Recent reviews by RawDelirium

Sekiro is a FromSoft game through and through, and perhaps their most unforgiving title since the original release of Demon Souls back in 2009, despite featuring a 'second-life' revival mechanic unlike other games from this studio - there are consequences for abusing that mechanic and the game does a respectable job of trying to force players to choose between getting back up and continuing a fight, or simply siding with death and resurrecting at your most recent Idol (Bonfire) - though I do wish Sekiro made the aforementioned consequences slightly more impactful than they have.

For me, the combat in this game is what kept me coming back to progress further and further. Whilst I initially struggled to adapt to a much more aggressive playstyle than I was used to in Dark Souls titles, with the lack of a shield and the much larger focus on the parrying systems, I found myself coming to terms with the rhythmic flow of particular enemies' attacks. As with previous games FromSoft have made, analysing enemy pattern behaviour and getting to terms with a move-set is as important as ever in Sekiro. Yet no other title has got me to memorise tempo in attack timings so that I could parry any given flurry of attacks anywhere near as effectively as this, couple that with the stunning visuals and the satisfying 'clang' you hear when two blades meet and it became a thrill to take on many of the challenging mini-bosses in the game.

A lack of boss variation, particularly as the game goes on, becomes apparent as mini-bosses are re-used or altered in minor ways and thrown back at the player as a separate encounter. I would've liked to have seen some of these great set-piece fights that take place throughout the game stand on their own two feet without FromSoftware feeling the need to re-purpose boss encounters from earlier on in the game as general enemies late-game. For what it's worth though, at no point did I find myself thinking "Oh, this fight again..." - actually... that's a lie. There's one enemy type that appears several times in different locations which was consistently a tedious and unenjoyable experience, this is due to this game's equivalent of the 'curse' mechanic from previous games, known as 'terror'.

I'd recommend the game for anyone who has enjoyed previous titles from this developer, or those that simply enjoy challenging & fluid third-person melee combat, though whilst there are certainly clear similarities here with Dark Souls and particularly Bloodborne - the game plays quite differently. Many people applauded Bloodborne for forcing the player into a more fast-paced style of combat, refusing to give them the option of having a shield and playing more passively. Sekiro takes that appeal and runs with it.

A fantastically hectic experience, quite literally Particle Physics: The Game. Regardless it provides endless fun both mechanically and visually. The best way I can summarise this game is Dead Ops Arcade meets Resogun with a rocking soundtrack.

The gameplay itself is fun as hell, think 3D chess with aliens and piece customisation. It's awesome... what isn't awesome is the frequent drops below 60fps on my GTX 1080... on medium settings with AA off. What is this Firaxis? You recommend a GTX 770 with 2GB of VRAM and my 1080 has quadruple that yet still sturggles to output anything higher than 50fps in intensive scenes. God forbid I max this game out, I'm lucky to obtain 40 in most areas of the game.

I wish I could give this game a positive review, because if it were to run consistently well I would be playing a hell of a lot more of it, however the performance problems on what (upon launch) has been a PC exclusive is simply unacceptable, and quite frankly I regret handing money over for a half finished game. This needs to change.

I'm new to the PC side of gaming, and Dark Souls II is something that I had previously experienced on the PS3 back in March, however after thoroughly enjoying the game (and series in general) I decided to pick up the game for the PC to see what all the hype around it was about. Let me tell you... Dark Souls II on the PC is BY FAR the definitive edition of the game, so much so that i question why I ever played it on console.

The sheer boost in framerate (It runs at a solid 60fps without dropping a frame) makes the game so much more enjoyable, I actually found this helping me in terms of being able to dodge roll through enemies attacks more easily. Honestly, looking back to the PS3 version of the game, I wonder how it even got released, the textures are full 1080p on the PC compared to the almost oily unsmooth look of them on console, and I think the overall boost in quality really allows the player to fully appreciate the level of detail that From Software put into this world. Anything from the large-scale bosses that tower above you, to the way your shadow reacts when standing near a bonfire, it's truly magnificent.

Another massive plus in my opinion is that the game tends to be running extremely well on a large range of rigs, which is the complete polar opposite to the original Dark Souls on Steam which, despite Durante's DSFix is still known for being one of the worst PC ports known to man. My machine set everything to Medium by default however despite the game's Steam Page recommending a GTX 750 or equivalent to run this game well, I immediately cranked the graphics settings up to maximum with including AA, AO and Vsync and have yet to see the game drop a single frame on my GTX 650 Ti. This is such a great incentive to pick up the game on PC rather than your 8 year old console hardware.

Even though I hate the stereotype of 'PC Master Race', on this occasion I have to say props go to From Software for being able to deliver such a phenomenal experience to the fans of the souls series, and i hope they continue into the future retaining this standard of quality in their products. Roll on the DLC! :D

1000/10.

Can robot dance at any given moment.

100/10