Recent reviews by Paledomain

I've tried really hard to not be annoyed by this game, unfortunately, as a fan that played all Dragon Age games and as a game designer, it is with very sad news I have to say not only is this not a Dragon Age game, it is not a game at all.

-To start with the few positives I have to say about this game, the character creator is cute, it is nice to finally see and play in Tevinter, and the environment designs are breathtaking. Unfortunately, my compliments end here.

-Companions talk in a super modern twitteresque lingo that is incredibly annoying to have to be subjected to constantly, especially considering the next point:

-Rook is a non-character: You play the game as a rando mercenary of sorts that follows companions who investigate and make decisions for them, after which you nod approvingly, or nod in polite disapproval, and then go and kill what is the equivalent of this game's hilichurls: the different factions you fight against are shadows of their older selves, with no philosophical grounds to stand on, simple "evil" things that need to be obliterated just because they are portrayed as objectively evil, which is incredibly reductive in what used to be a world riddled with salient representations of fantasy racism, slavery, police violence and the like.

-The world spaces are incredibly dead in content. The levels are the equivalent of running from the start of a corridor to the end while bonking vermin along the way. Exploration of side spaces is rewarded only (and only sometimes) with simple resources that amount to very little, and you can interact with VERY little of what the world shows you. You see a trapdoor, realise it's a trapdoor, the game doesnt even tell you irs locked, and then 5 hours later into the game the same trapdoor is opened and bonkable enemies stand in front: The player had no choice in pre-exploring this area, interacting with the world beyond the very weakly stringed script the game throws at them.

-The game still carries a lot of the braindead gacha mechanics' legacy in itself: The world spaces are filled with simple and repetitive Genshin puzzles, certain chests open with special animations while the rest dont, likely an artifact left from older versions where these chests awarded premium currency of some type, and characters introduce themselves to you like gacha splash screens made in a way to showoff _how cool_ they are, only for their characterisation to immediately fall off a cliff the moment the introduction cinematic ends and they start talking again.

It is a shame such a beautiful game world got the treatment it got. IF this game was made by actual writers and game designers (or well, if most of them werent fired less than halfway through development), this could have actually been a game.

It is the modern fromsoft experience, rebalanced and expanded into a new and open world experience. Great gameplay, great fashion, great magic, great multiplayer!

A mech game with no human models or faces to whatsoever, it excels in telling a gripping story where you wish to embrace half the cast and drown the rest in acid - so, typical fromsoft-fare.

Carrying the genetics of Sekiro in its design language, but with 4 times the amount of mutual aggression, 1 extra dimension and lack of i-frames, armoured core 6 creates a breakneck experience, with a multilayered mech customisation and blender level visual fiddling options, making it possible to create both amazingly cool and extremely silly mech designs.

Glad I picked this up, really makes me wish the previous games were available on PC with mouse and keyboard.

This game is so crushingly underrated! I’ve got to say, the character creation is pretty cool, the combat is intensely satisfying with its gory looks and dynamic reflex-needing structure (bonus points for being able to pretty much pick up or climb on everything), the pawns and their awkward toddler behaviour is absolutely adorable and the story seems so far so good!

YE PEOPLE NEED TO PLAY THIS AND HERE ARE YER REASONS!

DRAGON AGE FANS!

-Awesome team work ahead
-(B)romaaaaaaaaaaaance
-Insane team barter
-Go on an ungiven quest of hunting weirdly placed chests instead of actually progressing

DARK SOULS FANS!

-Constantly scream at all those giant monsters as you proceed to question the meaning of your life and die
-Sarcastic npcs
-Face giant monsters that can and will hurt you, climb on them and carve an anus into them to force them into submission
-Fashion souls, relayered version
-Apparently there’s a speedrun mode??

FOR SKYRIM FANS!

-Run around the giant world for hours without a clue of what you are doing as you pick up various kinds of rubbish from the ground
-A heckload of quests
-Jumping simulator 2013
-AN ACTUAL DAY/NIGHT CYCLE CAN YOU BELIEVE IT

FOR EVERYONE!

-Recreate you waifus and idealized self once again as you go over a surprisingly well made character creator to make not only yourself, but also your main companion and their personality and traits
-Drool over beautifully crafted environments and vistas which you can traverse in ease
-I literally cannot praise this game enough
-Seriously just buy it and start playing already
-They’re masterworks all, you can’t go wrong!

Dying in a game isn't supposed to be funny right?

Then I wonder... Why do I always laugh when I die in Dark Souls?

While like everything, this game too has its cons (not much mind you); I think what makes it really special is the way it changes your perspective on some things, not only in-game, but also in real life. After a while, Dark Souls makes you get over the things another person would be stuck at, like the despair of failure, or the anger of supposed injustice. After a while, you just learn that you need to git gud.

That, and the lore. Dear god the lore is just fantastic.

P.S. I don't have Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 on Steam but consider the same review for them too.