Recent reviews by Elessar

Leaving a positive review to do my part to bring this games rating back up to where it should be. Quick recap: Arrowhead makes absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ epic game. Playerbase explodes, and so many people try to play that they have server issues. Suffering from success. They fix it. Everything is great. Game keeps being epic. Dynamic story, there's basically a DM who dictates the twists and turns of the galactic war. It's cool as ♥♥♥♥. Hype only continues to grow.

Then, like two weeks ago, Sony does some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. To be totally fair, players were warned up front that they would have to link to a PSN account, but that requirement was waived in the beginning. Then they bring it back out of nowhere. Community is outraged. Review bombing and refunding begins. Shockingly, it works, and Sony backtracks. Arrowhead (the developer) is not really to blame. Sony (the publisher) is. Game is still awesome. You should buy it and play it because it's super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun and it's a coop multiplayer that is free from most of the sweat and toxicity that infests most popular online games.

Now go drink some Liber-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-tea and start spreading......Democracy that is!

Excellent quality hack'n'slash game from a dedicated indie developer.

If you liked Chivalry Medieval Warfare and wanted a better version of that game, this game is for you.
If you really like the medieval era and want a game with combat that gets about as close to that as you can get, this game is for you.
If you want to swing your greatsword into your enemy's neck and watch his decapitated head fly off in a bloody arc before you cackle gleefully and launch into your next attack, this game is for you.

The graphics are beautiful for an indie game.
The customization is deep, and fun.
There are countless opportunities for those fantastic video game moments that we all want.
It is the first melee combat game I have played that doesn't have stupid animation exploits for people to abuse.
There are some issues regarding servers that are still being worked out, but the developer is extremely committed to the game and will be working on it for a long time to come. And to top it all off, you pay one reasonable price for the whole game and you never have to pay for content again. (This last part is no longer relevant as the devs dealt with this issue shortly after launch)

Edit:
After putting a lot more hours into the game, and seeing how the developers have worked on it since launch, I can come back to this review and confidently say that his is one of the best games I have ever bought. This is partially due to the fact that I love the medieval era and thus this game is the fulfillment of many a childhood dream. But this is also because this game is one of the best value propositions out there. Hours and hours of fun for a low price tag, and without any ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ micro-transactions.

It saddens me to see this game get a very undeserved mixed review score regarding recent reviews. A lot of people expect this game, which was made by a grand total of 12 passionate people, to have more polish and more frequent updates than the biggest and most well-funded studio games. Honestly, this game has more polish and more updates than most AAA games. So it's both frustrating and absurd that people are negatively reviewing a game that's this good, especially when considered in light of who created it.

This is gonna be long, but hopefully it will be insightful. I will keep the review part at the top, and the more discussion part below.

I recommend this game highly. In fact, out of all the Assassin's Creed games this is the best one, with AC II maybe edging it out. The improved parkour controls, tougher and more punishing combat, incredibly beautiful and fleshed out world of Paris, and (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ finally) stealth mechanics make this game the diamond in the rough of the AC series. If you like Assassin's creed you should definitely play this, and even if you don't love AC, but you like stealth/action games, you should pick this up.

A lot of people have and will disagree with what I just said. To be fair, this game had a rough launch with plenty of bugs. But since then, Ubisoft has improved the game quality immensely and it currently plays without any of the bugs that plagued it at the start. However, I think the main reason people don't like it is because it is very different from previous entries in the series. And thus my unpopular opinion that this is the AC game that Ubisoft should have been making from the start.

The over-arching storyline of AC is that you are an ASSASSIN, you know, killing things from the shadows, hiding in plain sight. Yet almost every element of gameplay worked against that. In every game, barring the first one maybe, you played a character who was a walking arsenal, capable of single-handedly slaughtering the entire garrison of a city. Combat was easy and there were no stealth mechanics to speak of, so the best strategy by far was to just murder everyone in your path and forget stealth. If you tried to be stealthy you were basically punished by the game. The idea that you were an assassin, and not an unkillable demigod of war and death, was laughable.

Each game had certain strengths and weaknesses, but generally the negatives outweighed the fun of the games. Until finally, despite its own flaws, they created AC Unity, which is the most fun you will have in an AC game because you actually feel like an assassin. The first game, plus the Ezio trilogy, really nailed the setting. The world was fun to explore and the cities were perfect for running around and pulling off awesome moves. But like I said the combat was waaaaaayyyyyyy too easy. AC 3 had slightly harder combat plus some really cool combat animations (I appreciated the attempt at innovation) but the setting of colonial america did not work well for the gameplay. Black Flag had the same problem. And I know people love that game, but I think that it can only be enjoyed as a pirate simulator. (And even with that, it's not as fun as people say. It gets repetitive quick.) The combat was easy, you saw all the cool animations within 2 hours of gameplay, and setting was also not good for being a parkour assassin.

With AC Unity they combined all the positives that the previous games had and left out the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ stuff. Paris is a huge open world that makes for the perfect playground to be a parkour assassin. I have never looked so cool sprinting across the rooftops and pulling off awesome assassinations. The city is alive and full of people. You feel like one person in this huge world, overhearing parts of conversations and witnessing others go about their lives during this tumultuous period. With the addition of a simple up and down mechanic, as opposed to "one button does all" for parkour, the game opens up a whole new level of movement. It takes a little getting used too, but once you master it you have far more control over your character. Plus you can pull off moves and routes that wouldn't have been possible in previous games. With the addition of cover and crouch mechanics you can sneak around enemies and finally be the invisible killer you always hoped to be in this series. I can't believe it took them this long to add those in. And finally combat is challenging and unforgiving. In the beginning, you are still able to dispatch enemies pretty easily, and throughout the game 1v1 is no problem. But if you get surrounded, you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥. Enemies do not politely hang back like they did in the past while you dispatch their comrades. You will get attacked from 3 sides at once, enemies will shoot you while you try and fight someone else, and you will face groups of enemeis who will reck your ♥♥♥♥. You are not all-powerful anymore and you must be smart if you want to win.

I will mention that this game is not perfect. Sometimes the character doesn't move the way you want him too, sometimes small little glitches happen (but it's nothing more than slightly bothersome to look at), and the story is not amazing. But this is probably the best AC game in the series.

Forget what people said about this game when it released. Those criticisms are not relevant anymore. What exists now is a polished amalgamation of all the good elements of past AC games without the bloat and easiness. Buy this game and give it the love it deserves.

I would strongly recommend this game to new players, especially considering that on top of being a fun, unique, and intense game, it can only get better with a larger community. The concept is very simple. One team of 4 plays as divers while the other team of 2 plays as sharks. The divers start out with a small sum of money which can be used to purchase low level weapons/upgrades, and then divers gain money by collecting treasure, killing/assisting sharks, and playing support to their team. This can then be used to purchase better weapons and upgrades.
The sharks rack up "evolution" points by killing and injuring divers which allows them to upgrade their abilities. Overall it is an extremely fun game that can offer many hours of fun while also providing a fresh experience for gamers tired of the same old shooters.
As you might see from other reviews, playing as a diver is more difficult than playing as sharks, but I have not found that to significantly detract from the fun. The developers for this game are very responsive and connected with the community, so hopefully the game will continue to become more balanced.
The game is even more fun if you can play with a group of friends. Especially with its smaller game settings. You will never have so many induced heart attacks as you will playing this game.
My only reservations, which I feel obligated to mention are that: 1) the maps, weapons, upgrades, and playable characters is relatively small variety. However, I think that this puts a greater emphasis on strategy and keeps the game simple and fun, rather than flooded with weapon types and customizations that confer unfair advantages. 2) You need to have a smooth framerate and little lag to enjoy the game. Otherwise you will never be able to play well as either team. So if you have a less powerful computer, expect to turn down the graphics/resolution in order to play smoothly. The game still looks great for me though, and I play on a mediocre gaming laptop.

I hope more people will keep playing this game. The bigger community the better.

As you can probably tell from the other reviews, this game brings out complicated emotions in most regular players. I have a long-standing love/hate relationship with Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

It is true that this game has quite a few bugs and glitches. Most of them are not major, and have very little impact on gameplay. The most annoying things about the game are not actual glitches, but exploits used by extremely experienced players that can quickly ruin the game for others.

That said, however, I have played many many hours on this game, and I still enjoy hopping on for an hour or 2. Chivalry is an extremely fun slasher that is certainly the best in its class. Despite its flaws, the game is superbly enjoyable and for players of all skill levels it can provide many hours of fun. The learning curve is steep, but it is totally worth it. Plus the more regular players there are, the more fun the game will be.
Also, some really kickass modders are taking matters into their own hands regarding the flaws of the game and are in the process of creating an increasingly popular mod called Mercs Mod. Not to mention Black Knight Mode, which is a super fun, great for laughs, shout out to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The Conclusion:
9/10: Would lose limbs again