Recent reviews by Kestral

Always a pleasant surprise when a new game release has nuanced writing akin to 2000s games of olde. While there are still quite a few bugs and Act 3 is very rough around the edges, the continual dev support makes me hopeful that they will all be ironed out down the line. Still a very enjoyable experience if you're a big D&D fan.

A very solid reboot of a series with a fresh new take. I just hope they don't release a sequel 4 years later that's the exact same game, but thinks you're too stupid to solve puzzles on your own!

It's an idle game with a Dungeons and Dragons skin, which adds some flavor to the otherwise dullness of the genre. Good to have going in the background when doing other things. However, the reason for the negative rating is due to the increasing monetization by the devs while ignoring community feedback about major issues the game has. Why should I put any money into a free to play game I want to support if I can't even progress after a point because of a coding issue that's been present since day 1?

I will still be playing (ie opening in the background while working) this game, and honestly if you find a D&D idle game interesting I would say give it a shot. However, do not give them a single dollar until they actually fix glaring issues.

This game gave me an excuse to dress up as a leather clad twink without repercussions.

I hate that this version is unlisted, it's still the best one overall to mod.

The best SCP game we're ever going to get. Solid gameplay, including the best flying mechanics I've ever seen and one of the best sequences in interactive media. The only negative is the story; while some of the writing is clever, overall it's very mediocre/dull. Definitely go in for great gaming experience, but nothing too deep narratively.

I originally posted this review in February 2021 when the game was more or less in its launch state. It ran fine for me since day 1 (on a laptop sporting a 1660 GTX), and has cemented itself into my top games of all time. I'm keeping the core of my original review intact, with only a few alterations to reflect the current state of the game. TL;DR: Go play it!

(Sidenote: as I play games offline most of the time, my "total play time" is inaccurate. I have completed 3 full playthroughs with all the life paths with the launch version, and came back to play around with the new content as it released.

While there is so much detail I can go into on the odd seemingly-coordinated hate campaign towards CD Projekt Red and this game, this is not the place for that. I will just talk about my thoughts of the game as a whole, split into "Good," "Meh," and "Bad" categories.

• An insane lighting engine that is one of the best of its kind. Even on a low end PC it's absolutely gorgeous at night.
  
• Minimal loading times. You can drive from one end to the city to the other without a loading break.
  
• The mainline NPCs feel like people rather than code. They have their little quirks (ie jiggling their foot when they're nervous, refusing to make eye contact, tapping their fingers on a surface, etc), something I can't recall in any other games.
  
• The facial animations are the best out there. The eyes are independently modeled from the head and track your position, a first of its kind. It's hard going back to games where the models jerk around like dolls.
  
• The fluidity of the full-body animations is also next level. A character can go from their idle pose, to a unique reaction animation, to talking, and back to their idle without any janky pauses so often present in games.
  
• Top tier voice acting throughout. Emotional scenes are extremely well performed.

• There is A LOT of reading. Almost all of the detailed information about sites/encounters is hidden in a data shard or a database entry. If you're one to just play through games and not read any extras, you'll miss out essential world-building and lore.
  
• The main story divisive. There are no happy endings in Night City, which goes against the typical "protagonist save the world, the end" story so many are used to. While I personally am not too big of a fan of any of the endings, the journey to get there struck a personal chord that I was not expecting.
  
• There is a ton of unmarked hidden content, from quests to items. If you're a completionist you'll be spending time looking online for guides to where everything is. And good luck, cause so many of them are out of date now, including the official guide.
  
• Game difficulty has an odd curve. Once you get to level 30 enemies serve almost no threat, no matter what your build is and what difficulty you're on.
  
• The loot system is passable at best. Certain items (notably the one-of-a-kind Iconics) shouldn't have to rely on RNG to get the best possible roll of ability slots and stats.

• Quests still have a chance to bug out on you, forcing you to reload from a precious save. These are much fewer and far between than before, but still happen. I recommend quicksaving often.
  
• The AI still struggles at times. The easy go to is the police wanted system (which has improved, but it's just serviceable, nothing to write home about), but enemy AI seems to have been tweaked as well. They go from the most incompetent gonks alive, to figuring out your location through 5 walls and sniping you the millisecond you pop your head out. There's obviously an attempt to make them smarter, but it's still not implemented great.

No matter how many times I play this game, the last half an hour always leave me an emotional wreck. Highly recommend to anyone who likes plot-twist endings, as I consider this the best one in video game history.

It's been over 6 years since I first played this game on Kongregate, and it is still one of my favorite rpgs of all time.

Even if you're just a bit little curious, you should download it. It's free, after all.

And trust me, you won't regret it.