Recent reviews by spice_

I have now completed 95% of the game (see "Been there.." achievement). Overall, I really enjoyed my time, but game has some weird and dubious decisions made with its mechanics. Despite this, I think this game is really good and worth your time (and money).

Pros:
- Great artstyle and graphics
- One of the best instrumental soundtracks
- Nice controls and really good UI (KDC1 UI with some improvements)
- Story is better explained and has more effort put in than in KDC1
- Quest design is mostly good
- Mods and console commands are achievement friendly

Subjective things:
- Still needs a quicksave mod to fully enjoy it (same as KDC1)
- Combat system is unforgiving in the first 10 hours (same as KDC1)
- I don't like alchemy (same as KDC1)
- Game economy gets broken asf after 15-20 hours (same as KDC1)

Bad:
- Story pacing in some parts can be pretty horrible (around mid game)
- Post-game major bugs: key chars disappearing, inn beds being trespassing
- Can't play during the night outside of town or village areas (same as KDC1)
- Combat camera can get really nutty when fighting on staircases or hill slopes
- Some perks are really badly designed (+5% for smth), i.e. not impacting gameplay in a major way.

In this DLC, ID Soft have learned from their mistakes in terms of balancing, but it is noticeable that they had much less budget in comparison to the first DLC. In particular, the second level feels as half-done and not as properly developed.

- Easy difficulty feels actually easy
- Visually impressive levels (beginning of last one)
- The hammer

- Final boss fight is just okay, its not bad or good, its serviceable

- The first level is ridiculously long, its like 2 campaign levels if not more
- Then, the second level is like 1/3 of the first level
- Stone imps

I think ID has failed at introducing the first DLC to its (largely) casual playerbase. This DLCs is leagues harder than the vanilla game and will kick your ass. Like it's that tough. Please do not play it first, you will be disappointed. Now, onto the review:

- Levels are quite nice in terms of visuals and overall quality is there
- Length is about 3.5-4.5 hours, which is good
- More DOOM

- Difficulty curve from the start

-The swamps
-Final boss

Greetings, I would like to carefully review this game after approximately 60 hours of gameplay. I think this is a solid open-world shooter with survival elements that remembers its past quite well (yes, I played and completed all of the OG games back in 2010s). Although I think some parts were clearly cut and there are few rough edges here and there. Half of the game was played on version 1.0.0 (release), while the other half was played on later patches up to 1.0.3.

Overall, I think this game is worth the money as it has a lot of good quality content if you enjoy exploration and post-apocalyptic setting.

- Overall presentations, graphics, and cutscenes are really well made.
- Sound and dialogues if you play in UA VOs are quite immersive.
- Weather system.
- Weapons and armour upgrades (they DO matter).
- Story is mostly good.
- Puzzles and exploration are 10\10.

- Mutant HP balance and lack of loot from them.
- Initial prices (patched) and cost of repair (patched).
- Day\night cycle is pretty horrible, you end up playing during night time for quite a bit.
- Some area are too dark even with flashlight.
- Quest pacing and running tedium in the second half of the game.

- Friendly AI is braindead (not helpful), enemy AI is overtuned (i.e. enemies have perfect accuracy and awareness of the player).
- Memory leaks are still there on 1.0.3.
- Some crashes were there (patched).
- Audio breaking off (patched).
- Some quests can bug out (mostly patched I think).
- Game becomes quite linear toward the end.

- AI director or "AI spawn bubble" is obnoxious, it constantly spawns groups of three enemies in your vicinity that spot and fight you regardless of what you are doing.

After the recent balance update this game is great fun. I recommend this game to anybody who loves co-op games (long review forthcoming).

EDIT for nominated for steam awards.

It's an interesting take on RPG genre, has some original game mechanics and lovely world, but I think most players will find it really difficult and clunky to get into. Anyway, below I list some pros and cons of the game:

Pros:
- A lot of content (50+ hours easily)
- Great locations and world building (no spoilers)
- Story and characters
- Good loot and inventory system

Subjective:
- Needs at least 2 additional mods to play: crosshair dot + save anytime enabler (that way you can have unlimited saves and actually hit with bow)
- Combat system takes some time to get used to (it's very unforgiving and hard in the early game)
- Game economy gets completely broken by mid-late game (you are super rich and can afford anything)
- A lot of waiting and vague quest markers (search this area or this thing needs 2 full game days to happen or this happens only at midnight)
- Alchemy is really difficult when starting out

Cons:
- When there are massive fights (20 npcs+), FPS may drop
- Can't really play during night time (too dark, many NPCs won't interact with you, need to carry torch in cities)
- Overall story pacing is hit and miss
- Some game mechanics are not clearly communicated
- Some history bits may be very confusing to non-history savvy players

TLDR: it's really good, literally dozens of hours of silly violence and entertainment.

This modern reboot that took well over 5+ years to come together is a remarkable achievement for stealth action games. An incredible sandbox with stunning locations and great game systems. Now, onto the review.

The good:
- Runs and looks amazing.
- AI behavior and social\ disguise system is really well made.
- Excellent soundtrack and voiceovers.
- Amazing levels (Berlin, Chongqing, Mumbai, Sapienza, Maldives).
- Replayability is endless (base game content is very large, one full (first time) playthrough will take 20 hrs if you just play maps once).

The debatable \ subjective things (nitpicks really):
- Story is alright, not the best, but certainly not the worst, it's there just to connect levels together.
- Some challenges are time limited FOMO (if you want to collect suits).
- Some DLCs offer dubious content additions that do not offer a lot of real content.
- Some levels feels much worse than others (like Dubai vs Sapienza).

I don't know what happened to Crystal Dynamics between the original TR reboot and this, but it looks like some CoD developers were on this game. I would understand if combat was actually enjoyable, but its mostly clunky and boring.

The good:
- Looting and collecting.
- Beginning of the game is amazing (Syria part)

The mediocre:
- Most of tombs are too easy, although there is this one tomb with water physics, that one... still gives me nightmares.
- Lara learning language from reading Soviet propaganda plaques.
- Story more or less makes sense. But old location of ancient (Greek?) ruins in Siberia is... questionable.

The bad:
- DX11 optimization, if you get this game, only use DX12.
- Too much shooting and enemy spam, I am playing Lara, not some fk Soap McTavish who supposed to mow down 1000 mobs in one mission.
- Skill system is again..seem underdeveloped.. you basically don't need most of skills.
- Anything related to combat and enemies.
- Fire particles look like PS1.

TLDR: get Uncharted 4: Legacy of Thieves

Now, the review.

The good:
- Graphics and setting (Mexico and Peru)
- DX12 performance and raytracing
-Underwater exploration

The bad:
- Story is really terrible, the second half is a complete brain ♥♥♥♥ and does not make much sense (I usually don't skip cutscenes, but second half was really cringe)
- Faces, lipsync and animations are all really mediocre
- You can feel that game wasn't playtested a lot toward the end as you get really awkward camera angles that will cost you 4-5 tries to complete jump puzzle
- Placement of "extra" story quests (really no motivation to do some extra chores)

The really bad:
- Upgrade system literally does not make sense, you don't get stronger and your weapons are still peashooters
- Forced "native" dress system for Lara
- Music is absent (nothing memorable)
- Combat is clunky and obnoxious
- Lara's character feels antagonistic and braindead
- Other "characters" are also cringey and not worth listening to
- Final boss is horrible bullet sponge
- Epic Games Services are required to access DLC tombs

There will be some entertainment, but if you skip this game, nothing of value will be lost.

Okay, so I got around playing this game after three years, I think Arkane created an interesting game, but my god it has it's some of the worst balancing and AI ever made, holy moly. Anyway, here are the good things:
- Actually good art style
- Voice acting and animations
- Map design (its really good)
- Some mysteries were actually interesting

Now, what is horrible:
- Runs like a dog
- AI is absolutely horrible, its either braindead or knows exactly where you are (you need to 100% stealth a missions? oh fk you, here is a mini boss that spawns on your head with guns, have fun, oh you restarted? here is it again, my god this is bad)
- Some quests are so tedious and repetitive, you will start pulling hair from your head
- Too many notes, too much text

Now what is debatable:
- Some guns are clearly better than the others (why do I need a big loud sniper rifle that alerts the entire map dawg?)
- Infusion mechanic is there just so you don't feel the grind
- Can't swim (what?)
- Story and its ending (open endings are always terrible imo)

A controversial game indeed, worth your time at -80%.