Recent reviews by Bone Witch

If more developer studios handled their games and community with the same love, respect, dedication, and humor the way Larian does, we'd truly be living in the golden age of gaming.

All the praise and the awards are completely deserved. I'm at almost 800 hours at this point and I STILL find things I've never seen before, dialogue I didn't know was there, there are many storylines and classes I've never played and characters I've only seen the surface of, and they're still adding more stuff all the time!
The music always makes me want to replay DOS2 again, which I suppose is a very nice side effect, since I do still adore that game with a passion as well. I very much love the fact that they put references to the DOS2 Origin characters in the game, especially in the Deluxe Edition, so finding them fills me with joy every time.

There's only two things I wish were different with personally, and both of those are minor, very Me-centered things.
A)- Who stole the Dragonborn's necks? Give them back ;-; (ik ik it's DnD Lore accurate, but still-)
and B)- For the love of god, let my teammates ride my wildshaped Owlbear/Wolf/Dilophosaur Druid into battle.
But what do we have mods for, eh? :D

All in all, BG3 is a truly fantastic game that just oozes the love and passion that was put into it, and is worth more than every penny spent on it. Every run there's always something you haven't seen, heard, or done.
I hope Larian continues to bring us masterpieces like this in the future. <3

Utterly and breathtakingly beautiful, and always worth a replay.
The visuals and music stun me anew every time I play, the story is touching, and I feel for Kuro no matter how many times the story unfolds.
In terms of ability progression, you never truly feel like you're restricted, even if you're missing a lot of abilities. Because it never feels like you're missing something, the movement, combat and progression all feel incredibly fluid and organic.

All in all, I adore this game and can only praise and warmly recommend it to anyone who doesn't call platformers their arch-nemesis.

Quite relaxing little game. I'm not creative enough to use the building freedom to its full potential, but I've seen people make some crazy pretty and cool stuff.
Very nice to wind down and vibe with ^^

This game is all that I, as a big fan of dragons since childhood, have been wanting forever. Dragon flying and fighting with good graphics and an even better flight feeling?! I thought I'd never see it. The graphics and dragon skins are amazing, and the gameplay is challenging and asks a lot of practice and awareness. It gets my blood pumping every time, and I love this game so very dearly for its fluidity, its movement, and combat.

On the downside, the prices in the shop are almost atrocious, and make me wish the devs had put at least some kind of price tag on the game, so that I don't have to spend a fortune to make my dragons look as awesome as they can. I still pay for it with no regrets, but sure enough my wallet is crying.
On top of that, the devs can also be really deaf in terms of listening to their community, so I genuinely hope they work on that in the future- if there is one.

And a fair warning to new players: The (current) playerbase is very small, and a lot of people have been playing since launch or even beta. The learning curve is extremely steep, so I have to tell you that you WILL get dominated by other teams from time to time, unless you have a Veteran or two with you on your squad.
But trust me, it is so unbelievably fun once you get the hang of it.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice manages to put a rhythm game around the core of a souls-like in the best way possible.

Especially coming from someone who played the Dark Souls trilogy prior to arriving to this masterpiece, as I presume many others have, Sekiro surpasses the Souls Trilogy in difficulty by a solid margin. Sekiro demands a precision even in casual combat that the Trilogy doesn't usually ask for, even in many boss battles, since you're only using one main weapon and instead of dodging you largely rely on accurate parrying and posture management.

Bossfights and many of the casual enemies alike are able to easily stomp you into the ground if you're not careful enough. Each and every one of them is an aesthetically pleasing rythmic dance you need to learn in order to survive, and once you've learned it, you don't forget. (Unless of course, you play Dark Souls or Elden Ring at the same time, and try to roll each time instead of blocking, the way I do whenever I return to Sekiro every. single. time. And every time, I eat a sword for it.)

Even the less difficult bossfights shine in other ways that make the fight seem significant and epic, whether it be patterns, music, ambience, story importance, techniques or locations. Learning the patterns, parry timings and ideal prosthetic usages in each situation is infinitely rewarding. I remember my hands shaking like crazy after beating bosses like Genichiro, the Guardian Ape, Divine Dragon or any of the final bosses. I also vividly remember being scared sh*tless by the Great Carp because I did not expect the thing to be the size of a submarine aimed exclusively at my behind.

I highly recommend this game for an impactful, difficult experience worth every second spent on it. Plus, exacting vengeance on a monkey has never felt sweeter.

This is easily one of my favourite games. Granted, I don't know if this review will be genuinely helpful to anyone, but I'd still like to show the great love I have for this game.

The artstyle and boss trailer drew me in to pre-order it back in 2020, alongside the artbook, and I haven't regretted a penny spent or second played.
My experience with Roguelikes is rather limited, and my track record on strategy games anything but spectacular, therefore I have basically nothing to compare it to, but this game took the soup that is my brain and made even strategy feel appealing to me, with the flexible timeline, artstyle, lore, story, and progression alike.

Finally getting the hang of the mechanics after such a long time of doubting myself felt absolutely amazing, and finding new strategies to grind enemies into the dust and learning to prioritise which units/enemies was greatly satisfying. Watching your daughters turn from normal fighters into absolute beasts of your own design feels likewise amazing, especially when finding new ways to combine different skills and classes past the good old Intercepting Rounds and Shadow Rounds or starting whole chain reactions.

In addition, the game as well as the artbook helped me getting back into art again myself for which, thanks Lightbulb Crew, 15/10 on the artstyle in my personal opinion. The concept and unit art both in-game and in the artbook especially are just chef's kiss and are born fuel for inspiration and motivation alike.
The music is great and feels nicely different to what I am used to hearing in the backgrounds of a lot of games I've played, where it seems like the music is often melting into the background. Which of course has its own upsides, but in Othercide, the music especially in bossfights becomes much more prominent and doesn't "hide" as much. That, alongside the occasional voicelines upon spawns/deaths/kills, can really drag you in and get you invested. At least, they did so for me.

In terms of gameplay, with the introduction of Dream Mode and its slightly more forgiving nature, the game became much more appealing to peasants like me who are not only bad at strategy, but also bad at making important decisions, but who still desperately want to play and enjoy the game. It was what made me return to the game after mostly adoring it from afar for two years due to not having to stress out over every turn's decision anymore, since they heal 50% automatically every day.

Othercide feels somewhat like a souls-game in its nature: Challenging, unforgiving, but far from impossible. And every time you fail, you come back stronger, and the game makes sure you know that, and rewards you for trying again.

In terms of Lore, the Lore has started to worm itself into my skull in a fashion similar to how Dark Souls Lore did it. It's dark, downright depressing at times, and deals with or touches on some sensitive topics, many of them implied more so than outright stated. It's the kind of Lore that I know I'll carry with me for a long time and, as someone dealing with mental health issues myself like so many are as well, that resonates with me and my experiences greatly.

The only thing I can say I am genuinely sad about is how a lot of the later units past the first era tend to only be "enhanced" versions of enemies you've fought before, rather than original enemies tailored to the era. The Ravager basically only being a Scavenger with a mask on and a new skill or two being one example, which can make some fights feel a bit repetitive on occasion. But this is a minor complaint I can easily look past.
(Edit: After getting a closer look at the lore itself, those enemy progressions do make sense in the game's lore and story.)

Long story short: 100% recommended, no question, especially for the visuals. Music is great, gameplay challenging, fluid and rewarding, and the lore is nice as well.

This is going to be quite long so here’s the long story short:
I highly recommend this game, especially when played with friends. Be prepared to be frustrated occasionally and find your way to cope with it, and be patient with the developers. Then you should be set.


More Detailed Version:
This is one of my favourite games. I play on PC, have been playing since late 2019 and am at 1200 hours playtime currently.
DbD is in general very entertaining and fun. The about 20 killers and plethora of different maps ensure diversity throughout matches and offer something for pretty much everyone to enjoy. There’s also plenty to learn for both Killer and Survivor. BHVR is regularly adding new content to keep the game fresh as well and is updating older content.
As to be expected in an asymmetrical multiplayer game, there are times where the fun on either side can be cut short due to the behaviour, playstyles or different skill level of other players, but the overall experience is very positive, especially when playing with a friend or two.
There’s a lot of satisfaction coming from genuinely outplaying an opponent of a similar skill level and from experience I can say you don’t have to win or be toxic to have fun playing this game either.
BUT: Be prepared to face toxicity in this game. It is almost impossible to avoid people who enjoy annoying others, actively causing them misery or going out of their way to display their domination. There’s also the habit of cursing other people out in post-game, often for no reason.

As the developers are constantly adding new content and trying to improve on old ones, there are of course many ups and downs periodically in terms of bugs, errors and gameplay changes, but especially with the latest updates (significant improvements on graphics, maps, individual perk changes and killer buffs) the game seems on a good path of improvement. Expect and be prepared for strange bugs though, and don’t take them to heart too much.

However, I still have the following criticism to bring forth:
1.)
Unfortunately, while many of the recent changes were positive (i.e. DS change, Wraith Buff, Clown Rework, Map Reworks) the developers tend to take their time addressing issues in urgent need of attention which can sometimes be very frustrating. (i.e. The community has urged for DS/Object of Obsession changes and the addition of Colourblind Modes since before I’ve started playing, but only now, one and a half years later, have we actually gotten respective changes.)

2.)
The reasons behind specific decisions and priorities the developers make are often also kept unclear and the process isn't very transparent. That can lead to unprompted changes in Meta Perks the reasons for which are never explained, or in one case even to a sudden unneeded rework of a previously popular killer that lowers their popularity significantly (specifically The Hillbilly). Because of this, the impression is created that the developers in general are on some levels out of touch with their own game or don’t care for it at all, which yet again can create frustration easily because it can feel as though the developers don’t give a cent on the opinions/experiences of their player base either.

In terms of the community, it unfortunately is never satisfied and often has a tendency of being very aggressive and unnecessarily hate/spiteful towards the developers and especially each other. Because apparently, peace or constructive criticism is overrated. If you want to keep your sanity I would advise against getting too deeply involved with the community.

Overall a great game with great potential and hard-working developers, but with an exhausting community. The developers have their flaws, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they’re trying their best and I see that validated in the last few updates. We will see what the future holds, but I believe DbD to be in a good and enjoyable place as of the time I’m writing this.

One last note for all the people reading this who already have played a lot of DbD:
The devs are humans too and need the financial support DLCs and Cosmetics give them to uphold both this whole shebang for nearly 5 years now and not to mention themselves. That is why I don’t mind their focus on creating new DLCs and Cosmetics. While they have their flaws (and not few of them) we also need to recognize the time and effort that is now and has been going into this game, and that’s what I’m trying to do, because they deserve credit for what they’ve achieved here. They don’t deserve the amount of flaming, insults and anger they receive.