Recent reviews by Paladynne

First time player post 1.0 launch.

TL;DR: the combat is so basic it might as well not exist. The early traversal is tedious, but overall as an RPG with lots of dialogue and quest choices I did really enjoy this game overall.

Not/ a Souls-like. I understand the comparisons between Elden Ring, as they both share an open world where progression unlocks shortcuts between places; ultimately connecting the entire world you explored. However, I feel it is very important to note that there are no bosses.

All conflicts between would-be bosses are handled entirely through dialogue options. As far as I'm aware, you cannot kill a single speaking NPC through direct combat. To me this was a little refreshing, it's definitely for lore-lovers.


As a result of no bosses, the combat that does exist is nearly useless... For a myriad of reasons:

1. Combat is very cheese-able.
   
2. Combat doesn't reward XP.
   
3. Combat punishes you...

The enemy AI is incredibly basic. The very simple strategy of "poke, back up" can defeat every single enemy in the game without you ever taking damage. There's a parry system but there's no need for it; its animation is so long that you're better off doing poke-retreat as it takes the same amount of time.

I could be wrong, but the only way to receive XP is from quests and floating skull items. Combat doesn't reward any XP, just really basic items like potions, lock picks, gold, etc.

And finally, combat punishes you through the faction system. Killing aggressive enemies will lower your faction score with them and it's very difficult to repair that score with some factions. I do not know if the "Loved" status from monster factions means they won't attack you, as killing them gave me "Hated" status with them.

Ultimately, I'm not really sure why the combat exists. During the final quest, I sprinted past all enemies because there was no point. They won't drop XP and I'm already loaded on loot by that point, plus killing them isn't even a requirement. So... why bother with combat.


There is no mount, sorry.

Minor spoiler about the airship: the game teases owning your own airship at every city, as each one contains an airship port with a keeper that says you need permission to obtain one. You will get one, it's a requirement to finish the game. However... By the time you get the airship, you will have explored 99% of the world accessible by it. You will have unlocked the teleport system. Therefore, there isn't much to explore with it which is really disappointing as it's a really cool feature.

Mount alternative spoiler: there is an Agility spell sold in Hallow Town. For about 10s you will walk and sprint at what feels like 5x speed. I was spamming this spell after I unlocked it, you should too if the walking gets annoying.


There are multiple, but it's your standard "Dishonored" affair. The choices you make will give you a unique slideshow with voice over narration about what happened as the result of your actions. I understand why "multiple endings" are done this way, but there's little incentive for me to replay the game to get them all.


I did a lot of complaining, but that's mostly because I think the game fell short with the combat. Overall, the game was a very fresh experience and I'm glad I played it!

I learned poker hands for the first time in my life just to play this.

My definitive 2D platformer.

The movement is precise and the mechanics are unique and fun. Such as the basic whip attack being instant at your back (windup) but delayed before it hits in front of you.

It's difficult, but very fair and rewarding. About 99% of deaths are your fault and you'll learn from them. There are multiple endings, branching paths and random level generation. There's a ton of replay value and short of an official Nintendo Mario roguelike, this is my absolute favorite platformer of all time.

A short and sweet introduction to the "We Were Here" series. I got this when it was free to keep. For the very short length, it should have stayed free considering it's about an hour in length.

Considering the other "We Were Here" games are very cheap, I would not purchase this for anything more than $1. There's a loose story across the whole games and you don't need to play this one first. Get it if it's cheap or free and you're itching for more "We Were Here."

They should open up the first chapter completely in the demo. I was on the fence about buying the game, put 7 hours into the demo trying to decide. The demo has a strict path you can play, only two levels and they look the same. I think also the exact same enemies except one. Thought it would get stale really quick.

However, I don't regret buying the full game at all. Scenery changes look great as well as the enemy variety and unlocked options I didn't know were a thing.

Linear game play, repetitive combat and limited assets. Not sure where the praise is coming from, this game sucks overall.

I started at the "hardest" difficulty (the last one is locked behind a first completion of the game). It's way too easy, was never punished for mistakes and never felt challenged.

The entire game is extremely linear. It's basically an on-rails shooter, but with swords instead. You walk in a path you cannot deviate from, until a few waves of enemies attack you then continue on your linear journey.

They try to break up this monotony with really basic RTS segments that are virtually impossible to lose.

And the combat is extremely basic. Light attack, heavy attack, parry and dodge. However, the combos are extremely basic and the parry is very generous. There's about four types of enemies, each requiring a couple "combos" to defeat.

Boss fights are incredibly boring. Take the final boss: Boudica.
Her first phase only has two combos; two light attacks followed by a heavy attack and then a heavy attack. That's it. Very easy to defeat but very tedious because you can only hit her once after evading her combos, before she becomes immune. Maybe I did something wrong, but I won anyway.
Her second phase keeps the first two combos and adds two more... that follow the same evasion patterns. Again, can only hit her once per combo evasion so easy but tedious.

I saw someone who described it as "you can tell it was a kinect game at some point," which makes a lot of sense.

Extremely forgettable game with a very standard revenge story.

Cautious recommendation: if you think you'll enjoy this game you probably will; if you want a game to play against your friends, the progression system punishes you for not playing against randoms.


A few changes can make this an easy recommendation.

Friends vs Friends takes the competitive, serious style of arena shooters like Quake and adds in the whacky randomness of Mario Kart (or items-on Smash Bro.'s). But it mostly seems to lean into "frustrating" territory with me so far.

Mario Kart is competitive, you want to reach 1st place. But the simplicity of its mechanics and heavy use of random items lean it heavily into a "casual" fun party game. Sucks to lose, but it's still fun. What helps is that the other players don't always have access to Blue Shells, it only shows up for players far behind.

But in FvF, the Blue Shell equivalent items are available to both players from the start. This commonly results in frustrating matches, at least to me:

Your opponent drew their Blue Shell and you didn't. You got outplayed, by having bad luck. Oh well, hope you draw your Blue Shell next round to tie things up. It doesn't make for a very fun experience, in my opinion.


Balance: hit or miss.

Prioritizes fast matchmaking over balanced. Results in opponents higher levels than you. This matters because they will most likely have better cards/combos and higher level cards than you (your level 1 Bomb deals less damage than their level 3 Bomb).

The hit or miss nature greatly exaggerates the other issues I have with this game.


Tedium, if anyone rejects the rematch: server loading screen to the main lobby, forced to watch your EXP bar animation and then you can bring up the menu to re-queue. Just add a quick re-queue option.

There is no round timer.

If your opponent uses the shotgun (currently insanely OP) at the start of a round, the correct course of action is to engage from afar. Choosing to close the gap is a pretty bad choice if you don't believe your opponent has awful aim.

But your opponent also does not have to engage. They can play a game of chicken, where they refuse to leave their close quarters corner until you approach. The only punishment is who decides to break the stalemate first.

This is tough to solve. A timer isn't perfect, as it rewards whoever got more poke damage off and can be abused for lame victories. But stalling opponents also suck right now, so almost anything would be better than to leave it as is.


Leveling is slow. The ability to complete Daily/Weekly Quests is locked behind levels 8/15. Why? This is just a punishment to newer players and helps veteran players stay ahead in card variety/levels.


Variety in game play is super low for newer players.

Duck and Dog play very similar. One starts with a heal card every round, the other starts with higher base HP. These are basically the same character.

Seagull and Cat play very similar. One starts with a golden version of the default pistol, the other has a passive damage increase. Newer players will only have access to the default pistol most of the time, so these play very similar to each other.

The default Moose has a double jump. This is good, variety in game play style.

Move the Polar Bear down (explosive resist) to replace the Dog. Since the matchmaking is hit or miss and explosives are very meta relevant right now, the Polar Bear gives newer players a better experience if they're struggling against them.

Move the Raven (spawns with SMG) down to an earlier unlock level. Gives newer players more variety in game play styles.


Pure RNG.

Again, you'll be paired up against players who either got lucky and have better cards or are a higher level and thus have more (and probably better) cards than you.

Add an option to buy a single, specific card for a similar price to a booster pack. This lets newer players catch up on the meta without having to gamble and rely on luck. This can be themed like "3 most popular cards this week."

After all, the only advantage a veteran should have over a noob is better knowledge of the mechanics; NOT just having better equipment than the noob.

Late to the review party. Here after completing the game, with all difficulty modifiers enabled and achieving the true ending.

Really not sure where the "too hard" complaints that had this game at "mixed reviews" came from back then. Pretty much every run can make it to the final boss, barring silly mistakes or unlucky timing.

The deck building aspect takes a bit of a back seat, imo. Limited opportunities to truly craft your own unique deck and more of making your starting deck bulky and hoping you draw your combo pieces. And there are a limited amount of scripted battles, so the journey is basically always the same.

Overall, a fun and well made game with nice artwork. Hoping the upcoming big update adds a lot of content, as it stands I think the replay-ability is very limited once you complete the game.

Very short, very easy. Weird story pacing.

Extremely short. Your save file keeps track of % complete. To get the New Game+ achievement I ignored all side missions and activities, doing only main missions and the save file after credits was 55%.

Very easy combat, even on the hidden highest difficulty. Bosses are also easy, mostly waiting out their i-frames.

The story drops you in as an experienced Peter Parker, who has already defeated a lot of his iconic enemies off screen. His relationship with some main characters is already established. Everyone is probably tired of Spider-Man origin stories, but skipping so much is an odd choice. As a result, no villain has much of a build up. Even the main villain of the game just goes from normal dude to evil villain with no real build up. Bad guy is bad, deal with it.

Basically a very easy beat 'em up but you play as Spider-Man.

You can disable aim assist in the settings but the gadget auto-aim cannot be disabled whatsoever and it's very annoying.

Neat premise, awkward execution.

A bullet hell typing game, neat. Bad controls, awkward. I did buy it for $1.79 but requested refund because it would sit in my library unplayed.

Some frustrations with the game that immediately stood out and also serve as suggestions:

• Movement is either Shift + WASD or arrow keys. You can rebind WASD but not Shift.
  
• Backspace doesn't do anything.
  Anyone used to typing races will instinctively use backspace when you make a typo. In this game it doesn't do anything. When you typo, the game automatically moves the word cursor one letter back. Which leads to me getting caught in a typo loop because I was trying to backspace my error and start the word from the first letter instead of from the last typo.
  
• Space doesn't do anything.
  You have to type sentences and instinctively you press spacebar between each word. In this game, I think it counts as a typo (could be wrong): punishing you for trying to type correctly?
  
• Awkward movement controls.
  This one is just really hard to solve. You want to keep your fingers on the home row, but need to either stop typing entirely or move your hand away to move the character.
  When using the Shift + WASD, you cannot enter any letters as you're in movement mode. When you move your hand away to use the arrow keys, you're stuck typing one-handed.
  I think players should have the ability to rebind Shift and the arrow keys. I can think of a really weird setup that would be very useful for me:
  Left Shift = Move Left
  Right Shift Move Right
  Left Alt = Move Down
  Right Alt = Move Up
  I don't use my thumbs to type letters, just to use modifier keys. Since the modifier keys are useless, I would much rather rebind them to movement. This would let me move while continuing to type semi-efficiently. As it stands, the movement controls make typing and movement very awkward and cumbersome.

If you can get past those issues and like typing games, why not? It's $1.79 right now. For me, until those are fixed it seems like a waste of money even at that price.