about three up to four hours.
From my point of view that's too little content by the standards set by other developers or what we got in the precursors' DLCs.
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Yes, I am a massive fan of the 'Soulsborne' series but that does not mean that I should praise everything 'From Software' brings to us. So far the Season Pass is definitely not worth the price - 'Ashes of Ariandel' is solid but far away from the content and quality of Dark Souls' 'Artorias of the Abyss‘ (which was cheaper), Bloodborne's 'Old Hunter' DLC (which had the same price) or e.g. the 'Witcher III'’s DLC ('AoA' has the same price as 'Blood and Wine').

It has some great moments and the PVE content will entertain you for approximately four hours. So far I would have given it 6.5 or 7 points here. But for ~15€ on its own that’s not enough and definitely not what you expect.
It's the same with the new arena. The idea is good (though known from the other 'Souls' games) and works well against estus chuggers in PVP. There are badges for winning fights but unfortunately no rewards. In addition it’s e.g. not possible to team up specifically with friends in 2vs2 fights and there’s only one map so far.

One. Map.

Moreover it’s the map of the main game’s final boss - nothing new aside from some debris lying around.
At first I hoped that 'From Software' would include additional maps with patches some weeks after release but now - after nearly two months - it’s still the same situation and so I suppose that the only time they'll (maybe) add new maps to the arena will be with the next DLC.

These are the reasons why I can’t recommend the DLC on its own and have to give it a thumbs down. It’s a nice journey but surprisingly short, the PVP arena provides the bare minimum of features and overall it's definitely not worth the price you have to pay for it.
Hopefully the second DLC will provide more content or else this may be the first time in years I regret buying a Season Pass.

The Fire Keeper
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To cut a long story short: "Dark Souls III“ is a great game and also a perfect start for anyone that has not played a 'Souls' game to date. From Software came up with interesting ideas to make weapons more diversified, the world and most of the levels are interesting and full of secrets and as usual there’s a lot of hidden lore for people that are interested in story and motives. However from my point of view the game has also lost a bit of the atmosphere and 'essence‘ of the early 'Souls' games. Especially the feeling of hopelessness and solitude is even rarer than in 'Dark Souls II' and the difficulty of the journey changes a lot between challenging and cakewalk.

According to director Miyazaki From Software will now focus on new projects and "Dark Souls III" will be the last 'Souls' game for the next years. On the one hand this is a sad message but on the other hand I’m glad that the quality does not decrease with yearly new instances without many changes.
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The overall story is - as usual in a 'Souls' game - based around the cycle of Fire and Dark:
Fire is fading and you have to return the five Lords of Cinder to their rightful thrones in order to link the fire once more.
This time you are neither an Undead nor a Bearer of the Curse but an 'Unkindled One‘, born from the ashes of an Undead Warrior that failed on his mission. Everything is as ominous as ever and leads the protagonist into a long and dangerous journey through the kingdom of Lothric.

There are lots of areas, items and names that link back to the precursors and there are some really atmospheric levels with great design and architecture and lots of hidden secrets and loot (I’d like to mention 'Archdragon Peak‘, 'Lothric Castle‘ and the 'Grand Archives‘ here).
By the way: the game looks gorgeous. From Software was finally able to spice the game up with some beautiful graphics in addition to the fantastic style.
Here is a screenshot to give you a better impression:

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744858087

Sure, all 'Souls‘ games looked good due to their unique style but the amount of muddy textures was simply too damn high in the earlier titles.
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Aside from the fact that the whole game feels a lot faster and agressive than the precursors there are some changes to spells and dual wielding in general and the new 'Weapon Arts‘.

'From Software' brought the MP system from 'Demon’s Souls' back and went away from the fixed amount of casts. 'Ashen Estus Flasks' are used to recover the so called FP (Focus Points) and the 'Attunement‘ stat now gives more FP in addition to attunement slots.

Moreover they changed the dual wielding system: Not every weapon can be used for dual wielding styles anymore, instead there are some specific 'Dual Wield Weapons‘ like e.g. the 'Brigand Twindaggers‘.
Every Weapon has also a 'Weapon Art‘, a powerful special attack like a mighty blow or a useuful skill like e.g. a quickstep. Some of them are defined by the Weapon Class (e.g. the Weapon Art of most Straight Swords or Shields is the same) but some are truly unique. This gives some extra spice to several weapons and finally makes many of them feel more diversified aside from raw stats.
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From Software has finally included a password function for easier access to e.g. co-op games or fight clubs. Aside there’s the usual stuff: several convenants with different goals, the summoning for bosses and areas and interesting/frustrating PVP that is always a difficult topic in the 'Souls‘ games. You can definitely rant hours and hours about it, especially about balancing and viable options. However I have to admit: When you get a 'good‘ opponent that plays a fair duel things can be a lot of fun despite the typical 'Git Gud‘-massacre. Unfortunately From Software dropped interesting convenant ideas like e.g. the Rat Convenant (you made others invade your world to lure them into a madhouse full of traps and enemies).
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One thing that bothers me a lot in this game is how it handles NG+. It's a massive step backwards compared to 'Dark Souls II' which did something amazing here: it changed stuff.

In NG+ there were not only new drops to many bosses but also you were able to encounter a lot of new Phantoms in the areas, there were changes in some boss fights (e.g. the two Pyromancers during the Lost Sinner fight) and even stuff that surprised you completely like e.g. the two Pursuers in the Throne Room or the 'surprise attack‘ of 'Duke’s Dear Freja' on your way to Brightstone Cave Tseldora. This brought some variaton to the game, which was really needed in NG+ from my point of view. Unfortunately they left this out of 'Dark Souls III': Aside from upgraded rings that you can only find in NG+ and NG++, NG+ is exactly the same.
It’s a pity, those were fantastic ideas and a great start to a more 'diversified/changed‘ NG+.

Moreover I have to say: The game feels pretty easy from time to time. Sure some bosses give you a nice challenge when you fight them for the first time but afterwards I rarely had a problem. The feeling of winning after trying over and over was so rewarding and I kind of miss this for most parts of the game. Maybe that’s the point - I already spent a lot of time in the 'Souls' games and earned a lot of experience. I guess for everyone that plays the series for the first time it’s still pure madness.
A shame that there’s no 'Champion Convenant' this time though.
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'Dark Souls III' shows me once more why I love the series. Design, architecture and style of the world are fantastic, the gameplay is fluid and responsive and exploring the areas feels worthwhile. Moreover the lore is amazing and I love reading all the little hints and listen to the mysterious dialogues. There are some challenging areas and you are always happy when you find an interesting weapon or level up your character.

Sure, aside from all the good facts I also mentioned many points that are - from my point of view - 'weaker‘ than in the earlier titles. Not all changes are great, but that does neither mean that 'Dark Souls III‘ is a bad game on its own nor that it is a bad 'Souls' games. Those are simply aspects where I think that they are weaker than before, but maybe I am a bit nostalgic here – as we all know there were always flaws in the 'Souls' series and stuff like balancing was always a difficult topic (e.g. the 'Scrapping Spear‘ from Demon’s Souls). However 'Dark Souls III‘ has its own style and atmosphere and that makes up for a lot. And moreover it’s way more accessible for new players and a great start for anyone to the whole 'Souls' series – you can respec your character, many of the bosses and enemies are more forgiving for mistakes and in PVE there's less ganking and less ambushes that simply frustrate you.

I’d rate it 9 out of 10 points on its own and maybe 8 out of 10 points as a 'Souls' game.
Damn, maybe I have finally turned into one of those infamous Undeads that praises the first game(s) and hates on the successors.

May the sun have mercy upon me.
Praise the sun! \[T]/

This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

Jarvis when confronted with an Aetherial that possesses a human
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A world on the brink of destruction, plagued by aetherial spirits, demons and insane cult members fighting for power, awaits a hero to stop these evil hordes - welcome to 'Grim Dawn‘.

To cut the whole story short: this game is among the best ARPGs that I have played to date and provides hours and hours of fun for fans of the genre and loot-grinding in general. It has a good amount of character customization (stat and skills points, the devotion system, active and passive abilities), an atmospheric world with a 'grim' style, some good lore and background information, a good amount of sidequests and secrets and of course: tons and tons of loot.
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At first I want to focus on some main points that are my most important requirements for a loot based ARPG game:

• The character creation should provide a good amount of variety and depth, there should be several different characters with lots of (viable) builds, even for endgame: Check!
  
• A fast-paced fighting system with interestings skills and combinations and a quite tough difficulty curve for having some challenge: Check!
  
• Loot! Lots and lots of interesting and varied loot plus crafting and augmentations (that awesome stuff you need to grind for several hours because your character REALLY needs those 25 extra points of DPS): Check!
  
• An interesting world with lots of atmospheric areas and some interesting lore: Check!
  
• Exploring the maps should feel worthwile and sidequests, secrets areas and mysterious stuff should await courageous adventurers: Check!
  
• An acceptable length plus additional difficulties and a hardcore mode to provide some long-term motivation: Check!
  
• A coop mode is always a great feature because every now and then it's more entertaining to grind for stuff with others: Check!

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As usual in every ARPG you run around, killing hundreds and thousands of enemies while looting every stash and treasure that you see on the screen. The fights tend to be very fast-paced and require some fine-tuning in terms of skills and equipment in higher difficulties.
Grim Dawn does many things right. There are some visually very appealing areas, the soundtrack is fantastic, the atmosphere and style is splendid and there's a lot of stuff you can kill and loot aside from the main path.

One of the most important points in an ARPG is certainly the character itself. You play with him/her for quite some time and you should be able to develop everything in the way you prefer it to fit your playstyle. Luckily 'Grim Dawn' provides a good amount of character customization:

• At first there's a dual class character system. You can combine two of the six classes to get one of the 15 available Masteries. This allows a lot of interesting options to specialize in different skills and mechanics and trying out new combinations is a lot of fun.
  
• Stat Points: Physique, Cunning, Spirit. Those are the three stats where the stat points can be allocated to. Not very special though, that’s basic stuff.
  
• Skill Points: the dual class systems gives you two skill trees with several levels and lots of passive and active abilities. That way you can specialize your character in different ways. Reallocating your points is possible though.
  
• Devotion: There are lots of stars on the sky and they belong to a lot of different celestial powers. While exploring the world you can find devotion shrines and by cleaning or restoring them you can get points to spend in the devotion system, another layer of character customization. There are many different signs and options that provide lots and lots of passive abilities or even new active skills.
  
• Equipment: It’s an ARPG so there’s a lot of equipment for sure. The common rarities (normal, magic, rare, legendary and epic stuff + set items) wait for fearless adventurers and skillfull heroes. Some epic and legendary items even grant your character new active and passive skills. Additional special attacks or even more passive or automatically proccing skills can make quite a difference when you face some nasty bosses and enemy hordes.
  
• Augmentations and Crafting: Yes, you will grind a lot for several ingredients and recipes. It will annoy you. But you’ll do it nonetheless to improve your gear even further. Add some additional damage, get some more resistances or provide other usefulls points by adding augmentations to your equipment – never say no to additional positive stats. You’ll need them. Those bosses are not known for mercy.

So much for the character customization. With two classes you can try out really interesting combinations. Should your Soldier class get some magic power as well by choosing the Arcanist and becoming a Battlemage? Or should he fight with the skills of a Nightblade, annihilating enemies with two weapons at once as a Blademaster? Your choice.

The character system is backed up by an interesting world with lots of secret areas, side quests and neat little stuff to explore and a very good atmosphere throughout the whole game.
There are also several factions that you can side with and some of them (and some sidequests as well) require some simple decisions as well: choose option A and Side B will hate you or the other way around. Nothing too special but it adds some replay value.

The story itself is (typically for the genre) solid but nothing more. The lore and the background information however are quite interesting (yes, I actually read the little journey entries) and increase the atmosphere of this mad world even more.
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Of course there’s some shadow as well. The game is not always working completely stable, I had approximately 10 crashes in the hours I spent so far (funny: most of them while closing the game), though the last update reduced the amount of crashes a lot. As usual you need to grind quite a bit for upgrade materials and reputation points, the dialogue windows are somewhat ugly and… yeah that’s it.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. Compared to the game‘s positive aspects it can be ignored easily.
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Whenever I start the game I play more than intended at first. Every time.
That’s quite a good sign as the game is a lot of fun and combines several advantages of amazing ARPGs of the past while providing neat little comfort functions (e.g. show only loot of a particular rarity or higher) and requires the player to actually read and listen to dialogues and journal entries because there are no quest markers on the world map (only on the mini map when you are close to them). That’s perfectly fine and encourages to run through areas again.

Overall 'Grim Dawn' is among the best ARPGs that I have played so far and in combination with the mod support, the regular updates and the co-op mode it provides fun for a looong time.
Sure, there are some rough edges that could use some more polishing (.e.g the dialogue windows needs getting used to, personally I think they are ugly) but even now I’d gladly rate it 9 out of 10 points as it provides nearly everything that you want from an ARPG.

Okay, that was enough talk. Time to grind! Only 16 more chipped claws to craft that little component. Sweet!
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This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union,
providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

Achievement in 'Slain: Back from Hell‘
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Several months after the initial release you can definitely claim that 'Slain: Back from Hell‘ has done an interesting evolution: back in march critics totally 'slayed‘ the game, branding it as a bug-ridden mess with bulky gameplay and a massive lack of variation. Overall it was more a lame attempt on side-scrolling-arcade-games from the 80’s and 90’s than a great memorial.

However 'Slain' provided one aspect that even a lot of bigger and better games lack: a team of developers that was willing to see bad decisions, accepted them and did their best to improve the game. They started releasing lots of updates and fixes to improve nearly every aspect of the game and listened to the (small) community: the gameplay was improved and the fights became more diversified, they re-wrote the mostly 'meh‘ dialogues, eliminated most of the bugs and added some more content to improve the games‘ overall length (e.g. additional bosses).

At least once a week there was a new update and now in August they re-released the game as 'Slain: Back from Hell‘ (and even handed out a gift key copy for persons who already bought it). And to cut a long story short: their work was not in vain - Slain has improved massively over the last months.
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One thing that can be seen nearly instantly is that the graphic style and the design definitely looks beautiful. It‘s not only colorful and dark at the same time but it also fits the overall metal-gore style perfectly. In combination with the (mostly badass) metal soundtrack Slain is definitely an interesting retro-arcade-adventure for ears and eyes.
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Take your sword and start slicing skeletons, witches and other demonic beings into little bits while trying not to be killed by their weapons, spells or some nasty traps. Every now and then you will be confronted with a jumping passage or a boss fight to bring some diversity to the way you die.

The battle system comes with handy charged attacks, blocks, ripostes and some (chargable) mana powers and you will definitely need their help to get further in this hellish realms. At first some timings and hitboxes seem a bit weird but you get used to it pretty fast and then the system feels easy and mostly comfortable – there’s not much to complain about though I’d have liked some more depth and some additional weapons (the metal sword, the fire blade and the ice axe feel quite alike).

The difficulty level is set pretty high and you will see the 'You have been SLAIN‘ screen a lot. Everything (aside from probably one or two NPCs) wants to kill you and the enemies and traps are quite capable of doing so. You’ll die a lot and if you plan to get all of the achievements you can probably say goodbye to your nerves and patience - the menu option 'Restarting from Checkpoint‘ will become your best friend when trying to beat some nasty bosses without taking damage (yes, I'm talking about you 'Mother Beholder').

The overall length of the game is approximately around five or six hours. Sadly there’s not much replay value aside from some hidden talisman parts and the achievements. Some more hidden rooms and stuff to explore would have been an interesting addition to the game.
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As already mentioned the levels are quite linear and there’s nearly nothing to explore. That's a shame as the areas look interesting and provide a bit of lore as well - the potential for additional paths, rooms and secrets is definitely there. Moreover the game has some annoyingly hard passages due to spamming mobs or difficult ambushes. This can be very frustrating and even if you're used to challenging titles and tough sequences, you will probably end in hating the game or at least some areas as much as you like other parts.

In addition the game has some achievements that are right out of hell as well. One example here is to finish the whole game without loosing a life. Sure…
...I love challenges but that sounds like a total nope.
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'Slain' is a great example to show what can happen when developers care about their product. After their failure with the initial launch of the game (they released it early due to internal problems) they accepted their mistakes and made lots of patches to fix the problems. Now the game is very different compared to the first release and it’s finally the game it should have been from the start: a nice little homage to oldschool arcade-action adventures.

Maybe the Metascore of 44 was deserved back in march when it was first released, however now the game is a lot of fun, the developers care about their product and still continue to support it - I’d give the game at least an 7.5 out of 10. Because I bloody love gory-retro-hellish-viking-styled fantasy-metal-monster-slayers (...even with some flaws and a lack of depth).

By the way: your character is able to headbang to celebrate the victorious slaying of a boss and his hair is definitely fabulous. Metal as f*ck.
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This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union, providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.