Скорошни рецензии на TheWanderingBard

This game has very mixed reviews, but you shouldn't think of it as a 5/10 overall game.

When you consider the current state of the game (following class reworks and many bug fixes vs. release) there are a few specific issues that 90% of the negative reviews focus on. The rest of the game is extremely good!

POTENTIAL NEGATIVES: (addressed more below)
- Gameplay variety/amount of content
- Communication of mechanics (how easy it is to learn the "real" game)

POTENTIAL POSITIVES:
- Aesthetically by far the best representation of WH40K in any adaptation, especially the level design and character dialogue. Can't overstate how much it passively improves my experience even after many many runs to pick up cool or funny details in the world or audio banter.
- Gameplay is quite deep and relatively balanced across classes and builds with a lot of room for gameplay expression, if you seek out the resources to learn how it works. Once you do, the controls are responsive enough and mechanics robust enough for you to both Get Good and to do some fun theorycrafting.
- Community is above average in terms of attitude and cooperation for an online game - helps that the game is generally balanced such that only the highest difficulties demand full voice-chat coordination.

If those positives seem like they outweigh the negatives, then buy the game and you will have a good time. If those negatives seem like a potential dealbreaker to you...

***WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS GAME EVEN THOUGH SOME PEOPLE THUMBS-DOWNED IT***
The amount of variety in missions/gameplay is THE issue people raise with Darktide (read recent negative reviews if you doubt me). There are different maps and mission types, as well as various random modifiers and sub-objectives which can change exactly how a mission progresses. But every run ultimately features the same enemies and the same general gameplay patterns. Even when the devs add new maps and mission types, it can't really solve this "problem" - this is simply how the game works.

If you play hundreds of hours of Darktide, you will appreciate both how much is the same in each mission, and how much the parts that are unique matter. Which part you choose to focus on probably determines if you leave a positive or negative review. But it's clear to me that - if you assume this is a game that is meant to be played for multiple hundreds of hours - then your novelty and motivation has to come from embracing and getting good at that core gameplay loop, not expecting the experience to suddenly flip on its head and show you something totally new 200 hours in.

In my opinion, the current set of maps covers a healthy variety of terrain types and visual stimulation, enough that each mission is recognisably different and runs don't feel like the same room over and over. But really, what makes each run unique is how the patterns of hordes, elite enemies and supply drops overlay those familiar maps. There are enough things going on at once in higher difficulties that you are never in exactly the same position twice, and the set of tools you have to fight out of those situations remains interesting and rewarding even after many hours - at least to me.

I would also point out that the 4 classes currently in the game each feel markedly different, and that your choice of weapons/talents can make an even more significant change to your role in the team and how you play it. It seems very intentional that players who feel a bit tired of the rhythm of their main class can pick up a second (or a third or a fourth) and tackle those situations through fresh eyes. The different strengths and weaknesses of a Psyker compared to an Ogryn really force you to re-evaluate how you play and can significantly extend the life of the game. From an optimisation point of view, it also takes quite a LOT of grinding to truly max out your gear (which I would say is a good thing, in the sense that you won't lack a "reason" to keep playing).

The other thing which might make it harder for some to get the most out of Darktide is that much of its mechanical depth is very poorly communicated (you might say intentionally hidden to keep the casual experience light & easy). Weapon descriptions will use terms like "elites", "specialists", "infested", "maniacs", "rending", "brittleness" etc. which are basically never explained in-game.

Even the areas you can access a more detailed breakdown of (such as weapon attack patterns) are outright missing half the information. The only defense I can think of is that yes, it tends to be the information you can get by without knowing until you hit higher difficulties and want to really hone your gameplay. But since the endgame of Darktide relies on honing your gameplay and testing yourself against higher difficulties, I do think the game loses some potential fans by not foreshadowing how much you have to work with.

For a preview, I'd recommend looking at the "guides" tab of Steam for this game and skimming through the top-rated guide for the game, "Ogrynomicon". It's a class breakdown for the Ogryn that shows off a lot more of the mechanics than any in-game tooltip will bother to explain, and serves as a much better representation of Darktide's "replayability".

TL;DR: The game is a very cinematic experience and surprisingly robust as a PvE challenge. How much you get out of it will come down to how much you enjoy the core gameplay loop and growing your skill/understanding - more like PvP multiplayer titles than an MMO. But this is one of the best in the genre and its strong points are very strong.

This is the only really great roguelike deckbuilder thing.

There's a ton of variation both within each faction's cards/units and in the combinations of such, even more variation in the (well-balanced) events and artifacts which are thrown up along your run, and the card upgrades you're offered - and even more variation in the combat system, which is inherently much deeper than the typical slay the spire setup a lot of these games have.

I'm highlighting opportunities for variation, because that's what will make it worth coming back for run after run after run. You have many chances to try different strategies, and you WILL get the chance to try them because you have much greater control over how the gameplan of each run develops. You're almost always presented with multiple choices whenever you get new cards/artifacts/upgrades, and unlike many other games your runs will essentially never depend on specific high-rarity enabler cards to come together.

The design of most factions and their mechanics is cunning enough to have them be viable in different strategies for completely different reasons, which makes it feel more like you're actually discovering archetypes and putting them together yourself versus following one of a few preset lanes. Unlocking more cards and seeing more of the rare events and archetypes over time keeps things fresh, as do the various challenge modes. Even having gone out of my way to try all the options the game has to offer, I find myself still as engaged at the end as I was at the start, as I'm able to enable challenge run modifiers which make things harder in interesting, beatable ways.

All the small bits of polish here help as well - the lore and aesthetics of the game, while not front and centre, are actually quite compelling. The UI is very readable, and the thoroughness and completeness of tooltips means I never feel lied to about what's happening in combat. Even complex interactions resolve along logical and consistent lines, and the designers have been quite open minded in how cards and upgrades can be used, so you never feel like your cool ideas have been shut down. The logbook makes it easy to keep your progress through the game tracked for when you get to the completionist phase of play.

I can't speak to the quality of the expansion, but the base game is a 10/10 for me and my only complaint is that other deckbuilders look worse by comparison. Please make more games like this.

I've never played the Hearthstone auto-battler this is supposedly based off, but coming from Dota Underlords I found that this lacks a lot of the strategy that I, at least, am looking for in the genre.

Without a more sophisticated combat engine behind it, everything here is resolved by heavy RNG, especially once you factor in all the ways an opponent's effects can interact with yours. The factors within your control essentially come down to how you arrange units across the 7 slots... and that's it. Add on the fact that you don't get to look at other players boards outside of combat, and there's 0 way to know if their current board arrangement is going to hard counter yours ahead of time. So even the more interesting fringe techniques of adjusting your board to counter theirs only ever come up in the endgame if you end up fighting with the same person several times in a row. Funny how these are always the most exciting and interesting battles...

I find similar disappointment in the shop/eco mechanics. Simply put, you cannot bank gold between rounds under normal circumstances. The most you can do is load your bench with spare units to then sell in the next round, but since all units sell for 1g this is a minor (if essential) edge. But the closest thing to a dedicated "eco" strategy requires you to randomly roll the expensive spells which let you level up faster, gaining access to the powerful endgame units ahead of time.

This seems intended as a payoff for greed (or early dominance) and the endgame units are good enough to justify it if you can quickly replace your previous board before being punished too severely. But why is this key strategic lever only offered to the player in a small, unpredictable % of rounds? Other auto-battlers (and similar genres like PvP tower defense) recognise that the round-to-round shifting of gears to keep your board just strong enough while trying to race ahead economically adds constant, satisfying nuance. But in SBB you just roll down every round - once your board and bench are full, there's only occasional decisions about when to stop and perhaps slightly optimize by swapping out a half-finished unit or locking your shop selection.

Most of the rest of the mechanics show potential but involve so much RNG that it's hard to get excited about testing a build since you'll so rarely be able to access it - you'd need to roll the right hero option at the start, then roll the right units in game, then roll the right treasures. And those are very specific categories for the most part; despite using unit types/traits as heavily as most games in the genre, SBB mostly avoids "alliance bonuses" and instead all synergies are between the individual units; so you don't really go an "animal build", you go a "bearstein build". Yes, these unit-specific synergies overlap in enough areas that there's wriggle room in how you combine them, but having the essential powerups accessible through a broader range of boardstates would make the build more reliable.

All auto-battlers I've seen involve a measure of luck to get the units you want in the shop at the right time; but usually, that's where the luck ends and your control begins. In SBB you're much more a hands-off director watching units spin by and slamming "buy" when the one you need comes up. Is there a skill in that? Absolutely; people at the top ranks aren't there by accident. But the skill is much more about trying to read the odds of what the dealer might hand you this game, getting yourself in a position to suddenly highroll a treasure or unit combo that's strong enough to carry, rather than scoping out your opposition and devising a plan, then gunning for that with slight adjustments. It's not the thing for me, maybe it's for you.

Fighting games are different to almost every other kind of game; they're expressive, competitive, thrilling and challenging. Most people who don't play them get hung up on that last one, and I sympathize; I also have stupid hands and a slow brain, and I've barely been able to do basic combos in other games despite having a solid understanding of how they work.

Strive is not some fundamental departure from the iconic high energy fun of Guilty Gear past. But it has done many small things to not only make actually playing the game "for real" easier - but to close some of the gap between players with zero execution, and players with godly execution.

You can still gain a lot by having optimal button pressing skills, but there's more incentive now to just start playing and figure that out as you go. So long as you can start to recognize when to block, when to attack, when to anti-air - and a ton of online content plus the in-game tutorial will help you pick that up - then you can start playing with some really basic moves and still be competitive.

If you think you're interested, I recommend finding a community on Twitch or Discord, checking out some videos, and getting psyched up to learn the game.

This is an excellent strategy game, and possibly better in its digital form.

- Matches are quick to play and always interesting
- Base game mechanic is Scissors-Paper-Rock, so it's immediately intuitive
- Each of the 20 different characters feels very unique and adds to a great variety of playstyles
- The strategy of juggling resource management with bluffing and reading your opponent is rewarding and deep as it is in traditional fighting games.
- The extra "game modes" such as EX mode add another dimension if it ever gets stale.
- Passionate and helpful online community organizes frequent tournaments and offers help to new players (fantasystrike.com)

Pick it up, you will not be disappointed.

EDIT: After an additional 11270 hours of gametime Steam has prompted me to update this review. Everything I said below is still true, and DOTA2 is still the best game ever made if you're in the mood for team-based PvP strategy. Even just as a theorycrafting exercise, the matrix of problems and solutions is an ever-delightful puzzle box of heroes, spells, items, talents, aspects... just play DOTA2.

This is (for a certain definition) the best game ever made. It's certainly the best at providing a strategic challenge for you and hopefully 4 friends. The balance and complexity combine to make a sort of roguelike puzzle that always has more than one answer, giving it a sense of creativity and expressiveness you don't get from competitors.

The cast of heroes is vast and colourful, and within them they cater to and reward a huge number of playstyles. You can flex on nerds with your unbelievable apm and gamer reactions, you can play a mini-rts, you can grind people down with relentless, big-brain macro-level efficiency. You can be an information gatherer - potentially the most important job in the game, even if you deal next to 0 damage. You can be a dedicated healer for your beloved carry. Or you can barrel into your opponents at every single opportunity as a big blue space bison and forsake the rest of the game in order to cause them maximum annoyance. It all works, it's all legit.

Please give DotA a shot (or another shot) if you have any stomach for multiplayer games whatsoever. We have great tutorials and video resources out there now, it should only take 20-50 hours to figure out what's going on... and then you have another 10,000 hours of free enjoyment ahead of you!