Recent reviews by Smul

Fun especially solo for a quick fix of crafting a build and fighting a quality boss.
40 minutes seems like a lot when you compare it to a runback, but compared to the 3-4 hours i spend setting up a new Elden Ring character every time I want to fight a late game shardbearer this is a good compromise for me.

this game is fun

unlock the framerate right now

(Still very on the fence about recommending this game)

Updates have improved this game a lot to the point I would nearly recommend it, but the content itself is still hit or miss, and the progress route can be very difficult to follow. However credit is due for the many changes made by HexWorks in the year following release; it feels a lot more fluid to play than before, enemy density and boss rebalancing has been quite effective, and of course the game is beautiful as always.
The UI looks cleaner too.
It is being held back from a oroper positive review due to deeper issues though such as the difficulty being a bit all over the place (ds2 style), resulting in a couple parts of the game either feeling frustrating and unnecessarily confusing, or unsatisfying / easy.

This game does such a brilliant job of integrating the sekiro deflect mechanics with traditional souls combat; something promised in Elden Ring but not fully delivered beyond a generic stance break ability.
Out of any souls game, this one allows me to approach fights absolutely however I'm most comfortable with. The entire game is playable with dodge rolling for example, although certain bosses will encourage certain combat styles, making it especially rewarding to master each system and recognise when to apply it.

Better multi enemy fights than other Souls games, with good use of audio cues to help you understand what is going on off screen. Some super derivative bosses and movesets, but the aforementioned combat improvements make this less noticeable.

Lots of world building is delivered in order to flesh out the world; and ensure the endings have impact. Throughout the game it is clear that your choices are going to make a difference at the end, although the ambiguity creates a lot of tension. I ended up not liking my ending very much but that was because my choices had backed me into a corner decision wise.

The game feels very familiar, although progression is somewhat dated in comparison to combat - playing out more like DS2 with linear areas that don't necessarily transition smoothly, although lots of shortcuts and looping back in on yourself to enjoy. This isn't really a problem for me as the souls market is a little starved for linear level design at the moment. Areas are still for the most part memorable and distinct, although I would have liked the boss designs to be more representative of their arenas and the local enemies you fight before them.

19 hours to beat, although I am still missing one boss. Planning to complete the achievements for this as I'm loving the experience.


Now I have collected all the achievements for this game I'd like to slightly append my review.
I got to experience the rise of P ending for one of them, which requires lots of thought surrounding the humanity system. I think this was a great choice and gets the player to interact with things they otherwise might not, like the piano.
My final run took me just short of 5 hours which is a great tell of the quality of a souls game. Once you master all of the mechanics and routes this game can be ran very fast which I think is excellent.

The story of this game is quite deep and am looking forward to it being expanded in the future.

Certainly overall has to be a top 3 souls game for me, really just engaging mechanics used throughout that I will deeply miss when Elden Ring DLC finally releases. The parry, legion arm, fable art meter, health recovery system are all elements that just elevate the gameplay in this game well beyond almost every other game in the genre. It is of course beautiful and very thematic, while also being a solid length with a quality standalone story.

42 hours to complete

Early on but feels like a much better paced and more accessible Reflect game taking inspiration from recent releases such as observation duty, with a really refreshing gameplay loop and more dynamic enemies. It seems as though gameplay variety has been prioritised over the system complexity from previous games such as Scrutinized for example.

Love this game, and it's now in a stable position with no bugs, can definitely recommend at full price. The achievements are all good fun so it's worth grabbing them all as there's no grind required.

--SPOILER REVIEW--

Going into Elden Ring, my expectations were simply a new Fromsoft title built on the foundation of the souls series, with the more successful mechanics of Sekiro intertwined into a larger game. After finishing the story, I can say with confidence that my expectations were met, but there is so much more to this game than a simple compilation of FS previous efforts.

The opening area is possibly the best introduction to a videogame I have ever played. Elements are introduced to the player in the most natural way possible, exploration driven by the player's desire to get stronger. The first primary boss, Margit, is by far the toughest opening boss in the series, but for a very good reason. From the first time the player enters the open world, they are taught that not all encounters have to be overcome immediately. The Tree Sentinel is an example of a perfectly tuned fight that is tough but achievable with practice at the start of the game, but light work for a player who has gone out into the open world and prepared their character.

Even then, as I describe Margit as a wall that needs to be overcome, there are options that disregard him entirely, providing alternative ways of reaching the following areas without even entering the castle. This surmounts to a degree of player freedom that I can only compare to similar worlds such as Breath of the Wild; likewise sharing the design concept of allowing the player to travel anywhere, but with the knowledge they may get their ass handed to them if they travel too far.

In a way I liken this to the traditional formula of searching for bonfires while trying to protect currently carried souls. The player has no idea how far the rabbit hole they are chasing leads, and because of that the scale alone of their adventure can be intimidating and make the player feel out of their depth.

The game did not need some repeat bosses, too many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dragons, and a few caves with similar bosses that felt recycled. Gank fights in this game are for the most part fairly weak, with not much O&S spirit. I suppose for the quantity of bosses not all are going to be a hit.

More to say once I have collected all the achievements.


-44 Hours to beat.


--EDIT--

This is the first time in a Fromsoftware game that I have completed all of the achievements in the game, and yet don't really feel like I have completed the game at all. This is by far the shortest game to collect all the achievements for, which is a strange contrast to the size of the game and the amount of content available. This mainly comes down to the collection achievements being cut down to only the legendary tier of each item, leaving less than 10 collectibles in each category.

Additionally, the minimum mandatory playthrough for this game is much shorter than all the rest. With only 2 required great runes to enter the capital, and a mainly linear route afterwards, my third playthough was optimised down to being 1 hour and 50 minutes, without the use of any glitches or speedrun tactics. Obviously this is not very much in the spirit of the game but I suppose is just an example of the degree of freedom the player is given to beat the game in whatever way they choose.

In terms of optional content, areas the scale of the Ringed City DLC, and sometimes larger, are completely hidden away in this game, with sometimes very obscure paths to discovery. However, I found myself not needing to use a guide for the most part, as I feel NPCs in this game and item descriptions are much more lenient in giving easy to follow clues that I was able to naturally discover most of the secrets (nothing on the obscurity scale of Archdragon Peak).

As is typical in these games, the greatest boss encounters are the hardest to find; I strongly recommend going out of your way to find and defeat all the bosses labelled as shardbearers. Need more time to fully decide myself, but certainly some of the toughest bosses in the series, can be found here.

I'm going to have to run through this game at least once more, this time using a guide to fight all the minibosses and non achievement related encounters in each area that I haven't yet found.

-64 Hours to complete.

Really fun change of formula for the PuppetCombo library, with locations being used from previous games, sometimes fleshed out in significantly more detail, acting as a tie-in experience that connects the previous titles by the dev as some kind of hall of fame.

The combat feels messy at first, but once you grasp the hitbox positioning from the weapon's blade instead of in front of the player, it makes much more sense and even becomes satisfying.
Scoring and ranking system would consistently give me the grade I felt like I deserved after completing a level; you can tell PuppetCombo has spent time tinkering each level's scoring requirements for this balance.

The game is short as I'm sure you can tell, however if you know what you're getting in for I find the price completely fair. It works out as less than paying for a movie of the same length, which I would argue is a lesser experience.

Playing this game after many years of games from this dev definitely enhanced the experience for me so I would recommend others try PuppetCombo classics such as NightRipper, Nun Massacre, Feed Me Billy, Blood Maniac, Texas Butcher, all of which you can find on https://www.patreon.com/puppetcombo .
Overall, definitely recommend, lots of fun to be had here, can be completed in one session.

#EDIT
Forgot to mention the stunning industrial soundtrack. Brutal mixing assists in the creation of a distorted and alien soundscape that is unique even within the PuppetCombo universe.

fun game