Recent reviews by Cass

I have a lot of good memories with OW1, just sad to see what it has become. I don't even have the energy to be angry, I'm just genuinely disappointed.

I'm gonna start this off by saying this game has been a pretty big part of my life the recent couple years. I've played this game since 2020, more or less daily with my friend. I've bought every season pass since the day I started (15 seasons), and tons of real life currency cosmetics. It's a very wholesome game on the surface; with a calm, soothing place to spend time with friends and show off your cool styles. And I have to give them props for never introducing advertisement in their mobile versions of the game, which is rare nowadays.

However. In more recent days, In my opinion since late 2022 after the Season of Aurora, the game has seen a gradual dip in quality. From both the stability of the game itself, as well as the cosmetics. And for a game that is literally ALL about grinding for in-game currency so you can unlock cosmetics, that's 99% of the game. Every season after Aurora has been extremely bland and I'll be the first one to be honest about it. Every season is basically unplayable on release due to bugs, and I would argue thatgamecompany are also engaging in some very questionable practices concerning their monetization methods in order to grab more money from their young and loyal player base.

The difference in quality and effort put in between the free season cosmetics (and even the cosmetics that are behind the season pass), and the "micro-transactions" cosmetics, are like night and day it's almost laughable. Most of the recent cosmetics have been cheap copy/pastes from previous cosmetics, with a tiny tweak in color, and they'll slap some high, arbitrary price tag on it that is so out of touch. And these "micro"transactions are inexcusably overpriced for what they are. From a game company that used to feel so wholesome and friendly, now feels like a cold, corporate money hole.

The game is free, but you'll soon feel the stress of having to grind to keep up with everything that that you can buy in the game. I can't even imagine all the things to unlock now for a new player.

So I want to ask the devs directly. Why should I ever pay for a season pass if you're going to lock the cosmetics you clearly put more love and effort into behind an additional paywall? Why is a silly little pixelated cape a toddler could have whipped up in blender in an hour $20? Have you hired too many employees and have to make more money in order to pay their salaries? Why won't you add the most basic of quality of life features people have been asking for for years?

That was a huge rant and I definitely left out some both positive and negative things to say. I love this game and it'll have a special place in my heart. The game is beautiful, and I would actually recommend it pretty heavily if you would play it through like Journey, but since the game is designed to be a permanent grind on repeat to unlock cosmetics with constant overpriced micro-transactions slapped in your face, I'll stop supporting this company until I see some sort of improvement.

If you've already played Elden Ring, DS3 or Sekiro, it will take you some time getting used to the controls and much slower pace of this game; but once accustomed, the difficulty will be like a joke in comparison.

The jump button is by default the same button as sprinting, and I found out literally while typing this review that I can rebind it. So that's a me problem, so here's just a PSA for anyone else thinking it's annoying to accidentally jump face first into an axe when you're trying to dodge it.

While locked onto enemies you only have 4 dimensional rolling; meaning no diagonal dodges. This will cause you to accidentally roll directly into the enemies if your joystick was slightly angled more up than left/right. This also makes fighting enemies on a bridge specifically awkward, as you can't slightly roll left or right by going diagonally forward or backwards.
You're also unable to sprint while locked on. I don't think I need to tell you why this is frustrating for somebody that is used to more fast paced souls-likes, so you better get comfortable switching between locking on and unlocking from enemies depending on the situation. I'd honestly recommend not locking on bosses at all until the exact moment you're about to attack.

Enemies have pretty weak tracking, so by simply side strafing or running behind them, will cause them to miss the majority of attacks. Unfortunately, you have the same issue. Gonna charge up a strong attack with an ultra greatsword? Better hope they don't move one frame to the side.

A couple of bosses has sadly wasted potential and a few copy-pastes here and there. One late game area in particular feels very rushed. Controls are a bit janky with frustratingly slow animations, (but this game was made before even vine, so not the same ADHD tiktok attention span brain rot back then, so gets a slight pass on this one.)
Bosses are too easy imo, leaving me pretty underwhelmed after first trying most of them. I had way more difficulties with the titanite demon in the catacombs hallway than any of the bosses in the entire game combined.

So why am I recommending it? Because I love DS3. To be fair, most of my complaints are from having played the later games that are objectively more hardcore and fast paced, so I'm trying to see this game for what it was when it first came out.

There's a lot of visually stunning areas in this game, interesting NPC's and a fascinatingly interconnected world. For a game without fast travel for the most part, I really thought I'd be missing it way more. But it just works really well. Every time you find a shortcut you'll be amazed by how it connects and loops around the game world.
Sure, it can be annoying sometimes having to backtrack a lot if you want to go back and check something, and sometimes it would discourage me from going back up to pick up an item I missed, but it's not a major issue overall. I personally love running around and getting familiar with the areas. (except that one town)

DS3 is one of my favorite games ever, and I love discovering interesting connections with this game. So if anything, playing this game has enhanced my love and appreciation of DS3 even more. And that fact alone makes this game worth playing, even in 2024.

yes