Recent reviews by Particle of God

So tired of games that were released on the PS5 not having any DualSense support on PC. Not supporting the special features is bad enough, especially considering all the marketing behind this game about how great it is with DualSense. But you couldn't even put in the correct button prompts? How lazy can you be? You need a mod to get PS prompts.

I know I'm being petty but I'm getting a refund. I can watch a Lets Play on youtube and save a few dollars.

It's not great but it's got some things going for it. It's got an interesting story, gameplay is mostly pretty fun if you got the right loadout but it can be clunky sometimes especially at close-quarters. Boss fights mostly sucked imo but at least the final boss was pretty fun.

Mostly its just really cool to experience the origins of Warframe. There's a lot more similarities than I was expecting so if you're a big fan of Warframe I'd 100% recommend it. Otherwise it's still a pretty cool game and $11 is a decent price.

These games are very overpriced for what they are. This game reuses a lot of assets from the first one(which is not inherently bad but for the degree to which they reuse stuff you'd expect a cheaper price), all three games came out within a few months of each other so they don't take long to make and there's just very little variety in the NPC's(you'll have 2 or more identical NPC's in the same town). They cost way too much imo but I got them all for about half the price from GMG which is far more reasonable.

A lot of my thoughts on the first game are the same here. There is some improvement, there's a lot more challenging fights throughout so far but random encounters can still be too easy and frequent so they become more of an annoyance than a fun fight. Gameplay overall is better though, in the first game you could just use your most powerful attack on each character and easily win most fights. In this it helps to be a little more strategic in what order you play in and how you have your skills setup. I have one main attack character who does most of the damage and another character focused on generating gems and buffing him. You could also do that in the first game but it didn't really matter much and was mostly a waste of time. The story is great, I actually like it more than the first game but I'm not too far into it yet. Soundtrack is godly, very reminiscent of the DrakeNieR series but particularly of Re[in]carnation.

I'd say it's an overall improvement of the first game but it could still be a lot better, especially considering the asking price. Like I wish our characters actually had different designs based on your equipped armour. And more variety in NPC designs would be great. I definitely recommend it if you enjoyed the first game but it's probably best to wait for a sale.

Minor spoilers after finishing the game: Overall I loved it but the final boss is even worse than the first game. You spend hours enjoying the world and story and then the final bosses are just so frustrating that it sours the whole experience. There's 4 final bosses and you can't save in-between beating them. So if you beat the first 3 and die on the last one you have to redo all 4 of them. And the fights aren't particularly fun either, they are just tedious and take ages to do. I wouldn't be so pissed if you could at least save after each one. I'd love to replay this in the future but the thought of having to do those fights again is a huge turn-off. I really wish Yoko Taro would stop ruining his games with these ♥♥♥♥♥♥ endings. Story-wise it was a good ending but getting to this point shouldn't be so frustrating.

Yoko Taro + Keiichi Okabe = MUST PLAY IMMEDIATELY. Great story and amazing soundtrack with some excellent NieR-esque tracks.

Actual gameplay isn't great. It's way to easy most of the time and random encounters just become an annoyance when you can one shot everything. Bosses are actually fun because they are more challenging but then the final boss is ridiculously hard compared to the rest of the game to the point where I'm just annoyed and not having fun. It probably wouldn't even be that bad if the rest of the game was well balanced but you just have this huge leap in difficulty out of nowhere. As much as I love Yoko Taro games, I really hate how he has to make the endings as inaccessible as possible(see Ending E for Replicant and DoD3). It feels like he actually hates his fans sometimes with some of his game design choices and he'd probably have way more fans if not for this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

There's a card game you can play in towns that's a lot of fun but it's just a side-thing with no real effect on the rest of the game. If they could have incorporated a simpler/faster and less random version of that game into the combat system it would have been way more interesting imo.

As you'd expect, the story is great but it takes a while to get there. When it finally does it really delivers; definitely nothing on the level of NieR or Drakengard but it's got a similar feel and it might even take place in that connected multiverse(I've seen people mention this but I haven't noticed any of the connections myself yet). I found it somewhat similar to Drakengard 3 in terms of the absurd and wacky(but much less depraved) characters you meet. I'd definitely recommend this to Yoko Taro fans but probably not to anyone else just because the gameplay itself is so bad. From being so easy that its boring, to being so difficult that you stop having fun, it just sucks all-around. Kind of a shame but I'm hoping it's improved in the next two games.

So yeah, I wouldn't recommend this to the average gamer but I'm giving it a thumbs up anyway because Yoko Taro is amazing(and the worst), and there's enough interesting elements of the game that I'm enjoying it despite the terrible gameplay. The soundtrack, characters and story(eventually) are the games strongest points and if you can get past the ass gameplay then you'll definitely enjoy this.

The demo is ridiculously easy and boring gameplay-wise. I was a little hesitant to buy the full game after finishing it but the final Boss, who was actually challenging and fun, and the song at the end made me say ♥♥♥♥ it and I bought the trilogy(no regrets so far). The full game is slightly more challenging but unfortunately still way to easy however the story, characters and soundtrack are what make it really good. Also while this acts as a demo for the full game, it's actually a prologue in terms of story. Most of what happens in the demo isn't present in the full game so you'll want to play this first. It's not required at all but it enhances the experience a bit when you go to the full game.

I haven't finished the full version yet, just started the final chapter. It takes a while to get going but I'm really loving it now. While the demo might be a disappointing experience for a lot of people, I would say that if you're a fan of Yoko Taro's other works you'll have a lot of fun in the full version.

I consider myself a very casual LotR fan but I recently rewatched all the movies and found myself wanting(or NEEDING) more Middle Earth. I tried Shadow of Mordor but it didn't really click for me for a lot of reasons. I downloaded this, spent 3 hours in the character creator(An hour of that was just trying to find a good name that wasn't already taken) and then I began my epic journey.

And epic it has been. This game is so immersive you start playing and you're just transported into Middle Earth for the next several hours, I've unlocked a few basic fast-travel methods but I have no desire to use them, it just feels wrong and immersion-breaking in a game like this that makes you feel like you're actually living in the world. I'm sure I'll use it eventually but sparingly. There only other games I've gotten that feeling from is SWTOR and Death Stranding(which actually has a 'setting-appropriate' fast-travel method but I still can't bring myself to use it most of the time).

I've got 20 hours in this and I haven't even left the starting area yet, I just keep exploring and finding new quests to do. And the map... its freaking HUUUGE. Eriador by itself is bigger than many other games entire map and you've still got 4 other regions of similar size, it's one of the biggest maps I've ever seen(there's an update coming later this year that will expand it EVEN MORE) and its not just empty open world there's lots to do. Like way to much to do. I'm gonna have to start skipping some things or I'm never gonna progress to the next area. Which also adds replayability for trying out other classes in the future. There's so many quests, I can just ignore the ones I already did on my first character and still have plenty of new content to enjoy.

It's got a very generous f2p model, they made a bunch of the older expansions free last year so you can get potentially hundreds of hours of content without paying for anything. There are some limitations but you can also earn lotro-points(premium currency) in-game without paying and mitigate a lot of that over time. A one month sub is $20 CAD and permanently unlocks some useful stuff; even if you go back to f2p you'll keep some of the benefits like extra inventory and character slots.

One negative thing I discovered, which isn't really so much an issue with the game but with Steam, is that if you decide to buy something from the LOTROStore you are forced to use Steam Wallet and steam charges you extra for taxes(13% where I live). If you launch "LotroLauncher.exe" from your install directory instead of from Steam you can access the regular LOTROStore and use a credit card or PayPal and they don't charge you taxes. This probably depends where you live but it's worth checking. I saved $6 off my subscription just by launching the game outside of steam. After I payed, I just closed-out the game, relaunched from Steam and all was good.

Overall I'm really enjoying this game so far, probably way too much but there's no stopping now. I am now a citizen of Middle earth, one of the Free Peoples!!!

150 Hour Update: I absolutely love this game! I've really been taking my time doing tons of sidequests to get a better understanding of the world and trying not to rush just to get to the areas I really want to see. I finally made it to Imladris/Rivendell tonight and WOW. That was easily one of the most emotional experiences I've had with a game in a while. I'd seen people mention the impact before but I was not ready for that. After a long and dangerous journey riding there to deliver an important message, turning the corner and seeing the city as the lighting changed and the music swelled up, that was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing, still have tears in my eyes as I'm writing this. No matter how many hours I end up putting into this game that moment will never be forgotten. I can easily say this is THE BEST mmo I've ever played in terms of worldbuilding, atmosphere and immersion. It's among the best for it's story and soundtrack as well.

Spent a while trying to get my controller to work. Store page lists it as having "Full Controller Support" which is simply not true. I tried so many work-arounds with zero luck. Sure I could just use a kb&m but I shouldn't have too when you claim full controller support...

I'm also tired of games that rely on auto-detecting what controller you have plugged in. It doesn't work half the time, if your game supports both Xbox and PlayStation controllers, then let me manually switch between which button prompts are shown in settings. Auto detection is only convenient when it actually works.

Edit: Also even if a game doesn't support PlayStation controllers there's no reason not to have an option in settings to shows PS button prompts. That would allow people to emulate their PlayStation controllers as an Xbox controller and still have the correct button prompts in-game. There's plenty of lower budget games that do this but for some reason AAA titles can't....

Its a short but very cool experience. The sound design is phenomenal.

I'm recommending it but the $20 asking price is a major rip-off. I think I got this years ago as part of some humble-bundle but definitely don't pay $20 for this. It's worth like $5 maximum.

So many issues, the only reason I keep playing is because the story is pretty good but almost everything else sucks. I got it for around $10 during a sale, so I feel like I got a good deal but at full price, this is a ripoff. I'd say it's worth $20 maximum.

Story is pretty good so far, it's the only thing keeping me going. Combat can be fun but even on the easier difficulty levels it just gets so annoying sometimes. Also I've noticed for most of the side missions it seems to just ignore my difficulty setting. ♥♥♥♥ that. I have it set to easiest so I can just coast through the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gameplay and enjoy the story but then for some missions I'm forced to play at a much higher setting.

Also i just wasted 40 minutes because there's no mid-mission saves and nowhere does the game communicate that to you. There's a little icon that comes up very now and then in the bottom left corner. I had been assuming those were autosaves since there's no way to manually save. But I logged out after seeing that icon and when I came back I was back on the Quinjet losing all that progress. So idkwtf that icon is supposed to symbolise but it's nothing useful.

And lastly, I hate the fact that Spider-Man is limited to the PlayStation version although I assume that's probably because of Sony rather than the developers. Even so, it's ridiculous so ♥♥♥♥ Sony for that one.

The Avengers all feel pretty unique in their gameplay, which I guess is good but when the gameplay overall is just not that enjoyable it doesn't really matter how unique they are. Anyway for the $10 I paid, I feel like I'm getting a good story but not much else.

I went to start playing episode 2 of LiS 2 when it warned me to play this first. For a free game this was amazing. Short but full of cool moments and a great story. Definitely worth playing before Life is Strange 2.

Without spoiling anything I think its better to play this after episode 1 of LiS 2 rather than before starting the game. There's some cool references to the first episode and it acts as a nice bridge between the two. It definitely got me even more excited to play episode 2.