Recent reviews by Teslion

I like puzzles. I LOVE roguelikes. This is, however, not it.

Let me be clear - the concept is pretty novel, of course. However, it has multiple fatal flaws.
1. Replayability, especially for a roguelike, is severely lacking. Not everyone has to be Isaac in terms of content, but amount of it here makes me think it was never meant to be replayed. Be prepared that while there are puzzles, they will be instantly turned into chores when you encounter them for the second-third-etc time. Reward for them is the same, nothing roguelike about it.
2. Randomness - the game is being played by the game most of the time. Sure, you can choose to trash bad rooms into dead ends and corners, but it doesn't stop the game from giving you absolute squat for the crucial room and we are going to reset. Was it your fault? Not really. Then why? Just because.
3. Gameplay - I thought it would be hard to out-Walking sim Death Stranding, but this game did it. You will grab stuff in rooms, draft rooms, grab stuff in rooms, solve an occasional puzzle that you did 5 times before, draft rooms. Did I mention you will draft rooms? Riveting.
4. Price??? - So I played the game for an hour-ish. In that time, I got 2 puzzle rooms, 4 tries (which means I did the same puzzles 4 times), got to rank 7 out of 9 (and would have gotten further, if it wasn't for RNG). Is there more game after getting to Antechamber? Perhaps. Was what I have seen probably at least 50% of the game? Probably. Is it worth THIRTY BUCKS? No way.

Game is not all bad, but it suffers from its own direction and pricing. Get it for 60% off on sale if you are still interested. I know I am not.

PSN is defeated. Game is good again.

Great sequel to Lobotomy Corp and Library of Ruina.

Gameplay is basically simplified Ruina combat where deckbuilding is replaced by Identities that have their own skillsets. Its important to mention that even though Identities are gacha, its A - a pretty well-built gacha system, and B - basic Identities are actually pretty solid (some are even better than 2 and 3 star ones).

Story and music, as always, are top tier. PM really build an expansive dystopian setting that is vibrant, original and fresh. Studio EIM continue to be real GOATs of PM games, really making combat music shine.

Content - currently game has 3 story chapters worth of content, each with a bunch of combat encounters, as well as story bits and the end-dungeon. Those are basically a "complete it and wait till updates bring in more" (more on updates further). Then there are Luxcavations for both XP Tickets (main way of gaining Identity XP) and Thread (a minor way of gaining Thread, main upgrade resource for Identities and EGO). Those are basically used for farming and dailies, so far they are pretty bland, but thats because there is not that much overall content as the game launched pretty recently. And finally there are Mirror Dungeons, which are basically Roguelike dungeons that earn you most rewards (but mostly in the first 3 completes of the week). They are not hard, but they are not supposed to be. Refraction Railway is going to be released soon as another mode.

Gacha - Game features premium currency that you use for gaining new Identities and replenishing energy (don't use it as latter ever). You basically get 750 of it weekly from Mirror Dungeons (250 per 25-30 min run), which is not enough for 10 rolls (1300 needed), but is more than a half. PM are also very generous on "apology" money (every time they fix issues or have unplanned maintenance you usually get 300 bonus lunacy) which is cool. There are also events (well, one happened so far) that allows you to gain prizes some of which can be straight up 10 extraction tickets, etc. So far in a month I haven't felt the need to buy premium currency at all. As for energy, you can save it up in modules if you can't play (that way your main energy is moved to a special currency and can start regenerating) and you always get a full refill (no matter how much energy you have at that moment, it can overflow limits) on account level up. Had no issues with that either. There is also both paid and free battlepass, both of which have useful things and the paid one is totally worth buying for its price.

Support - So far there is a set roadmap, as well as stable drops of new Identities, combat reworks and new modes every 2ish weeks. So far PM have been precisely following deadlines with rare exception of one EGO (that got everyone free premium currency, score!), so that is awesome.

So yeah, 10 out of 10, would Limbus again

Paradox can only make one type of game, but I will be damned if they are not good at it.

Steam should really add more options other than recommend or not to their review system, cause for me this game is somewhere juuust above the middle ground. Gameplay is interesting and pretty original, if gimmicky. Playing it with your friends is fun. Progression is kind of scuffed, but alright in general. It is, however, the first game that made my laptop overheat so much that it shut down due to throttling, which is incredibly mind boggling and kind of ruined the experience for me. Overall, play with friends to make your own fun, otherwise probably pass on this one.

Absolutely unfinished game. Makes me wonder how the game that required years of delay came out like... this. A lot of good features from original game are straight downgraded (really, there is no tripping animation when pushing enemies off ledges and roofs? They just plummet down like a bag of potatoes). No co-op progression (only host gets their quests completed). HUGE pile of bugs, from funny head spins and the same animation being reused in incorrect places to getting stuck permanently/missing ledge grabs straight to hell/game just straight up crashing.

And if you still decide to buy this game at its current state, ONLY PLAY THIS GAME WITH FRIENDS. At least it will make your painful experience a bit more fun.

Edit: As of 7 of February 2022, co-op is literally unplayable, they *hotfixed* some kind of co-op bugs which now leads to people straight up getting disconnected every 4-7 minutes.

Was waiting to complete the game in its current state to make a review, use my time on the moment of review as a reference point for game length (and its still getting updated regularly!). Let me start with the warning that some people already pointed out in their reviews, if you are not opposed to playing another story rich game but in the genre of management I cannot recommend playing Lobotomy Corporation first, as it is A) A great game, B) Direct prequel to Library of Ruina and C) Not playing it before LoR will, without a doubt, spoil the story of Lobotomy Corp.
HOWEVER
If you are not a fan of managment games/SCPs but still like turn based combat games (Like Darkest Dungeon) and card brawlers (Like Slay the Spire), do not be discouraged to just play Ruina. The story really is set in an interesting way that is easy to pick up, relate to and understand for anyone who is unfamilliar with PM (Project Moon's) universe. Well, my review is positive, so what exactly are pros and cons for it to be that way?

Pros:

1) Story - Thats technically a multitude of pros, not one, but when it comes to storytelling, writing about each positive thing would take a very long time. Story is provided through snippets of everyday life from denizens of The City, dialogue between patron Librarians before/after fights, and also Chitchats (basically talks that do not affect the story in any way). Big plus compared to PMs first game, dialogues are now voiced in Korean, which gives a lot of charm to characters and makes it akin to playing an anime with subs while having original dubs, very cool. Story is very well-paced, allowing the player to become familliar with people of The City from different walks of life, from ghetto bandits to the strongest and most powerful corporations. Story is also interconnected with difficulty of encounters in a satisfying way. Gonna stop here to avoid any spoilers.

2) Gameplay - This section is basically 4 parts positive, 1 part negative. Lets get the negative out of the way first. It might be quite hard for a new player to understand some mechanics of combat from the start, especially considering that the game drops a bucket and a half of info in the first fight, which cover around 60% of all gameplay mechanics of the game. Tutorial is given in text and some pictures, which is alright, but not amazing for understanding everything. Some of the later tutorials also can be mistimed (had to even look one up in the wiki because I did not understand how it worked cause there was no tutorial from the game when it was introduced), but I only gave it one part negative cause game is still being developed and might be improved in this regard. Why 4 parts positive? Pretty easy to answer. Gameplay is very satisfying, mechanics are diverse, allowing you to chose your own tactics, build simple (only 9 cards per fighter) decks, while still allowing them to be affected by random draw, etc. Not the last thing supporting this gameplay are:

3) Graphics - Visuals of the game are not realistic in the slightest, but the style is incredibly charming. All the story bits are presented in dialogues, sometimes switching to hand-drawn frame by frame scenery changes, that look *chef's kiss* wonderful. And what was that about graphics in gameplay, you ask? Well, combat graphics are simplified to a chibi style, which looks nice AND also allows for a incredibly easy mod integration (a LOT of visual mods for the game are in workshop already). All fighters get personalized animations for attacks, some special *legendary* combat pages, and boy oh boy if its not satisfying to see *MAXIMUM DAMAGE* pop up on screen with a slight screen shake.

4) Support - Project Moon, developers of this game, has been really working on it non-stop. Truth be told, I have heard about LoR a while ago, since I was a Lobotomy Corp fan, but only picked it up in fall, but so far the game has been getting content updates almost every friday (with some skips for balance changes here and there) and man, thats quite a lot of content.

5) Music - Both soundtracks and songs by Mili are amazing, one of the best OSTs I have ever heard in my life. Battle music is diverse and it adapts to emotion gameplay mechanic, becoming more intense as the fight goes on, you really gotta experience that.

So what about cons?

I could put being decked by RNG here, but we all know game is not to blame (See - Darkest Dungeon reviews). What is, however, a bit of a con, is this:

1) RNG based fights - How fights in this game work most of the time is as follows: You can build a good deck against enemies and basically negate RNG, or you can unga bunga and hope you just get lucky rolls on whatever cards you like. HOWEVER, some fights are ENTIRELY RNG BASED, which means that yes, you WILL restart some fights multiple times while having even the most optimal deck possible. Those fights are annoying, but there are not that many of them.

2) Story routes - Further in the game your story fights branch out in "themes", that mostly have interconnected substories. The problem here is that there is no indication of fight difficulty, and because of that you need to randomly choose the fight the first time you play. That can sometimes lead you to picking a boss fight before picking a normal fight that would give you better tools to fight the boss, making it more difficult.

3) Random drops - That one is not that big of a deal for me cause I like me some grind, but might be a problem for others. In order to get pages to make yourself stronger you burn books of your defeated foes. Drops from books are random, however they are also limited in quantity (even for common/rare cards), so eventually you will get your legendary pages even if you are extremely unlucky. That might lead to you replaying some fights quite a bit (more present in lategame).

Overall Library of Ruina is a must have if you are a fan of the genre, of some good story, music and *epic anime battles*. It is also 100% needed for anyone who liked Lobotomy Corp, even if you are not familliar with card games (its not multiplayer after all, so you can use it as your gateway card game). I would rate the game 9/10, there is always room for improvement. Looking forward to all newly announced games by Project Moon!

Oh boy, where do I start... I didn't play the game too much because I want to get my refund back, so take that into consideration, but so far I can write down multiple points. Let's start with positives as they are scarce.
Pros: customisation option for more realistic approach with no quest markers, good feature.
Two different characters, I guess, diversity and different playthroughs and whatnot.
Big map.
Cons: Game looks like an exact copy of previous one in the series, Origins, especially character models and facial animations, which are not terrible but could have been improved drastically.
Modern storyline makes no sense and is not one bit interesting, same as Origins.
Combat is mediocre, as in Origins.
Assassins Creed elements are gone, like who needs an iconic blade or anything, just give them a spear.
Eagle drone is still here, for some reason. Still no explanation to this phenomena.
Dialogues are stiff and voice acting is decent if it was an indie game, but its not. Also, kids with adult voices.

Overall does not seem all that worthy of overwhelmingly positive reviews. I guess people will just eat up any triple A game that is dropped on them every year with little to none polish.

Запускаешь игру. Проходишь туториал. Запускаешь первую миссию. Твой паладин миссует последний удар по монстру. Монстр дает АОЕ крит по всей пати. Весталка мгновенно при смерти и кровоточит, на свой же ход умирает. Разбойник психует и выстреливает в голову паладину. Чумной доктор с безумными криками начинает резать вены. Через две комнаты вся пати высечена сама собой. 10 смотрителей лагеря из 10.

Эта игра - сущий ад. Нет, сделана она отлично, геймплей интересный и разнообразный, плюс еще и обнова бесплатная вышла с различными прибамбасами, НО ЕПТ ВАШУ МАТЬ! АИ в этой игре - просто адский! Чтобы пройти игру НА ЛЕГКОМ уровне сложности, нужно готовить себя к тому, что первые раз сто игра просто тебя изнасилует, причем изощренно, играя на твоих нервах. Ооооо, ты забыл проапгрейдовать дверит и у тебя только два члена команды? ВОТ ТЕБЕ ДЕСАНТ ИЗ ПЯТИ ИНОПЛАНЕТЯН ВМЕСТЕ С СОЛНЕЧНЫМИ ВСПЫШКАМИ! Ты все проапгрейдовал, но забыл добавить энергии про запас? А ЭТО ЛИ НЕ НЕБУЛА С ОТРУБАНИЕМ ПОЛОВИНЫ ТВОЕЙ ЭНЕРГИИ? Всю игру АИ учит тебя, что невозможно выпускать более четырех дронов, и для них нужна куча энергии и деталей, НО ЧТО ЭТО? ФИНГАЛЬНЫЙ КОРАБЛЬ ВЫПУСКАЕТ ОДНОВРЕМЕННО ОВЕР 9000 ЭТИХ ГРЕБАНЫХ ДРОНОВ!
Разрабы конечно молодцы и все дела, но это СЛИШКОМ хардкорно.