Recent reviews by Mang

Got this in one of those Fanatical Bundles a while ago. I really liked the dark fantasy atmosphere in this game. Combat is decent since you can dual wield different weapons (sword, pickaxe, whip, etc.) that can each be upgraded. A lot of skills to upgrade also for both your physical character and spirit helper. Not sure about the story since I skipped every cutscene.

The color switching mechanic became way too tedious for my liking. The fixed camera is annoying but not a dealbreaker for me. Actually, I think It adds a cinematic flair to the otherwise dull environments. My dealbreaker is the fact that bosses that can heal themselves. They already have massive health bars and to just add that nonsense is a huge slap in the face for the "easy" difficulty I was playing on. Common enemies are already extremely spongy. Seems like most enemies took like 20 hits to kill, no matter what weapon combo I used.

If you can put up with the above annoyances, you might enjoy this long indie game (at 11 hours I was not even halfway through the game according to guides) but I just couldn't take any more of the spongy enemies.

Solid run and gun shooter that gives you plenty of ammo but has a short campaign. I liked the comic book art style and the cheesy dialogue too. Alternating between playing as both Cobra and the Joes gave a slight nuance to the otherwise conventional gameplay structure. The missions that give you the option of playing Storm Shadow/Snake Eyes were my personal favorites, as I got some poor man's Warframe vibes. The story gets more interesting when you find out that Cobra Commander gets betrayed by his own people.

My biggest gripe of the game is how most enemies constantly run around while shooting, making it difficult to land shots even with auto aim enabled. This made the sniper and other slow firing weapons useless. My advice is just go for the automatic weapons only. I used assault rifles and machine pistols for the vast majority of the game. The lack of a shoulder switch button was also annoying during the linear corridor levels.

Worth getting on a steep sale for any shooter fan.

Solid action platformer game that is short but sweet. Collecting the numerous floating items serve a useful purpose in that gathering enough of them permanently increases your maximum health/stamina. The system is much better than unlocking concept art or whatever nonsense that other collectathons sometimes do. The combat system has your standard light/heavy attack with a special attack upgrade for each one. Your weapon is a shield and it also becomes a hoverboard in the somewhat disappointing open world. There is no map so you have to just ride around and look for the main dungeons (easy to find) and other side locations (harder to find). The platforming has your standard jump/double-jump/dash controls which makes most of it fairly easy, although the later stages of the game have checkpoints that are too far apart. Worth getting for 5 bucks or less.

Entertaining, action-packed campaign that pits Western forces against a Russian/Chinese army. The story objectives play out exactly like a Battlefield game such as holding a capture point or planting C4 on a missile launcher but the environments are varied enough to keep things interesting. The Russian and Chinese enemies actually speak in their own languages instead of broken English, so props to the devs for not taking a shortcut. The weakest part of the game is the lack of a proper ADS. Most primary weapons have a scope, but the "precision" aiming system relies on awkwardly waiting for the crosshair to tighten up rather than holding your breath like in modern shooters. Thankfully, ammo is plentiful and you can go prone to maximize your cover. The best feature of this game is the driveable tanks and weaponized drones, which is a nice change of pace from the subpar on-foot shooting controls. I also liked the destructible environments, which makes the game a fun and chaotic experience. Definitely worth the 5 bucks or less pricetag.

I'll be honest, I skipped this game at release because of all the bad press it was getting. I just completed it today, after a decade since its release, and wow what a pleasant surprise it was. Each level has a great combo of crude/cheesy humor, solid shooting, and fun platforming/puzzles. Not to mention several driving sections, which were all a blast to play through. My favorite parts of the game are when you shrink down to a tiny Duke. Hardcore shooter purists might dislike the health regen and ammo replenishing crates though. This game is well worth the 5 bucks or less when it goes on sale. I highly recommend it to any shooter fan. It is never too late to enjoy a cult classic.

Really fun and fast-paced looter shooter. I was fortunate enough to not run into many connection issues, as I only experienced a few disconnects total during my entire playtime. Other than that, there were some random lag spikes, both in and out of combat, but overall it didn't ruin the game for me. I really liked the different mods (lightning, toxic, bleed, etc.) you can put on guns, especially the ones that apply to all of your shots rather than just critical hits/kills. My favorite feature of this game is that you can dual wield machine pistols that have default infinite ammo. Even though they are not as practical as other guns, it still looks extremely badass.

I completed all side missions before I finished the main questline in about 30 hours, which is a very good length for a discounted game. However I still prefer Division 2 and Destiny 2 over this game, as both of them have far more content and are more polished than Outriders.

Good game but the weakest entry of the newer Fallout games. I give it a 6.5/10 score.

Pros: Huge map to explore of a West Virginia wasteland with tons of locations and quests to
complete.
PvP has not been an issue at all as a strictly solo player. Haven't been attacked nor ever
intend to attack anytime soon.
Continues tradition of solid gunplay of 4 with fully customizable weapons.
Weapons and armor degrade pretty slowly.
Ammo and other aid resources are easy to find in every location.
Hunger and thirst no longer have negative effects and provide debuffs only now with the
new update.


Cons: The organic cover system from 4 is gone (can't pop out and shoot from behind an
object just by aiming).
Fast travel now costs bottlecaps. Very small cost but still was completely unnecessary
to implement in such a spread out world.
Always online mmo (even when going solo) means no pausing at all. Inventory
checking is annoying as a result when some enemy starts attacking you all of a
sudden.

Last boss fight completely ruined the game for me. One hit kill boss attacks (that are also very difficult to dodge) need to be abolished from video games completely. Didn't even bother finishing it after 10 or so frustrating tries. Which is a shame since the rest of the game leading up to it was excellent.

Fun puzzle piecing game like the first one, although achievements are more difficult to obtain because of the difficulty related ones that require you to play in hard mode. Protip- use the steam guide that shows all the puzzles in their completed glory, it will at least give you a picture of what kind of image you are aiming to create instead of a brutal trial and error process with many random pieces. Nice instrumental ambient music but I wouldn't call it relaxing though. Kind of a creepy/fantasy vibe like a Tim Burton movie. I nominated this game for the visual style award because stained glass is an underrated art style nowadays.

Fun, mindless hack and slasher set in a vast open world China map. One of the newer updates gives you 2 OP dragon style weapons that make pretty much the whole game a breeze, which I don't mind. The core gameplay loop of running/jumping around and absolutely destroying thousands of bad guys with fun combos and air juggling never gets old to me. Main story missions are mostly "go here and kill the commander guy" which are easy enough to begin with, but you can also do some related side quests to make those main quests even easier to complete.

If you like to explore, there are literally hundreds of locations to discover which also act as fast travel points which is vital in a game this massive. You can also fight and recruit wild animals such as bears, wolves, and tigers. You can collect tons of resources which are plainly marked on the map to help you create weapons, armor, potions, etc. There is also fishing as well, so there is a little something for everyone. The voice acting in this game is so corny and grandiose, which gives it a certain charm that we are accustomed to with Japanese entertainment products.

Can't wait for the next game set in the modern era, Dynasty Warriors 10: The Wrath of Emperor Xi