Seneste anmeldelser af Dude_On

Lock ball is the most important one of all and people who don't use it are stupid.

If you're looking for Valheim-style survival/craft with a dash of FromSoft then you're wasting your time reading this when you could be playing Enshrouded.

I've never been more disappointed by a game not being better.

Outward plays like someone described the timing and difficulty of Elden Ring to a game development AI and left out all the interesting bits. There is a lot to potentially love in this story-based action RPG, and some ideas are so refreshing that I wish more games did them. That potential, however, is buried underneath hours of slogging through stilted combat, juggling items in your inventory as in-game time ticks away, and and running through a mostly featureless landscape.

There are more than a few cues clearly taken from the likes of Dark Souls, but without the level of polish to make that grind feel worthwhile. It's a game I would praise for having incredible potential were it in early access (which I suspect is the reason for the positive reviews), but is absolutely lacking for something called the "definitive edition". I even looked up a review from 2019 and struggle to see any significant changes despite its alleged "quality of life" updates and years of development.

In the areas where Outward lifts from games like Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma, it falls short on execution in everything from animations to technical performance to sound design. In the areas where it breaks out to try something completely new, it basks in momentary glory before the reality of its gameplay implications comes crashing down and it feels more like a punishment that completely takes you out of the experience.

One ability you get immediately is a firework, which you can light anywhere you want, as many times as you want. Your character sets it into the ground, and it shoots into the sky, exploding into brilliant light -- accompanied by complete silence. And that's how Outward feels; a bright, shiny object to lure you into an experience that lacks actual depth and detail. I tried so very hard to love this game because of the unique and refreshing ideas in it, but after 10 hours and 3 characters, its desire to be the next Elden Ring outweighed my patience to adapt to its particular brand of difficulty. Hardcore FromSoft fans may have an easier time, and I've heard it's better balanced in co op, but I certainly can't recommend it based on the hours I've put in, which it truly pains me to say.

There's an interesting and beautiful game deep down in here, but the execution fumbles at nearly every step. The controls and animations feel laggy, you jump through about 5 or 6 different environments in the first 10 minutes, none of which feel connected, and you're guided to sequences before you have any idea what you're getting into.

The first time I died, I was taken to a location I had never seen before, and the first interactible location took me into a dream sequence in yet another disconnected environment. After a few deaths from experimenting with things in this dream, I could no longer jump, thus completely preventing me from progressing at all. When I exited from the pause menu, I had to wait through the splash screens again so that I could exit from the main menu. Even getting out of Toren was unintuitive and frustrating.

Again, there is a great game here, but the number of technical and design issues prevent it from being a really good experience - or in my case, playable at all. I may have gotten particularly unlucky, but general QA should have picked up the issues I ran into.

This is an interesting idea, but the execution has a lot of flaws. Sound doesn't start playing until you're very close to the wall, which means you have to move very slowly in order to get the warning at all. Because your movement speed is relatively fast, this means tapping the move keys repeatedly so as to not gain momentum. The first checkpoint takes a ridiculously long time to get to, as every oppotunity was taken to force you in the opposite direction through the most meandering path possible. When you hit a wall and restart, it becomes partly a game of memory to try and get through sections you've already done, otherwise you're going at the same snail's pace as the first time.

It feels to me like a game that didn't get enough blind playtesting. It's a good idea, and while the execution works on a technical level, there's just nowhere near enough thought put into the player experience, and mitigating what feel like obvious frustrations inherent in this design. It seems like the developers made the exact game they set out to make, without adjusting along the way for what the actual experience is like. It's tempting to recommend this based on the fact that it's unique, and I'd like to see more games take chances like this has (particularly with uniquely using sound), but the core gameplay loop is just too stilted as it stands now.

Much like Drizzlepath, Bottle feels like a shallow imitation of a game like Dear Esther. They check all of the boxes - you're placed in a pretty environment, you walk through it, and along the way you get bits of a story. But they fail to make real connections between the environment and the story, or tell much of a story at all.

There are unnecessarily long stretches between events - I spent 35 minutes in this game, and it could have easily been 5 if you removed the long walks in which I assume you're supposed to admire the scenery.

You're free to wander from the path a fair distance, but I never found anything doing this, and it only left me with the frustration of having to slowly trudge back to where the game wanted me to be. At one point, particles swirled around me, and my speed increased for a brief period, as if the game could sense my boredom and sped my way to the next event. While the speed boost was welcome, it felt random and made my normal walking speed feel even slower afterward.

The same thing happens in every event - a woman stands there, some backwards VO plays, she disappears as you get close, and you're left with a note that makes no sense. It's clearly trying to be deep, and maybe there is a meaning to be deciphered from them, but they all fell flat.

But the most ridiculous parts were the two instances that incorporated some 3D platforming to get to the woman. This game is actually 95% walking simulator and 5% platformer. Given the little attention generally payed to movement controls in these games, it was not a welcome addition.

I wanted to like this game, just as I wanted to like Drizzlepath, but both left me with the feeling that these are just slapped together assets with very little care and understanding of the medium, just to tell a story that never really comes through. It's a game that asks more of the player than it offers in return. I'm skeptical, but keep a tiny bit of hope that the developer will learn from these games and eventually come out with something a little more polished.